2022 Olympics: Men's Free Skate

[lariko]

LOL! I guess we shouldn't be laughing, but that's funny. Shoma is such a character, and he has such sublime talent.

Shoma is like quintessence of what I imagine as innate musicality/dancing talent. Maybe part of it is a language barrier as well, but he doesn’t seem to have an artistic bone when he speaks, and, like, is totally random and without a shred of sophistication… but when they put music on, any music, classical, modern, even complete BS music, and somehow he is one with that darn music. Just how? What gives him that ability? I’ve been dying to understand since 2018.

I am basically amusical myself, but, boy, do I love Shoma Uno and his ability to totally get the music and carry it over to me.

 

[chloepoco]

I must be only one annoyed by Yuzu and his excuses and/or victim personality. If everything is going according to the plan ,he is amused , but when he flops he blames everything else and he makes people feel sorry for him. He loves attention , thats for sure.
Today again he had problem with salchow, so it was caused by a hole, too? There were no deep hole(like twitter fans say) two days ago. But now it is an ankle and "injury". But if you have an injury you dont try to do multiple 4A on practises, especially when you underrotate it every single time. 4 years ago he had an injury too before olys, but everything ended well for him so it was advantage : he won with previous injury, now it is: he lost because he had injury

I haven’t caught all the interviews, but did Yuzuru blame his showing on an ankle injury? I’ve only watched a couple of interviews where he was disappointed, but basically said—“he gave it his all, but it is what it is”….

 

[mskater93]

I would be surprised if Nathan chooses to go to Worlds. And it would allow Malinin to get some senior exposure on the world stage as the next US quad king.

Malinin is already going to Worlds (Brown off World team)

 

[lurkz2]

I must be only one annoyed by Yuzu and his excuses and/or victim personality. If everything is going according to the plan ,he is amused , but when he flops he blames everything else and he makes people feel sorry for him. He loves attention , thats for sure.
Today again he had problem with salchow, so it was caused by a hole, too? There were no deep hole(like twitter fans say) two days ago. But now it is an ankle and "injury". But if you have an injury you dont try to do multiple 4A on practises, especially when you underrotate it every single time. 4 years ago he had an injury too before olys, but everything ended well for him so it was advantage : he won with previous injury, now it is: he lost because he had injury

He took a bad fall at yesterday's practice which probably caused the "injury"

 

[Leocadia]

I must be only one annoyed by Yuzu and his excuses and/or victim personality. If everything is going according to the plan ,he is amused , but when he flops he blames everything else and he makes people feel sorry for him. He loves attention , thats for sure.
Today again he had problem with salchow, so it was caused by a hole, too? There were no deep hole(like twitter fans say) two days ago. But now it is an ankle and "injury". But if you have an injury you dont try to do multiple 4A on practises, especially when you underrotate it every single time. 4 years ago he had an injury too before olys, but everything ended well for him so it was advantage : he won with previous injury, now it is: he lost because he had injury

It appears he re-injured his right ankle in practice the day between the SP and FS (Jackie Wong, who reports on practices, was tweeting about it), and did not try 4A in practices afterwards.

Also, where did he blame his mistakes on the injury? I think he answered some reporters’ questions about it because they had seen his bad fall in practice the day before, or they had seen him icing his ankle apparently, but I have not read anything where he blamed the injury for his performance.

 

[sworddance21]

Jason is awesome and totally deserves his accolades, but Johnny may be being a bit dramatic in that statement. Don’t all the top men get over 20 points in GOE? The higher the base value of the element, the more points are awarded, right?

No - I don't think so. I took a quick look at the total GOE scores for the top folks from yesterday. Nathan got 25, Yuma around 19, Yuzu actually got close to 20. Jason a little over 20. Grassl got 13 points in GOE, Junhwan about 15.
Morisi and some of the other skaters further down, were getting closer to 10 . GOE really makes a difference for Jason, I believe you are correct that higher base value jumps have the possibility of higher GOE, so Jason getting the 2nd highest GOE with much lower tech shows just how many points he is getting by exemplary execution of what he does.

 

[LeeJiHye19]

I remember in 2018, as a fan even back then, I was actually kind of glad he lost because that meant 4 more years.

