2022 U.S. Nationals: Senior Men's Free Skate | Page 62 | Golden Skate

2022 U.S. Nationals: Senior Men's Free Skate

When the stakes were high at Nationals this year, and an Olympic spots was on the line, Jason missed one jump, Zhou missed several. They were essentially tied if you factor in their overall totals including the short program where both did well.

This doesn't completely tell the story. Jason didn't attempt 5 quads, just one (which he fell on and didn't rotate sufficiently if it was properly called).

Agreed though that the optics are bad because Zhou was more ambitious but had a lot of issues. He still did 3 quads, mind you.

If Zhou had just gone for a easier 3Z+3T in the second half, people wouldn't even be having this conversation because he would have scored about 8 points higher for a much more comfortable margin of victory over Brown. But that's the thing, at least he went for it whereas Brown isn't even capable of going for that difficulty.
 
:scratch2:

On another forum, someone posted that in 63 competitions, Jason has never finished below 9th. He medaled twice on the GP this year

Ilia still doesn't have SP Worlds minimums from a very unreliable skate at the Warsaw Cup. One bad skate is still one more bad skate than Jason had. The argument for Jason is *precisely* his reliability.
Well i agree with another poster that reliability to finish between 5th and 10th is not really a good argument for Olympics. It would be for Worlds, where quota places are in stake. There is no really much of a gain to finish 8th instead of 12th at Olympics.
 
Lets be 100% real.

If America was going to make an ACTUAL run at gold in the team event Nathan would skate both programs.

The problem is the men’s individual is right after the team event.

I believe we intend to make a run at the silver medal and I think finishing in last place in the men’s FS could really hurt that.
 
Congrats to the podium finishers! Rough skate for Vincent. Young Ilia was amazing, Jason did not disappoint, Camden delivered a great FS as did Nathan the Rocketman 🚀. Overall the skating in all disciplines was first rate.
 
Everyone can have a bad skate.
And some Brown's scores are what Zhou gets for bad skates.
The biggest difference Imo, is that Jason never implodes. To see Vincent score over 100 in the sp and then place 4th in the free makes me worry.
 
Everyone can have a bad skate.
And some Brown's scores are what Zhou gets for bad skates.
Jason has never finished worse than 9th at Worlds. Vincent has medaled once and torpedoed twice, including last time when he didn’t make the free.
 
Thinking about Vincent skating in the team event actually scares me and I really don’t see how we could rely on Ilia without any international track record.

Vincent skating the team SP is less scary since he's literally 4/4 on clean SPs this season.

He also has the 2nd best FS (198.13) posted internationally by anyone this season (2nd only to Chen). His next best score in the FS of 186 would be still only behind Chen/Uno/Kagiyama.

Of course, the 161 at NHK and his US Nationals FS definitely would call into question if he should do the FS.

Definitely Malinin shouldn't do the FS based off of just a successful US Nats FS. And absolutely not Brown in either segment if the US wants to hold off Japan for silver.
 
Lets be 100% real.

If America was going to make an ACTUAL run at gold in the team event Nathan would skate both programs.
It wouldn’t make a difference unless something drastically changed with Russian Dance or Men. Russia will get 3 10s. US pairs leave too much of a gap. US ladies will lose to Russia and Japan. The difference between Nathan and Vincent (SA performance) is just two points. I’m not sure this is worth it.
 
Well i agree with another poster that reliability to finish between 5th and 10th is not really a good argument for Olympics. It would be for Worlds, where quota places are in stake. There is no really much of a gain to finish 8th instead of 12th at Olympics.
It’s a great argument for skating in the team comp, where based on past results either Ilia or Vincent could be anywhere between first and last.
 
To me the most important factor should be the team event. Nathan will only skate one program. Either Ilia or Vincent has the potential to be brilliant or completely torpedo our medal hopes. Jason will not torpedo our medal hopes. Vincent has shown some extremely concerning inconsistent skating on the world and domestic stage but they have painted themselves into a corner with Vincent. I would not be surprised to see USFS change these criteria going forward.

At this point I would not only take Jason. I would have him skate in the team event.
I think the Team Event may actually be the crux of the selection committee's discussion. As in: individual competition, mostly likely scenario is Nathan + two Japanese men making up the podium in some order. I don't think any other American man they send is likely to be able to break above a Hanyu-Uno-Kagayama wall and into the medals.

But the US chances of a Team silver medal are high, and with the latest news that Kolyada may be injured (he just W/D from Europeans), that puts chances of a Team gold into the mix. US will probably go for proven reliability and consistency over high variability (big upside/ big downside). And if this is the focus of the Committee's deliberation, Brown comes off looking like a lot better bet than Zhou or Malinin.
 
I think Malinin will get the call. I love Jason Brown , but this is a sport first and foremost, and I don’t know how the selection committee can look over the technical arsenal and prowess of Malinin which is simply awesome. They will have a tough time justifying a decision to exclude him , that’s for sure. The decision will be between Zhou and Brown , but I think Zhou will sneak it.
 
The biggest difference Imo, is that Jason never implodes. To see Vincent score over 100 in the sp and then place 4th in the free makes me worry.

Brown's highest SP score this season is 94. Which is lower than the Americans/Japanese as well asJin/Kvitelashvili/Grassl and just ahead of Messing. So definitely not viable for the SP.

For the FS, Brown has scored 165.55/170.13/174.81 this season. Zhou has scored 161.18/198.13/186.88. So Zhou would be better for the team FS on paper.
 
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