2023 Skate America Men's Free Skate

[anonymoose_au]

I'm catching up since I was at my parents place for lunch.

I'm on the second group now, but one thing I gotta say...

"Gogo with a costume, in our figure skating?!!"

Also, Deniss is working that pink v-neck

 

[anonymoose_au]

Also in the hilarity corner... Nika ripping open his shirt for the choreo sequence. Like...he actually has a button on it for that purpose Enjoyed the program though! You know I can't resist a good Roxaaaaaane.

 

[icewhite]

I keep wondering what they are meant to represent.

The blood on the hands (metaphorically) of a torero? That's how I'm interpreting it.
Or is he the bull with bloody horns?
Anyway it's definitely blood in a bullfight...

 

[cheerknithanson]

Rewatched the press conference of the men's FP. Aymoz is a funny man. I like how he said that he told his coach for 2 years that he thought the coach was boring for suggesting Bolero and then once he saw it performed, he cried and said to the coach he was sorry for thinking the coach was boring.

 

[RatedPG]

I just finished watching. I didn’t watch this event live.

Ilia!! That was magnificent!! He executed the quads he was most comfortable with. A score of 310 is a message to Shoma that there is a new rival. Love his combos… eu 3S, 3T, seq 3A is brilliant. If he goes back to 4A as opening element, I think he should add seq 3A and 2A to replace Euler triple salchow to grab more points

The performance of the night was Kevin Aymoz!! Wow! That is the best choreo sequence I’ve seen. And the ending pose!! Wow!! He is in the 4-6 range due to lack of quads, but, if one of the top three messes up, he is right there for a medal at the biggest of events. I prefer him over Jason Brown in PCS. The audience engages way more with his exciting performances.

Shun Sato was meh!! Lots of talent!! But, just a Japanese skater in the 8-10 range.

I enjoyed Andrew T. Glad he moved up to 7th!! Got some points!!

Glad Deniss fell out of top 8. His cheesiness and lack of focus turns me off.

Stephen!! Yikes!! Without quads, the rest of the program lags… bad spins, etc.. just over 210 and falls to 11th.
But, he is still 18. So, he is going to either be sent to Senior Worlds or Junior Worlds this year for Canada.

 

[anonymoose_au]

Just saw Kevin and I'm screaaaaaming.

OMG...what an icon!!

The end of that choreo sequence!! If I'd been a judge I would have died on the spot after making sure to press all 10s for the PCS of course

 

[anonymoose_au]

Da-yamn... some people don't like that Ilia's Insta handle is QuadGod, but after that he can claim the name! A quad combo in the second half?! Insaaaaane.

And he's really been working on the PCS, you go, Ilia!

 

[saine]

Stephen!! Yikes!! Without quads, the rest of the program lags… bad spins, etc.. just over 210 and falls to 11th.
But, he is still 18. So, he is going to either be sent to Senior Worlds or Junior Worlds this year for Canada.

Looking at the way the Canadian judges have been scoring him at his last few international competitions... He's been getting tough love from them in PCS. His lowest marks in the short here came from the Canadian judge. He'll have a tough time being sent to Senior Worlds if he can't improve in other areas before Nationals.

I hope he has support around him, it was hard watching him this weekend.

 

[Tav]

I'm so happy for Andrew's redemption skate. He seemed to keep his cool throughout and stayed vertical. That's the key. Probably had to change some jumps here and there, but it all worked out in the end. And, he set a new PB in the free skate. Congrats to him! Get yourself some points, son!

Max is just maxing, again. I wish he would learn his Ultra-C's, or just move on to ice dance already. I think he would make a fab ice dancer with his deep edges and one-foot skating. (Entice him with a pretty girl and maybe he'd go for it, lol.) Sometimes, I just feel like he's in the wrong discipline, as if he looks wrong out there, somehow...

 

[meem]

Well....none of my peeps from here asked me anything about him in if I heard of him cause they know I'm a big skating fan. Maybe it's cause it's not Olympic season or such. But that's okay. I don't mind that.

Michael Weiss is also from this county and was lucky to get mentioned in the W. Post back in his glory days as a national champion and World medalist.

 

[SmileHappy34]

Congratulations to all skaters. The best to the . A skate well done. Ilia season and person bestto alland thank you.

 

[Ruthypegs]

oh oh... French CBC : this was a great gala number... but he gave up on the technical aspect of skating. ... and worse... Alain Goldberg thinks he is soon to retire from competitive skating.

sadly, I think that unless Deniss has some decent wins soon, Alain may be right. However, Shoma Uno was considering retiring a few years ago and look how he turned that around.

Deniss is a remarkable talent, and I really hope that he stays skating for a good few more years.

Also, judging by the lack of angst in the K&C, I suspect that there's a bigger picture and that Stephane is working on confidence building. But I am guessing and trying to remain optimistic.

 

[elbkup]

sadly, I think that unless Deniss has some decent wins soon, Alain may be right. However, Shoma Uno was considering retiring a few years ago and look how he turned that around.

Deniss is a remarkable talent, and I really hope that he stays skating for a good few more years.

Also, judging by the lack of angst in the K&C, I suspect that there's a bigger picture and that Stephane is working on confidence building. But I am guessing and trying to remain optimistic.

We have watched him grow from a youngster to a stunning man.. he has so many options going forward. His personality really shines in the free program .. he must be a jazz fan! Would be happy if continues competing for as long as he wants to; we all get so much joy from his skating

 

[cheerknithanson]

Michael Weiss is also from this county and was lucky to get mentioned in the W. Post back in his glory days as a national champion and World medalist.

I know!

 

[FlossieH]

I'm just worried if my laptop can handle it cause it freezes cause I keep 40-50 emotional support tabs opened at all times on my Google Chrome.

Install the Opera internet browser, which has a (free) inbuilt VPN. That will keep the skating stream and your stuff on Chrome separate, and hopefully Chrome will just kind of go to sleep in the background whilst you are watching the skating. Turn the VPN on and set it to 'Europe' (this moves you to Sweden, where no-one currently has the broadcasting rights for figure skating) before you go to the Skating ISU youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@SkatingISU/streams

 

[labgoat]

It reminded me of a 1970's era ice dance program, where they just picked random pieces of music and just mashed them together.

You might get a quickstep and a tango and Send in the Clowns all in the same program.

Believe it or not, but those combos were intentional. The rules of the times required the ice dancers to show a change of tempo, rhythm and style. The real marvel was getting something together that got the crowd going. Sometimes you'd start with a tango, then the blues and end with a western or polka. It was weird sounding.

 

[labgoat]

I still say I'm a fan of Kevin even though he's retired. A creative inspiration of a sorts. Yeah that's true. As much I loved his skating, never could 100% count on it.

Count me among the Kevin R fans. Always unique, interesting music and style and smart too!

 

[labgoat]

I didn't expect that ending! I just just thinking that it was really difficult to do a really memorable Bolero - then he did that.

Kevin moves like a dancer to this music. I love it and find it mesmerizing even with a few mistakes. The pacing is great to keep his emotions in control until that inspired sassy ending playing peek-a-boo with the judges.

 

[labgoat]

I'm so close to wanting to get a VPN now since the feed on Peacock has cut off before the medal ceremony.

Do it - you will wonder why you waited so long and get rid of all that anxiety about how you are going to watch skating.

 

[labgoat]

How lucky is the US to have someone like Ilia succeed a legend like Nathan? Perhaps the two greatest quadsters the sport has ever seen.

Succession indeed - each unique and different, but both interesting to watch.