2021 Skate America: Men's Short Program

[bgarner0719]

If I remember correctly didn’t the 2017 skate America before the olympics also have bad ice? Like didn’t Adam Rippon have to pick bugs up off the ice?

 

[kimganos]

Congrats to Zhou and Ma on great SPs!

Clearly a bad SP for Chen but he should bounce back in the FS. But shaking my head at the judges who were giving him 9, 9.25 even 9.5 especially for PE/IN when he made what I consider two jarring errors. I get high PCS in the other categories but even those should have been tempered. Gutted for Aymoz too and hope he’s okay.

Reputation judging

 

[labgoat]

I would suggest that 2006 Olympics FD was comparable splatwise—especially when you consider that ice dancers don’t jump

I think you mean the short dance

 

[Skater Boy]

Certainly not the level of skating I expected tonight Hopefully, tomorrow the cobwebs will be swept away and the we'll see some great skates! I am a little baffled that Nam's score is only 74. There is no way that the PCS of both French skaters should be higher than Nam's PCS. They made major errors on most if not all of their jumps and they still beat Nam's PCS? If everyone skates clean, then yes, I would put Kevin's PCS above Nam's but the judges really need to start deducting more PCS for disaster skates. It really disrupts every part of the skating and therefore the artistic merit of the overall skate. Otherwise, it's not fair to the other skaters who skated better overall.

I fully agree. Nam got cheated here. I am not sure. The poor guy was picked to go to 2020 worlds and then it was cancelled and now it looks like Skate CAnada is pushing Roman and Keegan even though Roman almost blew it at Nebelhorn (well he did bomb but by the luck of the draw held on to a second spot for Canada). Nam may not have developed as well as many thought or hoped. He like gogolov had to deal with huge growth spurts. But I like him ; there is some charm about him. I hope he gets some more quads and skates cleanly. But Bravo to Vinny and Jimmy. I liked Shoma's program and was shocked at the beast Nathan but I am confident he can come back and still win. Especially fi the judges keep giving him pcs of ridiculous proportion as they are.

 

[moonvine]

I did encourage you to go with your first impulse, to put Jimmy first. And, did you listen?

Well I put Keegan first last time and we see how that went.

 

[eppen]

I slightly regret waking up at 5:15 am for this. Can't decide whether this was worse than the Worlds 2018 last group. Well, maybe not because that was the competition where everyone was supposed to be almost at their best (it was the Oly spring, so Worlds was secondary). The first pancake burned to a crisp (almost).

Kevin should have not skated today and should not skate tomorrow. I want to enjoy his brilliant skating in better physical conidtion sometime later this season.

My problems with programs continue. Most of the music choices are very conservative and boring and the same adjectives apply for the choreographies. Not to even mention the numerous (though under the circumstances completely understandable) repeats. Vincent's Vincent is pretty good despite holding the ear and the cold winter shivers. It is simple and effective just like the song is, I think Lori has done a good job for him. Though someone could go for the original song one day. I remember Vincent particularly vividly from that Worlds 2018 last group and it is somewhat hard to understand that this is really the same guy - so much better speed and overall flow, much better quality elements. Even a good resemblance of a performance.

Shoma tends to be always the same IMO whatever the music, he has only one way of movement. However, I don't know whether it was just the horrors that preceeded him, but I thought this was pretty good for him. Sure, the music could have been almost any piece of classics/movie soundtrack/boring pop ballad roughly in the same rhythm, but he was still ok doing it. The usual one arm armography mannerisms were missing which is a huge improvement on its own. Maybe even with a bit more facial expressions and upper body movement. And it was not the Four Seasons but rather some less well-known baroque music.

The male swans make me always a bit amused (so much unintentional funniness is usually present) and Jimmy and Nam did not fail. Very little of the gracefulness and elegance of the inspriration to that music present there. At least Jimmy did technically ok. He was ashamedly flirting with the judges in the steps which was also funny to see in the context of the dramatic and serious music.

Sato did pretty good with that shoulder, but I don't think the bland program to one of the great warhorses will turn interesting to watch even when he gets healthy.

I was sorry to see that Adam Siao Him Fa was unable to carry on doing very well for himself after the early season comps. I think this is one of the better Star Wars themed programs and he is committed to it, particularly the steps, even today when he was off his jumps. I have not expected him to turn into a performer after quite a few years of mostly just jumping, so his development will be interesting to follow.

Daniel Grassl is still one of the ugliest overall skaters active. Poor overall skating skills, ugly and labored jumps, ugly spin positions (well, at least they are pretty fast). The idea to take that music used very well by Kolyada last season was also not very good, even I (not at all a great Kolyada fan) was seeing Kolyada doing it in my mind's eye. The choreo could be good if an actual skater did it.

Liked Brezina's choice of music but he is also not the right skater for it - too slow for that fast pace. Did nothing for me in the end.

Artur Danielian uses an old program which is nice when done with gusto but he is still coming back from injury and surgery and whatnot. Hopefully better days ahead. He has potential and he has still a lot of time.

