2019-20 U.S. Men's Figure Skating

[Tavi...]

Has this Japan Times article about Vincent been posted here yet? It explains a bit about his plans and the Kinoshita sponsorship:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports...al-kinoshita-group-came-sponsor-vincent-zhou/

Interesting article, but I had to laugh at Gallagher taking Apple, Facebook, and Google to task for not sponsoring skaters.

 

[ice coverage]

Vincent Zhou to attend Brown University, details new skating situation

By Rachel Lutz
Jul 2, 2019, 3:00 PM EDT

Excerpt:

… Another change will be the addition of new coach, Mie Hamada from Japan. …

He still plans to work with longtime coaches Tammy Gambill and Tom Zakrajsek, but while at Brown, will primarily train alone.
“I have great self-awareness, so I trust that I can figure out some things alone,” he said. “However, my coaches, including coach Hamada, will be visiting me for short periods of time when their travels and schedules permit.” ...

https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2019/07/02/vincent-zhou-brown/ (Jul 2)​

 

[el henry]

More re Sean Rabbitt:

For 2019-2020, he is listed for Team C envelope funding from USFS.​

It was not a quick Instastory. Sean mentioned within a longer Insta Live that he will be competing at Glacier Falls. I don't remember his exact wording but the idea seemed to be that going public with his intention to do so was kind of like underlining his "no turning back" commitment to himself, if you know what I mean.

Thank you for the specific reference; I knew it was Insta something

Yes, Sean has been doing a lot of inspirational “Next mountain to climb” type posts. If he wants to compete another year, I’ll very much look forward to it :yay:

Nessun dorma, well.... it’s Sean. So if anyone can transform it, it’s him

 

[yyyskate]

Has this Japan Times article about Vincent been posted here yet? It explains a bit about his plans and the Kinoshita sponsorship:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports...al-kinoshita-group-came-sponsor-vincent-zhou/

Interesting article, but I had to laugh at Gallagher taking Apple, Facebook, and Google to task for not sponsoring skaters.

i am especially mad at @google because, @google clearly showed interests in figure skating before. Google changed its search bar doodle into Yuna's profile image weeks before 2014 OG and changed Yuna's name from Yuna Kim to Yuna Queen during the entire Sochi scandal. Because of all these interests and good will towards figure skating. I am very fond of this Tech company among others.
but it seems... they indeed forget about Vincent maybe figure skating in general recently...

ETA. okay still love ya @google just hope Jack's message can be sent and big high tech company like @google will start to sponsor figure skaters in the future because almost all figure skater are excellent in academia as well. they will be great spokesmen for these high tech companies in US.
also if figure skating became more popular in US, there will be many high tech application opportunities in the sports of figure skating that could benefit those high tech companies.

 

[sheetz]

There really aren't too many sponsorships for individual skaters during non-Olympic seasons. As far as I know even Nathan currently only has Nike for a major sponsor. If Vincent continues to perform well internationally I am sure he will pick up a few sponsors as the Beijing Olympics approaches. In the meantime he receives invitations to shows in Asia and events like WTT on top of his Kinoshita support.

 

[Tavi...]

i am especially mad at @google because, @google clearly showed interests in figure skating before. Google changed its search bar doodle into Yuna's profile image weeks before 2014 OG and changed Yuna's name from Yuna Kim to Yuna Queen during the entire Sochi scandal. Because of all these interests and good will towards figure skating. I am very fond of this Tech company among others.
but it seems... they indeed forget about Vincent maybe figure skating in general recently...

ETA. okay still love ya @google just hope Jack's message can be sent and big high tech company like @google will start to sponsor figure skaters in the future because almost all figure skater are excellent in academia as well. they will be great spokesmen for these high tech companies in US.
also if figure skating became more popular in US, there will be many high tech application opportunities in the sports of figure skating that could benefit those high tech companies.

Sadly, I doubt we’ll see Google rush to sponsor US skaters any time soon. Figure skating is hugely popular in Japan, so it makes sense that Japanese companies would sponsor skaters. The situation is much different in the US, where skating is a niche sport.

Beyond that, Gallagher clearly didn’t do his research, and it shows: the three companies he mentioned - Google, Apple, and Facebook - rarely if ever sponsor any individual athletes. Given that, his comment about their “disgraceful” failure to sponsor Vincent sounds a bit silly.

