Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) Celebrates Victory in Men's Event

Denis Ten (KAZ), Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN), Patrick Chan (CAN) at Medal Ceremony

(16 February 2014)  It was an event sure to turn up the heat on the endless debate over the demise of clean programs under IJS, with all three medalist skating onto the podium with flawed performances.  As Patrick Chan remarked in the post-event press conference winning is now about make the fewest mistake.

Following a record setting performance in the Short Program, Yuzuro Hanyu overcame negatives on three elements in his free skate to win the gold medal, and became the first Japanese man to win the Olympic event, and is the youngest champion since Dick Button in 1948. It was also the first gold medal for Japan at the Sochi Games.

Giving an even more flawed performance. Patrick Chan continued the "Canadian curse" by earning silver in the event, the fifth time a Canadian man has won the silver medal in Olympic competition.  In another first, Denis Ten of Kazakhstan broke free from the pack and moved up to win the bronze medal, making him the first skater from Kazakhstan to win an Olympic figure skating medal.

Twenty-four men skated the long program in four groups of six.  The first group consisted of the just-happy-to-be-here skaters, the most charming of which was Michael Christian Martinez from the Philippines.  Martinez was a charmer in both segments, in this segment skating to "Malaquena."  He already has his sight set on the 2018 games, if he can get the support he needs, saying, "If I can get more support financially, I'm thinking about the next Olympics and getting a medal there."

In group two, the skaters seeking redemption after the short program had their turn.  The first of these was Jeremy Abbott who took a nasty fall in the short program and was bruised from hip to ribs, which he described saying, " I'm bruised pretty much from hip bones to my ribs.  I couldn't do loops; even double loops were excruciating (in practice) so we took them out of the program.  My muscles all seized up when I tried to engage the hip.  I was in a lot of pain so I had to scale back a little bit.  But after yesterday (the short program), I wanted to finish the competition strong and just finish."

Abbott did not attempt a quad, and left loops and triple-triples out of the program.  He fought through the pain to landed seven triples in a clean skate that was well presented.  Afterwards, he was nonetheless criticized by some in the media, and by some fans, that he had again choked in major international competition.

Abbott lashed out as his critics, with his most choice comment being, "I would just love to ... alright Barb, you're going to kill me ... I just want to put my middle finger in the air and say a big 'F-you' to everyone who has ever said that to me because you've never stood in my shoes and they've never had to do what I've had to do."  He also commented, "I'm proud to be standing here.  I'm a four-time national champion.  I'm a two-time Olympian and no one can take that away from me."

That all being true, the real issue may not be so much about choking, as the media and fans having unreasonable expectation of where U.S. men's figure skating stands in the international scene.  Reality is U.S. men just aren't very competitive in the senior division.  Some make a splash in the junior division internationally, but then when they move up to seniors, we have yet to see anyone pan out since 2010; that is, be competitive for a top five finish.  U.S. Figure Skating, also enables unmeetable expectations by over-marking U.S. skaters in domestic competitions and then over-hyping U.S. skaters' chances in international competition.

Abbott moved up to eighth in the long and finished twelfth overall.  While U.S. fans should rightly not be satisfied with a program that cannot produce a top five man who can land quads consistently, that should not cause one to loose sight of the fact Abbott fought hard in this competition and made the best effort that could be expected with the tools he has to work with.

France's Florent Amodio placed 14th in the short program and would have liked to move up, but his free skate was a disaster.  Six of his jump elements were scored negative, and in kiss and cry he was sobbing like a baby.  He dropped to 18th in the free skate and finished 18th in the event.  He commented, "It's very tough to take.  I don't know what happened.  Before I went out I was about to crack.  There were lots of emotions.

After a 17th place finish in the short, Canada's Kevin Reynolds, fought back to move  up to tenth in the free skate to finish 15th overall.  He landed two under-rotated quads and one clean quad.  He assessed his performance saying, "I'm not extremely happy, but I'm happy,. I made many mistakes - little ones.  I had to get 230 points which I got and will go home with that.  But I'll go home with great feelings from the Olympics."

After an ice resurface the I-need-the-skate-of-my-life-to-medal group took the ice, and for lead off skater Denis Ten that skate of my life (or at least this season) came true.  Ten was fighting through this event of overcome as season of illness, injury and equipment failures.

Ten started strong, landing quad toe loop and two triple Axels.  In the center section his routine started to go a bit adrift, and he made errors on two jump elements, landing triple flip on the toe and putting down a hand, and stepping out of double Axel.  His routine to "The Lady and the Hooligan" was for the most part well interpreted, and he earned a season best 171.04 points to move up to third in the free skate and third overall.  "This was definitely my season's best.  I'm glad about all the jumps and I tried my best in my choreography.  I hope people enjoyed it.

