"Trouble in paradise" between Yuzuru Hanyu and Brian Orser? Coach says no

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"Trouble in paradise" between Yuzuru Hanyu and Brian Orser? Coach says no

It looked strange, to say the least.

There was Yuzuru Hanyu, the world’s most acclaimed active figure skater, waiting by himself in the Kiss and Cry to get his scores after a disappointing short program performance at last week’s Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy. At that moment in a competition, a coach is almost always at the skater’s side.

Once one of Hanyu’s coaches at his Toronto Cricket Club training base, Ghislain Briand, eventually showed up two days late, there would be a simple explanation for why Hanyu had been alone.

And yet even that would not explain why Hanyu’s primary coach, Brian Orser, had not gone to Italy for the second most important competition of the Japanese superstar’s season.

Was there a rift between the skater and the man who had coached him to two Olympic gold medals, two world titles and four Grand Prix Final titles in the seven seasons since Hanyu came to train under Orser?

“I know it looks like there is trouble in paradise, but there isn’t,” Orser said Tuesday via telephone.

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At Grand Prix Final, Nathan Chen's brilliance nearly defied description - again

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At Grand Prix Final, Nathan Chen's brilliance nearly defied description - again

What Nathan Chen did in winning the 2019 World Figure Skating Championships was something I never had seen before and wasn’t sure if I would ever see again.

That explains the headline on my nbcsports.com story about Chen’s victory: “By any measure, Nathan Chen’s performance at Worlds matches standard for transcendent greatness”

So it’s no wonder I was left goggle-eyed at what the 20-year-old Chen did in Saturday’s free skate at the Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy.

It was even better than what Chen had done some six months ago at the worlds in Japan.

Not only did Chen decisively beat his rival, two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, for a second straight time in a major event, Chen did it on a day when the competitiveness of both figure skaters also was transcendent.

That led me to embark breathlessly on a tweet storm that is the best way to describe all of the brilliance Chen displayed to win a third straight Grand Prix Final title - and the first victory in when he had competed in the event against Hanyu, who missed the last two with injuries.

The tweets cover it all. Here they are:

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Russian Quad Squad, Chen-Hanyu rivalry: Grand Prix season so far

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Russian Quad Squad, Chen-Hanyu rivalry: Grand Prix season so far

A little slow getting this onto Globetrotting, so here are a few updates:

*Anna Shcherbakova won Cup of China by nearly 15 points, making the Russian women 4-for-4 heading into the penultimate Grand Prix series event, Rostelecom Cup this weekend in Moscow (see item 1.)

*Shcherbakova got full credit on one of her two quad Lutz attempts in China (the other was judged under-rotated.) So 17 of the 21 women’s jumps credited as quads this season have received positive GOE (see item 2.)

*A second-place finish at Cup of China was the 12th straight Grand Prix medal for U.S. ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates and made them likely qualifiers for the Grand Prix Final (see item 10.)

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With the senior Grand Prix series at its halfway point and skaters heading for Chongqing, China for the fourth of six “regular season” events, here are 10 things we’ve learned from the series so far:

WOMEN

1. The kiddie corps of Russian women has been even better than expected – and expectations were very high.

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In 4/4 time, Trusova accelerates future shock in figure skating

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In 4/4 time, Trusova accelerates future shock in figure skating


 In interviews for my recent story on the potential impact of the quad revolution on women’s skating, international judge Samuel Auxier told me he saw the possibility of a sport in which female skaters without a quad or triple Axel will not be able to rely on component scores and other triples to overcome the big jumpers’ big tech scores.

And Russian quad phenom Alexandra Trusova provided a stunningly clear example of that possibility becoming reality in outscoring compatriot Alina Zagitova at Saturday’s Japan Open in Saitama.

Zagitova, the reigning Olympic and world champion, skated at a level not far from absolute perfection and simply was no match for Trusova’s flawed, landmark four-quad performance in the free-skate-only team event.

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International figure skating officials finally get the message and act on conflicts of interest

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International figure skating officials finally get the message and act on conflicts of interest

 For nearly two years, I have loudly and pointedly decried the conflict of interest inherent in allowing presidents of national figure skating federations to judge significant events in the sport.

For most of that time, the cries fell on deaf ears.

Here is my story raising the issue in November 2017.  And here was another when feckless International Skating Union members – led by Skate Canada – voted against evening putting the issue to a vote at its 2018 Congress.

The cases I brought up involved Skate Canada president Leanna Caron, who has shamelessly continued her activities as a judge, and former U.S. Figure Skating president Sam Auxier, who recused himself from judging major events during his presidency but still judged others “with the ISU’s permission.”

But lo and behold, the ISU appears finally to have gotten the message.

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