U.S. Men in 2018 - articles & latest news

Status
Not open for further replies.
This is one of the better articles I read about Nathan after his record-breaking free skate - it's by Christopher Kamrani who has been covering Nathan for his hometown paper, The Salt Lake Tribune: Nathan Chen rallies to finish fifth in Olympics after sensational long program with record six quads
Excerpts:
He’d kept his game-face on for so many months, through mixed zones after performances on different continents, but the teenager finally admitted in front of a group of reporters that the Olympics are a different beast.
“As much as I tried to deny it,” he said, “I think I did feel the pressure a lot before the short program, especially thinking about medals and placement and all of that, things that were completely out of my control.”
...
He let go of fear and score calculations and hope Saturday and turned in the sort of historic outing he is always capable of. Buried so low in the standings allowed him to forget and allowed him to “be myself.”
... Next is Beijing in 2022, where the NBC storyline will gain serious momentum as the son of Chinese immigrants — Chen’s mother, Hetty Wang, was born in Beijing.
“Who knows what’ll happen in four years,” he said when asked if he’d thought about the 2022 Games at all yet. “It would be cool to be able to go to that Olympics.”
The phenom was further groomed, in a sense, at these Olympics, where he learned that potentially the only way to tap into that unbeatable well of talent is to not minimize what’s in front of him. Instead, he turned and faced it, and with nowhere to go but up, picked his skates off the ice over and over and over again, transforming back into himself.
 
I really love all three of the American men’s team because they all really provide something different that I enjoy. And Vincent’s “me, duh” line is like where his and Adam’s personalities meet. The dad has taught his sons well.
 
I know there has been talk about Nathan going to Orser, but honestly, I want to see Zhou go to him instead. Or both of them. But, if only one of our men can snag a spot with Team Orser, I really want it to be Zhou. I think he could work wonders with Vincent's PCS, and help clean up those quads.

I cannot see Nathan going to Orser. As a previous poster commented, Orser's style does not work for everyone and did not work for Adam for various reasons. It also did not work for Yuna after the 2010 Olympics and her leaving affected Orser adversely.
 
I cannot see Nathan going to Orser. As a previous poster commented, Orser's style does not work for everyone and did not work for Adam for various reasons. It also did not work for Yuna after the 2010 Olympics and her leaving affected Orser adversely.
Why? Not that I necessarily want him to go to Orser, but Nathan is not Adam or Yuna.
 
Why? Not that I necessarily want him to go to Orser, but Nathan is not Adam or Yuna.
If you read the posted interview with Arutunian, the biggest issue with Nathan is Nathan and his family. It appears that he takes his direction predominantly from his mother and the rest of his family to the detriment of any attempted intervention from a coach.
 
If you read the posted interview with Arutunian, the biggest issue with Nathan is Nathan and his family. It appears that he takes his direction predominantly from his mother and the rest of his family to the detriment of any attempted intervention from a coach.

In the TSL men's recap, they discussed this. I know how some people feel about TSL, but their Olympic recaps so far have had interesting guests. For the men, they had a Canadian/American coach who's friends with Brian. They asked him about Nathan and potentially moving to Brian and would that help if the main issue was his mother running the show. He basically said that it would depend on whether a new coach (in general, not just Brian) would push back against that a bit more and take more control and if the parents would trust the coach. I think one of them speculated that it might be better if Nathan moved there without his family.

In general, not just about Nathan, he said that Brian won't take many new people because he doesn't like to stretch himself too thin. He said Brian considers about 4-5 students his max, but that's only for being their main coach. For example, he works a lot with Gabby and Stephen Gogolev, but Lee Barkell is their main coach. Right now he's the primary coach for Hanyu, Fernandez, Tursynbaeva, and Cha.

He said that Brian has turned down several people in the past because he saw that they were maxed out in terms of potential, and that he's always turned out to be right on that. He also said that he's sure lots of people will be calling Brian and that a few already have before the Olympics. He said Brian will be picky about who he chooses to take on.

Back to Nathan, I don't know if moving to Brian would be the right move for him. I'd certainly be interested in seeing it. I do think that the intense media attention did get to Nathan, even if that wasn't the only issue, and in that sense Brian is a great choice. He has a lot of experience in dealing with that and TCSC is a private club and everything.

