2005 Marshalls U.S. Figure Skating Challenge

Dec. 11, 2005
LIVE 1-3 p.m. Eastern
Vote for your favorite performance online or via phone during the live broadcast of the 2005 Marshalls U.S. Figure Skating Challenge. Check your local listings.

Athletes Meet the Press at Marshalls Challenge

http://www.usfsa.org/event_story.asp?id=32302

Love the "Vote for" shirts.

Who is doing this the best? Michelle has the edge, but Alissa has the extension.

http://www.usfsa.org/content/events/200506/marshallschallenge/kwan-extension.jpg

http://www.usfsa.org/content/events/200506/marshallschallenge/czisny-practice.jpg

Do you think Alissa and Johnny look quite a bit alike, like they might be brother and sister?

http://www.usfsa.org/content/events/200506/marshallschallenge/czisny-pc.jpg

http://www.usfsa.org/content/events/200506/marshallschallenge/weir-pc.jpg

Mathman said:

Do you think Alissa and Johnny look quite a bit alike, like they might be brother and sister?

http://www.usfsa.org/content/events/200506/marshallschallenge/czisny-pc.jpg

http://www.usfsa.org/content/events/200506/marshallschallenge/weir-pc.jpg

Click to expand...

That's not Johnny! That's Amber Czisny!

Mathman said:

Who is doing this the best? Michelle has the edge, but Alissa has the extension.

http://www.usfsa.org/content/events/200506/marshallschallenge/kwan-extension.jpg

http://www.usfsa.org/content/events/200506/marshallschallenge/czisny-practice.jpg

Click to expand...

I miss the days when these moves were unique. Now it seems either you do that beaver cleaver spiral or

http://www.china.org.cn/images/108847.jpg :no:

Matt was robbed. He tore the roof off.

Mathman said:

Matt was robbed. He tore the roof off.

Click to expand...

ITA.

Marshalls

I do agree that Mat Savoie was robbed. At the very least he should have been a finalist.

For once in my life, I agreed with the judges on every performance. Of course it was a popularity contest so I expected Michelle to win. It was great to see Michelle skating, though.

Johnny and Sasha were fabulous!

Dizzy

Beautiful show! They all skated lovely. Loved Sasha's ending, to die for.

Sasha, Johnny and Matt were wonderful!! The only performances that I cared for this afternoon.

Enjoyed Sasha, Michelle (too bad about the jumps, though. Same thing can be said for Alissa), Emily, Micheal, and Matt - I agree, he should have been in the final! But, like alot of others here (I assume), I figured that this would end up a popularity contest. So, I was not too dissappointed with the Women's result. No problem really with Weir's win - he skated very well both phases. It's just I more often than not have not been able to get it his skating (I did like Dr. Zhivago and Otonal, though!). But He deserved it, I'd have to say.
Despite that, I have to admitt I did enjoy the whole audience voting aspect, despite that fact that I though I wouldn't! I might not help the sport of skating much overall in the big picture, but It was something different, and I did have fun with it. Mind you, I don't think they sould do this too often; I still prefer a straigh competition or exhibition. I guess it's up to ABC & USFS (and the ratings) on if we ever see this again, or if it will be just an Olympic year thing.

Andy W.

need rundown...

I got in really late last night and slept right through this could someone please give me a rundown of Michelle's program? What jumps did she attempt/make? I want to know primarily because of the strong reaction to her performances in The Edge, and also because I can't really imagine a Nats/Olympic season with Michelle out of the running altogether! Very sad and disappointing; I wish her the best, and I hope she can heal and give those competitions a shot.

thanks,
sarah m.

sarahmistral said:

I got in really late last night and slept right through this could someone please give me a rundown of Michelle's program? What jumps did she attempt/make? I want to know primarily because of the strong reaction to her performances in The Edge, and also because I can't really imagine a Nats/Olympic season with Michelle out of the running altogether! Very sad and disappointing; I wish her the best, and I hope she can heal and give those competitions a shot.
thanks,
sarah m.

Click to expand...

