2026 Olympics: Men's Free Skate

[reneerose]

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

He's not blaming Jason. He's blaming the USFS selection committee that picked Jason over him.

 

[Blades of Passion]

What's crazy to consider here is how Ilia might have won still if he nailed his last jump pass. That ONE jump pass possibly cost him 27+ points. 23 points technically and then 4 points on PCS, since it was his 2nd fall and they had to dramatically lower his PCS from such a big disruption of the performance.

 

[Karoltyna]

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.

Yuma had lots of time to get used to the thought that silver is his ceiling. Misha and Shun didn't expect to medal at all and we all seen how Shun was after TE.

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

He's not blaming Jason. He's blaming the USFS selection committee that picked Jason over him.

He should be blaming himself for not having minimums, not being able to spin, and barely being able to complete a step sequence.

 

[TallyT]

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

Probably being after Mikhail he thought he was bronze at the best. I think the meltdown shocked absolutely everyone.

Yuma is taking after Shoma in Silver Princing...

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

I suspect he was aiming to be the next two-time OGM like his idol. Thing is, there's only been 4 multiple OGMs in the 118 years it's been going, and that is for good reason... and with the tech levels being what they are now, it's getting harder.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Was he really going for the 4A? If I were his coach, I would have NEVER let him go all out esp after the last few men had nervy skates. I think he could have won it if he continued to play it safe like in the team event. There was no need to do a 4A, so I hated how NBC kept hyping him as quad god and how he is capable of doing the 4A. He probably felt it would be disappointing if he didn’t at least attempt the 4A on Olympic ice. I guess now we know how it turned out. Sigh.

It was a bad idea for sure, but I don't know if that caused the meltdown. His next jump was performed just fine. It just shows the need for the athletes to have the right mix of risk and security. If you try seven quads, land four and pop three, you are much worse off than a guy who lands the same four quads but then has three triple passes landed successfully.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

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

What did Torgashev say?

 

[CellarDweller]

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?"

 

[Dreamer57]

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

Some Great athletes win several worlds but not olympics.
Slightly off-topic, we had a GB short track speed skater who won worlds 3 times but never an Olympic medal in 3 Olympics.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

He should be blaming himself for not having minimums, not being able to spin, and barely being able to complete a step sequence.

Is this necessary?

 

[purplecat]

Why did the men have to "men" so hard today?!?! (((Ilia))) I'm so devastated for him.

 

[Paulipau]

He's not blaming Jason. He's blaming the USFS selection committee that picked Jason over him.

Its kinda bullshit isn't it tho. Sometimes you only get one chance, like Zagitova Scherbakova Trusova Medvedeva and they all skated their best when it counted. Mental fortitude is part of being an athlete and some people are weaker than others.

Today Ilya simply wasn't good enough.

 

[skatedreamer]

What did Torgashev say?

thanks, I was wondering the same thing!

 

[NewLook]

Gumennik is the only one who performed three different upper quads clean. No one else did. He showed the second most difficult program with the second highest score in TES and again got sunk by components- lower than Gogolev or Shaidarov with his ugly program.

Shaidarov is like Urmanov himself- won when no one expected. He got a uni degree in Russia, was/is trained there by Russians. Yet, more than once was disrespectful to Russian men in interviews and always tried to distance himself from anything connected with Russia, even it was there and them who made him. Apparently in order to please Kazakh nationalists who called him "Russian legionnaire". I am not a fan of ungrateful creatures but I am glad that he won. First, upper quads won. Of course I expected 4A to win. But at least we didn't step back from upper quads level of Chen win. Second, he didn't allow Yuma to win. As it wasn't enough to see him so much overscored for years and now he is with the OM when he shouldn't be anywhere near podium. The right result of the night is 1. Shaidarov, 2. Sato. 3. Gumennik.

 

[Nathan13]

Haven’t posted on here in years but popping on to say congrats Mikhail, the late great Denis Ten would be so proud

 

[Krislite]

Just sad for Ilia. He’s still young and can go for the next Olympics, but four years is such a long time in this sport and I’d hate to have the heavy weight of this free skate hang over him for the next four years.

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

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!!

Kevin was one of the only ones with actual transitions and not just arm movements so congratulations to him

 

[Karoltyna]

It was a bad idea for sure, but I don't know if that caused the meltdown. His next jump was performed just fine. It just shows the need for the athletes to have the right mix of risk and security. If you try seven quads, land four and pop three, you are much worse off than a guy who lands the same four quads but then has three triple passes landed successfully.

He was supposed to be the first man who perform 4A at Olympics, before TE the hype on 4A and even 4A in combo in short was unbelievable. He didn't do it in TE, not in SP, so he had to try now. Well, he didn't really had to but was expected to because his whole identity for last years was built on this one jump. Things like this really get to you and can mess things as it happened just now. He managed to regroup and jump some jumps but the skate was overall messy and there were too many pops. I guess USFS and ISU didn't do him favor hyping him like he was a superhuman.

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

Is this necessary?

Yes

 

[SmileHappy34]

I am in shock for ilia.
Wasn't this the podium finish for a challenger event or something.

This reminds of Jeremy Abbott finished