On top of making history individually, I want to take a moment to take in the fact that Yuzuru and Javier also made history together.
Figure skaters are overall friendly toward eachothers but we have more been used to see cutthroat intense (sometimes hateful) rivalries. If some have been respectful and friendly toward eachothers (thankfully), Yuzu and Javi’s is very unique.
Because they’re not just friendly rivals. They’re training mates. They’re not looking at eachother as “the one I have to defeat”, but as “the one that pushes me to get better and better”.
They have been training together, with the same coaching team and main coach for two Olympics and yet they never talked down about the other, despite how vicious and sneaky the baiting from the press was.
They never said a bad word about eachother. They only had words about how training together at the end of the day was one of the best thing they could have.
They were eachother’s support during their hard times, and eachother’s cheerers during their happiest ones.
Just like Yuzuru seemed to realize when Javi told him it was his last Olympic, it’s honestly hard, nearly impossible, to imagine a season where they wouldn’t be competing together.
This is an era in figure skating history where both of them put their stamp on it for their own personnal accomplishment and where it’ll be impossible to talk about one of them without talking about the other too.
And they’re happy with that.
And frankly, I don’t remember a single “rivalry” at the top in figure skating history where you could marvel at the top two skaters individual accomplishment and the beauty of their relationship too.
We remember “the battle of the Brians”, the tension between Plushenko and Yagudin. We’ll remember Yuzu and Javi as holding eachothers with smiles and tears of happiness for eachothers.
Thank you Yuzuru. Thank you Javi. For giving us the proof through all these years that true sportmanship exists.
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