Anyway, Vincent is lucky to have Ms. Hamada's support, to have received the Kinoshita sponsorship, and to be able to train with Ms Hamada in Japan.

 

[Mrs. P]

^Yeah it seems those tech companies are more into doing major infrastructure donations, like to a school district or public health entities. It’s not unusual for companies to narrow their donations to specific priorities.

In any case, Vincent is now in a better financial situation then arguably 99 percent of the men world and us fields. It’s a good sponsorship.

Also, it’s worth noting that Sean Rabbit has a sponsorship or partnership with a Japanese nutrient company. It’s an interesting partnership. Obviously not as high profile, but it’s cool that he got some support for his skating!

 

[Tavi...]

@Sylvia on FSU mentioned that the dates for Glacier Falls (July 17-21) and Skate Detroit (July 25-27) have been switched this year. Philly International takes place July 30-August 3.

That means in a very short time we’ll start seeing next season’s programs!

We know Sean will be at GF. Any word on which summer comps other guys are doing? The ones I mentioned above, together with Broadmoor, are generally considered the major ones, but if I recall, Nathan and Vincent have both done Golden West in the past.

 

[el henry]

Nothing official, but Andrew T. has skated at Philadelphia the last four years at least (except for injury), so I am certainly hoping he follows tradition:thumbsup:

(Donovan Carrillo has said he is going to Phila International, but I realize he’s not US he’s the only one I know who has said anything for sure)

 

[sailormoon]

Has this Japan Times article about Vincent been posted here yet? It explains a bit about his plans and the Kinoshita sponsorship:

At the World Team Trophy, I was surprised to see that he was coached by Mie Hamada. She personally helped him secure the Japanese corporate sponsorship after Vincent talked her about his family's financial hardship. Considering how he performed at the World Championships, he fully deserves it. Mie Hamada's students also include Rika Kihira and Satoko Miyahara and she is very influential.

 

[alexaa]

Some factual inaccuracies in the Japan Times article and NBC article concerning Nathan.

Per the NYT article in March, Nathan only has about an hour’s ice time at Yale’s rink. He does have to drive to an off campus rink himself after that. Also Yale rink is closed from April to mid September. Phil Hersh told Gallagher in his interview last month that the Yale rink has a very busy schedule and he is surprised Nathan work out a deal with Yale to his ice time. NYT article https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/sports/nathan-chen-yale.html

Nathan has the priorities to choose the the assignment doesn’t mean he always get the one he wanted. In his interview with Jack Gallagher the week before the Japan Times article, Nathan told Gallagher that he wanted NHK this year, but understandably he didn’t get it. His mid term is sandwiched between SkAm and IdF, with IdF happening at the end of his mid term week, which means he needs to finish all exams earlier in the week in order to make it to the official practice.

Nathan interview with Gallagher
https://soundcloud.com/user-983930015/no-25-world-champion-nathan-chen

Both Nathan’s interview and Phil Hersh’s interview were conducted before the Japan Time interview, Gallagher should have the facts about Nathan to avoid misleading readers.

 

[DanseMacabre]

Per the NYT article in March, Nathan only has about an hour’s ice time at Yale’s rink. He does have to drive to an off campus rink himself after that. Also Yale rink is closed from April to mid September. Phil Hersh told Gallagher in his interview last month that the Yale rink has a very busy schedule and he is surprised Nathan work out a deal with Yale to get an hour’s ice time. NYT article https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/sports/nathan-chen-yale.html

I graduated from Yale in 2008 and at least back then, weekday mornings had big chunks of available time when most students were in class (I just checked the schedule and it's almost identical to what it used to be when I was there). I'm not a World champion but even I managed to get an hour of ice time at Ingalls so Phil shouldn't be terribly surprised (he did attend Yale many years before I did so perhaps his memory is different). Of course, Nathan needs more than that but just clarifying a point.

 

[alexaa]

I graduated from Yale in 2008 and at least back then, weekday mornings had big chunks of available time when most students were in class (I just checked the schedule and it's almost identical to what it used to be when I was there). I'm not a World champion but even I managed to get an hour of ice time at Ingalls so Phil shouldn't be terribly surprised (he did attend Yale many years before I did so perhaps his memory is different). Of course, Nathan needs more than that but just clarifying a point.

First of all, kudos to all students who try to manage hectic school schedule and skating. It is very difficult.

