[figure skating]: thank god that's over

[catsbythegreat]

 Nathan Chen is National Champion, Jason Brown is bronze, we won't talk about the other one! It was really fun to watch but I'm glad all those competitions are done and there's a week's break between these and the next ones because that was...a lot of skating. A LOT. It's still technically not done, there's a gala skate for Nationals in half an hour but I don't think there's a way to see it because the US is shit so...it's effectively over. 

In two weeks is Four Continents which will be 300% more stress because Shoma Uno is gonna be there. He's my favorite, but he's also coming off an injury that is apparently worse than he thought. AND he wants to be better this season, which means that his confidence was a lot lower up until JP Nationals (when he was injured, but ironically he did better and he said it made his confidence come back.) Shoma is frustrated with always getting silver and I would LOVE to see him get gold at either Four Continents or Worlds (or both!) but the injury is going to be a challenge if it isn't better. Then there's the fact that Nathan Chen, who did the free skate to end all free skates at Nationals, is going to be at 4CCs and has beaten Shoma multiple times. And then he and Yuzuru will be at Worlds, and Shoma has never beaten Yuzuru either. I also like Nathan and Yuzuru, I just want Shoma to be able to reach his goals because yeah, coming in second all the time is frustrating. 

Nathan has a lot of different quads that he can land cleanly, though, and Shoma and Yuzuru both don't have as much I don't think. Nathan has the quad lutz which is lit, and Shoma and Yuzuru don't as far as I know. I think there was more variety last year and the year before, but this year things have been toned down (for everyone, but for Nathan 'toned down' means like...only four quads and not five.) All of this is not even factoring the other men's skaters I enjoy, including Boyang Jin who could definitely also make things difficult (he beat Shoma last year at 4CCs RIP) if he manages to get his confidence back, since it was not in a good place earlier this season, but he did amazingly at Chinese Nationals. 

I want many things for many people. THIS DOESN'T EVEN COUNT THE LADIES! TBH I don't really know what I want from them either because I want many of them to do well but it's hard to tell on any given day who's gonna come out on top. Like Rika Kihira and Satoko Miyahara did really well this season, but Kaori did better than Satoko in the Grand Prix Final and won Nationals. Similarly, Alina was expected to do well, but Elizaveta and Sofia both have also done well, and Sofia became European Champion over Alina. And US ladies KJFLKADSJFKLSDJFADSDSA idk about all that. Not that the European ladies matter for Four Continents, because they're not going to be there. 

This is a lot of rambling to say I'm not ready for Four Continents. 

Comments

[catsbythegreat]

FDASKLASDJ NATHAN ISN'T GOING TO FOUR CONTINENTS BUT THIS OPENS UP A NEW SET OF ISSUES FOR SHOMA because of how he feels about winning things when his biggest challengers aren't there but also what would happen if he lost (a few other big challengers will also be there but Nathan and Yuzuru are the ones who have beat him before so I think he feels the need to beat *them* in order to prove himself to himself and neither of them will be there now.) (He also competes better when those two are around especially Yuzuru but this season he's been trying to change that) (RIP)