Singles competitions turns out two surprise winners; Sui & Han dominate their return event; Virtue & Moir win an ice dance competition slightly less smooth than usual.
The importance of the Four Continents Championships has varied greatly over the years. It’s a parallel competition to the European Championship. All non-European countries can send three entries in each discipline regardless of the previous year’s results. But since South America and Africa don’t have very many skaters, and the antipodes don’t usually have the best ones, it’s really a matter of North America versus Asia. Some years, the top skaters all skip it, making for a less than impressive competition. Generally, however, it’s been stronger in recent years than it used to be.
This year it was the test event for the Gangneung Ice Arena, where the Olympics will be held next year. There’s always one in Olympic venues to be, so those running it get a chance to work out kinks. Skaters showed up excited to get a chance to compete in the very arena they’ll be trying to make it back to next year. This made for deep fields, especially in the singles. One of the ice dance teams, Maia & Alex Shibutani, pulled double duty this week, also visiting young Koreans as Sports Envoys for the U.S. Department of State in anticipation of the upcoming Games. We even got La La Land, which we should hear a lot of next year, on the ice for the first time, thanks to home skater Dabin Choi getting a new short program mid-season.
Unfortunately, it seems the ice master did not get things right this first time around. The ice was visibly wet at times. That resulted in a messy competition, where many skaters struggled with error-ridden programs. This helped contribute to a pair of stunners in the singles, where one man who was not heavy favorite Yuzuru Hanyu and one lady nobody expected to top the podium claimed their first ever titles. The pairs and even the ice dance showed some of the effects too.
Men
This men’s event was highly anticipated, as it was a field of men where many were trying multiple and harder quadruple jumps. Between that, the ice, and how the other events went, we were perhaps lucky to get three medalists who skated pretty well, all things considered. They even had two skaters who broke 200 in their long program scores and 300 overall!
The field separated itself out in the short program, when two of the top men skated clean: Nathan Chen and Shoma Uno. Both held onto the quad flip, though Uno’s wasn’t pretty at all. Both landed a quad-triple jump combination, though Chen’s involved a lutz, while Uno’s had merely a toe loop. Uno having better presentation helped keep it within three points as both men broke 100 for the first time internationally. Behind them, Yuzuru Hanyu was actually going for his first ever Four Continents title; this is the biggest title he hasn’t won. But he doubled the quad salchow of his quad-triple. A quad loop and his usual brilliant quality helped him come in three points behind Uno.
They delivered the most in the free skate as well. Though Uno only did so in the first half of his program, which included his harder loop and flip quads. In the second half, he fell on both his triple axels. He landed the quad toe both solo and in combination, but he had to fight for the former. This ultimately left him with bronze. Hanyu, meanwhile, skated his long the best he’s done it this season. For all but one jumping pass, his free was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, that pass was a quad salchow combination which turned into a double-single. But after that, he adjusted his content, trying to make up for it. That included a quad loop and salchow, and a quad toe solo and in combination. In many a competition, the lost jumping pass then wouldn’t have mattered for him.
But it turned out to matter in this one. Skating right after him, Chen embraced the challenge. He managed his quad lutz combination and flip again, as well as a solo quad salchow. He did have a little trouble with his quad toes, turning out of the solo one and not managing his planned quad-double-double. Always ambitious, he tacked two double toes onto his triple axel instead. Unfortunately the second one, an illegal third double toe, was invalidated, and not quite clean. He had a little trouble with the solo axel too. This all allowed Hanyu to win the free. But when Chen made no major mistakes, his sheer amount of content, worth over a dozen points more than Hanyu’s, left him only two points behind. His lead held for gold, while Hanyu took silver at Four Continents for the third time in as many tries.
Everyone else had a lot more trouble. Patrick Chan ended up fifth after the short, going down on an underrotated quad toe and stumbling on his combination. He landed it with a triple toe to open his long, only to go down on his other two quad attempts, underrotating the salchow, and those weren’t his only problems. Boyang Jin initially got ahead of him by landing his quad toe, if stumbling badly on his quad lutz-triple toe. Ironically that was his best quad element in the free, where he forced out a quad toe combination too, but fell on two solo quads, underrotating the loop, and stepped out of the quad salchow. He still got a way higher technical score than Chan, but Chan’s even more way higher presentation score squeaked him ahead for fourth.
