2024 Cup of China: Men's Thoughts?

[gsk8]

Shun Sato takes first Grand Prix gold in China

2024 Cup of China | Men Japan's Shun Sato took his first Grand Prix gold in the Men's event in Chongqing, China, on Saturday. Mikhail Shaidorov of

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Mikhail Shaidorov. I would like to see him work with other choreographers.

I did enjoy watching Daiwei Dai

What are your thoughts on the Men's event?

 

[ladyjane]

As Jackie would say: the men are menning, but not so extreme as they have done in other competitions. The top 3 was still the top 3 this time. Dennis gave me chills, I love watching him, I was happy to see Boyang getting back on track, although it is slow going, agree about watching Daiwei Dai, was flabbergasted by Saidorove - when the jumps work, it looks good, I wish Nika could put some of his Exhibition personality into his ordinary skating, Matteo is always a joy to watch and it was a shame he made mistakes in the end part, I've seen Nikolaj do better. I was happy to see Shun going to the Final (he won the JGPF in 2019 - and Kagiyama was fourth, but then won the Youth Olympic's). Good event!

 

[cailuj365]

I was struck by the general TES difficulty in this competition. Multiple quad lutzes, quad flips, 3A-4T...wow. I am impressed, and I don't hate it.

Good for Shun to be able to hang on and get his first gold medal. His SP is stronger than his LP, but I like his LP music as general listening music.

I feel like I've been waiting for Shaidorov to deliver a big performance for awhile, and I see this skate giving him a confidence boost to be a more consistent medal contender. The distance he gets with the 3A allows him to really pop off for the 4T. Really, really nice. Ilia has said that he likes Shaidorov's jumps more than his own, and I see it. He got a bit lowballed in his GOE too.

This has been a rough season for Adam so far, even with a GP win and bronze. His jumps are hard to watch right now. With his injury, I would not be surprised if he withdraws from GPF and Shaidorov gets in. I think it would help Adam in the long run.

I really liked Daiwei Dai. Really looking forward to seeing more of him.

 

[Mathman]

Mikhail Saidorov's LP was a delight -- youthful panache rules!

Shun Sato earned his gold, but I felt that the LP was skated a little bit defensively.

Adam Siao him Fa showed in the LP why a skater has to deliver his planned content before his crowd-pleasing personality and theatrical presentation can carry the day.

 

[Arriba627]

Nikolaj -- I love his flow and ice coverage. With that and his physique, I always think of John Curry when I see him. Unfortunately, the first 3 tech boxes in red were a bad start. I hope he can recover from his injury.

Deniss -- Glad to see he was able to stand up on the elusive 4S, even though it ended up being a q. I love his expressiveness in his Bayadere free skate. His choreo sequence is top notch.

Daiwei -- In spite of his two falls and needing better extension, I really enjoyed his skating. I'm glad to see that China has another up and coming skater to "carry the torch".

Boyang -- I still don't know what to expect from him, in spite of switching to Brian Orser for training. His trademark quads just aren't consistent anymore. For so long, he has been the face of China's men's skating, but I wonder how much he has left in the tank at this point. I know he has said he wants to continue. He definitely got the award for the most stuffies thrown on the ice, including a Spider Man reminder of his long-ago program!

Matteo -- Love his speed and flow on his Fix You program. Cool step sequence. Kudos to him for doing the hard work to recover from surgery.

Adam -- I know he is still injured, but I just don't get his program. The choreo that used to be edgy, quirky, and fun is starting to look very repetitive and tired. Lying on the ice in the middle of the program? I guess I don't get the artistic vision. Skip the back flip if there are really ankle ligament problems. The newness of it is already wearing off. No flow whatsoever out of the jumps, probably partially due to the injury.

Mikhail S. -- That opening 4Lz was a stunner. Then he went flying into the 3A-4T. 19 points just for that one combination? Yikes! Yes he can improve on the PCS, but he is really one to watch!

Shun -- Congrats to Shun for holding it together after having the pressure of leading after the short. He looked really nervous, and maybe that accounted for his rather stiff looking appearance. His extension is getting better, but he still needs to work on it. I like the SP more than the FS, but the FS is growing on me. Love that one move where he does a knee slide and then goes into a stag leap. I hope he can continue to work with Guillaume Cizeron.

 

[Arigato]

I was struck by the general TES difficulty in this competition. Multiple quad lutzes, quad flips, 3A-4T...wow. I am impressed, and I don't hate it.



I feel like I've been waiting for Shaidorov to deliver a big performance for awhile, and I see this skate giving him a confidence boost to be a more consistent medal contender. The distance he gets with the 3A allows him to really pop off for the 4T.

The good news: Shaidorov just made the top 10 in FS TES. Hopefully he knows it, I think he'd be thrilled.

