2017-18 State of U.S. Men's Figure Skating

mrrice · Feb 14, 2018

el henry said:
Thank you for the information, but I just wanted to insert that you don't need meat to keep up muscle. Meagan Duhamel is the perfect example of that

Thanks to Adam for sharing his story and reminding us, and coaches and officials and everyone who should care, that men in this sport are as susceptible to eating disorders as women.

I hate this subject as many of you already know. I was always the "Fat" dancer. It got to the point that I stopped auditioning for dance jobs after I was cut from a video for being "too big." Thank god I could sing because it was depressing to hear about it from choreographers who often said to me....It's a good thing you can sing.

I don't know about skating but, I definitely know that several, in fact, the majority of the dancers I worked with were Bulimic. I refused to follow in their footsteps. The acid that purging puts in your throat is bad for your vocal chords and it plays with your stamina to have your body go from feeling full to sick and empty in a matter of minutes. Not to mention the stomach problems that accompany purging on a regular basis. I feel sorry for any skater who is dealing with this. I'm happy that Nathan can eat Pizza and as long as he's training at a high level I think he can eat whatever he wants.

el henry · Feb 14, 2018

brightphoton said:
Oh yeah, I remember that part of the interview. What a downer.

Poor Adam! He has no money and had to subsist on the free apples that his local gym was giving out. Yes they're free, but it looks socially bad if you stand over the h'oeuvres and mash them into your mouth.

It's not easy being an amateur athlete

I don’t know who you know, or what you do :laugh:

but Adam didn’t stand at the gym eating apples. He did what I and everyone else I know does: took the apples home. A time honored tradition for socially correct gym rats :agree:

And Adam’s story made the front page of the print NY Times, I didn’t know it would be there, very impressive.:thumbsup:

ReasonOFF · Feb 14, 2018

good luck nathan!! i know you can nail each quad of yours!! triple axel is the problem....but i hope you'll solve it too!! just two clean skates at olympics!! :pray:

yyyskate · Feb 14, 2018

el henry said:
Thank you for the information, but I just wanted to insert that you don't need meat to keep up muscle. Meagan Duhamel is the perfect example of that

Thanks to Adam for sharing his story and reminding us, and coaches and officials and everyone who should care, that men in this sport are as susceptible to eating disorders as women.

you need protein, and meat is some skaters' preferred protein source and vegan protein is Megan's diet, either way works.

moonvine · Feb 14, 2018

andromache said:
"Adam Rippon on Quiet Starvation in Men's Figure Skating"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/sports/olympics/figure-skating-adam-rippon.html

This is probably something that deserves its own thread, but I'm not up to starting the discussion (especially during the Olympics - maybe during the off-season, lol).

Poor Adam. That is insane. 3 slices of bread a day, I'm shocked he could even walk around, let alone train on a high level. I eat WAY more than that and I am on Weight Watchers, and I'm female! With all the training and the 3 slices of bread, isn't that close to anorexic levels of eating?

noskates · Feb 15, 2018

Well if you see Adam up close now there probably isn't more than 1% body fat. What bothered me about that was where was his coach? I'm not saying the coach should have fed him but sound an alarm or something.

moonvine · Feb 15, 2018

noskates said:
Well if you see Adam up close now there probably isn't more than 1% body fat. What bothered me about that was where was his coach? I'm not saying the coach should have fed him but sound an alarm or something.

I haven't been lucky enough to see him up close, only from the nosebleed seats of whatever event I'm attending. My sister got me binoculars before she passed away "If you're going to go you might as well be able to see it." Anyway - apparently the coach approved of his diet. It makes it sound like the coach was pushing him to diet to that extreme. I want to watch skating, but I don't want to contribute to something that apparently contributes to disordered eating. I'm just floored. My mother eats more than that and she's 104 lbs. 3 slices of bread is pure carbs, no protein and if it's white bread almost no nutrients. To contrast, Michael Phelps ate 12,000 calories a day while training and he's not exactly brimming with body fat.

karne · Feb 15, 2018

noskates said:
Well if you see Adam up close now there probably isn't more than 1% body fat. What bothered me about that was where was his coach? I'm not saying the coach should have fed him but sound an alarm or something.

