Junhwan Cha was just jaw dropping.
You just gave me the chance for a new name/wordplay
Junhwan Jaw (a.k.a. Junhwan )
Junhwan Cha was just jaw dropping.
I'll add in Keegan as well. At the end of his skate he got emotional and really tried to take in his last seconds of being on Worlds ice, ever. choked me up.Both Jason and Kevin brought me to tears... I loved this final group.
Agree about Malinin. At best, his PCS might have been around 85--not enough to overcome the top 2.Pretty strong men's free and competition in general. Congrats to Uno for holding it together for his second World title!
Malinin had some really shaky jumps and I'm astonished that the judges actually buried him on PCS (not saying it wasn't deserved since that was a hot mess of a free skate program-wise - amazing quad axel and love the butterfly twist in the footwork though!) - would have been more like an 82-ish for me, with the Worlds inflation. His astonishing tech content saved him.
I noticed online some delusional people are asserting that Cha/Aymoz/Brown should have been the podium which is absurd given Brown was already awarded a PB with zero quads - albeit a phenomenal skate (I get him and Cha are Orser students but be sensible folks). And the tech of Aymoz was also quite low and not his potential - although I love the redemption skate and strong finish (hoped Adam could have done better though). Well deserved placements, but the podium was absolutely correct as it was.
Maybe this is a controversial opinion - I don't think Jason's skating skills were displayed very well here compared with some of his previous performances. I noticed some rather extraneous-looking crosscuts after turns and I thought his posture and arms were a bit stiff and effortful in places.I noticed online some delusional people are asserting that Cha/Aymoz/Brown should have been the podium which is absurd given Brown was already awarded a PB with zero quads - albeit a phenomenal skate (I get him and Cha are Orser students but be sensible folks). And the tech of Aymoz was also quite low and not his potential - although I love the redemption skate and strong finish (hoped Adam could have done better though). Well deserved placements, but the podium was absolutely correct as it was.
my username is still relevant i seeMaybe this is a controversial opinion - I don't think Jason's skating skills were displayed very well here compared with some of his previous performances. I noticed some rather extraneous-looking crosscuts after turns and I thought his posture and arms were a bit stiff and effortful in places.
Of the various aspects of PCS, I have no doubts about the quality of Jason's musicality and interpretation. In terms of skating skills, he certainly has agility in footwork, but for smoothness and flow I'd put Shoma above. In fact I thought even some other lower-ranked competitors like Britschgi and Selevko had more of a buttery quality to their edges. Of course it's worth noting that more complex footwork can make it harder to generate flow - they certainly weren't trying to do as much choreographically as Jason. Summing up the PCS he comes out on top overall.
It might have been slightly unfair of me to have watched Patrick Chan's 2017 Journey LP just afterwards... I just wanted to check whether I'm not putting old favourites on a pedestal. In terms of interpretation, Patrick had his comfort zone, but he remains unrivalled for skating skills. I would rank a few other past skaters between him and Jason too on this metric. It doesn't affect the results of this competition, obviously, as they certainly weren't here - just me trying to figure out why I didn't quite vibe with Jason's performance as enthusiastically as most other people I know who appreciate good skating.
Agree about Malinin. At best, his PCS might have been around 85--not enough to overcome the top 2.
He should be THRILLED at making the Podium. I actually thought he might drop to Pewter when I saw the men in the final flight. I'm still not quite over my sparkplug, Keegan Messing, not having the skate of his life and making the Podium.Agree about Malinin. At best, his PCS might have been around 85--not enough to overcome the top 2.