By Xiangxuan Kong
Photo by Robin Ritoss
Beijing – The men’s event closed the four-day Skate to Milano on September 21. Individual neutral athlete Petr Gumennik, Donovan Carrillo of Mexico, Hyungyeom Kim of Korea, Kyrylo Marsak of Ukraine, and Yu-Hsiang Li of Chinese Taipei secured the five quotas for men.
Petr Gumennik was in the lead after his short program Perfume – The Story of a Murder. His free skate Onegin set the bar high in difficulty levels, with multiple quadruple and triple jumps planned. Despite not executing the program perfectly, Gumennik maintained his lead with a total score of 262.82, winning a quota for Milano Cortina.
Coming in second place was Hyungyeom Kim of Korea. The 2024 Youth Olympic Games champion was in fourth after the short program. Quite nervous after the short, Kim admitted that he had some doubts about the free skate.
“I started to doubt that whether I can have a good performance in the free skate. During free skate, I tried a lot to express what I wanted to perform.” Kim scored 153.91 in the free skate, moving his total up to 228.60 in second place. “This competition was really difficult for me and I was really tired,” said Kim. “But the result showed that I’ve done a really good job and I’m really satisfied. I feel extremely honored to represent my country at this competition.”
Mexican skater Donovan Carrillo was second after his short program Hip Hip Chin China. “I had one of my greatest performance and I enjoyed it from the beginning to end. I tried to get a different approach after (not qualifying at) the worlds. This time I was more focused on enjoying, trying to just let things work out in a natural way. I tried to let my body flow with the technique and apparently it worked out.”
In his Elvis Presley free skate, Carrillo struggled with two quadruple jumps: falling on a quadruple Salchow–double toeloop and popping a quadruple Salchow into a double. The wait for the score “felt longer than the program itself to be honest,” noted Carrillo. Placing ninth in the free skate, the advantage from his short program was enough to give Carrillo a total of 222.36 and the bronze medal.
“The program was not what I was hoping,” said Carrillo. “I’m so grateful to make it to the Olympics the second time and honored to meet this new generation of great athletes. It’s so inspiring to see how everyone is doing so well and pushing their limits and making their country very proud.”
For Kyrylo Marsak of Ukraine, securing a spot at Milano Cortina was a childhood dream come true. Marsak sat in sixth after the short program, only one place away from the quota cut-off. He performed a strong free skate I’m Tired. “I gave everything that I have today. It wasn’t perfect but it was pretty good.”
A total score of 217.57 temporarily put Marsak in first place. When he found out that this was high enough to put him among the top five skaters, an overjoyed Marsak yelped out, “I can go to the Olympics,” in the Mixed Zone.
“I can’t express my feelings in words because I’m so happy. (The Olympics) seemed like something big and abstract. I couldn’t even assume that I would go to the Olympics, and now this is real and I got the spot for my country. I’m so happy and I couldn’t believe it.”
Ever since Marsak started to skate, the Olympics has been his dream. Now he shares a connection with his skating idol Nathan Chen, who won the Olympics in Beijing three years ago. “The first Olympics I watched on TV was in 2010. When Nathan missed his short program in 2018, it was such a drama for me and I was so upset. Finally when he won the gold medal here in Beijing,I was such a fanboy and I was so happy for him.”
Similar to Marsak, Yu-Hsiang Li of Chinese Taipei also had to wait to find out if he could go to the Olympics. The 18-year-old delivered a solid performance to Eleanor Rigby, landing all seven jumps in the free skate and receiving a total score of 216.98. Only in his second year as a senior, Li himself was surprised with how well he skated, and was hopeful that he might qualify for Milano Cortina. “I can’t imagined that I did so well in both programs. I felt nervous before but I just thinking about it as an ice show and that I feel good and I can show it to everyone, ” Li said.
“Going to the Olympics is my big dream. It’s very important for me, my coaches and my federation. It’s a very big deal,” remarked Li. It has been 27 years since Chinese Taipei’s David Liu last competed, at Nagano in 1998.
Davide Brain of Monaco was in the top five after the short program, but mistakes on the spins in the free skate lowered his total score to 216.12, narrowly missing the cut-off by 0.86. “When I calmed down a bit more I’ll review the program. Right now it’s a bit frustrating being behind with such a good (short) program because of little mistakes that shouldn’t happen,” said Brain.
Despite the disappointment, Brain took this experience as a learning opportunity. “Overall I’m very satisfied with the technical part, the jumps are where I wanted to be. I learnt from those mistakes on the spin and I know what to work on.”
