Men’s singles skating is known for being the most unpredictable of the four figure skating disciplines due to an ever-increasing number of quad attempts (a quad is a jump in which a skater completes around 4 rotations in the air before landing with one foot on the ice). But this is exactly what makes men’s such an interesting discipline to watch; clean skates at this high level can be rare when skaters choose to take risks with more difficult yet high-scoring elements, and surprise podium finishes by lesser known athletes are quite common. On a huge international stage like the Olympics, the pressure on these skaters is extremely high, and many coped well, breaking world records and personal bests. Today, let’s celebrate the achievements of some of the top figure skaters in the world.
- Nathan Chen (USA)
After heartbreak at Pyeongchang 2018 with 17th place in the short program and a 5th place finish overall, Nathan Chen came to Beijing with the intention of overcoming the mental block that stopped him at the last Games and to finally live out his Olympic dream. With unmatched technical ability and an arsenal of quads, he obtained a score of 113.97 in his short program to ‘La Boheme’, breaking Yuzuru Hanyu’s previous world record of 111.82 from the 2020 Four Continents Championships. Even though his PCS (performance component score) of 47.21 was subject to intense scrutiny by the figure skating community, Chen led the competition after the short program. He then performed his free program to ‘Rocketman’ by Elton John, landing a historic 5 clean quadruple jumps to claim Olympic gold. Once again, there was controversy over his PCS score.However, this time around, Chen’s artistry and musical interpretation were not the only things that attracted criticism; Twitter users also likened his costume to a “2014 Jansport galaxy bag”. Regardless, Chen achieved his goal of winning the Olympic title, and it is believed that the Yale student will soon retire to focus on his studies.
- Yuma Kagiyama (JPN)
Reigning Youth Olympic champion Yuma Kagiyama obtained a new personal best score of 108.12 for second place in the short program. At 18, Kagiyama is already regarded as the future of Japanese men’s figure skating, but he doesn’t let any of the praise get to his head.Kagiyama also had an almost perfect free skate with just a step out on his quadruple loop jump. With jumps that seemed to float across the air and ridiculously deep edges, Kagiyama held on to second place with a total competition score of 310.05, a new personal best. He received a silver Olympic medal, a wonderful addition to his collection in his senior debut. He will surely be one to watch in the coming seasons as he continues to grow.
- Shoma Uno (JPN)
Shoma Uno is the silver medallist from the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, and was also the first skater to successfully land a quadruple flip in an international competition. Though his performances have been inconsistent in recent years, Uno managed to string together a clean short program, scoring 105.90 for third place. He then followed this up with a free skate to ‘Bolero’ (including the team event, this was the fourth Bolero program at this Olympic Games alone). Even with one fall and a hand on the ice on two jump elements, Uno held on to third place, receiving his second bronze medal in Beijing 2022 to add onto his medal from Japan’s third place finish at the team event.
- Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN)
Hanyu arrived in Beijing as the two-time reigning Olympic champion, and the pressure was on for him to deliver once more on the biggest stage. However, in the short program, his blade got stuck in a hole on the ice as he took off for his opening jump, the quadruple salchow, causing him to miss the element and thus invalidating the jump. Sitting in 8th place after the short program, commentators predicted that he would end up on the podium if he played it safe in the free by performing the easier quadruple jumps that he has come to execute flawlessly.
However, Hanyu proved once again that he is deserving of his unofficial title of the greatest figure skater of all time by attempting the quadruple axel in his free skate. This jump is extremely difficult because of the precision required to gain both the height and the stability needed to rotate 4.5 times in the air. Additionally, landing this jump on one foot is extremely taxing on the body; the Washington Post estimates the force of the landing to be up to 10 times Hanyu’s body weight. While the jump was underrotated and caused him to fall, he made history, not for the first time in his career, as the first person to ever attempt this jump at an international competition. Hanyu has stated that this has been a lifelong goal of his, saying “I’ve been kind of wanting to do (the quad Axel) since I was a kid. My mentor and coach back then kept telling me I’d do it one day and I’ve been working on it ever since.’’ Chasing after a childhood dream instead of securing an Olympic medal is no easy decision to make, and Hanyu shows once more that he is still pushing the boundaries of the sport. His performance at this year’s Olympics is perhaps the greatest testament to his character and who he is as an athlete; to him, striving for his own dreams is more important than any medal.
