2018-19 U.S. Men’s figure skating

[bennorii]

Projected list of Nationals competitors:

Bye:
Jason Brown
Nathan Chen
Tomoki Hiwatashi
Alexander Johnson
Alexei Krasnozhon
Ross Miner (?)
Camden Pulkinen
Andrew Torgashev
Vincent Zhou

Pacific Coast:
Sean Rabbitt
Sebastian Payannet
Daniel Kulenkamp
William Hubbart

Midwestern:
Jordan Moeller
Emmanuel Savary
Ben Jalovick
Andrew Austin

Eastern:
Timothy Dolensky
Jimmy Ma
Kevin Shum
Tony Lu

 

[snowflake]

I hope Ross will compete and I'm interested to see how Jordan does. He kind of disappeared for me since he got injuried.

Tight field behind Nathan will make Nationals exciting

 

[moonvine]

Didn't Ross officially retire? If not, why the heck did he not get GP assignments as the US Men's Silver Medalist?

 

[karne]

Didn't Ross officially retire? If not, why the heck did he not get GP assignments as the US Men's Silver Medalist?

US Nationals results are meaningless to GP assignments except as a host pick.

 

[bennorii]

Even so, Ross was up there in the SB list... not top 24, but enough to get 1 GP assignment. He's still on the team funding list, so I wouldn't exactly count him out. For all we know he could be training hard for another great Nats performance (he has his bye).

 

[moonvine]

US Nationals results are meaningless to GP assignments except as a host pick.

Sorry, thanks, I did not know. So wouldn't it make a lot more sense for him to be the host pick at Skate America rather than Jimmy Ma?

 

[bennorii]

Sorry, thanks, I did not know. So wouldn't it make a lot more sense for him to be the host pick at Skate America rather than Jimmy Ma?

The host pick is usually based off of summer performance, which Ross didn't have because, to my knowledge, didn't compete this summer.

 

[moonvine]

The host pick is usually based off of summer performance, which Ross didn't have because, to my knowledge, didn't compete this summer.

OK, well, there is a lot I don't know about GP picks

 

[evasorange]

Are we allowed to talk about gp France men’s short that just finished earlier? Because JASON BROWN!!! My goodness was that a beautiful skate. So happy for him!!

 

[concorde]

First I will lead by saying I have not seen any of the skates in France.

Jason's short this season is wonderful and I am not a Jason fan. If he stayed it clean (assume so with that score) so I am sure it was spectacular.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Are we allowed to talk about gp France men’s short that just finished earlier? Because JASON BROWN!!! My goodness was that a beautiful skate. So happy for him!!

It was great. There's so much attention to detail given to every element, and all the skating between the elements. It's remarkable that someone like Jason can execute a program that can beat a guy on TES doing two quads, top level spins/steps, and +GOE on everything. I know some people will say that is making the sport go backwards, but skaters should focus on doing the elements well rather than going for the hardest jumps with sloppy execution.

 

[Seren]

It was great. There's so much attention to detail given to every element, and all the skating between the elements. It's remarkable that someone like Jason can execute a program that can beat a guy on TES doing two quads, top level spins/steps, and +GOE on everything. I know some people will say that is making the sport go backwards, but skaters should focus on doing the elements well rather than going for the hardest jumps with sloppy execution.

Exactly.

Quads + Quality > Triples + Quality > Quads + Bad Quality.

All areas of skating should be rewarded and Jason was spectacular. I hope this is a confidence booster for him.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Quads + Quality > Triples + Quality > Quads + Bad Quality.

I agree this is how it should be. While doing a poor-quality quad is admittedly harder than executing a high-quality triple, rewarding well-executed elements seems more consistent with the performance aspect of the sport.

 

[Metis]

Exactly.

Quads + Quality > Triples + Quality > Quads + Bad Quality.

All areas of skating should be rewarded and Jason was spectacular. I hope this is a confidence booster for him.

Nathan ended up losing more in spin and step sequence levels than he did for the fall. Spins still aren’t worth what I’d like them to be, but hitting your levels and earning as much GOE as you can adds up quickly.

I was really impressed with Jason today. This is the first time I’ve felt like all that promise I fell in love with is being fulfilled. Orser telling Jason that “it was all you” and to remember that made me stupidly happy. I know he’s never going to have a 140 TES free skate, but I just don’t care. His skating seems more... soulful? Grounded? He has something he wants to say on the ice.

 

[zanadude]

If Jason Brown holds on to win, he would likely become first alternate for the GP Finals? With Hanyu's injury, that would mean that he would have a very real chance of going for a second straight year.

 

[Mrs. P]

If Jason Brown holds on to win, he would likely become first alternate for the GP Finals? With Hanyu's injury, that would mean that he would have a very real chance of going for a second straight year.

Not if the standings remain where they are. Alexander Samarin would go to GPF and Jun-Hwan Cha would be the first alternate.

For Jason to be first alternate Jason would have to win and Alexander Samarin would have to drop to 3rd (EDITED: thanks Snow White).

 

[SnowWhite]

Not if the standings remain where they are. Alexander Samarin would go to GPF and Jun-Hwan Cha would be the first alternate.

For Jason to be first alternate Jason would have to win and Alexander Samarin would have to drop to 4th.

1st/6th beats 4th/3rd. Alexander needs to be 2nd to move ahead of Keegan, and Jason if Jason wins. So if Jason wins and Samarin is 3rd or lower, he's first alternate.

 

[evasorange]

It was great. There's so much attention to detail given to every element, and all the skating between the elements. It's remarkable that someone like Jason can execute a program that can beat a guy on TES doing two quads, top level spins/steps, and +GOE on everything. I know some people will say that is making the sport go backwards, but skaters should focus on doing the elements well rather than going for the hardest jumps with sloppy execution.

I don’t think it makes the sport go backwards at all! All of the bias and inconsistent judging is what’s going to ruin this sport, not easy elements done perfectly scoring above harder elements gone wrong. Speaking of inconsistent judging what was up with Nathan getting a level 2 step sequence? When Samarin got level 4?? I know Nathan had some sloppiness we didn’t see at skate America but seriously? American singles skaters are being judged pretty harshly on gp this year. No room for error.

 

[Metis]

I don’t think it makes the sport go backwards at all! All of the bias and inconsistent judging is what’s going to ruin this sport, not easy elements done perfectly scoring above harder elements gone wrong. Speaking of inconsistent judging[emoji849] what was up with Nathan getting a level 2 step sequence? When Samarin got level 4?? I know Nathan had some sloppiness we didn’t see at skate America but seriously? American singles skaters are being judged pretty harshly on gp this year. No room for error.

His planned content is enough for a Level 4, but I’d have to watch in slo-mo to tell you what the specific errors were. Probably a combination of the TP being unable to make out some edges (blurry or flat) and/or jumping a turn.

 

[karne]

Speaking of inconsistent judging�� what was up with Nathan getting a level 2 step sequence? When Samarin got level 4??

If Samarin got all the turns and steps in and Nathan didn't, why not? Nathan was hardly the only skater called for a level 2. He was rushed and sloppy, it wouldn't surprise me if that affected the turns. If you want to complain about the judging you can complain about Samarin's quads getting +GOE for mistakes, or the French men not getting called UR on their quads (and Aymoz's was very obvious), or the judges giving more 4s than 5s for Jason's CCSp. But claiming an anti-American conspiracy because Nathan only got a level 2 when we've been seeing much harsher StSq calling in general this season is such a weird hill to die on IMO.

We talk about jumps and jump quality a lot but this event also served up another reminder: GET YOUR LEVELS.