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

Rukia said:
Goodness this kid is not worth this amount of drama. He'll do what he does and hopefully have fun and stay healthy in the process.
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It’s the “stay healthy” part that makes me nervous given that he already has a history of injuries, but I assume he’s not spending the bulk of his time on the kind of combos he shows off in the Instagram videos. I like to think most athletes at that level (and/or their teams) are sensible enough these days to limit repetitions of the things most likely to cause wear and tear.

A lot of skaters post videos on social media highlighting whatever they do particularly well. A thirty second Instagram clip is never going to give the full picture of everything a skater can or will do in competition. But I enjoy seeing what they’re working on and which of their elements they want to show off - whether it’s Jason’s footwork or Ilia’s quads. And honestly, those clips on social media have the potential to reach certain audiences that televised events never will, so why not?
 
misskarne said:
And guess what? Quads weren't on the Olympic selection criteria. Nor were instagram clips.

Instagram is one thing. To pull off clean skates in competition is another. Ilia's flirting with a dangerous game here. He's going to look a complete fool if he can't skate well at Worlds - where the pressure will be much higher than it was at Nationals where the majority of people were not paying him any attention. He didn't skate clean at his second JGP and he didn't skate clean at the small CS event he attended either. Nationals is looking like the exception rather than the norm at this point.

I'd like to see a few people around him sit him down and suggest that this might be a nice time to build some goodwill among skating fans, to market himself as next in the long line of nice, sportsmanship-focused men who are well-loved. Even a few "can't wait to see the guys kill it in Beijing!" posts wouldn't go astray. Good quads and good sportsmanship would leave him with a "what's not to love?" feeling. But right now, all of this is feeling extremely passive-aggressive and it's not a good look - and while I'm not going to cast too many aspersions on a 17 year old elite athlete for being arrogant (all elite athletes have to be arrogant to reach that level and 17 year old boys are not known for their humility), I'm concerned that there is nobody around him who is doing anything other than egg him on with "yeah! you've totally been the victim of a great injustice! spend an hour chasing a tail-end 4Lo combo! that'll show them!"
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Ilia is allowed to post things on the internet it doesn’t make him a bad sport.
 
misskarne said:
And guess what? Quads weren't on the Olympic selection criteria. Nor were instagram clips.

Instagram is one thing. To pull off clean skates in competition is another. Ilia's flirting with a dangerous game here. He's going to look a complete fool if he can't skate well at Worlds - where the pressure will be much higher than it was at Nationals where the majority of people were not paying him any attention. He didn't skate clean at his second JGP and he didn't skate clean at the small CS event he attended either. Nationals is looking like the exception rather than the norm at this point.

I'd like to see a few people around him sit him down and suggest that this might be a nice time to build some goodwill among skating fans, to market himself as next in the long line of nice, sportsmanship-focused men who are well-loved. Even a few "can't wait to see the guys kill it in Beijing!" posts wouldn't go astray. Good quads and good sportsmanship would leave him with a "what's not to love?" feeling. But right now, all of this is feeling extremely passive-aggressive and it's not a good look - and while I'm not going to cast too many aspersions on a 17 year old elite athlete for being arrogant (all elite athletes have to be arrogant to reach that level and 17 year old boys are not known for their humility), I'm concerned that there is nobody around him who is doing anything other than egg him on with "yeah! you've totally been the victim of a great injustice! spend an hour chasing a tail-end 4Lo combo! that'll show them!"
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Do you have an AO3 profile you can link for us? :)
 
misskarne said:
Overhead cams are the worst worst worst invention ever introduced to skating broadcasting. Hideous stuff and you can barely make out what position the skater is even in.
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Followed closely by camera work that does not show the skaters feet during lifts, footwork, spins. Who needs close ups of their faces?? Save that for the intros or K&C.
 
concorde said:
Ilia has posted his skating for years so this is not new behavior. In the past, his followers tended to be other skaters.
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Yeah, and Vincent shares a fair bit of practice clips also, so it doesn't strike me as anything bizarre or odd. I'd be sharing clips of Vincent if he was trying different crazy quad combos too.
 
