2023 Europeans: Men | Thoughts

[gsk8]

Adam Siao Him Fa of France strikes gold at Europeans

2023 European Figure Skating Championships Men’s Free Skate Adam Siao Him Fa of France struck gold at the 2023 European Figure Skating Championships on Friday in his third appearance at […]

www.goldenskate.com

A bitter pill for Aymoz, but thrilled for Fa, Rizzo and Britschgi! Here's hoping that Vasiljevs will figure out the quad Salchow before worlds!

What are your thoughts on the men's event? Any favorite routines?

I'm getting ready to go re-watch Nordeback's short

 

[Weathergal]

Adam Siao Him Fa of France strikes gold at Europeans

2023 European Figure Skating Championships Men’s Free Skate Adam Siao Him Fa of France struck gold at the 2023 European Figure Skating Championships on Friday in his third appearance at […]

www.goldenskate.com

A bitter pill for Aymoz, but thrilled for Fa, Rizzo and Britschgi! Here's hoping that Vasiljevs will figure out the quad Salchow before worlds!

What are your thoughts on the men's event? Any favorite routines?

I'm getting ready to go re-watch Nordeback's short

Nordeback's short was great - and even more impressive to take on such a mature program at his young age!

 

[4everchan]

I am just very excited for Adam and Lukas, two of my favourites Adam has the most entertaining step sequences. He is so committed. I just adore him. Lukas is very powerful and strong . I appreciate his style very much.
I was the most upset with what happened to Frangipani. He is a very nice skater to watch. Very elegant and with nice presentation though his program choices leave me unsatisfied But yeah, to nail the first 4 difficult jumping passes and to disintegrate on the easy stuff reminded me too much of what has happened to some of my favourites in the past HA ! I wish him a great season next year and that he will learn from this because, clearly, we won't see him at worlds.

 

[DancingCactus]

The free skate was really full oh horrible performances until Lukas finally saved us with a clean skate and then it got good!

Matter had the best free and Adam deservedly won, although he has done his free better at other events this season.
I wish Deniss would have landed on the podium, but since the other three were absolutely deserved winners, I can't say I'm dissatisfied. He seemed a bit stiff, probably nerves?
Also, some of Matteo's movements remind me a bit of Yagudin. His confident smile during the performance was also great!

Frangipani loosing stamina was a shame, but he has great lines and taste in costumes.

 

[Dreamer57]

I'm glad to have (re-)discovered Gabriele Frangipani - once he gets more consistent he'll start medalling in the GP series happy for two Swedish & two Estonian men next year!
I loved Matteo's free and Adam's SP, thrilled for Lukas to win bronze after recovering from injury. He was aiming for top 10!!
Shout out to Valtter who skated wonderfully to a home audience!

Wonder who Italy will send to worlds? Daniel did ok placement wise but Nikolaj has been very consistent at all his competitions.

 

[Flying Feijoa]

I am just very excited for Adam and Lukas, two of my favourites Adam has the most entertaining step sequences. He is so committed. I just adore him. Lukas is very powerful and strong . I appreciate his style very much.

I became a new fan of Lukas this season Well-rounded skater with a classic quality. Powerful yes, but from efficient edges and soft knees rather than brute force. Great to see a Swiss man medalling at Euros again!

Matteo and Adam have been my favourite male skaters in their respective countries for a while. Weird music choices this year (esp. FP) but their skating somehow makes it work.

 

[4everchan]

I became a new fan of Lukas this season Well-rounded skater with a classic quality. Powerful yes, but from efficient edges and soft knees rather than brute force. Great to see a Swiss man medalling at Euros again!

Matteo and Adam have been my favourite male skaters in their respective countries for a while. Weird music choices this year (esp. FP) but their skating somehow makes it work.

gosh.. i forgot to mention matteo in my original post... i was so excited about Adam and Lukas...the first because i just love his skating and the latter because he is my 2022 discovery and i agree with your assessment of his skating. True quality. Also, as he just broke his collarbone, I had not put him on the podium so i was elated that he managed to skate so well...
I really like Matteo for his technical quality. Tight rotation. Very neat air position. Steady. Beautiful jumps. His program concepts need a bit of work, so does his LP shirt

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

I've finally managed to catch up with the men's FS. Overall a very enjoyable event, but not without some heartbreak moments.

About Gabriele I will only say that his cartwheel was beautiful. Just forget about the step sequences (I'm still side-eying the SP technical panel).
Samoilov looked so off in the FS, I wonder if he was hurting. He has a chronic back injury after all and even though he is an established cactus, the pops looked weird - not all of them pops, but planned doubles? Hopefully he is in better shape again for Worlds. I still liked watching him - for old times' sake and I'm also vibing with the Cathedraleeee.
Nika's skating and performance quality are coming along nicely, and he has the tech. I'm looking forward to seeing him on a Euro's podium some time soon.

And of course, congrats to all of the medallists, especially to Matteo. You could see how much that medal meant to him. Once all the jumps were done, his performance really lit up. I love nothing more in figure skating than watching a skater genuinely smiling and enjoying their time on the ice!

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

Samoilov looked so off in the FS, I wonder if he was hurting. He has a chronic back injury after all and even though he is an established cactus, the pops looked weird - not all of them pops, but planned doubles? Hopefully he is in better shape again for Worlds. I still liked watching him - for old times' sake and I'm also vibing with the Cathedraleeee.

It looked like he was holding his back a couple of times as he came off the ice? I hope he's okay and able to feel healthy for Worlds.

