BittyBug
Childless Cat Lady
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Ilia at age eleven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXBl15ZKX2I
U.S. Men 2021-22 season news & updates
- Thread starter Sylvia
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rfisher
Let the skating begin
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Ilia at 14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6shiFdplYJ8&ab_channel=ISUJuniorGrandPrix
This was the competition I said, here is the future star of US men's skating.
This was the competition I said, here is the future star of US men's skating.
Sylvia
Flight #5342: I Will Remember You
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2016 U.S. Nationals Juvenile Boys champion!
2016 U.S. Juvenile Boys results:
1 Ilia Malinin, Washington FSC 58.06
2 Samuel Mindra, Portland ISC 54.41 - 2021 Junior bronze medalist; withdrew from Junior at 2022 Nationals
3 Maxim Zharkov, Dallas FSC 51.92 - 2022 Junior bronze medalist
4 Philip Baker, SC of Boston 50.99 - competed Junior at 2022 Nationals
5 Zachary Yaninek, Hershey FSC - competed in Junior this past season
6 Nicholas Hsieh, SC of Wilmington - started college at Cornell this past fall
7 Samir Mallya, South Bay FSC
8 Levon Davis, Arctic FSC - competed in Junior Pairs at 2022 Nationals
9 Trevor Bucek, Northern Ice SC - competed in Senior this past season
10 Daniel Tioumentsev - competed in & won Junior Pairs at 2022 Nationals
11 Goku Endo, South Bay FSC - competed in Junior at 2022 Nationals
12 Baltazar Poling, Los Angeles FSC
From Ilia's fan thread:
Ilia won the U.S. Juvenile & Intermediate national titles back to back in 2016 & 2017 - here's his 1st place South Atlantic Regional Intermediate SP in October 2016 (a few months before he turned 12)
Karen-W
YMCA is such a catchy tune!
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Same!
Vagabond
Well-Known Member
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If only every skater could have a skating dad and a skating mom like that! 
livetoskate
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Congratulation to Ilia!
Last 3 skaters, Seleko, Malinin & Yamamoto:
youtu.be
Medal ceremony:
Last 3 skaters, Seleko, Malinin & Yamamoto:
Mihhail Selevko Ilia Malinin Sota Yamato 2022 Challenge Cup figure skating free skate
0:00 Mihhail Selevko6:22 Ilia Malinin13:59 Sota Yamamoto22:18 Final StandingsThis figure skating competition took place in the Netherlands on 2/26/2022.#ilia...
youtu.be
Medal ceremony:
alexikeguchi
Well-Known Member
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It's awesome that Ilia got his SP minimum, and he is a future star of US figure skating, but his score at Challenge Cup was 20 points below what Jason got at the Olympics with no quad. Do the people who objected to the choice of Jason over Ilia for the Olympics (and I was not one of them) still think it was such a mistake?
Karen-W
YMCA is such a catchy tune!
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Yes, I do. Jason's performance in Beijing was ~20 points higher than where he'd been scoring the entire fall season. It was as much of an anomaly as the CS Austria SP was for Ilia. Had Ilia scored 260+ at that event like he did today at Challenge Cup I don't think the IC would have left him at home for the Olympics as that was right in line with the scores Jason had been earning all season.
Also, just want to point out that Ilia's 6 for 6 with 4 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze in his competitions so far this season.
sk9tingfan
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The camera work at this competition is really good.
Yes, because they only care about quad jumps, and all of Jason’s actual competitive accomplishments are worthless compared to all the hypothetical things they’re convinced Ilia can do even though he hasn’t actually done them yet.
This conversation is never going to change, so can we just not? The Olympics are over, I’m looking forward to seeing Vincent, Ilia, and whoever their +1 is at worlds.
jlai
Question everything
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It is a tough choice between two worthy candidates and neither choice will make everyone happy.
But with Nathan likely moving on we are now down to three and I don’t have to choose!
But with Nathan likely moving on we are now down to three and I don’t have to choose!
Karen-W
YMCA is such a catchy tune!
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Pewter medals for the win, right?
