2018 Olympic Figure Skating Mens SP

[Fool]

I've been watching figure skating on Swedish Eurosport the last years, and they've never really liked Hanyu (I believe). They are rarely super impressed, and even when he does well they'll say something like, it's his reputation as a xxx-champion. They don't really appreciate his skating skills but have they've been hyping Nathan since the last year. If I remember correctly they might have said that Nathan was more of a complete package compared to Hanyu (Don't quote me on this). It's not fun listening to them when Hanyu has a bad skate, I've honestly been dreading having to watch the olympics with them commentating. (They do however take notice of things like people not having steps into the solo jump in the SP, not having correct positions in spins and not having a balanced jump layout regarding skating in only clockwise/counterclockwise circles and jumping (which they mention every time Zagitova skates her LP) and so on). I haven't heard their commentary for the men's though, hoping it wasn't too bad!

Fascinating! Thank you for the insight! I only watched the Swedish commentary for the final group (+ Vincent) and it's the first time I've heard such blase attitude towards Hanyu. I'm in Norway, and they were fawning over him just like most English speaking commentary does. Actually I've lived outside of Norway since before Sochi so this is the first time I'm hearing these people talk about him, but the Norwegians have always been very enthusiastic about "complete" skaters while down on "jumpers" (they were not particularly there for Bychenko in the Team SP for example, even though he was the only one with a quad to go clean, they also weren't very enthusiastic about Javi back in the day, but this is before Sochi so maybe he was very different back then idk), so Hanyu is the typical skater they would get behind.

 

[silverfoxes]

He had no pressure. Not the same situation. No one thought he would win or even be top 5. Nathan did great when he was the underdog too But, I hope Aliev stays consistent. I like him.

Well, why didn't anyone consider him after his brilliant Euros performance? He wiped the floor with Kolyada there but on this forum you would never know it. He has established himself already. Not sure why everyone dismissed him.

 

[Xorasy]

Fascinating! Thank you for the insight! I only watched the Swedish commentary for the final group (+ Vincent) and it's the first time I've heard such blase attitude towards Hanyu. I'm in Norway, and they were fawning over him just like most English speaking commentary does. Actually I've lived outside of Norway since before Sochi so this is the first time I'm hearing these people talk about him, but the Norwegians have always been very enthusiastic about "complete" skaters while down on "jumpers" (they were not particularly there for Bychenko in the Team SP for example, even though he was the only one with a quad to go clean, they also weren't very enthusiastic about Javi back in the day, but this is before Sochi so maybe he was very different back then idk), so Hanyu is the typical skater they would get behind.

In 2015 and 2016 I understood that they preferred Patrick Chan over Hanyu, they have different styles and Chan has always been known for his amazing skating skills, so I just had to accept that this is a subjective sport and people have different biases towards different things. You can imagine I was chocked when they then absolutely loved Nathan! I've always thought that Nathan was like a new younger version of Hanyu, high TES and evolving skating skills and PCS, I would really like to talk to them and ask what it is that they like and don't like about certain skaters. (Fortunately, other channels usually cover the Europeans and WC every year, and those commentators love Hanyu (and Chan, Fernandez, Chen, Uno and so on...) like pretty much everybody else.)

 

[readernick]

Well, why didn't anyone consider him after his brilliant Euros performance? He wiped the floor with Kolyada there but on this forum you would never know it. He has established himself already. Not sure why everyone dismissed him.

His personal best in the lp is 40 points behind Hanyu. That is why Easy for me to understand why no one considered him. He is still very much a long shot for the podium because all the real contenders have PB over 200 ( some a lot over 200) his is 182.

 

[BlackAxel]

Shoma changes costume all the time....

But thankfully Shoma's costumes were not designed by Vera Wang

 

[Ares]

The figure skating events finally feel like an Olympic atmosphere. Last few events felt so dead and felt more like a challenger event because 90% of the time the audience didn't clap or even acknowledge the skater on the ice and only seem to exist when there was an Korean skater on. I guess it's because of the vast number of Hanyu fans present who clapped for other skaters. Hope the ice dance and ladies event will get a good crowd reception.

I think it had more to do with boring Team Event proceeding that than with the presence of Hanyu fans now.

 

[Blondie12]

NBC quickly adjusted its marketing. it's now advertising Free Skate - Adam Rippon for tonight.

 

[icybear]

I think it had more to do with boring Team Event proceeding than with the presence of Hanyu fans now.

The Pairs Event was very quiet and empty

 

[Blondie12]

I think it had more to do with boring Team Event proceeding than with the presence of Hanyu fans now.

Johnny and Tara commented on this - they said the audience was alot more enthusiastic than in Sochi where the audience was very pro-Russian. They said this during the team event. I imagine you have alot of japanese fans coming out. I am shocked by all the empty seats however. why so many empty seats on tv?

yesterday probably felt like skating at home for the japanese skaters. they showed all the flags and except for the dutch in speedskating i have never seen so many fans for one country in an international event. Being that Korea is not far from Japan, you probably get alot more japanese fans than normal. I went to worlds in boston and there were japanese fans there but no one near the amount in Korea. That probably affected someone like Nathan- I am not sure if he ever did a head to head against Hanyu in Japan - I don't think he has. Hanyu basically was skating to a home crowd.

the poo bears are going to be crazy tonight. Wonder how that will affect javi. i think he is more mature and has more perspective and probably being with Hanyu everyday has more of a less adversarial relationship with hanyu - not that nathan had an adversarial one but i think being competitors and seeing each other a few times in an arena is quite different than if you train with someone every day. And though javi wants gold and would be disappointed, i stil think he would be thrilled with any medal. Nathan seemed to have the approach that anything less than gold would be a disappointment. Even when he got the bronze medal, there was absolutely no joy- he seemed to be beating himself over and over again over that mistake, mentioning the mistake in every interview and noting that he let the team down. it was almost like he felt he did not deserve the bronze medal. Javi will be a great show skater - Scott was talking about how he will always do scott's charity benefit so I think he knows he has a clear path ahead where he can earn a nice living being a skater. Hanyu too - Yuna getting silver really did not rid her light adn respect so I think if hanyu doesn't get it his fans will feel he was robbed and it will have little impact on him in terms of monetary terms.

