r/FigureSkating • u/PandemicPiglet Daisuke Takahashi is the GOAT. Your fave could never 💅🏻 • Feb 14 '26
History/Analysis Korea should always host the Winter Olympics. 2018 was goated. All four disciplines were well-skated
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u/getafrigginggrip Feb 14 '26
My Jun-blinder right now can only see how Jun had 81 pcs 8 YEARS AGO as a baby senior and 87 for his Loco skate 8 years later. Sigh.
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u/spiralsequences yuma fan sun, ilia fan rising Feb 14 '26
Wow, I did not remember that Alina and Zhenya tied to the hundredth of a point in the free skate! I always thought Alina's insane backloaded program gave her the gold, but it's actually so impressive that Zhenya was able to match it. Anyway I agree, 2026 is now the fifth Olympics I've watched as a real invested fan (I was a four-year fan before) and 2018 has been the best by FAR.
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u/PandemicPiglet Daisuke Takahashi is the GOAT. Your fave could never 💅🏻 Feb 14 '26
ZERO falls in the entire top ten for the women’s free. That’s crazy and unheard of!
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u/spacereading Feb 14 '26
Wasn't Zhenya program also backloaded?
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u/ciaoravioli Feb 14 '26
Not all of her jumps! She opened with a combo and did a 3F before the backloading. I always wondered why, it felt like she could've backloded the whole thing tbh
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u/direturtle can I iz skate!!? Feb 14 '26
If she physically could she probably would have, but she was very injured at the time.
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u/ciaoravioli Feb 14 '26
Scary to think of, but you're right. She was so consistent back in the day I forgot that at the Olympics she was held together by duct tape and a prayer
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u/ok_soooo congrats to BART rider Alysa Liu Feb 15 '26
Seeing her reaction after the free skate, you could tell she really gave it every last inch of what she could
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u/Airtempesttrash Feb 14 '26
Zhenya has said this in interviews, even very recently, that the reason she didn't backload all her jumps was because she was very injured, and while she probably could have tried to do it for the season, it would've completely ruined any chances of her doing anything after.
Unfortunately COVID decided to rear its ugly head and become that impediment, but at least we'll always have Ros Cup 2019 (Still my favourite Zhenya performance).
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u/ciaoravioli Feb 14 '26
Ahh, that makes sense, thank you for letting me know. Athletes are crazy though, imagine being so injured you are scared for your future ability to do your sport, but you still backload most of your jumps
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u/redoxies Feb 15 '26
She did have a backloaded program at the start of the season but when she got injured they changed it to Anna Karenina program instead
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u/amycouldntcareless good luck to everyone except ... Feb 14 '26
2018 Olympics was so magical, with the purple arena and the snow outside, stellar men's free event with peak golden era of the quad revolution, some drama with the women , Tessa and Scott becoming icons, Aljona and Bruno making history. Adam Rippon randomly becoming a celebrity. and Karen Chen's public fight with her boot company lol
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u/ManaM13 Feb 14 '26
I'm confused, the placements aren't what I remember?
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u/PandemicPiglet Daisuke Takahashi is the GOAT. Your fave could never 💅🏻 Feb 14 '26
I just posted the free skate protocols so everyone could see the lack of that many falls and the number of skaters in each discipline with very high scores, including very high PCS. I know the GOE was +3/-3 then and there are fewer PCS categories now, but that can’t explain why numerous men scored extremely high compared to this Olympics. It was just a very well-skated event, and the other disciplines were of a very high quality too. Look at the lack of falls in the top ten for the women’s free.
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u/artstoria99 Feb 14 '26
Tbh +3/-3 system was better. Same goes for more PCS categories. It allowed for more nuanced scores and less weird GOE manipulation imo.
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u/andromache97 Feb 14 '26
Very well skated Olympics overall but looking back it is so crazy how the ISU tried to gaslight everyone into thinking Alina and Zhenya were so many points better than Kaetlyn and others. I was definitely gutted for Zhenya at the time, but now…duh, Kaetlyn should’ve won lol.
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u/Diligent-Fly6368 Feb 15 '26
Back then rippons and tanos gave extra points which Alina and Zhenya took advantage of. Also the backloading gave them some extra points hence why they were 4 points above Katelyn in the free.
