2024 Grand Prix Final - Men FS: “Don’t Cry For Me Malanin(a)”

[peibeck]

At this point, Malinin's competiton is himself. If he's clean, there are no other skaters who can come close to his scores. If he's not clean, he still wins. But, he's pushing the boundaries and I won't be surprised if we see a quint in competition before he retires. To me that's what sport is all about.

If Kagiyama hadn't fallen on his 4S in the SP or popped some jumps in the free, it's likely he might have won here. He beat Ilia in the FS without trying as many quads and gets a PCS cushion as well. Ilia needs to be a lot cleaner than he was here and work on the second mark still. Just my two cents.

 

[Debbie S]

What is Ted talking about? When was Ilia going to drop out of Worlds last year?

He had some sort of foot injury and couldn't train for a few days (a week?) leading up to Worlds and was considering WD. He has said that publicly in interviews, not sure why Ted isn't aware of that. He made it sound like Ilia was going to WD b/c he was tired.

 

[victorskid]

The Men Victory Ceremony - the first of the 3 left. According to the coloured schedule it should be followed by the Jr Pairs and then the Sr Dance.

 

[jenny12]

Kagiyama

4F, 2S, 4T+3T as easy as they come, 3A+Eu+3S, 3A, 3F+2Lo lost in air, should've been triple

Flip finally done, distance insane. He will clean up that landing I'm quite sure. Already said all there is to say about him. I'm glad the commentators, the other skaters, Ashley and Adam, many people in the sport are hammering home how out of this world his skating skills are and things like his jump distance, flow, landing position, step sequence intricacy, etc are all THE BEST.

PCS for me: 9.25 / 8.75 / 9.50

Absolutely! Yuma is all-timer in terms of skating skills and I’m always thankful to hear people appreciate him. The sport isn’t always beautiful to watch these days so I’m glad Yuma is around. It’s great to see someone put in such care to the finer points of skating.

 

[tony]

If Kagiyama hadn't fallen on his 4S in the SP, it's likely he might have won here. He beat Ilia in the FS without trying as many quads and gets a PCS cushion as well. Ilia needs to be a lot cleaner than he was here and work on the second mark still. Just my two cents.

I said it earlier in the season and I'll try to find the post, but regardless of a wild 7 quad free skate by Malinin, I think with the GOE considered for each and the stalking of them/lack of flow out, the lack of PCS (way too high for what he does), Kagiyama should be able to challenge Ilia for the gold if he's clean.

In the same way Aymoz was able to score just a few points less than Shaidorov today on TES when Kevin had 3 big mistakes and nothing more than a 4T+2T while Mikhail was doing 3A+4S.

 

[Citlali]

All this talk of Ilia pushing himself ... trying to quad all the jumps, etc. I can only hope and pray that he doesn't seriously injure himself at some point. The human body can only take so much. He IS only human, right???

He says he is not a Vampire right there on the program But the boy doth protest too much, methinks.

 

[rfisher]

If Kagiyama hadn't fallen on his 4S in the SP, it's likely he might have won here. He beat Ilia in the FS without trying as many quads and gets a PCS cushion as well. Ilia needs to be a lot cleaner than he was here and work on the second mark still. Just my two cents.

If you're going by ifs, if Ilia had been perfectly clean on just 2 of his quads, he'd still have won if Yuma hadn't fallen. I think he and his parents are getting the results they want. If he starts losing, they'll adust accordingly. I read Rafe's interview about working with him and he said, he's the most attentative skater he's ever worked with (even Kwan and Chen). He listens and puts into practice what he needs to do.

 

[tony]

If Kagiyama hadn't fallen on his 4S in the SP or popped some jumps in the free, it's likely he might have won here. He beat Ilia in the FS without trying as many quads and gets a PCS cushion as well. Ilia needs to be a lot cleaner than he was here and work on the second mark still. Just my two cents.

If he would've landed the 4S in the free skate alone, I think it would've been enough to win. The GOE he should (deservingly) get when he lands it would easily give him enough points.

 

[Rukia]

I said it earlier in the season and I'll try to find the post, but regardless of a wild 7 quad free skate by Malinin, I think with the GOE considered for each and the stalking of them/lack of flow out, the lack of PCS (way too high for what he does), Kagiyama should be able to challenge Ilia for the gold if he's clean.

In the same way Aymoz was able to score just a few points less than Shaidorov today on TES when Kevin had 3 big mistakes and nothing more than a 4T+2T while Mikhail was doing 3A+4S.

I feel like they gave a little more wiggle room here to make me think they would consider giving Yuma the win if he's completely clean and Ilia is doing Ilia things

 

[Private Citizen]

Not one quad called clean. Not one jumping pass of the seven in positive GOE.

I think we’ve gone too far in the other direction, from no calls to overly harsh calls. I’ll watch again on replay when I’m back.

 

[Spikefan]

I doubt those trees would get through customs.

 

[Karen-W]

Ugh... Ted wrong one more time - it's the THIRD time we're hearing "The Star-Spangled Banner" today already - Amber, Jacob, and now Ilia. And we get it one more time for ChoBat.

