Roman Sadovsky

[siberia82]

This article confirms that Roman will replace Keegan in the Team Event: https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/canadian-figure-skater-messing-awaiting-030419866.html

Roman Sadovsky, Canada's other men's singles entry and the national silver medallist, will replace Messing in the team event, in which Canada is the reigning Olympic champion.

 

[snowyowls]

Sad for Keegan, fingers crossed he'll be able to make it for the individual event. I hope having to skate in both won't stress and tire out Roman too much. Also worried about the pressure on him for the team event, though sometimes Roman surprises us in these types of situations, like when he lost his luggage but ended up having his best skate of his season, or when he won silver at nats despite all the pressure of the Olympic season (though of course, the Olympics is an entirely different beast). But regardless of the scores, I hope he enjoys his Olympic experience.

 

[siberia82]

I've just noticed that a Radio-Canada article ( https://ici.radio-canada.ca/jeux-ol...gan-messing-roman-sadovsky-competition-equipe ) described Roman's participation in the Team Event as his "baptême du feu" ("baptism by fire"). No kidding!

...le Comité olympique canadien prendra la décision de le remplacer par le jeune Roman Sadovsky, qui vivrait ainsi son baptême du feu.



On a different note, I should inform you all that I CAN'T UPLOAD ANY CURRENT OLYMPIC VIDEOS because I know from experience that they WILL BE REMOVED, and I don't want to risk losing my Dailymotion and Streamable accounts. There was a time when I could upload vids to Streamable anonymously, but the site no longer allows that.

 

[siberia82]

According to Roman himself, he wasn't officially informed that he would skate in the Team Event even after Thursday's practice.

With Keegan Messing in COVID jail, Roman Sadovsky up next for Canada in Olympic figure skating team event

Messing’s viral levels must be dropping, however, as the team leadership is “hopeful” he will be able to join the other 12 athletes here at some point.

nationalpost.com

"So I haven't been, like, officially told," the 22-year-old from Toronto said after practice on Thursday. "I've just been told to you know, be ready, and they told me that a long time ago. And so I've been kind of sticking to that strategy in practice and making sure that if I'm told 'you’re doing the short program,' I'm ready to go."

 

[Ziotic]

With Keegan Messing in COVID jail, Roman Sadovsky up next for Canada in Olympic figure skating team event

Messing’s viral levels must be dropping, however, as the team leadership is “hopeful” he will be able to join the other 12 athletes here at some point.

nationalpost.com

“So I haven’t been, like, officially told,” the 22-year-old from Toronto said after practice on Thursday. “I’ve just been told to you know, be ready, and they told me that a long time ago. And so I’ve been kind of sticking to that strategy in practice and making sure that if I’m told ‘you’re doing the short program,’ I’m ready to go.”

Wow on the bad research, they list France as a likely team to qualify for the free skate .

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

I've just noticed that a Radio-Canada article ( https://ici.radio-canada.ca/jeux-ol...gan-messing-roman-sadovsky-competition-equipe ) described Roman's participation in the Team Event as his "baptême du feu" ("baptism by fire"). No kidding!

...le Comité olympique canadien prendra la décision de le remplacer par le jeune Roman Sadovsky, qui vivrait ainsi son baptême du feu.



On a different note, I should inform you all that I CAN'T UPLOAD ANY CURRENT OLYMPIC VIDEOS because I know from experience that they WILL BE REMOVED, and I don't want to risk losing my Dailymotion and Streamable accounts. There was a time when I could upload vids to Streamable anonymously, but the site no longer allows that.

"Baptême du feu" is the first time a young soldier participates in a real-life battle.
The meaning nowadays is broader than just military but it's the same.
With CoViD and others Roman has never been at Worlds and he is now supposed to skate 2 SP and 2 FS at Olympics in a week!
I wish him the best.

 

[siberia82]

This short interview with Roman was filmed before he left for Beijing, but it's appropriate that it was uploaded only 41 minutes ago because he will soon face his baptism by fire. I'm sending positive vibes to him!

 

[snowyowls]

Not a perfect performance but he did well, all things considered! No falls, got the combo in, good 3a. And jumps aside, I'm just happy to see him on Olympic ice

 

[siberia82]

I'm sad that Roman got burned badly in his baptism by fire , but as Kurt Browning mentioned in the Nationals broadcast, Roman is here to gain experience (especially considering that he never got to compete at Worlds), so I hope he learns from this performance and does better in the individual SP.



