2026 Olympics: Men's Free Skate

[cocteautwin]

Jun won PCS with 87 marks... at the olympics...

 

[badknees]

Oh Ilia. The anguish. I never saw him as cocky or arrogant, he is always so effusive about other skaters, he just knew he was capable of something special. Just not today. I hope we see him again in four years. And I hope he continues to improve his artistry and not focus solely on jumps, because when the jumps fail you, there's not much left.

I personally cannot feel pain over who wins or loses the Olympics because Michelle Kwan's first loss gutted me so badly it made me immune.

Oh my gosh, I soooo agree with this!! I will NEVER get over Michelle Kwan's loss. Never! I thought I was crazy.

 

[TontoK]

I sure hope Ilia isn't going to blame this on the USFSA not sending him to 2022 Olympics. I mean, maybe he should have gone. I'm not sure how I feel about the Olympics as a training ground for the next Olympics an athlete may qualify for.

I'm very firmly in the camp that said he should have gone to Beijing. And for this exact reason.

Similar big hype around Nathan Chen during his first Olympics, and it turned out in the same vein as this one for Ilia. Well, Nathan did recover in the free, but hope was lost by then.

And let's not forget he won the silver medal at Nationals when they decided not to send him. His name wasn't in consideration because they thought it would be a good training gorund for the next time. His name was in consideration because of his performance at Nationals.

Of course, Nationals placement isn't the deciding factor in selecting the Olympic Team. But it should be, IMO.

 

[reader3]

Well some people will be happy now. I don't know what happened. I do congrat Misha and Yuma, fave skaters of mine. I guess it was like NC 2018. IM would have been better prepared if he had been able to get his first experience in 2022. I thought if not gold he'd get a silver. I thought Yuma would have a better skate too. Misha sure came around when it mattered.

 

[moonvine]

He should probably skip World's. Too much, too soon.

I am sure he will make the best decision for him, whatever that is.

 

[TallyT]

Awful just awful competition.Level even for a mens was a disaster.
The bright point in all of this is that Pairs and Women in front if us.

Don't. Tempt. Fate.

 

[yfan1]

Worse than Sochi.

I just came in and am going to be cherrypicking which skaters I watch (so far Gogo, Jun, Sato and Mikhail, anyone else safe?)

I may not be fond of Ilia but I do feel sorry for him, as I did Nathan in 2018 - the worst possible time to implode so badly. But I am totally chuffed for Shaidorov (shut up, I like his happy chaos) and Shun (karma after the team robbery!)

Jin's fans have been happy he was smiling and all. I can't say it was fun before we got to the choreography sequence - but otoh, I think he has that nostalgia factor, and was indeed smiling through the steps, which was very nice to see.

I'm partial to Kevin.

...Gumennik, if you want.

That's it.

 

[onyxrose81]

Congrats to the medalists. I’m just so upset for Ilia. I never would have expected this.

 

[meadow]

I don't know what to say. Like everyone, I wasn't expecting this at all.
I'm gutted for Adam, he was great in the short program and I had great hopes for him.
The other skater I was rooting for was Yuma and in this regard I was at least satisfied because of his placement, but certainly not because of his showing today. I'm glad at least he is on the podium, and he clearly wasn't worst than a lot of the others (I didn't have time to see Sato though, I'm going to tomorrow).
I'm so sorry for Ilia. I'm not big fan of his, but it was so sad seeing him imploding on the ice in the biggest competition of his life. I hope he doesn't let this bring him down in the future and that he's capable of bouncing back.
Big congratulations to Shaidorov, it was heartwarming to see his reaction at least. Before the short program I honestly didn't know him very well, since I rarely follow men figure skating these days, but I'm very very happy for him. He totally deserved it!
Such a strange competition, this one, but it's not the first time in the Olympics than things play out totally differently than expected.

