Remember When: Skate America 2019 Mens Free Program

Benny the skating dog stole the show.

I'll be honest, this competition didn't end the way I wanted. I had really hoped Keegan could make it onto the podium. He deserves to. He is an incredibly talented skater and often comes close. Still, that afternoon event was a lot of fun to watch (I mean, Nathan Chen tried to do hip hop. That in and of itself was worth the price of admission.) We sat next to a lady (who was not our fan in any way, especially once she found my best friend was NOT a fan of the sport so how dare she even exist) who was a huge Jason Brown fan so it was nice to see her guy skate well. I mean, it's hard not to want Jason to do well, he's just one of those guys you want to cheer for.

Not surprisingly Nathan Chen was leaps above the rest of the competition and he wasn't even completely on his game (he stood up though). His tech is incredible and I like that he keeps trying things to keep the sport interesting. It was a well skated event for being the first big competition of the season, and once again we had a blast cheering them all on. I did not get photos of the medal ceremony for the men or the pairs because it went longer than expected and so I had to hoof it to make our reservation for dinner. 

As with my blog post earlier (Pairs Free Program) I'll keep it to two photos per skater and you can view all of the photos from Skate America in my gallery.

Koshiro SHIMADA - Japan