U.S. Men in 2017 - articles & latest news

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Brown’s competition mindset doesn’t seem to have gelled this season. His axel looks like it’s regressed. Hopefully he can reset for Nationals—it’s usually a good competition for him.

The protocols for the GPF free really drive home how strong Rippon’s strategy is given his jump limitations. We all know he’s going to underrotated & likely fall on that 4 lutz, but he’s maximized his jumping passes, especially now with the 3f-3l, so that the only other jump he could do in that slot is a 2a. His 4L today went just about as poorly as possible, and scored 3.9. His 2a scored 3.8. And hey, there’s always the chance he’ll get the rotation one of these days. On top of that, he has 6 triples in the back half, including both axels, and repeats the axel & flip without having to use a combo jump slot on a half loop.

That’s why I’d still bet on him making the Oly team. He’s been consistent—mid to high 80s in the short, around 170 free. It doesn’t shut the door on Aaron/Brown/Zhou, but he’s in a good position to take advantage of the off-nights others, which everyone seems to be having regularly this season.
 
I love Jason, but I agree something seems off this season.

Personally, I think part of the problem is his LP. The Hamilton SP is so fun and different, and Jason shows great animation skating to it. The LP is not bringing out the best in him. I feel like it's not the vehicle he needed this year. If he continues after this season, I would like to see him go in a different direction creatively with his LPs.
 
clairecloutier said:
I love Jason, but I agree something seems off this season.

Personally, I think part of the problem is his LP. The Hamilton SP is so fun and different, and Jason shows great animation skating to it. The LP is not bringing out the best in him. I feel like it's not the vehicle he needed this year. If he continues after this season, I would like to see him go in a different direction creatively with his LPs.
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I love the FS actually more than the SP, though I'm warming up to it big time after his really lovely performance at GPF. I think the FS probably is more a biting more than you can chew scenario. The program "looks easy" but there's a ton of stuff going on choreography wise. Meloma's post regarding the crossovers and in-between was pretty revealing: He's doing a lot of one-footed and multi-directional skating in the program. I think they did the math and figured Jason could reasonably do 3As and a 4T (and there's video that shows he can) but he hasn't been able to do it consistently yet, hence all these constant layout changes. Honestly, I think he should stick to the layout they did at Skate Canada and just drill it until Nationals. He doesn't need to do the 5 million alternative scenarios -- it's not helping him at this point.

As for the overall feel of the programs, Jason himself said the FS was kind of lacking a story and was basically pieced together with Rohene's choreography and the composted music. It does sound like he's taking more ownership of what he wants to express from the free program, we'll see if gels more at nationals.

Jason was also breaking in new boots during this competition, so that may have contributed to some of the jump issues.
 
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Jason's 3A, which was looking so good last fall, has become wildly inconsistent. And not even attempting a quad implies that he's not rotating it in practice, which isn't a good sign. The Skating Lesson said that while Jason went to Frank they didn't work on jumps, and while I hardly believe everything TSL says is true, looking at the quality of his jumps this fall makes me believe this. It was a major misstep by his team not to shore up his triples with Frank before this season started.

I also desperately want to see Jason try another choreographer next year if he continues. Rohene's great and a good match for him, but everyone can benefit from working with multiple choreographers and Jason hasn't gotten any of those benefits. He can return to Rohene after if he chooses, but he would return an improved skater.

Crossing my fingers that both Adam and Jason can kick ass at Nats and make it to the Olys.
 
Sylvia said:
Time to celebrate 2 of the JGP Finalists' fine achievements in Nagoya! :) Both guys set 3 new ISU personal bests there.