Who am I missing? Ah, Nathan... I was not too thrilled to hear of the retake on Nemesis/Benjamin Clementine. And this version 2.0 with Eternity and Nemesis put together fails to impress. It is just two random songs put together (having the same voice in both is really not a solid base for a proper theme), the lyrics don't make sense or create a theme for the choreo to express. The qualities that Nemesis 1.0 had are not really present in this one. And it was not made any better by Nathan having one of his human days.

E

 

[LiamForeman]

Nam may not have developed as well as many thought or hoped. He like gogolov had to deal with huge growth spurts.

I thought that was the Canadian/Orser technique? Teach young boys quads so that they almost win Canadian seniors at 13, then lose their big jumps and consistency by 16? It's even more detrimental to young skaters than the Eteri Technique!

 

[anonymoose_au]

Question...was this really the worst men's SP people have ever seen or have I just been densensitised from watching men at Local Russia competitions?

I mean Shun and Kevin were scary to watch, but the other 9 didn't seem that awful... And Vincent and Jimmy did great!

 

[Artemisa]

Question...was this really the worst men's SP people have ever seen or have I just been densensitised from watching men at Local Russia competitions?

I mean Shun and Kevin were scary to watch, but the other 9 didn't seem that awful... And Vincent and Jimmy did great!

For a moment I thought that I was seeing men's russia competition ... pop's and fall's

 

[anonymoose_au]

For a moment I thought that I was seeing men's russia competition ... pop's and fall's

Poor Russian men, they do try though.

Admittedly this was on at 1pm for me so I neither had to wake up early or stay up late so maybe that's why I'm not so horrified.

Although I do hope Shun and Kevin stay safe. Kevin in particular was very upset today and possibly in pain too. If the French Fed really did force him to compete the ISU should step in because WTH, that's criminal.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

After reading through your comments, I'm not sure if I even should watch this...
Gotta watch it though for Artur D.'s step sequence and for Vincent! So I brace myself...

 

[anonymoose_au]

After reading through your comments, I'm not sure if I even should watch this...

Maybe give Shun and Kevin a miss (although Kevin's step sequence was amazing, I don't know how he did it!), Vincent and Jimmy really were amazing though. And Michal was fun

 

[karne]

Question...was this really the worst men's SP people have ever seen or have I just been densensitised from watching men at Local Russia competitions?

I mean Shun and Kevin were scary to watch, but the other 9 didn't seem that awful... And Vincent and Jimmy did great!

There was a Rostelecom a few years ago that was pretty awful. I remember it vividly because it was Brendan's second event that season. His first was Skate Canada where he'd had a brilliant SP and still ended up 9th after SP because everyone skated brilliantly, and then everyone melted down at Rostelecom to the point where his SC score would have had him top 3 after the short...but he joined in the general meltdown.

 

[chasingneverland]

After reading through your comments, I'm not sure if I even should watch this...
Gotta watch it though for Artur D.'s step sequence and for Vincent! So I brace myself...

I wouldn't recommend.

Actually, watch Vincent and Jimmy. Michal is worth watching too as is Shoma. I would skip everyone else haha.

 

[yelyoh]

I trust Kaori and her Matrix oracle ice condition predictions.

As I was watching men skid, slip and splat hard I kept wondering if some evil skate god was pouring oil on the ice between some skaters. I have never been so concerned for a group of skaters as I was last night.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

I´m not sure what I did just watch. What a disaster event. Except it started so well with Vincent.

Kevin skate was really an emotional roller coster. It looked like he was about to save the 3A and then he just had the worst split fall ever. It looked like he was about to give up, and then he just pulled the crazy step sequence like nothing happen and got a level 4 with +GOE. When he was done he cracked up. Somehow in kiss&cry when he got the score it looked like he had just accepted it all and was fine. What a change of different emotions in short time!

I didn´t know he was injured. If he is, this really looked dangerous. Poor guy. Let him WD if he wants.

Nathan being human, missing his combo, did not expect that. He can still come back in the FS. I have yet to believe Vincent will skate two clean program though, but maybe this is his event.

Shoma had the best costume for sure. All though he only did 2F he did well.

What happen to Mr. Brezina? I guess he wasn´t planning just triples?

 

[anonymoose_au]

On the plus side Kevin seems to be alright, he posted a story on Insta explaining he has a toe injury, which he had an ice pack on. I'm hoping that he didn't aggravate the groin injury, especially after that 3A fall!

Fingers crossed that if he does skate tomorrow he'll have a good FS.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

Hmm, maybe I'm really watching too many of the small local competitions, but apart from Kevin's nightmare skate, this did not feel too much out of the ordinary for a senior men SP to me. Vincent was great, Shoma not bad either, and Artur and Kevin had amazing step sequences! Everyone falls on quads sometimes, even Nathan, and he didn't give up on the performance! Not sure why some people criticize his PCS, imo his skating between the jumps is very enjoyable to watch. He could take out one of the spread eagles perhaps, it feels like he's doing a lot of them (similar to Eteri girls and leg kicks).
May everyone have their best possible FS tomorrow! I plan to get up to watch the FS live, but I also feel like I'm coming down with a cold. So let's see how it develops over the day, maybe it's not the best medicine to watch a men's FS while running a fever.

 

[text_skate]

but I also feel like I'm coming down with a cold.

Gute Besserung

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

Gute Besserung

Danke!!!