2025 Cup of China Men's Free Skate

[el henry]

Wow, I never thought that Daniel would excite so much reaction for his program choice.

Maybe because I adored the movie Conclave, which is Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci,John Lithgow etc. chewing up the scenery and spitting it out, it could be any backstage drama movie.

The program is, um, not connecting to me for other reasons (I dread the voiceovers in general this season) but not Il Papa.

 

[Kris135]

With the way Tomoki is skating Andrew and the others hoping to win the 3rd spot for the Olympics better start putting some good skates out on the ice because he's skating like he hasn't in years. We always wondered which of these US men were finally going to get it together like they wanted to go Milan and Tomoki is showing he wants to go.

I think the one that could take it away from him is Jimmy Ma. If he the skates of his life then the fact that he holds the best international result, outside of Ilia and Jason of course, which is his bronze medal from last season's 4CC's. That medal maybe is the difference between going or staying home this February. I think Ma's first GP is in a couple of weeks if he can beat Tomoki score then the medal that Ma got may be the tie breaker here

 

[Isk]

I like this costume. I just don't really know why...

His coach might still remember the days of ZX Spectrum computer games : http://thewholedamnworld.blogspot.com/2012/11/elite-dangerous.html

 

[discodisco]

oh dear lovely cha and why are you skating to tired Moulin Rouge?

Well, I would argue that he wasn't skating to it. Up until the tango section, there was essentially no choreography and he completely skated through the music. The program didn't begin until after the three quads. Pretty unimpressive opening regardless of the Quad success or not...

 

[discodisco]

6. Junhwan CHA KOR
FS: The Show Must Go On by Queen; El Tango de Roxanne (Moulin Rouge soundtrack); Come What May (Moulin Rouge soundtrack); choreo by Shae-Lynne Bourne

4S+3Tq
4T< (hard fall, completely off-axis)
2S
3Aq (fall)
StSq4
3Lz+1Eu+2S
3Fq+2A+SEQ
FCSp3
FCCoSp4
3Fq (steps out on transition out)
ChSq1
CCoSp3

SP: 75.61 (7th)
FS: 141.92 (3rd)
TOT: 217.53 (3rd)

Oh Jun . Those boot issues are totally hindering him, apparently he had a pair that broke down after like 2 weeks and he's still struggling to find a pair that works. I love the choreo in this program, even if I detest the music and the cuts, his skating quality is so good and he really gave his all to that step sequence. If he doesn't have the boots sorted by his next event, I hope he WDs, he could've injured himself with those hard falls.

Hmm...what choreography? This has to be one of the most empty programs he's skated, and I'd argue that the music could have been almost anything, because very little of his choreography, except for a few sections, matched the music. I think this is probably one of the worst selections and cuts to this soundtrack that I've heard. And I actually have been a fan of his programs in the past. I just think this is not a good vehicle for him unless he finds a way to connect to the music more.

 

[Sai Bon]

Just caught up (feels weird watching figure skating straight after breakfast on a Sunday morning!). Thrilled for Shun, great skates by Tomoki, Mikhail and Daniel. Shun's coach's reaction in the K&C was beyond cute. Japanese guys rarely get so emotional. Shun himself is very restrained, which is probably why he has been somewhat underrated. I really like how he's developed in the past couple of years and hope he can continue to evolve. One thing I notice that he's a very fast mover (I don't mean ice coverage, his movement in general is fast and snappy), which looks a little odd in his SP, which is slow and sweeping music, whereas it goes well with Firebird. He seems more comfortable with classical music, but maybe he should diversify after the Olympic season and try more modern music?

 

[Arigato]

"I feel like Daniel ripping his shirt open is probably the most exciting part of the choreography."

Never change that snark, Johnny. Congrats to Shun and of course that quiet coach of his who needs to show more emotion. He's too restrained.

