Kao MIURA (JPN) | Men Free Skating | GP Final 2023

Kyle Miura. 181.02 is his season best in the free program running that in Espo. We'll see what he has. He didn't practice. I'm not exactly sure why, but he's on the ice to compete as he skates to attack on tight. He saw quad loop in the warm-up. As good as warm-up. ending right in front of the judging panel. It seems to happen quite often. You know, when I was watching this program by Kyle, I was thinking of another ice sport as he sort of tumbles a little bit through fatigue, perhaps an injury. We're not sure, but I was thinking about ice hockey. Why was I thinking about ice hockey? Because no one takes a four minute shift. And this is a four minute program with jumping and spinning and speed and acceleration and degree of difficulty and having to perform and look at it at the same time. This sport is so incredibly difficult. We often forget about that. Well, he looks to be a little bit injured as he goes off the ice. It's so, so true. And we've referenced the exhaustion of a senior men's free skate already in the Grand Prix series. But unless you've experienced it, we could say that's every event for the next decade. You can never fully appreciate how exhausting it is. And that coupled with the fact that Kyle didn't, as I say, practice yesterday, didn't practice this morning. In his post-skate interview after the short program, he didn't allude to any illness or injury. So not sure what's affected his absence from those practices. But if he's struggling, even if he's not struggling to not skate for two days, that would be anxiety inducing for any athlete at this event. He did it comfortably in warm up and I would have really hoped for that to be a reassuring start to the program. But the same kind of step outs or touchdowns plagued many of the most technically difficult jumping passes for Kamiura, the World Junior Champion and the Four Continents Champion, who seems to carry the heavy burden of not making the World Senior Championships last year. He's often referenced in interviews how he felt that he had the heart of a loser or scared in his senior debut last year and seems to carry that burden of not making a home World Championship team for Japan. Kamiura, as we've seen, seems to be part again of another jumping pass that the Quattro seems to be so desperate to prove himself to make the World Team this year. Certainly qualifying for the Grand Prix Final does send a signal to the Japanese Skating Federation. But again, left foot tapping down, touching the ice at this point, just exhausted towards the end of the four minutes. It is incredible the physical output that these skaters provide and need and require in four minutes. And we often take a wide, a high view of it. Oh, today's program is this or that. What is the physical demand on these athletes is just extraordinary. And I want to salute all the athletes for this amazing work that they do and the pressure they put on both their mind and body. Pre-program score 166.67 for Kamiura of Japan. That's second in the pre-program with a total competition score of 261.53. Takes over second place, at least for the moment.