Replay Lounge 2026 Olympics | Men

[Greengemmonster]

I’ve rewatched Gold and Bronze. I found the gold program super amusing and it warms my heart that he was so happy along with the crazy wailing music. The music was wailing but he was so jolly. It amused me. I objectively don’t think it’s art but it’s nice to see him land his quads and genuinely enjoy himself out there.

I rewatched Shun cuz I love Shun and although it wasn’t his best ever performance, it was a nice performance. He did good!!! I have settled down from the drama and am enjoying the fact that he got a Bronze and was decently cleanish.

Neither of them were splatty which I thought was really nice so I don’t need to wince when I rewatch them.

 

[yfan1]

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?

TBQH, I'm not even sure who I'd have "wanted" to win if they'd all gone clean, because I'm not at all a fan of Cha, Kagiyama, or Siao Him Fa. Maybe that's me being crotchety, but yeah, these 'artists' really did nothing for me, and never have.

Aymoz is special, otoh he was never going to win or even go clean.

 

[lariko]

Yeah. I'll probably rewatch Gogolev too as a joy-making moment, because I want to believe that his upward trajectory will continue at worlds. He had shown himself as a podium contender at Olympics and I like both of his programs. I want big medals to start happening for him again.

 

[Zora]

Seriously. Was there even one performance in the men's free skate that anyone will ever want to watch again?

No.

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.

To be honest I don't remember much of 2022, which alone says a lot. But there were still a few more names I was looking forward to, namely Uno and Hanyu. This time, I was only hoping to see a good performance from Kagiyama, but it didn't happen.
Yesterday I had a look at the 2010 starting order and even in the first group, but especially in the second group, were so many exciting names. Meanwhile yesterday I had to force myself to watch the first groups.

 

[freedomlover]

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

personalities are part of the sport, no matter what. Which is why some prefer Federer over Djokovic (love or hate him, he used to get fueled by haters and it's why I didn't begrudge Ilia's attitude toooo much), but in the end, perception is defined by who can step up in the right moment.

And while we can all argue about Shaidorovs PCS here, I do recall both him and Shun getting unfair calls and GOE earlier in the season. Which is why I am all the happier for him that he could deliver on the world's biggest stage.
The rules were set up for a quadster to win- if he had his breakout season earlier, it could have been Gogolev. If Russia hadn't decided to invade Ukraine, it could have been Gumennik, who knows.
Transitions and Interpretation got cancelled as categories, jumps with long winds up and no steps into them regularly got +4s and 5s this quad.

Ilia has the GPF skate which honestly blew everybodys mind, but you have to wonder if he peaked too early this szn.

 

[lariko]

Well, that's why I watch and admire a whole slew of skaters, so that the failure of one doesn't make any competition a negative experience. Lots of great things happened in men singles, even if podium wasn't exactly my dreams come true and seriously horrid politics messed up with a far, far smaller problem of who goes to Olympics. But it was pretty good, and top 10 was awesome.

 

[freedomlover]

I’ve rewatched Gold and Bronze. I found the gold program super amusing and it warms my heart that he was so happy along with the crazy wailing music. The music was wailing but he was so jolly. It amused me. I objectively don’t think it’s art but it’s nice to see him land his quads and genuinely enjoy himself out there.

I rewatched Shun cuz I love Shun and although it wasn’t his best ever performance, it was a nice performance. He did good!!! I have settled down from the drama and am enjoying the fact that he got a Bronze and was decently cleanish.

Neither of them were splatty which I thought was really nice so I don’t need to wince when I rewatch them.

I like the second cut of his free. the theatrics are somewhat amusing indeed. In general, its just funny that the skate of his life had music like this. Definitely unconventional.

But he has made Kazakhstan proud from what I've seen on social media.

 

[ladyjane]

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?

I watched Stephen's skate 3-4 times. That one really resonated with me, because of the step sequence especially. I might watch Andrew and Junwhan again too (despite a fall). Loved their skates. Very watchable. Less quads, more what I like I suppose.

 

[yfan1]

personalities are part of the sport, no matter what. Which is why some prefer Federer over Djokovic (love or hate him, he used to get fueled by haters and it's why I didn't begrudge Ilia's attitude toooo much), but in the end, perception is defined by who can step up in the right moment.

