Irina Slutskaya will win in Torino

[swannanoa54]

You'd think some people would use Moscow as a backdrop when forming such conclusion as "Irina will in Torino no matter what".
I know the best-skater will walk away with the gold medal in Torino, the integrity of skating depends on it.

If that first sentence was directed at me, it went right over my head. Must have been on the phone again. Frankly, I find there is no comparison between her programs in Moscow and her programs this season. I liked BOTH of her programs last year, I detest both of them this year. Like you said, excidra, different strokes for different folks. I tend not to like powerhouse skating because I think it takes away from the innate overall beauty of figure skating wherer someone will pull themselves into their music and pushes that emotion out there to everyone. For me, I was riveted watching Irina skate last season at Worlds. I ain't so riveted now.

And if the integrity of skating depends on the best skater walking away with the gold medal, then I hope someone has informed the judges of that. Right now there is no one to challenge Irina, IMO. That could change and I'm not saying it can't. But if the Olys were held next week with a healthy Kwan, Cohen on fire, Arakawa on fire, I still believe Irina would win with her powerhouse skating. Might as well take away the music. What's she using it for anyway? She isn't skating "with it", "to it" or "feeling it", so she doesn't really need it.

And this coming from someone who thought Irina should have won the Olympic gold medal with a crappy LP at the '02 Olys. I also thought Kwan should have won. I didn't think Sarah should have won with one skate-of-a-lifetime, but hey, what else is new?

[kyla2]

ITA Realistic51 completely. This years programs (Irina's) are not nearly as good as last years, and why have music indeed. She doesn't use it at all. It's just background noise for all intents and purposes. You are absolutely right about the current trend destroying the beauty of figure skating. Figure skating has changed and not for the better. Forget about how the d--n sport is judged and look at what has happened to the beauty of it. It borders on the tragic. There would have been no LYRA ANGELICA, RACH, TAJ MAHAL or SALOME under this new system. I mean why bother when you don't need to put out a program with depth and beauty. I hate what's happening to this sport.

[R.D.]

Actually, if you ask me, you could say skating is actually becoming more of a "sport" with this new system. The athletics of skating are being rewarded more.

[swannanoa54]

I always thought of figure skating as a "sport", RD, even with the music. Maybe others have thought this makes it more of a sport, but it doesn't. It's like watching gymnastics now. And since gymnastics doesn't have music except on floor routines, let's do away with the music and just have the skaters go out and do their "tricks", rack up the points and go home. And I love gymnastics and realize it would be hard to do routines to music on the apparatus, ie balance beam, rings, etc.

What is happening, although it's very good for Irina, is the musicality of the sport is leaving. There are things I'd rather see: I'd rather see a huge 3A from the men then ugly quads. I'd love to see huge death drops a la Brian Boitano. I'd love to see classic spins again without all the contortionistic properties that rack up the points. Beautiful spirals, classic laybacks, headless spins, fast scratch spins, all the things that made this sport beautiful and separate from any other sport in the world. I'd love to see all of that correspond with the music as if the moves and the music were made to be together. But it isn't like that right now except for a perfunctory few. And that saddens me.

So maybe you want the sport to be a sport in the strictest sense possible. That's fine, too. But I don't. It's not why I started watching figure skating anyway. I watch snowboarding and skiing for pure athleticism along with boxing, football, basketball, tennis, etc. And there's beauty in the athleticism in those sports because that's what they've always been. Athletically inclined sports. But figure skating, to me, has always combined beauty WITH athleticism in a different way. I'm not saying this right, so I'll quit now.

[nymkfan51]

No, realistic ... you said it exactly right!

That is what, IMO, has always made figure skating so much better than gymnastics.
There is no reason that it has to be athleticism OR musicality ... how great that there used to be both.

[Mathman]

What I think might happen is that this sentiment will lead to a firmer division between "eligible" and "professional" skating, and maybe even give a shot in the arm to the latter.

Suppose the current crop of Olympians "goes pro" and spearheads a serious effort to organize meaningful pro competitions. There could be a two-tier set-up. The teenagers could practice their jumps and spins, win a bunch of medals, and go to the Olympics. Then the best of them would graduate to the "big leagues" where the emphasis would be on the "complete package."

MM

[Joesitz]

How much interest will there be in figure skating once Michelle leaves the sport?
is a more apt question, imo than pro v. eligible.

Joe

[Mathman]

Good question, Joe. Interest in figure skating is in decline, through forces that are really beyond anyone's power to control. For a decade Michelle has done her best to stave off disaster by holding her finger in the dike.

That's why I hope we have not seen the last of her once she retires from eligible competition.

MM

[nymkfan51]

Joe, I think skating will always have an audience ... but I do think if Michelle were to take part in a rebirth, of sorts, of pro skating, then THAT would definitely gain a larger audience.
For me, I enjoy the eligible skating more, or at least I have thus far. But if MK were to be doing pro comps, you can bet your sweet bippy I'd be watching!

[Joesitz]

OK guys - If we get away from the outlandish costumes and gimmics in pro skating competitions and silly routines, maybe pro competitions will win over a general audienes. But if little girls are going cry out things like Oh was so and so just hilarious in that outfit skating to that xzylophone music. It will chase the adults away and bring back those wonderful cars going round and round that cylindrial track.

Joe

[soogar]

How much interest will there be in figure skating once Michelle leaves the sport?
is a more apt question, imo than pro v. eligible.

Joe

:whatever:

People have been watching skating long before Michelle and they will long after. It's ironic that skating has been falling off in popularity the longer the USFS continues to hang its hat on this bore.

[attyfan]

IMO, what happens when Michelle turns pro may well result in changes to the CoP, if that event shows that people like to watch programs with the "Kwanliness" element (not only things like passion, emotion, connection with the audience, but things like simple things done well, rather than difficult things done sloppily) Making skating more "athletic" or more like other sports sounds well and good, but, as I have said before, figure skating, unlike many other winter sports makes its money from people wanting to buy tickets to the competitions or watch the competitions on TV -- so the competitions have to provide what people want to see.

[attyfan]

:whatever:

People have been watching skating long before Michelle and they will long after. It's ironic that skating has been falling off in popularity the longer the USFS continues to hang its hat on this bore.

Why would it be the fault of the USFS hanging on to Michelle that causes the decline in popularity, when the decline in TV viewership is equally strong (if not more so) when Michelle isn't at an event? Insofar as the decline in viewership is blamed on defects in the programs, as opposed to an incomprehensible new judging system that no one believes will fix the underlying problem of corrupt judging, why wouldn't the decline be due to Sasha or Irina?

[mzheng]

Very true. ITA. But look at last year- she was dominant in the beginning, stumbled a little at Euros, and then came back with the skate of her life at Moscow to close. So you never know. Even the best have off nights now and then. You just gotta make sure it isn't on THE night.

According to the interviews they run around the time, her 'stumbled' a little at Euros was the time she stopped the medicine she has been taken for her sickness. Her doctor prescribed her medicine as 'pulse dose' because the consistant dose of this type medicine cause long term bad effect to bones. By the time worlds around, she was put back on the medicine again.

[mzheng]

And this coming from someone who thought Irina should have won the Olympic gold medal with a crappy LP at the '02 Olys. I also thought Kwan should have won. I didn't think Sarah should have won with one skate-of-a-lifetime, but hey, what else is new?

:fonfused: So who really thought should've won?