Yesterday, I was heartbroken for Misha. Today, I was proud of him — yes, this despite all the pops on his triples. The fact that he not only landed both the quad sal and quad toe-triple toe for the first time ever (to my knowledge), but did so beautifully, followed by a decent triple axel, showed grit and determination after his disastrous sp. I think these accomplishments were important to prove to himself (most importantly), as well as to the judges, the Russian fed, and everyone else that he does indeed possess the athletic talent, potential, and competitive spirit to achieve marvelous things in competition. His smiling afterwards and in his interview (thanks very much for posting/translating, I so wish I understood Russian!) were a big relief, as it hinted for me his mindset/optimism for the rest of the season. A huge revelation for me from his interview was how much he’s dependent on listening/skating to the music for the timing on each of his elements — so much so that he’s been given advice not to skate to the music so faithfully, lol. For me, it’s a significant part of the puzzle for his misses in competition, along with the other aspects. He’s such a mature, intelligent and self-aware young man (e.g., I was so impressed by his observation that while we can’t change what we were born with we can work on making improvements), I’ve no doubt he understands what needs to be worked on that’s within his control. I hope Misha reaps the benefits of all his hard work and gets healthy/stays injury-free for the upcoming part of this season!
I hope they both will do well today
not just for Misha but for all the men
