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Post by Admin on Mar 29, 2021 5:26:40 GMT
Nathan Chen had to be perfect, and he was. The American was 8 points behind Yuzuru Hanyu after the short but put down 5 flawless quads in the free to pull himself from third to first place. It’s Chen’s third, consecutive world champion title. Hanyu’s beautiful free was good enough to put him on the podium alongside teammate Yuma Kagiyama, who’s had an incredible world championship debut finishing with a silver medal. Asher and Dylan break down the event, including skates from Mikhail Kolyada, Jason Brown, Shoma Uno and Canadian Keegan Messing. In third place after the short program, the 21-year-old American roared back with a chilling free skate to seal a third consecutive victory in the men's singles event at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, Saturday afternoon (28 March). It's his 10th international gold in a row heading into the Olympic season for Beijing 2022. Chen has not lost an event since the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games.  Chen jumped (quite literally, hitting five quadruple jumps) past two-time Olympic champion and short program leader Hanyu Yuzuru, as well as rising Japanese teenager Kagiyama Yuma, only 17. Kagiyama held steady for silver, while Hanyu won bronze. Chen won with an overall score of 320.88 (222.03 in the free), followed by Kagiyama with 291.77 and Hanyu at 289.18. "This is one I'm going to remember forever," Chen said after his win. "It's amazing - the fact that we're able to be at this worlds after this unprecedented year... I'm very elated, I'm very happy. I tried to remind myself to enjoy being here. I don't know how many more worlds I'll be at. In doing that, I was able to be a lot more calm." Chen becomes the first man to go back-to-back-to-back since Patrick Chan (2011-13) and first American (male or female) to win three in a row since Scott Hamilton (1982-84). Skating to a Philip Glass medley choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne, Chen's lightness between jumps translated into explosive power, as he hit a quadruple Lutz to open the program - the jump he fell on in the short - then quad flip-triple toeloop in combination. From there, Chen would connect on a triple Lutz, quad Salchow, quad toe-Euler-triple flip combo, quad toe-triple toe combo and a triple Axel to finish, a jump he said he struggled with into the free. "As soon as I hit that [triple Axel], I felt a sense of relief that I had hit everything into the step sequence," Chen said. On his mentality, he said not much changed from the short to the free, only reminding himself to enjoy the moment: "It's been a while since I've skated at internationals, so I forgot how to mentally prepare for these events. "I just try to remind myself how fortunate we are to be here. That relaxes me. 'Be here, be present.' We train for these moments, we live for these moments. Without these, it's pointless what we do every day." - Nathan Chen on his mentality Olympic Channel's Meryl Davis, the 2014 Olympic ice dance champion, was watching in from home. She said about Chen: "A master at work. From the onset, Nathan appeared to be very much in the zone and seeing the standing ovation from his fellow athletes at the end really says it all; so much respect for this exceptional athlete." |
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Post by Admin on Mar 29, 2021 20:34:15 GMT
 In any sport, a competitor embraces praise from live spectators and other fans but nothing means more than acclamation from his or her athletic peers and decorated predecessors. So it was that even at a 2021 World Figure Skating Championships where no spectators were allowed because of COVID-19 safety precautions, Nathan Chen still could hear and see the tribute he deserved. The few people allowed in the Stockholm stands, who were accredited skaters, coaches and officials, gave Chen a standing ovation Saturday after the free skate of surpassing brilliance that would give him a third straight world title. “There truly aren’t enough eloquent words I could use that would describe what Nathan just did,” his U.S. teammate, Jason Brown, said in a text message. “I watched in absolute awe.” Chen landed five quadruple jumps, beginning with a lutz, the jump that had been his undoing in Thursday’s short program. His technical scores were orders of magnitude higher than anyone else’s, and his component scores were also the highest, wiping out a deficit after the short created by a fall on the lutz as surprising as it was rare, since Chen had not fallen on any jump since December 2018. The short program winner, Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, skated last and likely needed a flawless free skate to hold his 8.13-point lead over Chen. That point became moot when Hanyu made four mistakes to finish third (289.18), behind his 17-year-old teammate, Yuma Kagiyama (291.77), as well as Chen (320.88). “I felt almost a sense of relief after the short program, having made a mistake, not knowing if I’m really in a position to vie for first anymore,” Chen said. “I was kind of like, `I’m going to try my best in the [free] program, and whatever happens, happens.’ It took away some of the stress.” Chen, 21, became the first U.S. skater to win three consecutive world titles since Scott Hamilton won his third of four straight in 1983. Chen has won the titles by 29, 22 and 48 points. They came over four years because the 2020 worlds were cancelled at the beginning of the pandemic. “When Nathan Chen is on his game, he is virtually unbeatable,” 1984 Olympic champion Hamilton said via text Saturday. “When you look at the scoring distance between first and second place, Nathan is in a league all by himself.” The drama of having to come from behind to win for the first time at worlds gave this skate of surpassing quality an aura of being the most impressive performance of Chen’s career. “There is perhaps nothing as satisfying as a comeback, but Nathan kicked into a perfection gear that truly makes him untouchable,” 1992 Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie said in a text. Yet neither he nor his coach, Rafael Arutunian, called it Chen’s greatest free skate. It was, for what it’s worth, almost three points below his international personal best score of 224.92, from the 2019 Grand Prix Final, which also is the world best score. “This is just another step forward,” Arutunian said via text. “I wouldn’t necessarily say it was my best free program ever, but it’s definitely one I will remember forever and cherish being able to skate like that and skate this piece [of music] here in Sweden at worlds,” Chen said. |
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Post by Admin on Mar 29, 2021 21:59:27 GMT
Todd Eldredge joins us to recap the men's event at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships. We break down all of the action and discuss the performances of Nathan Chen, Yuma Kagiyama, Yuzuru Hanyu, Shoma Uno, Mikhail Kolyada, Keegan Messing, Jason Brown and Vincent Zhou on a special edition of 'This and That'.
Results:
1. Nathan Chen
2. Yuma Kagiyama (鍵山 優真)
3. Yuzuru Hanyu (羽生 結弦)
4. Shoma Uno (宇野 昌磨)
5. Mikhail Kolyada (Михаил Коляда)
6. Keegan Messing
7. Jason Brown
8. Evgeni Semenenko
9. Kevin Aymoz
10. Jun hwan Cha
Chen skated with a full comprehension of his music, by a contemporary American composer, Philip Glass, whom Chen had studied in a course at Yale. Chen’s choreographer, four-time world ice dance bronze medalist Shae-Lynn Bourne of Canada, chose the music for him, drawing on parts of several Glass works: Metamorphosis II, Violin Concerto No. 1, and “Truman Sleeps,” from the score to the movie, “The Truman Show.”
In the footwork sequence, when the music called for understated expression to match the quiet minimalism that is Glass’ hallmark, that was how Chen moved and emoted. In the choreographed sequence, when the music became more powerful, so was Chen.
“I don’t think having a little more knowledge about him (Glass) necessarily creates a different portrayal on the ice, but I think it does help me appreciate his music a little bit more and recognize the underlying genius that he has in being able to create something out of nothing,” Chen said.
“The music is beautiful. Having music that moves you as you skate helps you as an athlete continue throughout the program and gets you in a mindset that makes you happy and present.”
It was fitting, then, that Chen received his highest program component score, 9.68 (of a maximum 10), in the “interpretation of the music” category. He had the highest PCS scores of the event in every category.
Hanyu long has earned what always seemed an unassailable PCS advantage, but that hasn’t come into play as much lately because of technical mistakes that also have had some impact on the component scores in two of his last three losses to Chen.
But the two-time Olympic champion was off from the beginning of his free skate Saturday. He made a consequential mistake on his first jumping pass, putting a hand down on the landing of a quad loop, another on the second, a hand down on the landing of a not-fully-rotated quad salchow, and another on the third, a triple axel.
