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⚡️Brian Orser arrived at the third stage of the Junior Grand Prix in an unusual capacity: his students are figure skaters of the first warm-ups from Mexico and the United Arab Emirates. Not at all the level that coach Yuzuru Hanyu and Javier Fernandez once accustomed us to.
The Canadian school, which thundered for several seasons, seemed to have moved to the periphery:
Hanyu – the main figure skater of the Cricket Club (albeit not appearing there in recent seasons due to the pandemic) – retired;
American Jason Brown has not yet been announced for any tournament of the season;
and the Japanese Rika Kihira, who recently joined the Orser team, disappeared from the radar altogether.
What is it – the decline of a great school in Toronto or a regrouping before a new breakthrough? The journalists met in Riga with Brian Orser and found out everything.
With what mood does Cricket Club enter the new season? School alive?
Yes, we're fine. We finally had a normal summer, we spent the first full off-season since the start of the pandemic. In Canada, rather strict covid restrictions were in effect for a very long time, they tied our hands. The cricket club is a private school, and during the season only members of the club have access to the rink, but in the summer we can take someone else. So we did summer camps and they were packed.
My main stars have not yet returned to us – for various reasons, not least because of covid. In some countries – in the same Korea and Japan – there are still travel restrictions, quarantine is in force somewhere, so everything is not simple.
Well let's start with Riki Kihira. The season has started, what do you hear about it?
Alas, Rika is still battling with an injury. She has a difficult case – a fracture of her right ankle. That is, this is not even a stress fracture – but a real one. And she's been struggling with this for over a year now. It gets better, then worse; she still performs in the show – without jumping, just skating, money has to be earned somehow. But the leg is under constant load. In a good way, she needs a cast, complete rest for a couple of months, so that everything finally heals.
At the end of September, Rika participates in the qualifying competitions for the national championship, and plans to fly to Toronto by October. I don’t know, at first she was going to come in July, then in August, now in October. I don’t really understand what we will be able to do with it – there is no training process. She tried to work on something in the spring when she came to the Cricket Club. After all, she still has an apartment in Toronto, so many plans, well, that is, she is, as it were, with us – and, as it were, not.
Believe it or not, this morning I woke up from her text message – I asked how she was and when to expect her. I can read her answer: “The immediate plans are to qualify for the Japanese Championship, the first qualifying start is already at the end of September. I will perform there with double jumps, because, unfortunately, I have not recovered from the injury, I can’t really jump. I'm going to Canada in October. Well, yes, she is declared for the Canadian Grand Prix stage. By the way, it will pass next to our ice rink, it will take 20 minutes to drive from us.
The main thing is not to forget that Rika is an athlete of great talent. She can do everything. We just need to get her in good shape: not even so much in terms of the head – she has no problems here, she is a real fighter, but in the physical. We need to make it jump again.
In the spring we started working on it – then it seemed that the injury receded, Rika returned to jumping. And we breathed a sigh of relief – as if we saw the old Rika, she reminded us why she is considered such a cool skater. Speed returned to her, she jumped high, flying double axel and triple salchow without any visible problems.
I really hope that we can collect her – because she shows incredible skating. Real women's skating – and it is in this direction, as we see, that today's women's singles is moving. All changes in the rules seem to be invented under it. You just need to take care of your health.
Boyang Jin also recently wrote – he was supposed to go to training on September 1, but we still don’t see him at the rink. I don't know where he got stuck. It is clear that in China everything is not easy with covid, they even returned lockdowns in some provinces.
But this did not stop other Chinese skaters from coming – we have a Chinese girl at the rink, the Chinese dance couple returned to the rink in Montreal to Patrice Lauzon and Marie-France Dubreuil. That is, everything is real. Therefore, yes, the beginning of the season we got some suspended. We wait.
With young people it's easier, of course. Recently, I have been doing a lot with children – newbies and even younger ones. For me, as a coach, this is something new – and I really like it. I feel like I am improving my coaching skills – sometimes you have to learn the basics, something that I have always taken for granted when working with adults. I have serious expectations here: I think the guys have a great future – and yes, I sometimes notice that I directly commanded, like I became a real boss, ha ha.
How's Jason Brown doing? Should we expect him in the season? He did not announce the end of his career …
I can’t talk about his specific plans – he really didn’t announce anything. But I will say that he is returning to training next week, he will soon participate in the Japan Open. It is not announced at the Grand Prix, yes, but many are not there this season, this happens after the Olympic Games. This, by the way, at the same time gives other athletes a chance – a door opens for them that was previously closed. Take, for example, another student of mine – Canadian Corey Sirselli – he was invited to the British stage, and for him this is a huge step forward.
We are all looking forward to Jason's return to the Cricket Club ice. He is the soul of our rink, he is adored by all juniors, but it is simply impossible not to love him. Well, do not forget: the way Jason Brown rides is a rarity today. Just to train with him on the same ice is already great luck.
Jason focused on shows and master classes after the season. He performed a lot in Japan, he is very popular there. I recently skated an exhibition number with She-Lynn Bourne (2003 world champion in dance, now choreographer – Sports.ru), and it was something incredible. Shae-Lynn is in amazing shape! When she works with a skater on a production, she skates everything herself. She is still wow!
Compared to the Russian Skaters the rest of the skaters in the world look like first-year amateur twelve-year Olds. Thats why views of these posts drop ninety percent.
No Russians no channel views. Nobody
cares these skaters are not even close to the Russian Girls.
please retire
I agree with Brian Orser "No new Hanyu can appear, he is one of a kind''
Женечка красавица!
Очень скачаю по твоим программам!
Счастья и удачи любимой фигуристке! 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
Anybody know why Brain Oser's comment at 8:52 (about Illia): "The quality of his jumps is something. Such awareness in the grouping, a sense of balance, …." – what did Brian meant: awareness in the grouping? Aren't jumps contiguous motions, what needs to be grouped? BTW, I do think Ilia's 4A (8:54) is somewhat different from Yuzuru's 4A – if I remember correct, when Yuzuru did 4A, he skated very fast (left leg especially) , he took of left forward edge while his right leg kick off high and did forward rotation. His 4A is skating fast, jumping high, each rotation not too far away, rotates fast. I don't know the definition of Axel jump – when take off, should both leg have "forwarding" speed (or velocity???). Ilia's 4A gave me impression that when taking off, his left leg have "upward" force, but not so much forwarding speed (his left leg did not skate very fast). His right leg seems to trigger the turn and have a power kick/rotation. I am not jump experts, but Yuzurz's 4A and Ilia's 4A looks somewhat different to me.
I do believe that the cricket club peaked with Yuzu. They were lucky. Brian seems a bit out of touch with his skaters and doesn't seem to know what they're doing or if they're even coming back. No doubt he misses the days of Yuzu, Javi, Nam, Jason and all the top tier skaters he had. Maybe that's why Ghislain left. So that he could work with elite skaters instead of teaching basics to children. Not that there's anything wrong with that just that after the Hanyu Era it would be hard to leave that kind of comp season excitement behind. All those excellent hugs and winning kiss and cry results after Yuzu's performances were very exciting for everyone.