Replay Lounge 2026 Olympics | Team Event

[Mathman]

It was a bit of a day at the office skate for Shun..

I disagree completely. He chose "Olympic" music (Firebird) , the choreography was adequate to the task, and to me the performance was emotionally satisfying, even thrilling..

In contrast, my reaction to watching Malinin was, "Oh dear, he's off his game, today -- I hope he can throw enough stuff out there to hold on anyway."

 

[saine]

Jackie Wong reported that they allowed at least Madison Chock to test her blades on the ice after needing them to be sharpened.

That's got to be stressful for the two Ice Dance teams competing today, hopefully it won't affect them too much.

 

[dorispulaski]

There is a reason people are creating conspiracies.

Commentators started talking about Shun's perfection before the tech panel had reviewed all the elements they wanted to review. Chris Howarth always covers how a review is going, so the final result is no shock. NBC runs ads instead, so results can be a big shock - which is why I checked the protocols.

NBC and other media bosses should tell commentators not to treat the initial technical box score as though it were a final result

Shun's jumps were nice, but his last three skills were not at the level of his earlier performance in a way that is not immediately apparent. His step sequence was level 2, his choreo sequence was ok but not stellar, and his final spin was CCoSp2V. The V is for a violation and involves a reduced base value. After review, his base tech was 10 points less than Ilia's, and his TES 5 points less. And judges change their marks, based on the final technical ids for the elements. He may have even lost a bit of PCS from some judges, because it is never good to end the program on a weak note.

Here's the protocol. You can check it yourself.

https://results.isu.org/results/season2526/owg2026/FSKXTEAM--------------FNL-0001MN--_JudgesDetailsperSkater.pdf

One difference you might not have noticed was that Ilia's choreo sequence got huge scores because he landed his back flip on one foot, on a flowing edge. That is shockingly hard, and it was rewarded.

Woke up this morning still so happy for Ellie and O’Shea, and for Rizzo.

For me, those were the Olympic moments.

Kaori/CB skated brilliantly but that was expected. Ilia was expected to win. But those didn’t feel like Olympic moments to me.

Onwards to the Individual Events. I will miss some of the early skates (sob), which makes me very sad because I like to watch all the skaters and cheer on the ones that will not get to medal, or even make it to the free. I don’t know that peacock will play the early groups.

Yes peacock is airing the early groups.

And I am so thrilled for Ellie & Danny. I hope she finally realizes they deserved their place, and were a real contributor to the win! In another venue, they might have been third instead of fourth. It was very close.

 

[Tutto]

And I am so thrilled for Ellie & Danny. I hope she finally realizes they deserved their place, and were a real contributor to the win! In another venue, they might have been third instead of fourth. It was very close.

I am very happy that Ellie & Danny had their Olympic moment.
I re-watched pairs FS and I disagree they could have been ahead of Italians. The throws are very important pair element and we all know that E/D just do not have it. Yes, this time Ellie, by the sheer determination and literally inhuman knee bend, saved both. Kudos to her!
That unfortunately does not change the fact that but their technique is very poor.
Sarah as other top pairs routinely has beautiful throw landings with height, distance and lovely running edge. I never seen anything like that from Ellie - it is either fall, step out or a save.
Both throws of E/D were not pretty and should have attracted minus GOE and would have done so under different circumstances. To me the Canadians skated in a better unison and had cleaner elements apart from a step out. I understand my opinion will not be popular but I would place Canadians above E/D. Lia and Trent surprised me tbh their progress this season has been massive. Frankly I love their Gladiator better than R/R.

 

[dorispulaski]

There are 2 throws, but 3 lifts. And K&O's were fabulous.

 

[saine]

Per Jackie Wong, Japan has filed a formal complaint about the podium surface.

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

Jackie Wong reported that they allowed at least Madison Chock to test her blades on the ice after needing them to be sharpened.

That's got to be stressful for the two Ice Dance teams competing today, hopefully it won't affect them too much.

When I told this to my husband, he found that the organisers were ignoring the athletes in not planning a delay. As Frenchies, this reminded us a Gotlib (and Goscinny?) cartoon from 1967? imagining the 1968 Olympic Games lacking snow, the organisers alarmed about sponsors, TV channels and so on, and a journalist asking what about the athletes, and the organisers answering that they weren't important...
I'm glad that Japan filed a complaint. Alas they can't do so about scoring, but what happened is partly their doing.

 

[TontoK]

My favorite pairs performance was the Georgians... right up until the moment he lifted her.

If I was that girl, I'd be scared to death. It looked like he was all over the place when she was in the air. I am so thankful he didn't trip or something while she was up there, because it looked like a real possibility at any moment.

I haven't kept up with European pairs lately, except for the Germans (who I love). Is this common for them? Or just a bad lifting day?

 

[4everchan]

My favorite pairs performance was the Georgians... right up until the moment he lifted her.

If I was that girl, I'd be scared to death. It looked like he was all over the place when she was in the air. I am so thankful he didn't trip or something while she was up there, because it looked like a real possibility at any moment.

I haven't kept up with European pairs lately, except for the Germans (who I love). Is this common for them? Or just a bad lifting day?

read this thread... we talked about it for pages...
or take my word for it : his technique sucks and every time he lifts her, it's a risk for disaster

 

[Diana Delafield]

My favorite pairs performance was the Georgians... right up until the moment he lifted her.

If I was that girl, I'd be scared to death. It looked like he was all over the place when she was in the air. I am so thankful he didn't trip or something while she was up there, because it looked like a real possibility at any moment.

I haven't kept up with European pairs lately, except for the Germans (who I love). Is this common for them? Or just a bad lifting day?

It's him. She's not safe with him. She needs to split and find a better partner.

