What? Phenom # gazillion shows up for Japan and everyone suddenly forgets about Shoma!? All three Japanese guys ain't gonna be on the podium with Nathan, unless something wildly unexpected happens. LOL!
Yuma is young. Let youngster phenom grow up please, and battle it out with missing phenom, Ilia Malinin, in the future.
Oh and yes, someone was mentioning how they think Kagiyama is the greatest jumper. He's just one of many, honestly. The jumps look spectacular on him because of his soft knees and how fast he gets around that he's almost a blur in the air. Ilia Malinin has gorgeous jumps too. Both of these young guys have jumps that complement their body builds!
OTOH, Hanyu and Javi had these rare suspended in-the-air quads which were mind-blowing. Kolyada has classic, gorgeous jump technique too, despite his nerve-induced inconsistencies. Nathan has perfect, rare, textbook air position, but unspectacular landings. Nathan is just usually always on point with his blade positions on landings, because he has great jump technique that again, works beautifully for his body build. Nathan doesn't have those soft, soft knees though that so many Japanese skaters have. The soft knees are a Japanese, to-die-for trademark.
Is Vincent really that popular with the US Fed? Or maybe the Fed was worried that even though Nathan is a completely different skater now, doing all the programs was too big a risk for the individual event.
in such a scenario, the situation at the end of the tournament would become quite nervous. Humans are not robots, and there would be a chance that ROC skaters would make a mistake.Also BladesOfPassion, let us humour you and examine even your “best case scenario” with Team USA “skating to their potential” — replacing the scores they earned with their personal best scores, having Nathan compete in both segments, and everyone else skating as they ended up skating (even though several of them underperformed themselves).
USA:
Women = 16 points (Karen 3rd each time, instead of 5th and 4th)
Pairs = 16 points (SK/F ending up 3rd each time)
Ice Dance = 20 points (let’s maintain the upsets over S/K by H/D and C/B)
Men = 20 points (with Nathan competing in both segments and beating Yuma)
Total = 72 points
ROC:
Women = 20 points (1st + 1st)
Pairs = 19 points (2nd + 1st)
Ice Dance = 18 points (2nd + 2nd)
Men = 16 points (3rd + 3rd, Mark dropping a spot in the mens FS)
Total = 73 points
USA still comes 2nd.
Ummm yeah, we'll see what happens with Vincent. He's unpredictable, even in his decision-making.
Wow--this is precisely the same 'best-case-scenario' I had worked out, too! Team ROC was getting that Team Gold, no matter what. And I am perfectly happy to see the placements awarded to ROC 1st, USA 2nd, and Japan 3rd. I am unsure about how/when podium winners receive their actual medals, though...Also BladesOfPassion, let us humour you and examine even your “best case scenario” with Team USA “skating to their potential” — replacing the scores they received in the team event with their personal best scores, and having Nathan compete in both segments, and all non-US skaters maintain the scores they got in the team event (even though several of them could have scored/placed higher if they had also skated to their potential).
Team USA:
Women = 16 points (Karen 3rd each time, instead of 5th and 4th)
Pairs = 16 points (SK/F -3rd each time)
Ice Dance = 20 points (let’s maintain the upsets over S/K by H/D and C/B)
Men = 20 points (with Nathan competing in both segments and beating Yuma)
Total = 72 points
Team ROC:
Women = 20 points (1st + 1st)
Pairs = 19 points (2nd + 1st)
Ice Dance = 18 points (2nd + 2nd)
Men = 16 points (3rd + 3rd, Mark dropping a spot in the mens FS)
Total = 73 points
USA still comes 2nd.
*insert Team ROC’s Valieva end pose slash mic drop*
Wow--this is precisely the same 'best-case-scenario' I had worked out, too! Team ROC was getting that Team Gold, no matter what. And I am perfectly happy to see the placements awarded to ROC 1st, USA 2nd, and Japan 3rd. I am unsure about how/when podium winners receive their actual medals, though...
Honestly I don’t understand their thinking. Per the SI article they didn’t plan to make a push for the gold, so Vincent is the only man who doesn’t have an Olympic medal already so split them? No matter what there were going to be athletes with no medal. They could have used Nathan for both segments since he volunteered to do that (against anything I had ever heard) and split the women’s.Is Vincent really that popular with the US Fed? Or maybe the Fed was worried that even though Nathan is a completely different skater now, doing all the programs was too big a risk for the individual event.
The plot thickens!
Normally, at least for a few decades, almost all winter medals are awarded in some sort of place created for that purpose, typically called a medals plaza or something similar. Looking back it isn’t necessarily true for summer medals so who knows. I don’t know when the skaters will receive their medals but I’m sure clips will be available. Fun fact: Adam said in his book all athletes get a special outfit that is only to be worn if the athlete receives a medal and that is what they wear for the ceremony.Wow--this is precisely the same 'best-case-scenario' I had worked out, too! Team ROC was getting that Team Gold, no matter what. And I am perfectly happy to see the placements awarded to ROC 1st, USA 2nd, and Japan 3rd. I am unsure about how/when podium winners receive their actual medals, though...