Junior Men SP:
1 Alexei KRASNOZHON USA - 81.33 (3Lz, 3A, 3F+3Lo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRDMLGJoZ7k
5 Camden PULKINEN USA - 70.90 (3A, 3F+2T-, 3Lz): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5U6nPmSMEQ

Cathy Reed's interview with Alex K. after his SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPStGj59VtQ

Junior Men FS:
GOLD! Alexei KRASNOZHON USA - 236.35 (155.02 in FS, 8 triples & stood up on opening 4Lo<): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JNyvrSn0z0
SILVER! Camden PULKINEN USA - 217.10 (146.20 in FS, 7 of 8 triples landed): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifmPKYpwf-Q

Cathy Reed's interview with Camden P. after his FS (he was 2nd to skate): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HiCFvN36PU
And her interview with Alex K. after his FS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy1DC63c-GU

Men's medalists' press conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7HTDfmc1Y0

Junior Men's medal ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIjBXEp96xg
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Krasnozhon at the moment is skating better than Ross, Grant, and all the rest of the tier 2 Seniors. He may get his wish and be in the final group at Nationals.

BTW, Alex J. just hit another good SP at Golden Spin. I think he is sitting 3rd in a field that includes a lot of potential top 10 guys: Bychenko, Kvitelashvili, Ten, Righini, et al
 
mattiecat13 said:
What is going on with Jason? He didn't even attempt a quad here and his consistency is gone. I'm a bit worried about him.
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His success is his consistency. In other years he's talked about seeing how many clean skates he can do in a row - day after day. Maybe with his injuries they're careful with the repetition. Kori did not loked pleased in K&C.
 
I’m not sure what’s going on with Jason, and it worries me more than a little at this point. I’m trying to focus on the fact that his SP was really good, and overall it was an improvement over NHK, but I don’t think it’s all down to new boots.

It seems like his team made some significant strategic mistakes this season that have impacted his confidence. Neither program was choreographed until after Worlds; the FS wasn’t even started until June and it wasn’t done until mid-July. As Mrs P said, the choreo in both programs is really taxing. He put quads in both programs immediately, but they started pulling them out at the last minute when it was clear he was struggling. I’m sure that impacted the 3A, and then they started moving jumps around because of that.

As a result, I think that they’ve started practicing multiple layouts instead of sticking with the same one all the time. That may help him if they decide to change things at the last minute - ie, because he’s struggling during the 6 minute warmup - but by doing that, he’s not going to get the same kind of consistency that comes with practicing the same layout day in and day out.

Maybe he’s being stubborn about continuing to put the quad in his planned program content (meaning they need to keep practicing that layout), but at this point, I really hope his team nixes it, settles on a layout, and sends him to Frank ASAP for help with the 3A. I know he’s frustrated that he can land quads in practice and not in competition, but at this point I think he’s better off accepting that this is where he’s at right now, focusing on landing the 3A and doing clean beautiful programs in competition, and leaving the quads until next spring.
 
I am beginning to wonder if it is Olympic year pressure that is getting to Jason. In 2014, he was a first year senior and wasn't part of the Olympic year hype. This time, he is taking part in the media summits, has a youtube channel, and is expected to be a part of the team (not only press and fans but he expects it of himself). He is also dealing with a chronic back injury that he has to baby and the pressure to join the quad ranks. And by this point, he must be getting frustrated that he isn't performing up to his standards. It will be very interesting to see how Jason and his team deal with his issues between now and San Jose. For the first time all season, I think Jason is very vulnerable to being knocked off the Olympic team. And that makes me sad.
 
Well, Jason is not ON the team, so I don't know about him being knocked off. He is in a really difficult position in trying to up the difficulty content to be competitive in this OLY year, and dealing with a bad back.
 
AxelAnnie said:
Well, Jason is not ON the team, so I don't know about him being knocked off. He is in a really difficult position in trying to up the difficulty content to be competitive in this OLY year, and dealing with a bad back.
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I didn't phrase that well. Going into the season, I really thought he had a lock on a spot given his history and performance quality.
 
Not sure what is going with Jason but I hope he gets his consistency back. I love both of his programs. He was looking pretty good at Skate Canada, I don't know what happened.
 
I definitely agree that some of Jason's issues are attributable to the choreography. A lot of his jumps have a difficult or shortened entrance. I think if he took as much time as Adam to set it up, it would be more consistent.

I also wonder if the confidence issue from his quad is beginning to seep into his other jumps, particularly his 3A? It seems like that jump is the biggest problem consistency-wise.
 
I'm not a huge fan of his programs this year, particularly the free skate.