 

[TT_Fin]

What a great evening we had on Friday. All top3 impressed me. Matteo is so artistic and I have even used to his shirt. Andreas N. was a mybe little bit lucky to get it at top10, but I am happy he did it. I think he could not believe it after his skate. I have already written some of my thoughts to thread and I must go now so I leave this here.

 

[Anna K.]

People, do you remember the times when Deniss in top 6 was a big deal? I'll remind you why it was a big deal. Because Deniss in top 6 meant Deniss in exhibition and so, Deniss in top 6 meant the objective achieved. Everything else was details.
And so for me, it's EC 2023, Deniss is in top 6 and everything else is still details.
Just saying

 

[yesterday]

People, do you remember the times when Deniss in top 6 was a big deal? I'll remind you why it was a big deal. Because Deniss in top 6 meant Deniss in exhibition and so, Deniss in top 6 meant the objective achieved. Everything else was details.
And so for me, it's EC 2023, Deniss is in top 6 and everything else is still details.
Just saying

Sometimes (or usually?) it's the fans who get greedy and expectations go through the roof after one (or two) very good results of your favourite skater.
I already posted it in the FF, with this Euros I've not been as dissappointed towards Deniss than what I thought I would be right after the FS. I have the feeling that on the other hand Deniss might be harder on himself and all that than "we" are.

He seemed relaxed in the Gala and he and the team did not look "clueless" why this or that happend so I'm confident that it's not gonna have a big negative impact.

I think he mentioned how being "greedy" now affects his skating and the overall feeling and that this is not helping. And I think part of it is that he's not been in this position before. The bar is higher now, but it's not there for no reason. He earned his "greed" over the last 1,5 seasons but just has to figure out how to use it towards difficult programs and different situations in competitions.
This will take so time and I trust them to be patient enough and the team ist for sure well aware of all of this (see SCI -> MKJWTrophy).

 

[Anna K.]

Talking about Gala. Valter Virtanen was epic. Full stop.

 

[RatedPG]

I was unimpressed by the men, I was very disappointed by the jump layouts of the top men. I don’t see any of them contending for a spot in the podium at Worlds

Matteo… 3A 2T; Should add the 3T to the 3Lz or any clean single triple jumps earlier in the program
Adam and his two 2T’s; He should only go for a 3T on any of his well landed jumps instead of his ugly 2T as his second jumps twice in his programs
Lukas …. Same problem as Adam

This is why the TES scores for the free skate were stuck at 80+. If they don’t come up with better jump layouts, they can’t outscore Jason on TES despite having quads.

 

[4everchan]

I was unimpressed by the men, I was very disappointed by the jump layouts of the top men. I don’t see any of them contending for a spot in the podium at Worlds

Matteo… 3A 2T; Should add the 3T to the 3Lz or any clean single triple jumps earlier in the program
Adam and his two 2T’s; He should only go for a 3T on any of his well landed jumps instead of his ugly 2T as his second jumps twice in his programs
Lukas …. Same problem as Adam

This is why the TES scores for the free skate were stuck at 80+. If they don’t come up with better jump layouts, they can’t outscore Jason on TES despite having quads.

There is a difference between planned content and how it happens on slippery ice.

Matteo's layout is quite ambitious with 4t, 4 loop 3feu3s, 3lz, ... in the second half he did a 3t instead of the 4t. Normally, one of these 4T would have the combo tagged to it... As a matter of fact, I believe he simply tagged an extra double toe on his second 3a which he didn't need at all, as he had already done his first axel in combo.

His layout for worlds would probably look like
4t-3t, 4loop, 3FEU3S, 3lz, 4t, 3a-2a and 3a.
Pretty potent layout.

Adam usually does a 3t after the 4t, like he did in the SP. but his 4t wasn't great... so he managed a 2t only. Adam did attempt 3 quads... had he landed the second 4toe, maybe that's where he would have put the 3t... late in the game, as the last element, adding a 3t after the 3flip is not for everyone. I am not sure what is layout is exactly, but I am pretty sure his repeated jumps are 4t and 3lz usually... in other words, the 2t was also a last minute add on...
Adam has 5 quads over both the SP and LP... I think he wants it.

Lukas, coming from a collarbone fracture, repeated jumps are 3a and 4t. He did land both his quads. I am sure he may want to add a 3t somewhere, and I trust he will do so In the SP he does it on the 3lz...

Regarding scoring, Euros didn't give out GOE as candy this weekend. I saw some pretty generous scoring at some other events lately.. but not at Euros. We will see how things are scored when they all line up together.

 

[ladyjane]

I had a very enjoyable evening with the men. I couldn't care less if a 2toe or 3toe is tagged on. I was pleasantly surprised by Lukas's skate, and in a very positive way. I have always liked him - I was so happy for him when he could go to the OG because of his 15th place at 2021 Worlds but he is making huge strides! I love Matteo too. Such a wonderful skate for him, his emotions at the end of that made it even more worthwhile. Adam's FS was a little less mesmerising than his SP, but still nice to watch. to me a deserved podium. I was sorry for Adam and Dennis to miss out but they still performed beautifully in my view. I was pleased to see Daniel getting better again, to see Nika doing good. I probably will never understand what happened with Gabriele - you start with difficult elements, perform them beautifully, with flow, and than you have a lot of falls on the easier (still not easy, but easier) ones so you fall back in placement. There were so many more programmes to like, even if we had to wait a long time for a clean one.