Replay Lounge 2026 Olympics | Men

[4everchan]

Not me, lacking sleep, coffee and sanity wondering for a second if flip is edge jump pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

no. salchow, axel and loop are the edge jumps

 

[TallyT]

Even if Ilia would still be young age wise come 2030, that ankle may not hold out with the type of jumping that he does.

I don't think anyone could be mad enough to count him out for 2030 at this stage, even if his ankle does falter. Or Yuma, or Shun. But it is going to be much harder, and any ambition he had to be the next 2xOGM... well, we may be waiting another 55 years for that.

Ad that's okay, because it should be that hard to do.

 

[ladyjane]

After seeing his scores, Malinin didn't hesitate to head to the leader's chair to congratulate Shaidorov.

"I watched him skate from the locker room, and I'm just so proud of him," said Malinin. "I heard he didn't have the best season. We're all in this sport together, and we're there for each other. That's what makes this sport special. I think people forget that sometimes. They only see us competing and assume we're rivals without good relationships. But it's actually the opposite. There's joy, motivation, and encouragement. We're like a big family."

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This is sportmanship! And that congratulary hug straight after his own failure. He may look cocky at times but this really was admirable.

 

[Karoltyna]

No, if anyone need to put a blame for this event, USFS and ISU are the ones you are looking. I wrote it many times for the last few years, creating Ilia as invicible even if his jupms weren't working and crowning him OGM around 2023 did him huge disservice. Hyping the 4A just before the Olympics also had part in this.

I'm still so sad for Adam, I guess he just can't have good SP, he needs something to chase. I will forever wonder what would be the outcome if the'd still draw inside the groups and both Misha and Ilia would skate before Adam, would Misha's score be enough to chase? I hope he stays for a while because he is lacking at least 2 WC medals.

 

[sisinka]

Great sportsmanship from Ilia Malinin to Mikhail Shaidorov. That's how leading person of last quad should behave.

Top 4 skaters from Short Program didn't have their day, I feel sad for them, especially for Ilia and Adam. Come back stronger.

Congratulation to Mikhail Shaidorov for Olympic title. I hope he will keep improving in Component score.

Great for Shun Sato, Petr Gumennik and Stephen Gogolev to produce great skate.
Stephen was able to produce high quality performance in both figure skating events.

I simply love the reaction of Shun Sato's coaches after realising his student earned the medal.

Happy to see Nika Egadze keep fighting. Kevin Aymoz didn't give up and kept fighting.

Good to see Kao Miura with comeback.

I am not satisfied with few things...
Yuma is great skater, but once again he finished in front of Shun Sato in a moment where he should clearly stay behind bim, maybe even without medal. He was already supported over Adam in Short Program, which was not OK as well.

Technical panel calls. I am not against strict rotation / underrotation calls, but, please, judge like that all skaters. There was literally "calling hunt" on Petr Gumennik to control every single jumping pass. But another men finishing in top 10 had some questionable landings...and their jumps were not even controlled or got milder judgement coming to lack of rotations. This is not right.

Big MINUS for press immediately after Ilia's skate: "Was it something physical or mental (reason for not good skate)"..."When the music ended, what was your first thought?" This is so wrong to jump on athlete in such situation and make interview. Despite that Ilia handled that interview perfectly.

Overall it was night full off both nice and sad surprises. Thank you all for comments. Mainly BIG thank you to all 24 skaters who gave it their maximum they were capable of at the moment. And for those who didn't have their day - see you next time!

 

[Karoltyna]

Great sportsmanship from Ilia Malinin to Mikhail Shaidorov. That's how leading person of last quad should behave.

Top 4 skaters from Short Program didn't have their day, I feel sad for them, especially for Ilia and Adam. Come back stronger.

Congratulation to Mikhail Shaidorov for Olympic title. I hope he will keep improving in Component score.

Great for Shun Sato, Petr Gumennik and Stephen Gogolev to produce great skate.
Stephen was able to produce high quality performance in both figure skating events.

I simply love the reaction of Shun Sato's coaches after realising his student earned the medal.

Happy to see Nika Egadze keep fighting. Kevin Aymoz didn't give up and kept fighting.

Good to see Kao Miura with comeback.

I am not satisfied with few things...
Yuma is great skater, but once again he finished in front of Shun Sato in a moment where he should clearly stay behind bim, maybe even without medal. He was already supported over Adam in Short Program, which was not OK as well.

Technical panel calls. I am not against strict rotation / underrotation calls, but, please, judge like that all skaters. There was literally "calling hunt" on Petr Gumennik to control every single jumping pass. But another men finishing in top 10 had some questionable landings...and their jumps were not even controlled or got milder judgement coming to lack of rotations. This is not right.

