American Nathan Chen is favoured, but talented competition could create wild finish in men's figure skating
Hanyu, Uno among competitors waiting to pounce on gold-medal opportunity
CBC Analyst and three-time Olympian Kurt Browning has the inside scoop on what to expect from the Beijing men's event, including some seasoned advice for this year's competitors. Faster Higher Stronger presented by Bell.
My life has been shaped by my competitive skating years. Those crucial moments, many spent fighting for gold, shaped who I have become.
Winning multiple world titles changed my life for the better — but so did losing multiple Olympic titles. To be honest, I cringe while writing that, but it is true. Being the world champion going into not one, but two different Olympic Games was a big weight on my shoulders.
But it was a wonderful weight because with that burden came such possibility. Once I had the taste of competing against the best, I didn't want anything else. Now when I watch the men's event at the Olympic Games, I feel close to the competition.
Those moments before the gate opens, as you jockey around to see who will step on the ice first. The warm-up when you are trying to concentrate but also watch your competition at the same time. Seeing what your competitors do, and then doing more (or trying anyway!)
WATCH | Chen wins men's program in team event:
The men competing in the Beijing team event put on a show that had no respect for gravity at all. They showed physical feats of jumping prowess over and over again, all while engaging with the music and moving across the ice with speed, dexterity and musicality.
Now that the team event is over and it is time for the men's event to take centre ice, I cannot wait to see a few skaters bang blades in what is sure to be an epic battle of Olympic proportions.
Men's skating preview
American Nathan Chen has won every major single men's skating competition except an Olympics after disaster struck at the Pyeongchang Olympics four years ago. How many times does he have to nail a program to erase the memory of two terrible short programs (one in the team event and one in the individual event) from those Games?
Well, in hindsight, it seems to have only taken one performance: his long program from those same Olympics. That skate set records and blew the roof off of the arena and he has never looked back. From what I saw in the team event at Beijing, he is ready to rumble again.
Then there is the elusive Yuzuru Hanyu. He won Olympic gold in 2014 and then defended his title in 2018. No figure skater in the men's event has won three individual Olympic gold medals since Gilles Grafstrom, who completed his trifecta in 1928.
WATCH | CBC analyst Kurt Browing explains excitement of modern figure skating:
This year, Hanyu is recovering from another season of injury and missed competitions. And yet he skated so well at his national championships that one cannot help but leave room for him on any step of the podium.
It could be said that this year's event is a two-man race, but it isn't. Both Vincent Zhou of the U.S. and Shoma Uno of Japan placed higher than Chen at a competition this season, proving he can be beaten.
While two-time Olympian Zhou has pulled out of the Games because of a positive COVID-19 test, Uno waits just outside the Chen/Hanyu spotlight waiting to pounce should either make a mistake.
Talented teens arrive on scene
The stage was set, then the unexpected happened — two kids, both 18, arrived on the scene late in the Olympic quadrennial and gave us even more to talk about. Russia's Mark Kondratiuk won the 2022 European Championships, with his wild eyes and wilder quad jumps, and became a part of the podium conversation.
Another 18-year-old, Yuma Kagiyama from Japan, rewrote the script in the team event in Beijing just days ago — scoring 208 in the long program — and wrote himself into the men's medal conversation as well.
WATCH | Russia wins team event:
Who will win and who will lose? With so much pressure, so much on the line, I wish I could let them all know that skating at that level is to be enjoyed and cherished.
Time is fleeting. Soak it all up and go for it. And if it all falls apart out there? Well, take it from me, fellas, you will be okay.
Failure can happen to anybody, but it does not define who you are. My Olympic disappointments do not define who I am any more than my successes do at four world championships.
We all train and prepare to do our best, we grow as individuals, and someday we share what we have learned. I think we all have something to learn from the Olympic Games, no matter what the outcome. I know I did.
