Skate to Milano OWG Qualifier - Beijing CHN - Men's SP & FS

[CantALoop]

Bummed Davide didn't crack the top 5, but thrilled for Yu-Hsiang Li and relieved Donovan didn't donovan his way out of the top 5 - guess the prayer circle the other day still had some candles going

 

[CantALoop]

PML Mark saying "the men are menning" the guys are definitely reading figure skating Reddit or the FS forums

 

[skateboy]

AIN has an anthem? Petr looks so confused.

 

[skateboy]

Cracks me up that they always play this "Thunder" song after medal ceremonies, which is all about young kids going out and getting drunk af.

 

[skateboy]

It's been fun, guys. I'm going to try and get some sleep. (At least I don't have to work tomorrow!)

 

[Karen-W]

PML Mark saying "the men are menning" the guys are definitely reading figure skating Reddit or the FS forums

Jackie Wong made a shirt & sold it as merch for his website last winter ahead of Worlds. The term has most fully entered the figure skating lexicon.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Carillo's program has a Chock-like array of music cuts. I think B E N O I T was drunk af when he put this together.

 

[peibeck]

Oof! Just like what happened in the women's event, Davide Lewton Brain placed 5th in both segments but still finished 6th.

Donovan is lucky his SP carried him through.

 

[tony]

Just caught up and I just don't understand the scores for in both programs for Carrillo really. Fan favorite or not, he moves slow and his basics are just not up to par. The Salchows aren't rotated, the flip and Lutz even looked tight. I know he had an SP lead, but I 100% would have given it to Brain across the two segments even without an Axel. The quality was lightyears better. I know there was a 6 point difference, but calling the Salchows correctly and drop the PCS just a bit, and there you have it just on that.

Kim was competent but those stalked jumps and lack of a real program throughout most of the skate, his PCS should have reflected and giving him any kind of positive GOE for the Axel was a choice.

Thrilled for Marsak to keep it together and ESPECIALLY thrilled for surprise Yu-Hsiang Li to sneak in there.

Gumennik is fabulous. Clean up the quads and he's totally in there for an Olympic medal.

Pitot was heartbreaking, so were some of the other long-time skaters who were holding on for the Olympics chance such as Virtanen and Zandron and Kessler.

 

[SkateFanBerlin]

Just caught up and I just don't understand the scores for in both programs for Carrillo really. Fan favorite or not, he moves slow and his basics are just not up to par. The Salchows aren't rotated, the flip and Lutz even looked tight. I know he had an SP lead, but I 100% would have given it to Brain across the two segments even without an Axel. The quality was lightyears better. I know there was a 6 point difference, but calling the Salchows correctly and drop the PCS just a bit, and there you have it just on that.

Kim was competent but those stalked jumps and lack of a real program throughout most of the skate, his PCS should have reflected and giving him any kind of positive GOE for the Axel was a choice.

Thrilled for Marsak to keep it together and ESPECIALLY thrilled for surprise Yu-Hsiang Li to sneak in there.

Gumennik is fabulous. Clean up the quads and he's totally in there for an Olympic medal.

Pitot was heartbreaking, so were some of the other long-time skaters who were holding on for the Olympics chance such as Virtanen and Zandron and Kessler.

Thanks for all of that. But Gumennik, 260`s? That`s going to take a lot of clean-up

 

[tony]

Thanks for all of that. But Gumennik, 260`s? That`s going to take a lot of clean-up

Well obviously he needs to actually land the quads.

 

[Vagabond]

Tamir making me wish we still did TeamTrainwreck here.

This is your retired Pressman checking in.

Kuperman has shown that he is unafraid to be heartbreaking, but is he unafraid to break our hearts again and again?

Only time will tell.

 

[skatingguy]

Play-by-play posts have been updated to reflect the protocols, and the skaters names link to the performance video on YouTube.

 

[zigzig]

Woof - that competition was stressful.

Petr - liked his ambitious content even if it was sloppy and detracted from the rest of the program. The music really doesn't go anywhere and doesn't evoke any sort of classical/Russian/Onegin feel so all the handography feels superfluous.

Kim - got the job done. Not the most exciting skater but solid and delivered what he needed to.

Carrillo - not my cup of tea at all and agree that his jump calling is quite generous. Thrilled to see him so happy and always pleased to support skaters from less represented countries but frankly there are others I'd rather see in Milan.

Marsak - find his skating extremely unappealing but he did what he needed to do and others effed up so good for him.

Li - so frikkin happy for this lil nugget. Talk about a DARK HORSE. His skating and energy was such a breath of fresh air from the tension throughout the rest of the competition.

Brain - nice skater but that tech content would barely have been competitive in the 80s. Crazy that the spin bobble cost him an Olympic spot.

Gartung - frustrated he didn't qualify given the impressiveness of his jumps. Sucks for Germany.

Kupe - insanely frustrating. he should have been challenging for a medal here. dunno what goes on in that brain of his that makes him such a habitual popper. he could really emerge as a dominant skater in the next quad if he gets it together.

sem - happy for his clean skate. liked the costume.

 

[skatingguy]

 

[Sktwo]

I can’t remember/find the thread where someone (I think Karen) was talking about additional openings because countries could still return spots. Is that the case for men’s? If a spot is returned would it go to Brain?

 

[skatingguy]

I can’t remember/find the thread where someone (I think Karen) was talking about additional openings because countries could still return spots. Is that the case for men’s? If a spot is returned would it go to Brain?

There's still a question around his citizenship as well, but yes he's the first alternate.

Post in thread '2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics - Figure Skating Qualification'

Sep 21, 2025

Well, the men certainly made it interesting - and very straightforward - for the Team Event.

First things first - the Olympic Winter Games draw for the 4 judges' panels will take place sometime today. We'll need to keep an eye on the ISU Communications page for the formal announcement of which countries were selected for each of the disciplines.

As @Andrea82 noted for Pairs - there are exactly 13 countries with ISU Championship/Olympic level judges qualified for Milano-Cortina. Presumably, all of those countries have entered a judge and there will not be a draw.

Countries...

• Karen-W

• 

 

[Vagabond]

I can’t remember/find the thread where someone (I think Karen) was talking about additional openings because countries could still return spots. Is that the case for men’s? If a spot is returned would it go to Brain?

It is the same in every discipline, and the spot goes to the federation, not the athlete. If a spot is returned, it would go to Monaco. Since Monaco has only one Men's skater who would even be eligible for the Olympics, Davide Lewton Brain would indeed get the spot.

His surname for skating purposes is Lewton Brain, by the way not Brain, though he uses Lewton-Brain on his Facebook and Instagram accounts.

 

[Sktwo]

Thank you. I don’t know how I managed to miss that post but I did. So Lewton Brain’s chances are terrible but not zero. If I read the post correctly, there may be a spot available (Latvian citizenship issue) that he could get if Monaco is offered the spot (next in line because of his performance) and then offers it to him, after giving him citizenship, which he does not currently have and may not get since he didn’t earn the spot outright. Geez…

 

[Karen-W]

Thank you. I don’t know how I managed to miss that post but I did. So Lewton Brain’s chances are terrible but not zero. If I read the post correctly, there may be a spot available (Latvian citizenship issue) that he could get if Monaco is offered the spot (next in line because of his performance) and then offers it to him, after giving him citizenship, which he does not currently have and may not get since he didn’t earn the spot outright. Geez…

You got it.