2022 Olympics: Men's Free Skate

[Arriba627]

Can we get back to the important things? What will Nathan wear tonight? The shirt his mom made? (Please yes). Flaming Cheeto? Vera Wang? Something he randomly grabbed from his closet? Will he continue to channel his inner Dick Button with a snazzy pocket square? What say you GS readers?

Watch him come out in something spectacular! I don't know though. My hunch is it's gonna be the Cheeto look. Just so it's not a Danny O. bowling shirt. Actually, I think the Cheetos one goes great with his program! We should have done a Costumes Prediction thread!!!

 

[Noxchild]

Fingers crossed for my faves Nathan, Yuma, Junhwan, Keegan, and everyone else to do their best and leave it all on the ice. Let's f'ing goooo!!

 

[moonvine]

Watch him come out in something spectacular! I don't know though. My hunch is it's gonna be the Cheeto look. Just so it's not a Danny O. bowling shirt. Actually, I think the Cheetos one goes great with his program! We should have done a Costumes Prediction thread!!!

That would have been awesome.

 

[Erin9]

If it were any other skater, I'd be worried but, I think Nathan is as prepared as any skater I have ever seen. Hopefully, he's more excited than nervous.

Not to go OT, but I’d have said the same about Mikaela Shiffrin and Simone Biles- especially since they already had prior successful Olympics under their belts and had such a long standing reputation for consistency.

That said- Nathan already had his rough Olympics the first time. So far, things have gone much better for him. And he says his mindset is different now. So- hopefully he is still excited and enjoying himself this time and does his best. But- I think I’m going to have trouble watching just the same!

 

[yuumagical]

I know I have my favorites, but I hope all of these men do their best in the free skate and show their best qualities to the world! They all worked their beautiful butts off to get here, why not appreciate them all? Go everyone!

 

[mrrice]

Not to go OT, but I’d have said the same about Mikaela Shiffrin and Simone Biles- especially since they already had prior successful Olympics under their belts and had such a long standing reputation for consistency.

That said- Nathan already had his rough Olympics the first time. So far, things have gone much better for him. And he says his mindset is different now. So- hopefully he is still excited and enjoying himself this time. But- I think I’m going to have trouble watching just the same!

Poor Simone. I hope Nathan got his nerves out in 2018 and now it's more like a harnessed excitement.

 

[Florian]

They are correct in that IF Nathan skates his planned content with no errors he will win. There is no way for anyone to catch him IF he is error free. This is why the scoring system needs to be changed.

The scoring system needs to be changed so that a clean Nathan Chen can be overtaken by someone with far inferior TES? Ridiculous.

 

[moonvine]

The scoring system needs to be changed so that a clean Nathan Chen can be overtaken by someone with far inferior TES? Ridiculous.

The scoring system needs to be changed because there is no TES limit but there is an artistic limit. So say someone who had extremely close TES (not far inferior) but far superior artistry could at least have a chance of making it interesting. Of course men's tends to be interesting because it is usually chaos. I'm not talking about a skater with only 1 quad. I'm talking a hypothetical skater who had 1 less quad but intricate steps into the quads they do.

 

[anonymoose_au]

Will he continue to channel his inner Dick Button with a snazzy pocket square?

Always say yes to snazzy pocket squares.

Bonus if his mother made it!

 

[Vlad Karigov]

The only thing I expect from this competition is that the first 8 places are of authentic skaters with multiple jumps quad... that is not given a place to anyone for pure sentimentality regardless of the country.

 

[satine]

The scoring system needs to be changed because there is no TES limit but there is an artistic limit. So say someone who had extremely close TES (not far inferior) but far superior artistry could at least have a chance of making it interesting. Of course men's tends to be interesting because it is usually chaos. I'm not talking about a skater with only 1 quad. I'm talking a hypothetical skater who had 1 less quad but intricate steps into the quads they do.

I agree and disagree with you. PCS is so very, very subjective already. I wish some facets of PCS were different- perhaps more measurable intricacy for steps, transitions, speed, etc.? Increase the PCS potential and make it less controversial. Is that possible?

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

So say someone who had extremely close TES (not far inferior) but far superior artistry could at least have a chance of making it interesting.

The solution seems like it should be that strong technical skaters shouldn't be over-marked in PCS. However, even if there were no PCS ceiling, I think the judges would still reward the Nathan-types with generous PCS along with high TES when they skate well. I don't agree with Nathan and Jason getting the same PCS scores, but I can't think of any changes to the judging system that would have Jason score higher there because the judges could already do that now.

 

[Dreamer57]

To me it feels like a fight for the podium between Shoma and Yuzuru, when I wanted them both on the podium
Also prayers for Andrei he received criticism after his SP and I really want him to be happy at the olympics!
Clean skates everyone!