Big MINUS for press immediately after Ilia's skate: "Was it something physical or mental (reason for not good skate)"..."When the music ended, what was your first thought?" This is so wrong to jump on athlete in such situation and make interview. Despite that Ilia handled that interview perfectly.

Overall it was night full off both nice and sad surprises. Thank you all for comments. Mainly BIG thank you to all 24 skaters who gave it their maximum they were capable of at the moment. And for those who didn't have their day - see you next time!

As to the interview - I think they has scripts ready but for all possible podium finishes and weren't prepared for what happened, so they shot random questions at him and I think so because I want to believe they are decent human beings and didn't ask such questions on purpose, maybe expecting a meltdown.

PS PL got silver in speed skating, so Ilia barely made it to main pages.

 

[yfan1]

Does anyone know the exact words of what Cha supposedly said about the ice? I just saw on another site that he said that the ice was "bad", but social media without links can be misleading.

 

[DancingCactus]

Based on what we saw yesterday I wish the podium was Shaidorov, Shun, Jun (or mabye Jun. Shun).

Yuma really was saved by the judges. I don't love the Firebird choreo, but Shun was mostly solid, with good skating skills and meh spins.

I love the Fifth Element (greeeen), but yeah. I find it kind of funny that this horrible screeching will go down in Olympic history. No discernible choreo or skating skills, but his jumps were rock solid and difficult, he threw down the gauntled and noone picked it up.

I'm gutted for Adam. When he is on, he's my favourite because he has it all and has a style that is intricate without aping Yuzu or Shoma while also having the jumps. I hope he continues.

Honestly, this is almost the first time I have some respect for Ilia a sa person. The way he congratulated Shaidorov was great.

But I also feel it's a bt disinguenous to blame the media for overhyping Ilia as if he himself, his management and the ISU hadn't done everything they could to hype him up and overscore him on PCS and GOE. Just watch him when he entered the arena. Either he is a very good actor, or he WAS that cocky.

But still, f* the media, not just the ones from the US.

Man, I wish Jun had music I liked this season, because I think even without the fall, the rest of his skate was great, especially how he ripped out the loop combo right after getting back up. I just haaaate the music.

I'm glad Kevin kept it together more or less. A shame that he couldn't perform the Bolero they way he did before, because it is a fantastic program.

I also reaaallly liked Torgashev. Yagudin-like steps.

Pity Sasha Selevko couldn't really deliver and I also sadly wasn't impressed by Deniss.

Gogolev doesn't really do much for me, but kudos for delivering four times when it counted.

Did you guys see the Wired video with Maxim Naumov answering skating related questions? I think he might become a good coach.

 

[Magill]

Whatevs. None of us know these athletes personally. Ilia was quoted as saying, as @gsk8 already posted earlier:

"I'm just so proud of [Mikhail]. We're all in this sport together, and we're there for each other. That's what makes this sport special. I think people forget that sometimes. They only see us competing and assume we're rivals without good relationships. But it's actually the opposite. There's joy, motivation, and encouragement. We're like a big family."

I remember some other quotes which were extremely off-putting to me and rather in contradiction to the above, and it is not just these most infamous ones. I will not bring them up here. Still, I cannot unhear them, sorry.... .

 

[Zora]

To those who think this event was terrible, it's perhaps because you think that only favourites should win

Figure skating wise (it's called artistic ice skating in my country...), it was a terrible event. Those skaters that showed some artistry and actually cared about posture, skating skills, musicality, messed up because they're forced to jump 3-4 quads to be able to keep up with the quadsters. And the ones that skated well like Gogolev, Shaidorov, Gumennik etc. - sorry but that is not aesthetic figure skating. Everyone skates so gangly, edges aren't there, programs don't matter anymore (Gogolev tried, but he has the same gangly style everyone has these days). Sato also doesn't have great programs, but his posture is a bit nicer and he skates less awkwardly.

It was the first Olympics I wasn't excited to watch before. It became exciting because of the last group and the unexpected results. But skating wise, it was very dissatisfactory.

I really wish we could go back to beautiful programs, where posture, musicality and edges matter, and rather add a quick jump competition after Worlds, like the Russians recently did.

 

[Magill]

Blaming the media for hyping someone who's been out actively looking for the hype is pointless. His stated goal was to be "really famous, like Ronaldo". He loved the hype and thrived in it. And it was not just the media. Many of his fans, but also USFS and ISU treated him as he already won the OGM before the Olympics even started. I remember people even here praising him for 'not pretending to be shy", and loving the hype, too. They would not mind it at all, if he did not have a meltdown. But that's the thing. When something goes wrong, too much prior hype makes it even more difficult to deal with. And, yes, I thought it was really tempting the fates which like to play jokes on people too confident of things happening.
Well, maybe it will have a bit of a sobering effect on everyone, judges included.

