Can Kevin Reynolds overtake Patrick Chan as Canadian Number 1?

[Maofan7]

New article on Kevin Reynolds entitled, "Canada's Kevin Reynolds picks up figure skating torch." It reads:-

Fresh off an impressive win at the Four Continents in Japan, the Coquitlam native can now challenge Patrick Chan at London, Ont., worlds next month

Reynolds, the 22-year-old redhead from Coquitlam, opened a lot of eyes last weekend when he won the Four Continents title in Osaka, Japan, where he was the first man ever to land five quadruple jumps in his two programs, and beat — among others — reigning world silver and bronze medallists (and hometown favourites) Daisuke Takahashi and Yuzuru Hanyu for the first major international victory of his senior career.

[Reynolds said]: "My goal is to be close enough to [Patrick] where I can be competitive with the advantage I have technically, and this year I’ve been able to show that I’m closer than ever now."

What he is right now is an amazingly consistent performer of quads — the Salchow and toe loop, alone and in combinations — and now that they’re worth more points via the ongoing evolution of the scoring system, that edge is accentuated.

Jump-wise, he’s miles above the rung Elvis was standing on when he won his three world titles. There’s more to it, alas.

The hard part has always been to strike a balance between keeping the quads solid — the legacy of Browning and Stojko — and the time he needs to devote to skating skills, spins and performance.

How close is he? We’ll find out.

“I think what happened with Kevin at Four Continents is, suddenly people are saying, ‘Holy (crap), this guy is capable of taking it all,’ ” McLeod said. “So at worlds, it’s whoever puts down two great programs. You can’t screw one up and still win.

“So buy your ticket. It’s going to be interesting.”

[Proustable]

No.

[michiruwater]

No, definitely not. That's kind of laughable, really. And McLeod is as delusional as ever about where Kevin will place if any of multiple men ahead of Kevin put down two decent programs. Patrick could fall twice and still probably place ahead of Kevin. There's just no comparison.

[overedge]

Seriously?? Which "people" other than McLeod are saying "this guy is capable of taking it all"?

Yes, Reynolds had a great showing at 4Cs. But maybe McLeod needs to look at how many other international medals Reynolds has won as a senior - which would be one (bronze at 4Cs in 2010) - and look at how many other senior international medals have been won by Chan and the other top-ranked men.

She might also want to look at how many points Reynolds racks up with his quads against how many points he gets for everything else that's judged. Yes, his PCS have been improving, and justifiably so, but when he misses his jumps his marks plunge. And that's going to make it very difficult to "take it all".

I'm sorry, but this is just more of the same delusional thinking and hot-air self-promotion that is sadly what we've come to expect from Camp McLeod. Could we have some V-Bets on what excuses she will have, or who other than Reynolds she will blame, if Reynolds doesn't "take it all" at Worlds?

[caseyedwards]

Reynolds can beat crap hanyu and crap takahashi so It's hard to believe that when up against chan hanyu and takahashi they would all fail together! So all those three would have to in London have meltdowns like hanyu and Takahashi did in 4c with Reynolds being as successful again. Its a long shot but a tiny bit possible.

[UMBS Go Blue]

TIS THE MAYAN APOCALYPSE YO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[attyfan]

Entering into the '01/'02 Oly season, I wonder how many people thought that Sarah Hughes could overtake Michelle Kwan?

[BigB08822]

Entering into the '01/'02 Oly season, I wonder how many people thought that Sarah Hughes could overtake Michelle Kwan?

Considering Hughes was a world bronze medalist and Hughes won Skate Canada over Kwan and Slutskaya THAT SEASON, it really REALLY was not as big of a shock as people like to pretend it was. Not to mention it was under the 6.0 system where a clean 7 triple skate was always good enough to win or at least put you in the running. Now you can do all the jumps you want but you have to survive edge calls, UR calls and then worry about levels on a thousand other elements. The comparison is simply not valid.

[munow]

I think his win at 4CCs was kind of flukish, but I can't say the same thing won't happen ever again.

[JJH]

Anything is possible, but this would be very improbable.

[attyfan]

Considering Hughes was a world bronze medalist and Hughes won Skate Canada over Kwan and Slutskaya THAT SEASON, it really REALLY was not as big of a shock as people like to pretend it was. Not to mention it was under the 6.0 system where a clean 7 triple skate was always good enough to win or at least put you in the running. Now you can do all the jumps you want but you have to survive edge calls, UR calls and then worry about levels on a thousand other elements. The comparison is simply not valid.

I know it became more plausible after SC. My point was simply that, world bronze medalist or not, prior to that season ... prior to SC ... no one thought that Sarah would overtake Michelle. Irina, maybe, but not Sarah. Similarly, no one is thinking that Kevin will overtake Patrick ... because he hasn't done it. Whether he ever will (i.e., whether he will ever have the equivalent of SC ... or even SA [in terms of "should have won", even if he doesn't win]) remains to be seen.

[Cheylana]

I know it became more plausible after SC. My point was simply that, world bronze medalist or not, prior to that season ... prior to SC ... no one thought that Sarah would overtake Michelle. Irina, maybe, but not Sarah. Similarly, no one is thinking that Kevin will overtake Patrick ... because he hasn't done it. Whether he ever will (i.e., whether he will ever have the equivalent of SC ... or even SA [in terms of "should have won", even if he doesn't win]) remains to be seen.

*raises hand* I always worried about Sarah, because she had steely nerves, she always went after the 3-3s, and she never seemed to have a really bad day at the office, she usually was good for 6-7 "triples."

[giselle23]

No. He could have a win over Patrick a la Sarah Hughes. But it would depend on Patrick faltering, just like his win at 4CCs depended on Takahashi and others faltering.

[Vash01]

No way.

[michiruwater]

It's not just Takahashi, Hanyu, and Chan that would have to falter for Kevin to come close to the Worlds podium. Fernandez, Amodio, and potentially several others would also have to have two bad programs.

[Spazactaz]

If only he could get the quality better so he could get some GOE on those jumps... because Patrick's is always so high that it doesn't really matter that his base value is lower. So unless that happens, no.

[Jammers]

Kevin is slow and even his jumps while he does land them are not really that impressive or big. He just doesn't impress me in any way.

[spikydurian]

It's good for Canada to have a strong men's field. They motivate each other to do better.

[Seerek]

A little unfortunate that Kevin's lack of deep edges, speed and positive GOE elements usually overshadow some of the good aspects of his programs.

I think Kevin's long program if given to some other skater with better overall skating skills would be very highly praised - there are details from Kenji Miyamoto in that program that haven't been given the credit it deserves IMO because the skater perhaps is lacking in some areas.

[Maofan7]

Here is another Kevin Reynolds article