And while we can all argue about Shaidorovs PCS here, I do recall both him and Shun getting unfair calls and GOE earlier in the season. Which is why I am all the happier for him that he could deliver on the world's biggest stage.
The rules were set up for a quadster to win- if he had his breakout season earlier, it could have been Gogolev. If Russia hadn't decided to invade Ukraine, it could have been Gumennik, who knows.
Transitions and Interpretation got cancelled as categories, jumps with long winds up and no steps into them regularly got +4s and 5s this quad.

Ilia has the GPF skate which honestly blew everybodys mind, but you have to wonder if he peaked too early this szn.

My point is I'm not sure what exactly is so very different with Ilia and Mikhail in terms of skating. I'd say Ilia's actually a shade better in every aspect - so rooting against him simply based off social media activity is ridiculous.

To be honest I don't remember much of 2022, which alone says a lot. But there were still a few more names I was looking forward to, namely Uno and Hanyu.

I hadn't liked even one single Hanyu or Uno program those 4 years, so it was really "let's get through it" for me. Mechanical.

Actually, in saying that, I have to wonder why the SPs have been lacking anything exciting too. LPs at least we have excuses for with the 4 minutes requirement that tends to get overquadded.

 

[freedomlover]

My point is I'm not sure what exactly is so very different with Ilia and Mikhail in terms of skating. I'd say Ilia's actually a shade better in every aspect - so rooting against him simply based off social media activity is ridiculous.


I hadn't liked even one single Hanyu or Uno program those 4 years, so it was really "let's get through it" for me. Mechanical.

Ilia is a shade better- but a 91- 81in PCS difference better like we saw some times this season? Idk. No need to argue about scores anyway.

I think what really tipped off people was the statement of him "holding back" in the Team Event- which i honestly don't feel like he did. He did 5 quads and stepped out/fell on one on them. It was a close win- and with Team Japan (dance team included) having put everything on that medal, winning 5 segments and being overall cleaner in the eyes of the public, that just upped the stakes for the individual even more.

 

[yfan1]

Ilia is a shade better- but a 91- 81in PCS difference better like we saw some times this season? Idk. No need to argue about scores anyway.

The poster I'm responding to says they hope that the public is liking a humble Kazakh as opposed to an arrogant American.

I say they are, but it's ridiculous that humility is liked more than talent. To me it makes no sense to not be rooting for the plain better skater - because Malinin is exactly that compared to Shaidorov.

If Malinin HAD won, he'd have received yet another round of hatred. Even now, people are calling his crash and burn "karmic".

None of this has anything to do with scores.

 

[anonymoose_au]

I actually know the answer . but yeah..

Uh-oh, was it everyone's "favourite" Plushenko? It's coming up to 20 years since he won gold in Torino by a giant margin, although a lot of people weren't into his programs and there was a whole bruhaha about the "death of men's figure skating", to be forever replaced by flailing arms and jumping drills.

Fortunately, these dire predictions did not come true, so I'm sure it'll be OK this time around!

(Of course, as a person who's actual favourite is Plushy, I thought his programs were amazing, but y'know we also had commentators on Australia TV who didn't spend the majority of Plushy's FS talking about how terrible his choreography was, I'm not sure what Dick Button's issue was - he was fair enough during the SP, but he ripped Plushy to shreds. A US audience who didn't know much about figure skating must have thought a total hack won the event.)

 

[freedomlover]

ooof. Christine Brennan (I am mixed on her) is saying USFS pressured Ilia to do the team freeskate.

 

[4everchan]

ooof. Christine Brennan (I am mixed on her) is saying USFS pressured Ilia to do the team freeskate.

oh please... If Ilia hadn't done the team event, then no gold medal for him... nor Chock and Bates.

Also, the men had plenty of time to recuperate after the team event. There were even two days between the short and long programs.

I am not buying into these excuses at all... Red herring.

Gogo skated the same amount as Ilia. He was steady. It's also his first games. He has actually never ever been to Senior World championships.

Gogo didn't have the pressure of becoming Olympic champion. Ilia did. He didn't manage it properly. He wanted to land so many things that he misfired and lost his timing on all his edge jumps.

People can blame the USFED all they want but it's actually not what is needed for Ilia to recover. The solution is within him and not with false excuses.

 

[yfan1]

oh please... If Ilia hadn't done the team event, then no gold medal for him... nor Chock and Bates.

