Men's Free Skate................For Real

hockeyfan228 said:

I agree with doug_log about Tim Goebel's program. Tarasova has given him a great, great program, and I hope he has a skate for the ages with it, because it would be shame to leave that choregraphy hanging on the rack. I thought he moved exceptionally well, at least on TV.

Takahashi has been a very talented, artistic skater for several years after winning Jr. Worlds. He's landed quads in competition before. He hasn't been consistent, though, in the same Senior competition until this year, starting with JIC. Last year's LP in Moscow was a case in point. Honda's injury within the first 20 seconds of his quali program put enormous pressure on Takahashi, and there were murmurs during the competition that he was injured. He's a joy to watch live. He's "voidy" as they would say on FSU.

Joubert's timing looks off, and I'm sad to see that his choreography is as bland as last year's. He's been working hard on his spins, though, and has made enormous improvement over the last two years.

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I saw Tim skate that LP live at Campbell's and he skated it much much better. It is an excellent program choreographically and if he lands the jumps and does all the footwork he is supposed to do, it could be a great program. He may have just had a bad night. Hopefully he will recover and feel comfortable with the program.

I am going to dig up my old tapes to see if I have any other Takahashi programs. The guy is exciting, talented, and a breath of fresh air.

Takahashi deserved the gold medal, plain and simple. He skated with a lot of flair, elegance, and assurance. What a great victory for him! And how timely, since Japan can send only one male figure skater to the Olympics, and the Japanese consider international competition results, as well as their national championship result, in determining who will be sent to the Olympics.

Poor Timothy Goebel! What has happened to him? His injuries have really slowed him and taken away much of his competitive edge. Watching his disastrous long program, it was a bit hard to remember that this is the same skater who electrified the skating world at a Skate America competition by becoming the first skater to land three quad jumps.

Brian Joubert looked as though he was in a fog - no concentration, and a lot of sloppy mistakes.

And Evan Lysacek wasn't exactly steller in his silver-medal performance. When you skate to "Grease", you need to strut your stuff, and he was just going through the motions - connecting the dots - between one jump and the next jump.

The only comfort I have is that it's very early in the season, and all of the guys have several months to train, hone their prograns, and improve their performances.

I wish all of them the best.

I thought Joubert's music fit his footwork better this year than last. But his costume is not better, LOL.

The Japanese men now have an embarrassement of riches, the young whipper snapper bursting on the scene and the elder statesmen that is skating well and mounting a comeback and only one spot for the olympics. That should be an interesting developing story.

Besides Kevin VP's spotty performance, can he please get that costume changed! THe fanny wrap look is fine for a Norma Cammali wrap dresses, but a definite no-no for a male skater.

Wish I could get into Evan more, he's a fine athlete, however his skating doesn't do it for me. He reminds me of how I felt about Urmonov...great skater, no personal connection.

As for Tim, I don't know what to think, that was a really disappointing skate, but however if you can see an Olympic Winning skate through all of it, you know that he's got something special and I only hope he can capitalize.

Happy GP season.

Vash01 said:

I am going to dig up my old tapes to see if I have any other Takahashi programs. The guy is exciting, talented, and a breath of fresh air.

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I was going to do the same thing. I remember one but I don't know if it was 2003 or 2004. It was the last year that Sasha Abt skated and Takahaski was in the same comp. I couldn't believe that Sasha beat him. I also think he skated to Man in the Iron Mask. I thought he did a great job. Please understand that I am trusting my memory on this and that could be a mistake in itself.

Dee

Dee4707 said:

I was going to do the same thing. I remember one but I don't know if it was 2003 or 2004. It was the last year that Sasha Abt skated and Takahaski was in the same comp. I couldn't believe that Sasha beat him. I also think he skated to Man in the Iron Mask. I thought he did a great job. Please understand that I am trusting my memory on this and that could be a mistake in itself.

Dee

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That really rings a bell with me...was he a last minute entry for an injured Japanese skater...in fact might it have been when Honda first started having injury problems? Did he have really mad hair with loads of blonde and quite extreme short and long bits in too?

Ant

antmanb said:

Did he have really mad hair with loads of blonde and quite extreme short and long bits in too?

Ant

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You may be thinking of Tamura, who retired. He was the skater with the blond/black mohawk. (It was his calling card.) Although Takahashi has always had memorable hair as well.

Tamura was tall, I think taller than Honda. Takahashi is shorter than Honda.

antmanb said:

That really rings a bell with me...was he a last minute entry for an injured Japanese skater...in fact might it have been when Honda first started having injury problems? Did he have really mad hair with loads of blonde and quite extreme short and long bits in too?

Ant

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I still going to look and I will let you know if I find it.

Dee

No contest Daisake was great.

Kevin kills himself. He had the best program but didn't skate it.

Evan was fine but nothing special.

Brian seems to be in a sometimes-I-can sometimes-I-can't state of mind.

Tim has a great program but if he doesn't make that quad perfect it throws everything else out the arena.

Joe

Hands down Takahashi won this thing. He was really the only one who laid it down.

Van der Perran: I love you, I really do, but Yagudin called and he wants his program back. Did anybody else notice how cloned this thing was? From the music, to the movements Van der Perran accompanied it with. I kind of cringed.

Lysaceck: Grease? Just, no. I agreed with Paul Martini that this looked more like a show piece than something that should have hit competition ice. WAY too many distracting music cuts and he didn't sell it with the verve the somewhat cheesy theme requires. I don't think this program has the gravitas needed to be taken seriously on Olympic ice.

On Canadian TV we had the pleasure of seeing relative newcomer Chris Maybee. When he settled into the program and got his jumps together it was apparent this is a skater to watch. He has a natural musicality and some impressive skills.

It's too bad that Evan Lysacek didn't medal. He has spectaculor talents, but I think that the Olympic pressure got to him.