- Joined
- Mar 7, 2015
Didn't you correct me saying that Kevin Reynolds quads at 4CC were under so he's not the first to do much of anything ? Then why does it count in your books for Ilia... Trying is one thing... succeeding is another thing
2024-25 GPF: Men's Thoughts?
- Thread starter gsk8
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2015
I talked on the phone with my mom on Sunday and she told me " I thought about you, there was figure skating on TV !..." My mom knows nothing about skating.
Yup.. French CBC showed some of the dance and some of the men...
Here are her words : There was an ice dancer without a back on his jacket... THEY were so wonderful. They were floating on the ice.
And then she said," There was a young man trying to be a vampire or something... Gosh, he struggled... it was not good to watch. "
So for someone who doesn't know the difference between jumps and number of revolutions, guess what was the most pleasing thing to watch ?
Piper and Paul's Free Dance, definitely not Ilia's LP. I think it's something to consider. To someone who doesn't know the fine details of the sport, our world champion quadg0d was "struggling" and not any fun to watch. Difficult and rough were other words used.
So yeah.... just thought I'd share this...
Yup.. French CBC showed some of the dance and some of the men...
Here are her words : There was an ice dancer without a back on his jacket... THEY were so wonderful. They were floating on the ice.
And then she said," There was a young man trying to be a vampire or something... Gosh, he struggled... it was not good to watch. "
So for someone who doesn't know the difference between jumps and number of revolutions, guess what was the most pleasing thing to watch ?
Piper and Paul's Free Dance, definitely not Ilia's LP. I think it's something to consider. To someone who doesn't know the fine details of the sport, our world champion quadg0d was "struggling" and not any fun to watch. Difficult and rough were other words used.
So yeah.... just thought I'd share this...
Last edited:
Ilia's SP was probably the only genuinely good skate across the two segments, both technically and performance-wise. Interestingly, his FS, for all its underrotation disasters and deductions, still felt like the performance of the night, because when all was said and done, the man still stood up on six quads and backflipped his way to glory. The 4A was a highlight.
Hoping Yuma's 4S comes back with all its beauty next competition. It was shy this week. Unmatched step sequences for real. Is there a compilation of his step sequences anywhere? Because someone needs to make one.
I just love, love Aymoz and his programs. Perhaps the most natural performer and skater of the whole field - everything just feels organic. His one-handed cartwheel into the shoot-the-duck position in the FS is my favorite choreographic move from the men this year. I'd love to see him come back to top 5 at Worlds. Might be a tall order, but I think it's possible.
I know the pundits have been hating on Shun's lack of performance skills and audience projection, but I really like him. I thought his FS was the best he's really performed it all season, not just technically but in terms of projection.
Shaidorov is completely benefiting from the underdog role right now in terms of popularity. If he ever beats Yuma, fans are going to turn on him so fast. He's all hopeful energy, ambition, and humor right now. His instagram story about he and Malinin are q-skaters made me laugh. His skating skills and polish are not good. Reminds me of Ilia 2 years ago, but perhaps at even a worse level. That said, he can get far with a 4Lz, 4F, 4T, and 3A-4T. Go forth, young man.
I don't have anything to say about Grassl.
Good for him for qualifying for GPF after a year's absence.
Hoping Yuma's 4S comes back with all its beauty next competition. It was shy this week. Unmatched step sequences for real. Is there a compilation of his step sequences anywhere? Because someone needs to make one.
I just love, love Aymoz and his programs. Perhaps the most natural performer and skater of the whole field - everything just feels organic. His one-handed cartwheel into the shoot-the-duck position in the FS is my favorite choreographic move from the men this year. I'd love to see him come back to top 5 at Worlds. Might be a tall order, but I think it's possible.
I know the pundits have been hating on Shun's lack of performance skills and audience projection, but I really like him. I thought his FS was the best he's really performed it all season, not just technically but in terms of projection.
Shaidorov is completely benefiting from the underdog role right now in terms of popularity. If he ever beats Yuma, fans are going to turn on him so fast. He's all hopeful energy, ambition, and humor right now. His instagram story about he and Malinin are q-skaters made me laugh. His skating skills and polish are not good. Reminds me of Ilia 2 years ago, but perhaps at even a worse level. That said, he can get far with a 4Lz, 4F, 4T, and 3A-4T. Go forth, young man.
I don't have anything to say about Grassl.
