U.S. Men 2021-22 season news & updates

[skipaway]

I hope Jason buys a new shirt for his LP.

Maybe he can ask Nathan for help with that.

 

[Baby Yoda On Skates]

Maybe he can ask Nathan for help with that.

Never! Jason generally dresses quite well so I'm surprised that this LP shirt was such a big miss.

We won't discuss the Tristan and Isolde outfit.

 

[Trillian]

Except the person in the car has c0vid. In a tiny confined space. In a long drive. We don't know masked or unmasked, or windows down.

Given the weather, I doubt the windows were down.

In terms of possible exposure, Tracy’s positive test is bad news for Jason. He’s probably been pretty careful about distancing from everyone else considering how conscientious he seems, but he and Tracy have spent so much time together that I can’t imagine they could be careful enough to avoid any risk. The fact that he reached for his mask so fast after he left the ice made me think he was worried, and that was before I realized Tracy wasn’t there. (I missed the news beforehand.) Can’t imagine the roller coaster today has been for him.

Honestly, though, who’s not at risk of exposure at this point? The chaos has only just started.

 

[once_upon]

I think ilia will be US Champion for at least a couple of years in the next quad.

 

[Rukia]

Maybe he can ask Nathan for help with that.

He'll end up with a shirt that has the names of the seven deadly sins hand painted by Vera Wang on it

 

[becca]

I think ilia will be US Champion for at least a couple of years in the next quad.

But there decision to leave him of this year could cost him the Olympic gold in 2026. You always take your future

 

[once_upon]

At this point, what I want to know is who the 4CCs and Worlds teams are. Frankly, they better give Ilia a Worlds spot (contingent on him earning the TES SP min he still needs). I don't care who they leave off between Brown and Zhou (both will probably go since I really expect Nathan to opt out). If they want to hold him back from 4CCs because they're worried about someone on the team testing positive (I would be given that 33 hr travel odyssey Jason & Tracy had which culminated in a 4 hr drive from Atlanta to Nashville; and given that at least 2 people in Vincent's training group at the World Arena have tested positive this week), fine - just make damn sure to send him to Challenge Cup in The Hague at the end of February.

I'm guessing there's a lot of lobbying from each skaters coaches

 

[rinettoii]

The message USFS sends is that anybody coming from Juniors in an Olympic year has no chance at Olympics unless they win the Nationals.
I do not like this- there are never guarantees for tomorrow, and if one is clearly superior right before the Olympics, I think they should have an edge.

False. Vincent made his first Olympics in his debut senior season, and he didn't win Nationals.

 

[Rafter]

There could still be consequences of that drive from Atlanta to Nashville.

For someone not in the loop, can you please elaborate?

 

[Yazmeen]

The last many pages have presented pretty much the outrage I expected over the decision (and DEFINITELY from the usual suspects). That said, someone in the National's men’s free skate thread brought up Polina in 2014, and why didn’t Ilia get the same outcome, and that got me to thinking:

Let’s go back to that somewhat controversial decision (albeit more based on Ashley vs Mirai) and look at what happened. Polina did fine nationally that year and for a few years afterward, but was not really a major player on the senior international circuit after placing 9th at the 2014 Olympics aside from a 4CC gold. I actually wonder if her history and progression possibly played into this decision, namely granting an Olympic berth early to someone who frankly never lived up to the expected and hoped for potential (and that’s not a personal criticism of Polina, I know her injury history). Overall, why go with a great jumper but still very juniorish skater on the major basis of one senior level competition like they did with Polina? Ilia has the jumps - but I agreed with Johnny on the “puppy” comment on his footwork and the parts in between the jumps. Jumps? Amazing. The rest? VERY junior and I have to shake my head as those making pronouncements that he could end up on the Olympic podium.

 

[BittyBug]

For someone not in the loop, can you please elaborate?

Jason's flight kept getting cancelled so he and Tracy Wilson drove. They only arrived in Nashville on Friday I think (or late Thursday). Tracy just tested positive for YKW, and given the timing, there's a chance she had it when she was in the car with Jason.

 

[PRlady]

I just found out that the 5-month-old granddaughter I spent part of yesterday cuddling is crud-positive. About to do a rapid test. The point is we can all go out-of-order at any time and the skaters didn’t spend the weekend as I did, on the sofa. So congrats to the team and I hope they all make it to Beijing but life is a total wildcard right now.