Maybe that's why hanyu and javi could skate like that - they were freed from having that worry whereas for nathan, well, his sponsorship deals drive up. Not that I think he cares about that as a teenager but people around him might have made him feel more pressure because of that. I noticed that even in his twitter feed- it's not authentic - all it is ads for products so i doubt he even manages it.

 

[Fool]

In 2015 and 2016 I understood that they preferred Patrick Chan over Hanyu, they have different styles and Chan has always been known for his amazing skating skills, so I just had to accept that this is a subjective sport and people have different biases towards different things. You can imagine I was chocked when they then absolutely loved Nathan! I've always thought that Nathan was like a new younger version of Hanyu, high TES and evolving skating skills and PCS, I would really like to talk to them and ask what it is that they like and don't like about certain skaters. (Fortunately, other channels usually cover the Europeans and WC every year, and those commentators love Hanyu (and Chan, Fernandez, Chen, Uno and so on...) like pretty much everybody else.)

Truly interesting evidence of the subjectivity of this sport! I don't think I've ever seen it covered on other channels here, except during Sochi when another channel was covering it (and it was a guy who had good technical analysis and some "celebrity" woman who talked about how she ~felt when she watched everything). Not that I will pretend to know how all or even most commentators view these guys (it's limited to English speaking, Japanese and Scandinavian lol), but this is really the first time I've ever heard non-gushing things about Yuzu. The only other figure skating act I've ever heard comparable universal praise for is Virtue/Moir, but it seems these particular ones are the exception! I will watch the last group in Swedish again tomorrow and see how they react no matter how it goes :handw:

 

[Miss Ice]

NBC quickly adjusted its marketing. it's now advertising Free Skate - Adam Rippon for tonight.

NBC is actually toxic. Nathan needs to escape to Canada and train away from all the hype and media.

 

[Blondie12]

Men competition is unpredictable, I will not surprise ,for example, if Nathan land everything tomorrow and get on podium.

wouldn't someone have to have a meltdown for that to happen? I don't know if it's enough for the top 5 skaters if they are too far ahead. I am sure probably somonee on here figured it out. he possibly could get bronze but he is almost 15-20 points away from it now- he would need shoma and boliang to definitely both falter. i don't see that happening.

 

[Tolstoj]

I honestly don't think NBC is doing it wrong.

This is just their job, they have to hype figure skating for those who couldn't care less about this sport, otherwise very few people would watch the competition on their channel.

Plus these are the Olympics, you have to deal with this kind of expectations.

 

[Fool]

NBC quickly adjusted its marketing. it's now advertising Free Skate - Adam Rippon for tonight.

(I never would've guessed the order going into this would be Adam, Vincent, Nathan.)

 

[Blondie12]

NBC is actually toxic. Nathan needs to escape to Canada and train away from all the hype and media.

Alot of people here in the US are really mad they did not show Zhou - they were showing skiing and fluff pieces on norweigian skiiers on non-cable tv. most people have cable but some do not so they could not see zhou at all skate. Moreover, they only cut to adam and then went back to skiing. they did not show skating for the final group till after 11:30pm and it was a little delayed because of mikaela shiffrin.

i hate that the tv guides do not line up with what actually is being shown. People are complaining that they tape nbcsn thinking there's skating, and then they don't see the final group - they are not being consistent in how you can watch skating- sometimes they switch between the two like in pairs, sometimes they do only partially like in mens. Plus it's a disgrace that they are not showing all US skaters on primetime even if tape delayed- they should have showed vincent on tape delayed when they showed adam.

 

[yoloaxel]

I mean yes, the NBC coverage definitely damaged Nathan - BUT. What should Shoma or Yuzuru say, with the hype they get? Or Javi who has the weight of Spain on his shoulders? Nathan needs to work on his mental game, because he will always get attention and coverage.

 

[ks777]

Men competition is unpredictable, I will not surprise ,for example, if Nathan land everything tomorrow and get on podium.

no chance at all.

 

[Raatkirani]

I just finished watching the men’s and don’t want to repeat all the sentiments that have been said far more gracefully than I could express. But I did have a question regarding Chafik Besseghier. I understand his BVs were lower and no quad, but why was his performance and interpretation of music scored in the 6s and 7s? What do I need to know as a casual observer? I thought he had great performance quality! Just miffed he and Denis Ten didn’t qualify.

 

[Mista Ekko]

Being a champion means that there are no excuses,
That's why i'm not a champion for example along with most of the people on the planet

There is no real way to connect the NBC coverage to Chen's issues, For all we know
he would've imploded all on his own, He did at Worlds.

Here's hoping he Mao Asada's this and moves up like 10 spots, Good luck!

 

[Jaana]

Tarasova used to force her skaters to skip nationals going into the Olympics when they know they are already part of the Olympic team (she did it with Yagudin, Kulik, Grishuk/Platov,...) and honestly Nathan could have done the same thing here.

Kulik did not miss the 1997-98 Nationals, he actually won. He though had to miss the 1998 Europeans, because of a back injury.