“It was very exhausting and like I was losing my balance one-by-one,” Hanyu said. “I tried to make sure that I didn’t fall, so I worked hard to make sure I kept it together. I realized there were a lot of jumps one after another that were not clean.”
Hanyu wound up with negative grades of execution on four jumping passes, leaving him fourth in the free skate.
It was his lowest free skate finish ever at the senior level in 10 global championships and seven Grand Prix Finals, and his lowest in any competition since a fifth at the 2017 Autumn Classic.
It also meant that Hanyu, for all his brilliance, has not skated two clean programs (no negative GOEs or zero-points elements) in the same competition since the 2015 Grand Prix Final. He now has lost all three meetings with Chen since the 2018 Olympics, when Hanyu won a second straight gold and Chen fifth despite winning the free skate because he had imploded in a 17th-place short program.
And yet Chen admitted Hanyu still awes him.
“He’s one of those athletes where when you step up [to him], you’re a little star struck…even now.” Chen said. “He has just been around a long time and has been consistently successful. That’s really impressive.”
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Post by Admin on Mar 30, 2021 21:40:45 GMT
 Nathan Chen became the first Asian American figure skater to win three consecutive men's titles at the World Figure Skating Championships on Saturday. The 21-year-old skater is the first American to accomplish this feat since Scott Hamilton. Since his fifth-place standing at the 2018 Olympics, Chen has become an undefeated champion of worlds, nationals, Skate Americas and the Grand Prix Finals. “I wouldn’t say this is my best free program ever,” Chen told the Associated Press. “But it’s one I will definitely remember forever and cherish, being able to skate like that and skate this piece here at worlds.” Chen started out rough on Thursday’s short program by falling on a quad Lutz. By his free skate on Saturday, he executed five quads which NBC Sports analyst Johnny Weir described as “the best I’ve ever seen Nathan Chen.” “I felt almost a sense of relief, I guess, after the short program, having made a mistake, having been in a position where I'm like, ‘I don't know if I'm really in a position to vie for first anymore,” Chen told reporters. “So I was just kind of like, you know, ‘I am going to try my best in the long program and whatever happens, happens.’ And it kind of just took away some of the stress.” He managed to outskate two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan. Hanyu, who came at the top of the short program, also fell behind Yuma Kagiyama, 17, who placed second. The Olympic Channel reported Chen said in a roundtable interview that he is still “starstruck” by his opponent, Hanyu. “He's won two Olympics. You know, I think that's bottom line. And I have won zero. So that kind of puts him in a completely different airspace than I'm in,” Chen remarked. "And he's one of those athletes where when you see him, you're like a little star struck. Even now, like when I see him, I still get pretty starstruck by seeing him.” He also noted that despite his initial concerns that the competition might stir up drama between skaters, everyone has been “amicable” and “respectful” of the time that each has dedicated to the sport. As a son of Chinese immigrants, Chen spoke out on the rise of anti-Asian violence in the United States. “I'm disgusted by the amount of hate and violence that has occurred [against] Asian Americans in the U.S., it's just unacceptable,” he said. “It's really disheartening to see that. But hopefully the more that this is brought to people's eyes and the more repercussions are being placed upon people that do these things, hopefully [that] will put an end to this soon. But I mean, my heart goes out to all the other victims that have been unjustly attacked. It's really tough to see as an Asian-American.” As for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games held in Beijing in 2022, Chen reminded the reporters that he has yet to qualify. “But at the same time, every competition is different, every competition is challenging, and it has its own challenges for every athlete. I'm excited to take it step by step. I think that with anything, if I try to take things in bites that are too big, I'll end up choking a little bit,” he said. Feature Image via NBC Sports |
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Post by Admin on Jul 31, 2021 2:24:08 GMT
American champion figure skater Nathan Chen apologized this week for homophobic comments he made on a podcast where he discussed his frustrations dealing with stereotypes “as a straight male athlete in a... fairly.... homosexual-dominated sport, or LGBTQ-dominated sport.”
