As I said, I watched Nathan Chen Yuma Kagiyama, Shoma Uno and Yuzuru Hanyu’s short program and free skate. The rules, and the explanations on my way of proceeding, can be found in this post:
The video on which I based myself, and of which I sometimes indicate the seconds, is this:
4F
Bad shot from which it is impossible to evaluate the edge, but I think it is correct. Not sure if the jump is fully rotated, maybe it deserved a q, maybe even an underrotated call. In some cases I have managed to take screenshots that remove all doubts, but not always. It would take better technologies to tell us. Not being able to say anything with certainty, I go in favor of the athlete and judge the jump to be fully rotated.
I don’t assign bullet 1. I never assign it to Chen because his jumps are small. Not always from the television frame we can understand it, but when we are able to understand the width, we can see that they are small. When measured, the measurements always tell us that they are small. And when I saw Chen live, the impression was of small jumps. So he never gets bullet 1, and that means he can’t get marks higher than +3. For the rest, let’s see.
From 1:03, when there is a three, Chen does nothing until 1:14. There are two glides on one foot, one at 1:08 and one at 1:09, but they are very short and Chen is perfectly vertical, he doesn’t test his balance, so I don’t consider them, as I don’t consider the change of direction on two feet at 1:11.
I add another consideration that I do only here but that applies to all of Chen’s jumps. At the landing Chen has no flow. Chen lands, and whatever the jump was, he immediately puts his second foot down, balances himself, gives himself a push in the simplest way there is, and only then moves on to do something else. If we exclude the clearly wrong jumps (three turns to regain balance, touch down with one or two hands or with the free foot, step outs or falls), of all the skaters I have looked at, Chen is the one who has the shortest running edge. His running edge is so short that can’t be called running edge, because it didn’t exists. Even among those skaters who fought for positions in the lower areas of the ranking. Everyone or almost everyone holds the edge for a second, which Chen never does, or immediately does a few steps to insert the jump into the program flow. Okay, I was inaccurate. Usually one of Chen’s jumps is followed by a spread eagle. One. For the rest, nothing. I have already wrote about the problem in this post:
If you look at the landings of Lukas Britschgi, Donovan Carrillo, Vladimir Litvintsev and Boyang Jin, it is evident that Chen does nothing more than them. Indeed, Chen is the one who appears the most clumsy. The jumps are all quadruple, Chen’s is a flip, Jin’s a lutz (in combination with a triple toe loop), the others are toe loops (Britschgi’s in combination with a double toe loop). Chen’s jump is small and has a long preparation, no one has had any problems during the flying or landing. As it is that Chen received a +5 and eight +4, Jin two +4, three +3 and four + 2, Litvintsev five +3, three +2 and one +1, Carrillo two +2 and seven +1 and Britschgi two +2, five +1 and two 0s? What more did Chen do? The fact that the flip is more difficult than the toe loop is not a valid answer, the difficulty is already paid in the base value, 11.50 points against 9.50, and in the GOE, 1.15 points every +1 against 0.95.
To give Chen bullets 2 and 5, I had to be generous. Let’s pretend he deserve them. From +3 I deduct -1 for long preparation. The final mark is +2.
3A
Jokes about Chen’s backaxel abound on the internet. We leave the jokes alone and watch the jump. If that of the short program of the Team Event had been a backaxel, in this case the take off is correct. The technique used by Chen includes a skid but, as long as the skid is not excessive, the skater does not deserve any kind of deduction. In this case we are within the acceptable limits, so the only problem Chen has is that his jump is small and he doesn’t deserve bullet 1.
Now we watch the take off of the triple axel of Chen, Kagiyama, Hanyu and Uno (the order I put the skaters in is random). First the four of them in the short program, then only Hanyu in the free skate and a fragment of an official video of the ISU from several years ago, dedicated to the axel technique. I preferred to upload two images and not just one due to weight problems, I’m starting to have problems with the weight of the images on the blog, even if from a couple of months I went from the free version of the blog to the paid one. I entered Hanyu twice for one reason only: the shot of him was the worst and the position of the body could not be seen well. When he doesn’t make mistakes, like in the short program of the last World Team Trophy, Hanyu’s triple axel technique doesn’t change, so as a reference I can also use the free skate images.
Hanyu is the only one who enters the jump with determination, who attacks it. The others are a little backward, as if they are afraid of it, they are contracted. Yet the official video tells us that the body must go forward. The official video also shows the mark left by the blade during the take off. The first two types of take off are correct. The first mark is the same as that left by Hanyu. In the second and third the skater makes a skid. The mark in the center has an acceptable skid, the last one does not and the skater must receive a deduction.
I also compared the same skaters during the flight phase.
As soon as possible Hanyu stretches the body. None of the other three have the body in a good position.
