ISU releases official agenda with proposals for 2024: age limits, jump limits and more

[TallyT]

Every now and then, the board has a struggle session about the declining popularity of the sport. And now we have a guy that has us on the edge of our seats, his shows seem to be well-attended, he's getting press outside of our usual collection of bloggers and niche reporters, he's bringing attention and new fans... and our first move is to put a lid on his strengths?

He appears from what I've read to want to be the next Yuzuru Hanyu: huge achievements, iconic status, critical acclaim, financial rewards and popular adulation. But Nathan got all of what you mentioned, and more, pretty much everything the sport had to offer. The Eteri soap opera girls got even more of it, albeit on a revolving door basis. The rules then made it possible and no skin off their noses for it, but what good did it do the ISU and the majority of skaters in general at the end? (In the US at least, pretty much squat....)

The changes are not supposed to benefit - or unduly penalise - any one skater, no matter who thinks he or she deserves extra love from officialdom. When previous changes have been made (the decrease in the FS length, for instance), the skaters at the time may have grumbled, but then simply girded loins and made the best of it. So can the current crop (who, to be fair, will almost certainly not complain nearly as much as their fans will , they'll be too busy making their shots at gold from ISU straw.)

 

[4everchan]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with this situation. Skaters who can't do triples would also be buried by those who can. Is that similarly unfair? And what's so magical about cutting the jumping passes to 6? Why not 4? Or 2?

Imagine this list would have been the top six finishers at the recent WC: Yuma (G), Adam (S), Shoma (B), Jason, Lukas, Deniss.

Would we have thought, "Hey, this is troubling! Our sport is headed in the wrong direction!" I doubt it.

But guess what? That WOULD have been the outcome if Ilia had not been there, and by his telling, he almost wasn't. Ilia's staggering free skate has people forgetting that the so-called (let's agree that personal tastes can vary) artistic cream also rose to the top.

But the sky is falling, because one guy finally managed to get himself organized and skate a clean competition for the very first time this season. It was a career event for Ilia, who delivered a historic performance. That, coupled with mistakes from his competitors, resulted in an absolute ass-kicking on the scoreboard, and I think part of the angst is "OMG, what if he does it again?"

In some respects, we are in agreement. I'd also like to see more innovative spins and footwork - we don't see nearly enough interesting ones now. The solution to that is to tweak the rules to give those qualities more value. The solution is not "Let's hobble the other guy."

Every now and then, the board has a struggle session about the declining popularity of the sport. And now we have a guy that has us on the edge of our seats, his shows seem to be well-attended, he's getting press outside of our usual collection of bloggers and niche reporters, he's bringing attention and new fans... and our first move is to put a lid on his strengths?

The good news from my perspective is that the skaters themselves don't appear as defeatist. They know where they need to improve, and they appear committed to doing so. In recent interviews, Ilia has said he wants to work more on interpreting music. Adam plans to resume training for the 4A (I had not known he'd worked on it previously), and Kao wants to improve his consistency.

Good, I'm a greedy fan; I want more from everybody.

I never ever focused on Ilia in any of my posts, so please, drop that argument with me.
I am not thinking about reranking skaters either... it's not about this for me... I was at worlds... the SPs were quite exciting as they were so compact and with less jumping passes, it didn't feel like a program full of crossovers and two foot skating. The LPs were a snooze fest. I cheered for the big jumps like everyone else. I have NEVER said Ilia should not have won. He deserved his win and he deserved to do so by a landslide. I will say it one last time, it's not about one skater in particular but the direction of figure skating. The LPs were not the sport I want to watch. I hope you go to Boston and experience it for yourself. The quality of skating is not what it used to be. The programs are bare.

 

[TontoK]

I will say it one last time, it's not about one skater in particular but the direction of figure skating.

I take you at your word. So, what's the beef with the programs from these skaters?

Imagine this list would have been the top six finishers at the recent WC: Yuma (G), Adam (S), Shoma (B), Jason, Lukas, Deniss.

 

[4everchan]

I take you at your word. So, what's the beef with the programs from these skaters?