Three official links for Roman's Olympics TE SP (they may be geoblocked outside of Canada):

CBC.ca: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1999610947998

CBC Sports YouTube channel:


Radio-Canada Sports Twitter (French commentary):

 

[siberia82]

Roman was interviewed about his Olympic debut performance, and he only learned hours before the Team Event that he would be skating in it: https://www.tsn.ca/filling-in-for-m...ada-in-eighth-in-olympic-team-event-1.1754718



Post-TE SP Interview with CBC TV:

 

[Supernovaimplosion]

How was the 3A his best jump today

 

[snowyowls]

Danielle Earl took some lovely photos of Roman from the short program: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZiuTuertz7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I love how his shirt matches the boards

 

[Flying Feijoa]

Just watching the CBC replay of yesterday's team event, which had different commentators when Roman was skating; while the British man said Roman was 'from Ontario', the Australian lady interrupted and said that he was 'originally from Ukraine, I'm sure they'd love to have him on their team'.
Maybe she confused him with Yaroslav Paniot. But speaking personally as a second-gen immigrant I find it insensitive to conflate someone's country of origin as wherever their parents came from...

 

[siberia82]

This is my favourite of DE's snapshots of Roman's TE SP (and I agree with what others have said about how his costume looks even more gorgeous because it matches with the boards ). It's a static picture, yet it captures so perfectly what I find magical about his artistry. Every fiber of his being oozes with ethereal grace and beauty, from the tip of his toes to the tip of his fingers. Although my latest nickname for him is Roman Emperor of Canada (I obviously coined that after he won the national title over 2 years ago), he'll always be the otherworldly princeling (which was my first nickname for him) whose skating puts me under a spell.

 

[siberia82]

I felt like revisiting the 2006 Olympics SP of Jeffrey Buttle, Roman's childhood hero whose skating style he emulates, and watching it again reminded me of how inconsistent Jeff was in competition. Jeff had a fall and a hand down in this performance, while Roman's TE SP also had two jump mistakes, so it's not vastly inferior to what his idol did, But the big difference of course was that in Jeff's era, there weren't a gazillion quads being attempted, so Roman's jump errors are FAR more costly in this current competitive climate than it was in Jeff's time.

I've said in the past that Roman is more or less Jeff's "clone" on the ice, Another way I could word it is if you placed Jeff from the early-to-mid aughts into a time machine and then brought him to our present, his competitive performances would look quite similar to Roman's. At least for me, I'm more at peace with Roman's messy showing in the TE SP knowing that this childhood hero had the same number of mistakes in his Olympics debut.

After Jeff had retired, I had prayed to the skating gods for another skater who was a lot like him, and they granted my wish with Roman (although it didn't occur to me at the time to ask that the new guy be more consistent with the jumps and be capable of performing several different quads). As far as I'm concerned, Roman's sublime elegance on the ice is a divine gift, and I've learned to accept the jump inconsistency that comes with it.

 

[siberia82]

For those of you who didn't already know this, the 12-year-old Roman performed to "Sing Sing Sing" by Louis Prima for his SP during the 2011-2012 season, which is the exact same song that Jeff skated to for his SP during the 2005-2006 season (which includes the Olympics as shown in the video in my last post). I'm sure little Roman was thinking about how much he wanted to compete at the Olympics just like his hero, and a decade later, he has!

 

[siberia82]

Team Canada qualified for the free skate, so Roman will compete again in about 50 minutes!

 

[snowyowls]

Ouch, he hasn't had a skate this tough in a while :/ I hope this will motivate him for a good comeback in the individual. We know Roman has had trouble with nerves and being in his first Olympics is hard enough, nevermind having to replace Keegan in the team event at the last minute. But no matter how the individual event goes, he's still planning to keep skating after this season and this is invaluable experience for him. I'm still proud of him for making it here and trying his best!

 

[rain]

I was gutted watching Roman's skate, and how dejected he looked afterwards. I'm sure this was not what he wanted his Olympics to be like. He should get on the phone with Kurt Browning and talk about how to come back with a redemption skate after a meltdown. If anyone understands that at the Olympics, it's Kurt.

I'm sure Roman hasn't seen a score that low in years. He needs a sports psychologist. I hope one is part of the Canadian delegation.

 

[Supernovaimplosion]

This is so sad