Men's Free Program: 6:45 AM Eastern

[Layfan]

Exactly. For now Tomas needs to focus on jump consistency and getting his confidence back, and he's doing just that. He said he still trains the 4t, but he also said he is building toward Euros and Worlds this season, so for now, that is not his focus. I give him major props for turning things around and think that if he can bring back the quad and give a little more signature Tomas performance quality come winter I think we could very well see him on the European AND World podiums (honestly he can probably medal at/win Europeans even without the quad if he keeps this up).

Plus to be honest, the old Tomas trend of landing the 4-3 and then popping most everything else was so frustrating. I much prefer him landing and rotating jumps, it shows good work ethic. Plus these clean/almost clean performances are boosting his PCS, I mean 78+ in the FS, that's pretty impressive!

Gmyers - What about this point of Silverlake's? Why should Verner concentrate on the quad to the detriment of his other jumps? In the 2002 Olympics, the medalists won because they did quads AND nearly everything else well. It wasn't like Yagudin got up there, did a quad, and then said, right, game over. I won. But there aren't any male skaters right who now are capable of doing a two-quad performance and still skate the rest of the program beautifully. I think some like Verner and Takahashi are working towards that - or at least one quad - but I don't see how it makes sense to keep doing the quad in competition if you know it's going to mean falling or popping every other jump. Or sacrificing choreography and the rest of the elements. That is not what Yagudin and Plushenko and Goebel did in 2002.

As for Chan, it's awesome that he is a very fine skater - I agree with Joesitz - but having beautiful skating skills shoudn't be an end to itself. He needs to use those skills to skate clean programs and definitely to interpret the music and project better ... I know people think he doesn't care because he keeps medaling but I hope that is not true. I hope he is disappointed that he lost the gold and more importantly that he delivered another splatfast. I think he pushes himself. He wouldn't be trying the quad if he didn't.

That said, I would've had Chan ahead of Abbott because Abbott made to many little mistakes along with his falls, so he would still have won silver. So I guess I agree with the placements overall.

yeah, honestly, I'd be more fussed about Chan being second if Jeremy had skated better.

Oh Jeremy. What is going to work for that guy? He's even more heartbreaking than Alissa because we KNOW he is capable of perfect perfomances under pressure. Look at nationals.