jlai
Question everything
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I know it's crazy, but in that particular photo, Nathan looked a bit like a young Li Changjiang
Hanyu lost WC, so if he didn't win it might be the reason. Liza and Evegnia won everything in one season respectively. And they made records too (Liza with 4 clean triples SP, and Evegnia broke WR).Why would you assume they didn't win because they're Russian? maybe Hanyu didn't win because he's Japanese?
And good ole Tom Z - he doesn't like to lose. Does he think his skaters will never be able to do anything except jumps, forget Philip Mills, so he'd better cram in as many jumps into each program as possible?
Actually according to this analysis Shoma doesn't have more transitions than Boyang Jin. They both have medium amount of transitions and maybe too many crossovers:With the exception of Shoma Uno, a bunch of programs basically consisting of ... jumps. Quite often, very sloppy jumps. And very little else.
Excuse me?! That is just plain rude, impolite, and disrespectful to the work Max has put in this season.
And Jin has mentioned several times he is still working hard on the other aspects of his skating.
Umm. I think you missed the point of my criticism, and you misunderstood me about Tom Z. You really need to stop seeing anti-Max barbs where none are intended. I don't like this article because it's a sloppy, shallow piece of writing. The author frames the debate about quads as the accomplishments of the "quad kings" in a vacuum, without considering anything other than "it's new! It's hard! It's a technical advance!" That kind of thinking has already led to some flawed and ugly programs and overblown PCS this season. I don't want to see it continue and that's why this article bothers me.
As to Tom Z specifically, you go back and show me anywhere in that article where he says, "I'm really proud of all the work Max has done on his components this year. He's already a really strong jumper and with his continued improvement in components and his jumps he'll be unstoppable." No, his answer is apparently: more and harder quads = winning. Is that what he really thinks? I don't know, but that's all the author told me.
As to Jin: the article quotes him as saying his dream program would be all quads and triple axels. That's it. No mention of, I'm really excited we've pushed technical boundaries but now I need to work on my components because my programs really suck. I don't care what he said elsewhere because you know what, the author forgot to mention it.
The article may be sloppy and poorly written but you are being deliberately obtuse. The article does not exist in a vacuum nor does it exist in an alternate reality. It exists in a reality where Tom Z encourages Max to work with Phillip Mills and supports his efforts in the second mark, it exists in a reality where Boyang Jin has said he is working on his other skating, it exists in a reality where it turned out that Nathan Chen doing four quads in the FS at Nationals was, in hindsight, a really, really bad idea.
If every author had to mention every tiny detail in every article we'd never get any articles written.
And yes, I see the shade, because it is there, in the blatant double-standard the US fans apply. When one skater has consistently done multiple-quad free skates for three years and more, but spent that whole time being constantly lambasted for that, he's terrible and dreadful and it's not all about the jumps so he should lose every time...why is it that when a young kid shows up with a multiple quad free skate, that is suddenly great and wonderful and it's all about the jumps and put him on all the teams?