2019 World Championships Men's Free Skate

[draqq]

The presser essentially went like...

Zhou: Really glad that I got the bronze medal. It is the best possible outcome I could have hoped for. And having two U.S. men on the podium hasn't been done since 1996.
Reporters: That's nice. Anyway, Chen and Hanyu, how do you feel about everything?

 

[Yuzuruu]

The presser essentially went like...

Zhou: Really glad that I got the bronze medal. It is the best possible outcome I could have hoped for. And having two U.S. men on the podium hasn't been done since 1996.
Reporters: That's nice. Anyway, Chen and Hanyu, how do you feel about everything?

I didn’t watch it but did the rest go:

Nathan: I am very Happy, I did my best and Im glad to be sitting here with these guys
Yuzu: I am kuyashii but glad I could overcome my injury, also glad to be sitting here, I like competing and have great respect for Nathan

[emoji3]

 

[frida80]

Now that the competition is over, I hope all the athletes can take a few days and enjoy being in Japan. It’s cherry blossom season, after all.

 

[draqq]

I didn’t watch it but did the rest go:

Nathan: I am very Happy, I did my best and Im glad to be sitting here with these guys
Yuzu: I am kuyashii but glad I could overcome my injury, also glad to be sitting here, I like competing and have great respect for Nathan

[emoji3]

Haha, pretty much. The last question was the only thing special where Yuzu is like "Yep, 4A will come. Be prepared!" and Nathan was all "Uh, no 4A for me please. I'm happy to land my 3As, thank you very much."

 

[livetoskate]

I only saw like the last 10 minutes of the press conference but yeah that summary sounds about right. Poor Vincent sitting there with no one asking him anything. But I'm sure he was glowing from his bronze medal nonetheless.

Nathan gave a "shout out to Jackie" and said he had been reviewing Jackie's notes from last year's worlds. I wonder if the non-Americans understood what that meant.

 

[livetoskate]

And thanks to all the guys for such an amazing, thrilling competition!! It was so worth waking up early to watch it online. Of course I wish I had been able to get tickets but I'll definitely be at worlds in Montreal since it's nowhere near as far as Saitama. Now on to watching Tursy's free skate finally.

 

[snowflake]

Ooo who wins best air guitar? Michal or Boyang

Standing O!

Here's for them!

 

[LaArdilla]

Better yet "I won Gold/Silver/Bronze at JGP France and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!"

Looooool that is actually perfect! Thank god at least the Grand Prix Final won’t be there.

 

[lzxnl]

Quick calculations: what would have happened had Yuzuru skated cleanly?

SP:
48.16 + 46.71 = 94.87

Yuzuru's SP 4S in his two GPs were both, coincidentally, worth exactly 14 points, so I'm going to assign that value to him. That would accompany a PCS increase of about +1, based on historical data, without the pop. So, his revised SP score becomes:
62.16 + 47.71 = 109.87.

In the FS:
He scored 5.93 for a 4S<. Taking his 4S score of 13.44 at GP Helsinki (as the only other FS this season with a 4Lo and a 4S landed, not counting ACI), we find an increase of 7.51 in his tech score. Supposing that his components go up by a point due to judges being impressed by a perfectly clean skate, this takes us to
117.77 + 96.84 = 214.61

Total score of 109.87 + 214.61 = 324.48.

By these calculations, Yuzuru would have won by about a point, depending on whether my PCS assumptions are correct. Had Nathan won by a narrow margin then, we'd have flame wars over whether or not his PCS was deserved, so this result isn't too bad when it comes to maintaining internet harmony. However, the competition would have been on a knife's edge, and it would have been EXTREMELY suspenseful; probably would have produced the most amazing men's worlds competition in some time. Alas, Yuzuru is getting old and his ankles are failing him. Let's just appreciate every skate and program we get from him, because who knows how safe practising and competing with 4As can be?

 

[DinkyD]

I just watched the slow motion replay of Jason's 4 salchow. It looked like it was between half and quarter turn under, not more than half. Surprised at the double carrot, hence, downgrade to triple.

 

[Ichatdelune]

If Korean is your first language, your facility with English is truly remarkable, respect! Sorry about Jun, the good thing is that he’s so young and still very far from reaching his potential. I’m really looking forward to seeing him develop in the years to come!

Well thank you Korean is my first language, but I had a semi-bilingual childhood (the story is in Random Confessions so I'll skip it) so a part of my brain is English-speaking. And I'm not that upset about Junhwan's results, admittedly the second fall did make me sigh but I wasn't expecting 100% from him in the first place. I'm upset about his condition, his boots that never fit and his ankles that never heal as a result... (deep, deep sigh) He's not even 18 yet and I'm worrying about his joints, really, all his fans are worried that he might permanently injure himself and never reach his full potential. I'm going to head to KSU headquarters with a butter knife if that happens

 

[CoyoteChris]

You're our resident selfie master here at GS, CoyoteChris!

Vince and Bradie and MR Chen have escaped me so far but they are in my sights for SA Vegas!

