Yes, naturally anything that doesn’t rank Hanyu first is pointless.
And no one has ever said that a win for Nathan was guaranteed. Not even the OTT promotional ads. It is true that Nathan is a talented contender who had beaten Yuzuru Hanyu twice in close competitions, and so that generated a lot of buzz and excitement. Let's face it, a lot of people besides USFS knew Nathan was a threat for the Olympic podium, at his best. But Nathan actually hasn't been at his best all season, despite the fact he managed to eke out wins. Nathan's troubles in Pyeongchang are most likely due to a combination of things, including equipment issues, nagging physical problems, too much off-ice attention in an Olympic year for a young skater, too much switching around with the quads, too much over-reaction by ISU, NBC, sponsors, and by Nathan's competitors to the amazing feats he achieved last season. ISU overvalued quads, and young skaters responded, realizing the more quads they mastered, the greater was their opportunity to get on the podium. That in particular was the message ISU judges sent when Boyang Jin reached the podium as a newbie senior with four quads, but needing a lot of work to his skating otherwise.
And that brings me to the point that hardly anyone who covers figure skating these days truly thinks about it in terms of historical perspective re how they analyze what's happening now. When historical and anecdotal events are brought up, it's usually superficial fluff, without any meaningful connections being made that can enhance our understanding of how the sport has evolved.
you mean “last accomplished by Dick” not only. Several guys have two (Brockel and Salcow come to mind) and Grafström holds the record with 3.
Yes, that's true. I think the accomplishment will be to be the first skater since Button to win back to back. 1952, it's been a while. Would be great!
I think what Dick accomplished is usually referred to as: the only male skater in the modern era to earn two back-to-back Olympic gold medals. Seriously, Boitano would have and could have (woulda coulda) had he been allowed to come back to compete in 1992 when he was healthy and still in peak form, instead of in 1994 when he was injured and past his prime.
It seems he trained smart heading into this comp: both in practice an in comp, he only did the amount of quads he needed to do to deliver and to win. I trust he does the smart thing again and skips the Milan Worlds. And if Keiji and Mura both splat'n'pop and Japan loses the third spot, so be it. Healthy Yuzu can be there next season to help get it back.
Donovan Carrillo made the FS at his first Worlds!
Yay for Donovan! And the fun Malesian guy made the cut, too!Donovan Carrillo made the FS at his first Worlds!
Bumping this thread back up for @AngieNikodinovLove and for fans of the more "obscure" men at Worlds!
Donovan Carrillo made the FS at his first Worlds!