 

[NinjaTurtles]

Good on Ilia to stop pretending he knows the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner.

 

[Wyliefan]

Ilia has given up anthem-singing attempts.

 

[Spikefan]

Ugh... Ted wrong one more time - it's the THIRD time we're hearing "The Star-Spangled Banner" today already - Amber, Jacob, and now Ilia. And we get it one more time for ChoBat.

Junior men’s ceremony hasn’t gone yet or did I miss it?

Edit: I may have been asleep.

 

[Rukia]

Good on Ilia to stop pretending he knows the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner.

he should make his own quad god version to sing

 

[tony]

I think we’ve gone too far in the other direction, from no calls to overly harsh calls. I’ll watch again on replay when I’m back.

I called them all short in real-time except the Axel, and from the quick replay I saw I was surprised at it but I can check again later. The 4Lz fall was REALLY short, though and just got <.

 

[Karen-W]

I doubt those trees would get through customs.

Probably not, but how many skaters take the usual bouquets with them on the flight either?

I appreciate that the organizers coordinated the tinsel colors to match each medal color, lol.

 

[Holy Headband]

Ilia gets the judges message. Good answer for going forward.

The thing is, this is not the message they've been sending out for the last two seasons, so why now? Did the ISU call them in before the event and tell them to take off the US #1 goggles for once and call his jumps if necessary because people on social media are kvetching too much about his PCS? That's the most innocuous explanation I can come up with and it's already extremely concerning and smacks of bias and corruption.

 

[Wyliefan]

he should make his own quad god version to sing

What so quadly we hailed ...

 

[Former Lurve Goddess]

he should make his own quad god version to sing

And the vampire's red glare
The quads bursting in air

 

[Karen-W]

Junior men’s ceremony hasn’t gone yet or did I miss it?

Yup - it was at the end of the Jr Ice Dance FD broadcast - after the Jr Pairs & Sr Women ceremonies.

 

[peibeck]

This little fake Christmas trees are kind of sad. A good idea, but they should have just done some pine boughs with some flowers if they were going that route.

 

[Rukia]

Yup - it was at the end of the Jr Pairs FS broadcast - after the Jr Pairs & Sr Women ceremonies.

in ted's defense i'd try to forget i had to hear the us anthem that many times too

 

[Karen-W]

The thing is, this is not the message they've been sending out for the last two seasons, so why now? Did the ISU call them in before the event and tell them to take off the US #1 goggles for once and call his jumps if necessary because people on social media are kvetching too much about his PCS? That's the most innocuous explanation I can come up with and it's already extremely concerning and smacks of bias and corruption.

I think Ilia was messy enough today to make it easy for the judges to drop his PCS. If he goes clean at Worlds, the PCS will jump right back up to where it has been for him.

 

[Wyliefan]

These guys trying to coordinate when to hold up the flag and when to hold up the medal are giving me giggles.

 

[tony]

Looking through the entire protocol, I'm quite happy with Stiller & co.

Grassl got his first two passes <, which I was in complete agreement with. Aymoz 3S< and 3Fe, complete agreement. Shaidorov agree with 4Lz and 4F in real-time, and agreed with Sato's < on his fall.

Sometimes I feel crazy watching this stuff and going to town on jumps to only have panels avoid every. last. call, but now the panel and I are in almost 100% agreement. Nice.

 

[Holy Headband]

I think Ilia was messy enough today to make it easy for the judges to drop his PCS. If he goes clean at Worlds, the PCS will jump right back up to where it has been for him.

Yeah, he did have an off day, which he hasn't had in a while, so I don't really have proof that they changed their tune abruptly, but it feels that way.

In general, I find the ISU's practice of overlooking inconsistent judging standards and disgraceful corruption at events up to and including Grand Prix and then suddenly deciding to clean up their act and pass down event-specific guidance before big competitions extremely frustrating. Are the skaters supposed to guess if they'll get fair judging or not before every competition, and then guess again how strict the fair judging will be, for jumps and then again for components? How can they know if the reputation/consistency bonus points they've accumulated over the season will carry over or not? This nonsense is all totally shady.

 

[peibeck]

The thing is, this is not the message they've been sending out for the last two seasons, so why now? Did the ISU call them in before the event and tell them to take off the US #1 goggles for once and call his jumps if necessary because people on social media are kvetching too much about his PCS? That's the most innocuous explanation I can come up with and it's already extremely concerning and smacks of bias and corruption.

Honestly, I don't think his jumps are as "Q" or < at most comps as they obviously were today. The 4A really was his best jump today.

 

[tony]

Honestly, I don't think his jumps are as "Q" or < at most comps as they obviously were today. The 4A really was his best jump today.

At Skate America I thought 2 quads looked short. I went back and looked on video after and I still stand by that.

Today, it was evident that everything was short. The q was a blanket to save him from having a disastrous score, as it is for everyone. The < is a monumental drop in base value and GOE.

PCS, he fell so he's maxed out there, so hypothetically the judges could've dropped him from X score to other X score, but they also know he slopped his way through everything as it was.

Still, way too high for what he actually puts out there.