My thoughts exactly, what if Ilia was injured and sat out nationals, leave him off?
2025 U.S. Nationals Senior Men's Free Skate
- Thread starter dorispulaski
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Honestly I’m glad you’re not in charge. Track and Field and Swimming aren’t judged sports. The other judged sport I follow, gymnastics, has a 5 person team. They have a trials and if you win Trials you are on the team (possibly 2nd place too, they keep changing it). The other team members are selected by committee. Although there aren’t spots to be filled, there are medals to be won and it’s USAG’s responsibility to pick the team that 1. Has the best chance to win the team gold medal and 2. Has the best chance to win individual medals. Not to reward who finished in certain places in a single competition.
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- Jun 21, 2003
I think that these are two separate issues. If Ilya cannot compete at Nationals because of injury, my opinion would be that he qualifies as a "dominant athlete" and is entitled to petition.
If he is not injured but competes and finishes fifth -- that's a different scenario. I can see an argument for the position rthat, well, he had his fair chance to earn a spot on the world team the same as everyone else. He didn't make it, quad god though he is. See you next year.
Of course the current USFSA rules state very explicitly that more favorable consideration is given to a skater who has done well over many events, compared to one who has an isolated skate of a lifetime at Nationals, so under the present rules, that's that.
But here is an analogy from American football. The Detroit Lions had the best record (15-2) in the national football conference of the NFL, as well as the most total yards per game, 409.5, and also scored the most points per game, 33.1. Why aren't they in the Super Bowl for body of work?
Because they lost is the conference semifinals to Washington Commanders.
I can see where a sports fan might find it more satisfying to settle the matter on the field of play rather that in a smoke-filled back room, even if the outcome its not what you hoped for.
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- Jan 28, 2013
It's OK. Friends can disagree. And I've been consistent - my stance hasn't changed based on whether it helped or hurt a skater I admire.
I think my method puts the matter of team selection solely in the hands of the athletes (as opposed to being decided in non-public deliberations by non-athletes), allows for the possibility of a lower-ranked skater rounding into form at precisely the right moment, is easily understood by the public, and is relatively immune to charges that USFSA is playing favorites with team selection.
This year, two skaters were relatively locked in by their season performances and at Nationals. But by my reckoning, there were at least three other skaters who could have claimed that third spot.
How exactly was Jason selected? Who else was considered? Were factors other than on-ice performance - past and present - taken into account? Did the committee vote, and if they did, what was the exact outcome? As I said before, selecting Jason is a defensible position udner the current process - and while I might have picked someone else, I'm not mad about it because the other contenders had weak arguments as well. So where are the publicly available arguments that were used to select him and not the others? We'll never know.
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- Jun 21, 2003
I think that it is the team aspect that makes the two cases different. In gymnastics, someone has to put a team together balancing all-arounders with specialists, etc. U.S. men last time had a weakness at pommel horse, so they used one of the coveted team spots for a specialist who competed in only one event, but was instrumental in bringing home the bronze medal. (And became an instant media hero when he came back home.
)If I had my druthers I would rather discontinue the Olympic team event and put in synchro. Might be prohibitively expensive, though. Maybe they should go to 6-person teams.
(OT -- By the way I see that Jordan Chiles still has two lawsuits pending in the Swiss courts over the bronze medal controversy at the 2024 Olympics, ("if the IOC wants my medal, let them come to Texas and take it from me."
) She has returned to the collegiate scene competing for UCLA, and is doing great.)
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My interpretation of what the USFS definition is that it is in the domestic field for the dominance rather than the international field. The selection document does state that they're looking for the athletes who have the best chances to win medals and future berths for the next Worlds team. And their detailed listing of how they factor in the different scores and placements from previous seasons helps determine who they think those dominant athletes in the US are.
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- Mar 14, 2007
In 2021, USAG left Stephen at home in favor of Alec Yoder, another horse specialist. Stephen did not get the guaranteed spot because of a Covid shutdown. Zero medals were won. In 2024, USAG brought their WORLD CHAMPION, two medals were won and the numbers of young boys entering men's gymnastics rose dramatically. I think we can learn from this - don't leave your dang world champion at home.I think that it is the team aspect that makes the two cases different. In gymnastics, someone has to put a team together balancing all-arounders with specialists, etc. U.S. men last time had a weakness at pommel horse, so they used one of the coveted team spots for a specialist who competed in only one event, but was instrumental in bringing home the bronze medal. (And became an instant media hero when he came back home.