 

[SarahSynchro]

From my experience you can either a)pull off an all-nighter and pay it back with maximum interest later or b)suffer for about an hour then get some very deep sleep which may or may not mess up your schedule

What? You don't plan to eat "lunch" at 4:00 am like I'm doing?

And they say cloistered nuns who have taken a vow of silence are dedicated. Ha! They never counted on figure skating fans!

I am not missing a minute of this Mens' event. It may be epic! I can sleep all day if need be!!

Do it. We're in the home stretch now

Welp, I failed miserably: I passed right out with my iPad smushed between my pillow and my face, in true SarahSynchro fashion. You guys are the real MVPs. I’m also home with the baby all day, just the two of us, so it’s probably for the best that I didn’t pull that all nighter.

Looks like I missed a wild event. Jason, oh noooo, do I even want to torture myself and watch his free program?

Time to play catch up.

 

[SarahSynchro]

Wait.....does that mean Canada has only 1 spot for men next year?.......

Holy Moses. That felt like a proverbial kick in the teeth. :eeking:

*on the other side of the world in Montreal, Meagan Duhamel is plotting out a master scheme to skate in all four disciplines next season*

 

[TontoK]

Catching up on video. A few notes:

Yuzu and Nathan back-to-back is one of the greatest 15 minutes in the history of the sport. Absolutely phenomenal. Historic.

Poor Jason. Nobody would have liked to follow that. Was his 4S downgraded? It would be warranted.

This was the first time I've enjoyed Vincent's actual skating - not just the jumps. I can tell he's been working very hard on both rotation and components. I like to see hard work rewarded, so good for him, and I am very proud of him. However, to put this in perspective - he just delivered his best competition ever, and he still has to find 42 points to be even with Nathan, just in the US.

I think Matteo Rizzo has potential to replace Brezina as my cactus.

 

[Jaana]

Great freeskate competition!!! I was very happy for the podium, they all were wonderful! I liked Hanyu´s program most and it was great that Zhou had such a good freeskate.

Also extremely happy for Rizzo, 7th place finish is a great achievement!!! And next year there will be two Italian skaters at Worlds!!!

 

[yume]

Congrats to Chen who skated the best in both programs.
Congrats to Yuzu who came back strong after a serious injury. I even want to say after two serious injuries and almost two blank seasons. Because he hadn't even totally recovered from his last season's injury when he got injured again.
Congrats to Zhou who despite questionable rotations managed to land his jumps.
Sorry for Shoma.
Boyang is in top 5 so it's not so bad.
Rizzo can be the next Javier if he gets another quad.
I won't talk about scores.

Honestly even if Yuzu is healthy next season and delivers 4 quads programs, Chen seems like the chosen one now. He's now as good as Yuzu in PCS apparently and he even get better GOEs not only on jumps, but on spins and steps too.
Yuzu will need 4lz or Nessie (4A) to get back judges' love imo.

 

[rain]

Holy Moses. That felt like a proverbial kick in the teeth. :eeking:

*on the other side of the world in Montreal, Meagan Duhamel is plotting out a master scheme to skate in all four disciplines next season*

I feel like the men are the only ones who really underperformed compared to what they are capable of, though. And Micheal Marinaro (Kirsten was a warrior). The ice dancers were great, but got buried under the Big Russian Politicking Move of 2019, which was sort of expected, though I'd hoped for a different outcome. I hoped Cotop would make the free skate, but am not entirely surprised she didn't. Better luck next year. Daleman, given the year she's had, would have needed a miracle to beat any of the women in front of her, and finished exactly where I expected. After 4CC, Alaine did exactly as I expected her to as well. Walsh/Michaud did well for a first-time pair team that's still really new. Moore-Towers was exceptional throughout, but their FS was admittedly a disappointment due to Marinaro's errors. But it wasn't a disaster.

So all in all, while this was clearly a rebuilding year for Canada, I wasn't surprised by this result and am still really optimistic for the future. I think M-T/M showed they are competitive with the top teams, and next year we'll see Bilodeau/Lubov. I think another year will see Cotop move on up, and hopefully Gabby will really have time to get healthy and into form. Dance has me worried — not because of a lack of talent in the Canadian ranks (all 3 teams in the top 10 isn't too shabby, after all, with at least 2 other promising ones on the way up) — but because of the massive politicking that happened this year, and that I expect to continue to hold Canadian teams down next season.

 

[largeman]

I only saw like the last 10 minutes of the press conference but yeah that summary sounds about right. Poor Vincent sitting there with no one asking him anything. But I'm sure he was glowing from his bronze medal nonetheless.

Nathan gave a "shout out to Jackie" and said he had been reviewing Jackie's notes from last year's worlds. I wonder if the non-Americans understood what that meant.

OMG, why does he care about Jackie?

 

[frida80]

OMG, why does he care about Jackie?

He follows him on Twitter to see how everyone else in men's and other disciplines are doing. A lot of skaters do.