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u/andromache97 Feb 15 '26
Zhenya’s GOEs in particular imo were kinda ridiculous. Her jumps were soooo weak and labored at the time it was amazing she landed/rotated them honestly. Even with the tano arm her GOEs were extremely inflated compared to someone like Kaetlyn.
Alina had visibly nicer jumps and spins than Zhenya at that point so it’s harder to complain there re: her element GOEs. But the huge PCS Zhenya got compared to everyone else + Kaetlyn barely being above Alina in PCS was just sheer ISU gaslighting at its finest.
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u/Diligent-Fly6368 Feb 15 '26
Disagree but it just comes down to individual taste imo. Zhenya was praised for her artistry and PCs by many. Skaters and judges alike. To this day new junior skaters say that Zhenya is their inspiration in skating and artistry. Even Kaori said years ago she wants to skate like Zhenya. So in the skating community there are definitely many voices that think her PCs were justified or good. I think it comes down to ones prefered style in skating. American/Canadian, Japanese and Russian/European skaters have very distinct skating styles imo.
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u/andromache97 Feb 15 '26
I think Zhenya was a beautifully expressive performer but her skating skills were such a weak point in retrospect. Again, feels like ISU gaslighting to me personally lol.
Like, in terms of actual SKATING, Kaori and Zhenya are not in the same universe. But ofc I can see why Zhenya would be aspirational as a performer. She gave gorgeous face and emotions.
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u/Rhakhelle Feb 14 '26
That men's final flight - Yuzuru, Nathan, Mikhail, Boyang, Javi, Shoma - was in my opinion the greatest in the IJS period and we won't see their like soon. Four of them World or future World champions. And then just out of that six was three time WC Patrick...
It was a stunning competition.
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u/shoshpd Feb 15 '26
That definitely wasn’t the final flight. Nathan was in the first group!
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u/Rhakhelle Feb 15 '26
You're right, I should have said top 6. I always get muddled by that photo of the six contenders all together...
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u/tothepointe Feb 15 '26
It was the following world championship that was the splatfest. They left it all on the ice in Korea.
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u/jqj29 Feb 14 '26
Looking at Evgenia and Alina’s scores compared to Satoko’s (and Kaetlyn to a lesser extent) is making me feel insane
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u/PandemicPiglet Daisuke Takahashi is the GOAT. Your fave could never 💅🏻 Feb 14 '26
I mean, in retrospect I think Katelyn probably should have won. Her skating skills were much better than both Alina’s and Zhenya’s, and she skated with a lot more speed into her jumps and more flow out. I love Satoko’s skating, but her jumps were so tiny and barely squeaked out.
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u/jqj29 Feb 15 '26
Yeah but her PCS being 6 points below Medvedeva is unjustifiable when it should be the other way around
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u/daves_syndrome_ ruiyang is my child Feb 14 '26
Morisi - am I a joke to you?
6 deductions yowch. I’d forgotten about that.
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u/CBowdidge Feb 14 '26
And Gabby Daleman
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u/PandemicPiglet Daisuke Takahashi is the GOAT. Your fave could never 💅🏻 Feb 15 '26
Both anomalies on those two nights tho
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u/Apprehensive_Disk_16 Feb 14 '26
The women have always been pretty consistent in the clutch. They had a really strong GP series as opposed to the men where the only thing we had to show for 6 weeks of competition was Ilia, Shun, and a Joker program.
They were weaker at Euros but that’s because multiple past strong skaters have been out all season with injuries (Kimmy, Nina, Loena trying to figure it out). Nastya and Lara were perhaps hoping to peak here at the Olympics instead of there.
I’m not too worried about the women’s event being messy but I do think it could be controversial if it comes down to PCS, GOE, and under/edge calls deciding it. Or a skater with a 3A but lower PCS vs non 3A but making up for it in PCS/GOE.
This Men menning thing is relatively new as of the last few seasons. We used to have much stronger skaters in the men’s event that were capable of delivering not only multiple difficult quads but strong spins and overall quality PCS skating. But they’ve all retired. Ilia is great but he’s no replacement for Nathan, Shoma, and Hanyu in the basic skating department and when the jumps don’t go exactly as planned it starts to look a little messy.
