2022 Olympics: Men's Free Skate

[CoyoteChris]

Me after watching the men's free. I am now afraid to watch the ladies short.

 

[msteach3]

I agree with others who noticed Yuzu not being quite himself at Japanese Nationals, and particularly here. I wonder if two years of isolation and being removed from his training base might have taken a significant toll. It also occured to me that arriving late in Beijing and not accepting coaching form Brian or Tracy was a mistake.

Regardless, I was surprised he pointed out a hole, a rut, or whatever in the ice as a reason for the failed 4S. It just seemed very unlike Yuzu to do so. I'm sure he was very disappointed in the skate, but I'm still shaking my head on his response.

 

[NanaPat]

I mean, he made a comment getting off the ice, and went up to the hole putting his hand in it, and described it in great detail afterwards, and also said "some other skater" maybe caused it. And while I'm sure he didn't mean to, it cause a firestorm of people questioning the Beijing ice and its quality having to be defended.

Did he point out the no-good very-bad skater-eating hole to the referee and ask to have it filled for the 9 skaters who were to follow him? I wasn't watching at that point, and even if I was the video might have gone into the replays.

ETA: This is a somewhat of a rhetorical question, and I don't really expect CSG to have an answer for me. But did anyone see or hear about the hole being repaired?

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Did he point out the no-good very-bad skater-eating hole to the referee and ask to have it filled for the 9 skaters who were to follow him? I wasn't watching at that point, and even if I was the video might have gone into the replays.

ETA: This is a somewhat of a rhetorical question, and I don't really expect CSG to have an answer for me. But did anyone see or hear about the hole being repaired?

That is a good point. If there’s a divot I’m not sure it can be filled in real time… they usually just get filled at the start of resurfacing and the Zamboni goes over it.

But yeah if it was such a huge hole was acknowledged to be there it’s unfortunate nobody thought to be considerate to the next skaters by filling it up, given 9 skaters had yet to go out there (although thankfully it didn’t seem to cause major errors for any of them).

 

[TwinnerA]

Yes, but I think Nathan said he decided against medicine as a career.

Nathan will be 23 this year and he has two more years at Yale and would graduate at 25. Then medical school takes 3 or 4 years plus a residency and he would be in his 30’s when he would start practicing medicine. My brother is a neurosurgeon who started med school at 22 and finished at 25 and then did an 7-year residency to become a neurosurgeon. By the time his residency ended he was 32. Maybe Nathan doesn’t want to put that much time into becoming a doctor. I know I wouldn’t!

 

[TwinnerA]

I think the hole or divot in the ice got more attention than Hanyu actually raised probably due to his rabid fans raging on Twitter that he should have stopped and been given a restart.

 

[Arigato]

Nathan Chen messed up all 3 jumping passes in his individual 2018 Olympic SP and there was no "reason" given

Raf told anyone who cared to read the reason why, in an interview. And, boy, what a silly reason. At least Nathan learned to listen to Raf afterwards. Good for Raf.

 

[dorispulaski]

Why is Nathan dressed like someone who is going to a wedding?

Is Nathan Chen channeling Dick Button with his tuxedo?

No. Dick is generally pictured in a sweater with a pattern. After all, he competed on outdoor ice. It was cold.

https://www.wavy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/01/dick-button48-afp-gettyimages-875309610-1024_38337824_ver1.0.jpg

The Guy who won Olympics in a suit with a pocket square was David Jenkins.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DW9G2RZXUAA8NWV.jpg

In La Boheme, Nathan is an older guy, now successful, revisiting the scenes of his youth as a starving artist.

Meanwhile, my boyfriend watched (some of) the men without me!

He likes Nathan's new costume and said that Yuzu's 4a attempt really made him appreciate how difficult quads are.

But he still wants people to skate to husky noises.

It was already done. Todd Eldredge skated to "Who Let the Dogs Out?"

 

[LeeJiHye19]

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.
View attachment 4945

I can't believe that I am seeing this again. I think I have encountered this photo before 2018 or just after PC2018.

 

[brigit66]

You wouldn't. But he did.

I watched the fall occur while practicing the 4A which is how he got injured the day before the Free Skate. I knew he was screwed because I've seen him get seriously injured several times over the years, so I know what it looks like. The footage was shown on a Japanese news show. I had the video up two days ago in the Hanyu thread, but I took it down since the link got blocked from Twitter.

The majority of people who saw it around the net at other forums were pretty much of one mind, it reminded us all of his injury he sustained at Rostelecom 2018 - the practice for the FS. He was crazy enough to get on the ice against the doctor's advice at the arena in Russia, competed, and ended up getting to the podium on crutches. That knocked him out of competing for quite some time. How anyone wouldn't know the long history of injuries at this point and his stubbornness when injured, is remarkable. But then if he wasn't stubborn he wouldn't be who he is or accomplish much of anything either. It's also why his injuries never fully heal in the right ankle and ligaments, because the injury is on top of injury, on top of injury.