Nathan has all his classes in the morning. He got an hour in the afternoon on a regular basis, that is probably why Phil was surprised. He asked about Nathan’s ice time in the conference call before Nationals. And in an article last year, Sarah Hughes mentioned she was going to another rink because the afternoon time was usually booked for the hockey teams

While Yale has an on-campus ice arena, Ingalls Rink, it was usually booked by the men’s and women’s hockey teams during the afternoons, which would have been the ideal time for Hughes to skate there (after classes) when she was preparing for ice show appearances during her final three years at Yale.

She had a car on campus and found available ice at the Northford, Ct., Ice Pavilion, 10 miles from Yale. It has three ice sheets.

http://www.globetrottingbyphilipher...chen-would-have-as-skater-and-student-at-yale

ETA: found this Yale daily article about another Yale student Curran who also competed nationally and his name was also mentioned in the academically excellent skaters thread. He skated about 4 to 5 hours a week, and skated at Ingalls rink occasionally. So I guess it all depends on one’s schedule.

He spends the rest of his training time at various rinks in the New Haven area, which occasionally includes Ingalls Rink. Although Oi represents the Yale Figure Skating Club in competition, club president Nancy Brittingham said that the club’s operations are more geared toward learn-to-skate and recreational programs.

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/01/27/qian-from-the-lab-to-the-ice/

 

[oatmella]

The inaccuracies in these interviews came from Vincent’s assumptions about Nathan.

I agree with Vincent on their situations not being being that comparable. Vincent will only be attending Brown for one semester, for now. He won’t even be in school for the second half of the season.

 

[sheetz]

It's clear Vincent knows his training situation the first semester will not be ideal, which is why he plans on taking time off afterwards.

From my understanding Nathan gets 1.5 hours per day at the Yale rink all to himself, plus access when the rink is not in use by anyone else. Because he's by himself he can do all the run-throughs and jumps he wants to without having to worry about dodging around other skaters. This is a luxury very few other skaters have.

 

[alexaa]

I apologize to drag everyone into this discussion to change this men’s thread to Nathan thread. Feel free to skip this post for GSers not interested in this discussion.

All I am saying is the inaccuracies in the reports, whether it is on the part of the Vincent’s assumptions or Gallagher‘s failure to clarify Nathan’s training situation as well as the GP assignments. To me it is more of Gallagher’s responsibilities to clarify for his guest either it is Vincent or Nathan. It is impossible for either of them to know what is going on with other person. Gallagher should have done his due diligence before publishing his article rather than leaving casual readers, not Nathan fans or fs fans who know Nathan well, the impression that it is easier for Nathan to get his ice time and pick up his GP schedule. It is not easy at all for Nathan, neither is easy for Vincent and Karen. Nathan’s team probably works very hard on that since he is going to study there for sometime. Nathan himself mentioned that Yale doesn’t do it for everyone.

I agree with oatmella their situations are different, not only that Nathan is planning to doing 2 years of study at Yale, as first indicated in the NYT article. Yale has a much tougher academic distributional requirements.

Nathan’s training time at Ingalls varies according to different article, from NYT’s 1 hour to some other reports of one and half hour, which I believe is a result of the hockey teams schedules. If you follow Yale’s Women hockey team’s Instagram account, you know how busy the rink is. The hockey season pretty much overlapped with Nathan’s competition schedule. Plus the rink is closed on March 31st. Nathan has to train in other rinks afterwards. I was amazed myself he can get the ice time every weekday.

So let us better not to make more assumptions of their training situations. I simply don’t like the comparison myself.

 

[1111bm]

I agree with bonita, I also noticed those inaccuracies in Gallagher's article about Vincent.

I'm also confused by that whole just doing one semester deal, and I agree with what el henry wrote earlier, it's most likely meant to ensure Vincent a spot at Brown in the future...?

I did get a somewhat 'woe is me' vibe from some of the statements Vincent made (or the way it was phrased in that article), which I felt was rather uncalled for, since Nathan's situation isn't as favourable as they made it sound and also given the fact that Vincent attending Brown is just temporary.

Nathan having back-to-back assignments with midterms in between sounds extremely stressful to me, so him and Vincent are pretty much in the same boat in terms of GP assignments.

And didn't Vincent mention, that he could actually get ice time at Brown in the morning or around midday? I also think it's a huge benefit that he'll have his mom drive him to the rink in Boston, because he can make use of the travel time to study, eat something or rest a little. That was one point I was worried about with Nathan, having to drive by himself to external rinks, being tired and not as focused, so Vincent is very lucky to have his mom's support with that (also since it's a longer commute).