Scroll up. It's all in my post even with the skaters who have a bit more substance, the too many quad attempts has emptied pretty much everyone's programs. Those fee skaters with less quads did have a bit more to show but a handful of program didn't make up for the so many empty programs.

 

[Mathman]

So, what's the beef with the programs from these skaters? (Yuma, Adam, Shoma, Jason, Lucas, Deniss.)

For me, no beef at all. Each program was entertaining in its own way. Brown and Kagiyama held my rapt attention throughout. But Uno's jump mistakes made it impossible (for me) tp get into his LP program at all.

Malinin's performance was engrossing as well. Everybody laughed at me when I said that the theme of the choeorgraphy was "me jumping!" But it wasn't a joke. The tension built from the first second to the last - Is he really going to do it? Yes, yes, he's really doing it!

(Michelle Kwan entering her final footwok dash in the Red Violin at 2000 Worlds, 7 triplles and a double Axel behind her --,like a baseball player who just hit an inside the park home run, and here she comes, rounding third and digging for the plate! )

 

[sisinka]

Although there is a correlation between risk factor and difficulty, the two are not identical.
...
Suppose, for example, that "camel spin with a change of foot that also changes direction, at least 6 revolutions on each foot and a change of edge on each foot" was a required element in the short program.

We don't see that very often because it's not currently required and there are easier ways to earn spin levels so most skaters don't bother learning it.

... But some will always struggle with it because they naturally lack the ambidexterity to allow them to execute strong spins in their bad direction. Add a catch-foot position requirement, and some skaters will struggle more with that because they naturally lack the flexibility.

One could certainly argue that that spin would be more difficult than a 2F or 2Lz, possibly more difficult than a 2A. But there would probably be fewer outright falls on that spin than there would be on those double jumps.

So is risk determined/difficulty defined by the kinds of failures that are likely to occur?

Great point! This kind of camel Spin would be very difficult.

But my comparison came from Level 4 Spins which means any kind of Spin meeting all Level 4 requirements.

If we would compare difficulty of different kind of Spins we could use this approach - your variant of camel Spin would stand high.

------
You are right, this variant of camel Spin would not reach high number of falls. But in other two aspects I offered - negative GOE and low percentage of attempting - it would reflect the difficulty.

-----
As to ambidexterity - this is partially medicine topic, which I like.

In Russia and I do believe in other countries as well, little kids learn to jumps (I heard even double jumps) on both sides. After some time their better side is chosen and they continue jumps training on one side. Never heard that somebody would no way be able to rotate on both sides.

Many skaters warm-up off the ice doing single rotations on both sides.

Elite skaters in comparison with many people out of sport are very good in motoric skills, if not they would never become elite.

Which means that I expect all skaters to learn Spins on both directions after some time. Level of execution can be different, of course, but requirements would be met.

The reason why there is so small number of Spins on both directions...
In my opinion a problem is simple and you already mentioned that skaters use more easy way to reach Level 4...for years skaters are doing Spins on one side only. Learning Spin on the other side with defined position means more practise time in comparison with Spin on "their" side. So they pick more easy variant for them to save practise time for another element.

As to more "rigid" skaters, I plan to write later. It is both interesting and important topic.

 

[Mathman]

[Ilia Malinin] appears from what I've read to want to be the next Yuzuru Hanyu: huge achievements, iconic status, critical acclaim, financial rewards and popular adulation. But Nathan got all of what you mentioned, and more, pretty much everything the sport had to offer.

I thonk the sad reality is that men's figure skating will never be big in America like it is in Japan. As you say, Nathan Chen got the full load of attention as much as possible. But the U.S. version of Yuzuru Hanyu would be Dorothy Hamill -- Dorothy Hamill dolls on every toy shelf, Dorothy Hamill hairciuts at every beauty salon. (Not that Nathan's hair isn't admirable.)

Although -- Sports Illustrated, the premier U.S. general sports magazine, has an offshoot called "Sprts Illustrated for Kids which quite often features figure skater,s men and women, on their covers, and also puts out figure skating "rookie cards" like those collectable baseball cards that come up for auction for a hundred thousand. Not only has Nathan been so honored, so have Jeremy Abbott and Mariah Bell.

