2021 Rostelecom Cup - Men: Thoughts and Comments? | Golden Skate

2021 Rostelecom Cup - Men: Thoughts and Comments?

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States

The men's event was full of surprises! LOTS of Falls! Congrats to Kvitelashvili for being the first Georgian skater ever to win a GP gold!

What stood out in the Men's event for you?
 

KiraraChin

Medalist
Joined
May 5, 2018
What stood out for me was the judges' clownery, Kazuki was robbed in broad daylight and should have won gold based on PCS - he was criminally underscored while others were extremely overscored.

So I guess the judges should give themselves a pat on the back for being the real winners of the event, completely detaching the score from what actually happened on the ice 🙃
 

Ali81

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 11, 2018
Country
United-Kingdom
In terms of the standout performance , it was Rizzo’s free skate. He has a really sophisticated sense of the music , great carriage , lines, just a beautiful and charismatic skater . He knows how to work it for sure. Tomono probably should have won . There is no way he and Rizzo should be scoring less on PCS than Morisi. The scores were definitely being nudged in a certain direction but what else is new!
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
The men's event was fascinating and surprising - as it nearly always is. It's one of the reasons I like the men so much. I won't go into the judging, that's up to them (and I'm not good enough to judge the judging), but I will go into the FS. In random order but with countries together.

I love the Japanese men! Although I had hoped Kazuki would have scored a bit higher, I loved his FS. Not perfect (but then nobody was) but I had a good time watching it. The joy, the musicality. Glad he's still on the podium. And I also thought Keji skated well. Not my favourite programme but still a good watch.

Matteo is superb. I don't know what it is with his SP this season (has he done a good one yet?) but he's awesome in his FS. What a performer! Those skating skills, that wonderful connection with the audience and, not to be dismissed, that musicality. Oh my. If Matteo manges to skate his SP to his capability, he's totally in for the medals. I mustn't forget the joy. And the audience loved him too.

No show down between the Georgian skaters after all, even if Nika did a lot better today than in his SP. I liked him. Morisi really did well, despite a fall . And what a success for Georgia for him to win the gold. I wish he could be more consistent and show skates like this all the time.

Mikhail must be the most graceful faller on the planet. I love his SL which thankfully is utterly different from the one a certain other skater is using for his FS. Happy for him. Evgeni had a good skate too, despite his mistakes. He skates young (but not juniorish). I am a big fan of Mark's. He skates young too, not too wonderful spins, but he is a joy to watch. And that expression is fantastic.

When Roman is on, he really is. He's not the 2020 Canadian champion for nothing. What a wonderful skate. The speed is top notch, and so are his skating skills (something I believe the Canadians are known for). I don't really care about the placement, I just enjoyed.

I am so happy for Camden. He was so pleased himself (seeing Camden being happy is a big treat), and there might have been some mistakes but I think this skate made clear why he placed high at the first Peggy Fleming Trophy. He's a great skater.

Michal skated to the perfect kind of music for him. True, a bit of stamina issues and some mistakes but I always enjoy it when it's Michal skating to this rock music.

The only one I really felt sorry for, was Brendan. He used to be a great jumper, but when he fails in those not much else is left. It's not stamina in his case (he did much better in the second half of the programme), but I really don't know what is. I hope he manages to settle his issues soon - and before the OG.
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
I love Tomono's free, I just want to see it skated clean.
Rizzo was the biggest highlight for me, as well as Sadovsky skating well in the event.
Also, I will be keeping an eye on Egadze's development as a skater, really enjoyed him. Though I wish he would get another coach, so much artistic potential that's not going to develop where he is now.
 

eppen

Medalist
Joined
Mar 28, 2006
Country
Spain
In addition to the first ever Georgian winner in a GP event, this should go in the history books as the first time when all the 12 skaters went for quads in both segments of the competition and got them also on the score sheet (let's forget about any kind of quality requirements). This has not happened before in GP history (and you don't have to go very far in time, only the past 5 seasons).

Cup of China 2017 was extremely close, though, but Alexander Majorov popped his 4T attempt in the free to a 2T.

