Andrew Torgashev Cheer Thread

[ice coverage]

Interview with Andrew's father Artem (also Andrew's former coach) in Milan, with Olympic SP coming up today.
(Nice to see that Artem seems more animated/excited and less stoic than what I recall from earlier years.)

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Sophia Hernandez Falla on Instagram: "@andrewtorg dad, @atorgashev11 sharing how he feels ahead of his son making his #OlympicDebut at the #2026WinterOlympics. You can catch the #MensShortProgram tonight on @nbc6 #2026MilanCortina #TeamUSA #olympic

868 likes, 32 comments - sophiaontv on February 10, 2026: "@andrewtorg dad, @atorgashev11 sharing how he feels ahead of his son making his #OlympicDebut at the #2026WinterOlympics. You can catch the #MensShortProgram tonight on @nbc6 #2026MilanCortina #TeamUSA #olympicfigureskating".

www.instagram.com

Go, Andrew!

 

[Firedancer]

It seems like Andrew has had really good practices here. Hoping he can have 2 clean programs

 

[Sylvia]

WHEEEEEEEE!!! 88.94 is a new ISU PB!!!! 4T, 3A & 3F+3T all landed. Now the challenge is a good FS on Friday.

ETA - he's in 2nd with 12 to go:
Q TORGASHEV Andrew USA 88.94 48.56 40.38 7.89 8.11 8.18 0.00 #14

 

[Anita18]

LMAO I love this guy! "Yay I qualified for the free skate!"

 

[Firedancer]

So excited for Andrew. Still think the score should have been higher. Hope he can do it again on Friday

 

[ellathink]

Wow, what a good skating short program for him today! Congrats!

 

[Allskate]

Andrew definitely has to be happy with that, especially after the season he's had and his short at Nationals. It's so great for him that he was able to do that in the Olympics.

So excited for Andrew. Still think the score should have been higher. Hope he can do it again on Friday

I think he (and several others, especially Cha) paid a price in the PCS for skating earlier in comparison to skaters like Grassl and Shaidorov. But, I generally think that Grassl and Shaidorov get overly high PCS scores. Fortunately, Andrew will be in the penultimate group in the long.

 

[Firedancer]

Interview with Andrew after the SP:

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[Sylvia]

Thank you! (click on "Visit Instagram" ^^^) - Andrew was interviewed in the mixed zone by NBC 6 South Florida's Sophia Hernandez Falla (same video as above):

NBC 6 South Florida on Instagram: "@andrewtorg caught up with NBC6’s Sophia Hernandez post #MensShortProgram to chat about his Olympic Debut, making Florida proud, and being the number one fan of @matthew_tkachuk. #florida #skating #milancortina #ol

1,269 likes, 42 comments - nbc6 on February 10, 2026: "@andrewtorg caught up with NBC6’s Sophia Hernandez post #MensShortProgram to chat about his Olympic Debut, making Florida proud, and being the number one fan of @matthew_tkachuk. #florida #skating #milancortina #olympics".

www.instagram.com

ETA - here's Andrew's dad being interviewed by the same reporter earlier in the day:

Sophia Hernandez Falla on Instagram: "@andrewtorg dad, @atorgashev11 sharing how he feels ahead of his son making his #OlympicDebut at the #2026WinterOlympics. You can catch the #MensShortProgram tonight on @nbc6 #2026MilanCortina #TeamUSA #olympic

67 likes, 4 comments - sophiaontv on February 10, 2026: "@andrewtorg dad, @atorgashev11 sharing how he feels ahead of his son making his #OlympicDebut at the #2026WinterOlympics. You can catch the #MensShortProgram tonight on @nbc6 #2026MilanCortina #TeamUSA #olympicfigureskating".

www.instagram.com

Golden Skate's mixed zone quotes:

Golden Skate on Instagram: "Andrew Torgashev 🇺🇸 88.94 On his overall feeling after the program: “I’m feeling great. The adrenaline has worn off a little bit, so I’m ready to sit down, but I’m still feeling very good. I chose to embrace the mood of t

1,256 likes, 17 comments - goldsk8 on February 10, 2026: "Andrew Torgashev 🇺🇸 88.94 On his overall feeling after the program: “I’m feeling great. The adrenaline has worn off a little bit, so I’m ready to sit down, but I’m still feeling very good. I chose to embrace the mood of the program—the...

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On his overall feeling after the program:
“I’m feeling great. The adrenaline has worn off a little bit, so I’m ready to sit down, but I’m still feeling very good. I chose to embrace the mood of the program—the rock and roll of it. At the end of the program, I always feel like I want to be a rock star on the big stage, like breaking the guitar. I was having the time of my life.”

On his Olympic debut:
“I was very nervous. I was shaking and thinking, ‘Why did I wish this for myself?’ But once I got out there, the training just took over. I have so much muscle memory with this program and with these elements that no matter how I doubt myself, I will always pull through.”

On his coach Rafael’s support:
“He’s definitely helped me a lot with mental toughness over the last five years. I was softer before, and now I know how to take his critiques and just take them in stride. It’s just awesome being here, and I’m happy to accomplish what I did.”

 

[Sylvia]

Andrew Torgashev goes ROCKSTAR in Olympic short program debut (NBC Sports): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK8c10DCxJQ

Getty Images - Andrew's SP

 

[Sylvia]

Here's the "Pizza King" feature!