If I had my druthers I would rather discontinue the Olympic team event and put in synchro. Might be prohibitively expensive, though. Maybe they should go to 6-person teams.
(OT -- By the way I see that Jordan Chiles still has two lawsuits pending in the Swiss courts over the bronze medal controversy at the 2024 Olympics, ("if the IOC wants my medal, let them come to Texas and take it from me."
I love the Olympic team event. More figure skating is good! They can't do synchro. They are trying to reduce the number of athletes at the Olympics. For the most part team figure skating does not add more athletes, with very few exceptions. I don't even know how many athletes are on a syncro team but it looks like a lot to me.
Yes, I am an NCAA gymnastics fan and she's doing really well
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- Jan 28, 2013
Another sport that has some similarities to skating is diving, and that team is chosen in a trial, at least for the Olympics. I don't know about World teams or how they select for other international events.
Ilya?
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- Mar 14, 2007
Ilia.
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- Mar 14, 2007
Well I know who he is at least.
I'm not sure Mathman does. I wonder if he knows who Ilia Kulik is.
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- Jun 21, 2003
I learn something every day on this board!
I looked it up. Ilia or Ilya (Russian version of Elijah) means "My God is Yah(weh)." Kulik means sandpiper (the shore bird).
Now if I can just make a capital "I" that can be distinguished from a lower case "L," I'll be in business.
Go0lden Skate once had a game in the Cafe Games department where we tried to make anagrams of skaters' names. My entry was: "Puppeteer Fran Allison of Kukla, Fran and Ollie went through 52 versions of her clown puppet Kukla. Finally she was satisfied with KUKLA LIII."
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- Jun 21, 2003
Back in the day, that used to be the mantra and rallying cry for sending skaters to the Olympics: "If you've got a World Champion, SEND HER!"
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- Mar 14, 2007
I don't know about diving but in skating I always say you're skating today for your PCS next year.Back in the day, that used to be the mantra and rallying cry for sending skaters to the Olympics: "If you've got a World Champion, SEND HER!"
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- Jan 31, 2019
Russians use 'i' and 'y' interchangeably to spell the semivowel я, (and 5 other semivowels that are common in Russian). It is always pronounced incorrectly by the English speakers because it includes a soft sign that is omitted in Latin script an English speaker can't reproduce even when they try unless they have a very good ear, and Ilya is actually closer to how it actually sounds in modern Russian, otherwise you are going into a medieval/church variant of Il-eee-ah which makes a 20 yo Malinin sound like some Father Ilia from 16th century. Wanna spell it to read it properly? Then spell it Il'ya. Some languages just have troubles transcribing their sounds into Latin script, and Russian is one of them.
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Ilia was born in Fairfax, Virginia. USA. Not Russia. He's an American citizen.
His name is spelled Ilia by his own choice. And what a Russian may or may not do has no relevance to how an American figure skater actually spells his own name.
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- Mar 3, 2014
I love both of these responses.
I love learning about languages and how transliteration works and pronunciation.
Also, Ilia was born in the US of A, his native language is English, his birth certificate was written in English, and presumably it is Ilia (I have not seen his birth certificate)
So cool.
I love learning about languages and how transliteration works and pronunciation.
Also, Ilia was born in the US of A, his native language is English, his birth certificate was written in English, and presumably it is Ilia (I have not seen his birth certificate
)So cool.
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- Jun 21, 2003
This is very interesting. Thanks for the post.
I think that the situation is also complicated by the fact that historically, some families that immigrate to the U.S. try to "Americanize" themselves as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. while others cherish their ethnic, cultural and linguistic roots. (The latter became more common starting in the 1970s). Our boy Ilia took his maternal grandfather's last name because his father's long Russian name was too hard for English speakers to spell and pronounce. Back in the day many a Polish immigrant named Kaczynski ended up Mr. pr Miss Kaye in America.
Did anybody else cringe during U.S. Nationals when Terry Gannon introduced Sherri Zhang as Sherri ZANG *rymes with "bang"), [Oops, I mean Sherry Zhang.]. At least no one mispronounces the name Kristine Yamaguchi.
Anyway, Arigato is above is right. People can call themselves by whatever name they want, and this choice should be respected.
