How Much of a Splatfest Will the Men's Olympic Freeskate Be?

How well or badly do you think the Olympic men will do?

  • The freeskate will be clean and well skated by almost everybody

    Votes: 4 3.2%

  • The three medalists will all land their jumps

    Votes: 7 5.6%

  • The gold medal winner alone will land his jumps

    Votes: 13 10.3%

  • A roughly equal number of clean and messy skates

    Votes: 48 38.1%

  • Splat splat splat splat oops splat splat

    Votes: 54 42.9%
  • Total voters
    126
missing

missing

Well-Known To Whom She Wonders
Messages
4,889
I'm still recovering from the 2014 Men's Final, and I figure it's never too soon to prepare for disaster.

But maybe you can help me regain my optimism. :)
 
Splat splat splat splat I sense. More quads = more splats - most of the time as of late.
 
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Nooo I'm not ready for all the :fragile:! Hasn't this season been enough :fragile: already?
I say the medalists all land their jumps. There's enough depth! I think they can, I think they can (train emoji)
 
I get up, and nothing gets me down.
You got it tough. I've seen the toughest all around.
And I know, baby, just how you feel.
You've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real
Oh can't you see me standing here,
I've got my back against the record machine
I ain't the worst that you've seen.
Oh can't you see what I mean?
Might as well splat. Splat!
Might as well splat.
Go ahead, splat. Splat!
Go ahead, splat.
Aaa-ohh Hey you! Who said that?
Baby how you been?
You say you don't know, you won't know until you begin.
Well can't you see me standing here,
I've got my back against the record machine
I ain't the worst that you've seen.
Oh can't you see what I mean?
Might as well splat. Splat!
Go ahead, splat.
Might as well splat. Splat!
Go ahead, splat.

[Guitar solo]

[Keyboard solo]

Might as well splat. Splat!
Go ahead, splat.
Get it and splat. Splat!
Go ahead, splat.
:yikes:​
 
At this point, I'm not even sure that the OGM winner will land all his jumps, let alone all the men on the podium.
 
MAXSwagg said:
This is not true. The number of winners and medallists with falls has not increased over the past 15 years...
Click to expand...


I am actually aware (even though my reply suggests otherwise) but this is that general impression. Sometimes we remember those past times with rose-tinted glasses as well. Still I expect many splats to come ... like 10 in the final flight alone ... the thing is that those after quadruples tend to etch more in our memory because these are bigger & more dramatic looking splats I think.

We expect that they'll be nervous and with the higher technical content we're going to see those multiple splats I feel.
 
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jenniferlyon said:
Amidst the splatting quadsters will be at least one clean, underrated performance by some skater who doesn't have a quad. There will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth when this skater doesn't win.
Click to expand...

I don't think that could even happen now - the only skater without a quad that might sneak into the final flight if he's lucky and everyone with one or more quads in the SP falls on everything is Jason Brown. He's never underrated and he's perfectly capable of getting on a podium if the quadsters have a total meltdown (which is the only way he'd end up there).
 
I also sense a splat party sadly. There are so many great competitors, one hopes at least one will have a good skate, but the likelyhood of the same skater having a good SP and a good LP... is rather small.
 
It would be great to see falls on quad lutzes and flips! Falls mean pushing of ones personal boundaries and hope for high risk high reward and falls on quads salchow to lutz are totally welcome. Falls on double axels or triple salchow less so. While I hope to see success on quads falls on them are totally fine and better to see a podium where everyone falls on quads than a winner with just triples.
 
Well it almost turned into a "splat-fest," but still competitive with these Quad Kings! The men's event is over in Nagoya Japan; Chen squeaks out a very close victory over Uno to win his 1st Grand Prix of FS Final! There were a lot of top names missing like Hanya & Fernandez so all these guys will have to step it up for the Olympics! Seems like the real competition will be at our own Nat'ls with Rippon & Brown trading places all season! We have 4 good skaters vying for 3 spots internationally! We'll see next month I guess! See ya after the ladies event! :rolleyes: :plush: :D :irina1:
 
