2021 Worlds: Men's FS "Thoughts and Observations"

[Skatesocs]

IDK... I am happy that people are happy with how the men skated. And I am happy they think it's inspiring. And I am happy we saw some of the top men put up such a fight.

I wouldn't call it - by any imagination - an inspiring event. Nothing here is something I'd like to watch again, and no one here is someone I'd like to watch again. Nothing in men's skating has really been worth a watch for a while for me, and it's not because of quads.

 

[NanaPat]

I surely hope so!!!! Though I also hope Canada gets two men there eventually. They have a lot of talent among the men and it would be a shame if they wouldn't get an extra spot.

Some people (notably Jackie Wong) disagree with this interpretation, and think those extra spots that are available because of the new rules ARE NOT issued to the next finishers at Worlds. We will see which interpretation is correct when the ISU issues a statement of who has been awarded Olympic quotas.

 

[anonymoose_au]

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. So glad I didn't wake up early for this bulllllllsh!t.

Hanyu T_T. About to drop 4 figures to go to Beijing to see him. Hopefully it'll give me more ROI than this event.

But wouldn't it be exciting just to see him in person? Or have you before? I mean obviously him winning would be a crowning moment of glory, but still...

I'm sure Yuzu will fight back, I'm praying he keeps his SP though. The crowd will lose their minds over it! We'll be able to feel the fire through the TV screen at home.

Anyway my thoughts! Donovan and Lukas are just wonderful! I smiled the whole way through their skates. Just lovely.

So sad for Nikolai Majarov that fall was awful! He has such promise, but the Swedish Olympic people are harsh...they won't let him go to Beijing if they don't think he's good enough, even if he gets a spot!

Yuuuma! He was brilliant, amazing! The future! He and Shoma will have mighty battles and we will be privileged to see them.

Nathan wow! I have to say the costume in close up is terrible, but it really makes him stand out on the ice in a weird way. You could really focus on his jumps and steps and all that Still I do love a good costume.

Speaking of... can't believe they changed Mika K's costume! I'm going to assume there's a famous photo of Nureyev in such an outfit otherwise what a crime.

Keegan's black costume had the same effect as Nathan's! And those knees! How is possible? And his spins! Also the hat makes its triumph return!

Lastly, I noticed that Mishin was wearing polkadot socks, all arguments are now invalid.

 

[SpiffySpiders]

IDK... I am happy that people are happy with how the men skated. And I am happy they think it's inspiring. And I am happy we saw some of the top men put up such a fight.

I wouldn't call it - by any imagination - an inspiring event. Nothing here is something I'd like to watch again, and no one here is someone I'd like to watch again. Nothing in men's skating has really been worth a watch for a while for me, and it's not because of quads.

Not Han Yan and his effortless grace?
Not Nathan Chen who makes a quad loaded program flow as beautifully as a show performance?
Not the arrival of a new young star like Yuma Kagiyama?
Not Mikhail Kolyada finding his perfect fit with ballet on ice?
Not Keegan Messing's deep knee bends?
Or Kevin Aymoz's passion?
Jason Brown's mastery of fundamental skating skills? (And quad! He did it! He stood up on a quad at Worlds!)
Shoma Uno's return to form?
Donovan Carrillo's smile?
None of that is inspiring or worth a watch?

A handful of heartbreaking moments aside, the Men's Free was my highlight of the event. Nathan's performance was one of the greatest skates I've ever seen.

We're all so different in what we like. The men are offering up the greatest variety of styles in the sport right now; someone who ticks all you skating boxes is bound to appear if you keep watching for him.

 

[anonymoose_au]

@SpiffySpiders I would like to print out your post and frame it...it says everything that is amazing about skating. All skating not just men's.

From the smallest skating competition to Worlds there's always something that will touch you and make you smile.

 

[Bluediamonds09]

Just wondering if yagudin did actually commentate for the men's free skate (and if there were nasty things said about Jason brown).

 

[Bluediamonds09]

I love, LOVE Deniss Vasiljev's style on the ice, committing to every choreographic move and reaching through to the fingertips...sigh. And I die a little inside every time he makes a major error.

 

[nussnacker]

IDK... I am happy that people are happy with how the men skated. And I am happy they think it's inspiring. And I am happy we saw some of the top men put up such a fight.

I wouldn't call it - by any imagination - an inspiring event. Nothing here is something I'd like to watch again, and no one here is someone I'd like to watch again. Nothing in men's skating has really been worth a watch for a while for me, and it's not because of quads.

Same. I liked what Nathan did, it’s incredible, how debutant Yuma skated under pressure, what legend Yuzu has shown, but it still was underwhelming to me.
I might rewatch Kagiyama or Kolyada (although the latter had better performances on other competitions), the rest was not something I’ll be rewatching. Same in ladies tbh, I will only be re-watching a few SPs.

 

[lariko]

Speaking of... can't believe they changed Mika K's costume! I'm going to assume there's a famous photo of Nureyev in such an outfit otherwise what a crime.

I checked what Google spills on the image search. He seemed to have favored the deep V’s, opening his chest, sort of that darker layer that Kolyada had under the lighter transparent grey? Maybe it’s as simple as the costume was uncomfortable and they replaced it fast.