It wasn’t a good week for Canada and China’s men in general. Underrotations on their quads and triple axels in Nam Nguyen’s short and both of Kevin Reynold’s programs took them out of it completely, and they finished eighth and twelfth respectively. Nguyen ended his season with a much better free skate with a quad salchow three-jump and solo quad toe, though even there he went down on an underrotated quad salchow. Han Yan, three time and reigning bronze medalist, actually landed his jumps in the short, including the quad toe. But even there he had a spin invalidated. In his free he landed the quad combination, but not the solo quad, and struggled with his axels. Lacking the qualities needed to make up for those mistakes, he finished tenth.
Jason Brown came to the competition looking more for mileage, though he spoke of trying the quad again. However, he didn’t. When a fall and an underrotation in the short left him behind fellow American Grant Hochstein, who managed a quad combination with a hand down, some even wondered if, had he come from a different country, his federation might have changed their mind about sending him to Worlds. He did his best to justify their decision in the free, where the first half of his program was flawless, and therefore breathtaking. Then he struggled on his final three jumping passes. It was still good enough to finish sixth, though. Less than good quad toes and even bigger problems with his triple axels in the long dropped Hochstein to ninth.
Ladies
With both the top American and the top Japanese ladies out, this field was a bit of a free for all. Unfortunately, the ice apparently got to most of them. The only lady to lay it down in both programs was surprise winner Mai Mihara. She completed her break out of the Japanese field with two clean and beautiful skates. She was even one of only three ladies to land a difficult triple-triple, the triple lutz-triple toe in her case, in both her programs. One of the others was also a bit surprising: Mirai Nagasu. Unfortunately, in the short program, she followed the triple flip-triple toe with a triple loop gone so wrong they fully downgraded it. But in the long, she followed it up with a clean and emotional performance that also included an impressive double axel-triple toe-double toe. Second in the segment, she ultimately won bronze.
Initially they were fourth and fifth, with a pair of Canadians claiming the lead. Gabrielle Daleman won the short with a clean and high-energy skate. She did her easier triple toe-triple toe, and barely held onto her solo lutz, but she beat Mihara on presentation scores. Kaetlyn Osmond combined a triple flip-triple toe with power skating to come in four hundredths behind her, despite going down on her double axel. Kazakhstan’s Elizabet Tursynbaeva squeaked ahead of Mihara for third. She delivered her best skate in a while, even if her triple lutz-triple toe was a little shaky. But of the three of them, only Daleman skated an even decent free. She was very strong in its first half, especially on her triple-triple. But then she popped a loop and stumbled on an axel. Third in the segment, she fell behind Mihara, but won silver by two points.
Osmond was the third lady to land her difficult triple-triple in both programs. But in her long, after two strong opening combinations, she went to pieces, falling three times and landing no further clean jumps. It said enough about how this competition went that she was still sixth in the segment holding on to fourth ahead of Dabin Choi. Choi did her new short very well. There she landed her opening triple lutz-triple toe. In the free she failed to even try the toe, and while she tried to later do a triple lutz-triple toe-double toe, she didn’t rotate the second jump. That wasn’t her only underrotation, though she did manage three combinations, and had a fourth-place skate. Poor Tursynbaeva had a disastrous eleventh-place free and dropped to eighth.
The other top North American and Japanese skaters all skated badly. Mariah Bell was lucky her error-riddled free skate landed her in sixth, especially ahead of China’s Zijun Li, who was much cleaner, even if she failed to rotate her triple flip-triple toe in either program. Wakaba Higuchi and Rika Hongo were not so lucky. Even when the former actually managed a difficult triple-triple in the free, their woes in both programs leaving them in ninth and tenth. A terrible short proved impossible for Alaine Chartrand to recover from, especially when her free contained a triple lutz-triple toe, but two underrotations, among other errors. She finished eleventh. Karen Chen, struggling with foot and boot issues, fared worst of all, with two bad programs leaving her in twelfth.
Pairs
Nearly eleven months after they last competed, and much less time since she had both her legs in casts, Wenjing Sui & Cong Han had a triumphant return in Korea. They first broke 80 with a perfect short. That didn’t have anything harder than a throw triple flip in it, but for the free they broke out the quadruple split twist. They also went for side by side triple salchows, but she underrotated and fell on those. But neither that nor even a late finish could mar a program made to reflect their struggle over the last year, which took them up a level in performance. Reigning champions, they brought the audience to their feet, and claimed their fourth Four Continents title with her in tears.