Remember, the 2006 Olympics was a huge mess with the exception of Plushenko who was clean with quads and difficult combos but people criticized his programs for not having much in it. Sound familiar? Then in 2010 two of the medalists were very clean but the winner had no quad and was Evan Lysaceck skating a very by-the-numbers program but seemed inspired anyway and Plushenko taking silver who had some scratchy landings but landed quads with a program that some thought was one of the worse of his career. Daisuke skated well but had a fall on his one quad attempt. Then we had the 2014 Olympics where even if one wanted Yuzu to win and were happy with his win they didn't want him to win like that. So men winning with less than stellar skates isn't too unusual with the men who are attempting quads unless your name is Plushenko.
 
skatingguy said:
Men's Olympic competition tends to underwhelm - and the ladies event comes along and saves the day with higher number of clean/cleanish skates.
Click to expand...

Well, the ladies are doing significantly easier technical content and generally the same level of technical content as they have for the past 5+ years. Men’s content is astronomically difficult and ever-shifting. Not saying that’s a good thing but it is what it is.
 
Two predictions:

Misha Ge will get the bronze, establishing a pattern of OAS -stan skaters finishing third at the Olympics. This will inspire Kyrgyzstan to join the ISU in anticipation of 2026 bronze.

Inspired by "Human Ken Doll" Rodrigo Alves, a Hanyu uber will appear in Pyeongchang surgically altered to look like a hybrid of Hanyu and Winnie the Pooh and go viral after crying hysterically (happiness/sadness/both/neither) after Hanyu's FS.
 
The SPs will go well, but the LPs for the top men will be ugly. One or two of the middle of the pack men will have clean well-performed skates, but with their lower TES will have no hope of a medal. Everyone else will succumb to the pressure.
 
VIETgrlTerifa said:
Remember, the 2006 Olympics was a huge mess with the exception of Plushenko who was clean with quads and difficult combos but people criticized his programs for not having much in it. Sound familiar? Then in 2010 two of the medalists were very clean but the winner had no quad and was Evan Lysaceck skating a very by-the-numbers program but seemed inspired anyway and Plushenko taking silver who had some scratchy landings but landed quads with a program that some thought was one of the worse of his career. Daisuke skated well but had a fall on his one quad attempt. Then we had the 2014 Olympics where even if one wanted Yuzu to win and were happy with his win they didn't want him to win like that. So men winning with less than stellar skates isn't too unusual with the men who are attempting quads unless your name is Plushenko.
Click to expand...

I'm a huge Plushenko fan, but I was so disappointed in his performance in Vancouver '10! It really was one of his worst! All told, I can only remember about 4 or 5 that were worse! He didn't fall, but his landings were terrible! He just didn't look himself, but the most amazing thing is, he was still close to winning; pretty much an extra double axel would have taken GOLD believe it or not! I wasn't thrilled with his whining later with Mishin commenting on Evan winning without a Quad like that was the be all, end all of men's skating! That wasn't the 90's when it was rare Mon Dieu! :rolleyes: :wall: :plush: :respec:
 
I truly believe that the physical and physiologic/psychic demands of the Men's discipline in particular, warrants the organizing committees of the top competitions (i.e., senior men's events where the competitors are planning programs with multiple quads) need to take a serious hard look at the scheduling of the short program, in relation to the free program. The way Skate America in particular was mapped out from a relative timing standpoint was an example of egregious lack of consideration. The sport has advanced at a step function and this requires equally revised thinking in what should be considered in order to preserve the athletes and in turn, enable high quality, world class performances. And I truly believe it is a virtuous cycle - strong skates will beget excitement and fans - will beget/draw more talented young athletes into the sport, etc. etc.

To answer the question then, I think the Olympic scheduling won't help the men deliver their best. One couples the once in a lifetime scale of pressure and stress, I want to be hopeful, but am not optimistic that we'll see the kinds of performances that the sport deserves to show the world, on the sports' biggest and most visible stage.
 
Unfortunately, the mainstream media will be very unforgiving if it does end up being a splatfest, because they'll likely use some weird false equivalency argument where trainwreck performances in halfpipe and slopestyle freestyle ski and snowboard aren't 4 and a half minute routines like the men's long programs.
 
