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{sigh} Didn't this all get hashed out in the recent Alina and Yuzu GOAT threads? Are people just getting antsy and looking for squabbles?
{deep breath} I have no opinion whatsoever of Nathan Chen's skating, I've watched a bit and felt nothing whatsoever good or bad so gave up on him. But indifference is not dislike - while I do unabashedly love and support several of his current rivals I have nothing against him, he seems a pleasant if unexceptional young man. So I have no input whatsover into whether his scores are justified and give no opinion on them.
(But I do love the fact that while it was insisted that Yuzuru couldn't be compared to earlier greats for a whole heap of reasons there are oh gosh! - suddenly discovered and wincingly specific excuses to claim that Nathan should leapfrog them all.)
He has one-two years of very high scores, two World golds and now has two of the three current world records (Yuzu has the third and all the historic ones). As as far as the mass of sporting fans in and out of his own country are concerned, none of that matters much since he was supposed to win - and in front of the biggest audience possible stiffed - at the Olympics and has just the one team bronze. He also has a very powerful Federation pushing both him and the less deserving Zhou as blatantly hard as they can because they have no one else and a country that doesn't care and probably never will, always seeing him as a minor sports star whatever he does (I could be wrong but am not holding my breath, his importance in sport is always going to be limited by the same thing that got him that powerful federation)
And he may get one Oly gold, but - as I said in the P/C thread - it's a long way to Beijing and he, like Shoma, like Boyang, like Evgenia, like Patrick, like Kurt, like Elvis, like Mao, like Yulia, like Michelle, like Nancy, like P/C - may end up with none. And whether people want it to or not, that is what they all want most, that is what lack burns most, and that is what will be remembered when the history books are updated in decades to come.
Maybe he will be the next GOAT, he certainly is the one who looks like it right now (and Yuzu himself told him at the Olympics "your time will come".) Or maybe he will be the next shooting star that's... shot before the quad is over. Or maybe even the next Evan Lysacek. Like Alina (who at least has a grand slam to bolster the argument)? IT'S TOO SOON.
{deep breath} I have no opinion whatsoever of Nathan Chen's skating, I've watched a bit and felt nothing whatsoever good or bad so gave up on him. But indifference is not dislike - while I do unabashedly love and support several of his current rivals I have nothing against him, he seems a pleasant if unexceptional young man. So I have no input whatsover into whether his scores are justified and give no opinion on them.
(But I do love the fact that while it was insisted that Yuzuru couldn't be compared to earlier greats for a whole heap of reasons there are oh gosh! - suddenly discovered and wincingly specific excuses to claim that Nathan should leapfrog them all.)
He has one-two years of very high scores, two World golds and now has two of the three current world records (Yuzu has the third and all the historic ones). As as far as the mass of sporting fans in and out of his own country are concerned, none of that matters much since he was supposed to win - and in front of the biggest audience possible stiffed - at the Olympics and has just the one team bronze. He also has a very powerful Federation pushing both him and the less deserving Zhou as blatantly hard as they can because they have no one else and a country that doesn't care and probably never will, always seeing him as a minor sports star whatever he does (I could be wrong but am not holding my breath, his importance in sport is always going to be limited by the same thing that got him that powerful federation)
And he may get one Oly gold, but - as I said in the P/C thread - it's a long way to Beijing and he, like Shoma, like Boyang, like Evgenia, like Patrick, like Kurt, like Elvis, like Mao, like Yulia, like Michelle, like Nancy, like P/C - may end up with none. And whether people want it to or not, that is what they all want most, that is what lack burns most, and that is what will be remembered when the history books are updated in decades to come.
Maybe he will be the next GOAT, he certainly is the one who looks like it right now (and Yuzu himself told him at the Olympics "your time will come".) Or maybe he will be the next shooting star that's... shot before the quad is over. Or maybe even the next Evan Lysacek. Like Alina (who at least has a grand slam to bolster the argument)? IT'S TOO SOON.
You seemed similarly dismissive of both her and Yuzuru's achievements.