The coach was busy thinking about him as an elephant!!!

I knew there was a reason I didn't like Rafael.

noskates · Feb 15, 2018

Was he with Raf then? He also had a stint with Brian Orser and then somebody before that.

ice coverage · Feb 15, 2018

Official @pyeongchang2018 account had Nathan, Vincent, Adam record video messages introducing themselves:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfPSoJ5ni-4/?taken-by=pyeongchang2018 (Feb 15)

They each had their own way of handling the instruction (I assume it was an instruction) to tell viewers to "wish me luck" and "cheer for me."

Pat on the back for Vincent for his good job in the SP.

Good luck to Nathan and Adam :yay:.

NAOTMAA · Feb 16, 2018

so any chance NBC and the media will take any responsibility for heaping the needless pressure on Nathan :scratch2:

:think: Didn't they learn anything after the team SP

no? yeah I didn't think so :rolleye:

:hopelessness:

I'm not Nathan's biggest fan but I feel dreadful for him, I can't begin to imagine what he's feeling at this moment

I hope since he has nothing to lose he'll just relax and go for it in the LP!

Sjs5572 · Feb 16, 2018

I hope Nathan is relaxed for the long program now that he's out of medal contention, and that he goes out with a bang and decides to do a six quad long....something like this:

Quad Lutz+Triple Toeloop
Quad Flip
Quad Salchow
Change Foot Camel Spin
Step Sequence
************************
Quad Toeloop+Double Toeloop
Quad Lutz
Quad Toeloop
Triple Axel
Triple Lutz+Double Toeloop+Double Loop
Choreo Sequence
Fly. Change Foot Comb. Spin
Change Foot Combination Spin

Seren · Feb 16, 2018

I am gutted for Nathan. I felt so badly for him when he was being interviewed. I hope he throws down a Mao Asada circa Sochi and has the freeskate of his life.

Manitou · Feb 16, 2018

NAOTMAA said:
so any chance NBC and the media will take any responsibility for heaping the needless pressure on Nathan :

They are making their money.
Nathan and Shiffrin today - both the same victim to the media hysteria. OMG! The best skier of all time! She is locked for gold! She will make a history! Mikaela Shiffrin will bring home another gold medal!
It was obvious the girl was already pushed beyond her mental limits. But they kept pushing and pushing! And right before the run she broke and vomited. Couldn't handle it anymore.
Nathan was the same. Nathan Chen! The future champion! The same hysteria.

The media is the most destructive force in the US.

KatGrace1925 · Feb 16, 2018

Seren said:
I am gutted for Nathan. I felt so badly for him when he was being interviewed. I hope he throws down a Mao Asada circa Sochi and has the freeskate of his life.

That is what I am hoping too, he doesn't need to feel pressure now and he has nothing to lose so he should go for it all.

schizoanalyst · Feb 16, 2018

Manitou said:
They are making their money.
Nathan and Shiffrin today - both the same victim to the media hysteria. OMG! The best skier of all time! She is locked for gold! She will make a history! Mikaela Shiffrin will bring home another gold medal!
It was obvious the girl was already pushed beyond her mental limits. But they kept pushing and pushing! And right before the run she broke and vomited. Couldn't handle it anymore.
Nathan was the same. Nathan Chen! The future champion! The same hysteria.

The media is the most destructive force in the US.

