Yuzuru Hanyu’s is the last short program I recalculated the score. If you don’t remember the details of the rules or you want to know the type of work I have done, you can read this post:
I have already looked at the programs of Nathan Chen, Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno. All three were greatly overestimated by the technical panel who did not see some errors that would have lowered the base value, and by the judges, who awarded marks both in the GOE and in the PCS too high for what the skaters did on the rink. The posts I’ve looked at their programs are these:
Let’s see how it went with Hanyu. I looked at his program in this version:
1S
By rule, the non-combination jump must be a triple or a quadruple. Hanyu did a single. No value.
4T+3T
There is a three at 1:38, the three done as entry of the jump is at 1:40, so bullet 4 is present. As for the other five bullets, they are all there. For the size, don’t be fooled by the numbers that appear superimposed. The system used in Beijing gives lower measurements than the Icescope, but compared to the other 4T measured at the Olympic Games, this is big. Average length for the 4T in Beijing is 2.30 metres, Hanyu’s is 2.64 metres. Average high is 48 centimetres, Hanyu’s high is 52 centimetres.
This is the 4T.
There are no problems with the rotation neither in the take-off phase nor in the landing phase, if you look where his skate is compared to the marks on the ice you can clearly see that in the first screenshot it is still in the air, in the second the rotation is enough to define the jump fully rotated. And his back is vertical, it doesn’t look like he’s just landed a quadruple jump at all.
This is the 3T.
Here, too, no rotation problems. Not only. This jump is in rippon version, a choice made for purely artistic reasons. Several skaters perform their rippon jumps to narrow the body axis and better control the landing. If a skater jumps always and only in rippon version, it is simply a technique. The skater performs the jump that way because it is easier for him to do it that way. And his arms are outstretched, to narrow the axis as much as possible and better control the jump. Hanyu performs the triple toe loop of the combination in both versions, rippon or not. From time to time he chooses what to do, which means two things. The first, that he has an extraordinary control of the body, because the references, the sensations, change by performing the jump in one way rather than the other. Being able to choose also means that what he is doing is effortless. The other, that he chooses on the basis of artistic considerations, because performing the jump in one way or another does not guarantee more points. And speaking of artistic considerations… Hanyu has no arms outstretched. His arms form a delicate oval. He does not restrict the axis of the body to be able to rotate faster, he creates something beautiful to look at. And when he lands he does it like this, with a one-footed turn sequence that no one else does.
Six bullet satisfied, this combination deserves +5, and I would ask any judges who did not award +5 to explain why they did not. What is missing? And there are several judges who have assigned a mark lower than +5, mostly +4 (so for them are missing two bullets among steps before the jump, very good body position and matches the music):
J1 Claudia Brambati;
J2 Dan Fang: she awarded a +5 to Hanyu’s 3A (I’ll write on this jump below);
J3 Anna Kantor: she awarded a +5 to Chen’s 4F (for me deserved a +2), only a +3 to Hanyu’s combination;
J4 Masako Kubota: she awarded a +5 to Kagiyama’s 4T+3T (for me deserved a 0), to Kagiyama’s 3A (another 0), to Uno’s 4F (for me a -4, and if it is true that the technical panel forgot to call the underrotated, the long preparation and poor take off remain), to Uno’s 3A (for me a +3) and to Hanyu’s 3A;
J7 Ekaterina Serova;
J8 Asa Nordback: she awarded a +5 to Kagiyama’s 4S (for me a +2) and to Messing’s 3Lz (I have no idea which mark Messing’s jump deserved, I didn’t watch it).
I am afraid that the judges will be influenced by errors. It’s just a feeling, but I have the impression that after one mistake done by a skater, they tend to lower the marks of the following elements. It’s like something in their heads says “Skater X is not in shape today, looks at what he just got up to, so he can’t receive too high marks”. But no.
It can happen that a skater gets discouraged after a mistake and skates worse, or it can happen that a skater does not have time to recover after a mistake and that he performs the next element badly, or even that he gets hurt and that the level of his skating come down. These are all possible things. But it is also possible for a skater to miss just one element, maybe even the first one, and then do everything else perfectly. The judges should be able to see the quality of each element, independently of everything else.
Does a skater miss the first six elements and then conclude with a perfect element? He deserves low marks – marks adequate to the way in which the elements were executed – for the first six elements, but if the last one is perfect, that element deserves a +5. The overall score will be very low the same, with only one element perfect and the others wrong, it is inevitable, but the judges must assign each element the mark it deserves. And this combination deserves a +5.
FCSp
There are bullets 1, 5 and 6. The 2, 4 and probably also 3 are not there because Hanyu jumps with too much energy and does not control the landing of the entrance jump. The mistake is so obvious that I even gives him a -1 for traveling.
Final GOE: +2.