Good for him for qualifying for GPF after a year's absence.
It began with him making history at the Grand Prix De France as the first skater to land a clean 3A+4T with positive GOE and following up with the same combo done clean at Cup of China. At this GPF he went for a different combo no one had ever done before which was the 3A+Eu+4S. It was not executed with positive GOE, but most people didn't know that when he did it. Add in infectious joy when he's in the kiss and cry at other events and hugging a little girl on the ice for giving him a huge bear, well, you now have Mr. Popularity.
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2015
Wow... I need more than a couple fancy combos and some joie de vivre ... his skating at worlds last year was probably the one that left me the coldest....
We get that you really dislike Mallinin.
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2015
I thought it was interesting to share the perspective of someone who is not a regular skating fan. I have expressed my views on Ilia. Not my cup of tea. I don't dislike him, I dislike the style of skating he brings to the ice. Two different things.
"Sorry Kurt... I need more than a Brick House derriere, patent leather pants, a fancy quad toe loop, and some joie de vivre."
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2018
Add in his Kung Fu Panda exhibition routine, where he does triples and a spiral while swathed in an enormous panda costume.
He’s like Ilia, a fearless teenaged jumping machine, but with charm. I predict a bright future for this lad.
Neither he or Ilia are teenagers anymore! Both are 20 now. I believe the only teenager amongst the top senior men now is Kao Miura (19).
Maybe to give some actual stats of who people are watching, these are the Skating ISU YouTube channel view counts for men's SP / FS:
- Ilia Malinin: 23K / 35.9K views
- Mikhail Shaidorov: 8.4K / 5.9K views (honorable mention: 5.8K views for panda gala, lol)
- Kevin Aymoz: 2.6K / 3.3K views
- Yuma Kagiyama: 2.4K / 3.3K views
- Shun Sato: 0.8K / 1.3K views
- Daniel Grassl: 0.9 K / 1.2K views
The channel is geo-blocked in the US, so these are non-US viewers and does not include any other country that has broadcast rights (so I believe this will also exclude Japan, Canada etc), but it's otherwise a representative sample outside those countries. It's actually kind of nice, because it removes national viewership biases from the big feds.
Ilia has the highest number of views in the SP, FS, and gala across all disciplines. In fact, no one else really comes close to him, except for Shaidorov in the gala. Now, make what you will out of all of this. Despair or rejoice at the future of figure skating or do neither, because are view counts a measure of who should win or who is the better skater? Does a Marvel movie with mega box office win the Oscar? No, absolutely not, but it's a quick, easy barometer of interest and general popularity.
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2013
You must be mistaken. This cannot be correct.
I'm reliably informed that skating with ambition, enthusiasm, and athleticism is the death of our sport.
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2020
I don't know about all these countries but I know from my own living experience that broadcast rights do not mean geo-blocking YouTube by default. I know this is the case in US but here I can watch most competitions both on Eurosport and YT, and sometimes even on another local TV channel, whichever I choose, it's been like that for ages. I guess it depends on the legal cultures and contracts.
Still, in the VPN era geo-blocking just does not mean much anyway - anyone can pretend to be anywhere they need and watch whatever they wish from wherever they happen to be.... I heard VPNs are also very popular in Russia recently which might be also relevant here..
Just saying.
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2007
That’s very interesting.
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2013
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2015
Wow. I didn't expect my post to create such animosity. Honestly, it tells more about some than about me. Best wishes to your cousin Bubba but as far as little cousins are concerned,Wait until you hear what my cousin Bubba texted me.
@el henry 's has already claimed first in line.
Last edited:
Interestingly, the view counts are higher than those of 2022 GPF but way lower than 2023 GPF across the board. Last year, Ilia's 4A SP garnered 53K views and his FS with 5 clean quads 97K. Kaori's FS from last year has 45K views, whereas Amber's FS this year only has 9K. So unless the number of countries who have access to this channel has really gone down between last year and this year, the winner/general performance level and interest seemed to be much higher last year.
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2013
Some people understand you perfectly.
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2019
Canada is not excluded. So all 26 of us are watching it! CBC maybe still has the rights, but after a half-hearted attempt to GB YouTube channel for figure skating a couple of years ago for like the whole day (!), they probably decided it is not worth the energy and manpower, lol. Our main nemesis is the big music rights holders that block skating because of music skaters use.