Great. I sign on and whose post comes up for me to respond to. Just kidding. I know I could run and hide in some other thread. But I'll try to make this as painless as possible:
Michelle--Everything she did other than her jumps and the usual slow spins, was beautiful. All the "real" judges--Peggy, Peter, and Dick--said (or words to this effect) they knew that Michelle was just coming back after a serious injury and that obviously losing that much training time is going to affect anybody, and they all wished her well at USN and the Olympics. No doubt in their minds that Michelle's going, lol. I like what Dick Button said (paraphrase), "Michelle, I love how big your heart is. It's in every moment of your skating and I just love you for it!"

IMO, that's where Michelle really shined. On the "Vote for Me" segment (the skaters goofing around saying "Vote for me" in creative, more or less, ways. Except Sasha. Maybe her plane was late because I can't imagine her blowing that off. Anyway, Michelle did cut-down version of her new SP, which I think will be very exciting when she's back to form. The music is more atonal than tonal, although there's a mix, and the choreography is also different for Kwan. She did the "touch back of head with skate" "layback" (sorry, I know the ISU calls it a layback but when exactly does the back lay back? sorry, pet peeve), but at least it gets her the all-important "touch the back of your head with your skate" or "do a Biellman" requirement. It's kind of a dark SP, which I think is a great, much more mature look for her--black costume and all. Changes on the spiral to what most of the top ladies are doing, except the Big B. But what the audience loved was the change-edge spiral, which Michelle held forever. Michelle's face looked like it probably will on her wedding day--no, better. You could tell she was thrilled beyond words to be back in front of an audience. She just eats that energy up and puts it into her skating.

She fell, popped, or doubled all her jumps, but after three months of not being able to jump...like I said. Her body was a little fuller and soft, but it was nice for a change. I leave it to somebody else to relate the "scores" but suffice it to say Michelle won by a landslide both times.

Sasha--Her first program was her "Don't Rain on my Parade" the Streisand version, and she looked and skated great. I was really concerned about her weight after TEB. I've seen skaters and dancers go from looking "too skinny" to me but "just right" to everybody else and then a month or two later like a skeleton. So I was most happy to see that Sasha does look like she's put on some muscle weight, although I'd still like to see about a 1/2 LB. or 1 LB. in her pecs and lats. Okay, I'll stop on that. She just looked much stronger than she did at TEB mentally very together. Also, I really focused on her edges and although her back stroking still needs more width, IMO, and just plain perfect use of her edges because her legs are so short relative to her torso, everything else looked more more into the ice. She seemed to have more pressure on the blade. Unfortunately for Sasha, she seems to skate better in relaxed situations, which ain't where you win the gold medals. I think this is her best exhibition piece so far because she really feels that way. The facial expressions come out of what she's doing and the words of the song, plus her "facial expressions" are also mostly in her "body expressions," if that makes sense.

Emily Huges--I really like Emily. There's a gutsiness about her combined with a schoolgirl's love of her innocence. Maybe she saw what happened when Sarah and her other siblings lost theirs. I also like that her body is "big" for a skater, that she's not trying to make her body something it can't be without health problems. There will be plenty of time and demand for that when she really does hit the big leagues. I might as well say this here since Emily will have to lose about 20 Lb. if she's going to skate with the big dogs. Being an elite athlete and a healthy person do not go hand-in-hand. In fact, being an ELITE athlete usually makes one less healthy to downright unhealthy. More on that on the "Is Sasha Too Skinny" thread. Anyway, I'm glad Emily is aiming for elite while still looking healthy, at least as long as she can.

Alissa Czisny--Had two or three ungainly falls and don't think she hit any jumps. Maybe she's a great pressure skater. That would be lucky for her. Naturally she doesn't have a real exhib program, which Dick Button mentioned as something "we can all forgive. I think you'll have great ones later," giving her a vote of confiedence. Which reminds me, Dick also said about Michelle, "So nice to see a program where somebody's leg wasn't over her head." Alissa's gangliness, lack of transitions, and other weaknesses in her skating were more apparent here, at least to me. And I mean compared to Emily Hughes. I like a kind of "rough and ready" style such as Irina's, but Alissa, IMO, has some serious basics to work on. JMO.