3A
For bullets 1, 2, 4 and 6 there are no problems. Bullet 1: the average length of the 3A in Beijing was 2.22 meters, that of Hanyu was 2.58 meters (it is the longest 3A among those we have been given the measurements and, I suspect, of the entire competition). The average height was 44 centimeters, Hanyu’s 3A was 47 centimeters (only Nikolai Majorov, in his short program, did a higher triple axel). Bullet 2: I remember the various take off:
and the beginning of the flight phase:
Before take off, Hanyu does not limit himself to making the usual counter. Usual… for him it is usual, in Beijing only he and Aymoz made it, it is a very difficult entry. That Hanyu complicated by adding, before the counter, a couple of cross-rolls with very accentuated arm movements, in order to put his sense of balance to the test a little more. This is bullet 4.
Instead, I do not give him bullet 3 and 5. Why? For this landing:
In this case Hanyu did something of unimaginable difficulty, which I believe has never been attempted by anyone else. He made a deliberately asymmetrical landing, holding a bent arm, and this is a tremendously destabilizing thing. I read a comment from some critic that Hanyu was in danger of falling. No, the movement is deliberate. It’s clearly a deliberate movement just by looking at the program, but anyone who has also watched the practices has seen that Hanyu trained this landing, so he always intended to land with one arm bent. And then there is a twizzle, with arms held above the head, in a soft (and asymmetrical) position and a single push before the spin. I will take this into account in the PCS. As for the 3A, the supporting leg is a little too bent, the other stretched a little unnaturally to find the space to wriggle out and complete the movement. With anyone else the judges would consider this a perfect landing, with Hanyu I choose to be strict because I don’t want my cheering for him to lead me to give him too high scores. No 3 bullets, which means that the maximum possible GOE with four bullets is +3.
CSSp
Six bullets present, GOE +5.
StSq
I would like it to be possible to assign a +6 for Outstanding step sequence. Really, Hanyu has been presenting wonderful step sequences for years, but this is something extraordinary even compared to the others. I’d love to see other skaters try it out, just to see how they’re doing. GOE +5, just because I can’t give him more.
CCoSp
There are bullets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Final GOE: +5.
PCS
I have already explained why in this case the cap on components is not applicable, so I will not repeat myself. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can find all the explanations here:
Edit: a few months after writing this post I came back to the issue of the problem of the cap:
I’ve already looked at Hanyu’s short program, taking numerous screenshots, in this post:
I also made numerous comparisons between the number, type and quality of gestures made by Hanyu and some skaters in different posts:
I also used an analysis by Roseline Winter and Elisa to understand the difficulty of Jason Brown’s, Juhnwan Cha’s, Nathan Chen’s, Yuzuru Hanyu’s, Yuma Kagiyama’s and Shoma Uno’s programs. Their analysis, based on the National Championship programs (but the differences were minimal at the Olympic Games), can be found here:
Based on their data I created a graph that shows us the number of movements made by skaters divided into three types: Power Skating (I used the acronym PS, it is crossover, crossunder, swizzles… simple movements used to gain speed which not only do not enrich the program but which, if too numerous, impoverish it), transitions (easy, such as cross rolls) and difficult transitions (diff. TR., the ones that, in ISU’s rules, are called difficult turns, I not counted the difficult turns to which is linked the level of the step sequence).
Hanyu is, by far, the one who does the lower number of steps related only to speed and the highest number of difficult turns, his program is the most difficult. Hanyu and Uno made fewer moves than the other skaters, evidently they hold the edges a little longer. Chen is the one who has done the most movements. If he did difficult moves, I would say that he has a complex program but, since he is the one who has the lowest number of difficult moves, the impression is that he is unable to hold a edge for long and has to do another movement.
And if that’s not enough, let’s see how the program is built. Also this table, which I have already shown you, is based on the analysis of Roseline and Elisa. I insert the explanation on how to read it in the form of a quote, so if you already know what I did, you can skip those lines.
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.
Hanyu’s program is considerably more difficult than Brown and Cha’s. With Kagiyama, Uno and Chen the comparison is embarrassing, the three skaters who received a medal in Beijing do not do half of what Hanyu does. And not even a third.
I did another kind of check. I looked at how long every program is (Tot SP, since in some cases the skater starts by remaining still for some seconds for artistic reasons, I calculated the time from the moment the skaters start moving to the end of the music), how long the skaters spend looking for speed or skating on two feet without doing anything difficult (2 feet/push) and how much time do they spend either doing the seven elements or interpreting the program, doing steps or anything that requires skating skills (SS). If you’re interested, in the post dedicated to Shoma Uno, of which I inserted the link at the beginning, I inserted the complete tables that show how I arrived at these numbers, which seconds I counted. Now I place only the summary table.
