U.S. Men 2021-22 season news & updates

Tahuu said:
And without Boyang. Who would need those 3 2023 worlds spots with Nathan, Vincent, Jason, Camden out next season?
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I forgot that Boyang was also not going to Worlds.

And, exactly... As @Trillian pointed out a couple posts ago, we have a bunch of promising men coming up from juniors (Malinin, Kapeikis, Broussard, Annis), some injured seniors (Naumov, Paniot), and several inconsistent seniors (Pulkinen, Hiwatashi, Ma). Apart from Malinin, none of those guys have demonstrated the ability to land more than 2 quads in a FS and some of them don't have any quads let alone one consistent quad in their arsenal. I'm not convinced that we need 3 spots next season or that we won't lose one next season anyways, and if we do, well, I'll still be pretty surprised if we don't get back up to 3 spots by 2026.
 
Karen-W said:
I forgot that Boyang was also not going to Worlds.

And, exactly... As @Trillian pointed out a couple posts ago, we have a bunch of promising men coming up from juniors (Malinin, Kapeikis, Broussard, Annis), some injured seniors (Naumov, Paniot), and several inconsistent seniors (Pulkinen, Hiwatashi, Ma). Apart from Malinin, none of those guys have demonstrated the ability to land more than 2 quads in a FS and some of them don't have any quads let alone one consistent quad in their arsenal. I'm not convinced that we need 3 spots next season or that we won't lose one next season anyways, and if we do, well, I'll still be pretty surprised if we don't get back up to 3 spots by 2026.
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How could you forget Junior and his 4A?!
 
jlai said:
Vincent seems to be quite depressed based on the interview. So I can see folks being worried about the spots with two newbie and one veteran in the funk. But I hope folks will cheer hard for him to cheer him up.
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Sometimes this can propel a person to come forth with everything they’ve got. Hope that is the case for Vincent.
 
Last edited:
Sylvia said:
Nathan Chen has withdrawn from ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2022, U.S. Figure Skating announced Tuesday.

“I am disappointed to have to withdraw from Worlds,” Chen said. “I have been training for this competition since returning from Beijing. I have a nagging injury that I've been dealing with, and I don’t want to risk further injury by practicing and competing next week.”

Chen won the Olympic gold medal in February and is the three-time reigning World champion.

Camden Pulkinen, who will be making his World Championships debut, will replace Chen. The World Championships are set for March 21-27 in Montpellier, France.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1504122786612137988
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Although I am horribly disappointed (selfishly) for me......I just love Nathan. I think this is a great decision for him.
 
barbk said:
My only expectation for Camden is that he will do well in one segment and screw up badly in the other. I hope he does well in the SP so that he at least makes it to the free.
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That was my expectation for Roman Sadovsky at the Olympics. Instead he had 4 horrible skates. Hopefully Camden (and Roman) do better than that in France!
 
Karen-W said:
I just love how, even without the Russian men at Worlds, the US men are in TROUBLE to retain 3 spots without either Nathan or Jason.

I really doubt the USFS is freaking out about this nearly as much as some people wish to believe. While it would be nice to keep 3 spots, if Vincent, Ilia and Camden can't manage it, well, does the US really need three spots next season?
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It isn't as if the Russian guys are near as imposing as the Japanese skaters.
 
barbk said:
It isn't as if the Russian guys are near as imposing as the Japanese skaters.
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I didn't say that, but without the Russian men, who are capable of finishing anywhere in the top 10 - on the podium (Kolyada), top 8 (Semenenko, Kondratiuk) - that's 3 less guys to have to worry about doing well enough to prevent the US Men from combined placements totalling 13 points or lower. All it will take is 5th & 8th or 4th & 9th to guarantee 3 spots, even if the Japanese men do manage a podium sweep (which has only happened three times in either Men or Women, I believe, so it's no easy feat).
 
Max Aaron's heroics in 2018 are one of my favorite skating memories.

The commentator was going on and on about how the US would be down to two spots once Zhou's scores came up, and all I remember thinking was "Where [in the standings] is Max Aaron???" But I was watching tape-delayed so I couldn't just look on wedgie data. :drama: But what a great ending it turned out to be for the U.S. :respec:

I don't expect heroics this time, but will be interesting to see how all 3 deal with the pressure of not having reliable Chen/Brown to count on.
 