Note: I’m negative. Will keep testing for a couple of days. It goes to show what a crapshoot this is. Jason may be fine after that car ride and Nathan may get it from the driver taking him to the airport. Nothing is ensured.

 

[Baby Yoda On Skates]

The last many pages have presented pretty much the outrage I expected over the decision (and DEFINITELY from the usual suspects). That said, someone in the National's men’s free skate thread brought up Polina in 2014, and why didn’t Ilia get the same outcome, and that got me to thinking:

Let’s go back to that somewhat controversial decision (albeit more based on Ashley vs Mirai) and look at what happened. Polina did fine nationally that year and for a few years afterward, but was not really a major player on the senior international circuit after placing 9th at the 2014 Olympics aside from a 4CC gold. I actually wonder if her history and progression possibly played into this decision, namely granting an Olympic berth early to someone who frankly never lived up to the expected and hoped for potential (and that’s not a personal criticism of Polina, I know her injury history). Overall, why go with a great jumper but still very juniorish skater on the major basis of one senior level competition like they did with Polina? Ilia has the jumps - but I agreed with Johnny on the “puppy” comment on his footwork and the parts in between the jumps. Jumps? Amazing. The rest? VERY junior and I have to shake my head as those making pronouncements that he could end up on the Olympic podium.

I can see your point there but I think the main reason Mirai wasn't chosen, was that she had no stable coaching and had been a bit of a mess.

Ilia does still skate like a junior and I only said he could land on the podium with the caveat that multiple competitors would have to be out. But stranger things have happened. I mean Morisi won a GP this season.

 

[Rafter]

Because the US has a legitimate chance at gold and Jason could place third if he does the long?

What? Please explain to me how the US has a chance of beating Russia.

 

[mackiecat]

And he also trains at the World Arena. So, now we have two confirmed cases from World Arena athletes (Alysa & Tomoki), and at least four, possibly five confirmed cases from Great Parks (Brandon, Jenni, Todd S, Todd E, & Stephen Gogolev - not sure where he was training prior to heading to Ottawa), one confirmed case from Dallas (Amber), and at least one, possibly two from Cricket Club (Tracy Wilson & Stephen Gogolev - not sure if he was in Toronto or Irvine training). And we also know that the crud went around Montreal - might be a minor miracle that, so far, none of the IAM skaters have gotten it.

Gogolev does not train at Cricket. In Canada, he trains at the Granite. He was travelling from the states and was chosen for an random additional test upon arriving in Canada via air. This is the test he was positive on.

 

[becca]

The last many pages have presented pretty much the outrage I expected over the decision (and DEFINITELY from the usual suspects). That said, someone in the National's men’s free skate thread brought up Polina in 2014, and why didn’t Ilia get the same outcome, and that got me to thinking:

Let’s go back to that somewhat controversial decision (albeit more based on Ashley vs Mirai) and look at what happened. Polina did fine nationally that year and for a few years afterward, but was not really a major player on the senior international circuit after placing 9th at the 2014 Olympics aside from a 4CC gold. I actually wonder if her history and progression possibly played into this decision, namely granting an Olympic berth early to someone who frankly never lived up to the expected and hoped for potential (and that’s not a personal criticism of Polina, I know her injury history). Overall, why go with a great jumper but still very juniorish skater on the major basis of one senior level competition like they did with Polina? Ilia has the jumps - but I agreed with Johnny on the “puppy” comment on his footwork and the parts in between the jumps. Jumps? Amazing. The rest? VERY junior and I have to shake my head as those making pronouncements that he could end up on the Olympic podium.

Why is Polina going a mistake. I think it was pretty clear over and over again that she was third best skater in the US for at least two years. They weren’t wrong to send her.

Here is the thing there is no guarantee anyone has four more years. In this scenario both Mirai and Polina had their moments in the sun.

I am not sure why the only way Polina deserved a chance is if she became a world medalist. Mirai never became a world medalist.

So it’s not like their decision left out a future call world medalist.

I don’t agree with body of work propping up skaters who have never shown themselves to be a world medal and Olympic medal contender.

Jason has had plenty of time to show he could compete with the best and the best and didn’t. What if Ilia has a great two years but then gets injured? This could be his only chance.

Jason got that opportunity to compete at the Olympics when he was a new senior. Why shouldn’t Ilia?

All of these skaters work very very hard

 

[dhskatefan]

This might have been covered earlier, but I didn't see it. Does Ilia have the minimum scores needed to go to the Olympics/Worlds?