In this case I looked at Chen, Hanyu, Kagiyama, Uno, plus Kevin Aymoz. There is neither Brown nor Cha in this control, but in the graph I posted above we see that Brown did 45 moves which can be called Power Skating, Cha 38, Hanyu only 23, so he is in a different category than all other skaters. And here…
The time Hanyu spends doing nothing (simple skating on two feet or run-up in search of speed) is very little, he spends practically all the time doing something demanding. What technical and athletic skills do he need to present such a program? Whoever says Hanyu’s program is simple just because quads are salchow and toe loop either understand very little about figure skating, or is in bad faith. The best after Hanyu, Aymoz, spends on two feet or in pursuit of speed almost double the time spent by Hanyu. Almost double. Aymoz and Kagiyama’s values are quite similar. Chen and Uno’s programs are much simpler. They both spend more than double Hanyu’s time doing nothing. Hanyu devotes 9% of his program time to run, Aymoz 16%, Kagiyama 17%, Chen 22%, Uno 26%.
So what does Hanyu deserve?
Let us identify ourselves with the judges, who do not know that Hanyu missed the first jump because of a hole in the ice. For them there was a mistake. True, the jumps need so much precision that an infinitesimal mistake is enough to see them disappear into thin air, but there was a mistake. But he hasn’t lost a single step, or his composure, not even for an instant, or his connection with the music. Hanyu missed the salchow, and did everything else, and this everything else is something incredibly difficult, with the elegance we know. I challenge anyone to take screenshots where Hanyu moves awkwardly. The difference between Hanyu and Jason Brown, who nevertheless presented a remarkable program, is enormous, and Hanyu’s marks can only be higher. SS: 9.75. Transitions… do we want to talk about transitions? Do we realize what he has done? 10.00, any lower mark is an insult. Performance is the projection, and we were all on the ice with him in those three minutes. But there is the salchow that created a moment of suffering, so 9.75. Composition: 10.00. Interpretation: 10.00.
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:
Among the best skaters, Hanyu was the only one who was underestimated by the judges. Despite that salchow, after the short program Hanyu should have been in first position.
Reading this made me sad for Yuzu. He should have medaled in Beijing, and that he didn’t really bothers me. I’ve only lately realized there is corruption in figure skating scoring. Why that should surprise me, given that it’s everywhere else, too, I don’t know. I guess I expected better from such an inherently elegant and beautiful sport. I dread next season because of the ISU changes. Will figure skating be nothing more than triple and quad jumps? /shudder/ Yuzu is correct that skating is so much more than that. He epitomizes the very best of the sport; I doubt he’ll ever compromise himself for something as meaningless, in the end, as points. He elevated figure skating to something almost holy, and he continues pushing the boundaries. As long as he skates, I’ll keep cheering him on.
I knew right away that Yuzu should have won a medal. For me the competition took place at night, and when I saw the score assigned to Uno, a score that I immediately realized was not deserved, I turned off the computer and went back to sleep. Now I’ve done the math, and Yuzu shouldn’t have just won a medal, he should have won gold. Despite the mistakes.
Ever since I started watching figure skating, in 1989, I have heard about incorrect scores, agreements between judges, favors and various manipulations. For years I pretended nothing happened. I watched the competitions, sometimes I was happy with the result, sometimes not, and that was all for me. When the comments became too insistent, I decided to study the rules to see if the complaints were justified or not, and what I saw turned out to be worse than what the complaints had made me imagine.
The new rule places even more emphasis on jumps, as if they are not already the most important thing. As a result, young skaters will focus on jumps to try to win, and the programs will become poorer, because they will consist only of runs and jumps. Plus it’s even easier for the judges to manipulate the score, so I don’t think I will take any results seriously anymore.
As for Yuzu, I don’t know if he will continue to compete. He still didn’t say anything, so we have to wait for his decision. But if he continues to compete, he will do it in his own way, presenting programs full of transitions, even at the cost of being penalized in the score. For him, the integrity of the program comes first. And, fortunately, he now knows that, whatever happens in the future, he will always be the “two time Olympic champion” and that the affection of the fans is not tied to being champion in a competition, not even in an important one like the Olympic Games.
Well said, and I agree. He has nothing to prove, except to himself. He’s done it all, won it all. If he continues to skate, it will because he loves skating. An Italian gentleman, whose name I can’t recall, suggested Yuzu “run” figure skating when he retires and make them do it right. We all know his thesis was on the “science” of jumps, so he’s already given this a lot of time and thought. Whatever he does next will be interesting.
I suppose you are referring to the conference held in Naples by Massimiliano Ambesi. Surely Yuzuru will continue to skate in the shows, in the competitions we will find out soon. And I think that even after he retires from competitions, he will remain in the world of figure skating, and not just for shows. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but skating is his life, and he’s not going to betray him. I hope he will be able to fulfill his goals, no matter what his goals will be.
I watched that conference a couple of weeks ago. I agree Yuzu will continue to skate, in one capacity or another. He loves it too much to quit altogether. I think most people don’t realize just how much damage a sport like skating can do to the body, though. I was active all my life and assumed I’d keep on going until I died, but that wasn’t the case. Because I was active, some joints and ligaments are breaking down and giving me pain. It’s why people in sports don’t have a long professional life. Their bodies pay for that devotion to their craft. I just turned 70. Yuzu will probably still be skating when I die. That’s kind of a comforting thought, that he will keep going as long as he can, as will I.