Nathan Chen

[yyyskate]

Although this is a cool ex, so glad he went with Nemesis instead of this song for his short.

Has Nathan lost weight? I seem to remember these jeans being tighter on him at Nationals ex but idk

And slo mo replay featuring Nathan’s abs - you know people are already taking screenshots of this lol

you know, I did just that.
fans (including me are comparing his abs in this ex with his abs in OG and thought he lost some ab definition

as for has Nathan lost weight, on the contrary, some Chinese fans thought the opposite, since it is kinda taboo to talk about weight on this forum. I will stop here.

 

[frida80]

So any thoughts on what Nathan's GP assignments will be next season?

The events are in this order:

Skate America
Skate Canada
Cup of China
NHK
Rostelecom
Internationaux de France
GPF (Vancouver)

My thoughts:
Presumably he gets SkAm. And he won't get Russia because Kolyada is #3 seed. US and JP feds will probably want to keep him away from NHK assuming Hanyu is there. (If Uno is there then Nathan can't be there since he is #2 seed.) That leaves Canada, China, and France. Out of those the best scheduling wise is probably China.

I would’ve said the Michelle Kwan special if SC wasn’t directly following SA. But CoC is probably it.

 

[hhh]

Yes no doubt he can handle whatever the revision may be being how talented and hard working he is. But will he be fairly judge, honestly. The CS is such a subjective element where I personally see more than enough where certain top skaters favored over others, even less-known skaters who may have just as good components. I’ve heard enough through the CA rinks of isu judging favoritism it holds low respect for me. Like shine mentioned a few page back, the classical music the CS has explored is quite minimal and you get repeats of the same warhorses throughout one day or a season in the same disciplinary it makes you wonder if is because the judges aren’t “upgrading” their knowledge in both music and dance genres which they should. I love the art in this sport yet many times the CS scoring tells me there’s a bucket of “high GOE music/dance” vs. something that’s never been done before. The component seems lacking to me and outdated at times so to now punish the TES while not cleaning up the CS flaws is unproductive to me. At the same time, I do look forward to the athletic level of the sport in reaching new height as every sport should. I’m one who also believe Nathan doesn’t do the jumps simply for points but he’s a competitor at heart and wants to do his due diligence to evolve the sport.

@oatmella about black jeans, I think so too he must have lost some weight (illness & injury). Now, let’s go get our REACT sneakers and have him sign it haha, then wear it.

 

[hhh]

So any thoughts on what Nathan's GP assignments will be next season?

The events are in this order:

Skate America
Skate Canada
Cup of China
NHK
Rostelecom
Internationaux de France
GPF (Vancouver)

My thoughts:
Presumably he gets SkAm. And he won't get Russia because Kolyada is #3 seed. US and JP feds will probably want to keep him away from NHK assuming Hanyu is there. (If Uno is there then Nathan can't be there since he is #2 seed.) That leaves Canada, China, and France. Out of those the best scheduling wise is probably China.

I think COC makes most sense but will he lose the competitive momentum in the long gap before the final or he can be benefit by tying up some loose ends... competing in COC definitely has its commercial and 2022 benefits. Love to see him do Canada or France though. Kolyada is #3 seed? Higher than Nathan, sorry don’t understand the seeding position

@yyyskate are you referring to the baidu forum?

 

[sheetz]

I think COC makes most sense but will he lose the competitive momentum in the long gap before the final or he can be benefit by tying up some loose ends... competing in COC definitely has its commercial and 2022 benefits. Love to see him do Canada or France though. Kolyada is #3 seed? Higher than Nathan, sorry don’t understand the seeding position

The top 6 skaters from Worlds are each given seedings. So Nathan is #1, Uno #2, etc. The top 3 are not allowed to meet each other in their GP assignments, and it is common practice for top skaters to be chosen for their home country events. However, Hanyu not being seeded complicates matters because JP may not want both Shoma and Hanyu at NHK in order to improve both their chances to qualify for the GPF.

 

[hhh]

Eurosport Nathan EX
https://youtu.be/2bQ_Uladxcw

He looks to be 5 seconds off from the music (pre blowing kiss part) and he only did one kiss hmm LoL come on dude, kiss correctly. And what happened to the \m/ in the very end? I was waiting for it

Edit: GOE -6 LoL

 

[hhh]

The top 6 skaters from Worlds are each given seedings. So Nathan is #1, Uno #2, etc. The top 3 are not allowed to meet each other in their GP assignments, and it is common practice for top skaters to be chosen for their home country events. However, Hanyu not being seeded complicates matters because JP may not want both Shoma and Hanyu at NHK in order to improve both their chances to qualify for the GPF.

I see now thank you for the quick lesson! Could JP fed just hand Hanyu another direct pass to GPF like the JP National or it’s out of their hand?

 

[yyyskate]

I think COC makes most sense but will he lose the competitive momentum in the long gap before the final or he can be benefit by tying up some loose ends... competing in COC definitely has its commercial and 2022 benefits. Love to see him do Canada or France though. Kolyada is #3 seed? Higher than Nathan, sorry don’t understand the seeding position

@yyyskate are you referring to the baidu forum?

nope, I do not visit that place, that place is hostile... I am talking about Nathan fans on weibo.