Great Park Ice on Instagram: "Great Park Ice's Andrew Torgashev is currently in the middle of his #WinterOlympics journey at #MilanoCortina2026! ⛸️🇺🇸 Before @andrewtorg left to compete, the @TeamUSA figure skater known as the #PizzaKing sat down wit

944 likes, 15 comments - greatparkice on February 10, 2026: "Great Park Ice's Andrew Torgashev is currently in the middle of his #WinterOlympics journey at #MilanoCortina2026! ⛸️🇺🇸 Before @andrewtorg left to compete, the @TeamUSA figure skater known as the #PizzaKing sat down with @cbsla's...

www.instagram.com

Great Park Ice's Andrew Torgashev is currently in the middle of his #WinterOlympics journey at #MilanoCortina2026!
Before @andrewtorg left to compete, the @TeamUSA figure skater known as the #PizzaKing sat down with @cbsla's @JillPainterLopez for a chat (and some pizza) at our Between The Rinks restaurant.
Video Courtesy: CBS LA / Sports Central KCAL

Original source (Feb. 5, 2026):

Catching Up with the Pizza King!

Andrew Torgashev is heading to the Olympics! The figure skater trains out of Great Park Ice in Irvine and has a nickname that's hard to beat... Pizza King! CBS LA's Jill Painter Lopez joined him in the kitchen to make a couple pizza pies and learn more about his journey.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[farahfan]

Incredible performance by Andrew!
I was looking at detailed scores and saw that the AZE judge put him in 17th place? like how does that happen??

 

[OrioleBeagle]

I would like to see Andrew work with a new choreographer on at least one of his programs instead of Bourne. It would be interesting to what Benoit Richaud or another choreographer could create for him.

 

[Vagabond]

Incredible performance by Andrew!
I was looking at detailed scores and saw that the AZE judge put him in 17th place? like how does that happen??

Probably a bias against anyone who is or whose family is originally from Ukraine (Torgashev, Kulish, Marsyk, and Selevko). He also has a marked bias for skaters from every other former Soviet Socialist Republic.

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I have no idea how recently Selevko's family moved to Estonia, but he was born there.

If my surmise is right, the ISU and IOC should be looking into disciplinary action.

 

[Sylvia]

Today (Feb. 22) Andrew shared 17 photos from his Olympics experience:

Andrew Torgashev on Instagram: "Olympics Yelp Review: 10/10 would definitely come here again"

6,034 likes, 99 comments - andrewtorg on February 22, 2026: "Olympics Yelp Review: 10/10 would definitely come here again".

www.instagram.com

 

[Sylvia]

Welcome back, Andrew!

Great Park Ice on Instagram: "⛸️🇺🇸 @andrewtorg returned to Great Park Ice this week after representing @teamusa in the Winter Olympics! 👏 He got to check out our wall of good luck support messages, which was made by our figure skating community for

76 likes, 1 comments - greatparkice on February 27, 2026: "⛸️🇺🇸 @andrewtorg returned to Great Park Ice this week after representing @teamusa in the Winter Olympics! 👏 He got to check out our wall of good luck support messages, which was made by our figure skating community for all of our...

www.instagram.com

 

[Sylvia]

Andrew's mixed zone quotes in Prague today, as transcribed by Golden Skate: https://x.com/goldenskate/status/2037168826916200547

Andrew TORGASHEV 89.07 (ISU PB; was 88.94 at Olympics) - in 7th place!

“To be honest, I was panicking the last two or three weeks. Don’t ask my training mates what I was saying at the rink — it was just hours of complaining, like, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ But I got myself to be here. My legs are not the same as at the Olympics and what I remember from the Olympics. Everything feels so much harder to do. I was tired, but in the six-minute warm-up, I was shaky before going out on the program, thinking, ‘I really don’t know about this. I don’t know what is going to happen.’ Then I tried to trust myself and rely on the bulk of training that I had at the Olympics and that I was able to deal with this amount of pressure. I tricked myself into thinking I was relaxed, and I just wanted to step on the ice one more time, not get ahead of myself, just get the elements done and enjoy the program. That switch came maybe in the last 30 seconds before I took the ice and when the music started.”

On considering withdrawal:
“I was considering it. If you had talked to my sports psychologist, I was very sad about the idea of withdrawing. But I don’t think I ever could pick up the phone and say, ‘I’m not going to go.’ Sure, I wanted to complain, and maybe what I really felt was, ‘I’d rather sit on the beach,’ especially since in California it’s 90 degrees right now. But this is my job, this is my passion. So it’s important to get it done, and then there will be enough time to enjoy the beach.”

On how proud he is of his performance:
“Considering these circumstances, it feels really good. It gives me a lot of confidence in myself, in my mind. No matter how training is going, I’m able to control what I’m doing. My dream since I was nine years old was to go to the Olympics and skate there — and that’s what I did. I did what I trained for over the last 20 years. My dream wasn’t, ‘I’m going to skate well at the Olympics, and then three weeks later go to Worlds,’ so that was emotionally tough, but more than anything physically, because I kept myself at peak performance from nationals until the end of the Games. That’s a long time, and it was difficult to maintain it on a daily basis at the rink, but I could rely on my muscle memory.”