U.S. Men in 2017 - articles & latest news

[Willin]

I would love to see Jason do one slow, mature piece and one energetic fast piece.
I loved his Gatsby SP, but I totally get why it was scrapped. That looked insanely difficult transition and footwork-wise. Still, it would be fun to see a watered-down version of that program next year.

 

[el henry]

I would love to see Jason do one slow, mature piece and one energetic fast piece.
I loved his Gatsby SP, but I totally get why it was scrapped. That looked insanely difficult transition and footwork-wise. Still, it would be fun to see a watered-down version of that program next year.

Jason has said in an interview (Ice Talk podcast, maybe?) that this is what we can expect next year: one peppy (my words not his) and one dramatic. Assuming that Hamilton is the peppy, for the other program, unknown dramatic????

Jason also said that the two "dramatic" programs were a result of preserving and recovering from his back injury, and that he typically prefers to mix it up. I never thought I would say I would like Sam Smith, but Jason did it, and I am going to miss that program

 

[shine]

I think I would like to see Nathan with a program similar to his exhibition. Perhaps working with Jeff Buttle?

That would be awesome - perhaps for a short program. I also read that he choreographed it himself which is super impressive for a 17-year-old. That said, I also did love his short. It's kind of a dying style among men's skating today and I loved how authentic he was doing it.

 

[Firedancer]

That would be awesome - perhaps for a short program. I also read that he choreographed it himself which is super impressive for a 17-year-old. That said, I also did love his short. It's kind of a dying style among men's skating today and I loved how authentic he was doing it.

That is impressive. He did a really good job. I loved his short this year too. It was unique compared to everyone else and showing off all that ballet training makes it hard to realistically say he has no artistry.

 

[pinky166]

Nathan
Jason/Adam
Vincent/Josh/Max

Is who I think the Olympic team will come down to

 

[olympic]

Nathan
Jason/Adam
Vincent/Josh/Max

Is who I think the Olympic team will come down to

I mostly agree, but I want to see Josh at a few comps first before placing him below Jason and Adam. Those quads in the practice videos looked nice and easy (I realize that they were just practice). Also, I am not predicting it but if Vincent has a Kwan-like makeover 95 ->96, he could be lethal.

 

[Dobre]

Vincent with a quad lutz, two quad sals, and a quite likely quad flip could be lethal without a Kwan-like makeover.

 

[pinky166]

I mostly agree, but I want to see Josh at a few comps first before placing him below Jason and Adam. Those quads in the practice videos looked nice and easy (I realize that they were just practice). Also, I am not predicting it but if Vincent has a Kwan-like makeover 95 ->96, he could be lethal.

I more mean that Jason or Adam would likely take the same spot as the consistent guy with the great PCS but no reliable quad. I'm not sure if they can both make the same Olympic team unless one or both of them starts landing quads consistently.

From the footage we've seen, it looks like Josh has a 4t and 4s, of course it's practice and who knows if we'll see it in competition, but historically, Josh has a little better track record with the quad than Jason or Adam which is why I lumped him in with Vincent and Max.

The thing I'm most worried about is Nathan and/or Jason getting injured this season by overdoing it with the quads. For me the question with Jason is not whether he can do the quad/multiple quads, but more if he can train them and put them in his programs on a consistent basis without getting injured. With Nathan it's a volume concern. Fingers crossed they stay healthy!

 

[Jammers]

Nathan needs to spend time heading into next season working on everything else now that he's made a name for himself and put himself into contention for a medal at the Olympics. His LP was all about the technical score since he knew he couldn't match the older guys on PCS but he has the quads now so he doesn't need to obsess about jumps and adding yet more quads. Work on your inbetween skating and get some world class programs.

 

[Sylvia]

Sean Rabbitt, Timothy Dolensky, and Grant Hochstein were part of the Team USA athlete group that were involved in USFS' annual Program Components Camp this past weekend - group photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTPn6JhFq-V/

Rabbitt captioned this photo: "The next generation of men's figure skating! Such an honor to be able to skate along side and help mentor these young men this weekend!" https://www.instagram.com/p/BTNeoVLFDVI/
I see Alex Krasnozhon standing next to Sean in the back row.

Dolensky shared this photo of some of the "Ice Men" group practicing their number in the dance studio: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTOtlhgAMRz/?taken-by=timdolensky

Hochstein tweeted this short clip of the "Ice Men" practicing their Brazilian-themed group number on the ice: https://twitter.com/Grant_Hochstein/status/856108329768243200

ETA: I haven't come across a photo but, based on social media comments, Adam Rippon gave the opening keynote speech at the camp.