 

[lariko]

Mozalev was never on Kagiyama's level in juniors, come on. RusFed propped him up HARD that whole season and still he only won the WJC through a combination of judges not rewarding the same things in juniors as in seniors and Kagiyama giving away the gold in the free. Danielian will be closer to challenging YK if he makes a full recovery from his injury.

Nobody was propping Mozalev. All the Russians could talk about all that year, up until his withdrawal due to injury, was Samsonov, Samsonov, Samsonov. Ad nausea. Internally, Mozalev barely made the junior worlds, Samsonov was junior national champion. Semenenko was the 4th, but didn’t even have qualification to go to the Worlds when Samsonov withdrew, so Yablokov went as the next down the list.

Samsonov was their answer to Kagiyama, not Mozalev...

 

[ali0125]

After watching the ladies FS - I feel I don't understand this sport anymore; after watching the men's FS - I cried in tears and wow this is why I LOVE this sports. At this point I don't care about the scores, rankings, judges, politics etc - they are irrelevant.

I only watched the last group plus Jun and Jason. I would say every one of them was simply amazing with imperfect perfections (except for Nathan who was near perfect) !

To me, this is what figure skating all about - a lot of characters, a lot of emotions, continuous improvement no matter what age you are and fighting sprits.

 

[fzztsimmons]

Just wondering if yagudin did actually commentate for the men's free skate (and if there were nasty things said about Jason brown).

Someone on reddit told me that this described the commentary from Yagudin re Jason today "That he has always had fantastic second score because of his presentation and interpretation of the music, he truly listens to the music and has high quality triple jumps and other elements. Yet Yagudin especially appreciates that he keeps increasing the difficulty of his TES and went for a quad Sal even though it was a bit under he still saved it. Then they discussed with Grishin that they haven’t seen him doing quad sal before, only 4T."

Now, this doesn't excuse anything Yagudin has said in the past, and he's still a garbage PoS, but it is more positive to hear this sort of commentary from him.

 

[Flying Feijoa]

Bullsh!t not because of the event itself, but because I thought Hanyu reasonably had this in the bag and I bet Tesla stock on him against a friend. Now I gotta pay up and I'm peeved at my $ loss and just sad for Hanyu. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Maybe I used up all my skating prayers on his 2nd OGM.

I enjoy watching Brown and Kolyada, but not to the degree that I would wake up early or fly to Beijing to go see them live or in-person.

Ah, got it. Personally the only skating event I'd bet money on is ice dance...

 

[bouncy]

After watching the ladies FS - I feel I don't understand this sport anymore; after watching the men's FS - I cried in tears and wow this is why I LOVE this sports. At this point I don't care about the scores, rankings, judges, politics etc - they are irrelevant.

I only watched the last group plus Jun and Jason. I would say every one of them was simply amazing with imperfect perfections (except for Nathan who was near perfect) !

To me, this is what figure skating all about - a lot of characters, a lot of emotions, continuous improvement no matter what age you are and fighting sprits.

I agree with every word you said! The ladies' fs was quite a disappointment to me compared to men's last night (I actually lowered my expectation for this event after the ladies but the men didn't let me down). I'd say men's last group was even exciting if you got to follow along the entire event. Like you said, the character, the fire and everything - these men were really into the zone. That's figure skating!

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Bullsh!t not because of the event itself, but because I thought Hanyu reasonably had this in the bag and I bet Tesla stock on him against a friend. Now I gotta pay up and I'm peeved at my $ loss and just sad for Hanyu. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Maybe I used up all my skating prayers on his 2nd OGM.

I enjoy watching Brown and Kolyada, but not to the degree that I would wake up early or fly to Beijing to go see them live or in-person.

Why would you bet money on Yuzuru winning when Nathan is such a likelihood to beat him? I get being invested emotionally in a skater or team but your money was better spent on S/K in ice dance or Schebackova in ladies. No shade to Hanyu who is awesome but the odds were not in his favour given his comparative BV and Chen’s propensity to deliver.

On that note, please don’t bet against Simone Biles in The next Olympics.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Just like Patrick Chan

But seriously, Nathan is strong and far ahead for the Olympic title

The only test he'll have to overcome is the Olympic SP

So far he's 0\2, While Hanyu is 3\3

Chan is very different than Chen. Chan had one undisputed world title whereas the other two were close calls. Chen unequivocally obliterated the field in all 3 of his World title wins.

 

[Ophelia]

Why would you bet money on Yuzuru winning when Nathan is such a likelihood to beat him? I get being invested emotionally in a skater or team but your money was better spent on S/K in ice dance or Schebackova in ladies. No shade to Hanyu who is awesome but the odds were not in his favour given his comparative BV and Chen’s propensity to deliver.

On that note, please don’t bet against Simone Biles in The next Olympics.

'Cause betting on him has paid off previously (e.g. 2014 and 2018).

 

[eppen]

Thanks! Seems my Spanish is much better than I thought while still being much worse than it should be.