 

[TontoK]

I hope that the individual winners are Maddie and Evan, Ilia, Kaori, and the Japanese pair. It's very plausible that could be the outcomes. No guarantees, of course.

Why? All of them committed fully to the team event, skating both programs.

And it will hopefully put an end to the fretting about world class athletes having to perform four times at the Olympics.

 

[4everchan]

And it will hopefully put an end to the fretting about world class athletes having to perform four times at the Olympics.

can you imagine if star swimmers didn't want to swim as many events as possible
I mean, they look at the schedule and they train to swim as many races as they can.
fans who think skating 4 programs is too much have no idea how fit these athletes are.

 

[Arigato]

Shun's jumps were nice, but his last three skills were not at the level of his earlier performance in a way that is not immediately apparent. His step sequence was level 2, his choreo sequence was ok but not stellar, and his final spin was CCoSp2V. The V is for a violation and involves a reduced base value. After review, his base tech was 10 points less than Ilia's, and his TES 5 points less. And judges change their marks, based on the final technical ids for the elements. He may have even lost a bit of PCS from some judges, because it is never good to end the program on a weak note.

Here's the protocol. You can check it yourself.

https://results.isu.org/results/season2526/owg2026/FSKXTEAM--------------FNL-0001MN--_JudgesDetailsperSkater.pdf

Thank you for posting that. I'm tired of conspiracy theories emerging all over the internet because people do not understand scoring. Worse still, many make no attempt to even try learning it. I never view the score box scores on the screen as carved in stone since it is commonplace for the scores to change upon final review. Once someone gets to the K&C, a range from just a few points to many points can get knocked off. It's nothing unusual.

 

[ChiGal]

I am beginning to really like the Team event, as every one of these competitors brought out their best this year! I know there are a particular "few" posters who poo-poo the whole event, and the worthiness of the medals earned, unless its their team/country doing the winning. As an aside, there is one country NOT participating who seems to have the most posters discounting the medal worthiness. All I can say is if these medals were so unimportant, then why did countries go to such lengths to keep/redistribute these medals in the last Olympics 2022? Anyways, this event can become as important as the Team Event in Gymnastics, as it extends the figure skating world to beyond individual events. The men's short was exceptional with Sato and Rizzo pulling out superb performances. Kam/Oshea in the pairs long was heartwarming, so much so that I watched it again. What was once considered a bit of a throw-away event really came into its own in Milan!

 

[Allikat]

Who else thinks Japan is going to have some cut throat competition in ice dance for the next quad?

Geez--maybe Japan should stage its own version of Grand Prix series and Finals (a la Russia) since they have so many qualified skaters in both Women and Men? I'd sure like to be able to view competitions with more than three of each at a time, that is for sure! On a channel easy to access, no signups, registrations, or credit card info needed. Lots of 'free advertising' for the state of individual skating in Japan!

 

[Allikat]

I am beginning to really like the Team event, as every one of these competitors brought out their best this year! I know there are a particular "few" posters who poo-poo the whole event, and the worthiness of the medals earned, unless its their team/country doing the winning. As an aside, there is one country NOT participating who seems to have the most posters discounting the medal worthiness. All I can say is if these medals were so unimportant, then why did countries go to such lengths to keep/redistribute these medals in the last Olympics 2022? Anyways, this event can become as important as the Team Event in Gymnastics, as it extends the figure skating world to beyond individual events. The men's short was exceptional with Sato and Rizzo pulling out superb performances. Kam/Oshea in the pairs long was heartwarming, so much so that I watched it again. What was once considered a bit of a throw-away event really came into its own in Milan!

I, too, enjoyed it lots more than I usually have in the past. If only they would 'adopt' some rules similar to those in the Team Event in gymnastics, they'd really have something. 1) Everyone would perform both short and long (okay, gymnastics doesn't do that now--but I remember when they did), and 2) actual points would be tallied as they are earned per team, and per event; no 'placements' which makes it appear that every entrant is the same distance away from every other entrant in an event.

 

[Mathman]

There is a reason people are creating conspiracies...

Thank you for this post and for the analysis of scoring details. This is the most thoughtful and useful post on this thread.

That said, for me personally (and dare I say for many casual fans?) I always think that the prettiest skate deserves the most enthusiastic cheers. Shun Sato's skate captured my heart.

Sport, schmort; scoring schmoring. Make me cry.

 

[Magill]

I admit I find it somewhat pointless now when the whole 2 or 3 pages of discussion of European TV commentators live reactions to Shun Sato's score and placement was ... redacted? removed? Where I live we have a word for it but I guess I would rather not use it.
And I do not like the assumption that commentators base their opinions on the tech box only. They are mostly experts, often former skaters or judges themselves. They have their own eyes to see and brains to judge and make conclusions.
Conspiracy theories? Someone must be joking

 

[Tutto]

Thank you for this post and for the analysis of scoring details. This is the most thoughtful and useful post on this thread.

That said, for me personally (and dare I say for many casual fans?) I always think that the prettiest skate deserves the most enthusiastic cheers. Shun Sato's skate captured my heart.

Sport, schmort; scoring schmoring. Make me cry.

I am with you, when Shun finished I really thought Japan had it though I knew his base value was much lower than Ilia's. When the score came it just wasn’t feeling right. The sentiment it seems shared by many, commentators including.
With all due respect to dorispulaski’s scoring analysis, which is correct, we all know too well how the levels & GOEs can be manipulated by judges to suit the desired outcome, so frankly it does not convince me. It could have gone either way.
I had no vested interest in either team to start with but moved to Japan camp along the way, they were just that good. Formally was a correct wInner but somehow it just felt wrong…
anyway I thoroughly enjoyed the team event for the first time and thankful to all the skaters and the teams for lots of ‘sit on the edge of your seat’ moments!

 

[Arigato]

Mr. Bling.