 

[olympic]

The thing I'm most worried about is Nathan and/or Jason getting injured this season by overdoing it with the quads. For me the question with Jason is not whether he can do the quad/multiple quads, but more if he can train them and put them in his programs on a consistent basis without getting injured. With Nathan it's a volume concern. Fingers crossed they stay healthy!

Jason always seems to become injured when he seriously trains a 4T: The past 2 seasons he sustained an injury and it coincided w/ training a quad. In video, He was practicing 4T-3T w/ Vincent Restencourt the first time and he ended up out of Nationals in 2016, and this past season he was in a boot.

 

[Tavi]

Jason always seems to become injured when he seriously trains a 4T: The past 2 seasons he sustained an injury and it coincided w/ training a quad. In video, He was practicing 4T-3T w/ Vincent Restencourt the first time and he ended up out of Nationals in 2016, and this past season he was in a boot.

Nathan, Vincent, Adam, and Josh have all been seriously injured in the past few years. All of them were seriously training quads at the time. Are their injuries also quad related? In 2015 Jason had a SP with a lot of fast twisting movements that could have caused or exacerbated his back problem. Correlation does not equal causation.

 

[kwanette]

Nathan, Vincent, Adam, and Josh have all been seriously injured in the past few years. All of them were seriously training quads at the time. Are their injuries also quad related? In 2015 Jason had a SP with a lot of fast twisting movements that could have caused or exacerbated his back problem. Correlation does not equal causation.

Adam broke his foot off of the ice, warming up.

 

[Tavi]

Adam broke his foot off of the ice, warming up.

I know - hope he's better - 16 weeks in a boot!

 

[kwanette]

I know - hope he's better - 16 weeks in a boot!

IIRC, last interview he said 75%? Let's hope it is 100% soon.

 

[misskarne]

Nathan, Vincent, Adam, and Josh have all been seriously injured in the past few years. All of them were seriously training quads at the time. Are their injuries also quad related? In 2015 Jason had a SP with a lot of fast twisting movements that could have caused or exacerbated his back problem. Correlation does not equal causation.

I wonder...we know Max had to have hernia surgery last year. Getting any other detail out of him about it seems impossible, but a hernia involves a muscle tear, right? So I wonder how he did that?

Adam broke his foot off of the ice, warming up.

I know - hope he's better - 16 weeks in a boot!

IIRC, last interview he said 75%? Let's hope it is 100% soon.

I still shake my head every time I think about this. A standard warmup just about every skater does. What a horribly freakish accident...

 

[Tavi]

I wonder...we know Max had to have hernia surgery last year. Getting any other detail out of him about it seems impossible, but a hernia involves a muscle tear, right? So I wonder how he did that?







I still shake my head every time I think about this. A standard warmup just about every skater does. What a horribly freakish accident...

Re Max: I think its muscle weakness and a tear. Not super sure. But I don't think there's a single cause for hernias. It could be congenital. It could have been caused by lifting weights. It can be caused by sneezing and coughing! Hopefully he's fully recovered now and will have a great year.

 

[Bellanca]

For all of the men to be healthy once again would be so sweet to see. Hopefully, they all get there, and then I think the sky is the limit as to who makes the team.

Right now, favorites or front-runners can be named, but I actually believe that if all the guys are healthy, the competition will be fierce because we are dealing with such an impressive level of talent. No one, IMHO, is necessarily on the outside looking in. Anything could happen. I will be happy for any of the top men making the team, or even an underdog or two? You just never know.

As other posters have mentioned, smart training is the key, but I agree that the number of freakish injuries has been a problem and a bummer. However, training quads to keep up with the current technical trend is inevitably going to take its toll on the body – unfortunately. I'll keep my fingers crossed and stay positive that everyone will make it through the Olympic season unscathed.

 

[Sylvia]

Vincent Zhou recently shared an update on his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTEz_p9lN5n/?taken-by=govincentzhou&hl=en

 

[vesperholly]

Adam had a video on his Instagram stories of him doing the first 3axel since his injury. Looked like a beauty.

 

[ZilphaK]

Emmanuel Savary skated at May Day Open in Maryland tonight. SP: 4T, 2A, 4S - fall. Landed the 4S in warmup and fell on the 4T in warmup. Loungy-jazzy music with some Cole Porter in there. Spins looks a little un-tight, but I get the feeling this was about trying the jumps. 65.85. He was the only Senior Man SP.

I was able to watch the competition on LiveBarn. It's the video subscription service in many skating rinks set up for watching house/minor league hockey, but it's sometimes turned on for competitions.

