2026 Olympics: Men's Free Skate

[Dreamer57]

Still in shock. Utter shock.

What's wild is that Ilia DID land a quad flip, quad lutz, and quad toe/triple flip. He literally only had to do triples elsewhere (even a double somewhere shoujldn't have hurt him) and he'd have coasted to Gold.

Congratulations to Shaidorov for deservedly winning on the night. Gutted for Adam. Cha deserved Bronze. Highes PCS marks of the night and he should've been 2 points or so higher in the short, in my opinion.

These SP/LP ordinals are wild.
Kagiyama 2/6 = Silver
Gogolev 10/2 = 5th
Adam 3/12 = 7th (and only 5 points from Bronze)
Ilia 1/15 = 8th
Torgesen 8/9 = 12th
etc.

I was thinking along these lines too - he did land 3 quads successfully. If the rest were clean triples he probably would have won with his lead from the SP.
There's a reason why men generally don't put more than 5 quads in their FS...

I also note that Ilia's PCS at 81.72 was higher than Deniss, Petr, Lukas & Aleksandr and he had 2 falls.

 

[Karoltyna]

Nathan is in the arena. I wonder if ilia might talk with him or Max who knows life could be worse. Also, calling on Spencer Howe - your chaplaincy might be needed.

Spencer skates tomorrow in his event, for sure there are many other people to talk with Ilia. Or he and Adam can put on hoodies and go to a bar.

 

[maofan]

Speechless.

I know Nathan Chen knows how this feels at his first Olympics. Ilia will be okay.

It was a mess except for the winner. Congrats to Misha, Yuma and Shun.

I know that nobody talks about the Canadian, Stephen Gogolev, but he had skated 4 great programs (2 for the team event) in his first Olympics and he ended up in 5th overall and second in FS!

 

[freedomlover]

Compared to the last Olympics this whole free skate event was just terrible all around.
I watched the final free literally rolling around on the floor howling with disbelief.
I kinda had a feeling Adam would break, but never expected Yuma and Ilia to also totally fall apart.

My favourite skate of the night was Torgashev and one really has to wonder what would have been possible for Jun had the judges not held him down in the SP.
Holy f*

howling really fits, I had a fast heart rate and only misha brought it down

 

[readernick]

He did, but look at how few marks he got in the 9s.

He fell. Given his skate the PCS was fair.

 

[Greengemmonster]

I don’t know what to say….

I went into this assuming Ilia would get the gold out at the very least a medal. I was more fixated on my precious Shun medalling…. which he did with a decently clean skate.

Congratulations to Mikhail Shaidorov. He brought it when it counted!

Congratulations to Shun!!!!!!

I think Yuma is one of the rare happy silver medalists?

 

[taikwan]

He made that comment in the kiss and cry. Something like "If they had sent me last time this wouldn't have happened."

So he's blaming Jason for his meltdown. Tacky and untrue. That negates his good sportsmanship because this ain't it.

 

[Cindy1983]

My thoughts:

Ilia seems to do best when he has someone nipping at his heels, or even slightly behind. Once Yuma melted down, the writing was on the wall. He does well when there’s pressure on him.

He also skate well when he gets mad. This happened after Yuma beat him in the short in the Team Event. He brought it in the free.

He said during th team event, he said he didn’t do all he was capable of because he was pacing himself. I think he was lookin at the Men’s free as the place to bring the fireworks. Maybe he should’ve competed the quad axel earlier and taken it out of it don’t feel good.

This was his first truly bad skate. In many ways, this may have been his worst fear. (He also strike me as a perctionisr.) Ate least he faced his worst fear. It’s a shame it happened on this stage. You always learn from facing a fear.

To the person who said he wouldn’t be getting any younger at the next Olympics, HE’S ONLY 21!!!

 

[CellarDweller]

While upset about Ilia, I was very happy with Kevin's skate. He turned one quad into a triple, and some of his landing were squirrelly, but he stayed on his blades, and given some of his past performances, this was a success for him!!

 

[Iskatgal]

I don't think so... I think something happen.. when Raf was called and quickly approved to be his coach... is because something was happening.... well I didn't understand why he hasn't with him from the beggining ( since his mother wasn't comming) .. the other option is that him knowing the result of yuma ... mentally was debating whether he should play it safe or stick to his plan... some times just the thought can kill the result

When Raf came to assist him with his quad axel and some of his jump combinations. I felt he was struggling on his approach and landing his quad axel. He was doing less and less quad axels during practice, and in competitions. There was a heck of a lot of pressure put on Ilia! It is very hard to live up to what everyone expects you to do. Maybe he was over thinking things, or might have been undergoing physical issues. We don't know. At only 21 he was forced to deal with the pressures of being know as the best!