Posted back on Jan. 19:
haribobo said:
Is there a list anywhere of who else besides Kovar is attening the Jr Worlds trials event?
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Sylvia said:
@haribobo, the Junior Worlds singles selection camp rosters have yet to be announced publicly. I doubt Malinin will have to attend.

ETA: If I could choose ;), I would invite Kapeikis, the top 5 junior men from Nationals (Kovar, Annis, Zharkov, Klein, Yampolsky), plus the 2 JGP skaters who WD - Lucas Broussard (silver in FRA #1) and Matthew Nielsen (bronze in SLO).
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We may not hear anything until after the Junior Worlds camp concludes in Norwood, MA tomorrow? I did hear unofficially that Malinin is not at the camp (along with Thorngren - both are first alternates for the Olympics). I think it's safe to assume Malinin will be selected as long as he has indicated to USFS that he wants to do both Junior & Senior Worlds (pending him getting the SP minimum at Challenge Cup in late February, of course)... that would mean there are 2 open spots for the men in Norwood.

Removing the non-ISU Junior age-eligible skaters and the ones who did not qualify in/compete Senior or Junior at 2022 Nationals but including the 2 who medaled (Broussard & Nielsen) - this is the list of 11 who currently have the Junior Worlds TES minimums of 23/42 (I've included their 2022 Nationals placements in brackets):

William ANNIS [J2; JGP bronze] ISU JGP Kosice 2021 02/09/2021 42.96 J ISU JGP Baltic Cup 2021 02/10/2021 68.07 J
Lucas BROUSSARD [JGP silver] USA ISU JGP Courchevel 2021 19/08/2021 34.68 J ISU JGP Krasnoyarsk 2021 17/09/2021 66.79 J
Liam KAPEIKIS [S7] ISU JGP Riga Cup 2019 05/09/2019 32.95 J Winter Youth Olympic Games 2020 15/01/2020 57.28 J
Joseph KLEIN [J4] ISU JGP Lake Placid 2019 29/08/2019 34.81 J ISU JGP Lake Placid 2019 30/08/2019 52.12 J
Kai KOVAR [J1] Challenge Cup 2020 20/02/2020 28.92 J ISU JGP Courchevel (2) 2021 28/08/2021 60.13 J
Ilia MALININ [S2; 2 JGP golds] ISU JGP Cup of Austria 2021 07/10/2021 45.35 J ISU JGP Cup of Austria 2021 08/10/2021 88.68 J
Matthew NIELSEN [JGP bronze] ISU JGP Grand Prix de Courchevel 2019 22/08/2019 37.40 J 2021 Cranberry Cup Intl 13/08/2021 63.99 J
Jacob SANCHEZ [J9] ISU JGP Baltic Cup 2021 30/09/2021 37.99 J ISU JGP Baltic Cup 2021 02/10/2021 56.19 J
Michael XIE [J13] 2021 Cranberry Cup International 12/08/2021 32.92 J 2021 Cranberry Cup International 13/08/2021 51.19 J
Robert YAMPOLSKY [J5] 2021 Cranberry Cup International 12/08/2021 30.54 J 2021 Cranberry Cup International 13/08/2021 46.02 J
Maxim ZHARKOV [J3] ISU JGP Courchevel (2) 2021 26/08/2021 30.37 J ISU JGP Courchevel (2) 2021 28/08/2021 55.74 J
 
GQ Sports' Q&A article on Nathan was published online on Feb. 1 (a version of this story originally appeared in the February 2022 issue with the title "Cold Word"):
www.gq.com

The Brainy Figure Skater on a Remarkable Hot Streak

With the ability to land more quads than anyone else, Nathan Chen has his eye on gold in Beijing. The Olympian's secret weapon? Chess.
www.gq.com www.gq.com
 
14-minute feature on/interview with Vincent by CGTN (China Global Television Network) America, uploaded on Feb. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuFJlpIz2zY
He was born in California but his parents are from China. So qualifying for the Winter Olympics in Beijing was particularly personal for U.S. figure skater Vincent Zhou. His longtime dream? To win a medal in front of his grandparents from both sides of his family. All of them live in Beijing. But getting to this climactic moment did not come without serious challenges. Dan Williams spoke with him during his Olympic training.
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misskarne said:
And guess what? Quads weren't on the Olympic selection criteria. Nor were instagram clips.