The choreography is lovely, Jason is lovely, and the music is lovely. But they don't seem lovely together.
 
FSfan107 said:
Not sure what is going with Jason but I hope he gets his consistency back. I love both of his programs. He was looking pretty good at Skate Canada, I don't know what happened.
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This is the big question. He did that one FS runthrough at SC practice, complete with a very nice quad, and was looking like he was in really good shape. Something seems to have happened between that practice and now that’s rattled him, but what?
 
In a post competition interview posted on Goldenskate, Jason stated that he found out on a Friday at 2am that he had to be on a plane to Japan by Sunday and it wasn’t expected. He was breaking in a new pair of boots for Nationals so this might have something to do with it

ETA - Any word out of Zagreb how Alex fared? The competition should be finishing up if not done already

ETA- Never mind. Not ideal for Alex
 
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Adam addresses an important rumor on Twitter:
Adam Rippon‏Verified account @Adaripp
There’s been a lot questions to whether I compete with butt pads on and I’d like to set the record straight and let it be known that no, it’s just my real butt. Thank you for your interest, comments, and concern. Love you.

4:32 AM - 9 Dec 2017 from Nagoya-shi Nakamura-ku, Aichi
 
So, the GPF and Golden Spin are in the books. Any changes in prognostications for Nationals / U.S. Olympic team?

Here are mine -

1. Chen - Closest to a sure thing

------
2-4. Rippon, Brown, Aaron - I think Rippon is the 2nd mostly likely man to make the team, and Brown will try and hold off Aaron to be the 3rd man. However, I think one discounts Aaron at their peril. Neither Rippon nor Brown can afford to have the skates from GPF at Nationals, because an inspired skate by Aaron could beat that.

5. Zhou - Right now, I think he's fallen behind the three aforementioned, but he has had time off to regroup and might skate well with nothing to lose at Nationals. It may not result in selection to the Olympic team, but he might screw up the the podium.

6. Krasnozhon - I believe after the GPF and the consistency he's shown this season, he is breaking out of tier 2, but not enough to threaten the top 5. He set 2 PB in just the Fall portion of this season. I think he will get his wish of being top 6.

7-8. Hochstein, Miner - Both have the ability to do much better but have been quite underwhelming this season. Miner had a PB of 248 points two years ago and was competitive w/ the likes of Rippon, but has gotten wobbly on some non-quad jumps. Hochstein was a top 10 finisher at '16 Worlds, yet they seem to be falling behind. Between the two, I would give a small edge to Hochstein because he seems to do better in the 2nd half of the season and has been attaining higher results recently on the bigger stage at Worlds and 4CCs. If Miner could regain his form from the not-too-distant past, he would easily be in the final group. As it is, these 2 will probably be fighting for the 3rd spot for 4CCs.

9-10. Dolensky, Johnson - Dolensky probably has the edge: Great SS and probably the best spinner of the entire competition. If he skates well, he could finish around a clean Krasnozhon and possibly punch a ticket to 4CCs, but he has plateaued (as has been stated) and hasn't had a great competition in some time. He has also gotten wobbly like Miner on some jumps like the 3A. Johnson seems to do well in the SP, but less so in the LP. He could put some distance between himself and most of tier 2, but his LP at Golden Spin was rather rough and I don't expect him to be in the mix for a 4CC spot.

11-14. Hiwatashi, Torgashev, Rabbit, Moeller - I think Hiwatashi is a bit stronger than those following him and slots somewhere in the lower part of the penultimate group. He was injured which held back his jump content, but he is steadier than Torgashev, and is capable of outscoring Rabbit, Torgashev and Moeller if he has shaken his injury. Torgashev would do best and maybe go higher if he could just hold it together in a program. Rabbit is capped around 200 points because his toughest jump is a 3Z. Moeller has a nice quality to his skating but doesn't seem to rise beyond where he has been.

ETA - Is there a comprehensive list of everyone who has made it to Nationals?? I can't find one anywhere.
 