- Cha Jun-hwan (KOR)
At the age of 20, Cha is already at his second Olympic games: he was 15th at Pyeongchang 2018 as the youngest competitor there. Winning the ISU Four Continents Championships just over 2 weeks before the Beijing Olympics, he is the most successful men’s figure skater from South Korea, and competes with an extremely rare jump combination in his programs: the triple lutz-triple loop combo. Cha also has incredible artistry for his young age, with many praising his transitions and music interpretation in his ‘Fate of the Clockmaker/Cloak and Dagger’ short program. These past 2 years have been difficult for him as he has had to train back home in Korea due to the Covid-19 pandemic while his coach, Brian Orser, stayed in Toronto. However, Cha rose to the occasion, skating almost flawlessly at the Olympics with just one fall in his opening quad toe in his free program. He ended up 5th after the free skate, with a new season’s best in the short, the free, as well as in the combined total.
- Jason Brown (USA)
Brown is known as an artist on the ice, with deep edges and incredible skating skills. His Olympic programs set to ‘Sinnerman’ and ‘Schindler’s List’ are both crowd favourites, and have been reused from previous seasons. Brown did not attempt any quadruple jumps at the Beijing Olympic games, and showed the audience that jumps and technical ability are not the most important thing in figure skating. Though there was controversy about his selection on the Olympic team over 17 year old US National silver medallist Ilia Malinin, Brown skated cleanly for a total competition score of 281.24 and a sixth-place finish, quelling any doubts about his suitability for the team.
- Daniel Grassl (ITA)
As the world number one prior to the Olympics, the 19 year old Italian skater is one of only three men’s skaters who took the risk to jump the incredibly difficult and high-scoring quadruple lutz at the Games. However, he had to climb his way back up the Olympic standings from 12th place after the short program because despite skating cleanly, judges gave him an edge call on his lutzes (the lutz is jumped from an outside edge but Grassl’s blade often dips to the inside on takeoff) and he also received low PCS. His low scores in the short program didn’t affect him, however, because he skated a new season’s best score of 187.43 in the free program to bring his standing up to 7th place overall.
- Evgeni Semenenko (ROC)
Evgeni Semenenko was not meant to be on the ROC team; he was only told he was going to the Olympics after Mikhail Kolyada tested positive for COVID-19 on the 25th of January. The 18 year old medical student made sure to not waste this opportunity and received two new season’s best scores when it mattered the most, ending up as the top ranked ROC man. Semenenko is somewhat of a newcomer to the international scene; he did not compete much until last year due to many injuries as a junior. He also currently has a back injury, skating his free program at the Olympics while on painkillers. Semenenko is known for his very powerful music choices, with ‘What Is It About Her?’ by Nadim Naaman as the music for his short program and the soundtrack from ‘The Master and Margarita’ for his free program. This is in stark contrast to the exhibition program he went viral last year for, in which he skated to music from K-pop band TXT.
Honourable Mentions:
Jin Boyang (CHN) – 9th
- He was the first man to land the quad lutz-triple toe loop combination
- 4th at 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics
- He has performed inconsistently since the 2018 Pyeongchang Games but he achieved two of his seasonal bests at Beijing – being able to show the world one his best performances at his home Olympics was very important to him.
Mark Kondratiuk (ROC) – 12th
- He had to compete 4 times in 6 days, and was exhausted by the time he had to compete in the individual event.
- Kondratiuk was praised by many for staying dedicated to the performance until the end (despite his aforementioned exhaustion) and putting everything he had into it, even when he was tired and knew he wouldn’t place well.
- His free program to music from ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ went viral on Twitter and TikTok, where he was nicknamed the ‘Russian theatre kid’.
Donovan Carrillo (MEX) – 22nd
Embed from Getty Images- He made history by becoming the first Mexican skater to qualify for the free skate segment at the Olympic Games
- He trains in shopping mall ice rinks due to the lack of adequate facilities in Mexico – figure skating is not a big sport there
- Despite his relatively low placing due to inconsistent jumps, his performance was still enjoyable – it was loved by the audience and he is a fan favourite
Written by Chelsea Tse