Instagram is one thing. To pull off clean skates in competition is another. Ilia's flirting with a dangerous game here. He's going to look a complete fool if he can't skate well at Worlds - where the pressure will be much higher than it was at Nationals where the majority of people were not paying him any attention. He didn't skate clean at his second JGP and he didn't skate clean at the small CS event he attended either. Nationals is looking like the exception rather than the norm at this point.

I'd like to see a few people around him sit him down and suggest that this might be a nice time to build some goodwill among skating fans, to market himself as next in the long line of nice, sportsmanship-focused men who are well-loved. Even a few "can't wait to see the guys kill it in Beijing!" posts wouldn't go astray. Good quads and good sportsmanship would leave him with a "what's not to love?" feeling. But right now, all of this is feeling extremely passive-aggressive and it's not a good look - and while I'm not going to cast too many aspersions on a 17 year old elite athlete for being arrogant (all elite athletes have to be arrogant to reach that level and 17 year old boys are not known for their humility), I'm concerned that there is nobody around him who is doing anything other than egg him on with "yeah! you've totally been the victim of a great injustice! spend an hour chasing a tail-end 4Lo combo! that'll show them!"
Click to expand...

You're ****ing crazy.
 
Sylvia said:
GQ Sports' Q&A article on Nathan was published online on Feb. 1 (a version of this story originally appeared in the February 2022 issue with the title "Cold Word"):
www.gq.com

The Brainy Figure Skater on a Remarkable Hot Streak

With the ability to land more quads than anyone else, Nathan Chen has his eye on gold in Beijing. The Olympian's secret weapon? Chess.
www.gq.com www.gq.com
Click to expand...
Really liked this article. So Nathan. The 12 minute video of Nathan talking about figure skating movies is a gem!
 
misskarne said:
And guess what? Quads weren't on the Olympic selection criteria. Nor were instagram clips.

Instagram is one thing. To pull off clean skates in competition is another. Ilia's flirting with a dangerous game here. He's going to look a complete fool if he can't skate well at Worlds - where the pressure will be much higher than it was at Nationals where the majority of people were not paying him any attention. He didn't skate clean at his second JGP and he didn't skate clean at the small CS event he attended either. Nationals is looking like the exception rather than the norm at this point.

I'd like to see a few people around him sit him down and suggest that this might be a nice time to build some goodwill among skating fans, to market himself as next in the long line of nice, sportsmanship-focused men who are well-loved. Even a few "can't wait to see the guys kill it in Beijing!" posts wouldn't go astray. Good quads and good sportsmanship would leave him with a "what's not to love?" feeling. But right now, all of this is feeling extremely passive-aggressive and it's not a good look - and while I'm not going to cast too many aspersions on a 17 year old elite athlete for being arrogant (all elite athletes have to be arrogant to reach that level and 17 year old boys are not known for their humility), I'm concerned that there is nobody around him who is doing anything other than egg him on with "yeah! you've totally been the victim of a great injustice! spend an hour chasing a tail-end 4Lo combo! that'll show them!"
Click to expand...
Karne has been doing this hateful crying for years now. Four years ago, she was crying about Nathan being USFSA's new toy, and how her 'love' Max Aaron was being ignored. GET OVER IT!!! Ilia is an AMAZING SKATER and is the new star of the USFSA.
 
readyouwroteyou1 said:
Karne has been doing this hateful crying for years now. Four years ago, she was crying about Nathan being USFSA's new toy, and how her 'love' Max Aaron was being ignored. GET OVER IT!!! Ilia is an AMAZING SKATER and is the new star of the USFSA.
Click to expand...
You felt so strongly about this that you made an account just to post this? Amazing.
 
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