Figure Skating | 2019 World Team Trophy Men's Short Program Recap

Welcome back to coverage of the 2019 World Team Trophy Men’s Short Program. Before we begin, here are the standings after the Ladies' Short Program.

1. Russia
2. Japan
3. USA
4. France
5. Canada
6. Italy

I am going to use this moment to impress you with my omniscience and let you know these standings will be different when we end this event. I know, SHOCKING. What kind of sorcery is this?

Oh and as I cautioned in the Ladies' event, I call the elements with my eyesight in real time. I am not qualified to be on a tech panel, I am not interested in going over protocols, I am here to be the Johnny Weir’s feather boa of this commentary. This is fluff, baby.

Let’s light this candle…

Adam Siao Him Fa — France

This wasn’t bad. I was impressed he did a quad lutz from a virtual standstill. Under on the triple axel and a popped combo. Has all of the newbie look about him, but there is something very appealing about his skating and there’s a lot of things on the positive side to grow with.

Score: 72.56 — Fair.

Anybody else thinks Team France looks like a Mardi Gras float on Wednesday morning in the kiss and cry? It’s… a look.

Andrei Lazukin — Russia

Andrei stepped onto the ice and was like, Kolyada who? THROWING DOWN with a ginormous and beautiful quad toe, nice 3F/3T combo and a decent triple axel. He’s very balletic, so I felt this edgy program was all wrong, and of course, it’s Mishin choreography, which means there isn’t any. Great performance overall.

Score: 88.96 — Fair.

Kevin Amoz — France

Kevin Amoz fans, you’re gonna kill me. Look, we all have our favorites, and some of us have eyes. Kevin opens with an aiiiiiggghhhht quad toe. The 3L/2T combo was terrifying, mostly because I had no idea what jump he was even doing because he jumps off two feet. Flip? Lutz? Boeckel? WHAT AM I LOOKING AT. Nice triple axel, though. I’m not a total monster. I find this program sloppy and very Philippe Candeloro derivative. We’re getting speed and drama, but there’s an actual dumpster fire happening below the knees.

Score: 85.22 — **throws laptop** NO.

Daniel Grassl — Italy

Oh, Daniel. Our little baby giraffe. He held his own out there, and looked good. Beautiful quad loop, passable 3L/3T, and a fine triple axel. The program itself was fine, too. He is going to get underscored until he stops looking eight years old out there. It’s unfair, but here we are. If all goes well, he’s going to be a huge contender by 2022.

Score: 79.68 — Should’ve been a bit higher.

Hey! Team Italy brought pizza! Who woulda thunk?

Nam Nguyen — Canada

Welp, here come the Business Casual Canadians. First up, fresh off a marketing meeting where Susan would NOT SHUT UP, we have Nam. His jumps were on today giving us a sweet quad salchow/triple toe and his 3A and 3F made the trip to Japan as well. Skating to ‘That’s Life,’ where this program leaves SO MANY points on the table is in the choreography. This is a song that has so much potential (and now I want Jason Brown to do it) for it to fall as flat as it did should be criminal.

Score: 87.57(sb) — Better PCS and this score goes up.

Keiji Tanaka — Japan

Tanaka gave us a perfectly boring short program in this event, and that’s really all there is to say about it. Nice 4S, an adequate 3L-3T, and then he went and put his hand down on the triple axel. I will give props for that stunning step sequence, though.

Score: 89.05(sb) — Fair.

Matteo Rizzo — Italy

Our champion of the middle, Matteo, gave a good effort, but there was a tiredness to this program that was glaringly obvious. I called his quad toe under, and what I say goes here in this dojo. The axel and combo were a pile of okayness. He’s delightful, so he gets the bumps where he needs them.

Score: 87.64 — Blessings.

Alexander Samarin — Russia

Welp, someone had to splat today. It’s the men’s event. If everyone skated clean, the earth would open up and swallow us whole. Samarin only completed a triple axel. It was a bad day. We’re just going to leave it there.

Score: 71.84 — Yep.

Keegan Messing — Canada

Oh Keegan’s here before he has to get back to Accounting. Great. By the way, I hereby ban all sweater vests in Canada forever. I know it's cold, but they need to find other options. So… Keegan do what he been doing all this season, and that’s give us 2:50 of terror via landings. SCA-UH-REEEEE. Step out on the quad toe, and yet again, spins and PCS save him, but it’s starting to fade a bit.

Score: 79.75 — Fair.

Vincent Zhou — USA

Just when you thought his bronze at worlds was a fluke? VINNIE Z CAME TO PLAY, SUCKAS! This brings me joy, because he gets unnecessarily flogged by the fandom for having growing pains as he matures as a skater. I stan Vinnie D. Not sorry. Anyway, he came, saw, and conquered with a 4F/3T, 4S, and an okaaaaaay triple axel. It’s all very much improved, and yes, I still check my email during his step sequence, but he did his job.

Score: 100.51 (sb) — “YEAH BOYEEEE!”—Zach Donohue

Shoma Uno — Japan

Shoma, Shoma, Shoma. What’s wrong, boo? Something isn’t working. We need to fix this, because you’re breaking our hearts here. Today we got an utterly mystifying landing in the quad flip, a big NOPE on the 4T combo, and a nice triple axel. He should have been nailed on the combo, but he wasn’t.

Score: 92.78 — Merry Christmas.

Nathan Chen — USA

I was a little worried when I saw how relaxed Nathan was before he skated. I mean, this is a bit of a throwaway event, and you’re the World Champion. Yuzu’s ankles are in a million pieces, so he’s not going to be here, but let’s have a little game face? Turns out I worried for nothing, because Nathan did a Nathan and won all of the points. 3A-4T-4L/3T and the crowd loved them some Caravan.

Score: 101.95 — Nathan Chen.

Standings After Men’s Short Program

1. Nathan Chen
2. Vincent Zhou
3. Shoma Uno
4. Keiji Tanaka
5. Andrei Lazukin
6. Matteo Rizzo
7. Nam Nguyen
8. Kevin Amoz
9. Keegan Messing
10. Daniel Grassl
11. Adam Siao Him Fa
12. Alexander Samarin

Team Standings After Men's Short Program

1. USA
2. Japan
3. Russia
4. France
5. Canada
6. Italy

And that concludes today’s events! See you all for the Pairs' Short!