Since watching Donovan Carrillo’s program without any help was complicated, I decided to commit suicide and try to understand what Deniss Vasiljevs did. Let’s clarify a point immediately: Vasiljevs has an extraordinary musicality, and the screenshots absolutely cannot make it understood. He is one of the few skaters who deserves a 9.00 in Interpretation, while three of the six skaters who received a mark above 9.00 doesn’t deserve the mark they received.

Unfortunately there is no video of his program alone, it can be found in the video of the whole men’s short program at 2:55:30.

The music is just started, Vasiljevs has turned his head and raised his arm.

You know what running edge at the landing means? This is Vasiljevs’s 3F.

24 seconds pass between the moment the music starts (Vasiljevs starts moving three seconds later) and does the three before the 3F. In this time for two seconds I could not see his feet due to a bad shot, for the rest if I made no mistakes I counted 3 threes, 3 mohawks, one swizzle, several glide – and Vasjlievs knows how to keep his back straight – and three or maybe four crossovers, only two in a row.

Speaking of back, he just did a toe push here. It’s something simple, true. But if we compare his position to that of the three skaters who got on the podium… those three are not even worthy of tying the strings of Vasiljevs’ skates.

Rocker. Really good forward inside edge, the backward edge seems a bit flat, he goes on the inside only after putting on the ice the right foot.

Vasiljevs doesn’t necessarily do things difficult per se – although I’ve seen a couple of difficult turns – but he keeps switching between mohawks and three, so there is variety, with some nice glides on deep edges, and is back is alwais straight, so there is quality, and sometimes a swing of the free leg. This is between a rocker and a mohawk.

This one is between two mohawks. Immediately after there is a three and a counter. Crossover? If I’m not wrong, he did two in a row, and two crossunder, before the 3F, he is about to make his third crossover now, about a dozen seconds after he landed the jump.

And, speaking of crossover, a few days ago I looked at the crossover of four skaters, Nathan Chen, Yuma Kagiyama, Shoma Uno and Yuzuru Hanyu. I took three screenshots for each crossover, with Vasiljevs I made more, so we can see his posture better. In the case of Chen and Uno the effort to reach the necessary speed for the jumps is clearly visible. Kagiyama’s crossovers are better, but they are nothing special. The only elegant one is Hanyu, but I’ll look at his program better in the near future. Vasiljevs is elegant. He tilts his back only a little and eventually stretches out, transforming the technical gesture into something beautiful. Vasiljevs’ gesture is comparable only to Hanyu’s gesture.

Between the first crossover and the take off of the 3A, there are 8 seconds with three quality crossovers, a mohawk, a glide and a… rocker with almost flat edges? Then 2 seconds of glide in which he search the concentration, a last mohawk and the axel.

The jump is followed by a push, a mohawk, a three and the level 4 camel spin, without any problem in the position. At the end he does a crossover, a mohawk, a three, and another mohawk from which he does the jump for the flying sit spin.

Besti squat.

Vasiljevs gets up from the besti squat with a swizzle on which he leans slightly to the left, then straightens up and, continuing his backward chasse, swings his free leg and at the same time leans backwards. It’s not a very big inclination – but I couldn’t catch the moment when he’s most inclined, long videos are uncomfortable for taking screenshots – but he tests his sense of balance far more than the various medalists did.

A couple of mohawk, a push, and a gentle reminder that skaters can glide on one foot before searching speed.

This, in preparation for the combination, is where Vasiljevs is most focused on speed, with (for the only time) four crossovers in a row and some mohawks. It’s a run for which he needs both sides of the rink, and 9 seconds.

Immediately after the combination there is the last spin. The program ends with the step sequence.

The twizzle is part of the turns that are used to determine the level of the step sequence, so it is normal that there is it, as it is in the step sequences of the other skaters. Vasiljevs, however, ends it in an unusual way, with a little jump immediately after which he lowers. I don’t take screenshots, but in the step sequence Vasiljievs lowers and gets up several times, using the space well.

I do not look at the step sequence (that, anyway, have their BV), the transitions are already demanding for me. I limit myself to one last screenshot. I really like the way his program ends, with a jump that suddenly freezes on landing. It is a strong, unexpected and choreographically perfect conclusion.

There are some difficult turns, and even most of what Vasiljevs does in between elements is simple, he does it well. Have you watched Jenny Mast seminars?

This is from 4:20:

So, difficulty what is it? Sometimes it can be a series of steps and turns in different directions, as I said moving the body off its main axis and the list goes on… and doing all of the above at the same time. But interestingly enough you can take something as simple as a three turn or a long sustained change of edge, and if a long sustained change of edge is done with a dance team it can be something that’s quite of high quality and can be a beautiful transition that is impactful, memorable, and the high quality… high quality for to be rewarded

A three turn can be done, or any difficult steps can be done in a way that is beyond perhaps the skaters skill level so it is not of high quality, it’s showing perhaps variety and difficulty, but it’s not done well. You can do something simple as a three turn and you can do it in a beautiful deep edge in, deep edge out, with all the extensions and alignments and that falls under the quality of the transition.

Let’s take a good look at these skaters, Vasiljevs, the others that I looked at in the past days, and the one at which I will look in the near future. We must look at the difficult steps and turns they did, their placement in the program, but we also must look at how they move at each moment, and then we must ask ourselves what marks they deserve.