 

[ice coverage]

I vote for Mama Hetty's shirt for Nathan.

---

The scoring system needs to be changed because there is no TES limit but there is an artistic limit. So say someone who had extremely close TES (not far inferior) but far superior artistry could at least have a chance of making it interesting. Of course men's tends to be interesting because it is usually chaos. I'm not talking about a skater with only 1 quad. I'm talking a hypothetical skater who had 1 less quad but intricate steps into the quads they do.

From glancing at the agenda for this summer's ISU Congress, I noticed that it includes at least two proposals to adjust the factoring of PCS so that PCS will receive equal weight to TES.
One such proposal is from ISU technical committees for figure skating.
Another is from the New Zealand federation.


(Repeating what I posted in Jason's fan thread today.)

 

[Rere]

Can we get back to the important things? What will Nathan wear tonight? The shirt his mom made? (Please yes). Flaming Cheeto? Vera Wang? Something he randomly grabbed from his closet? Will he continue to channel his inner Dick Button with a snazzy pocket square? What say you GS readers?

Yep, that's important! I love everything Nathan wears, and I honestly can't see how it's different from most tops of other male skaters, but I like them. So whatever fashion language Nathan is speaking, it's my language! Bring those shirts, Nathan, bring them all!

 

[draqq]

My hunch is it's gonna be the Cheeto look.

You rang?

 

[el henry]

The only thing I expect from this competition is that the first 8 places are of authentic skaters with multiple jumps quad... that is not given a place to anyone for pure sentimentality regardless of the country.

Authentic skaters?

You mean an authentic skater like Jason Brown, of whom Kurt Browning said you need to be a skater to recognize just how difficult it is to do what Jason does?

And who earns *every single point* he gets, none granted out of sentimentality?

I agree that Jason, an authentic skater who earns every point, should be granted whatever place he earns

 

[RatedPG]

I can’t wait to watch at 5:30pm PT. Perfect timing for me. I just need to finish my work and order my dinner so I’m ready to go. Rooting for:

Group 1 - Donovan
Group 2 - Matteo
Group 3 - Kevin, Keegan, Yuzuru
Group 4 - Junhwan, Shoma, Yuma

It will be interesting. I hope Donovan finishes in the top 23 and skates a SB.
Matteo… praying for him to skate a top 10 free skate

Yuzuru, hopefully he can fight back and finish in the top 5. I’m wishing him luck with his 4A today. But, would love to see him execute his 3A-3Lo combo. That element is the most exciting one of the night along with Junhwan’s 3F-3Lo combo. Wish these combos were worth more points.

Also, would love to see Shoma (repeat medal) and Yuma in the podium. Yuma has won me over. His jumps and speed across the ice is wonderful.

 

[Florian]

The scoring system needs to be changed because there is no TES limit but there is an artistic limit. So say someone who had extremely close TES (not far inferior) but far superior artistry could at least have a chance of making it interesting. Of course men's tends to be interesting because it is usually chaos. I'm not talking about a skater with only 1 quad. I'm talking a hypothetical skater who had 1 less quad but intricate steps into the quads they do.

This is already possible within the existing scoring system. It is not the fault of the system if judges can't distinguish between TES and PC. Also, I do think that a Hanyu would be able to beat Chen with one quad less if both had the same points in short program and a clean free. Maybe also Uno and even Kagiyama if you consider his extremely inflated PC in the short. The problem is than Nathan has a very good artistry which some are unable to see and to acknowledge. But one less quad won't keep a truly superior skater regarding artistry from beating him. And when do we see clean skates anyway. Jason is in the last group today without a quad and there were as few errors in the men's short program as never before. So a lot is possible actually. But personally I prefer a skater with world record TES and good artistry over a skater with mediocre TES and very good artistry. I don't want someone with 5 quads in the free skate being beaten by someone with 2 or 3. The difficulty of the whole thing is a different then. And to be honest, I see nobody who really has a program that is still remembered as a masterpiece in 50 years. If it was super innovative and mesmerizing, then its brilliant execution could justify winning over a stronger TES of one or two more quads. But this is simply not the case.

 

[el henry]

... The difficulty of the whole thing is a different then. And to be honest, I see nobody who really has a program that is still remembered as a masterpiece in 50 years. ....

Just one point: not among the LPs perhaps, but Robin Cousins has said that Sinnerman is a program that will be acknowledged as a classic among generations to come (or it could have been the co-commenter, and he agreed).

Personally, I would rather seen stunning blade work, difficult choreo, tight and beautiful spins, and yes, performance, than a certain number of revolutions in the air. I most definitely would love to see a three quad skater, if superior in those technical bladework and spin aspects, victorious over a skater with five quads.

Do I think that will happen? No. Just my preference as one who follows the sport of figure skating.