Also, the men had plenty of time to recuperate after the team event. There even two days between the short and long programs.

I am not buying into these excuses at all... Red herring.

Gogo skated the same amount as Ilia. He was steady. It's also his first games. He has actually never ever been to Senior World championships.

Gogo didn't have the pressure of becoming Olympic champion. Ilia did. He didn't manage it properly. He wanted to land so many things that he misfired and lost his timing on all his edge jumps.

People can blame the USFED all they want but it's actually not what is needed for Ilia to recover. The solution is within him and not with false excuses.

And TBH Ilia only needed 4 or maybe just 3 quads here. It's purely on his team.

 

[4everchan]

And TBH Ilia only needed 4 or maybe just 3 quads here. It's purely on his team.

He had the privilege of skating last. His team needed to manage that... or he needed to listen to his team ... There is no way for me to know if his team told him to play if safer or not.

 

[freedomlover]

oh please... If Ilia hadn't done the team event, then no gold medal for him... nor Chock and Bates.

Also, the men had plenty of time to recuperate after the team event. There were even two days between the short and long programs.

I am not buying into these excuses at all... Red herring.

Gogo skated the same amount as Ilia. He was steady. It's also his first games. He has actually never ever been to Senior World championships.

Gogo didn't have the pressure of becoming Olympic champion. Ilia did. He didn't manage it properly. He wanted to land so many things that he misfired and lost his timing on all his edge jumps.

People can blame the USFED all they want but it's actually not what is needed for Ilia to recover. The solution is within him and not with false excuses.

Not going to lie though, this Games really was the story of the 2018-2020 top juniors who were held back by injuries or other things stepping.

Sato, Gogolev - two JGPF wins between them. And I rate GPF/JGPF wins slightly higher than World Championships because you need to deliver to a) get a spot on the GP and then qualify for the final.

Worlds has always been more volatile in the men's category because of the inconsistency that can happen- but even here, all the men that qualified for the GPF were in the top 10. Not in the order expected but still.

 

[sisinka]

"I think Denis Ten didn't only influenced me. He influenced whole figure skating in Kazakhstan. He opened the doors for so many figure skaters in Kazakhstan including me."

Thank you for such words, Mikhail!

 

[sisinka]

...

Gogo skated the same amount as Ilia. He was steady. It's also his first games. He has actually never ever been to Senior World championships.

....

I would argue with this a little bit, if you allow me @4everchan .

As to number of programs, yes.

As to jumping elements content..
Quad jumps are very energetically demanding.

While Stephen has 4toeloop and 4salchow, Ilia has more difficult jumps - 4flip and 4lutz.

In Team Free Program Stephen goes with 3 quads against Ilia's 5 quads. Stephen executes them in the first part of the program, Ilia during the whole program.

In Individual Free Program Stephen goes with 3 quads in the beginning of the program against Ilia's planned 7 quads, 3 of them in the second half of the program.

It is really that comparable having 4salchow and 4toeloop VERSUS all kind of quad jumps?

Is it really the same to execute quad jumps in the beginning VERSUS in the second half of the program?

It is really comparable to have six days with four programs having 10 quad jumps VERSUS 16 quad jumps? Mentally? Physically?

Stephen did great and admirable job. I agree.
But I am persuaded that physical and mental demands of Stephen and Ilia's Free Programs are no way comparable.

 

[museksk8r]

Ilia has the GPF skate which honestly blew everybodys mind, but you have to wonder if he peaked too early this szn.

I agree. OTOH, Nathan Chen definitely showed cracks in the 2022 Olympic season, finishing 3rd behind Vincent Zhou and Shoma Uno at Skate America and skating conservatively for him to win gold at Skate Canada. Then, the GPF got cancelled due to the pandemic, so he got a welcome rest before winning Nationals and the team and individual Olympic gold medals. Malinin certainly didn’t need 7 quads to win a GPF title. Why would it matter to anyone to win a GPF title by 30 points? Why would it matter to anyone to land a 4Axel combination in the SP when no one else is pushing you technically to achieve such a feat? He delivered his Olympic moment in early December. In hindsight, it appears he and his camp would have been better served to pace his season more thoughtfully and carefully. Ilia could have played this season more safely and strategically and won an individual Olympic gold; as it is, he/his team made the decision to fly too closely to the sun and got burned. Alas, this is all the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat that encompasses all sports.