U.S. Men 2025-26 Discussion - Quad God and the Mere Mortals

[PRlady]

Honestly, if I were Torgashev & Naumov, I'd probably hang up my skates and call it good after making it to the Olympics. There's a bunch of hungry young guys coming up the ranks for the US men who I think will overtake them by 2028 - Sanchez, Kazanecki, Farrington, Blackwell and Martynov. They're still learning how to put it all together in competition, but there is some good talent from those guys who are 17-19 years old right now and once they put it together... Look out.

I seem to remember, although I could be wrong, there was a time we had such great young men! Camden, Tomoki, Kras, Andrew, Maxim…and all while Ilia wasn’t yet on the scene.

Obviously the Great Winnowing Out that happens to every generation winnowed out almost everyone in terms of any real impact internationally. So forgive me for not getting excited, yet, about the new crop.

 

[Karen-W]

I seem to remember, although I could be wrong, there was a time we had such great young men! Camden, Tomoki, Kras, Andrew, Maxim…and all while Ilia wasn’t yet on the scene.

Obviously the Great Winnowing Out that happens to every generation winnowed out almost everyone in terms of any real impact internationally. So forgive me for not getting excited, yet, about the new crop.

Well, they were all up-and-coming in 2018 and, for whateve reasons (pandemic included) never quite asserted themselves on the senior level. I don't know if it was because we had Nathan & Vincent already achieving great success at the senior level or what, but by 2022, I wasn't confident that any of them would have a lot of senior international success.

But your point is well taken and, like I said, this next crop of young men still have plenty to learn before they're successful at the senior international level.

 

[haribobo]

I think part of the issue could be that there may not be that many US coaches capable of teaching and consistently training really solid jump technique and especially quad jumps. Certainly not Tammy, Kori, or Tom/Becky which some of those skaters stayed with for a while. I may be forgetting someone, but are Ryan Bradley, Max Aaron, and Jeremy Abbott the most successful US men's skaters to come from the Broadmoor area in the last 25 years? We almost had Josh Farris also...

Like it is starting to seem that Malinina/Skorniakov (Ilia, Lucius), and Selezneva/Makarov (Jacob, Caleb) are the only US coaches with truly stable men's jump technique. There is also Patrick Blackwell (Ganicheva/Letov) who is pretty good depending on the day...I guess you could include Raf in this list although after Nathan he has sort of petered out with top contendors. I think it is saying something that Tomoki Hiwatashi had to move to Japan to get his very wayward trajectory back on track. Like we may need to stop fooling ourselves that anyone is going to develop steady jumps with Derrick/Ivan or Viktor Pfeifer or Tammy G. at the helm, lovely as they may be...

Basically what I am saying is that Colorado and California coaching needs to figure this mess out and there's been a lot of fools' gold over the last few years in that area, but very little in the way of truly competitive skaters. Although I do understand jumping is not everything.

 

[Sylvia]

Re-posting here from the 2026 4CC Men's FS PBP thread in case anyone is interested in discussing this topic further :

Americans: SOS on quads. [...] USFS may want to consider how they can incentivize quads more in young skaters' development.

Hopefully, USFS is also considering how to encourage quad development because otherwise, the team’s scoring ceiling is lower. And adding quads “late” often turns into not adding a quad at all.

 

[Debbie S]

I assume Patrick will stay Junior internationally next season, even if he moves up to Senior domestically. Has he said otherwise?

 

[kwanfan1818]

I thought USFS gives bonus points for US lower-level competitions to perform more difficult jumps, like Russia did.

Maybe they need to up the ante.

 

[SidelineSkater]

Broadmoor was producing men with quads back in the early quad-craze era. Max had the most consistent of the bunch. But Bradley, Abbott and Mroz were all in the bunch. I think each had their own other deficiencies or lack of reliable quad. Vincent and Camden were also in the Tom-Tammy group for awhile too. Raf certainly helped Nathan.

 

[Karen-W]

I think part of the issue could be that there may not be that many US coaches capable of teaching and consistently training really solid jump technique and especially quad jumps. Certainly not Tammy, Kori, or Tom/Becky which some of those skaters stayed with for a while. I may be forgetting someone, but are Ryan Bradley, Max Aaron, and Jeremy Abbott the most successful US men's skaters to come from the Broadmoor area in the last 25 years? We almost had Josh Farris also...

Like it is starting to seem that Malinina/Skorniakov (Ilia, Lucius), and Selezneva/Makarov (Jacob, Caleb) are the only US coaches with truly stable men's jump technique. There is also Patrick Blackwell (Ganicheva/Letov) who is pretty good depending on the day...I guess you could include Raf in this list although after Nathan he has sort of petered out with top contendors. I think it is saying something that Tomoki Hiwatashi had to move to Japan to get his very wayward trajectory back on track. Like we may need to stop fooling ourselves that anyone is going to develop steady jumps with Derrick/Ivan or Viktor Pfeifer or Tammy G. at the helm, lovely as they may be...

Basically what I am saying is that Colorado and California coaching needs to figure this mess out and there's been a lot of fools' gold over the last few years in that area, but very little in the way of truly competitive skaters. Although I do understand jumping is not everything.

Raf may not be traveling much himself anymore - seems to have left that to Brezina & Frazier - but he's still working with skaters and we just saw one of his - Reshtenko - win bronze at Euros.

I do agree, though, I wouldn't be relying on Colorado or California coaching for reliable quads. I also wonder about SCoB - Blackwell is inconsistent whereas Malinina/Skorniakov (who have learned from Raf) and Selezneva/Makarov seem to be producing men with sound jumping technique.

 

[Allskate]

I don't think you can just blame the coaching for the lack of reliable quads, though good coaching certainly helps. (Realistically, though, it's not that easy or necessarily the best decision to uproot your family to try a new coach for your child.) It's not like all these men would be jumping like Ilia if they had the same coaching. Talent and body type can enter into it. Even most of the senior men who do quads internationally aren't that consistent with them and/or are ignoring other things in their skating. I really don't want a bunch of Grassls in the American ranks. Or Timothy Goebels.