I don't anticipate ever seeing him skate competitively again, but damn Nathan.... it has been a wild ride.

How is it a wild ride? Since 2018 his consistent in doing quads and nailing it in every competition? He is always expected to win.

 

[elektra blue]

catching up with the boys

- Mozalev was playing Columbus when he found out that they named the continent he discovered after Vespucci. + 100 in

- Smuratko and Milyukov have the same designer

- isn't Donovan's smile contageous? i've nothing but admiration for this boy, he went through a lot and yet there he is, smiling, living his olympic dream

- i don't like Romeo and Juliet, both as aballet or figure skating program, but i can make an exception for Vasiljevs's. also i need a mini Lambiel cheering for me in real life

-the free happened too soon, we all know Mark needs 3 days to raise from the deads

- Adam, if you're looking for your copilot i'm afraid he met Madison Chock, i don't think he's coming back

- Matteo *deeply sobs* what a mess...mama loves you anyway

- my baby in top 10 at Olympics! my baby in top 10 at Olympics!

 

[taikwan]

It appears he re-injured his right ankle in practice the day between the SP and FS (Jackie Wong, who reports on practices, was tweeting about it), and did not try 4A in practices afterwards.

Also, where did he blame his mistakes on the injury? I think he answered some reporters’ questions about it because they had seen his bad fall in practice the day before, or they had seen him icing his ankle apparently, but I have not read anything where he blamed the injury for his performance.

I wish we could always be considerate and kind to these skaters. That's the least we can do.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

I must be only one annoyed by Yuzu and his excuses and/or victim personality. If everything is going according to the plan ,he is amused , but when he flops he blames everything else and he makes people feel sorry for him. He loves attention , thats for sure.
Today again he had problem with salchow, so it was caused by a hole, too? There were no deep hole(like twitter fans say) two days ago. But now it is an ankle and "injury". But if you have an injury you dont try to do multiple 4A on practises, especially when you underrotate it every single time. 4 years ago he had an injury too before olys, but everything ended well for him so it was advantage : he won with previous injury, now it is: he lost because he had injury

"He loves attention" - The dude doesn't even have official social media accounts and is notorious for being elusive and rarely giving interviews outside of competitions. Sure sounds like he loves the attention, I guess Kolyada then does as well?

There are literally pictures of the hole all over social media and they were even already posted here (even within this very thread, go to the first page). And no, he didn't cause the hole (how would an edge jump create a borderline star-shaped hole?) and yes, the hole is deep enough to throw off a jump take-off (probably obvious to anyone who has skated even once in their life).

In his interview, he was very vocal about how this is probably about how much he can do at the moment, that he gave it his best effort and that he is thankful for even still being able to skate at this level. He talked about how he fears having let down his fans due to falling short of the expectations put on him but nonetheless expresses gratitude for their support. He didn't mention his injury out of his own free will, he only responded after being asked by a reporter. Do you know what he said? That he doesn't know how in-depth he should speak about it and that the only thing he is willing to share is that he received a lot of treatment and that this extensive treatment is the sole reason for him even being able to compete at all (reminder, this is a chronic injury, which he has been in treatment for since late 2017). That's it. No attempt at making "excuses". (Even though I question the sanity of anyone who either believed his injury would be fully healed by the time these Olympics came around or that flare-ups of chronic injuries cannot be a very significant reason for a worse performance.)
The reason people are speculating about him re-aggravating his injury is exactly because he was trying the 4A in practice yesterday and had a nasty fall, after which he reportedly favoured his uninjured left leg. He was also icing his ankle after the Free, even though he tried his best to hide the cooling pad whenever the camera was focused on him, as well as during the press conference.

He clearly didn't want to talk about it or use it as an excuse for producing performances below his standards. In a weird twisted way, he said that this 4A attempt was closer to being fully rotated than the ones before despite (or maybe because of?) him not being able to feel his right foot at all. (Edit: To clarify, he was performing on painkillers during the Free, as he has done at multiple competitions in the past, like at the 2018 Olympics and at 2019 Worlds) That almost seems like the polar opposite of blaming his performance on an injury. Especially because his 2nd half of the Free (where an injury is much more likely to become more painful and impactful due to exhaustion and waning adrenaline) was perfectly fine, the first 2 jumping passes were the problem.