As for Vincent, in that video they also discussed his numerous coaches, and the guest's opinion was that when you work with a lot of people they need to be communicating between them very very well. In general he thought that someone needs to be running the show. I do think TCSC would be good at helping Vincent develop into a complete skater, improve his skating skills and everything. Maybe his current team will do that. We'll see.
 
If you read the posted interview with Arutunian, the biggest issue with Nathan is Nathan and his family. It appears that he takes his direction predominantly from his mother and the rest of his family to the detriment of any attempted intervention from a coach.
Ooof. I can't say I'm surprised by this - Vincent is the same way. I never heard rumors about Nathan's Mom so I guess I just gave her the benefit of the doubt, even if I did think the whole tiger mom stereotype could be the case.
 
I get why Adam's charisma sparked his popularity but looking at Nathan in particular, the guy beat a cleanish Hanyu, went for six quads (without his coaches knowledge) and got a perfect math score on his SATs. The guy is a super hero.

Nathan is my favorite by far among the three, but just to be clear, based on the interview with Arutyunian in the other thread, he did tell his coach before the LP that he wants to do six quads, and Arutyunian told him Ok, I give you green light. So while it wasn't his coach who "encouraged" him to do it, but at least it was with his coach's knowledge.
 
Last edited:
If you read the posted interview with Arutunian, the biggest issue with Nathan is Nathan and his family. It appears that he takes his direction predominantly from his mother and the rest of his family to the detriment of any attempted intervention from a coach.

The thing is, we're only getting Raf's side of the story in that interview. There may be more to it--other factors that we don't know about.
 
Ooof. I can't say I'm surprised by this - Vincent is the same way. I never heard rumors about Nathan's Mom so I guess I just gave her the benefit of the doubt, even if I did think the whole tiger mom stereotype could be the case.
So have I and from reliable sources
 
Changing coaches a few weeks before worlds?? telling TSL about it first?? Isn't Jason an alternate for worlds? I think there is a chance that one of the men at the Olys may not go to worlds but what do I know. Really seems out of character for Jason. I am a skeptic.
 
Changing coaches a few weeks before worlds?? telling TSL about it first?? Isn't Jason an alternate for worlds? I think there is a chance that one of the men at the Olys may not go to worlds but what do I know. Really seems out of character for Jason. I am a skeptic.

(Assuming it’s true) Maybe there was a falling out. Also, I believe that Timothy Goebel just showed up at 2000 Worlds with Frank Carroll instead of Carol Heiss Jenkins. So coaching changes like this (and much more dramatic) have happened before.
 
Changing coaches a few weeks before worlds?? telling TSL about it first?? Isn't Jason an alternate for worlds? I think there is a chance that one of the men at the Olys may not go to worlds but what do I know. Really seems out of character for Jason. I am a skeptic.

He didn't have to tell TSL anything. It's obvious from social media that Jason has been in SoCal the past couple of weeks and was posing for pictures with skaters at a couple of different rinks. Rohene was with him yesterday.
 
So, what about Jason to Orser? Not sure how likely that is, if he is in SoCal, coach-hunting, but it's an intriguing thought.
 
TSL tweeted that Jason has left Kori and is trying out with possible new coaches ....

People still take these shit-stirring rumour mongers as truth?

If Jason is contemplating adding new coaches to his team, there's no way it would be done without Kori's full blessing. And Jason's not stupid. He won't be doing anything to jeapordise that Worlds spot.
 
If Jason were to change coaches, I wonder if he would still work with Rohene. Based on annie720's post, sounds like maybe yes.

But Jason has also previously worked with specialists on a consulting basis, so being in SoCal does not necessarily mean he is leaving Ade.
 
Just a word of caution that it's TSL reporting this, there is no confirmation from Jason. I probably should have posted it in the TSL thread, not here, since it's not confirmed. Sorry, my bad.
 
It was heartbreaking to see Nathan Chen crumble to Olympic pressure in the SP, but then spectacular to see him rise to the occasion in the LP and make history with those quads! Hopefully he stands on the podium at this year's Worlds (crossing my fingers for him). :hat1:
 
Changing coaches a few weeks before worlds?? telling TSL about it first?? Isn't Jason an alternate for worlds? I think there is a chance that one of the men at the Olys may not go to worlds but what do I know. Really seems out of character for Jason. I am a skeptic.

Where did it say that Jason told TSL about it first?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top
Do Not Sell My Personal Information