I in fact have a vintage Maia and Alex Shibutani card that I keep propped up against my Peggy Fleming snow globe.

 

[el henry]

Two direction spins: Jason put a spin in his non-dominant direction in his Tarzan program last year. I can't even remember how long/if he kept it. The spin was noticeably less good than his dominant side spin, which made it still better than 90 percent of the men's spins, but not up to the standards I was accustomed from Jason. Still very impressive. If there were appropriate points rewards, maybe we would have seen it sooner?

Then again, his choreographer Rohene Ward was famous for his ability to jump in either direction. (Many who know him only as a choreographer might be surprised to learn that Rohene was a powerful jumper. Terrible at competing, but great at jumping. ) One story I read said that Rohene taught himself, because he was bored, but that may be apocryphal.

 

[TontoK]

(Michelle Kwan entering her final footwok dash in the Red Violin at 2000 Worlds, 7 triplles and a double Axel behind her --,like a baseball player who just hit an inside the park home run, and here she comes, rounding third and digging for the plate! )

I remember that! I thought it was magnificent, back in the days when I was uncultured.

Now I've seen the light, and I realize it had too many jumps. Get with the times. True afficionados of artistic skating know that anything beyond six passes is excessive, and skaters are simply unable to produce anything of merit if they exceed that limit.

 

[Arigato]

The men had 8 passes for years, then moved to 7. Now 7 may be moved to 6.

 

[icewhite]

1, the free skates were simply longer. If they were 5 minutes again or at least 4.30 I think the number of jumps would be less of a problem.
But all sports competitions today are supposed to be as fast and short as possible. With only one competitor on the ice we get long competitions. Of course the best of all solutions has not yet been implemented: give two skaters each a patch at a time and have them skate the same choreo simultaniously. That will also allow for better comparisons. You can also raise that number to 4.


2, Plushenko won the Olympics with 8 jumping passages that were the following:
4T+3T+2Lo
3A+2T
3Lo
3A
3Lz
3Lz+2T
2F
3S

If male top skaters today did single 2Fs or 3S in their free skates, I would imagine it would also not cost them much additional time and energy.

1+2 is why the free skates of those times did not look like jump drills even if they included 8 jumping passages.

 

[lariko]

Myself, I am not leading the cheers for AI. Technology (better stopwatches and yardsticks) -- there is no controversy about that (though cost is a factor). We can ceratinly measure speed across the ice -- that's child's play. It is somewhat more challenging to measure variation in speed and power, and whether such ebbs and flows match gthe requirements of th musical struture and choreographic purpose (altho an enterprising computer person could certainly try, and the result might well be interesting.)

The holy grail of Artificial Intelligence, however, is altogether different -- it is to mimic as closely as possible human intellectual behavior. The success of an AI program that composes music, for instance, is judged not on the basis of whther the music it produces has any merit, but rather -- if you listen to the music it produces, can you tell whether it was written by a computer or were you fooled into thinking the composer was human? The AI program, might, for instance, consult its billion-song library and observe that humans lean in the direction of rising tones rather than falling. When the melody hits a D and the next note is one unit away, 64% of the time the next note is E and 36% of the time it is C. If these percentages are not met -- aha! you can't fool me, you're not human! (Bach was not human because he used -- aaagh, can you believe iit? -- parallel fifths. Betehoven was not human because the last 5 notes of his symphony number 1 -- what was he thingking of?!)

So actually it is the 20% (how pleasing is the result) where AI would come in, not the measuring of underrotations, or even in determining whethe the skater matched the GOE bullets.

That's what I think anyway. We'll see. But I am not holding my breath waiting for the ISU to make it's big move into the world of AI.

Measurements are defensible and not subjective, hence it demystifies the score. Everything else is human fudging, politics and ice dance.

