2018 Olympic Figure Skating Mens FS

[Panpie]

I didn't see it but they can still do it at the official medal ceremony

Hope they did it or will do it. Would love to see a pic or video of their tradition.

 

[bixby]

Then why do you need to over emphasize your point? You seem to be so offended because we are critical of your favorite skater. None of us are saying Nathan doesn't have potential. We all wish him well. However, most of us agree that he has alot of development to do, either be it in his skating, on his mental toughness, or on how to compete. Him proving his abilities today with an epic free skate is the first step towards all that but he still have to prove that he can win a world or olympic title and not just beat one skater at a time during the Grand Prix with the other skater not being in form.

Nah, not offended my friend. I'm not an die-hard fan of Nathan or anyone. I love watching competition and I admire the mental toughness and athleticism of these youngsters. That's all!

Many of you are Hanyu fans, no doubt I know. And nothing wrong with that. Point a scenario and watch the reply... It's over emphasizing!!!

 

[chairmanmao]

Yuzuru and Shoma would go. Javier probably not. He skipped the last after-Olympic Worlds.

He went in 2014 and won bronze. I think he is going unless he actually plans to retire after this Olympics. God I hope not, I think he is still good for at least 2 seasons.

 

[Globetrotter]

How can you be so sure??? You got to be kidding me. You don't have a crystal ball to be so sure of that. Just being at the Olympics is not enough tremendous pressure to you? Imagine what the media will be talking about him if he didn't deliver that winning skate tonight.

Yes, you might think the pressure is all OFF because he's not in the last group. But I beg to differ, he has the tremendous pressure still to prove to himself and the whole world that he's not a fluke. And he just beat the heck out of everyone tonight in this segment of the competition including the Olympic champ. That's a FACT Jack!

HE IS THE MASTER OF THE QUADS. Haters might not like it, but that's what on the record book now.

He is a quadster, nobody is disagreeing. What you don’t seem to accept that it also takes guts, mental toughness and grit to eek out two solid programmes in order to podium. You can’t just depend on a sudden moment of 6 quads and watering down of components while hoping for judges to hold you up. Nathan will get there eventually, he has the goods, he just needs time to mature and become mentally a stronger competitor.

 

[risingtrot]

So happy for the medalists!

I hope Shoma doesn't get more hate going forward just for winning his Silver. I would have been happy if he won only Bronze as long as he medals.

That said, looking at the protocol Shoma did have a higher base value against Javi. It's 103.14 (Shoma) against 84.11 (Javi).
I think it's just unfortunate that Javi made a mistake in what supposedly was another quad. Javi was scored higher in PCS too and all GOEs are positive except for one -1 from Judge 7.

I think this Olympic season for men has always been very competitive and everyone is just so close and is capable of getting into the Podium. Any slight mistake would be costly.

Congrats to the skaters!

 

[skatesofgold]

I'm also terrified that Nathan will break before he ever wins a World medal. I feel like with him 4 years is a very long time.

 

[Artistry]

Can someone fill me in on Patrick? I haven’t follwed mens closely last 4 years. Why did he loose his form and when is he retiring?

 

[champs]

Did she critize Boyang as well?!

Edit: Omg she did. Saying 'I wish he would have done more crossovers, crossovers I can't wait'.

There is a thin line between being sassy and a b..ch. And Ashley is being the latter.

Talk about hypocrisy.

Did you actually read all her tweets before and after that and thought she was criticizing/being mean to Boyang?
I get a totally opposite impression. She seems to like his Star Wars program and she also likes watching skaters doing crossovers but recognize the shortcoming of a program full of them. When she said later that crossovers can't medal at the #olympics, I think it's partially a self sarcasm as she knows she does a lot of crossovers herself in her program.

 

[kimganos]

Not taking away anything from Yuzu, but part of me is saying he was LUCKY Nathan Chen didn't have a decent short. Even with his two masterful programs here that he delivered, it won't hold up against Nathan had he skated his best short. So technically he benefited from Nathan's mishaps in the short. Had it went down toe to toe both going clean in both segments of the competition, Nathan will be the clear winner.

But mad respect for Hanyu regardless! He's definitely one of the greats, I have to admit. CONGRATS!

Well ok if you think so.......So I guess a 6 quad program with bent over landings and no flow out is the new gold standard....Me, I will take the beauty and flow of Yuzu's and Javi's 4 and 3 quad jump programs over Nathan's every time!
But I was happy for Nathan's redemption Skate.

 

[Mathman]

He is a quadster, nobody is disagreeing. What you don’t seem to accept that it also takes guts, mental toughness and grit to eek out two solid programmes in order to podium. You can’t just depend on a sudden moment of 6 quads and watering down of components while hoping for judges to hold you up....

Wait... the judges awarded him first place for his flurry of 6 quads. So I think that maybe you can count on the judges to hold you up.

Now if only Nathan had had a flurry of 2 quads and a triple Axel in the short the judges might have held him up there, too. :yes:

 

[Panpie]

Damn. So this is what his team hasn't been telling us. He isn't fully recovered and still injured.

Effing amazing he was able to pull off another Gold.

Indeed. People on Instagram were posting that Yuzu was trolling everyone with his abbreviated practices. I was concerned that he was not completely healed and was trying to save himself for the competition.

 

[loop9497]

This was the case even before Chen came in with his inflated PCS, so your point doesn't stand.

