In the world of men’s figure skating, the certainty is always that nothing is certain. And so at the Four Continents Championships this week, you should come for the skating and brace for the potential chaos. If the European Championships last week were any indication, it really could be a wild ride, with four skaters—on paper—who are favored for the podium and a number of others who could very well make it there if they can skate to their potential and mistakes creep in from the top competitors.
Four Continents predictions
Official hashtag: #4ContsFigure
GOLD Kao Miura JPN - Had you told me four months that I would be bullish enough on Kao Miura to predict him as a gold medal favorite at Four Continents, I would have laughed—heartily. Miura’s trajectory this season went from complete disrepair to sheer determination. He’s changed programs multiple times (for various reasons), dealt with some of the worst performances of his career, worked with a sports psychologist, and made a comeback for the ages to get himself an Olympic berth. If that trajectory continues, a win here is very much within reach.
SILVER Junhwan Cha KOR - Speaking of comebacks for the ages, while Cha wasn’t quite on the outs like Miura was, he battled his own set of obstacles this season—mostly on his feet in the form of boots that just never worked out. 5,000 pairs of boots and some revamped technical content later, he skated two clean programs to win his 10th consecutive Korean title a few weeks ago and make his third Olympic team. He doesn’t have the planned content to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Miura, Tomono, and Shaidorov, but clean programs will go a long way here.
BRONZE Kazuki Tomono JPN - Sixth at Japan Nationals, Tomono just couldn’t figure out how to deliver the performances he wanted to make the Olympic team there. He finds himself back at Four Continents in an Olympic year, and he was the silver medalist four years ago at this event. When he’s on, he delivers magic for the audience.
4. Mikhail Shaidorov KAZ - After winning silver at Worlds last year, Shaidorov has had a rocky season. His jumps haven’t been firing as well as they were last year, his programs haven’t gelled the way he would’ve liked. Yet he still made it to the Grand Prix Final and put down a score earlier in the season that is still one of the highest season best totals. He is the defending champion here and you wonder if he’s been able to rediscover some of that magic from last year.
5. Tomoki Hiwatashi USA - After being one of the (somewhat) surprise contenders for the US Olympic spots this season, Hiwatashi had a tight and disappointing free skate there that took him out of the running for the Olympic team. He’s had a couple weeks to try to recover from that and returns to Four Continents hoping to find a bit of redemption.
6. Roman Sadovsky CAN - The two-time Canadian champion just missed out on his second Olympic team after finishing second to Stephen Gogolev at Canadian Nationals earlier this month. But he has been putting down stronger and more consistent programs in competition this season than he has in years, and that should be a good sign for him in this unpredictable field. He’s never been higher than tenth at any of his Four Continents appearances, and his should change that this week.
7. Boyang Jin CHN - The home crowd favorite has put down some consistent skating this season, perhaps at the expense of some of the artistic growth that he’s gotten over the past few years. At 28, he enters his eighth Four Continents on his way to his third consecutive Olympics looking to put down some clean skates.
8. Jacob Sanchez USA - His free skate at Nationals was one of the highlights of an otherwise topsy-turvy men’s event, and that program showed just how much potential Sanchez has. Four Continents will be his biggest ever senior competition, and he will be using this as a springboard to his third appearance at Junior Worlds in March. If he puts down two clean programs here, he could find himself in the top six.
9. Sota Yamamoto JPN - Fifth at Japan Nationals, Yamamoto has had a tough time really putting down the kind of skating that he shows in practice. This has been an inconsistent season for him, first hindered by injury and then trying to make up for lost training time.
10. Wesley Chiu CAN - After surgery over the summer and missing half of last season and and half of this season, Chiu made a strong comeback at Canadian Nationals, where he skated a clean short and ended up fourth there. He returns to Four Continents after placing seventh two years ago.