 

[lariko]

I never ever focused on Ilia in any of my posts, so please, drop that argument with me.
I am not thinking about reranking skaters either... it's not about this for me... I was at worlds... the SPs were quite exciting as they were so compact and with less jumping passes, it didn't feel like a program full of crossovers and two foot skating. The LPs were a snooze fest. I cheered for the big jumps like everyone else. I have NEVER said Ilia should not have won. He deserved his win and he deserved to do so by a landslide. I will say it one last time, it's not about one skater in particular but the direction of figure skating. The LPs were not the sport I want to watch. I hope you go to Boston and experience it for yourself. The quality of skating is not what it used to be. The programs are bare.

Yeah, and I was in Montreal too, and men's FS was the BEST event in the competition with the MOST fair outcome, save for Brown. The finale, Malinin's skate was out of this world crazy insane heart-pumping exciting. Ice dance could have been that, if they didn't fudge.

Men's free is what I want to see FS be like, and women and ice dance in particular need restructure in scoring to become more fun to watch. Men's was perfect as is.

These proposed changes are particularly irking after witnessing Malinin's glorious skate. The ISU's intention to rob us of its likes in the future sucks, yes, even if Malinin could pivot and win a few more WCs.

 

[4everchan]

Yeah, and I was in Montreal too, and men's FS was the BEST event in the competition with the MOST fair outcome, save for Brown. The finale, Malinin's skate was out of this world crazy insane heart-pumping exciting. Ice dance could have been that, if they didn't fudge.

Men's free is what I want to see FS be like, and women and ice dance in particular need restructure in scoring to become more fun to watch. Men's was perfect as is.

These proposed changes are particularly irking after witnessing Malinin's glorious skate. The ISU's intention to rob us of its likes in the future sucks, yes, even if Malinin could pivot and win a few more WCs.

yeah... i am not surprised you would say that because you have been clear that you value the acrobatics. I value skating. To each his own.

 

[lariko]

yeah... i am not surprised you would say that because you have been clear that you value the acrobatics. I value skating. To each his own.

I value excellence, experience and fairness. I see ISU move to change the rule as assault on all 3. Skating isn't going anywhere. Like, nobody is ever revising ice dance with a brutal hand, when it really needs it to clean the absolute travesty the scoring is in that discipline. It's all about skating after all. How about ISU deals with that first, then worry about 8765th rebalance in singles?

 

[4everchan]

I value excellence, experience and fairness.

Excellence in figure skating, for some of us, old time fans come from the quality of edges. Very few men skaters have this nowadays. Yuma is perhaps the only one that I truly appreciated in that sense.
Experience ? Not sure what that means
Fairness : the event was fairly judged. I don't think that's a question raised in this thread.

I see ISU move to change the rule as assault on all 3.

Nah. The ISU just want to cut the skate skate skate jump times 4... we will have it times 3 now, already and I suspect it will be better. Good jumpers will still win, it will not affect the results but programs will be better. Choreography will be better. Skaters will have to demonstrate more than just crossover for the first two minutes of their LPs. So quite the contrary, it could bring better excellence and experience.

Skating isn't going anywhere. Like, nobody is ever revising ice dance with a brutal hand, when it really needs it to clean the absolute travesty the scoring is in that discipline. It's all about skating after all. How about ISU deals with that first, then worry about 8765th rebalance in singles?

Ice dance is another topic. Do I think the scoring at worlds was fair ? No... but there, it's not about jumps... it's about reputational judging. I can agree that the ISU should fix ice dance first... but sometimes, when a problem is so big, people fix everything around it first...

 

[Mathman]

Measurements are defensible and not subjective, hence it demystifies the score. Everything else is human fudging, politics and ice dance.

Wait, wait. Did you understand what I was saying in the quoted post? Using technology to make more accurate measurement is good. AI, on the other hand, it is not clear whether that can be employed in any useful way in figure skating or not.

But to elaborate, since you mentioned ice dance, yes that might be a possibility. It might be possible -- just speculating here -- that an Artificial Intelligence program could teach itself to catagorize all possible movements that ice dancers do and compare them with their increasingly encyclopedic understanding of what humans find pleasing to watch. That way AI judging would come closer and closer to human judging. This would be a great triumph for the computer guys, but I don't know if it would result in better-judged competitions.

 

[Arigato]

yeah... i am not surprised you would say that because you have been clear that you value the acrobatics. I value skating. To each his own.