 

[Karen-W]

Just want to say, for all of the "Ilia could land on the Beijing podium" talk in the pbp thread - I was NOT one of those people saying that, and we all know I'm one of his biggest, earliest supporters around here. My belief for his potential Beijing placement was that it was always going to be somewhere around wherever Jason places - his ceiling was going to maybe be top 6, just like Vincent in 2018. Yes, the men are inconsistent as heck but it would have to take a perfect storm of somewhere on the order of 6-8 men all having equally bad Olympics for Ilia to claw his way onto the podium and the odds of that happening are zilch.

 

[tony]

What? Please explain to me how the US has a chance of beating Russia.

The US has a chance especially if the mens short program is a repeat of 2018 for Russia, and if S/K remain questionable and/or can't do both programs. But it's still a bit of a stretch and more dependent on Russia than what the USA does.

The free skates are of such little value, and Jason's hardcores seem to think he's needed for the LP now. No man is going to do both programs since it is the first individual event 2 days later, but Zhou on a bad day still scores higher than Jason so I'm not sure what the arguing point is coming from.

 

[Tesla]

What? Please explain to me how the US has a chance of beating Russia.

US men and dance over Russian men and dance.

 

[Rukia]

Ohhhhh Ilia over Jason to worlds. Spicy.

 

[love skating]

Regardless of whether it was the right or fair decision I am surprised so many are shocked/surprised at the decision. I would have been shocked if they had named Ilia on the team. We've seen what's been done before for Olympic team selections, we heard all year about the "criteria" etc., Nathan, Vincent and Jason are all big names, have won medals and qualified for the canceled GPF. I think if Jason had bombed and say came in 5th or 6th like he was last time they probably would have gone with Ilia. I hope Ilia is not discouraged by this but comes back stronger than ever. I love him and look forward to his future.

 

[skipaway]

This might have been covered earlier, but I didn't see it. Does Ilia have the minimum scores needed to go to the Olympics/Worlds?

Yes, he does.

 

[becca]

The US has a chance especially if the mens short program is a repeat of 2018 for Russia, and if S/K remain questionable and/or can't do both programs. But it's still a bit of a stretch and more dependent on Russia than what the USA does.

The free skates are of such little value, and Jason's hardcores seem to think he's needed for the LP now. No man is going to do both programs since it is the first individual event 2 days later, but Zhou on a bad day still scores higher than Jason so I'm not sure what the arguing point is coming from.

I think using Jason in the long is a mistake. They worst they can finish is fifth. Everyone skates there best he could be up fourth/fifth. Going for broke with Zhou or Ilia maker more sense

 

[Rukia]

Hiwatashi, Ma, Pulkinen 4CC omg headcase group

 

[becca]

Ohhhhh Ilia over Jason to worlds. Spicy.

It makes more sense to do the opposite

 

[Karen-W]

What? Please explain to me how the US has a chance of beating Russia.

It's been discussed to death in this thread: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...m-competition-at-the-beijing-olympics.108082/ Basically - Russia is super-weak in men, questionable in dance if SinKats don't skate in both segments (or any), USA's strength in Men and Dance as well as being no worse than 3rd best in Women and Pairs being a crapshoot, make it a pretty close contest for gold.

Gogolev does not train at Cricket. In Canada, he trains at the Granite. He was travelling from the states and was chosen for an random additional test upon arriving in Canada via air. This is the test he was positive on.

Well, then he is part of the Great Parks crew that's all tested positive - and this is the first one from within Raf's group, which means Mariah and Nathan have both been exposed (as well as Ilia if he's been out in Irvine training recently).

This might have been covered earlier, but I didn't see it. Does Ilia have the minimum scores needed to go to the Olympics/Worlds?

He has the Olympics/4CCs TES mins and the Worlds FS min; he missed the Worlds SP min by less than .25 at Cup of Austria.

 

[Rukia]

It makes more sense to do the opposite

It is what it is at this point

 

[tony]

"Oh but what if both Vincent and Ilia were to bomb in Beijing?!"

Hmm.. wouldn't you rather that happen at the Olympics where it doesn't have a ripple effect into 2023?

 

[love skating]

Hiwatashi, Ma, Pulkinen 4CC omg headcase group

I still haven't heard why Hiwatashi wasn't here? Injury, YKW or something else? Anyone know?