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!!

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

Yes, I heard and saw Elia say that if he had been in Beijing four years ago, he would've skated better. I feel for him, I really do. It must've been a crushing skate for him. But I don't think it's necessarily true. And it's not like we have a time machine or anything.

I do hope he talks to Nathan, Chen or Kurt, Browning.

I wonder if Ilia will stick around for another four years. Other than this Event, he's pretty much won everything

This talking point is about to make me lose my mind tonight.

Why would USFS be expected to use the Olympics as a training ground for upcoming juniors when literally no other sport or federation does that?

He didn’t even have minimums at Nationals! By his own doing when he had an opportunity to get them easily. So what…they were supposed to pay to rush him out to some Senior B in Europe weeks before the Olympics because he couldn’t be bothered to secure his minimums at the opportunity he was given??

And we are supposed to believe one skate at Nationals was worthy of the Olympics when he couldn’t even spin by the end of the program??

 

[bartlebooth]

While upset about Ilia, I was very happy with Kevin's skate. He turned one quad into a triple, and some of his landing were squirrelly, but he stayed on his blades, and given some of his past performances, this was a success for him!!

I imagine Kevin and Sasha Selevko watching the last group backstage and saying to each other: "Wait... we're the consistent ones all of a sudden?"

 

[4everchan]

He made that comment in the kiss and cry. Something like "If they had sent me last time this wouldn't have happened."

Wow. Unfair. Untrue
How does he know?

At the same time, let's not crucify him. He should have kept quiet but raw reactions are only human

 

[LeReveur]

He fell. Given his skate the PCS was fair.

I took note of it (and judges' PCS marks for other men) because it's very different from what I just saw in ice dance, where 9s were thrown like candy in a parade. Different discipline and different overall execution of programs, sure, but nevertheless something that stuck out to me.

 

[freedomlover]

So he's blaming Jason for his meltdown. Tacky and untrue. That negates his good sportsmanship because this ain't it.

this together with torgashevs comments does make you think about what the vibes at us nationals were then.

 

[chasingneverland]

I mean we have team OGM and we would not have had that without him. I seriously doubt skating 2x and then having a couple of days off caused this.

Not in terms of him being able to physically. In terms of the pressure. And I'm sure the US Fed would happily give back the OGM in the team to get the OGM in ice dance and men back, that they were thought they had a year ago (and honestly even a couple days ago.)

 

[Karoltyna]

I imagine Kevin and Sasha Selevko watching the last group backstage and saying to each other: "Wait... we're the consistent ones all of a sudden?"

Wellp, yeah, it looks like this. Imagine what Adam must have been thinking seeing who landed just behind him. I love this sport.

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Congratulations to Mikhail Shaidorov. He brought it when it counted!

Congratulations to Shun!!!!!!

I think Yuma is one of the rare happy silver medalists?

I think Yuma was very disappointed with his program initally, but that was completely thrown out the window when he found out Shun medalled. The two of them are really great friends who grew up together in the Japanese skating world, and I think it really meant a lot to both of them. After that point, I think Yuma was relieved to have gotten silver and genuinely thrilled for Misha and Shun. I am happy that we had, at least, a happy podium. Yuma was cheerleading non-stop for the other two medallists, Shun was sobbing, Misha was sobbing, Shun's coach was the happiest person on the planet, and there were a lot of really adorable selfie moments.

also, Yuma is now the most decorated Japanese figure skater at the Olympics! That will hopefully be tied soon by Kaori Sakamoto, who has three medals now and is chasing a fourth, but that is such an accomplishment for someone who is only 22! I am so excited for this next quad, most of the top skaters here are 20-24 and will hopefully stay in for the next quad, where they are only going to get better as skaters and hopefully more consistent as jumpers! I know this event was a mess but hopefully we will have a renaissance of men's skating like from 2014-2018 and 2030 will be an amazing event.

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

I know that nobody talks about the Canadian, Stephen Gogolev, but he had skated 4 great programs (2 for the team event) in his first Olympics and he ended up in 5th overall and second in FS!

Stephen and Junhwan were robbed of medals. I said what I said.

 

[pesto]

I wouldn't blame Ilia for anything of that type he might say in the heat of the moment. Of course he's devastated.

That was a terrible night of skating, after one of the best short programme competitions I remember.

Yet also, exciting.