In the event press conference Ten was asked how it felt skating earlier than the top skaters and having to root for other skaters to not skate well.  He deftly replied that he did not root for for other skaters to not skate well, he rooted for beautiful skating from everyone.  He also commented, "I didn't watch the skaters from beginning to end.  But I know everyone had to fight for their jumps.  it was a very interesting event, with great skaters with interesting and beautiful programs.  I enjoyed watching Patrick and Yuzuru.  It was a real good battle between them.  I congratulate them both today."

Tatsuki Machida, skating last in the third warm-up opened falling on a quad toe loop attempt.  He did not know it at the time, but with that fall he lost the bronze medal.  His subsequent quad toe loop attempt had a slight reach on the landing, but he stood up and added a double toe loop to the jump.  The remainder of the program, skated to "Firebird" was well skated with a strong interpretation.  But the 4 points he lost on the first element kept him off the podium.  He placed fourth in the free skate and fifth overall, 1.68 points behind Denis Ten.

Afterwards Machida related that skating in the team event had been draining.  He said, "My stamina was gone.  I was competing in the team event so in one week I skated two long programs and one short program.  I couldn't give my best because I was so tired."

Javier Fernandez led off the last warm-up group.  He started strong with a clean quad toe loop and then a clean quad Salchow - double toe loop combination.  His next element was triple Axel landed on the toe with a poor landing edge.  It was a minor error and the rest of the program was clean.  When his marks came up, however, Fernandez looked stunned in kiss and cry.  Though not clear until the protocol came out, it turned out his last element was zeroed out due to a brain fart in the middle of the program.

Fernandez's element 6 was supposed to be a second quad Salchow, but he tripled the jump.  Later in the program he had a triple Salchow planned in a three jump combination and a solo triple Salchow as the final jump element.  He purposely doubled the Salchow in the combination but executed the solo triple.  And hence the brain fart.

 By that choice he ended up with two solo triple Salchows in the program and the last one was then called as triple Sachow plus sequence, giving him four combinations and sequences -- one too many.  The points lost on the second triple Salchow cost him the bronze medal.  He should have kept the triple Salchow in the three jump combination and doubled the solo jump.  But keeping all these rule straight in the heat of battle is a lot to ask.

Daisuke Takahashi, one of several skaters who had a chance at the bronze medal after the short program made two major errors.  He had a downgraded triple toe loop landed on two feet, and later in the program an under-rotated triple Axel, called plus sequence following a clean triple Axel earlier in the program.  He finished sixth in the free skate and sixth overall.  "I was never going to be 100% for this'" he said, "but I agreed with Nikolai (Morozov, his coach) not to give up, and I'm glad I didn't.  I poured my heart into it."

 Next up at the plate, Yazuru Hanyu opened with a fall on quad Salchow and then landed a quad toe loop.  On is next element, triple flip he again fell.  He settled down through the middle third of the program, but near the two-thirds mark he missed the third jump of his three jump combination which ended up being called  "+Seq."  His components averaged 9.10 in an otherwise strong program but it opened the door for Patrick Chan to make up the four points he trailed Hanyu after the short program.

Chan, however, did not walk(or skate) through the door.  He had major errors on three jump elements and double a planned triple Salchow in combination.  Despite the errors, Chan's strengths in the components showed through, and he earnedd the highest component marks of the group, though in presentation he was marked down do to the several errors.  He trailed Hanyu by 0.54 points in the free skate, and finished second overall.

In the post-event press conference Chan addressed the Canadian curse saying, "I find it funny that Canadian skaters have been labeled as cursed just because we can't achieve gold at this one event.  I think we tend to forget about all of the great athletes that Canada has.  This is only one event.  There are several successful Canadian men, myself included, that changed the sport of figure skating."

Peter Liebers, who was fifth in the short program dropped to ninth in the free skate and finished eighth overall.

Last top skate was Jason Brown, who numerically had a shot at the bronze medal, but without a quad had little practical chance of reaching the podium.

He had a flawed skate, with an under-rotated triple toe loop and an under-rotated triple Axel.  He also fell afoul of the the rules in having a double Axel as element nine take up two jump boxes, which resulted in his final jump element (a triple loop) zeroed out as an extra element.  Brown set to do the double Axel, did not throw it, then set again and executed the jump.  In the past, if the skater did not leave the ice, setting for a jump was not called an element, but now it is.  If the skater clearly enters the preparation phase of a jump it is called, even if the skater does not leave the ice.  Brown placed 11th in the free skate and finished ninth overall.

On his results in the Games he said, "I tried to be real calm.  It's my first go at the Olympics.  I was hoping for a top 10, and I did that, and I got a bronze in the team event.  Hopefully in the future, I'll het one in the [men's event].

 Several time this week Brown made mention of his future plans to be in the sport another eight years and make the next two Olympic teams.  Along the way he needs to add some consistent quads to his arsenal, because one lesson to be learned from this event is that the best even a well rounded skater like Brown can hope for without a quad is perhaps a fifth place finish.  Never say never, but it appears the chances of ever seeing an Olympic men's medalist in the future without a quad is about as close to zero as one can get.  And not just a gold medal, but any medal.