 

[SNAKSuyun]

Marks breakdown

Skating Scores: Latest Figure Skating Results, Scores, Rankings & Statistics

The best resource for Figure Skating scores and stats on the web.

skatingscores.com

Obviously all over the place...just like the skating

PCS

Georgia: tie between Cha, Sato and Aymoz
Switzerland: Sato
Italy: Kagiyama
Sweden: Cha
China: tie between Shaidarov, Grassl and Gogolev
USA: Cha
Canada: Cha
Kazakhstan: Cha
Azerbaijan: Cha

the Chinese judge having Grassl be on top in PCS is on some interesting substances

 

[moonkat]

why was Viva La Vida playing ?
Did they know something?!

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

The US Federation should've sent Malinin 4 years ago to get Olympic experience
but instead they made the same mistake with him they did with Nathan Chan -
harness their star power to increase viewership and leave them to drown
in their first encounter with Olympic pressure.

They have a lot of soul searching to do about their decision making process.

Yeah, I agree that the selection process highly favors veterans and makes it virtually impossible for rising seniors to make an Olympic team. I agree that he should have been selected for the last Olympic team, but I don't think that assures he would have skated better here; Kurt Browning debuted at the 1988 Olympics and entered the following two games as the reigning world champion but still failed to medal.

 

[Karoltyna]

Jun won PCS with 87 marks... at the olympics...

and this was the highest PCS of the evening

 

[reneerose]

Oh my gosh, I soooo agree with this!! I will NEVER get over Michelle Kwan's loss. Never! I thought I was crazy.

Me neither. I was so pumped up and then the judges gave her Gold to someone else.

 

[Near]

I sure hope Ilia isn't going to blame this on the USFSA not sending him to 2022 Olympics. I mean, maybe he should have gone. I'm not sure how I feel about the Olympics as a training ground for the next Olympics an athlete may qualify for.

Ilia should have been on that Olympic team, not as training but because he was (IMO anyway) clearly one of the three best options in 2022.

Either way, neither here nor there. He had the chance to get his jitters out with the team event anyway.

 

[Janice4th]

Oh my gosh, I soooo agree with this!! I will NEVER get over Michelle Kwan's loss. Never!

I still mourn that second place finish. I am heartbroken for Ilia.

 

[ChiGal]

I am a big Ilia fan, as he has had a phenomenal 2 years. To have a meltdown like this is just heartbreaking, as it would for any skater. He and his coaching team will have some soul-searching to do. You don't think he's going to storm back a Worlds in March? He is going to be a man on a mission this next Olympic quad. But will give props to the podium, especially Shaidorov! LOVE to see these much smaller skating nations getting some time in the spotlight. Pairs are up next!!

 

[readernick]

Can we go back to earlier in the Season where Shun should have won NHK over Yuma with a fall as well? Yuma is lucky to be scored in the PCS the way he does because he is a great performer with falls and stepouts.

But maaaaan, Shun got dinged all season for even the smallest mistakes.

Yuma's skate at NHK was still beautiful and I defended his win there. His skate here was frankly too messy to be worth watching. Too high of PCS for that. I love Shun but fairly he also brings those scores on himself with his spins. In general, I agree with his placements even if they make me sad but this was different imho. His scores in isolation were fine but not compared to Yuma. But, Shun is clearly happy with a bronze. So, I will be too

I sure hope Ilia isn't going to blame this on the USFSA not sending him to 2022 Olympics. I mean, maybe he should have gone. I'm not sure how I feel about the Olympics as a training ground for the next Olympics an athlete may qualify for.

He had 4 years to practice. He could have gone out and skated a conservative program and easily won. He didn't. Not hitting the 4A spooked him. It was his choice. He faced the consequences if he blames others for his disappointments he's not going to learn anything from them.

 

[moonvine]

Don't forget that Kurt Browning never won an Olympic medal despite two tries and four World Championships.

Ilia has an OGM.

 

[Arigato]

If Shaidorov wins gold....

He won.