Yuzu was asked by a journalist in China how his right foot was doing. He responded that had he won he would go into the injury at length. But refused to continue. And I don't blame him. I would've done exactly the same thing—say nothing. Do you understand why? The kid didn't want to tell anyone the details of the injury because he didn't want people to make cheap accusations. From the looks of things, some made cheap accusations anyway.

Imagine that.

That's what I am talking about. He is giving signs that theres something wrong with his ankle, but when he is asked about it, he won't tell. He is making people think that he has an injury. He sit on the sofa, he took off sock, touching his ankle , he got some ice(??) etc . Then 234490905 hanyu fans know that must be something wrong with his ankle...Here we go. He has an injury.
But he almost jumped 4A , with injured ankle, he is a hero, he is GOAT.
And stil I dont think one can try to land 4A with injured ankle . He did, so he is not injured

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

That's what I am talking about. He is giving signs that theres something wrong with his ankle, but when he is asked about it, he won't tell. He is making people think that he has an injury. He sit on the sofa, he took off sock, touching his ankle , he got some ice(??) etc . Then 234490905 hanyu fans know that must be something wrong with his ankle...Here we go. He has an injury.
But he almost jumped 4A , with injured ankle, he is a hero, he is GOAT.
And stil I dont think one can try to land 4A with injured ankle . He did, so he is not injured

You forgot to include "His face/lips/hair/costume/etc. looked so pale!"

edit: Adjusted the brightness on my TV. It's all good now.

People say figure skating is all about the politics. But it's also all about the optics.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

I OFTEN wonder if skaters are injured if they skate uncharacteristically badly. Sometimes they are (Kevin Aymoz, Skate America 2020) and sometimes they are not (Keegan Messing, Skate Canada 2020).

Skaters if they choose to compete, are clearly ready for the competition. And sometimes the decisions/layouts they make aren't injury/body related (Brown downgraded his FS due to wanting to skate clean, not due to injury), and sometimes they are (e.g. Yu Na avoiding a loop because of her hip).

I get that skaters come off injuries and adversely affect them, but the whole FIELD has had injuries at some point or another and many of them are dealing with pain/discomfort themselves but because they're not as prolific, whenever they make major mistakes nobody questions the ice or their injury status.

Hanyu's injury certainly didn't prevent him from reeling off two 4T combos and two triple axels. I guess the injury reared its head when he only got a V in the final spin because he would never make such an uncharacteristic error on a spin if he wasn't dealing with injury!

 

[Arigato]

That's what I am talking about. He is giving signs that theres something wrong with his ankle, but when he is asked about it, he won't tell. He is making people think that he has an injury.

You have to hold yourself accountable for not knowing what millions of other people already knew the day before the FS. That you didn't see the video of his fall in practice like everyone else in other countries and especially the entire country of Japan is on you. The day before the FS people weren't talking about the 4A as much as they were wondering if he was going to WD or not since he was injured. I said no way will he WD, he'll skate injured. And he did. You are way behind on the information curve, kiddo. As I said, that's on you.

Here, let's run a little experiment. Take a look at this score sheet at the link:

Skating Scores: Latest Figure Skating Results, Scores, Rankings & Statistics

The best resource for Figure Skating scores and stats on the web.

skatingscores.com

Pretty horrible, right? Sure it is. You will notice at the top a -5 for deductions. Now anyone with a modicum of skating knowledge would say, "Wait, -5? Skaters don't usually fall 5 times." And they would be correct. They don't. Unless . . .



Hit play and listen to Terry Gannon. It's just the first 40 seconds.

Using your logic, he wouldn't have gotten back on the ice to skate after that accident in Cup of China if he was injured. But he did. Again. The problem here is, you don't understand the guy. And that leads you to resort to your own assumptions. People do it all the time in life. Does it matter what you believe? Not really. Someone could have been in a car accident today and 100 people can say it never happened. Does that mean it didn't happen?


No.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

That's what I am talking about. He is giving signs that theres something wrong with his ankle, but when he is asked about it, he won't tell. He is making people think that he has an injury. He sit on the sofa, he took off sock, touching his ankle , he got some ice(??) etc . Then 234490905 hanyu fans know that must be something wrong with his ankle...Here we go. He has an injury.
But he almost jumped 4A , with injured ankle, he is a hero, he is GOAT.
And stil I dont think one can try to land 4A with injured ankle . He did, so he is not injured

Skaters if they choose to compete, are clearly ready for the competition. And sometimes the decisions/layouts they make aren't injury/body related (Brown downgraded his FS due to wanting to skate clean, not due to injury), and sometimes they are (e.g. Yu Na avoiding a loop because of her hip).

I get that skaters come off injuries and adversely affect them, but the whole FIELD has had injuries at some point or another and many of them are dealing with pain/discomfort themselves but because they're not as prolific, whenever they make major mistakes nobody questions the ice or their injury status.

Hanyu's injury certainly didn't prevent him from reeling off two 4T combos and two triple axels. I guess the injury reared its head when he only got a V in the final spin because he would never make such an uncharacteristic error on a spin if he wasn't dealing with injury!