What I see is enough to make bullets 2, 3 and 5 disappear. However, I have decided that the mistake is not so serious that it deserves a deduction for poor air position.
If you want an overview of Chen’s triple axel (I cut some rotations), here it is:
In the post of which I have already put the link, PCS in Beijing: the new Olympic campion and the others, I watched the landing of the triple axel of the short program of several skaters. I haven’t given Chen long preparation in this case, but this is how them have landed their triple axel. Also in this case I excluded jumps with obvious mistakes (including popped jumps). If an arrow appears in the series of screenshots, it is because I inserted the images following the direction in which the skater is moving, from right to left.
Lukas Britschgi, GOE 0.57, average mark 0.78, SS 7.39. The Beijing television gave us the measurements of the triple axel landed by Britschgi in free skate, and it is a very big jump. Assuming the technique is always the same, this jump is probably big too, and probably the only positive thing about this 3A is the width, certainly there is no flow, and not even a good position at the landing.
Donovan Carrillo, GOE 0.91, average mark 1.11, SS 7.32. After landing he spends over 1 second to work with the edges. He won’t be very elegant, but he has no problem controlling the jump and, assuming the rotation is complete (the technical panel forgot to call several underrotated jumps, and I have some doubts on this), his 3A is much better than Britschgi’s.
Adam Siao Him Fa, GOE 1.36, average mark 1.78, SS 8.21. He did a difficult step before the jump, has no problem controlling the landing, and spends two seconds working on the edges before doing anything else. His 3A is a good jump, but the GOE is low.
Deniss Vasiljevs, GOE 1.49, average mark 1.78, SS 8.43. Vasiljevs did a turn three seconds before entering in the 3A, so I can’t give to him bullet 4 and consider the turn only for the SS and TR scores. The landing is simple but with a good flow, he controls it well.
Brendan Kerry, GOE 1.71, average mark 2.22, SS 7.82. Kerry lands, glides for a moment, and then does a half turn hop like it’s nothing. An half turn hop is a simple jump, true, but after landing a 3A Kerry has the necessary fluidity to make this hop with the utmost naturalness.
Nathan Chen, GOE 2.29, average mark 2.89, SS 9.57. For me the landing is at the same level of Britschgi, but at least Britschi’s jump is big. Why this difference in score?
Chen did less than everyone else, why did he get a higher score? In the post PCS in Beijing: the new Olympic Champion and the others I watched a few more triple axels, but these examples are enough to confirm that Chen’s jump was overestimated. I could give him a deduction for poor air position, but I don’t want to risk to be too much severe, so I just don’t assign him positive bullets for the execution. Bullet 1 and 4 were not already there, I give Chen the 6, for a +1 of final GOE.
CCSp
At the end we see this spin on a bad shot from which it is not possible to make a serious assessment, we can see well only half of the spin. Bullet 5, creativity and/or originality, is not there. The spin is traveled. At least at the beginning the shot does not change, but Chen’s position with respect to the background is very different between the first and sixth screenshots, and in the second we see that the support leg is very inclined: this is the error that leads him to travel.
Bullet 4 is missing, at best there are four bullets, but the change of shot prevents us from saying it for sure. From a presumable +4 I subtract -1 for traveling, and I arrive at the mark given to Chen by six of the nine judges: +3.
4Lz+3T
The edge at the take off cannot be seen due to the bad shot, but Chen knows what an outside edge on the lutz is, so I assume that the call from the technical panel is correct and there are no problems. On the other hand, the 3T is underrotated, and Chen makes a considerable effort to control it.
This implies a lower base value and a deduction, as well as the absence of bullets 2, 3 and 5, and already there were no 1 and 4. I assign only the bullet 6, with a deduction of -2 for the lack of rotation, the final mark is -1.
StSq
I don’t know how accurate technical panels usually are, I had never before focused on the combinations of difficult turn. This time I did, and I noticed several turn hopped that the tech panel didn’t notice. Not just of strong skaters. Among the programs I’ve watched is Brendan Kerry’s, and also one of Kerry’s turns is hopped.
Among those who missed a turn in a combination is Chen. The image is a little less clear than Kerry’s because Chen is further away, with a slightly different shot, but we can see it well in the video.
This means that the step sequence should have been called level 3, not level 4. Now let’s see the bullets.
1) deep edges, clean steps and turns. No, if we exclude the loop, which must have a deep edge otherwise it doesn’t turn, and a couple of simple curves, most of the turns don’t have deep edges. No bullet 1.
2) element matches the music. When a skater does little, to say that his movements matched the music is a bit excessive, but let’s say bullet 2 is there.
3) effortless throughout with good energy, flow and execution. There are no problems, Chen does not stumble and runs a lot (even if doing a nice step sequence and running are two different things), let’s say that bullet 3 is there.