E
 

moonvine

All Hail Queen Gracie
Record Breaker
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Mar 14, 2007
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United-States
Boy that was chaotic, which made it much more interesting than most events. In my opinion the men who skated like they actually wanted a medal (in the free) were Matthew, Roman and Kazuki. In that order.
 
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moonvine

All Hail Queen Gracie
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Mar 14, 2007
Country
United-States
I am so happy for Camden. He was so pleased himself (seeing Camden being happy is a big treat), and there might have been some mistakes but I think this skate made clear why he placed high at the first Peggy Fleming Trophy. He's a great skater.

Camden came in 7th. If he is happy that is great, but in a relatively watered down field I’m not sure it’s going to stand him in good stead.

Does Camden have asthma or something? It seemed he could hardly breathe when he got off the ice
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
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Mar 3, 2014
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Camden came in 7th. If he is happy that is great, but in a relatively watered down field I’m not sure it’s going to stand him in good stead.

Does Camden have asthma or something? It seemed he could hardly breathe when he got off the ice

As far as I know, Camden does not have a breathing issue.

And only tangentially related, but with this skate Camden is now 5th among US men (including Ilia M.) in scores. So, at least internally, he may have helped himself. HIs GP season was, as Camden tends to be, frustratingly inconsistent.
 

KiraraChin

Medalist
Joined
May 5, 2018
In my opinion the men who skated like they actually wanted a medal (in the free) were Matthew, Roman and Kazuki. In that order.
I think it's not possible to compare Kazuki to Matteo and Roman because their situation was different - Matteo and Roman were trying to close the gap after the short, while Kazuki was skating in last, he was the guy to be beaten, which was a completely new situation for him in international competition, so he felt more pressure.

Just to put it context, in the previous couple of times Kazuki was the last to skate, he imploded (this was in domestic competition). Here, he wasn't perfect but managed not to have a complete meltdown, I think because he really, really wanted it. He said after the free he was happy with his bronze medal but at the same time really disappointed because he didn't win 😕
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
My only thought is: Russian men are a mess.
Worried about Russia and the team competition at the Olympics 😔

Russia will be fine. They will still win both women's segments, probably 1st/2nd in the pairs SP and 1st in the pairs LP, 1st in the ice dance RD and FD if Sinitsina/Katsalapov skate (even though the US and Gilles/Poirier are better than them, they'll be held up).

The US is a minor threat to them for Olympic team gold, but their women's and pairs aren't remotely comparable (Japan will help Russia by placing between them and the US in pairs and women) and they're pretty even in ice dance with edge to Russia if they field their best. Japan would be a threat if they had a stronger ice dance team but teams from the US/Canada/Italy/China could end up between them and Russia in both segments.

I'm not saying it's a foregone conclusion but other than the women's gold, the team gold is the biggest lock that Russia has as far as an Olympic figure skating gold, so it doesn't matter that the men aren't the best (and they're likely going to field Kolyada at that which is totally fine).

2 Russian women (both of whom will be individual medal threats with the only other real challenger likely being the 3rd Russian)
2 different pairs (any of them are an individual medal threat with Sui/Han as the only challenger, and China likely won't make the team free); worst case scenario is Miura/Kihara win the SP after a big error (although that's possible after the Rostelecom SP)
1 ice dance team S/K (current World champions at that)
1 man Kolyada who qualified for the GPF and was 5th at Worlds behind just 2 countries (Japan/US).
Even if they were able to put Stepanova/Bukin and Semenenko in the free they'd likely be fine.

If the Russian women's individual gold is a 100% lock (which it currently is), the Russian team gold is like a 99% lock. The only disaster would be Kolyada bombing the SP, but this isn't like last time where Canada actually had a strong team and they needed Kolyada to be solid in both SP and FS to win gold. They can afford to bomb in one discipline because they have, quite literally, the #1 entrants in all other disciplines at this point.

Also, not only are they the only country to have a 2021 GP medalist in every discipline they actually have at least two different GP medalists in every discipline. They have more medals than the next four countries COMBINED and 11/24 entrants in the Grand Prix Final.
 
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