What - you don't like waving arms back and forth in the air and two-footed skating? You're so demanding.

I want 4:30 programs back. Whacking off 30 seconds didn't challenge anyone - it made it easier on them. Yes, easier. Would I really want to watch 2018 OLYG with 6 passes and 30 seconds knocked off every guy's program? Not on your life. I recall Lapinski shouting on air, "This last minute of this program is what figure skating is all about - so good!" Yeah, well, that was the last 60 seconds of Shoma's FS. And I agreed with her. He turned up the volume and fought to bring it all home. That man earned that silver with a smile on his face as he rounded the last corner and it made me laugh out loud. It was great.

 

[sisinka]

...

Taking the highest jump TES from this season's Worlds in the men's category and the added-up highest spin TES, step sequence score and PCS, and comparing it to the lowest equivalent each, we can see a bit of a different picture than the one painted by "raw points".

The maximum difference in points in the SP for jump elements is 35.84, for non-jump elements+PCS it's 30.7. Not too bad, right? A bit more variation in jump TES, but overall not that huge of a difference. So what's the issue? The Free Skate. The maximum difference in jump TES in the FS is 75.1, in everything else added up, it is 41.16 - Almost 34 (!) points more difference between the strongest and the weakest jumper, than between the strongest skater and weakest skater in everything else.

Does this also apply to the women's category? Absolutely not. In the SP, it is 15.29 in variance for jumps vs. 22.06 in non-jump elements+PCS, in the FS, it is 28.98 in jump elements and 35.78 in everything else added up. The women's field is scored much more closely together overall than the men's field (duh), and has much less of a difference in variance between jumps and the rest of the total score, with a bias towards non-jump elements being more valuable in creating score differences.

....

Very interesting approach.
But I have to disagree.

The lowest jump elements in Short Program come from Boyang Jin, right? 8.42 points. Comparing to Ilia's 44.26 points.

The lowest jump elements in Free Program come from Roman Sadovski - 40.85 points. Comparing to Ilia's 115.95 points. I would rather compare to Adam or Yuma's points - 94.64 points and 86.40 points. Ilia's jumps elements were from 94 points to 101 points at Grand Prix competitions this season.

Let's see what happened in Free Program at World Championships 2024:

- Roman Sadovski - two 4salchows' attempts, SIX jump elements with negative GOE.

- Another two skaters with jump elements on 46.18 points and 50.18 points - four and five jump elements with negative GOE.

- Camden Pulkinen - quad jump and three jump elements with negative GOE - he gets 51.41 points for jump elements.

So we have skaters with low jump elements score, because they were making multiple mistakes. This time! BUT on another time and on another place:

- One and half month ago Boyang Jin achieved jump elements 33.32 points in Short Program at 4 Continents Championships 2024.
(8.42 points X 33.32 points)

- Camden Pulkinen was able to create 77.06 points for jump elements at World Championship 2022.
( 51.41 points X 77.06 points)

- Roman Sadovski got 63.25 points for jump elements despite two jump errors at GP Rostelecom Cup 2021.
(40.85 points X 63.25 points)

This season we had one skater who within one month at Grand Prix competition got jump elements 66.13 and 27.93 points (probably with injury), which is gap of 38.20 points.

Many years ago there was another skater who within 2 months at top competitions went from jump elements 55.36 to 27.26 points, which is gap of 28.10 points. Lack of experience and big expectations probably.

If you suggest that point gap in jump elements is too big between skaters...yes, it is.

Because we had quad skaters - Ilia, Adam, Yuma, Lukas - who did extra great job quad jumps including...and we had skaters who really didn't have a good day making multiple jump mistakes...

Why should ISU close the points gap between clean programs and programs with multiple mistakes? Once skaters will skate their jump content cleanly, they will themselves close the gap.

As to ladies... lowest jump score got lady who executed 1loop, 1lutz, 2flip, so nobody is surprised with low points. Next six ladies with four or five jump elements with negative GOE including underrotations. And so on. This is no way level of quality of those ladies, they definitely didn't execute what they were capable of. Which means that their points for jump elements are not reflecting their skating or jumping level.

