2026 Olympics: Men's Free Skate

[museksk8r]

Another added pressure that Ilia had on him here was being the sole American man capable of a top 10 finish. In 2018, Nathan Chen was on a team with Vincent Zhou and Adam Rippon, both of whom were high caliber skaters capable of an Olympic and Worlds top ten finish. In 2022, Nathan was on a team with Vincent Zhou and Jason Brown, again, both of whom were high caliber skaters capable of an Olympic and Worlds top ten finish. Chen never had to shoulder the weight of American pressure and expectations all on his own like Ilia at this Olympic Games. The US will have a real challenge ahead of them in the upcoming Prague Worlds to qualify 3 spots for next season. US women and ice dance currently has a lot of depth; the same cannot be said for our men and pairs programs.

 

[Diana Delafield]

Ilia has an OGM.

But they didn't also have a group-effort team event in Kurt's day. He meant the individual event, the only chance he himself had had, where the result was up to him and him alone.

 

[SmileHappy34]

THIS SURELY HAS TO BE THE BIGGEST OLYMPIC UPSET IN FIGURE SKATING HISTORY??

It isnt biggest upset. Yes he world champ. But not olympic
But he did beat the so called lock and threw olymic silver medalist.
He did win 4cc.

 

[SmileHappy34]

THIS SURELY HAS TO BE THE BIGGEST OLYMPIC UPSET IN FIGURE SKATING HISTORY??

No it isn't.

 

[SmileHappy34]

Pressure, I guess.

I really hope something like this doesn't happen at worlds because if it does, the US isn't going to have two spots for next year.

Will he go to worlds. Will any of them?

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Yes

You've been on these boards 20+ years and still get worked up and feel the need to attack a skater for one unfortunate comment in the heat of the moment? You've been a member here almost as long as he's been alive, grow up and act like an adult.

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

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.

Listen, if nothing else matters to you other than watching someone go up and then come down, there are so many sports you would love. Have you seen the Snowboarding big air events? Seriously someone could actually die doing that, it’s way more entertaining than a 4A. You might also enjoy Ski Jumping. Or how about Summer sports? Have you seen the pole vault? If you think Malinin is some sort of God you should see Duplantis. Theres long and high jump too. Track and Field in general is really exhilarating, you should try it. You might also enjoy the diving events. They can get some pretty big air off those planks. They jump and come down and it’s over in 3 seconds. Then they judge it.

Figure skating is not that. That’s not how figure skating is judged.

 

[fsfan2480]

Anyone else feel the way I do, in that: he can still wear a hard-earned Olympic Gold Medal around his neck?

The Team Event and varying medal prospects for people make me feel funny about the individual events, sometimes. Like, he has a Gold! Someone like Matteo Rizzo, who would never win Bronze individually, but who I would HOPE would skate well enough to contend for a medal ... got one in the Team Event ... so I didn't care, at all, that he only came in 15th, here. Without the team event, I would have felt awful for him.

Anyone else feel similarly? Where while I am shocked, stunned and sad ... it's nothing like I would have been if he hadn't already won an Olympic Gold Medal. No matter what ever happens moving forward ... he'll have that around his neck and will be introduced as Olympic champion.

 

[4everchan]

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.

Didn't Hanyu try that too in 2022? It probably cost him a medal too.

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

You've been on these boards 20+ years and still get worked up and feel the need to attack a skater for one unfortunate comment in the heat of the moment? You've been a member here almost as long as he's been alive, grow up and act like an adult.

Nah you can miss me with that nonsense. If this going to be one of the talking points of the night I’m allowed to respond as anyone else is. Anything anyone says in an interview is fair game as far as I’m concerned and I’m not even going to feel bad about it.

 

[Mista Ekko]

I see some people coming for Ilia over some remarks he's making, I wouldn't right now...

Ilia was gracious when he wasn't named to the Olympic team in 2022, and he's been happily cooperative with the attempts to personify him as the star of the figure skating event in 2026.

And then he arrived at the actual Olympics and understood for the first time how it actually feels to be in those shoes.

No secret location practices or flying in extra coaches for support, nor the lack of real challenge from main rivals on the night could guide him through this FS that we all know he can perform

Maybe his federation could've taken better care of him, both 4 years ago and in the past few months, I don't really know... Feels like they've been through this before.

 

[SmileHappy34]

I can't shake the feeling that some of the posters knew this would happen by how thecwrote things. That includes some skaters of how they hyped ilia. Implied reading between lines.

 

[SmileHappy34]

Despite outcome. Great men's competition.

 

[cocteautwin]

It's third olympics in the row JPN won two medals at men's event. Amazing.

 

[Cindy1983]

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.

If you heard interviews, he was pacing himself and looked at the Men’s Free to do th fireworks. Maybe he should’ve competed the quad axel earlier to see how it felt.

 

[Blades of Passion]

Gumennik is the only one who performed three different upper quads clean. The right result of the night is 1. Shaidarov, 2. Sato. 3. Gumennik

Gumennik gave even less of performance than the other guys and was one of the slowest skaters of the night, and his quads have weak technique, especially the heavily pre-rotated 4F that should have been called (although to be fair, his 3A did not deserve a < call).

 

[Jennyf]

Anyone else feel the way I do, in that: he can still wear a hard-earned Olympic Gold Medal around his neck?

The Team Event and varying medal prospects for people make me feel funny about the individual events, sometimes. Like, he has a Gold! Someone like Matteo Rizzo, who would never win Bronze individually, but who I would HOPE would skate well enough to contend for a medal ... got one in the Team Event ... so I didn't care, at all, that he only came in 15th, here. Without the team event, I would have felt awful for him.

Anyone else feel similarly? Where while I am shocked, stunned and sad ... it's nothing like I would have been if he hadn't already won an Olympic Gold Medal. No matter what ever happens moving forward ... he'll have that around his neck and will be introduced as Olympic champion.

He can and should be proud of the Team Gold - he was a big part in winning it.

I do not begrudge him anything he said in the heat of the moment after such a crushing performance. All of these athletes train so hard and long for this, but none had as much of the world telling them they were a lock as Ilia. It's a lot on young shoulders. And the aftermath will not be easy for him, which I know some will enjoy. Compassion can be stingy amount FS fans.

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

I see some people coming for Ilia over some remarks he's making, I wouldn't right now...

Ilia was gracious when he wasn't named to the Olympic team in 2022, and he's been happily cooperative with the attempts to personify him as the star of the figure skating event in 2026.

And then he arrived at the actual Olympics and understood for the first time how it actually feels to be in those shoes.

No secret location practices or flying in extra coaches for support, nor the lack of real challenge from main rivals on the night could guide him through this FS that we all know he can perform

Maybe his federation could've taken better care of him, both 4 years ago and in the past few months, I don't really know... Feels like they've been through this before.

I didn’t say anything directly to Ilia. I didn’t post on his SM and I’m not planning to. I said it in response to a comment on this thread. When it continues to come up in discussions I will respond.

 

[cocteautwin]

I just realized I got 3 of my predictions right at this crazy event

 

[Charlotte 71]

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

It was an emotional reaction in a state of shock right after his skate. I was so impressed by how he got himself together and gave such a warm congratulations to Mikhail and a gracious interview to Andrea before going backstage. I imagine he'll regret saying it and reflect that Mikhail and Shun didn't skate in the 2022 Olympics either, but they bested him today. So I don't see any need to pile on.