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olympic said:
In a post competition interview posted on Goldenskate, Jason stated that he found out on a Friday at 2am that he had to be on a plane to Japan by Sunday and it wasn’t expected. He was breaking in a new pair of boots for Nationals so this might have something to do with it
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Really??? It is unbelievable that Brown had not heard or understood that Jin is injured and he is the first alternative...
 
He probably had an idea, but at some point you have to make a decision mentally about what your focus is, and he clearly was already looking towards Nats. Maybe he should have kept GPF first in his mind, but if he never got the call it could have been all for nothing and would have delayed breaking in his skates
 
I thought both Nathan and Adam looked a little tired here. It was a quick turnaround from SA to the GPF. Adam also had a pretty quick turnaround between NHK & SA. I think it will be good for them both to go home & have a couple weeks to rest & train for nationals, where I expect to see better performances from them both. Outside of Nathan, Adam has been the most consistent this fall and is probably in the best position going into nationals.

Jason is starting to become a concern and I hope there is not an injury. He had fantastic practices at Skate Canada and looked like he was ready for a great season, setting himself up for the Olympics. But he seems to have abandoned the 4T, his 3A has declined & he has lost his consistency on his other jumps as well. I still believe USFS will want to put him on the Olympic team so I hope to hear about him spending some time with Frank between now and nationals to clean up his jumps.

I do prefer Jason’s FS to his SP. But I felt both programs come across better in the arena than on tv/the computer.
 
Jaana said:
Really??? It is unbelievable that Brown had not heard or understood that Jin is injured and he is the first alternative...
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So you think Jason sucks as a skater, his behavior in the kiss and cry is immature, creepy, and repulsive, and he’s stupid, ill-informed, and making excuses for his poor performance. Anything I missed?
 
Firedancer said:
Adam also had a pretty quick turnaround between NHK & SA.
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Adam's turnaround between NHK and SA was the same turnaround as Max and Vincent had between CoC and IdF.

As to Jason not knowing until late, I think that's understandable. He probably thought Boyang's injury at Skate America was a minor one, or perhaps Boyang himself had been trying to play it down, and therefore assumed that Boyang would skate at GPF. He and his team also had to play the priorities game - what's more important, skating well at GPF or having the boots broken in so he can skate well at US Nationals? That's an absolute no-brainer.

I don't think Adam and Jason did anything at GPF to absolutely cement themselves on the team and make things indisputable. US Nationals will be a very important competition.
 
misskarne said:
Adam's turnaround between NHK and SA was the same turnaround as Max and Vincent had between CoC and IdF.
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Am I missing something?

Adam scored 5 points higher at his second competition than he did at his first and medaled both times.

Max and Vincent scored and placed far better at their first competition than they did at their second.

How are those the same?

ETA if you meant Jason, not Adam, the difference is that Jason was first alternate for the GPF, and when Boyang withdrew, he was able to show some upward movement in his scores and improvement in his 3As.
 
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To me Chen and to a lesser extent Rippon seem very likely to be the locks for the Olympic team. I think that Brown and Zhou have about the same chance at the team, based on Brown’s PCS advantage/consistency and Zhou’s technical potential, but to be honest it seems neither Brown or Zhou got the GP season that they wanted, so that brings in Max Aaron, the door for him is as open as it could possibly be going into nationals, I would say that having a better 2nd GP outing would have helped him, but I think having the “underdog” status of the main contenders will put him in the right mindset for nationals.

I think Krasnozhon will surprise, not enough to make the team but enough to get to 4CC and perhaps make it to worlds if one of the Olympic team members choose to not compete at worlds.

I think the most judge friendly Olympic team is Chen, Rippon, Brown.

I think it will be Chen, Zhou, Rippon

Since a pre nationals injury seems to be the trend for Brown I don’t know what his chances are, while I think he will be top 2 in PCS, if he’s not rotating everything him placing top 4 isn’t a given because the U.S. Field this year is tougher than in the past.

I think Max will get pewter but wouldn’t mind him in the team.
 
^ And there was another 2 weeks turnaround time for Adam and Nathan from SA and GPF. That means three competitions in six weeks for Adam, with the last to Asia.

On the whole, it seemed that SA skaters seemed tired/exhausted at GPF -- with the notable exception of Savchenko/Massot.
 
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