They came in Michelle first by A LOT, then Sasha, Emily, and Alissa.

Even though the men were first, I did the ladies in reverse so SarahM could get Michelle info. Others can do the men and the rest. I'll post now so SarahM has a chance to read something less than a book.

I will say this about the men: Matt Savoie skated what I think is perhaps the most beautiful program I've ever seen, male or female. Only a few of jumps, but that choreography was golden.

Rgirl

yeah, RGirl, just when you thought it was SAFE to sign on....

mwahahahaha I'll take that as a joke...I really appreciate the short novel, as I usually do, great play-by-play. Great that Michelle can still craft something of beauty while working at getting back her jumps; I think we can all take heart in that while wishing her the best come next month. I wonder how Mathman felt about her performances today (are you there, MM?). And it is a shame that Sasha skates best at cheesefests - just too much pressure otherwise, it seems. Though I have to say, I downloaded her TEB program recently, and I thought it was very pretty (though a tad slow), flubbed sal and all. To her I say, hang in there, since people have won championships with a fall, when others have had more than one...anything can happen. And she is no slacker when it comes to working at improving her weak spots, as I would think from hearing RGirl's comments about her skating seeming more into the ice. Kudos to her for that.
I'll have to hunt all the footage down, ESPECIALLY Matt Savoie's program (I take those superlatives from RGirl very seriously!), on my new favorite website (for downloads, that is; GS is still aces in my book!), fsvids.9.forumer.com, where I've been able to catch all the programs I've missed all season. And I can always come back here for more commentary - yay!!

thanks again,
sarah m.

There has been a lot of gloom and doom here and there about Michelle's SP-I downloaded it and watched it again, because I had not thought it was that bad. She isn't in tip top shape, but in her SP, she had the guts to go for and land a very low and scratchy 3lz2t. and the 2A was low and scratchy. and the flip was popped. But heck, that's great for someone who wasn't allowed to jump at all 2 weeks ago. Her COP spiral was great-she needs to hold the first position longer for it to count but the rest was perfect, smooth and effortless

And for those who didn't notice, her camel had a nice COE. Last year she screwed up that COE every time. ANd I found the F/W very interesting and not just what Michelle does every year. ANd did you notice that the edge into the lutz was good?

She looked like her hip was still hurting, but she may just be able to pull this together.

In another 3 weeks at Nats, the jumps will be higher and she won't pop the flip.

Granted, she kind of blew off the exhibition number--it was obvious that Michelle came to Marshall's to skate her SP in competition and see what reaction she got. The EX just wasn't ready yet, and I don't think she was worrying about it either.

I'm glad that Rgirl, who is very objective when it comes to MK, also thinks that this is not a disaster SP.

Doris - I am not so objective about MK and I am a big fan. Her skate was subpar. It was at an all time low. I didn't expect much with the lack of practice for what was it 2-1/2 months? Ok, the SP was quite good despite the lack of practice. The improvements were quite obvious including MIFs which she removed for the past several years because of the pain. But we are discussing at least subliminally, the future of Michelle Kwan. I think it is more of a hope rather than realistic about the future. She has so much to catch up. the technical scores are carried over to the PCS scores. This is fact. Her PCS scores will depend on her tech scores and let's face it the combos that these little girls do today are not in MK's repertoire.

For some skaters, being an underdog takes the scare out of competing. But in Kwan's case, she doesn't scare easy anyway. So there is no particular advantage for being an underdog. She's solid even with errors even in pain.

Joe

I think Matt's skating is so underappreciated. He skated a beautiful program and I think he should have moved into the second round. He is so smooth. I hope he makes the olympic team.

Doris

I agree, Michelle went for her jumps which was great even though they were not perfect. I think some are forgetting she has only begun to practice triple jumps for two weeks. I think when she is able to skate full out this will be a great program. Hopefully that will be at nationals and if she makes the team the olympics. Continue to get better Michelle, you have been missed.