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2015
The main nemesis is when the feds/venue organizers do not pay for their licenses... which is not the case at all in Canada. That's how and why everything is streamed and archived forever. Not sure what you mean here.
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2022
Hello!
Yesterday I finished to see this incredible Men's final. It was breathtaking for me, I enjoyed it so so much!!
- What to say about Ilia MALININ, my favorite?
I'm going to control myself in this following lines, but it will be hard....
He was just SUPERB. Ilia once again has shown his unique skating. He's making in fact another kind of figure skating, there's nothing to do with a past generation of five years ago with Hanyu and Chen. They were, my goodness, enormously great with skating skills, technique, artistic choreography, nothing to say of course. But here, with Malinin, we are in another level, another planet, he reached and still is reaching the highest ambitions ever dreamed or imagined, he's fighting human possibilities in figure skating!!
He already set another record, seven quads even if not so good at the landing, but this doesn't change his improvements; he pushes forward and it means he will be able to get all them right. And he gives us his signature with an unexpected, amazing quad Axel!! I would say, Ilia is a prodigious skater!
I was disappointed though with judges's decicions, they took away too many points according to me. Ilia said that this however gives him a motivation to work harder: he demonstrates to us he's never tired to improve, to develop new skills. He's a great fighter.
I was so much exited in seeing his stunning performances! He improved so much since last year in matter of interpretation, choreography details, also skating skills: I've never seen anybody skating as smoothly as he does, it's like he's not skating, he shows mostly no effort in doing jumps, spins, ecc, it's like he really flies! I will define him as the "Paganini of the ice, of the skates"!! And he involves so much the audience with his programs because he plays so well his characters. It's like he is the character he's playing during the competition; while reciting the words of Running during the performance, while the vampire screams, it seem it's Ilia acting! I think he has also quality of acting.
Sooo many congratulations for his hard work to him and his team! Can't wait to see him at the Worlds
- Next turn: KAGIYAMA
In this final, even if he didn't get the Salchow right, he has shown how much a good stubborn he is. With all the pressure he had, he continued to fight till the end! And what a program! Both of his performances were amazing! I see a very great improvement of components, interpretation, skating skills since he decided to be coached by Carolina Kostner.
There's always a great "crescendos" in his programs, an addition of elements and speed that are difficult to control while the music increases its climax, something that it's difficult for other skaters to do. Super good job, I liked his programs very much!
- Shun SATO
A great skater who's never behind to techical difficulties while trying to set great programs. He always surprise me, there's a will and a high concentration to skate so clean his programs that leads him to obtain the highest ranks. I liked in particular the short program, "girls in lavander", because there was a special feeling and emotions here. He is going to raise even more his skating in the next future!
- Daniel GRASSL
An Italian at the finals!!! He was great, though a lot of points has been took away. He improved so much finally with his latest coaches, but his jump techique must be fixed to avoid such a loss. On the other hand, Daniel has a classical skating that suits perfectly with the character he plays in the free program, and he shows us he's always able to perform difficult choreo elements.
I'm happy so see that he finally might found a good coach team, he deserves to improve skating with someone whom he agree with. Go forward my compatriot!!!
- Mikhail SHAIDOROV
I like so much this guy, not only on the ice but also as a person, is one of my favorites!! Well first of all, his technique has improved a lot during this season, and unfortunately if it wasn't for that Lutz and some imprecision at the landings, I believe he would got the 3rd place tranquilly. But I'm happy for him, reading what he said later about this competition. He was so brilliant with his skating techique jumps, and I'm so happy he landed again 3A-4T and now a new record, 3A-4S !! Mikhail is really a tough skater, a fighter, someone who's not intimidated by his other competitors, and he's so promising for the Worlds! I see how he's giving a good, great push not only for figure skating in general, but also for Kazhakstan skating, and I find in this also an effort that honors the great Denis Ten..
A big jump of artistic quality he has done too: he matured great class, elegance, skating skills, interpretation, precision at the edges, and he also captures the audience with difficult, ambitious and choreographic programs. I like to see how Mikhail and Righini get along, also with Urmanov, I find them to be a good team together. I wish him to look forward the next competitions with great expectations because he's really talented and has all the ability to reach the highest podium, and I will root for him at the Worlds!
- Kevin AYMOZ
He's an acrobat! I like to see his difficult skating skills. He has talent, but the pressure of competing in France didn't work good this time. He's a bomb of emotions, on and off the ice, affecting his whole team, too....