 

[yfan1]

I don't like Ilia's skating - and think even here he was vastly overscored - but it'd be good if people who have kept track of all his activity would stop doing so already.

Or here's something to keep track of - it was posted on another site that recently he's been liking concerning posts on places like tiktok. I also point out that he got massive hate after the team event victory. All a good lesson in how a competitor should avoid the social media armchair warriors I'm sure, but no less a lesson for the social media armchair warriors to stop being armchair warriors, I'd say.

 

[lariko]

I am not a fan of artistic skating, so what bothered me was the discrepancies in scoring. However, this is the Olympics, so I expected the backroom dealings. I will watch the reskate during the worlds. These results are likely to send all those skaters to Prague since everyone have something to prove now.

 

[yfan1]

It was the first Olympics I wasn't excited to watch before.

For me it began in 2022, but this is by far the one I really feel like turning off, and feel entirely apathetic towards. 2022 at least had Pairs to look forward to.

 

[4everchan]

Figure skating wise (it's called artistic ice skating in my country...), it was a terrible event. Those skaters that showed some artistry and actually cared about posture, skating skills, musicality, messed up because they're forced to jump 3-4 quads to be able to keep up with the quadsters. And the ones that skated well like Gogolev, Shaidorov, Gumennik etc. - sorry but that is not aesthetic figure skating. Everyone skates so gangly, edges aren't there, programs don't matter anymore (Gogolev tried, but he has the same gangly style everyone has these days). Sato also doesn't have great programs, but his posture is a bit nicer and he skates less awkwardly.

It was the first Olympics I wasn't excited to watch before. It became exciting because of the last group and the unexpected results. But skating wise, it was very dissatisfactory.

I really wish we could go back to beautiful programs, where posture, musicality and edges matter, and rather add a quick jump competition after Worlds, like the Russians recently did.

Well... I don't disagree with what you are saying. I mean... look at my username and picture. I much prefer seeing 2 or 3 quads with choreography. I think my point is more along the lines that because the top 3 favourite skaters didn't do well, it doesn't mean that the whole event was terrible. The SP was strong. The general level is quite strong too. There weren't tons of falls. The winner, though definitely not my kind of skater, delivered a solid performance and so did the bronze medal winner. I would also say that position 4-6 had good skates.

Adam struggled with his landings but his two programs are really impressive with choreography. So yeah... I still stand by what I said. At least the Olympic champion had two solid skates which is not always the case.

 

[freedomlover]

I am not a fan of artistic skating, so what bothered me was the discrepancies in scoring. However, this is the Olympics, so I expected the backroom dealings. I will watch the reskate during the worlds. These results are likely to send all those skaters to Prague since everyone have something to prove now.

And usually, the post Olympic worlds was used to prop up the next-quad skaters. Won't be the case this time. Happy that Canada has a strong man now- not every country will be guaranteed three spots now.

 

[lariko]

And usually, the post Olympic worlds was used to prop up the next-quad skaters. Won't be the case this time. Happy that Canada has a strong man now- not every country will be guaranteed three spots now.

Yes, it would be interesting who will walk away with three spots from the worlds. Just wish AIN could also compete again.

The folks who didn't want an arrogant American as the Oly male skating champion must be reveling in a sweet and humble Kazakhstani taking the title. I pray that it is so.

 

[yfan1]

The folks who didn't want an arrogant American as the Oly male skating champion must be reveling in a sweet and humble Kazakhstani taking the title. I pray that it is so.

They are - but I want to say, it's ridiculous to care more about the personalities than the sport...

 

[Mathman]

I'm canceling men from my watchlist forever at this stage tbh.

Seriously. Was there even one performance in the men's free skate that anyone will ever want to watch again? Gogoliev did OK (and had a fine Olympic experience overall). Shaidorov did some hard jumps and didn't fall down. Sato wasn't a disaster. Cha give a nice performance, marred by one disruptive mistake. Gumennik got.a good placement despite having three qs and a <.

We talk about men mening and cactuses as if this is something charming. No, it's not charming at all. Where is Robin Cousins? Have quads finally killed men's figure skating once and for all?

 

[lariko]

We did with Shaidorov's, rewatched it 3 times, to relive the joy. Normally, i don't see the point. I have a busy life, competitions are one and done, and the next one is always coming. In the summer, I am way too busy with my garden to watch anything.