Well, as of yesterday, when the USFS updated the Int'l Assignments page to remove the *Pending TES mins for Ilia's Worlds assignment, the three listed are still Chen, Malinin and Zhou. We'll have to see how many media appearances and interviews Nathan has next week now that he's made the rounds of most of the major news & entertainment outlets.
I’m still trying to understand the “JGP Finalist > GP Finalist” logic, but sure, let’s pretend I’m really into pewter.
Seriously, though, the numbers argument between Jason and Ilia will never go anywhere. Some people value long-term consistency and some people value short-term trajectory. Both skaters also have an added x-factor in terms of bringing something exciting to the sport. Some people will prefer one to the other. Both earned equal consideration for the Olympic team and the selection committee picked one of them. They’re both great skaters and it’s silly to keep pretending that Jason’s accomplishments have no value just because they’re not the kind you prefer.
Tough to compare the two competitions since Ilia went for the safer Short Program content to get the World technical minimums.
I still think Ilia places top 10 in Beijing, maybe 1-2 places lower than Jason would have (Grassl/Semenenko)
wickedwitch
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Some people like both Ilia and Jason. Nobody is forcing people to only like one of them.
If he was about as clean in Beijing as he was at Challenge Cup, and with quads in the short, I agree. I think he would have been behind Grassl, maybe behind Semenenko, but very likely could have been at least 10th. That’s exciting for his prospects at Worlds and a great place to be heading into the next quad. Crossing my fingers he can stay healthy and gets through any remaining growth spurt with minimal disruption.
I have this really subversive opinion that all four of the top U.S. men this year are among the best in the world, and we’re lucky to have all of them.
Theatregirl1122
Needs a nap
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I don’t understand how this is relevant to anything? Does anyone think that the argument for picking Ilia was based on comparing him to Jason WITHOUT quads?
The horse is dead. Stop digging up its grave so you can keep beating it. Good lord.
Karen-W
YMCA is such a catchy tune!
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Looking at his score, with the safer SP content, compared to the SB scores, he'd probably finish about 12th at Worlds, but I do expect him to go for at least one quad in the SP in Montpellier, and I fully expect several of the guys ahead of him on the SB list to not match those scores, so I think somewhere around 7th-9th is a reasonable expectation for Worlds - certainly higher if he can replicate what he did at Nats.
His FS TES from today is the 6th highest on the TES mins list, so I won't be surprised to see his PCS start rising the way it always does when skaters start showing some quad consistency.
Yeah, we really are. And, we have some great talent coming through the development pipeline.
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Rukia
A Southern, hot-blooded temperamental individual
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Whyyyyyyyyy are we still arguing about the Olympics that already happened?? Let's just get ready to enjoy the skaters going to worlds.
But Ilia's PCS should not go up just because he has quads. He needs to work on that. I genuinely think he can improve it a lot. He's very young and talented. But he doesn't deserve higher PCS at this point.
But Ilia's PCS should not go up just because he has quads. He needs to work on that. I genuinely think he can improve it a lot. He's very young and talented. But he doesn't deserve higher PCS at this point.
kwanfan1818
RIP D-10
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Malinin was not WITHOUT quads at Challenge Cup: he had four in his FS.
Maiinin's international quads stats this season are:
- JGP FRA
- FS: 2T (pop) -.65 GOE (on 1.3 base), 4S - 4.85 GOE (on 9.70 base)
- JGP AUT
- FS: 4T -2.31 GOE (on 9.5 base), 4S +2.63 GOE (on 9.70 base)
- CS AUT
- SP: 4Lz (<) -4.6 GOE (on 9.2 base), 4T (<)/3T - 1.37 GOE (on 11.8 base)
- FS: 4Lz + 3.45 GOE (on 11.5 base), 4T (<) -3.80 (on 7.6 base), 4S -2.31 (on 9.7 base), 4T (<) +1 Eu + 3S - 1.82 GOE (on 13.64 base, bonus period)
- Challenge Cup:
- FS: 4Lz (<) - 4.6 GOE (on 9.2 base), 4T +2.66 (on 9.5 base), 4S +2.72 (on 9.7 base), 4T (q) + 1 Eu + 3S -.76 (on 15.73 base, bonus period)
- 4 were clean (+GOE, no calls)
- 1 was popped
- 5 were called < with reduced base value
- 1 was called q
- 3 were rotated but received - GOE.