4) creativity and/or originality. Let’s not joke. I gave Chen two bullets, although I’m not really convinced he deserves them, with that there’s no chance. What does Chen do? Three knee slides, in an absolutely static position. He doesn’t shift his balance axis, he doesn’t do anything notable. Much less famous skaters than him do much better knee slides.
Donovan Carrillo did something more difficult and original.
Or also Lukas Britschgi:
I’ve seen other knee slides, better than Chen’s, made by skaters who finished the competition out of the top 10, only taking screenshots of everything takes time and I didn’t do them. However, if you want to watch the entire competition, you can find them.
Then there is a not so low lunge.
And some simple hops. Nothing more. Nothing choreographic. Nothing original. Nothing difficult. No, he does not deserves bullet 4.
5) excellent commitment and control of the whole body. Not only does Chen do nothing to deserve bullet 5, but he also forgets one of the rulebook’s requirements:
Use of body movement means the visible use for a combined total of at least 1/3 of the pattern of any movements of arms, head, torso, hips and legs that have an effect on the balance of the main body core.
This inside spread eagle is not part of the step sequence, because in the step sequence Chen did not do any spread eagle (nor any other type of moves in the field, for that matter. It is not mandatory to do them, and he has not done any. Had he done anything else, I would have had nothing to complain about. The problem is that he has done nothing in an absolute sense). Chen executed this spread eagle after the triple axel. Look at him. Look at the tilt of his body. It’s almost vertical, here Chen didn’t test his sense of balance, and he didn’t it in the whole program.
What Chen does does not have the slightest effect on his sense of balance, to the point that he could deserve a deduction for Poor quality of body positions. I should really give the deduction to him, but I won’t.
6) good acceleration and deceleration. No. Chen just runs, no he didn’t do speed variations. With the new rules, what Chen did in Beijing would be acceptable for the PCS, albeit bad, but with the rules that was in Beijing, Chen does not deserve bullet 6 or high PCS.
The step sequence deserves a +2, only because I’m kind with him.
FSSp4
In the sit spin of the short program the skater must do at least two turn in the basic positions (with both feet), otherwise the spin is no value. What is the basic position? The butt must be lower than the knee of the supporting leg, the thigh must be at least parallel to the ice. But Chen does not reach the basic position, or if he does he does it for a very short time, less than a turn.
No value.
CCoSp
For this I keep the score of the judges (and I say nothing about Poor/awkward, unaesthetic position) , because the shot does not allow us to make serious assessments.
PCS
This is the aspect of the program that took me the longest. For Chen, I looked at the whole program and took a lot of screenshots:
I made similar checks, getting help in my analysis from the one I have already mentioned made by Roseline Winter and Elisa, for Shoma Uno’s, Yuma Kagiyama’s, Jason Brown’s and Yuzuru Hanyu’s programs.
Based on that analysis, I created a table, which also includes Junhwan Cha’s program, to understand how the programs are structured, if the skaters do more difficult things in a row, focusing on that flow that until a few days ago was important to have high marks.
There are five columns for each skater. In the left column I have indicated what the skater did. Difficult stands for difficult step, element, with the light blue box, for the elements, whether it is a jump or a spin it doesn’t matter. The next three columns indicate what skaters do before (top row) or after (bottom row) of each difficult step or technical element. PS, with the box in green, indicates Power Skating, that is nothingness: crossover, crossunder, swizzle, movements that only serve to gain speed. Tr indicates transitions, but simple transitions. The next column, with the yellow boxes and the letter D, indicates what the ISU codes as difficult turn (bracket, rocker, counter, twizzle, loop, most of the chochtaws). The last one, in red, with the letter E, stands for element, because some skaters sometimes before or after something difficult do an element. The table is made up of what the skaters did at the National Championship, not the Olympic Games, but the differences are minimal. Chen’s movements belong to the first two groups. He doesn’t do two difficult things in a row.
Structuring the program as Chen does (and as Uno and Kagiyama do, to a lesser extent) means taking no risks. Someone who does what is simple and make no mistake deserves lower PCS score than those who take more risks. If you have some doubt, check out Jenny Mast’s seminars which I have repeatedly quoted from the end of April onwards:
[…] we must have continuity of movement from one element to another. Common mistakes as we all know is that is as we have a few steps, skaters think that they’ve checked that requirement and now it’s time to get ready for the element. They go back to looking like maybe they’re in practice. They do the element, they come out, they do a little step, and they get ready, stop doing transitions, it’s time to get ready, they’re setting up, do the next element, and the pattern continues. We need to recognize the difference between those who have taken the risk… because it is a risk to have continuous movements from one element to another, that is seamless. They can do it with variety, ideally with difficulty […]
In the last period I have also commented on the programs of Donovan Carrillo and Deniss Vasiljevs. Being a work done in total autonomy, it is less detailed than that done for the other skaters, but I wanted to understand what it means to take marks in the components between 7.00 and 8.00 and between 8.00 and 9.00. I wanted to look closely at the type of movements and how these movements were performed. And, after Carrillo and Vasiljevs, I have looked at several other programs, although I have not published specific posts. Each post takes time, both for screenshots and for writing, also because I’m writing in English, and I struggle to write in English.
