Crystal Skate

Italy's Matteo Rizzo was the underdog of the night The men's final might not have been the main event of the competition in Hiroshima (see the ladies' for that), but there were still some amazing skaters - rising stars, solid veterans or established prodigies - to look forward to. June Hyoung Lee  started the event with a couple of big mistakes - a fall on the 3Axel, another on the 2Loop and a hand down on the 3Salchow. The music was Piano Concerto Number 2  by Rachmaninoff. Score: 122.10  -> 188.26 . Kevin Reynolds  has a lot of fans in Japan, and they cheered him on, despite his doubling out of the 3Axel and 4Toeloop, as well as stepping out of the 3Lutz. Kevin has had a bad Grand Prix experience all season long, and the performance in Hiroshima was unfortunately not an exception. Score: 121.53  -> 182.67 . Hiroaki Sato  received loads of support as well, but he would have also probably liked to do much better. He doubled out of a 3Toeloo...

The men's short programme ended after a few pleasant surprises and, at least for me, interesting scores. The final seemed to have brought some order back into the universe by re-establishing the value of some skaters who have been around for quite some time. These were the top five men of Skate America 2018: I don't think there was ever any doubt in anyone's mind that Nathan Chen  was going to keep the gold in the US. He skated to Land of All , which is apparently a song that always asks for grey costumes. 😊 With three quads, two of which were in combination, he didn't have any difficulties in becoming the new Skate America champion. Score: 189.89 . Overall: 280.57 . The crowd loved Michal Brezina  and for good reason. You could feel his rock routine suited him like a glove. I always say it's obvious when the skaters enjoy their music, and it definitely was here. He's known to have some of the best step sequences out there and he didn't disappoint in Ev...