 

[discodisco]

10. Mikhail SHAIDOROV KAZ
FS: "Confessa - The Diva Dance" by Dimash, Eric Serra; "The Diva Dance" (from the Fifth Element soundtrack) by Eric Serra; choreo by Ivan Righini

3A+1Eu+4Sq
4Lz (holds on)
4F!
FCSp3
ChSq1
3F!
CCoSp3
4T+3T
3Lz+3A< (steps out)
4T< (fall)
StSq3
CSSp3

SP: 88.33 (3rd)
FS: 174.34 (1st)
TOT: 262.67 (1st)

A great opening and a scrappy finish for Mikhail. I like this program and costume; they're very on-brand for him and are statement pieces. I think the free has some room to grow with his connection to the music, and I'd love to see the choreo fleshed out a bit more with some transitions and in-betweens, but the steps are really fun and will be better once he has more conditioning. I love the weird ghost alien arms. Some of those jumps will be reviewed, the 3A and 4T were definitely under and the edges will be looked at, but it was a strong free attempt. He reminds me a bit of young Ilia where the more quads he does, the more the performance and rotation suffers. He might have scored higher here if he only did 4 quads and improved the overall quality.

Ummm... 79+ for PCS? Ummm... no.

 

[discodisco]

Only 262 in total, they keep holding him back...

I think the only one holding him back is himself, sorry. He was gifted the rotation calls on a few of his jumps, and beside the choreography being god-awful, the skating skills are pretty sketchy as well. If he wasn't skating all those quads and as a result so near the top of the leaderboard, he would be getting in the 60s for pcs. No way should he be pushing 80. In no universe...

 

[discodisco]

In comparison to Shaidorov, Malinin is the greatest skating artist of all time.

He is making Grassl look like John Curry...

 

[discodisco]

Grassl has more than one UR...

What is wrong with chris? Anytime I think a jump is clearly clean he questions the rotation, and anytime I call a jump blatantly under, like Daniel's quad sal, he gives it an enthusiastic blessing. What is going on... ?

 

[discodisco]

Just caught up (feels weird watching figure skating straight after breakfast on a Sunday morning!). Thrilled for Shun, great skates by Tomoki, Mikhail and Daniel. Shun's coach's reaction in the K&C was beyond cute. Japanese guys rarely get so emotional. Shun himself is very restrained, which is probably why he has been somewhat underrated. I really like how he's developed in the past couple of years and hope he can continue to evolve. One thing I notice that he's a very fast mover (I don't mean ice coverage, his movement in general is fast and snappy), which looks a little odd in his SP, which is slow and sweeping music, whereas it goes well with Firebird. He seems more comfortable with classical music, but maybe he should diversify after the Olympic season and try more modern music?

I agree that the choreography is great. I think the only issue with his skating is that he just doesn't have a ton of speed, power, or flow. His edges aren't as deep as the other Japanese skaters, so he just doesn't have the same power or glide into and out of many of his jumps. However, he certainly works with the considerable amount of excellent qualities he does have.

And although Firebird is a bit of a war horse, I would take a whole stable of war horses at this point over all the abominable music choices this season...

 

[CellarDweller]

The music for Shaidorov was a ... choice.

 

[CellarDweller]

after the event my son Daniel will listen to your confessions

bless me daddy for I have sinned......


(runs from thread)

 

[4everchan]

bless me daddy for I have sinned......


(runs from thread)

 

[readernick]

I think the one that could take it away from him is Jimmy Ma. If he the skates of his life then the fact that he holds the best international result, outside of Ilia and Jason of course, which is his bronze medal from last season's 4CC's. That medal maybe is the difference between going or staying home this February. I think Ma's first GP is in a couple of weeks if he can beat Tomoki score then the medal that Ma got may be the tie breaker here

Love Jimmy and I hope he proves me wrong but right now if you look at the specific body of work (someone did the specific calculations on another site) Andrew is still ahead due to decent scores this year and his placement at US Nats. Tomoki is quickly catching up due to his amazing, uncharacteristic results this season. Jimmy is quite far behind. Now, Jimmy could get good results on the GP and a good placement at Nationals and make a strong case for himself. But, right now Andrew and Tomoki are definitely the frontrunners. Let's see how their next assignments go. I don't see any of them making the GP Final ( not impossible but highly highly unlikely) so it will come down to placements on the GP and Nationals. I like them all. Andrew for the quality of his basics and choreo. Jimmy because he's so loveable and Tomoki mostly because his results this year are amazing ! So, I'm just rooting for good competitions for all of them. Let's make it an enjoyable competition and not have the one who falls the least during a mess of Nationals win it.

 

[SmileHappy34]

Good luck Tastui tabou

 

[SmileHappy34]

Enjoyable skate for me from Tsuboi

 

[SmileHappy34]

Go Jason. Redefine skating in older skating age years like the pairs and dance teams. Still have it after 30