My point did stand. My point was that Nathan was still within striking distance of the podium even with a very flawed SP - because of his FS. People were afraid that he could still medal. That was the subject. One of the top skaters (after the SP) could have not won a medal if they made a couple of big mistakes because of how strongly Nathan did in the FS with all those quads. If that wasn't possible at all, why were people in a near panic about Nathan's PCS and the judges trying to put him on the podium as some people were saying?

 

[skatesofgold]

Well ok if you think so.......So I guess a 6 quad program with bent over landings and no flow out is the new gold standard....Me, I will take the beauty and flow of Yuzu's and Javi's 4 and 3 quad jump programs over Nathan's every time!
But I was happy for Nathan's redemption Skate.

People are allowed to have their preferences. It's not a crime to like the athleticism of figure skating over the artistry.

 

[bixby]

He is a quadster, nobody is disagreeing. What you don’t seem to accept that it also takes guts, mental toughness and grit to eek out two solid programmes in order to podium. You can’t just depend on a sudden moment of 6 quads and watering down of components while hoping for judges to hold you up. Nathan will get there eventually, he has the goods, he just needs time to mature and become mentally a stronger competitor.

That's exactly my point. He has the guts, mental toughness and grit right now. But any of them can have an OFF night and that to me doesn't EQUATE to not having guts, mental toughness and grit. I think Evan did it too before winning in Vancouver. But boy, you got to have guts, mental toughness and grit to bounce from 17th place to winning the long. OMG!

 

[miso]

Congrats to Yuzuru, Javier and Shoma! And Jin as well. Well deserved. They were all beautiful and graceful while still exuding strengths in their jumps, footwork and spins. Really well deserve rankings.

Soapbox: This is my first post in GS but I really like reading all your insights on everything skating. I learn a lot from you.

So anyway, I really hope figure skating will continue to move forward without compromising the artistry in the choreography of the programs. As much as quads and jumps are exciting and injecting 'look, ma! I can jump really high! Me strong!' mentality into the programs, they don't define figure skating. Because if everyone compromises the artistry, the choreography for lump quads, figure skating will be no more than an indoor on-rink snowboard sport on ice skates.

Maybe I'm misguided, but I see all these athletes pushing quads after quads while sacrificing the artistry, and it looks awkward, jerky, stilted, stunted, abrupt. It takes out the beauty of the figure (athlete) skating/dancing the program. The artistry is what sets figure skating apart from the rest of the winter sports. That shouldn't be compromise for some snowboard-ish excitement.

Peace out.

 

[Globetrotter]

Wait... the judges awarded him first place for his flurry of 6 quads. So I think that maybe you can count on the judges to hold you up.

Now if only Nathan had had a flurry of 2 quads and a triple Axel in the short the judges might have held him up there, too. :yes:

And that once again brings forth the issue of judging in FS. GOEs being given out like candies and iffy PCS. In diving and gymnastics, the judging of execution is far harsher.

 

[Ophelia]

My point did stand. My point was that Nathan was still within striking distance of the podium even with a very flawed SP - because of his FS. People were afraid that he could still medal. That was the subject. One of the top skaters (after the SP) could have not won a medal if they made a couple of big mistakes because of how strongly Nathan did in the FS with all those quads. If that wasn't possible at all, why were people in a near panic about Nathan's PCS and the judges trying to put him on the podium as some people were saying?

He could only medal if others imploded, and people were worried about that happening because of Sochi. Look what Denis Ten accomplished at Sochi due to the splatfest, and that was with an average FS too. Hence the panic.

 

[Farnaz]

I think the 4Lo was probably never ready, though Brian said work-in-progress.

Work-in-progress was not wrong as we saw Yuzuru landing 4Lo in practice in Olympics.

 

[nolangoh]

Bravo Hanyu, Records are made to be tie -Dick Button

 

[Lambari]

I agree. The quad race started cause mid into the oly quad - certain youngsters like Jin came up with 4Lz, Shoma thereafter his 4F, then the youngsters from US with their quads.

But lets not forget that while they tried to chase him with quads, Hanyu also tried to improve his quad repertoire (and remember that 2015 COC concussion splat omg) and answered his competitors

It's just incredible that we had these showings from the top men, including the SP, even if it was the most technnically challenging Olympic men's event ever! Even if a portion of fans aren't big fans of the quad-craze, I think that it's evident how Jin's 4Lz, and then Shoma's 4F and then all of the others like Nathan, pushed Yuzuru to his 4Loop (and brief 4Lz!) to his brilliant performances the last half of this quad. The rising technnical content kept the top men so close together that the young ones are still eager to develop their artistic side, so I expect Boyang and Nathan to keep developing. And it goes the other way, If Yuzuru (Plus Javier!!!) hadn't rose to the top with his complete poweress, I doubt that the new generation wouldn't be as inspired as they were. A big reason of why Sochi was such a dissapointment was because there was no real gold medal contender apart from Chan and later Hanyu (plus with Javier zayaking), so when both faltered at the FS, it was just a no-way-out situation. The paradox of this being a better skated men's event while having such astounding technnical demands, is a reflection of the close competition this last quad which is able to keep these men thriving.

And what Shoma said was kind of true - if he went squeaky clean, squeaky squeaky clean : the top 3 places could have jumbled up. If
Javier went clean too = who knows?

Of course, but at least for me I prefer to not play 'what-ifs'. As I've said the competition is close. They were all capable, It was a matter of who was going to pull together both performances and the fact that Yuzuru did under immense pressure plus coming back from an injury (that might not even be really healed...) makes it just unforgettable for me! But there's a lot of other moments in this competition that I'll also remember!