Top 10 highest personal best technical element scores in the men's free skating [44]

No.	Skater	Nation	Score	Event
1	Ilia Malinin	United States	137.18	2024 World Championships
2	Nathan Chen	United States	129.14	2019–20 Grand Prix Final
3	Adam Siao Him Fa	France	116.83	2024 World Championships
4	Yuzuru Hanyu	Japan	116.59	2019 Skate Canada International
5	Yuma Kagiyama	Japan	116.50	2022 Winter Olympics (team)
6	Shoma Uno	Japan	111.59	2022–23 Grand Prix Final
7	Vincent Zhou	United States	110.19	2021 Skate America
8	Cha Jun-hwan	South Korea	105.65	2023 World Championships
9	Mikhail Shaidorov	Kazakhstan	104.77	2024 Cup of China
10	Daniel Grassl	Italy	103.35	2022 Winter Olympics

 

[Skating91]

It's a shame Misha gets victimised so much. He was so good he didn't give the officials the opportunity to manipulate it too much. Still, that silver would have been an easy gold if he belonged to the big two.

 

[ElSoteroLoco]

To start: The men's SP was, to me, the BEST men's SP during this grand prix. Pretty much all the men showed up, starting with Dai Daiwei

Dai Daiwei- Like there is a genre of easy listening music, where its enjoyable and pleasant... I find his style like easy skating! His jumps and skating just flow! And like Johnny Weir always says, that its the competition within the competition, he was the top man from China beating Boyang! Good accomplishment for him!

Denis- I respect and admire that he still continues to attempt the quad and not giving up. Which he landed!! Must feel gratifying.

Boyang- I keep waiting for that Boyang to come out that we first saw in his first few seasons, but, I'm starting to think like someone above had mentioned, maybe there's not much left in the tank. Maybe we will get one more EPIC skate from him before he retires. I would like that at least to happen for him.

Matteo- Very happy to see his progress after recovering from surgery. Looks like he's close to or near 100% again.

Adam- As someone mentioned above, I wouldn't be surprised if he withdrew from the GP final. I love the program, but, I'd prefer to him to be 100% healthy in time for Euros and Worlds.

Mikhail- He's been a favorite of mine for a while now. That 4lz was just amazing! And now doing the 3A/4T two competitions in a row, and spectacular BOTH times. Hopefully this will start him on a road with street cred from the international judges. I believe he deserves it. And this is also the first time I have seen him so happy and smiling....and I LOOOOOOOVE the braces on him

Shun- My man Shun held it together! Could tell he was so nervous, but, kept it under control. He so deserving of this. I really like him and Kao, but, was really rooting for him to at least make the final so the JFS could see him as the number 2 going into the nationals. It's really like the new generation rising like the sun (pun intended ) with Yuma almost being anointed the new leader. This hopefully is good turning point for him.... cant wait to see him at the final, and the upcoming Japanese nationals!!! I always love his reactions in the K&C, but his coach overtook him this time, so great to see both of them happy!!

 

[Arigato]

It's a shame Misha gets victimised so much. He was so good he didn't give the officials the opportunity to manipulate it too much. Still, that silver would have been an easy gold if he belonged to the big two.

I don't traffic in conspiracy theories or the spread of disinformation campaigns, so you'll have to translate your comments for me. What are you even talking about?

 

[Rebecca Moose]

Sato is a nice skater, but let's face it—that long program is a total snooze. Minimal performance quality. Him winning over Shaidorov might be the worst-judged result of the entire Grand Prix circuit.

Adam needs to take time off. Skip the Final, please.

I quite like Rizzo but he desperately needs better packaging. What a waste.

Deniss long program is stunning. He won PCS, but deserved even more.

 

[Mathman]

Sato is a nice skater, but let's face it—that long program is a total snooze. Minimal performance quality. Him winning over Shaidorov might be the worst-judged result of the entire Grand Prix circuit.

To coin a phrase, Sato "won it in the short program." Specifically, he won it in in jump GOEs (almost all 3s to mostly 2s) and PCSs in the short program.

Sato outpointed Shadorov by 6 points in those two categories combined, and won the segment by 5 and a half points. Yes, Shaidorov had the more lively LP, but...

 

[Rebecca Moose]

To coin a phrase, Sato "won it in the short program." Specifically, he won it in in jump GOEs (almost all 3s to mostly 2s) and PCSs in the short program.

Sato outpointed Shadorov by 6 points in those two categories combined, and won the segment by 5 and a half points. Yes, Shaidorov had the more lively LP, but...

Fair enough, but I do think Sato's skating skills inflate his composition and presentation components.

Sato outscored Shaidorov in presentation in the long program.....I don't think so. Additionally, the deduction for the ChSq slide was uncalled for. I do think he still should have won outright.

And I am not a Shaidorov fangirl -- I found his skating weak and pedestrian at best last season, but he has made significant improvements this year.

 

[Mathman]

I have to admit that I am not outraged by how the scoring turned out.. To me, Sato was smoothly elegant while Shaiderov had boyish charm and charisma.