- Joined
- Jan 12, 2014
I honestly never *got* what Ohno's demographic was supposed to be. Or why NBC insisted on force-feeding him to us for the better part of a decade
Nathan Chen
- Thread starter matmuh
- Start date
I honestly never *got* what Ohno's demographic was supposed to be. Or why NBC insisted on force-feeding him to us for the better part of a decade
Ohno obviously had a great PR team since, despite winning Olympic gold, nobody in the US knows or cares about short track speed skating.
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2014
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2014
Just remembered I forgot to post this picture of Nathan that I took at Worlds. Dang! I had a perfect side view of him signing autographs, then when I took the photo, someone bumped my arm and he also moved! :gaah: I'm pretty sure he was on the way to the draw. He made the mistake of stopping and signing a few autographs and then couldn't get away. Things got a little crazy!
https://pic.twitter.com/xbQjV0F7Io
https://pic.twitter.com/xbQjV0F7Io
- Joined
- May 26, 2017
GP Assignments are out! Nathan's set for Rostelecom Cup and Skate America. 
I'm excited for the Nathan vs. Yuzu match-up at Rostelecom!!
I'm excited for the Nathan vs. Yuzu match-up at Rostelecom!!This was my earlier prediction:
So instead of China Nathan is being sent to Russia. Interesting how that turned out.
As far as his chances go I think they are both winnable.
So instead of China Nathan is being sent to Russia. Interesting how that turned out.
As far as his chances go I think they are both winnable.
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China is far. His team wants to minimize his travel during the Olympics season. USFS is also powerful enough to help him get GP not too far from the USA, and avoid NHK where he will be held down. (He was 6th at worlds, and supposedly has the least bargaining power among the top 6 in terms of GP assignments. He was supposed to get whatever is leftover.)
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Moscow really isn't that much closer than Beijing if he's flying from Los Angeles. In fact there are more nonstop flights from LAX to Beijing than there are to Moscow. But doing the first and last grand prix events does mean that he will have lots of time to rest in between.
Moscow's time zone is much closer to LA's than Beijing's. He would experience less jet lag by doing a grand prix in Europe than in Asia. IDF (French GP) is one week before SA and SC has Patrick, so neither is a good option to him. I thought he would be stuck with NHK because he has the least bargaining power in GP assignments. I guess USFS's bargaining power is much stronger than I expected.
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Nathan was ranked at the bottom of his seeding group. There likely wasn't anything USFS could do about his second assignment and it's highly unlikely they would have chosen Russia. But he has nothing to lose. I suspect he's perfectly happy going after Hanyu in Russia. Early is always the best time to go after Hanyu, and Russian men's skating has valued the big jumps ever since Plushenko.
The big feds have deals and trades. Big feds still have much power on where their top skaters are assigned to. They don't want to assign their top skaters to somewhere that puts them at a disadvantage. COR is a better choice than both COC and NHK. COC and NHK are too far and requires too much travel. SC is not possible due to Patrick and IDF is too close to SA. COR is not too far and gives him enough time to recover and prepare for SA. COR in fact is the best choice for Nathan and he got that despite him being at the bottom of his seeding group. I don't think that's possible without USFS's influence.
At this week's Fantasy on Ice show Nobunari Oda gives his picks for next season's top 3 skaters (begins at 4min50sec). Not too much of a surprise for the men, and of course Nathan is included.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS4rhpozD84
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS4rhpozD84
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It's hard to believe Oda is a father of 3 kids (I believe he has 3 kids, if I remember correctly). He still looks like a kid himself.
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Oda seems like a really fun guy. He did train in North America for some time, but other foreign skaters have done the same and still never truly became comfortable speaking English.
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2014
I read somewhere that he wanted to become an English teacher, and his English teacher told him "No way! You have a gift with your skating! Use it!" But I think with him, he was even good at it when he learned it in the classroom...Another funny thing at Skate America, there was someone sitting in one of the areas where they were promoting blades, skates, etc. I said to my friend, "Gee, that almost looks like Nathan Chen, doesn't it?" Well it was him. We figured he was there sizing up his competition. Moral of the story - always have your camera ready! I didn't when I saw Nobu or Nathan!
In the first few minutes of the latest Icetalk Brian Boitano gives his thoughts on Nathan.
http://web.icenetwork.com/fans/icetalk
http://web.icenetwork.com/fans/icetalk
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