Javi speaks somehow really clearly - I have never had big problems understanding him and I am doing it based on knowing Latin and Italian Sometimes I can only guess what an interviewer or other persons talking are saying.... And if the topic is something else than skating, I have to try very hard even with Javi.

Commentary on Hanyu from VK (Pretty subdued and his fellow commentator is mostly speaking. But after the program he says that you usually have a pretty good idea of how it will go based on the first jump.)

E

 

[Arriba627]

Really enjoyed the men's free today.

Shoma - So glad he had a redemption skate. From 6 in the short to 3 in the free and 4 overall -- even a small medal to boot. PCS, well that's a conversation for another day. He will never be the kind of jumper everyone wants him to be, but that doesn't negate his beautiful skating skills, Level 4 step sequence and spins, performance quality, musicality, and more. He hasn't been with Stephane that long, so I look forward to seeing what they will bring together for next season.

Nathan - What can I say that hasn't already been said. He is a beast! I love this free skate on him. Shae Lynne's shirt on him? Not so much. Definitely a performance worthy of Raf's water bottle shaking.

Boyang - I really hope he can get his "mojo" back. He is typically a slow starter, and since this season basically didn't start, he just didn't seem to be in fighting shape. Still, he has that 4Lz weapon, and maybe adding Tracy and Brian to his coaching team will help him get back on track. The commentator I was listening to said "That was a skate he will want to forget", and I agree.

Yuma - He was awesome. I doubted whether he would be able to keep his nerves in check, but he did great. Those soft knees and jumps are to die for. I know he'll improve his performance quality and will be a star! Now please, stay healthy!

Keegan - Congratulations for getting Canada's spots. He was also the only one whom I saw with snow in his hair from getting so low to the ice in his hydroblade. That infectious energy gets away from him sometimes, but today he managed to control it well.

Jason - For me, he didn't skate to the music, he WAS the music. Love the way he went motoring into that 4S, like he really meant business. I was so happy that he landed it with no two footing, that I didn't care whether it was a little underrotated or not. He looked fit, well trained, and ready to rumble. I like David Wilson choreo on him.

Donovan - I saw him live at 4CC 2019 and was happy to see how much he has improved since then. He has better speed, confidence, and his 3A is much improved. He performs the heck out of his programs and (had there been an audience!) is great at connecting with the audience.

Deniss V. - Oh, why Deniss? I was expecting another brilliant "Romeo & Juliet" like the gold medal Nebelhorn performance. Definitely not the skate he was hoping for. The hair -- please cut it.

Mikhail -- Finally, programs that suit him! Forget the Elvis stuff! Love his posture and beautiful lines. Seems training with Mishin has done wonders for him.

--Skater I missed the most -- Dmitri Aliev. Hope to see him back soon.
--Thought the men had much more interesting music choices than the ladies.
--I have mentioned several times already in competition threads how much I enjoyed the commentary of Mark Hanretty (former ice dancer) on Peacock TV. He made it really enjoyable with informative, objective commentary and kept silence during the skating.

 

[AlimaAsh]

The competition was strong and exciting – a great preview for the men to watch next season for Olympics. All the guys in the last two groups were able to deliver solid skates. I think most of them had a couple of mistakes, except for Nathan and his extraordinary skate, and Zhenya Semenenko, but none of the skaters had a total meltdown, and that was great.

Nathan's skate was otherworldly, the most polished he has ever been. He looked so composed in the first part, and really let go so fully at the end. It was an absolutely amazing skate.

I am also very happy for Zhenya Semenenko. There was lots of criticism for him in Russian forums the past month, I think he proved all the critics that he was the right choice. He could now be seen as a consistent guy, which I think he should play on as a strength next year. I watched Zhenya's interviews, and he seems like such a sweetheart, so I just wish him all the best. Mikhail as well, delivered what he had to, and it is just amazing that they were able to get 3 provisional spots. I wonder who Russia will send to Nebelhorn, I think it will depend on the test skates.

One of my standouts was Donovan. Overall, he did so well! He might have qualified for the Olympics, but we will see tomorrow for the Olympic quotas. I never saw Lukas Britschgi before, but he gave here two good skates and he should be so proud. The free skate especially, he gave amazing energy and a great performance. He definitely qualified himself for the Olympics here, so I send over my congratulations. Also, I saw that Nikolaj Majorov has soo much potential, the program itself was great. The opening was just amazing, but it looked like he hurt himself with one of the falls and couldn't keep going. He is very young, it was disheartening to see him so upset after the skate. I will look forward to seeing him next year and onwards, he has a quad and good performance skills, totally a great European man to look for in the upcoming years. A special shout out to Kevin Aymoz's amazing saves – the strength he must have for those! He and Cha Junhwan qualified two provisional spots for the Olympics, a happy opportunity for Sihyeong and Adam to qualify themselves. And the Italian men delivered, looking both very strong.

I was saddened and frustrated by the fact that China only qualified one spot for the Olympics. I felt frustrated because although it was Boyang that melted down, it will probably be Han Yan that will face the consequences. On the home Olympics as well! I for once hope, perhaps selfishly, that China will make ISU get them a host spot at the Olympics . But anyway, I am just happy to see Han Yan back, with his gorgeous skating and jumps.