And then I started making comparisons. Between Brown, Carrillo, Chen, Hanyu, Kagiyama, Uno and Vasiljievs, but, from time to time, also with some other skaters. If you are interested in what I have seen, I refer you to these posts:
In order not to rely only on my impressions, I also asked on twitter to judge the posture of two skaters, without revealing who they were:
Everything I’ve seen tells me that – jumps excluded – Chen doesn’t do things more difficult than those done by Lukas Britschgi, Alexei Bychenko, Donovan Carrillo, Brendan Kerry, Sihyeong Lee, Vladimir Litvintsev, Konstantin Milyukov, Nikolaj Majorov, Roman Sadovsky, Adam Siao Him Fa, Aleksandr Selevko and Ivan Shmuratko. I don’t care that are years that Chen receive higher scores. Chen has always been overestimated in an unjustifiable way. Look at the programs and tell me what, jumps aside, Chen does more than these skaters, or what he does best. Tell it to me with the images, not with your tastes. Prove me that he can skate.
1: landing of a hop half turn (0:58)
2: after a twirl (0:52)
3: after the 3A (1:44)
4: entry of the flying sit spin (3:05)
5: swizzle (1:38)
6: mohawk (1:25)
7: swing of the leg (1:22)
8: after the 4F (1:16), and if you have some doubts on how it’s possible to land a quadruple jump, check the way in which Hanyu landed the 4T+3T combination:
Or look at the skaters I mentioned above, when I commented on Chen’s 4F. I could have taken screenshots of other skaters too, I didn’t take them just because each screenshot takes time. So, if someone does not like my marks, he must prove to me that Chen can skate.
This means that for me Chen deserves scores inline with that are received by these skaters (Adam Siao Him Fa apart, he skates better than all the others I have mentioned). What scores received these skaters?
I have highlighted in yellow the skaters who have fallen once, and therefore have a roof in their PCS. The boxes in green indicate those cases in which anyway I have given Chen a higher mark than that received by these skaters. Warning: I am convinced that Chen does not deserve higher scores than theirs, and that he often deserves lower scores. I am convinced not because I am not rooting for Chen, but for everything I have seen. And, all the same, I gave him higher scores, as in some cases I gave him bullets that I had doubts about, or I didn’t give him deductions that I was tempted to give him, because I don’t want to be influenced by my personal tastes. The last screenshot is dedicated to the protocol.
The left side is the simple transcript of the protocol, which you can find here. Beyond the green band there are the bullets assigned by me, and that I have listed above, then some important notes, the correct BV, the mark in the GOE taking into account bullet and deduction, the score of the GOE, and the total value of the element. Adding all the values of the technical elements with those of the PCS, found in the section below, this is the result:
89.60 points means 12th place. I’m not saying Chen skated the 12th short program. For example, Morisi Kvitelashvili and Daniel Grassl were grossly overestimated in the PCS. Give them correct marks, and their score goes down a lot. Kvitelashvili’s 4T should receive a no value call, because it is in fact a 4S and the skater breaks the Zayak rule. And then there are small changes. For his 3A Jason Brown would have deserved 0.00 GOE points, not 2.17. I explained why in the post PCS in Beijing: the new Olympic Champion and the others. And his step sequence also deserved level 3. This without really looking at Brown’s technical elements. Are we sure that all the skaters have rotated all the jumps? Are we sure that there aren’t other problems?
To know in which position Chen deserved to finish the short program, we would have to check all the elements of all the skaters, and think for everyone about the PCS. This is something I will not do because it takes too long. This means that I have no idea what Chen’s correct position would have been. Certainly among the top 10, he probably would have deserved to skate his free skate in the last group anyway, but I can’t say this for sure. But I’m sure of one thing: Nathan Chen’s world record is a kind gift from the judges.
now I can see Chen’s SP if not underrotated would be prerotated, and many of his performance should be deducted, he was overscored that’s for sue, we all knew he doesn’t deserve gold medal at all.
The rotation of the jumps is not even the biggest problem in Chen’s programs. Sometimes I have doubts, but I’m rarely sure he deserved an underrotated call that wasn’t made, while with other skaters I’m sure there should be a lot more calls than there are. On the other hand, Chen’s programs are empty. He skates for about ten seconds at the beginning, to show that he is doing something, to get high marks in the PCS, then he starts running and keeps doing nothing until the step sequence. The step sequence is simple, but he skates fast (just because he doesn’t do difficult things), waves his arms a little, is clearly happy because he has landed the jumps, and the judges give him very high marks that he doesn’t deserve.