Nathan Chen | Page 85 | Golden Skate

Nathan Chen

Kind of at a loss for words here. Is it the pressure really getting to him? Is he losing the technique somehow? Could it be yet another injury? Lingering equipment issues? Or a combination of several issues? Nathan really hasn’t seemed this unstable even in his junior days. Those cryptic words Raf said in that article after SA still really worry me. Something smells off with his training to me. He looked to be in such an upward trajectory when he won Rostelecom and then everything just sort of crumbled. Whatever demon he’s fighting I really hope he will be able to come out on top at the end.
 
Nathan has alluded to issues with nerves and stress, as well as fatigue. A lot of that is probably due to this being the Olympic season, and a hectic schedule with numerous media demands in addition to his training/competition schedule. Ashley has said she was stressed out by her sponsorship obligations, so I imagine it's just as bad for Nathan. He's also said in interviews that he didn't really have much time to do anything between SkAm and GPF except try to recover. Once he gets back home he'll even have a show in Santa Barbara next weekend.

I also wonder if training 4Lo has hurt his consistency with 4S. If he can't get that straightened out I hope he will drop 4S as well.
 
I hope somebody translates it - but even using Google translate, you can tell what a good interview it was. I love reading longer interviews with him, he is very thoughtful. :( about him talking about how he knows he upset a lot of people when he won RC. Also - love what he said about Raf. It also seemed that Raf helped him with money related things which doesn't surprise me as I read recently that he helped Adam when Adam couldn't make car payments or something along those lines. He can be hard on the skaters sometimes but he really does seem to care about them all very much.
 
I looked at his 4S history from 2015 and counting pops he’s 2 out of 8. With 4T1Lo3S in the program he can’t pop the 4S into 3S as it will cause a repeat. So it maybe time to drop the 4S and move a 2nd half quad to first half and keep only one quad and 2 3As in the 2nd half. It would be less taxing for the 2nd half. I don’t know what change he has made but it seems he has no more problem with his 3A. We really want to see one clean Mao’s Last Dancer.
 
Nathan can try 4T-lo-3F, if wanna avoid possible too many repeats of jumps in case he popped his 4S to 3S.

Nathan's 3F is one of his most confident jump and worth more BV than 3S, and he usually won't pop his 4F (so no repeat more jumps issue). Also baby Nathan has done plenty very intricate 3F entries with no preparation at all.

So he can do it, it will be also another chance to reinforce his Flip jump entry. Nathan's luts and Flip really is his money jump. I have a gut feeling he may do 4T-lo-3F with better rhythm and successful rate than his 4T-lo-3S.

So he can opt to do 4S or 3S at his disposal depends how he feels at the specific moment.
 
I didn't realize his 4s percentage was that low - but it makes sense as I knew that he popped it a lot. I hope he and Raf really look at the season so far and plan accordingly. Nationals isn't too far away and he's going to want to put out a good skate there to set him up well for the Olympics.

I am encouraged to see how solid his SPs have been. :) Last year, remember, he didn't do a clean short until Nationals. He's been so much stronger during that segment of the competition. I was looking through some old protocols of his competitions last year - http://www.isuresults.com/results/season1617/gpjpn2016/gpjpn2016_Men_FS_Scores.pdf Here, he did a second half 3f-3t-2t that got him more than 12 points. He did a 3f-3t-2lo at the France GP. I think he should stick with the flips and lutzes whenever possible, to be honest. I also wouldn't mind seeing him go down to a 4 quad program, at least for Nationals. I know he's determined and so he probably won't, but I think it would be a smart move.
 
