2022 Olympics: Men's Free Skate

[TontoK]

Wishing all the men the very best tonight.

Our sport needs a positive and uplifting event right now.

 

[liv]

I still wish the judges would do their jobs properly re: the PCS. If someone has intricate choreo, skates lights out, interprets beautifully and has such amazing edges and speed that even Cizeron would gape in awe, but they can't do even a 3A, they should still be given 8s, 9s or 10s in those categories. The lack of jumping difficulty should be seen in the tech mark, not the PCS and right now so much of the PCS is tied to having a quad. That is my biggest beef. Oh, and GOE goes up or down sometimes inexplicably too.

 

[bigsisjiejie]

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?

As long as he skates clean, I'd be OK if Nathan showed up in a Hawaiian shirt.

 

[siberia82]

CBC.ca livestream link (it may be geoblocked outside of Canada): https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1993628227822

 

[treblemakerem]

I am so nervous for them. The drama of today just made it worse. I just hope everyone skates well today and many clean skates.

 

[Florian]

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.

And Jason was rewarded in the short program. If the Japanese had not been overscored, the gap to the podium would be much smaller for him. Almost 100 points for a quadless program is extremely good in my opinion, but I would not put him in front of someone with two of the most difficult quads and a very decent artistry, even if his program was not as memorable. But you can see that it works when you compare Jason to Semenenko who showed two quads, but completely lacked artistry. Jason could beat him. So somehow it works.

Of course everybody has their preference, there has always been those who value technical content more than artistry and vice versa. I have always been for the primacy of TES over PC, in my opinion it should be 60:40 rather than 50:50 and one reason for it is also that TES is much more objective than PC.

 

[moonvine]

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.

I think the problem is no cap exists in TES but it does in GOE. I can't think of how to fix this because removing the cap from GOE would just inflate the GOE and the same skaters would still win, just with more points. It's really awfully boring (for me anyway) to look at the top 3 from the short and think welp, that's probably your medalists. Of course something totally unexpected could happen. It is the men, after all. Dance is even much more boring, like watching paint dry.

 

[moonvine]

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.

There are only 24 so Donovan has a really good chance!

 

[Andrea82]

The officials

Referee	Mr. BIANCHETTI Fabio	Italy
Technical Controller	Mr. HUANG Feng	China
Technical Specialist	Ms. VANDECAVEYE Vera	Belgium
Assistant Technical Specialist	Mr. GALAMBOS Sandor	Switzerland
Judge No.1	Ms. FANG Dan	China
Judge No.2	Ms. SEROVA Ekaterina	Belarus
Judge No.3	Ms. KUBOTA Masako	Japan
Judge No.4	Ms. MARTINEZ Sasha	Mexico
Judge No.5	Mr. MISUREC Miroslav	Czech Republic
Judge No.6	Ms. KANTOR Anna	Israel
Judge No.7	Ms. NORDBACK Asa	Sweden
Judge No.8	Ms. KULIK Zanna	Estonia
Judge No.9	Ms. BRAMBATI Claudia	Italy

Compared to Short Program
In: Estonia, Mexico, Czech Republic
Out: France, South Korea, Canada

 

[maofan]

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.

What about changing GOE from (+5, -5) to (+1, -1) for example?
There is too much room there for the judges to add +4, +5 GOEs for every jump of a higher ranked skater, which will never be rewarded to a lower ranked skater, no mater how well they do the jumps( they will barely received +1, +2).

 

[Horsefeathers]

As long as he skates clean, I'd be OK if Nathan showed up in a Hawaiian shirt.

You might be onto something there. I just googled Hawaiian shirt with space print and came up with all sorts of good candidates!

 

[readernick]

What about changing GOE from (+5, -5) to (+1, -1) for example?
There is too much room there for the judges to add +4, +5 GOEs for every jump of a higher ranked skater, which will never be rewarded to a lower ranked skater, no mater how well they do the jumps( they will barely received +1, +2).

Yes, but then again it also wouldn't accurately reflect the difference in quality between Yuma K's jumps ( truly beautiful) and Sememenko's jumps. ( Done but ) I think judges shouldn't give GOE but instead check boxes to award jumps +/- GOE bullets.

 

[Horsefeathers]

Maybe 4. I'm hoping Jason goes for his quad toe and gets a green Box. I think it would be a career highlight for him and a HUGE thrill for all of his fans.

I can't stay up to watch, but if he does, you'll all hear me screaming like a maniac when I get to watch the replay.

 

[lady_bee]

Good Morning!
I got a day off from my work, since I was not able to concentrate on what I should do.
and I wanted to watch the competition with GS members.

I am getting excited & nervous already....

 

[cheerknithanson]

Well, less than 30 minutes left.

 

[readernick]

Maybe 4. I'm hoping Jason goes for his quad toe and gets a green Box. I think it would be a career highlight for him and a HUGE thrill for all of his fans.

I don't think he is going for the quad. His 4S was looking better good in practices earlier this week but not the last couple of days. I think he is instead going to go clean, so he can have a beautiful program. Honestly, we don't watch Jason for the jumps, do we?

 

[Florian]

I think the problem is no cap exists in TES but it does in GOE. I can't think of how to fix this because removing the cap from GOE would just inflate the GOE and the same skaters would still win, just with more points. It's really awfully boring (for me anyway) to look at the top 3 from the short and think welp, that's probably your medalists. Of course something totally unexpected could happen. It is the men, after all. Dance is even much more boring, like watching paint dry.

The cap of TES is the physically possible. It is the highest pointed elements added up. The GOE extension has done the most damage in the last years in my opinion. Giving the judges more space in how to score TES is the least we need. I don't think a brilliantly executed triple jump should match a normal quad. But this is already possible nowadays. And yes, you see that the more freedom you give to the judges, the worse it gets because there is still the problem of them not distinguishing. It can only be solved by separate panels for judging TES and PC and by clearer instructions.

And well, I don't think that the three in the lead at the moment are boring in any way. And neither the competition itself. I think we should be thankful for so many skaters doing techinally challenging programs cleanly. Of course there could be more interesting and exciiting programs artistically, but one can't have everything.

 

[4everchan]

French CBC did a mini Donovan story today.. he said he started figure skating because his sister was doing it but when he saw Vancouver 2010, he started dreaming about making it to the Olympics. Canadian connection haha

I am rooting for him then +
Mozalev redemption
Adam because he is just so cool
Keegan : all the hard times he has been through, I wish him a joy-filled performance
Cha : beautiful skating is always welcomed
Yuma : blow our minds away Gladiator !
Shoma : SHOLERO FIRE !
Nathan : you can do this my man !

(it's not because I didn't name the 16 others that I don't like them ! Will be cheering along for the whole thing !

 

[maofan]

Good luck to every single skater!
May they all have their best Olympic moment!

 

[Florian]

What about changing GOE from (+5, -5) to (+1, -1) for example?
There is too much room there for the judges to add +4, +5 GOEs for every jump of a higher ranked skater, which will never be rewarded to a lower ranked skater, no mater how well they do the jumps( they will barely received +1, +2).

I think +/- 3 was just fine.