In fact, US Nationals was the outlier, with tons of + GOE on each of 6 quads, and he didn't follow that with a similar FS performance at Challenge Cup.
The argument for the last US Men's spot at the Olympics, given that Zhou was Group 2 and was Top Three at US Nationals (by .38), was always All Quad Malinin vs. No Quad Brown.
Malinin may skate the lights out at Worlds, but it's international, not national, Malinin who is going.
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We do, although it’s going to be an interesting couple of years while that talent is developing. I’ll be surprised if Nathan ever competes at the world level again. I don’t expect to see Vincent much before 2024, if at all. Jason seems iffy to continue, but if he does, I have a hard time picturing him competing past 2024 or so. So as long as Ilia stays healthy, he might have one of the veteran guys for company at any given time, and it’s probably going to be all chaos all the time for a while beyond that. Should be fun to watch, though!
Karen-W
YMCA is such a catchy tune!
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Jason definitely seems ready for a break - he posted an IG story earlier today with his family hitting the slopes at Mammoth Mountain. I really think the Olympics was his final bow on competitive ice. I'm not 100% convinced that Nathan is done, but, like Vincent, I don't expect to see him competing again until 2024 at the earliest - two years to finish his undergrad at Yale, right?
Hedwig
Antique member
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there really are. All this pitching Jason and Ilia against each other who have been my two favorite men from the US all over the last two/three years is so annoying.
AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)
Get it Amber 😝
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His program in the short program was just to be safe and get the minimum. Had he done the quads like he did at nationals I’m sure would’ve been much much higher. Again he was just going to get the minimum requirement
Jarrett
What the hell?!
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Congrats to Ilia for winning his first international senior competition! Great recovery after falling on the first element!
carriecmu0503
Well-Known Member
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delete
Karen-W
YMCA is such a catchy tune!
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You misread Jarrett's post. There is a difference between winning your senior international debut (like Valieva did with Finlandia this fall) and winning your first senior international (which is what Ilia has, indeed, done). Don't be such a hater.
Nobody's PCS should go up just because they have quads or quad attempts. But that is the reality in general. This isn't something specific for Ilia.
I agree that Ilia is likely to improve a lot. Ilia clearly loves quads and has been focusing a lot on his jumps. He probably goes to Raf primarily for help on jumping and technique.
But, Raf and Ilia's team almost certainly know what Ilia needs to improve and that includes more than improving his jumps. It includes improving other technical elements, such as his spins. It involves genuinely improving his components.
I have no doubt that Ilia can and will improve significantly, but it won't be all at once. IMO, people don't give Nathan enough credit for his improvement since he first became a senior. We will see improvement from Ilia as well. I think he has the raw talent, the motivation, and access to people who will help him. I doubt he'll just be consulting with Raf. I'm sure he'll work with people who can help him improve not only his jumps, but his spins, skating skills, choreography, etc. I'm really looking forward to seeing him develop as a skater.
And this is coming from someone who really loves Jason's skating.
Theatregirl1122
Needs a nap
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That person compared his SP score to Jason's. I watched his SP. So yes, the comparison they made was Jason without quads to Ilia without quads? I don't understand what his quads in the FS have to do with his SP score.And I wasn't arguing that Ilia should be sent or that Jason should be sent, so I'm not sure why I got a giant post? I literally just said that no one would argue that Ilia in the short with no quads was superior to Jason in the short with no quads so I don't know why this was relevant?
kwanfan1818
RIP D-10
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The post you quoted said -- "but his score at Challenge Cup was 20 points below what Jason got at the Olympics with no quad" -- and compared his total Challenge Cup Score (260.69) as being 20 points below Brown's total score at the Olympics (281.24). Malinin's total at Challenge Cup included four quad attempts in the FS.
Malinin's SP score at Challenge Cup was ~12 points, not 20 points less, than Brown's in Beijing. Brown's FS quadless FS score in Beijing (with the singled Salchow) was ~8 points higher than Malinin's four-quad FS at Challenge Cup.