EDIT: And I think do COC maybe a good idea, just because Nathan is ripe enough to finally meet his fan girls in China

 

[hhh]

nope, I do not visit that place, that place is hostile... I am talking about Nathan fans on weibo.

Got it thanks.

 

[sheetz]

I see now thank you for the quick lesson! Could JP fed just hand Hanyu another direct pass to GPF like the JP National or it’s out of their hand?

Nope. No free passes to GPF.

 

[yyyskate]

@oatmella I just did a revisit of Nathan's transition into and out of his jumps during his pre-quad days on my Chinese weibo account. Nathan's pre-quad transitions can only be described as "crazy"

speaking of the +5, -5 GOE. I think to apply the same scale on quad and on triples are NOT fair. since the difficulty to do the exactly the same transition in quads is different than triples, e.g. a running 3 into 4S is much more difficult than the same running 3 into 3S. What about 4Lz, 4F, 4loop only a handful people can do it, how do you value the precious. since you already lowered the BV of quads relative to triple. I think the proper way to do +5, -5 GOE is to give it a factor, maybe use base value of the jump. the easer the jump, the same quality of execution will earn proportionally lower GOE.

 

[shine]

I don't see why Nathan wouldn't adapt well to any new rules. His style as a junior was much different than what it is now because he didn't have the big jumps. He'll adapt to whatever is thrown at him because he's so crazy talented.

Agreed. I honestly don’t really understand why people are worried. If anything the rule change will force him to finally work on his jump landings, improve his skating skills, and demonstrate his component/artistic skills instead of focusing 100% on quads. And artistic skills we know he has aplenty. And I’ll be more than happy to see that happen finally. I don’t see the rule change (though I don’t fully agree with the actual changes they are implementing) as a punishment for quadsters but rather a way to instill more balance and well-roundedness in figure skating, which is uniquely not only a sport but also an art form. And a skater like Nathan will for sure come out on top.

 

[hhh]

@oatmella I just did a revisit of Nathan's transition into and out of his jumps during his pre-quad days on my Chinese weibo account. Nathan's pre-quad transitions can only be described as "crazy"

speaking of the +5, -5 GOE. I think to apply the same scale on quad and on triples are NOT fair. since the difficulty to do the exactly the same transition in quads is different than triples, e.g. a running 3 into 4S is much more difficult than the same running 3 into 3S. What about 4Lz, 4F, 4loop only a handful people can do it, how do you value the precious. since you already lowered the BV of quads relative to triple. I think the proper way to do +5, -5 GOE is to give it a factor, maybe use base value of the jump. the easer the jump, the same quality of execution will earn proportionally lower GOE.

Good point.

 

[yyyskate]

LOL. well despite his heartthrob status he seems to have little experience so maybe he needs some help there haha
The performance was a quite bit less exciting than at nationals. GOE -6 hahahaha

agreed, and he changed his original choreo into the choreo he is more used to (like in his competition programs throughout this season), GOE -6 from this judge too.

 

[yyyskate]

agreed, there is zero incentive to push for higher, riskier tech (and again I'm saying for the 1000x time, this is a sport) and it will instead be punished. yeah I know some miss the 1990s style programs, but I personally do not - but guess the programs will have to go back to the old 6.0 days.
I guess Nathan should just go back to his old programs like Hungarian Rhapsody then lol.

but Hungarian Rhapsody is a lovely programs tho, I love it so much

BTW, I just found you are a former dancer, I love dance too but just as a fan

 

[yyyskate]

pegging for a link to that english translation of Raf russion interview on FSO, starry eyes. please

 

[hhh]

The FB streaming from earlier medal ceremony
https://www.facebook.com/isufigureskating/videos/1840219772669622/

 

[sheetz]

haha I didn't mean any shade by that - I love that program. But he's older now - and stronger and more athletic - but instead of being rewarded for pushing the sport forward athletically, all that may be punished, sigh.
I love dance too - but I did not enjoy ballet competitions very much. Judging is 100% subjective - and can be very vague and frustrating. To see figure skating go that direction - ugh. Components already have enough weight in the scoring now imo (not that there can't be improvements to *how* they are judged), but to give them even more weight is honestly taking away from the sport - it will become an art, like ballet.

I understand your sadness, but I truly don't think Nathan will be adversely harmed by the rule changes. For one thing, he will likely be a beneficiary of reputational judging now that he has a world title. For another, as his body continues to mature and he improves his overall skating his jumps should also continue to improve. He's said his goal is to get to where his quads feel like triples, so I find it unlikely that he will be significantly watering down his jumps.

 

[sheetz]

I am probably also more sensitive as having dealt with extremely vague and subjective judging myself. I'm actually not *that* worried about Nathan per se - he's so talented and still has more potential to improve - I just am not supportive of even greater subjectivity in judging for the sport in general.

No, I do get what you mean. I don't follow dance but I do watch music competitions on occasion, and the results seem almost arbitrary at times.

 

[Kelly]

yeah I get what you're saying - but tbh as a former dancer I find the show super cheesy/cringey. Please don't do it, Nathan! So You Think You Can Dance is a lot better as a tv show imo.

Actually I don't watch either DWTS or So You Think You Can Dance. But if Nathan does either one, I'll watch.