At first I thought the NBC narrative was being overplayed somewhat, but Shiffrin didn't even medal now in slalom (though she won a gold earlier) either so .... It looks like Shiffrin faltered slightly initially, sometimes it happened, and then the pressure got to her =/

hippomoomin · Feb 16, 2018

Where did this come from??
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/20...-skater-usa-winter-olympics-2018-orig-nws.cnn

labgoat · Feb 16, 2018

Manitou said:
They are making their money.
Nathan and Shiffrin today - both the same victim to the media hysteria. OMG! The best skier of all time! She is locked for gold! She will make a history! Mikaela Shiffrin will bring home another gold medal!
It was obvious the girl was already pushed beyond her mental limits. But they kept pushing and pushing! And right before the run she broke and vomited. Couldn't handle it anymore.
Nathan was the same. Nathan Chen! The future champion! The same hysteria.

The media is the most destructive force in the US.

Sonetimes I feel it is a two-fer deal. First you hype them up for part one of the news and when they falter you eat them alive for part two. Agents play too. I remember reading (Brennan, I think in Pretty Girls...) about a certain agent starting a firestorm in order to get press for a skater and then getting a second highly positive story to put out the flames.

andromache · Feb 16, 2018

Part of being a champion is standing up under the scrutiny of the media and the hype train. Sure, the pressure got to Nathan, but I'm not holding the media exclusively responsible. It's part of being an elite athlete and comes with the territory. He and Rafael have been playing with different layouts all season, so he wasn't able to rely on his training to help him overcome his nerves.

Raf has also been very vague about some struggles they've been having? I'm not sure how real that is or not.

People just want another reason to be mad at NBC (as if they don't give us enough other reasons).

Tavi... · Feb 16, 2018

andromache said:
Part of being a champion is standing up under the scrutiny of the media and the hype train. Sure, the pressure got to Nathan, but I'm not holding the media exclusively responsible. It's part of being an elite athlete and comes with the territory. He and Rafael have been playing with different layouts all season, so he wasn't able to rely on his training to help him overcome his nerves.

Raf has also been very vague about some struggles they've been having? I'm not sure how real that is or not.

People just want another reason to be mad at NBC (as if they don't give us enough other reasons).

I do fault NBC a lot for this. There have been signs all year that he’s been struggling under the weight of expectations. He underperformed at Worlds. He was undefeated this season, but his wins were sloppy wins, and came in part due to mistakes by - or the absence of - his competitors. He’s changed his layouts and jumps constantly this season.

I’m not saying that boot problems didn’t impact him at Worlds or that he didn’t deserve his wins. I am saying that by ignoring the whole picture - and the fact that this was his first Olympics, which are reputedly a competition like none other - NBC did him a disservice in its quest to find compelling narratives and drum up audience interest. Even former Olympians - Johnny, Tara, Michael Weiss, to name a few - who should have known better - have ignored the inconsistencies and predicted him to win gold.

Simply saying, he’s immensely talented and has medal potential, but it’s his first Olympics, would have been accurate and kinder to him. Instead NBC has pushed the narrative that Nathan is the favorite to win gold here, the first US man to do so since Evan Lysacek. And just to make sure we got the connection, Vera Wang was brought in to design his costumes. Then they added stories from his 3rd grade teacher and former ballet master to underline the narrative of how special he is. An entire nation, USFS, his former teachers: that’s a lot of people to worry about letting down.

Hanyu’s undoubtedly under a huge amount of pressure, too, especially because he’s defending a title, but he’s older and more experienced than Nathan, this is second Olympics, and because of the injury and the fact that the media haven’t permitted to talk to him for months, he’s perhaps been better able to handle it.

Wishing all the best to Nathan (and Hanyu, and all our guys) tonight.

2017-18 State of U.S. Men's Figure Skating

mrrice

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.

ReasonOFF

yyyskate

moonvine

All Hail Queen Gracie

noskates

moonvine

All Hail Queen Gracie

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode

noskates

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605

NAOTMAA

Sjs5572

Seren

Wakabond Forever

Manitou

KatGrace1925

schizoanalyst

hippomoomin

labgoat

Thinking about art & life...

andromache

Tavi...

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