There was never going to be an answer here that people would be happy with, because honestly all four of these guys had points for and against them, but I will say this: the debate should never have have been Brown Vs. Malinin, and no, I'm not referring to the fact that they literally failed to call one of Zhou's falls in his protocols (look, I like Zhou, but that was beyond ridiculous), I'm referring to the fact that Zhou and Malinin have exactly the same risks attached.
Malinin has been consistent this season, but last I checked, this has been the first season we have seen anything like consistency from him, and while both Malinin and Zhou, on their best days, have the potential to be on the Worlds podium, they both also have the potential to bomb so badly they fail to make the freeskate entirely. We have literally seen that happen with Zhou.
Seriously, Brown may be at risk of losing to Kolyada, but Zhou is as risk of losing to Donavan Carillo. Now what do we think the outcome will be if both Malinin and Zhou bomb that badly?
Look, I actually like Zhou, under-rotations and all, and I really wanted Malinin on the team after his showing this weekend, but they shouldn't be putting both of them on the team at once. The odds of the US getting a podium sweep, even with both at their best, is only slightly above zero, and dependent on several others, including Hanyu, bombing, and in the grand scheme of things, AKA the medals table, there isn't a whole lot of difference between a 4th place and an 8th place for USFS. At the Olympics, 4th is just 1st loser. But USFS does have to consider more than just individual medals, they also have the team event to keep in mind, and I honestly wouldn't trust Zhou, or even Malinin that much, to put out a clean short in the team event. There's no way USFS are going to make Chen skate both programs for the team event, if they use him at all, and Chen's never really excelled in the short program - Brown can and has bested Chen there before. The SP has literally the same number of spins and step sequences that the FP does, with only half the number of jumping passes and only two of them permitted to be quads, so not having a quad doesn't really impact Brown as much here. He could potentially place first in the team SP and set USA up to make a challenge on the gold, but Zhou or even Malinin could bomb badly enough to cost them the silver. It's a big risk, and they'd be stupid to take it on a million-to-one chance for a podium sweep.
But I understand they couldn't have left Vincent off (even if he's terribly inconsistent) since he's in a higher priority group in the selection criteria than Jason and Ilia, if I understand correctly.
