U.S. Men 2025-26 Discussion - Quad God and the Mere Mortals

[jlai]

let’s wait until we have more information before outrage.

If someone more deserving ends up with one gp yes be mad. But it is still early

 

[TanithandBenFan]

Camden just posted about his withdrawl on IG. He's been dealing with an injury with a long recovery time:

Camden Pulkinen on Instagram: "I have made the tough decision to withdraw from Ondrej Nepela in Bratislava, Slovakia next week. I have been dealing with an injury that has a long recovery time and my team and I have decided it was not the best decisi

170 likes, 7 comments - campulk on September 16, 2025: "I have made the tough decision to withdraw from Ondrej Nepela in Bratislava, Slovakia next week. I have been dealing with an injury that has a long recovery time and my team and I have decided it was not the best decision to compete. A...

www.instagram.com

 

[panda42]

Camden just posted about his withdrawl on IG. He's been dealing with an injury with a long recovery time:

Camden Pulkinen on Instagram: "I have made the tough decision to withdraw from Ondrej Nepela in Bratislava, Slovakia next week. I have been dealing with an injury that has a long recovery time and my team and I have decided it was not the best decisi

170 likes, 7 comments - campulk on September 16, 2025: "I have made the tough decision to withdraw from Ondrej Nepela in Bratislava, Slovakia next week. I have been dealing with an injury that has a long recovery time and my team and I have decided it was not the best decision to compete. A...

www.instagram.com

Poor Camden, hope he recovers in time for the other competitions.

 

[Karen-W]

Good for Liam. The others will be fine, spread the wealth! And no I'm not in the mood to be convinced otherwise with 9 paragraphs of data, Karen

Nah, I don't have anything against Liam (gotta support my Pac NW skaters). The only thing I can figure is he finished highest of the US men who didn't have at least 1 GP already at Cranberry. I'm mote pissed at the USFS' decision for the pairs spot.

 

[Karen-W]

Camden just posted about his withdrawl on IG. He's been dealing with an injury with a long recovery time:

Camden Pulkinen on Instagram: "I have made the tough decision to withdraw from Ondrej Nepela in Bratislava, Slovakia next week. I have been dealing with an injury that has a long recovery time and my team and I have decided it was not the best decisi

170 likes, 7 comments - campulk on September 16, 2025: "I have made the tough decision to withdraw from Ondrej Nepela in Bratislava, Slovakia next week. I have been dealing with an injury that has a long recovery time and my team and I have decided it was not the best decision to compete. A...

www.instagram.com

Well, that's a shame. Hope he heals up soon.

 

[Willin]

I think in some ways it makes sense to send Liam. It's not like he's being sent to worlds.

The US always has a lot of talented Junior guys that never make it to Senior or don't live up to the hype. Now with Jason retiring, they just have Ilia. They need to find the guys other than Ilia that WILL make it in Senior. So giving more skaters more opportunities to gain GP experience and world standings points is good for the skaters and possibly good to get them experience they'll need to do well in future years. It will also give USFS chances to see who will thrive and who will falter under the pressure on the bigger Senior stages.

 

[Wyliefan]

They need to find the guys other than Ilia that WILL make it in Senior.

I feel like Jacob's at the top of that list ... but who knows. I've been wrong before.

 

[Karen-W]

I think in some ways it makes sense to send Liam. It's not like he's being sent to worlds.

The US always has a lot of talented Junior guys that never make it to Senior or don't live up to the hype. Now with Jason retiring, they just have Ilia. They need to find the guys other than Ilia that WILL make it in Senior. So giving more skaters more opportunities to gain GP experience and world standings points is good for the skaters and possibly good to get them experience they'll need to do well in future years. It will also give USFS chances to see who will thrive and who will falter under the pressure on the bigger Senior stages.

Well, Liam's had a fair number of GP assignments over the past few seasons, Challengers too, and he just hasn't had much success. Frankly, I think he needs to change coaches if he wants to get to the next level. Either Team Raf down in Irvine or with Skorniakov/Malinina would be my suggestion for him. I always wanted him to go to Team Raf when he was still in juniors and instead he went up to the Murphys in Vancouver and has spent the past few years going nowhere alongside Wesley Chiu.

 

[Allskate]

I feel like Jacob's at the top of that list ... but who knows. I've been wrong before.

I was really hoping it would be Lucas, who also is still a teenager. He's taking a gap year to focus on skating this year, and I really hoped he would be healthy and have a great season. But, he's obviously having some problems, and it's going to be difficult for him to train hard while studying engineering at Stanford.

I don't think any of these guys, including Jacob, are going to fill Jason's boots. But, I do really wish one of the guys would step up so that I was not constantly wishing that we could trade the third men's Olympic spot for an additional dance or women's spot.

I would have liked to have seen Jacob get more experience, but I don't think he has proved that he will be a major force at the senior international level. And we weren't at Champs Camp. I would have picked Jacob over Liam, but I can see USFS deciding to give more skaters G.P.s. It's not the craziest thing they've done.

From a selfish perspective, I would have liked the spot to go to Max because he is my favorite of the guys who doesn't have 2 spots, but he's not consistently great either.

And kudos to Tomoki for his medal, but it's not like that performance was a wow or that he has a history of consistently great performances. And he's got a good chance of ending up with 2 G.P.s. anyway.

And I'm sure USFS knew about Camden's problems.