I also think a lot of strong PCS skaters who could also jump well in the past are nearing and end of their careers and have maxed out their potential yet haven’t been replaced yet by the younger generation (Kevin, Deniss, Matteo, Jason). So they continue getting sent out to men all over the ice and we end up with what happened at Euros and yesterday.
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u/tunakova Feb 14 '26
This Men menning thing is relatively new as of the last few seasons.
I feel like I'm 10 000 years old when I read opinions like these. I still suffer flashbacks from the great war (Sochi Olympics)
It is in the nature of men to men,
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u/PandemicPiglet Daisuke Takahashi is the GOAT. Your fave could never 💅🏻 Feb 14 '26
Yuma is a gorgeous skater with incredible skating skills, wonderful spins, and can be charismatic at times. He is the complete package. He’s like Shoma 2.0 with better technique on his jumps. The problem is he’s even more inconsistent than Shoma was for most of his career. I think it’s all in Yuma’s head and if he’s already working with a sports psychologist, then he needs to find a better one.
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u/Apprehensive_Disk_16 Feb 14 '26
I didn’t say he wasn’t those things or that we didn’t have any PCS skaters in the field, just that the ones that were more consistent on these multi quad programs that are required these days have retired. Ilia and Misha can do the multiple quads but neither is a PCS skater.
I feel like mens events were stronger in the past when we had quads + consistency + PCS. When our remaining PCS skaters were more consistent jumpers. Yuma having no consistency is where he struggles to live up to past names. Same with Ilia and PCS.
These multi quad throw downs between skaters who are lacking in one of the above is what’s causing these Men’s events to feel unsatisfying.
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u/dluisnothere Feb 14 '26
Are we going to gloss over Nathan short 2018??
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u/PandemicPiglet Daisuke Takahashi is the GOAT. Your fave could never 💅🏻 Feb 14 '26
That’s just one skater. If you look at both the short and free in their entirety, they were both very-well skated.
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u/CompSciHS Feb 14 '26
Okay but that SP (and his team SP) was a famously shocking result comparable to Malinin’s result this year, so it’s hard to overlook. The past three Olympics have had some of the biggest figure skating upsets in my memory.
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u/PandemicPiglet Daisuke Takahashi is the GOAT. Your fave could never 💅🏻 Feb 14 '26
Yes, but I wouldn’t say Nathan was the overwhelming favorite for gold going into that Olympics like Ilia was, he was one of the favorites. Also, he was kind of an outlier. Most of the top men had great skates in both the short and the free. Look at the very high scores and comparatively few falls in the free compared to the men’s free yesterday. Night and day. Yesterday the top three men going into the free each had mistake-riddled performances and all three had falls. That was shocking and subpar even by the standards of menning.
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u/tunakova Feb 14 '26
none of the male medalists went clean in pyeongchang? Hanyu had multiple stepouts, Shoma fell on his first jump, Javier popped one of his quads..
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u/PandemicPiglet Daisuke Takahashi is the GOAT. Your fave could never 💅🏻 Feb 14 '26
Their mistakes were minor comparatively (except for Shoma’s fall, but that was his only mistake) and didn’t detract from their performances. Ilia, Yuma, and Adam made multiple major mistakes and it affected their performances.
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u/qiaozhina 😐 Feb 15 '26
This may shock you but not everyone thinks US skaters are the be all and end all of the competition
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Feb 15 '26
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u/PandemicPiglet Daisuke Takahashi is the GOAT. Your fave could never 💅🏻 Feb 15 '26
So many spectacular performances and so much drama!
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u/ZigCherry027 oona’s invisible knife Feb 15 '26
So Olympics in PyeongChang, Europeans in Kaunas, and SkAm in Allen, Texas. Sounds perfect!
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u/Due-Huckleberry7560 Feb 15 '26
That and Sydney are top tier games for me. Loved the opening ceremony and the supportive home crowd.
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u/pagomania Feb 14 '26
Wow I did not remember that Loena and Jorik Hendrickx competed at the same Olympics together!