Yesterday I finished to see this incredible Men's final. It was breathtaking for me, I enjoyed it so so much!!
- What to say about Ilia MALININ, my favorite?
I'm going to control myself in this following lines, but it will be hard....
He was just SUPERB. Ilia once again has shown his unique skating. He's making in fact another kind of figure skating, there's nothing to do with a past generation of five years ago with Hanyu and Chen. They were, my goodness, enormously great with skating skills, technique, artistic choreography, nothing to say of course. But here, with Malinin, we are in another level, another planet, he reached and still is reaching the highest ambitions ever dreamed or imagined, he's fighting human possibilities in figure skating!!
He already set another record, seven quads even if not so good at the landing, but this doesn't change his improvements; he pushes forward and it means he will be able to get all them right. And he gives us his signature with an unexpected, amazing quad Axel!! I would say, Ilia is a prodigious skater!
I was disappointed though with judges's decicions, they took away too many points according to me. Ilia said that this however gives him a motivation to work harder: he demonstrates to us he's never tired to improve, to develop new skills. He's a great fighter.
I was so much exited in seeing his stunning performances! He improved so much since last year in matter of interpretation, choreography details, also skating skills: I've never seen anybody skating as smoothly as he does, it's like he's not skating, he shows mostly no effort in doing jumps, spins, ecc, it's like he really flies! I will define him as the "Paganini of the ice, of the skates"!! And he involves so much the audience with his programs because he plays so well his characters. It's like he is the character he's playing during the competition; while reciting the words of Running during the performance, while the vampire screams, it seem it's Ilia acting! I think he has also quality of acting.
Sooo many congratulations for his hard work to him and his team! Can't wait to see him at the Worlds
- Next turn: KAGIYAMA
In this final, even if he didn't get the Salchow right, he has shown how much a good stubborn he is. With all the pressure he had, he continued to fight till the end! And what a program! Both of his performances were amazing! I see a very great improvement of components, interpretation, skating skills since he decided to be coached by Carolina Kostner.
There's always a great "crescendos" in his programs, an addition of elements and speed that are difficult to control while the music increases its climax, something that it's difficult for other skaters to do. Super good job, I liked his programs very much!
- Shun SATO
A great skater who's never behind to techical difficulties while trying to set great programs. He always surprise me, there's a will and a high concentration to skate so clean his programs that leads him to obtain the highest ranks. I liked in particular the short program, "girls in lavander", because there was a special feeling and emotions here. He is going to raise even more his skating in the next future!
- Daniel GRASSL
An Italian at the finals!!! He was great, though a lot of points has been took away. He improved so much finally with his latest coaches, but his jump techique must be fixed to avoid such a loss. On the other hand, Daniel has a classical skating that suits perfectly with the character he plays in the free program, and he shows us he's always able to perform difficult choreo elements.
I'm happy so see that he finally might found a good coach team, he deserves to improve skating with someone whom he agree with. Go forward my compatriot!!!
- Mikhail SHAIDOROV
I like so much this guy, not only on the ice but also as a person, is one of my favorites!! Well first of all, his technique has improved a lot during this season, and unfortunately if it wasn't for that Lutz and some imprecision at the landings, I believe he would got the 3rd place tranquilly. But I'm happy for him, reading what he said later about this competition. He was so brilliant with his skating techique jumps, and I'm so happy he landed again 3A-4T and now a new record, 3A-4S !! Mikhail is really a tough skater, a fighter, someone who's not intimidated by his other competitors, and he's so promising for the Worlds! I see how he's giving a good, great push not only for figure skating in general, but also for Kazhakstan skating, and I find in this also an effort that honors the great Denis Ten..
A big jump of artistic quality he has done too: he matured great class, elegance, skating skills, interpretation, precision at the edges, and he also captures the audience with difficult, ambitious and choreographic programs. I like to see how Mikhail and Righini get along, also with Urmanov, I find them to be a good team together. I wish him to look forward the next competitions with great expectations because he's really talented and has all the ability to reach the highest podium, and I will root for him at the Worlds!
- Kevin AYMOZ
He's an acrobat! I like to see his difficult skating skills. He has talent, but the pressure of competing in France didn't work good this time. He's a bomb of emotions, on and off the ice, affecting his whole team, too....
