2022 Junior World Championships: Men's Free Skate

[Arigato]

Uno’s short program score is historical.

That's widely known. USFS released the statement anyway.

 

[ice coverage]

One little moment that I thought was super considerate:

Normally, the medalists skate a victory lap with their flags and pose for photos. It looks to me as though there wasn't a Kazakh flag available, so the other two put their flags back. They later picked them up for solo pictures for their national press and federations.

Yes, I loved that moment of supportiveness/respect for a fellow medalist.
Very heartwarming.

---

... Ilia skated in Senior Worlds the way I expected he would skate, because he's not a senior. He'll learn and grow, and hopefully become that senior, but there is a huge difference between the pressure of Junior Worlds, where he is king of the hill, and Senior, where he is not.

He should be rightfully proud of his skate here, and improve the qualities he needs to improve to challenge the top seniors.

Not a senior? I see things quite differently.

In figure skating, I don't think it is uncommon for a skater to be viewed both as a senior and as a junior within the same season.

At Senior Worlds, Malinin placed fourth in the SP and ninth overall.
He bested Ilia finished higher than some well-established and well-respected senior men such as Rizzo, Aymoz, Vasiljevs, Messing.
For me, ninth place at Worlds is nothing to sneeze at.
(Yes, I know that 2022 Worlds were in an Olympic season.)

ETA:

Although there was nothing wrong with my usage here of "bested," I have changed my wording.
I had not noticed that USFS used "bested" for a completely different comparison, and I understand the criticism of the USFS usage.

​

 

[YuBluByMe]

Well, we all know how slippery the ice can be. After his less than stellar LP at Senior Worlds, I was just hoping that history would not repeat itself.

Strangely, he was actually more nervous here than he was at Senior Worlds. That opening 4Lz was tiiiight and he was cautious throughout.

I like that he kept the four quads in, though. He didn’t need them but it shows that he’s not backing off.

 

[YuBluByMe]

---

Not a senior? I see things quite differently.

In figure skating, I don't think it is uncommon for a skater to be viewed both as a senior and as a junior within the same season.

At Senior Worlds, Malinin placed fourth in the SP and ninth overall.
He bested some well-established and well-respected senior men such as Rizzo, Aymoz, Vasiljevs, Messing.
For me, ninth place at Worlds is nothing to sneeze at.
(Yes, I know that 2022 Worlds were in an Olympic season.)

Malinin is a junior skater who is already challenging at the senior level. This has been well-established from each competition starting from US Nationals.

 

[mrrice]

Malinin is a junior skater who is already challenging at the senior level. This has been well-established from each competition starting from US Nationals.

I was just watching the KnC on Youtube. It sounded like Ilia, His Dad, and Raf were all speaking Russian. I thought that was cool.

 

[mrrice]

What are you advocating - the Lance Armstrong approach to figure skating?

I'm not sure where you're going with this comment. Seeing skaters get scholarships that would allow the athletes to participate in a sport that is out of reach financially for many people, seems like a good idea to me.

 

[tsuyoboogie]

Literally came here to say this. IIRC Tatsuya was one of the first boys in his generation to jump quads, but has struggled with injury of the past few years. I remember the time when he had to literally WD from senior Nats 2019 on the ice because of his injury, it was heartbreaking. Seeing him finish his junior career on a high is just so satisfying. I'm super happy for him.

Due to all his injuries, I believe Tatsuya only started to attempt the 4S in competition recently
He might have attempted one (in competition) while he was still at Howa but I think he did only after switching to Nakano
It was a struggle for him to even get the 3A consistent
His strength was always pretty skating and overall consistency
He's been a very dependable competitor providing he doesn't injure himself during an event
I was so relieved he was able to save the off-axis 3Lz here (and make it a combo!)
For a moment I thought he was going down and would dislocate his shoulder like he did at Regionals
I have PTSD from all of these kids

BTW, Hope you're doing well

 

[Arigato]

Newsflash for the newbies to figure skating: It's not possible to "best" a skater's score from 2015 in the year 2022. The scoring systems were completely different.

 

[cheerknithanson]

Arigato, you're looking for trouble posting a comment like this. I've seen skaters have a rough day but, ANY skater who gets out there in front of a crowd could never "Suck" in my eyes. I guess we're very different in that respect.

They do things that I can't do. All I can do on the ice is skate around the rink in circles. That's it.

 

[lurkz2]

Arigato, you're looking for trouble posting a comment like this. I've seen skaters have a rough day but, ANY skater who gets out there in front of a crowd could never "Suck" in my eyes. I guess we're very different in that respect.