2 more Vincent articles today…

By Nick Zaccardi:
olympics.nbcsports.com

Vincent Zhou, denied an Olympic chance, puts his skates back on

Vincent Zhou detailed the challenges of returning to figure skating for the world championships after testing positive for the coronavirus at the Olympics.
olympics.nbcsports.com

By Juliet Macur:
www.nytimes.com

Knocked Down by Covid in Beijing, Vincent Zhou Is Getting Back Up (Published 2022)

Zhou missed the men’s individual event at the Olympics because of the coronavirus. He is trying to shake off the memory in hopes of excelling at the figure skating world championships.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
Excerpt from the end:
Still, he told reporters — and likely himself — that “probably 90, I don’t know, 95 percent of other people would have already given up.” And he’s not one of those people.
He said just being able to take that first step and go to worlds would make him really proud. He is trying to will it to happen: Get on that plane. Put on that costume. Step out on that ice. Deep down, he said, the motivation to do that still drives him.
“Life really wants to get me down right now,” he said. “But I’m not ready to go down without a fight.”
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IDK - I think that Vincent, Ilia and Camden all have nothing to lose. Vincent wants redemption, Ilia just wants to establish himself, and Camden is literally skating as #3 with no pressure to place or do anything in particular. I believe that all those situations are overshadowing the 'get 3 spots' call coming from the USFSA or fans
 
New interview with Ilia: https://olympics.com/en/news/ilia-m...ntent=twitter_global_news_tw-tweet_32bc98a207

At the start, before I had Instagram, my goal is to definitely try to be as unique as possible. [I like] trying to be doing some weird and really hard combinations. It's mostly just to try to impress people at the rink. But then once I got Instagram, I wanted to have a little bit fun with it. So I kind of just shared it out to everyone just to see what they think.

I definitely like doing all these jumps and combos a lot because it helps me boost my confidence and also helps with progress in my technical [skating]... so that - potentially in the future - I could do even harder stuff.

I try to push myself over the limit: I keep telling myself there isn't a limit. So that's why I just keep practicing things, you know? But with the combos and the jumps, if I have a really important competition, I wouldn't do [the combos] as much because the competition is more important.
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Phil Hersh's article on Ilia Malinin (March 21) - he found out for the fans why he's "Malinin" instead of "Skorniyakov":
olympics.nbcsports.com

Ilia Malinin, the “quadg0d,” seems heaven-sent for U.S. figure skating

At 17 years old, Ilia Malinin - coached by his Olympian parents - will be the youngest to represent the U.S. in men’s singles at worlds in 56 years.
olympics.nbcsports.com olympics.nbcsports.com
Excerpts:
Less than four months past his 17th birthday, still baby-faced and often rosy-cheeked, Malinin will be the youngest to represent the United States in men’s singles at worlds since Scott Allen in 1966, when Allen was two weeks past 17. (Allen was 13 at his first worlds in 1962.)
“To go to worlds is a really big deal, and I need to show why I deserve to be there,” Malinin said in a recent phone interview.
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Even though Malinin was named to the world team and as first alternate to the Olympic team, disappointment over not going to China quashed his motivation to practice for a couple weeks after nationals.
(Ironically, Zhou would have to withdraw from the Olympic singles after testing positive for Covid-19, but rules prevented using the alternate because Zhou already had competed in the team event.)
“I was sad for a little while, but then I moved on to focus on worlds and having my best skates of the season,” Malinin said.
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Malinina, 49, and Skorniyakov, 46, moved from Yekaterinburg, Russia, to Virginia the summer after the 1998 Winter Olympics, where she had finished eighth and he was 19th. Her first season training in the U.S. was the best of her career: victories at the Four Continents Championships, the Grand Prix Final, the NHK Trophy and the Asian Games, and a fourth at the World Championships. [...]
(For the record: Malinin took his mother’s last name – in its traditional masculine form in Russian – because both parents were concerned Skorniyakov would be hard for people to pronounce, especially by Ilia’s school classmates.)
They first met Arutunian, 64, in Yekaterinburg, some 35 years ago, when he was early in his coaching career, and they were competing against some of his skaters. Arutunian moved to the United States in 2000 and first saw Malinin skate about six years ago. Arutunian remembered thinking, “This kid is a fighter” and “he gets it from his mother.”
“His father is more calm, and his mother is more motivated,” Arutunian said. “Ilia is super motivated.”
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Misha Ge's latest Instagram stories show him working with Andrew Torgashev on choreography (looks like at East West Ice Palace in Artesia) and this post announces his new FS: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbYynBipagy/
Fortuna X”
Andrew Torgashev - FP
Carmina Burana Remake (Enigma)
#Choreo
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From December 2021:
TanithandBenFan said:
Polina has Andrew Torgashev on her podcast today for an update on his injury and lots more great conversation:

bleav.com

The Iron Butterfly: Injury Updates & Reflections (ft. Andrew Torgashev)