 

[Sylvia]

Emmanuel Savary skated at May Day Open in Maryland tonight. SP: 4T, 2A, 4S - fall.

Thanks for the report, @Jozet! I believe Savary had both of his new programs choreographed again by Evgeni Platov in Florida. He shared a clip of his 4T landed in Friday's SP: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUCb8GDA8Ua/

Vincent Zhou article by Scott Reid: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/05/1...n-stars-on-ice-show-saturday-at-honda-center/

“I know that the spotlight is going to be even more on me now that I won Junior Worlds,” Zhou said. “People are going to start expecting more out of me, and I’m OK with that because I know I have the ability to live up to those expectations.”
The journey to the top of podium at the World Junior Championships and Olympic contention next year, however, has not been easy.
Zhou skated on a torn meniscus in his right knee for three years.

“I started feeling pain in my knee in 2010,” he said. “Didn’t know I had a torn meniscus. I just always thought it was a tendinitis and I kept on skating on it for three years before I finally got an MRI and found out that I had this thing. And so we got surgery in surgery 2013 after three years of constant pain.
“No pain at all (now) so it’s much better. There is no meniscus there anymore because the tear was so big they couldn’t fix it so they just removed it.”
No meniscus?
“As of now I don’t need it apparently,” Zhou said shrugging.

 

[Sylvia]

Tim Dolensky confirms his coaching change to the Cains in Texas: http://figureskatersonline.com/news/2017/05/16/new-coaches-new-training-facility-for-tim-dolensky/

 

[YukiNieve]

Alex Krasnozhon

　Krasnozhon will move up to the senior level nationally, but will remain competing as a junior internationally. He says he wants to do three quads (one quad salchow and two quad loops) in his free skate so his goal over the summer is to get them consistent in time for the Junior Grand Prix Series. He says he will also be working this summer on the quad toe. 　

http://figureskatersonline.com/news...hon-to-make-senior-debut-in-2017-2018-season/

 

[Sylvia]

Thanks for posting the link, @YukiNieve!

Alex Krasnozhon
http://figureskatersonline.com/news...hon-to-make-senior-debut-in-2017-2018-season/

Krasnozhon's Jr./Sr. program music:
SP: "Korobushka" by Bond
FS: "Nelle Tue Mani (Now We Are Free)" from Gladiator, performed by Andrea Bocelli
Choreographer: Scott Brown

According to the FSO articles, Tim Dolensky plans to debut his free skate ("Faux" by Novo Amor, choreographed by Ryan Jahnke) at the Broadmoor Open, June 21-24, in Colorado Springs and Krasnozhon will debut his (Sr., I assume) short program there.

Nathan Chen filmed a "Catching Up With Team USA" (1 min.-30 second segment): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9URsJq8ZrOg

 

[Sylvia]

Tweeted by Grant Hochstein today: https://twitter.com/Grant_Hochstein/status/865314341012217856

Final day of long program choreography is in the books. Thank you Peter Oppegard for helping me make the Music of the Night.

POTO may be overused but I think this song suits his strengths.

 

[aftershocks]

^^ Korobushko will be interesting to see from Alexei K; AdaRipp skated to Korobushko during 2012-2013, as I recall.
Yep, during Adam's curly-locks days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgqijPvgbyw 2012 TEB sp

Nathan Chen and Karen Chen at Jump On It camp:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QqI0KyS50o

 

[Sylvia]

Adam Rippon's photo with 3 of the coaches (Carroll, Gambill, Mie Hamada) at USFS' Jumps camp in Colorado Springs last week: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUShOgNlTQZ/?taken-by=adaripp&hl=en

My hearsay info is that Max Aaron(?), Vincent Zhou, Scott Dyer and Camden Pulkinen were among the U.S. male jump demonstrators, along with Australia's Brendan Kerry.

 

[olympic]

Just popped in to say I'm happy that Chen, Brown, Rippon, Aaron, Zhou and Hochstein all get 2 GP assignments next season. As an added bonus, Farris gets NHK!

Dolensky is at the top of the list for an assignment and with the expected WD's, he should get one.

I think Farris or Miner will pull the TBD SA spot, depending on their performances earlier in the season. It will probably come down to Farris and NHK. Still, I would like to see Miner compete somewhere. Good for the USFSA that SA is last this year: They get to take their time w/ a choice.

 

[Marco]

I actually think USFS will award the TBD spot long before NHK happens. They will probably monitor Farris, Dolensky and Miner all through the summer and fall.