Many skaters have talked about being forced to compete or forcing themselves to compete despite not being ready, including due to recent active injuries and illnesses (Kevin Aymoz at Skate America this season for example (interestingly, many people were asking about his injury back then, even though he is not Yuzuru Hanyu) or Shun Sato at the same competition, who coincidentally also rattled off a 4T+2T, 4T and 3A+2T despite a dislocated shoulder and he received a lot of support and concern for that as well - Or in Ladies, Anna S. was clearly not in a good shape this or last season and she competed anyways, or Julia Lipnitskaia at Rostelecom Cup 2016 - She was in absolutely no shape to finish the Free, but she pushed through the pain anyway. Or what about Daria Usacheva, who didn't look comfortable during the warm-up at NHK Trophy this season, even before she had to withdraw due to injury? Or what about Hanyu himself, who skated his FS at Rostelecom Cup in 2018 against doctor's orders and who skated the FS at Cup of China in 2014 after a nasty collision (same goes for Yan Han, who also had visible injuries, just on a more minor scale)?).

Painkillers and adrenaline are incredible at making you not feel your pain as acutely. But in the end, it comes down to this: You cannot be a high-level Elite skater (particularly not in very competitive countries) without pushing through pain that no human being with a sound mind would willingly put themselves through. In order to reach the highest levels in any sport, especially in very injury-prone sports like figure skating, you have to be just the right amount of insane - or else, your career will end in pre-novices after the first minor injury you received. Your love for the ice, for skating and for the competition has to be greater than your fear of pain and injury. Sometimes the line these skaters walk is dangerously thin, and many have suffered debilitating injuries, that have permanently disabled them, in order for them to reach their dreams - and even more have destroyed their bodies trying, and failing, to make their dreams a reality

 

[Arriba627]

I watched the fall occur while practicing the 4A which is how he got injured the day before the Free Skate. I knew he was screwed because I've seen him get seriously injured several times over the years, so I know what it looks like. The footage was shown on a Japanese news show. I had the video up two days ago in the Hanyu thread, but I took it down since the link got blocked from Twitter.

That he chooses to injure himself is the farthest thing from my mind. You don't really think we're all focused on this do you?

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Many skaters have talked about being forced to compete or forcing themselves to compete despite not being ready, including due to recent active injuries and illnesses

Here's an example:

[Yaroslav] Paniot was assigned to NHK Trophy in November 2018. He told the Ukraine federation that he was injured and wished to withdraw from the competition. However, as the federation had already paid for the airfare and other expenses, officials insisted he compete. “That was not a very good situation between me and the Ukraine federation. I thought that maybe we could make a deal: If I did NHK Trophy they would send me to Europeans and Worlds without having to do nationals so I could heal my injury. So that was the deal,” Paniot explained. “I went to NHK and obviously I did not do very well. Then, after the competition, they called me and said, ‘OK, Yaro, now we will see you in Kiev for nationals.’ I asked them about our deal and they said, ‘What deal? And that was it. I told them it was not fair because we had a deal. That is when I decided to switch to the U.S.” (Source)

 

[NanaPat]

Paniot was assigned to NHK Trophy in November 2018. He told the Ukraine federation that he was injured and wished to withdraw from the competition. However, as the federation had already paid for the airfare and other expenses, officials insisted he compete.

I thought the host country paid the athlete's travel expenses for GPs. Am I mis-remembering?

 

[YagsFan]

Here's the video:



I haven't see Uncle Dick in ages, I wonder how old he is now.

thank you SO much for posting that video!! Loved it!

 

[Jumping_Bean]

I thought the host country paid the athlete's travel expenses for GPs. Am I mis-remembering?

No, you're not misremembering. Unless a skater has already travelled to the host country and is unable to finish, the host country is indeed responsible for covering travel and hotel costs.

However, as this is a retelling of how Yaro remembers this incident, it is entirely possible that the Ukrainian Skating Federation used this false reasoning to justify forcing him to compete, already knowing that they wouldn't be honoring their side of the deal. (Yaroslav Paniot isn't the only skater with a decidedly negative experience with the Ukrainian Skating Federation.) It's also possible that they had paid for him to arrive earlier (as the expenses were only covered from the evening of the 7th until the morning of the 12th of November), and were talking about those expenses, but then again who knows?

 

[taikwan]

Absolutely no disrespect to Nathan, but I believe he is studying statistics and data science, not medicine. I don't know where you got the idea he is studying medicine. I am assume you mean medicine when you say "doctor". He is definitely not studying for a PhD, though he may do that some day.

Quoting another contributor here but this is the info that says he's in the prerequisite stage of pursuing a medical degree -"He's studying stats b/c it is a springboard to professional school and especially since he would have to have a boatload of lab sciences if he majored in bio or chem on a pre-med sequence of courses.He's likely in a pre med sequence of courses where you can major in anything to get the high gpa you need to go along with the pre med sequence. I believe once he graduates he could take a prep year if he needs those very time consuming lab courses and bone up for the GMAT's. Wouldn't it be cool for athletes to have Nathan Chen as their ortho or sports med doctor?"