I chat with 2015 Junior Champion Andrew Torgashev about his current recovery process with his latest injury. We talk lessons learned form injury, the importance of patience, injury prevention, mentality through multiple injuries, learning about yourself away from the ice, and load management.
bleav.com
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Sylvia said:
^^^ I recommend listening to Torgashev's podcast episode - lots of interesting info.

Andrew's sole competition this season was Glacier Falls (late July 2021 when he was able to land all of his triples through Lutz) -- he recounted how his right foot injury flared up again after he went into new boots and forced him off the ice at end of August and that he has not jumped at all since then. At the beginning of December (when he taped this podcast with Polina), he was doing 2 sessions daily of just skating skills with non-impact/weight-bearing (on his foot) training off the ice.

He intends to keep competing :cheer: and concluded the podcast with: "I'm going to do everything in my power to have a successful rest of my career. And I hope that it can be enough to have people remember my name after I retire & what I was doing on the ice. That, ideally, is the ultimate goal for me. It's just work & persistence."

Fingers crossed he will be able to have a successful comeback starting in 2022-23! :)

ETA - ICYMI, previously posted fan cam of Torgashev's Flamenco SP at Glacier Falls on 7/30/21: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnsyikYkeZs
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olympic said:
I am calling BS on Vincent’s marks. That Lutz was not q by any means and the Sal may have been q but not under!
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I love him and I cried with him afterward but the sal was definitely under. The lutz q is give or take though.
 
First Camden brought me to tears and a standing O. The most beautiful skate he has ever done. Such lovely beautiful skating expression. Thought his score would have been a couple of points higher. Kudos to him!!

Then Ilia blows the roof off the place in his debut at Worlds with the most difficult and nearly perfect jumps, great spins and a complete program. Yes with the score at 100! And he’s hardly skated at the senior level yet. So happy for him..superstar in the making for sure.

Finally, Vincent tore my heart out with that beautiful heartfelt expression. The jumps looked great to my eye save for the salchow being slightly under. I was clapping so hard and tearing up with him. Frankly I was mad when the scores came up but he still made the final warm up group. What an emotional, memorable moment!
 
Re: Camden. I vowed that after this quad, I was going to stop being a fan of beautiful skaters who were inconsistent or had a history of failing to skate well and/or who had the competitive spirit but truly bad technique issues that would always drop their TES. Camden falls into the former where he doesn’t have technique issues that will warrant negative points but he also has a history of…:yikes:.

But then, this worlds…he reminded me why I was so :swoon: about his skating in the first place. I’m starting to feel the flames of true fandom again…I just never learn. I blame his proximity to Karen Chen.
 
alexikeguchi said:
Not to denigrate Ilia, who has amazing talent and promise and seemingly a great attitude, but we sent the right Olympic team with Jason and Vincent. Here's hoping that Vincent can snag a bronze... to pair with Camden's placement! Who would have predicted that?
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And who is to say if having the Olympic experience with ZERO pressure wouldn't have been a good learning opportunity for Ilia in preparation for Worlds?

I'm sorry, but, no, no one here is ever going to convince me that sending Brown to the Olympics was the better decision, not especially for the long term future of US figure skating, even if Brown did make the most of it and gave NBC the peppy, rah rah social media content it clearly wanted from at least one of our US men's skaters. He filled the role that Rippon created in 2018 and that's it.

Our US men proved they were capable, any combination of the 3, of earning 3 spots, and I'm happy for that. I'm also very happy for Vincent, especially in light of the mixed zone interview he gave on Thursday where he said he wasn't landing anything last week in practices before he left for France. It's a real personal victory for him to medal here.
 
Congrats to Vincent on Bronze. It is weird not seeing Nathan Chen on the top spot, but based on the way Shoma and Yuma have been skating, I think 3rd place was Vincent's ceiling and he achieved it.

Blown away by Camden! I really hope this is the start of something.

Ilia had a learning experience here. No need to over-analyze it. If Nathan had competed in 2016 Worlds, he probably would've also been in the lower half of the top 10.
 
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