2025 World Championships Men's Short Program

[kszal]

Hi all, just left the arena and wanted to give my impressions. The first Korean guy's music hurt my ears! I love Jason but he looks a bit old, not sure he should hang on another season. Torgashev looked nervous but pulled it out! Junwhan is beautiful to watch, just melting movements. Deniss was much slower than I anticipated but stephane is still super attractive!!! Eteri blechhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Love Lukas B, great energy! Mikhail S is okay but needs choreo help, not projecting out to audience. KEVIN literally made me cry it was so beautiful!!!! Adam seemed a bit off but that slide was breathtaking. Yuma is beautiful to watch but I don't like that music for him and he lacks the charisma that Ilia projects on the ice. Ilia's jumps are so high and rotation so fast it is really amazing to see. Great to watch these amazing skaters in my hometown!

 

[reader3]

What an exciting skate from Ilia and love the audience response! He's marvelous. Yuma had a beautiful skate as well. Congrats to the top 3 so far. Misha is having quite a season. Honorable mentions to Kevin and Shun. I'm sorry that Jun didn't have a better skate.

Nice to see Raf there with Ilia in the k&c. Enjoyed Johnny Weir's comments. (viewing on USA cable channel, subsidiary of NBC)

 

[georgia]

I was in the arena! Ilia was captivating!
Yuma was great!
Well…a quad flip and a quad lutz in combination are unbelievable to witness ! Yuma is lucky! As great as he is, he is not Ilia.

 

[Skating Bobr]

what's with this stream showing kam o shea

I think that was CBC's fault. They later showed CBC's "This program has ended" frame. I also noticed the audio on CBC is worse than when I watch via YouTube

 

[cailuj365]

I only had time to watch the top 2 because it's still in the middle of the work day here in California, but Ilia and Yuma are both phenomenal!! So happy that they both delivered to their max. That is how you compete and perform for the moment, boys! I wouldn't gripe about the scores between them. It's only 3 points, and it's a testament to Yuma's tremendous skating that he can get a stellar score of 107 for a 4S, 4T-3T program. To me, this is a fair difference for the difference in base value, which Yuma chipped away at with PCS. Both skaters performed cleanly and incredibly well. If Ilia was any other skater, I could see him being nervous and disappointed that the lead wasn't bigger, but Ilia just seems so secure and happy about his AND Yuma's performance, that he seems genuinely thrilled that Yuma is right up there too. Honestly, it's really nice to see competitors talk like this.

Did Yuma's short program music edit change? It seemed WAY more effective once the vocals came in. The rock guitar melody throughout kept the musical thread, whereas before it felt like a jarring change. It really helped him sell it all the way to the end. Love this for him. That 4S looked scary, but the guy can pull out flawless landings out of nowhere.

Idk what to say about Ilia's performance ability and the way he connects to the audience during this program. I've never seen a crowd just cheer that loud 20 seconds before the ending like that. He completely basked in the love and sent it right back to them. Every jumping pass had me gasping, particularly the 4Lz-3T. I don't know how he goes into these looking like he's about to do a double and then springs SO high into the air. The SP has been a winner the whole season, but the LP is a different story.

Best of luck to everyone on Saturday. I want all of the competitors to do their best!

 

[mirai4life]

I was in the arena! Ilia was captivating!
Yuma was great!
Well…a quad flip and a quad lutz in combination are unbelievable to witness ! Yuma is lucky! As great as he is, he is not Ilia.

lucky for what exactly

 

[Karoltyna]

lucky for what exactly

I'd say Ilia was very lucky one here.

 

[Janice4th]

I think the judges are doing Ilia an immense disservice with those PCS. They’re scoring him like he has practically no room for improvement when he clearly does and has improved in the past, but not by nearly as dramatic a margin as the scores would seem to indicate. And Ilia would still have deservedly held the lead with lower PCS! Judging like this makes it very hard to stay invested in this sport,

What are you considering under PCS? While Ilia’s style may not be your preference, there is nothing lacking in his skating skills. More than that, he isn’t just skating to music, he is skating with the music.

 

[Janice4th]

Agree with Ilya's tech, but that PCS is too much. He's just not at the top of the heap for PCS. Still wouldn't affect the standings.

What does PCS mean to you?

 

[cailuj365]

When Ilia lip syncs like this, it's like I'm watching a music video, and I actually really love that. I've never experienced that in figure skating before. It's like the vocals are truly part of his performance. He was even lip syncing into the 4Lz combo. Just insanity.

 

[Mathman]

I think the point is that in men's skating these days anyone who does a Triple Lutz in combination and a triple flip is pretty much automatically going to score ahead of skaters whose quads are 4T and 4S. Usually the big jumper is able go grab enough GOE and PCS along the way to end up comfortably in the lead.

But however impressive the BIG QUADS may be on the tech side, the base value differential was still ony 4.07 points. Yuma was able to hold his own and even make up a point in GOEs and PCSs.

Ilia will still have the advantage going into the free skate, but he will have to earn the title.

 

[skatespin]

Egadze's SP is a cheap knock-off of Andrew's brilliant SP. To me that seems like extremely poor taste, but Eteri is his coach so it kind of fits.

Hard to watch that be put ahead of Andrew, who I feel was a little underscored. Perhaps because he had to skate in an earlier group.

 

[msteach3]

Was in the arena and it was absolutely electrifying. All of the guys put their heart and souls into their performances, so I will not criticize. I agree with all the placements and think the judges did a good job. Some of the music choices fall a bit flat with the audience, particularly those that are more classical in nature. Not surprising in the US. It was blast to be there, and big congrats to the top 10.

 

[msteach3]

Ilia got 7 4's for a 4F that look on the q, but at the very least not fully rotated and this needs to be reflected in GOE.

Awkward 3A with a landing that looked on the q 4 4's and 4 3's.

4Lz-3T with both landing definitely on the q with huge prerotation on the 3T got 3 4's and 6 3's.

What world is it I'm in? What's going on?

Then 7 5's on the step sequence.

At least no perfect 10's this time just 9.75's.

I wax in the arena sitting very close to the ice and I disagree with your assessments. Ilia was clearly well and above everyone except for Yuma.

 

[RafaelAstro]

I feel so bad for Donovan. Going from 15th place last year, the best result of his career at a World Championship, to 27th place this year, losing his Olympic qualification for next year, is very frustrating. I really hope he can qualify in September.

 

[Jontor]

Late to the party. All I can say is...

Andreas!!
Roman!!
Mihhail!!
Andrew!!
Adam!! (Hagara)
Kevin!!
Nikolaj!!
Ilia!!
Yuma!!

 

[ramurphy2005]

I'm rewatching Ilia's SP on the NBC Youtube upload, and the first time watching this, I didn't realize that he put his arms over his head on the 3T.

 

[Janice4th]

The raspberry twist has to be one of the coolest moves in figure skating.

 

[Mathman]

The raspberry twist has to be one of the coolest moves in figure skating.

To me, it depends. This one was an especially stellar example.

 

[CellarDweller]

Kevin, you did it! I can breath now!

I felt like I was holding my breath in the arena! I was so happy for him when he finished skating, and even better after he ended in fourth!