Lombardia Trophy - Men's SP & FS

Is Ilia doing his own voiceover for this program?

ETA: According to Golden Skate, yes, he is!
 
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I don't like Ilia's program either. But he fulfilled the foregone conclusion by winning this (unless there are weird calls)
 
In the first half of Malinin's FS you can see how he's improved his line, stretching out each move. His plain black costume enhances his moves. The final spin, incorporating his signature move, into a headless and cross foot position, is cool as hell.

I hate voice overs in general but these are particularly useless. They don't add anything.

Kagiyama's skate gives me chills every time I watch. Soaring and uplifting. He inhabits the music, it's beautiful. So excited to see this Milan.
 
Ilia's program is a winner! Both he and Yuma did a good job getting programs that play to their strengths. Loved the slide move, too, but I worry about Ilia's knee....hope he can wear some sort of padding.

(Presumably, his plain black outfit today is not intended to be his actual costume.)
 
Saw that Adam has the 2nd highest base value. Not doing it all now. But. he`s the kind of skater that will produce it on Olympic day and get on that podium.
 
Just woke up and am watching the men's programs.

Ilia's is brilliant. Don't mind the voiceovers. The raspberry twist in the middle of the closing spin is freaking amazing. The step sequence was so good and I loved its placement in the program. The knee slide was quite dramatic and effective. Can't wait to see it later on in the season with his costume and when he's going all out with the tech - only a 3a & 3lo today and the wonky landing on the 4t meant he only had 2 combos in the program.

Yuma's program is safe. The music does the heavy lifting emotionally because, well, Puccini was a genius. He performs it well but there's not much in it that I can recall two minutes after watching it - no signature moment that jumps out at me. Just re-watched it and the spread eagle after the first spin that ends the first half is kind of just there, soon forgotten with another jump. Same with the Ina Bauer that starts off the choreo sequence that leads into the step sequence. The program would be much more effective if the step sequence came before the choreo sequence and the choreo sequence ended with the Ina Bauer or falling leaves into the final spin.

Nikolaj - first off, not a fan of the pure white satin tunic with the jewels & stoning. The tunic needs to be a different color - maybe a sky blue. Was very amused at the obvious rest break he had after his first few jumping passes. The program is fine - though I kept thinking during the choreo sequence into the step sequence & closing spin that this would be much more effective if performed by a skater with the skating skills & finish of Yuma.

Shun - I said this earlier in the summer when he debuted it in Japan & I stick by my initial view - there's nothing particularly fiery about this program. Like Yuma, another safe music selection but not much to write home about or that makes it memorable beyond decent skating skills. Still, with the rest of the Japanese men injured or even less exciting, he's setting himself up well as the #2 Japanese man & that should earn him a TE silver in Milano-Cortina, so there ya go.

Adam - okay, first four jumping passes aside, I'm loving the tortured artist battle between him & Ilia that we're getting this season, lol. Some really lovely moments and skated clean, this will bring down the house. Not a huge fan of his costume (though it's a major improvement over the SP monstrosity). I don't know if he CAN skate it clean, which is a bit worrisome. If he can, honestly, I think he could challenge Yuma for silver. We'll have to see what Shaidorov brings to the table when he finally debuts in another 3 weeks at Denis Ten, but, frankly, there's a world that exists where Yuma is off the podium in Milano-Cortina.

Kao - this is a costume that would make Elvis Stojko's heart sing. Well, that program was a mess. Not sure what his chances of making the Olympic team are at this point.

I'll be back later with more thoughts on the other men whose programs I haven't watched yet.
 
I think I’m buying what Adam is selling. That little one finger touch the board like he’s playing the piano note diagetically overlaid with the obvious Creation of Adam near touching finger imagery. :lol: His axis on the jumps needs to be a bit more in god’s image.

Yuma’s fitness here gives me hope; I was a bit worried last season. Turandot brings a certain epic-ness that he clearly can tap into and elevate with an Olympic audience in Milano. Certainly good enough given the brilliance of his SP.

Ilia’s evolution over this quadrennial is very impressive. It’s near rocket vs. ramp growth in parallel development of his jumping strengths and interests with the other components. He’s not fully baked as he could be, but when you compare to 2021/22 as a baseline…

I like both programs for a first outing. The SP has all the ingredients to capture casual fans and the general Olympic viewing audience later this year; he’s going to be a star with Gen Z and Alpha. What strikes me the most about the LP is how integrated it feels compared to his past longs. The twist as a difficult exit and transition in the combination spin makes it feel much more like his take on figure skating compared to here is an acrobatic move as part of a choreographic sequence. Doing the backflip one foot, quickly, smoothly, and with running edge (keep it running longer, please Ilia) actually feels more coherent with the rest of the program and skating than it did previously.
 
