(26 September 2021) The men’s competition at the 53th Nebelhorn Trophy 2021 was mainly a qualifying competition for the last seven spots for the Olympic Games 2022 in Beijing. 23 spots had been won during Worlds 2021 in March in Sweden. There are new rules, therefore also some top countries participated. 25 skaters in Oberstdorf tried to win the seven spots.

Vincent Zhou of Colorado Springs had had a bad day at Worlds 2021 and did not make the Final. Therefore after Worlds, the USA had at first only two spots. But Nathan Chen was first and Jason Brown seventh there, therefore both together had less than 14 placement points, only eight. Therefore the USA had the chance to win a third sport at Nebelhorn. Only skaters who were not in the Final at Worlds were allowed to compete at Nebelhorn Trophy. Therefore the USA could send Zhou. This time, he had two good days and no problems to win Nebelhorn Trophy with 284.23 points and the first of the seven Olympic spots for the USA.

He opened his short program (97.35 points) to „Vincent, Starry, Starry Night“ by Don McLean and sung by Josh Groban with a combination of quad Lutz and triple toe loop, followed by a quad Salchow. But both quads were near an under-rotation and therefore got a „q“ and small negative GOEs. The triple Axel was excellent, the three level 4 spins and the step sequence as well. His components had an average of 8.5, with some 9,0 as highest ones. He said: “I chose this music two seasons ago, not only because of the name, but I liked it when I listened to it. It is a strong music and I suggested it to my choreographer Lori Nichol before the pandemic and she liked it as well. She gave me a lot of inspiration.“

In his free program he included four quad jumps: one excellent Lutz, one toe loop and two Salchows, the second one with an under-rotated triple toe loop. He also had two triple Axels in his program. Four of these jumps were marked with a q again, like in the short program. And he a good sequence of triple Lutz, Euler and triple Salchow near the end. His spins and steps were outstanding and his components around 8.8.

He commentated: “It was fun to skate with a really good crowd here. I worked really hard in the summer to make all steps and transitions. I had skated to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon“ in the 2018/19 season when I won a medal at Worlds. I like this music because it brings a lot of good energy. It is culturally appropriate to the Olympic Games in China and I understand Asian culture. Originally Jeffrey Buttle had made the program three years ago, but I worked on it with Lori this summer. My goal is to win a medal at the Olympics.“

Adam Siao Him Fa from France took the silver medal with 243.78 points and a second Olympic spot for his country. His combination of quad toe loop and double toe loop and his quad Salchow in the short were very good, but he stepped out of the triple Axel. In his free, the same two quads were good, but he stepped out again of the first quad toe loop and later fell on two triple jumps.

Mark Kondratiuk won the bronze medal and a third Olympic spot for Russia with 241.06 points. Originally the country had planned to send the 2020 European champion Dmitri Aliev. But he has still some Long Covid problems with consistency and could not try any quad at the federation‘s monitoring two weeks before Nebelhorn. Kondratiuk has never done any important international competitions yet, but was in good shape at the monitoring. In his short, his combination of quad toe loop and double toe loop as well as his quad Salchow were not really clean, but landed backwards, the other elements good. In the free, a quad Salchow was good, two other quads a bit shaky, but the triples good.

Gabriele Frangipani from Italy finished on fourth position with 229.39 points, He was a normal participant of Nebelhorn Trophy, but did not try to win an Olympic spot. Italy has two spots but no chance to win a third one because the two Italians at Worlds were 11th and 12th, therefore had 23 placements points, more than 13 which is the limit to get a third spot. Sihyeong Lee finished fifth with 229.14 points and won a second Olympic spot for South Korea. His speciality are jumps with both hands over his head, but some of them were under-rotated or he almost fell. Vladimir Litvintsev is sixth with 228.65 points and won the fifth spot for Azerbaidzhan after performing very good quad toe loops.

Brendan Kerry from Australia has trained in Moscow in the last few months and took the sixth Olympic spot for his country (and for himself) with 218,95 points, finishing seventh. His short program with a very good quad toe loop and a combination of triple Lutz and triple toe loop was flawless, but in the free he made mistakes on four jumps. Roman Sadovsky is eighth, winning 207.62 points and the seventh and last spot for Canada. He fell on the quad Salchow in the short and made several mistakes in the long, but his good elements brought enough points.

Burak Demirboga from Turkey on ninth place did not count for an Olympic spot, but Basar Oktar from the same country is tenth, winning 203.22 points. Turkey therefore is first alternate for the Olympic men’s competition. The country has the chance to send someone to the Games if another country gives back its Olympic spot. Sweden for example has high internal qualification standards. If the Swedish skater Nikolaj Majorov who won one spot for Sweden at Worlds, does not get enough points at his fall competitions, Sweden will send no figure skater to Beijing and will give back the spot. Second alternate is Armenia after Slavik Hayrapetyan finished eleventh with 199.47 points. Third alternate is Britain because Peter James Hallam got 12th place with showy but a bit sloppy programs.