Top ladies are landing triple jumps, ladies from 11-20 place are landing triple jumps, ladies not qualifying for Free Program are landing triple jumps. We rarely see quad attempt or triple axel attempt at international competitions. I don't expect big points gap in jump elements.

So the gap between the wealthy quadsters and the poor non-quadsters gets bigger and bigger in the LP... And it's not really possible to make up points with the non jumping elements.

Some pointed out the number of points Lukas and Jason got for their non jumping elements : about 17 points... Well, that amount of points for 3 spins, one step sequence and a choreo sequence, so five elements, is almost equivalent to a quad combo with good GOE... ONE JUMPING PASS.

....

Non quad skater doesn't need to compensate gap of 17 points, because instead of 4toeloop + 3toeloop (Adam for 16.04 points) they may execute for example 3lutz + 3toeloop (Jason for 11.79 points) or 3axel + 1Euler + 3salchow (Kao Miura for 14.17 points). So the gap between non quad and quad skater is less than 5 or less than 2 points. Which is possible to compensate in PCS for example.

For closer look let's go to Free Program at World Championships 2024:

- We got three no quad programs in top 10 - Jason, Deniss and Mark Gorodnitsky. Their jump elements score was 60.77 points for Jason (with 1axel instead of double at the end and underrotated 3salchow in jump sequence), 58.06 points for Deniss (with underrotated 3salchow and 3loop, 2salchow instead of quad), 63.97 points for Mark with clean skate. Both Jason and Deniss lost let's say about 5 points for their mistakes.

- Because of Mark Gorodnitsky's clean skate I will take his jump elements into account - 63.97 points.

- Adam with four quad jumps got 94.64 points for jump elements.
- Yuma with three quad jumps (but fall in 3axel) got 86.40 points.
- Kao Miura with four quad jumps (two jump mistakes = negative GOE) got 72.13 points.
- Lukas with two quad jumps got 71.78 points.
- Mikhail Shaidorov - four fully rotated quad jump (but three jump mistakes) - with 65.55 points.
- Shoma - four quad jumps (but three jump mistakes) got 63.13 points.
- Hyungyeom Kim - quad jump (three jump mistakes) got 61.89 points.
- Nikolaj Memola - quad jump (but with one jump mistake and ! in another jump) got 61.63 points.
- Alexader Selevko with quad jump (but three jump mistakes) got 59.45 points.
- Junhwan Cha with two quad jumps (but three jump mistakes including 1toeloop) got 58.76 points.
- And we can continue like that...because next few skaters had from one to three quad jumps...their range of jump elements was from 55.07 to 59.39 points.

RESULTS - part one:
1) Quad jumps are not saving anything if quad jump or triple jumps are executed with mistakes.

2) Skaters with one, two or three quad jumps, but with jump mistakes (= negative GOE) are losing to clean non quad program even in jump elements, what to speak about PCS. Only Mikhail Shaidorov with FOUR fully rotated quad jumps is able to get a little bit higher jumps elements than skater with clean non quad program.

If we look at quad skaters with CLEAN Free Programs:
- one quad jump - there was nobody at World Championships 2024 with clean skate - so I picked Alexander Selevko from European Championships 2024 - all jumps with positive GOE and 4toeloop - jump element score 61.97 points...BUT his second axel was double only, with second 3axel he could get around 66 points for jump elements
- two quad jumps - Lukas Britschgi - all jumps with positive GOE and two 4toeloops - 71.78 points for jump elements
- three quad jumps – nobody, as Yuma fell on 3axel – Yuma landed clean 3axel at 4 Continents Championships 2024 getting 11.31 points, at World Championships this element with fall got 5.03 points – so I added 6 points to his jump elements score at World Championships - 86.40 + 6 = 92.40 points
- four quad jumps - Adam - 94.64 points
- six quad jumps – Ilia – but I don’t want to take this program at World Championships, so I will take his clean skate at Skate America with four quad jumps = 98.09 points

AGAINST
- no quad program - Mark - 63.97 points

Mark Gorodnitsky as a non quad skater is losing against quad skaters...in case of:
- one quad - loss of around 2 points
- two quad jumps - loss of 7.81 points
- three quad jumps - loss of 28.43 points
- four quad jumps – loss of 30.67 points or more looking at Ilia.