Karen-W said:
Not sure what his chances of making the Olympic team are at this point.
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I don’t know if Kao’s still injured or what the issue is. I’m usually against an Olympic season coaching shake-up but I almost wish he would go train with Ilia if it were possible. There is so much potential but something is not working.

Hopefully he is healed and it’s just early season men’s mess.
 
I have no idea whether Kagiyama has a programme. He started skating and I forgot to breath, think I was brain dead by the end of his programmes.
Malinin, as usually, doesn't have a programme, which is not a problem- he'll overjump everyone anyway.
 
I love Yuma. I swooned out of my seat every time he did "Believer" and "Rain in Your Black Eyes." But for some reason, even though I enjoy his Turandot program and I think it's a great Olympic vehicle, it doesn't have the same emotional effect on me that those other programs had. And I'm having trouble finding how this program is much more complex choreographically than Ilia's. There's already so much teeth gnashing on social media about it, and I'm just not seeing it. I think this is the most effort Ilia's ever put into a free skate stylistically.
 
Yuma’s Turandot is an ethereal version. To be effective I feel it needs to be Kwan 1998 Nationals level good. I think he can do it but if it only happens once hopefully it’s at the Olympics.

Not getting the “no program” complaints for Ilia. Go back and watch three years ago to now. I appreciate the effort he has put in when he could do the program from three years ago and still likely win.
 
Spikefan said:
Not getting the “no program” complaints for Ilia. Go back and watch three years ago to now. I appreciate the effort he has put in when he could do the program from three years ago and still likely win.
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Let's take Nathan Chen. He was that kid who was running from one side of the rink to the other and jumping. And then he added some choreography and became one of the most fascinating skaters to watch. Malinin is still the kid who is running from one side of the rink to the other and jumping. Malinin will probably win everything anyway, he just needs to jump. It stands out and in a way annoys when he competes with Kagiyama, but those are the rules and he is following them. I just hope Egadze will not learn a 4A, because then he'll be the next world champion.
We've seen examples of a low level skaters with brilliant programmes (Giada Russo and her 2016 LP is the most outstanding example in my books), someone with Malinin's skills could had shown something amazing had he chosen to. It's just... disappointing.
 
TAHbKA said:
Let's take Nathan Chen. He was that kid who was running from one side of the rink to the other and jumping. And then he added some choreography and became one of the most fascinating skaters to watch. Malinin is still the kid who is running from one side of the rink to the other and jumping. Malinin will probably win everything anyway, he just needs to jump. It stands out and in a way annoys when he competes with Kagiyama, but those are the rules and he is following them. I just hope Egadze will not learn a 4A, because then he'll be the next world champion.
We've seen examples of a low level skaters with brilliant programmes (Giada Russo and her 2016 LP is the most outstanding example in my books), someone with Malinin's skills could had shown something amazing had he chosen to. It's just... disappointing.
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I just watched Ilia’s program again, and he is most definitely not running from one side of the rink to the other and doing nothing in between. He’s interpreting the music with his arms, throwing in little things like a mini spread eagle, etc.

I watched Nathan’s Rocketman program recently and I did not see anything more than what Ilia is doing.

And on a second watch of Yuma, I don’t see anything drastically different there either as far as choreographic detail between the jumps. He just makes it look prettier because he has outstanding blade work.
 
I just watched Ilia free skate, I don’t care for the music, also he doesn’t annunciate his VoiceOver words.. I think I only was able to make out six words.

Also, he’s wearing a black long sleeve shirt and black pants again? Just like the short program. OK there should be a costume deduction there …. that’s just a warm-up outfit. Also, is he going to stamp quad God on everything? Another deduction. How can you portray a piece of music or character or anything if you’re going to stamp that on everything.

I think the music of succession is much better Olympic material than this music, although I see much improvement and growth in his artistry, power and speed.
 
AngieNikodinovLove (ANL) said:
Also, he’s wearing a black long sleeve shirt and black pants again? Just like the short program. OK there should be a costume deduction there …. that’s just a warm-up outfit. Also, is he going to stamp quad God on everything? Another deduction. How can you portray a piece of music or character or anything if you’re going to stamp that on everything.
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He skated in practice clothes. He confirmed in post-skate interviews that the actual SP and FS costumes are not ready yet.
 
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