“I recently did an interview where I was asked if people ever ask me why I don’t play hockey because of the connotation that skating is quote-unquote feminine and hockey is quote-unquote masculine. I gave an ignorant response to the question and I want to apologize for that,” Chen said in a video statement on Twitter.
I am not sure what podcast Chen, 22, made his remarks on, but a user on Twitter saved it on his phone before the podcasters allegedly removed it from YouTube. Here is the podcast, with a transcript below.
Q: Is that a thing that happens to you all the time, where people just go, well, why don’t you play hockey, simply because of the connotation [that] ice skating is feminine and the patriarchy said that hockey, because you’re hitting each other, is masculine? Is that something that comes up?
Chen: Yes, y. Especially as a male athlete... as a straight male athlete in a... fairly.... homosexual-dominated sport, or LGBTQ-dominated sport... I think that there is that connotation and there is that “Well we don’t really wanna watch guys skate around,” and [unintelligible] we’d rather watch hockey or... we’d rather watch females do that, which I think is... pretty messed up in itself... we’re all doing this... for us, it’s a genuine sport... we spend our whole lives trying to hone this craft... and to just sort of be belittled like that is not... something that is... generally taken lightly.
“But I think that... a lot of my friends who are skaters are trying to in a sense change the way that that’s approached, because... traditionally speaking we always skate to a lot of classic pieces, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, I think that’s absolutely fine, I think [if] that’s something you’re passionate about, that you connect with, that’s totally cool, but I think there can be pieces out there, some of my friends and skaters like... more pop or hip hop style songs and that generates a lot more interest, like, ‘Oh, dude,’ you know, one of my friends skated to ‘Turn Down For What,’ ... and people lost their minds for that... and obviously that’s not... the most absurd song... but... within the skating world, that’s pretty kind of like out there... and I think just having a little bit more... hip hop or more like a dance feel that doesn’t necessarily gear towards... posh sort of ballet-style movement can... shift that approach to skating.”
In his apology, Chen acknowledged that he knew his remarks were hurtful:
“I recently did an interview where I was asked if people ever ask me why I don’t play hockey because of the connotation that skating is quote-unquote feminine and hockey is quote-unquote masculine.
“I gave an ignorant response to the question and I want to apologize for that. In that moment I had the opportunity to shut down the perception that there is such a thing as a masculine or feminine sport and to shed light that these perceptions have created an environment that make it unsafe, stigmatizing and even career-ending for athletes to come out.
“Skating is an art form as much as it is a sport. And the beauty in that is that there is room for individual expression and that’s something that should be celebrated. But instead of saying something meaningful I blurted out statements that aren’t even true, used language that’s harmful to the LGBTQIA+ community and to women and minorities and centered the response around myself.
“This was my chance to build toward more inclusivity in the sport and I messed it up. At the end of the day I love skating and all the people in it and I’m committed to growing myself so that I can be a more deserving member of the figure skating community. To those who reached out and spoken up, thank you for your honesty and accountability. I’m inspired by your drive to make the world a better place.”
Chen’s podcast remarks were ignorant, tone-deaf, homophobic and sexist and he deserved the hammering he took from skating fans on Twitter. What bothered me from the start was that he wasted no time assuring his interviewers that he was straight, while his contention that skating is a “homosexual-dominated sport” is both insulting and wrong.
If “homosexuals” dominate the sport, why were there only three publicly out LGBTQ men and zero women skaters at the 2018 Winter Olympics? We know why — fear of having their careers derailed. It’s long been the case in the sport.
Unlike some others, I found Chen’s apology a step in the right direction, but he now needs to do more. He can start by reaching out to LGBTQ skaters and listening to their stories. And then he can follow up by being a strong public voice for inclusion in a sport that has kept LGBTQ skaters in the closet. Stop telling people you’re straight right off the bat. If he just figures his apology is enough, what he said will ultimately be meaningless.
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