I think Vincent also mentioned that he's going to have his coaches visit him at Brown when their schedules allow them to? That should be another huge plus, although it might not turn out that way. Afaik Raf and Nathan had similar plans (or so they claimed) but ultimately it never happened.

Vincent's last season started out slowly too and he gained momentum later on, so I assume having a less-than-ideal training situation in the first half of the season won't do him that much damage as long as his expectations are not too high. Especially since he can focus on his skating career full time for the second half of the season. This should also allow him to peak at the right moment for the more important competitions, without overworking himself too early in the season.

Interesting article, but I had to laugh at Gallagher taking Apple, Facebook, and Google to task for not sponsoring skaters.

That part was ridiculous, no way he was serious about that?

 

[sheetz]

Perhaps college financial aid considerations played a part in Vincent's decision to attend Brown this year? Since his financial aid package would be based on the previous year's income and his earnings have now increased substantially. Even for just a semester it's still a considerable amount of money.

As for coach visits I don't know if Tammy would be able to make the cross country trip but maybe his choreographers, Shae Lynn Bourne and Lori Nichol could visit. SLB has visited Nathan at Yale before.

 

[alexaa]

Shae-Lynn was a coaching in Connecticut before, and Shae Lynn regularly visited Raf’s skaters iirc. We don’t know if she just visited CT just for Nathan or there were something else. She left a comment at one of Nathan’s posts responding to some exhibitions which went to or advising Nathan to visit. She was with Nathan before SkAm 2017 and Nationals 2018. She also visited Lakewood December 2018 before Nationals, working with Raf skaters.

Karen mentioned that Tammy offered to visit her at Cornell if needed. So it is hard to think Tammy not to offer the same to Vincent.

Your coach, Tammy Gambill, will be on the other side of the country. What conversations have you had about that?

We did briefly talk about it and definitely during my breaks I will come back to Colorado Springs and train. She offered that she could fly out there and coach me for a little bit. In the meantime, I think there’s just gonna be a lot of FaceTime and me putting my phone on the boards recording my jump and whatever feedback she has to give m

As far as I can remember, college was not on Vicent’s Plan before. All the previous interviews he indicated he would do it after Beijing Olympics. He mentioned it was impossible to physically attend college while skating some time last year. To my knowledge, the announcement to attend Brown was understandably a surprise to some of his fans. His sister is in Boston, and there are also good rinks with good coaches in Boston. So it is understandable he would like to drive all the way to Boston for training instead of using the Brown rink. So attending one semester and don’t need to worry about deferrals makes senses to me. There must be something in Brown very attractive to him to make him to decide to go through the hardship of balancing school and skating.

 

[Tavi...]

@Sylvia on FSU mentioned that the dates for Glacier Falls (July 17-21) and Skate Detroit (July 25-27) have been switched this year. Philly International takes place July 30-August 3.

That means in a very short time we’ll start seeing next season’s programs!

We know Sean will be at GF. Any word on which summer comps other guys are doing? The ones I mentioned above, together with Broadmoor, are generally considered the major ones, but if I recall, Nathan and Vincent have both done Golden West in the past.

Responding to myself to add that we don’t know exact dates for Champs Camp (last year it was Aug 18-23, but USFS has not updated its website), but we do know it will be held in California this year. The fact dates aren’t published makes me wonder if we’ll get even less info on it than we did last year - maybe not even fluff.

Since Jason is scheduled for July 27 at Sun Valley, I’m pretty sure we won’t see him at Skate Detroit or Philly. Since Nathan’s been doing a ton of shows, is at Sun Valley August 10, and probably starts school at end of August, I’d guess the same for him. But maybe they will debut their SPs or new exhibitions at Sun Valley.

Since Jimmy Ma is on the ISP and has no assignments and Alexei K only has one GP assignment, I’m guessing they’re competing for SA (maybe also Sean or Emmanuel?) and we’ll see both of them again at least once more this summer, maybe at Detroit or Philly? Jimmy won Broadmoor, but there were only three competitors and his score was quite low - not enough to win the TBD I don’t think

Since Andrew T, Tomoki, Emmanuel, and Camden all train in Colorado now, I’m wondering if we’ll see them at Glacier Falls with Sean.

Not sure about Vincent.

Right now I’m enjoying relaxing poolside on this holiday weekend, but I’m eagerly looking forward to next season!