Unfortunately, the rest of the field faltered. Canadians Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford have had their issues both at Four Continents and this season. Here, that started with him falling on their side by side lutzes in the short, though they still landed the throw lutz. Going for them in combination in the free, she put her hand down and he singled the second jump. They landed solo salchows, and nearly managed the throw quadruple salchow, but she had to put her hands down, and the throw triple lutz was even more scrambly. But they still took silver, mostly because nobody else skated well enough to beat them.
Xiaoyu Yu & Hao Zhang were ahead of them after a clean short of easier technical content. But in the free, despite a quad twist, when she doubled their only planned side by side triple in the combination, the lack of hard jumps caught up with them. It didn’t help that while they mostly did everything, they didn’t do much of it very well. In the end it wasn’t even enough for a medal. Fifth in the segment, they barely held on to fourth ahead of their former partners, who had a third-place free. Cheng Peng & Yang Jin had landed their jumps in the short, only for her to fall on the side by side spins. But they had the best long program they’ve done yet. They too did easier jumps, but they pulled them all off, and made it all look good throughout.
Instead of two Chinese teams on the podium, there were two Canadian ones. Lubov Ilyushechkina & Dylan Moscovitch started with a short where they offset a stutter from her on side by side toes with a clean throw lutz. They went for salchows in the free, which she underrotated. They fell on a throw loop, but landed a throw lutz again. Drawing more from their other high-quality elements, they were fourth in both segments, but won the bronze by a couple of points. Unfortunately, the third Canadian team, Kirsten Moore-Towers & Michael Marinaro, did not do as well. They had a clean short, but only one clean jump element in the free, and had neither the technical difficulty nor the quality to make up for that. They finished seventh.
None of the three American teams skated their best either. Haven Denney & Brandon Frazier suffered disaster on all their side by sides and finished eighth. Ashley Cain & Timothy LeDuc landed their loops in the short, but struggled with most of the rest of their jumps and finished ninth. But Alexa Scimeca Knierim & Chris Knierim had a pretty good week, considering they too were competing after a months-long hiatus of much suffering and surgery for her. They debuted two sweet romantic programs where bobbles in the short and his blowing their side by sides in the long didn’t ruin the mood too much. She even did some impressive technical content, including salchows in the short. They don’t have their quad twist back yet, but they got maximum execution marks for their triple one in the free. They finished sixth with smiles on their faces.
Ice Dance
Even gold medalists Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir weren’t perfect, especially in the short dance. Not that the audience would’ve noticed, if Moir hadn’t spoken afterwards about a tiny error most people couldn’t spot. Presumably that was why they didn’t break 80 in the short, or their own world record overall. But they were still ridiculously good. They still maxed out the possible points for the closing lift in their short dance and the opening lift in their free dance. They still got their best score ever for the latter. And they still won their third Four Continents title.
Silver medalists Maia & Alex Shibutani, on the other hand, did manage some of their best skating of the season. They especially did so in the free dance, where it was hard to take one’s eyes off of them, but both programs with exquisite. They did have some tiny quibbles with element levels in the short dance, where both their fellow American teams beat them in the technical tariff. But even then they outskated the two Madisons and their partners for second. And in the free dance, they were the ones who tied Virtue & Moir for the highest tariff of the night. Madison Chock & Evan Bates didn’t have too bad a time of it either, though. They too put out what they saw as their best skates of the season so far to take bronze.
Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue weren’t so lucky. Their short dance went very well, and they went into the free within a point of Chock & Bates. But in their free dance, they struggled with their twizzles, first him a little in one of their step sequences, then her more in their sequence of them. In this field, that kind of trouble left them sixth in the segment, and they barely held on to fourth ahead of Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Pojé. They were lucky Pojé himself had struggled on the second set of twizzles in the short dance. Even in their generally high quality free dance the Canadians didn’t do their best twizzles. They also had the lowest tariff of the top six.
They were fourth in the free dance, outscoring rival countrymen Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier in the segment by exactly one hundredth of a point. Gilles & Poirier were the superior ones technically that night, even if they couldn’t match Weaver & Pojé’s presentation. But their short dance had already taken them out of it. There Gilles suffered a fall in their step sequence, exacerbating an already too low tariff. They actually had to move up to sixth from seventh. Even the top ice dancers couldn’t all stay up on this ice.
Next: Volosozhar & Trankov Welcome New Daughter
View full results here.
The Olympics are now a little less than a year away. Hopefully in the meantime, they’ll fix the ice.