I found some pictures of Nathan in the GPF :luv17:

http://www.gettyimages.com/photos/f...g nathan chen&recency=last48hours&sort=newest

We are Nathan fans and we care about their performance, I leave you my humble perception: Nemesis not only shows the artistic side of Nathan also repeats a good part of the Corsaire elements (which is not bad, I really loved the Corsaire) but with Mao Last Dancer / Rite of Springs Raf is challenging Nathan not only artistically, also in his technical capacity, Rostelecomp the elements were similar to Polovtsian Dances (maybe that's why he did well) but from Skate America I see the "Prince Igor" vanish and the ballet dancer emerge (that is why I wrote "a new champion is being born") other skaters would resign at this point and return to the past, I feel that Nathan will not.

P.S: Once again, Mrs. Hetty, thank you so much for giving us Nathan (maybe the world hit him a bit, but we are many who admire and support him) :agree:
 
Coolest thing about the Gala is that you could tell the TV crews decided Nathan was the star of the show. They were basically following him everywhere.

And yeah, the SA screamers were pretty impressive given the arena was only about 15% full. The gala at nationals should be pretty rockin.

Finally some photos!

At banquet with Mitsuki Sumoto
https://twitter.com/nwcgold2017/status/939867598300131328

At banquet with Daria Panenkova
https://twitter.com/nwcgold2017/status/939867598300131328

Gala practice with Krasnozhon
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcgtUypFKDt/?taken-by=usfigureskating

Everyone having fun at gala practice
https://www.instagram.com/p/BchZVA9hvkr/

ETA:
Jason uploaded a team photo
https://twitter.com/jasonbskates/status/939883976616853504

Nathan with Nagoya mayor
https://twitter.com/ohmura_hideaki/status/939874289725030400
 
More pics

With the Shibs and his agent
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcjDcN_ldPR/?hl=en&taken-by=yukisaegusa

With Zagitova and The Boys
https://twitter.com/cure_1225/status/940070392089083904

With Carreira and Ponomarenko
https://twitter.com/nwcgold2017/status/940079719487193089

Fan art of Nathan. Backstory: He was spotted in the stands watching the competition on Saturday, eating onigiri, drinking green tea, and leaning forward in his seat (considered discourteous because it hinders the view of the person sitting behind him).
https://twitter.com/nei3_f/status/940021841065734144

Nathan also updated his IG with a photo of the medalists. At least he's acknowledging that the competition occurred. I think he wants to forget SA ever happened. :laugh:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bci_nC9gGRw/?hl=en&taken-by=nathanwchen
 
Nathan's JP Facebook Fanclub has a short message from him from after the victory ceremony.
https://www.facebook.com/nathanJPFa...828.1476465142427250/1743012799105815/?type=3

Since he was kind of disappointed with himself she plans to upload the video after Nationals when hopefully he'll be in a better mood.

Summary:

Nathan thanks everyone for their support, and is glad with his win at the GPF. However, it wasn't the program he had hoped for and will take what he learned from this experience towards his next competition. (At this point I get the sense that the President of his fan club started saying things to try to cheer him up.) He then added that with each competition he feels closer to the protagonist of Mao's Last Dancer.

More photos:

With Sofia Samodurova
https://twitter.com/PhDSports1/status/940115874240974848

With the Shibs and Adam at Gala practice
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcjM_9kl37x/

With Alexey Erokhov
https://twitter.com/nwcgold2017/status/940261734903791616

With Rika Kihira:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcjV5PyAblw/

Photobombing the ice dancers
https://twitter.com/chimay0099/status/940164812398518273
 
Thanks for all the pictures. I read the Russian interview and it made me think how uneasy it was to see Nathan coming out of a very good performance and the cold reaction of the crowd. I understand that they were there for other skaters and it is in their right to cheer or not for whomever they prefer but still it was a bit of an unpleasant moment and I understand the contradictory feelings that Nathan is expressing in the interview and I cannot help but feel a bit sorry that his first GP big win has not left an happier memory.
 
Nathan is setting himself up so well for an individual Olympic medal!
He's already bested two medal favorites and he seems to be on an upward momentum, even with his blade and FS issues. Good luck at Nationals, Nathan!
 
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