RESULTS - part two:
1) Point gap of 2.00 points or 7.81 points is not that big, it can possibly be compensated with superior PCS or / and Spins or / and Step Sequences. Which leads to situation that non quad skater is possibly able to compensate one or two quad jumps with superior other than quad jumps elements.

2) Point gap of 28.43 and 30.67 points and more points is too big to be compensated with superior non jump elements.

In this case I want to point out than 28.43 points and 30.67 points or more points gap is not caused only by the fact that skaters attempted quad jumps. It is MAINLY because those quad jumps were executed in extra quality AND SO WERE the rest of the jumps (with exception of Yuma’s second 3axel).

Just compare:
- 3lutz + 3toeloop combination - Jason got 11,79 points, Deniss 11.62 points, Yuma got 12.96 points, Yuma puts the combination into second part of the program. Ilia goes 3lutz + 3axel which has higher base value and executed in the second half of programs this jump element earns him 17.23 points.

- 3axel - Jason got 9.49 points, Adam got 10.86 points (Ilia in Short program 12.11 points).

OVERALL you can see that skaters without quad jump can still show great results - 5th, 7th and 12nd place. Jason with superior non jump elements and PCS is even able to beat overall Lukas with clean skate including one quad jump in Short Program and two quad jumps in Free Program (and like @4everchan mentioned Lukas is great in Spins, so no loss in these elements).

I am not saying that today’s ISU Judging System is ideal.
But I think that this situation is playing for everybody's good. Quad skaters know that they need to work on non jump elements to get high score (which is no way ensured with quad jump's attempts only). And non quad skaters are supported to skate despite them not having quad jumps, because compensation of one or two quad jumps is still posssible. Win - win situation.

And less jump elements – it will play for non quad skaters.

 

[sisinka]

... Add a catch-foot position requirement, and some skaters will struggle more with that because they naturally lack the flexibility.

...

everything in here is true. However, that's the whole thing : some skaters do not have the ambidexterity nor the flexibility to achieve such spins but they are not required. The ISU removed mandatory spiral sequences and the layback spin. Skaters who do not have these qualities can earn points differently. For instance, Patrick Chan, never did bendy position but would manage high points on spins because of the quality of his position and he was able to reach level 4s differently. ...

Thank you for this mentions.

I do believe that Level 4 Features offer more variants, so even naturally more rigid skaters can fulfil criterias. I definitely never want to see a skater being "punished" for his anatomy.

Because body anatomy and flexibility must be taken into account.

Some skaters have naturally more loose ligaments which allows them to be more flexible. Doing flexility exercises since childhood helps a lot in loosing ligaments as well. Many skaters are hypermobile in one or more joints and loose ligaments play smaller part in it.

But not everybody is hypermobile.

Joint's anatomy is essential coming to range of motion. Some people have joint anatomy which decreases range of motion in some directions. You cannot do anything with it despite how much or long you practise.

And if you try to get into the position which your joint is not build for - you always use wrong movement stereotypes overloading other body segments...which will lead to injury sooner or later.

I remember Miki Ando being criticized A LOT by American commentators (Dick Button, Peggy Flemming?...I am not sure). They didn't like her low flexibility especially in Spiral Sequence. From my medical view, I am almost sure that Miki has hip joint anatomy with reduced range of motion into hip extension (leg behind) and external rotation. So for her it was impossible to get proper position on classical spiral with leg behind or in Bielmann position. Some commentators never forgot to mention it, not thinking even for one second how strange it is that workoholic Japanese lady who is doing flexibility exercises for years (like everybody in figure skating) has so small range of motion in one direction.

Another part are shortened muscles or fascias or myofascial lines which decrease range of motion, it is another reason to have regular Rehabilitation treatment. I am surprised how many elite skaters are fighting with it (as it is visible even when they simply stand on the ice). I do understand that Figure Skating is expensive, but proper Rehabilitation is injury saving or injury postponing thing...it really does have sense.