VIETgrlTerifa said:
Remember, the 2006 Olympics was a huge mess with the exception of Plushenko who was clean with quads and difficult combos but people criticized his programs for not having much in it. Sound familiar? Then in 2010 two of the medalists were very clean but the winner had no quad and was Evan Lysaceck skating a very by-the-numbers program but seemed inspired anyway and Plushenko taking silver who had some scratchy landings but landed quads with a program that some thought was one of the worse of his career. Daisuke skated well but had a fall on his one quad attempt. Then we had the 2014 Olympics where even if one wanted Yuzu to win and were happy with his win they didn't want him to win like that. So men winning with less than stellar skates isn't too unusual with the men who are attempting quads unless your name is Plushenko.
Click to expand...

Plushenko had no scratchy landings. He had some mild leans in the air.
This is a terrible myth about 2006. Plushenko doubled a jump. He was not clean in 2006 relation to what he wanted to do. He did everything he wanted to do in 2010 and he had a program in 2010. Plushenko popped jump in 2006 and had very weak program but is considered clean just because he didn’t fall but he wasn’t clean. People are right. Every 4 year Olympic viewers don’t know double is a mistake and overwhelming myth develops and is repeated as total truth by mostly all people.

Fiero425 said:
I'm a huge Plushenko fan, but I was so disappointed in his performance in Vancouver '10! It really was one of his worst! All told, I can only remember about 4 or 5 that were worse! He didn't fall, but his landings were terrible! He just didn't look himself, but the most amazing thing is, he was still close to winning; pretty much an extra double axel would have taken GOLD believe it or not! I wasn't thrilled with his whining later with Mishin commenting on Evan winning without a Quad like that was the be all, end all of men's skating! That wasn't the 90's when it was rare Mon Dieu! :rolleyes: :wall: :plush: :respec:
Click to expand...

His 2006 performance was worse than 2010. 2010 was a remarkable improvement over 2006 in jumps and programs. He left out a three jump combo preferring to be clean with 3 2 jump combos. He didn’t do a 3 jump combo all season.
 
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caseyedwards said:
This is a terrible myth! Plushenko doubled a jump. He was not clean in 2006 relation to what he wanted to do. He did everything he wanted to do in 2010 and he had a program in 2010. Plushenko popped jump in 2006 and had very weak program but is considered clean just because he didn’t fall but he wasn’t clean. People are right. Every 4 year Olympic viewers don’t know double is a mistake and overwhelming myth develops and is repeated as total truth by mostly all people.
Click to expand...

If I had to guess which jump; probably the LUTZ! Both Evgeny and Alexei Urmanov were susceptible to doubling that jump even when they won GOLD! They just gave the judges what they wanted and were rewarded for doing even the least little thing as long as they remained upright! Love 'em both! "Swan Lake" by Alexei will live on in my head; such a beautiful performance with a man playing the swan! - - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_o5Wv8-004&t=135s - -
 
Fine, he was mostly clean in 2006. His programs were still awful in 2006 and 2010 though but he deserved his medals because skaters with better programs made more mistakes or just didn't have the TES and inflated PCS to do so except for Lysaceck, the Olympic champion of 2010.
 
Fiero425 said:
If I had to guess which jump; probably the LUTZ! Both Evgeny and Alexei Urmanov were susceptible to doubling that jump even when they won GOLD! They just gave the judges what they wanted and were rewarded for doing even the least little thing as long as they remained upright! Love 'em both! "Swan Lake" by Alexei will live on in my head; such a beautiful performance with a man playing the swan! - - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_o5Wv8-004&t=135s - -
Click to expand...
It was the triple flip attempt he doubled.

VIETgrlTerifa said:
Fine, he was mostly clean in 2006. His programs were still awful in 2006 and 2010 though but he deserved his medals because skaters with better programs made more mistakes or just didn't have the TES and inflated PCS to do so except for Lysaceck, the Olympic champion of 2010.
Click to expand...

Of course he deserved gold in both 2006 and 2010. He was the only one who delievered both olympics compared to his opponents. In 2006 he was only one with quad triples and triple axels and level 4 non jump elements and the same was true in 2010.
 
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