Kozuka has had a great season, winning gold at his two Grand Prix assignments and bronze at the Grand Prix Final. His programs are not necessarily memorable but he can execute them flawlessly and has put up some of the highest scores of the season. He has the 5th best short program, 2nd best free skate and 2nd best total score for the season. He also defeated a tough field to win his first national title. In the absence of Patrick Chan and Nobunari Oda, I think the gold is his to lose. I'd like to see him work on his performance skills and if he can bring these into his programs, his scores should continue to improve.
After winning an Olympic medal and a World Championship, Takahashi has seemed to struggle through the beginning of this season. He finished 4th at the Grand Prix Final and finished well behind Kozuka at Japanese nationals. His performance skills and ability to bring a crowd into a performance continue to be unmatched, but his jumping skills haven't been on. Falls and struggles on landings have hampered his ability to perform up to his skill level and his quad has not made an appearance this season. Most of his struggles appear to be in his free skate, so if he can get more consistent on landing all the jumps he could contend for gold here, but I think he'll settle for silver. He has the 3rd best short program, 3rd best free skate, and 4th best total score for the season.
Adam Rippon is the reigning Four Continents Champion. He has had some struggles this season, but when he can put two clean programs together, his scores are phenomenal. He especially grew during nationals when he made a mistake in the opening jump of his free skate after a disastrous short program. He was able to refocus after the mistake and go clean for the rest of his program and finish 3rd in the segment. He has the 7th best short program, 6th best free skate and 5th best total score for the season. All of these scores came from Skate Canada and he hasn't been able to match them since. He isn't going to Worlds, so this is his last competition of the season and he has no reason to hold anything back which could help propel him to the podium.
Jeremy Abbott has been skating clean shorts all season and his flamenco program seems to get better with each outing. His free skate is beautifully choreographed and is lovely to witness but he's struggled to stay on his feet. I'd love to see him hit both of his programs and if he does, he should have no problem landing on the podium. This is also his last competition of the season so he has nothing to lose here. He has the 6th best short program and 10th best total score of the season.
Kevin Reynolds has the ability to be a spoiler in a big way. He is the only man to land two quads in his short program and he also has two quads in his free skate. He's never been able to put all of these elements together into two solid programs. He did so poorly at Canadian nationals that he didn't qualify for the World Team, so this will be his final competition of the season. He has the 4th best short program and 9th best total score for the season.
Hanyu the reigning World Junior Champion and Mahbanoozadeh, the Skate America bronze medalist, look to cap their seasons with a strong finish here and have been fairly consistent across the season. If they continue to skate clean they could wind up on the podium if the top men make mistakes.
My podium predictions:
Gold: Kozuka
Silver: Takahashi
Bronze: Abbott
My USFSA Fantasy Team:
A) Kozuka
B) Hanyu
C) Ge
Brendan Kerry, AUS: He finished 14th and 20th at his two JGP assignments this season.
Mark Webster, AUS: He finished 39th at the World Championships and 18th at Four Continents last season.
Kevin Reynolds, CAN: Reynolds finished 11th at Worlds with a personal best free skate score and won bronze at Four Continents with a personal best short program. He finished 4th at Skate Canada with a personal best total score and 4th at Trophee Eric Bompard.
Joey Russell, CAN: Russell finished 11th at Four Continents last season with personal best free skate and total scores. He is the 2006 national junior champion.
Shawn Sawyer, CAN: Sawyer placed 7th at Four Continents with a personal best score in the free skate. He finished 5th at the NHK Trophy and 8th at Skate America.
Jinlin Guan, CHN: He is the 2008 World Juniors Bronze Medalist. He placed 17th at last year's world championships. He finished 8th at Cup of China with a personal best free skate and total score.
Nan Song, CHN: Song placed 6th at the Four Continents Championships with personal bests in the short program and total score. He is the reigning World Junior silver medalist after a personal best score in the free skate. He finished 10th in his Grand Prix debut at Skate America and 6th at Trophee Eric Bompard.
Jialing Wu, CHN: Wu is the three time national champion. He placed 8th at last year's Four Continents with personal best short and free skating scores. He finished 7th at this season's NHK Trophy and 10th at Cup of China.
Jordan Ju, TPE: He finished 13th at both his Junior Grand Prix assignments this season.
Stephen Li-Chung Kuo, TPE: He finished 37th at Worlds, 16th at Four Continents and 22nd at the World Junior Championships.
Wun-Chang Shih, TPE: He finished 20th at Four Continents last season.
Yuzuru Hanyu, JPN: Hanyu is the reigning World Junior Champion. He started his season with a 4th place finish at NHK Trophy with personal best scores across the board and a 7th place finish at Cup of Russia with a personal best short program.
Takahiko Kozuka, JPN: Kozuka placed 8th at the Olympics and 10th at the World Championships. He is the 2006 World Junior Champion and the 2009 Four Continents bronze medalist. He won Cup of China and Trophee Eric Bompard with a personal best free skate and total score to qualify for the Grand Prix Final where he won bronze.
Daisuke Takahashi, JPN: He won bronze at the Olympics with a personal best short program score. He is the reigning world champion. He has previously won gold and bronze at the Four Continents Championships and silver at the World Championships. He won the NHK Trophy and Skate America to qualify for the Grand Prix Final where he finished 4th.
Abzal Rakimgaliev, KAZ: He finished 26th at the Olympics, 21st at Worlds, 13th at Four Continents and 11th at World Juniors. He won bronze at his first JGP assignment this season and placed 8th at his second assignment.
Denis Ten, KAZ: Ten placed 11th at the Olympics and 13th at the World Championships with a personal best short program. He finished 10th at Four Continents. He finished 12th at the NHK Trophy and 11th at Skate America.
Min-Seok Kim, KOR: Kim finished 23rd at Worlds, 14th at Four Continents and 25th at World Juniors. He finished 11th and 12th at his two Junior Grand Prix assignments this season.
Jeremy Abbott, USA: Abbott finished 9th at the Olympics and 5th at Worlds. He is the 2007 Four Continents Bronze Medalist. He won silver at NHK Trophy and bronze at Cup of Russia.
Armin Mahbanoozadeh, USA: He placed 10th at the World Junior Championships. He won bronze at Skate America with personal best scores across the board.
Adam Rippon, USA: He placed 6th at the World Championships with a personal best short program score and is the reigning Four Continents champion with a personal best free skate score. He won bronze at Skate Canada with a personal best total score and finished 4th at Skate America.
Misha Ge, UZB: He finished 6th at the Asian Winter Games.
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