 

[moonvine]

It does occur to me that yes, Yuzuru does have two Olympic gold medals, but now, Shoma also has two Olympic medals. (Not counting team)

And Nathan has 3. One of each color.

 

[moonvine]

I don't think he has said, but to me it is pretty clear.

One does not attend Yale for fun. You have goals... and you probably can't do both.

He has been attending Yale and skating for...I don't know, 2 years? He did take this year off to concentrate on Olympics. He was training by Facetiming with Raf from Boston.

 

[ramurphy2005]

He has been attending Yale and skating for...I don't know, 2 years? He did take this year off to concentrate on Olympics. He was training by Facetiming with Raf from Boston.

You mean New Haven, CT

 

[moonvine]

Dr. Tenley Albright won the silver medal in 1952 and the gold in 1956 while attending Radcliffe College. She graduated the same year she won the Olympics and then graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1961.

Yes and she was amazing. And a legend. But I must point out that that was back when skaters had to be amateurs, there were figures and no short program and I doubt she was doing triple jumps. The first woman landed a triple in what, 1962? but Dorothy Hamill won OGM in 1976 with no triples. She was probably "only" training a few hours per day as they were all amateurs and had to work (or on occasion) have generous benefactors that paid their way. Skating wasn't their job. Not that I could go to Radcliffe OR graduate from medical school anywhere, let alone Harvard.

My brother worked at Starbucks while attending medical school, but he didn't go to Harvard either.

 

[moonvine]

I saw them when they were in Spokane!
View attachment 4942

THAT is adorable.

 

[moonvine]

You mean New Haven, CT

Yes, yes. I'm sorry. I get my locations in the frigid tundra confused.

 

[el henry]

I know that Nathan has not been certain about his future plans, but personally, from what little I know, I would be surprised if he did not at least take a break from competition next year.

Not because he can't do both. He can. His skating has improved as a full time student at Yale, I think it did wonders for him *as a skater* to be out in the academic world.

But because it appears he really really really likes Yale and is excited about taking advantage of all it has to offer and is excited about his life after skating.

What does he have left to prove in skating? nothing, zilch, nada. He knows there is life after the rink, and I admire him for that.

 

[CoyoteChris]

Shoma is like quintessence of what I imagine as innate musicality/dancing talent. Maybe part of it is a language barrier as well, but he doesn’t seem to have an artistic bone when he speaks, and, like, is totally random and without a shred of sophistication… but when they put music on, any music, classical, modern, even complete BS music, and somehow he is one with that darn music. Just how? What gives him that ability? I’ve been dying to understand since 2018.

I am basically amusical myself, but, boy, do I love Shoma Uno and his ability to totally get the music and carry it over to me.

And yet there are other skaters who have this stone cold fixed look on their faces when they skate, and they come alive and become real people when the music stops and when they are off the ice. Asian skaters seem to have this natural talent for facial artistry during performances (a generalization to be sure but I feel is mostly true). For me, it is very distracting to musicality and the artistry if skaters go out there and basically could do their program to classical music or "Three blind Mice" with the same level of interpretation. Here are two skaters who can draw the audience into their performances....IIRC, they got 1st and 2nd in PCSs at Olys free skate.

 

[fallingsk8er]

No - I don't think so. I took a quick look at the total GOE scores for the top folks from yesterday. Nathan got 25, Yuma around 19, Yuzu actually got close to 20. Jason a little over 20. Grassl got 13 points in GOE, Junhwan about 15.
Morisi and some of the other skaters further down, were getting closer to 10 . GOE really makes a difference for Jason, I believe you are correct that higher base value jumps have the possibility of higher GOE, so Jason getting the 2nd highest GOE with much lower tech shows just how many points he is getting by exemplary execution of what he does.

Good point. He does get more than most. …Especially when compared to Grassl and Cha.

 

[moonvine]

Nathan is studying statistics and data science, not pre-med.

That should be an ok springboard. My brother got a degree in Civil Engineering, then went to med school. I do think he had to take extra biology or something first.