I think he was referring to the USFS and not any skater

 

[yelyoh]

Well, I know you already said it, but there really isn't a comparison.

Ilia skated in Senior Worlds the way I expected he would skate, because he's not a senior. He'll learn and grow, and hopefully become that senior, but there is a huge difference between the pressure of Junior Worlds, where he is king of the hill, and Senior, where he is not.

He should be rightfully proud of his skate here, and improve the qualities he needs to improve to challenge the top seniors.

Uhm I was one of those who thought not sending Iila to Olys was a good idea. What happened to him at World's was that it got to him and he choked in the LP. BUT that has nothing to do with his potential which has nothing to do with his being a junior in this instance. Would be have been given lower PCS there in the LP and therefore wound up with a result less than what he achieved here? I think not. Consider that he was THIRD in the SP and had he delivered in the LP as he did here, he might have gotten the bronze. In his LP here he got tech scores much better than Worlds for obvious reasons. These scores were higher than anyone else at World's except for Uno in the LP which was the point I was making. And remember Iila came into it in third place. This is not magical conjecture on my part. I do think his scores would have held up and I do think he could have gotten bronze with these scores. Does he need improvement? Hell yes. Does that negate his current potential? Nope, IMHO.

 

[Holy Headband]

Tsuboi should’ve been third after the SP.

And also second after the FP...

 

[AlexBreeze]

Since when does Shaidorov have a 4Lz?!

His dad posted it on September 2020

 

[chuckm]

Shaidorov's 4z was 4z< on the protocol. His 4ts were fine, though.

 

[el henry]

Uhm I was one of those who thought not sending Iila to Olys was a good idea. What happened to him at World's was that it got to him and he choked in the LP. BUT that has nothing to do with his potential which has nothing to do with his being a junior in this instance. Would be have been given lower PCS there in the LP and therefore wound up with a result less than what he achieved here? I think not. Consider that he was THIRD in the SP and had he delivered in the LP as he did here, he might have gotten the bronze. In his LP here he got tech scores much better than Worlds for obvious reasons. These scores were higher than anyone else at World's except for Uno in the LP which was the point I was making. And remember Iila came into it in third place. This is not magical conjecture on my part. I do think his scores would have held up and I do think he could have gotten bronze with these scores. Does he need improvement? Hell yes. Does that negate his current potential? Nope, IMHO.

That’s exactly what I mean: potential.

He has great potential. But was he ever going to podium at senior Worlds with Yuma, Shoma, Nathan, Vincent? (And I did see those podium predictions, I am not saying you were among them). Uh, he could land seven quads and, IMO, the answer is no.

Because if Ilia were actually given those scores at Senior Worlds (for a clean program), what would Yuma, Shoma and Nathan have gotten for clean programs?

Now of course I know ice is slippery. Heck, Morisi could have podiumed. But Ilia needs a year or two at Senior GP first to be in the Senior Worlds podium discussion. I don’t know why that is controversial or seen as disrespect to Ilia, but I don’t see a lot of things

 

[chuckm]

And also second after the FP...

Tsuboi was 5th after the SP probably because he got an edge call on the 3z and got lowballed on PCS. But 2nd in the FS? He was 9 TES points behind Shaidorov, who did 3 quads and 2 of them were clean. Tsuboi did just one quad, and it was on the quarter; his PCS was 5.5 higher than Shaidorov's, but not enough to offset that TES deficit.

Realistically, the only one who could beat Shaidorov's FS was Ilia Malinin, with 4 clean quads.

 

[lariko]

Shaidorov got silver! Wow, I was catching up and couldn’t believe my eyes! I even put away my phone so I won’t peek at the results!

That’s a great podium, and I think Gogolev and Chiu got the 3rd spot too

 

[moonvine]

Whew. I watched the ladies and my NCAA gymnastics, now am finally sitting down to the men. I think it will equal nine to ten HOURS of TV. Crazy.

 

[TontoK]

I don't think Ilia mentally "choked" at Senior Worlds.

The first three jumping passes - 4Z, 4T, and 3A were beautiful if I'm remembering correctly. Then the hard fall on the 4S, and I think that fall knocked the wind out of him. He wasn't anywhere near the same after that fall, I thought he looked like he was physically hurting.

Was the fall on the 4S a mental error? Maybe so... but the rest of the lackluster program seemed to be a physical issue. To my untrained eye, of course.

 

[moonvine]

So far this event has not been it. That's what we get for a great SP, I guess.

Always. It is #1 rule of figure skating.