Skate America Preview

krenseby · Oct 28, 2006

Re:

chuckm said:
Sokolova bombed her QA and despite finishing 3rd in the SP and 3rd in the FS was 6.5 points out of 3rd place. In 2005, Kwan was only 0.37 points out of 3rd place and in retrospect, it seems she was skating with a painful injury.

The major difference between Sokolova and Kwan is that every year from 1995 through 2005, Kwan finished in the top 4 or better and had won 5 World Championships and 3 silver and one bronze medal, as well as two Olympic medals. Kwan was consistently a top skater.

Sokolova won one silver medal, in 2003, a year when Irina Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya did not compete. She was 10th at Worlds 2004, 7th at Worlds 2005, and 14th at the Torino Olympics.

Sorry, IMHO, a top skater is a CONSISTENT skater. Elena Sokolova is a lovely and charming person, but a consistent skater she is not.

Аctually, being a top skater is not related to being a consistent skater. You are wrong on that count. Shizuka Arakawa was from being a CONSISTENT skater, but she is still a top skater, because she had at least two amazing performances that counted - 2004 Worlds and 2006 Olympics.

If Sokolova had a few great performances - the 2003 silver medal and 3rd LP finish in 2006 - that might qualify her to be a top skater. Certainly you can say that winning a Worlds silver medal once and being close to winning a bronze Worlds another time does not qualify someone to be a top skater.

But if you do stick to that definition, you will have to be consistent and say that in order to be a top skater, someone has to win at least 2 World medals. If you agree to that, then I can accept what you have said about Sokolova.

R.D. · Oct 28, 2006

Sorry, but I don't think SA's 06 Olympic performance was THAT amazing. She just happened to be the best of a mediocre lot, the only one left standing on the battlefield who barely got away. Her 04 Worlds performance, however, was the best of her career.

krenseby · Oct 29, 2006

Red Dog said:
Sorry, but I don't think SA's 06 Olympic performance was THAT amazing. She just happened to be the best of a mediocre lot, the only one left standing on the battlefield who barely got away. Her 04 Worlds performance, however, was the best of her career.

I do think her performance at 06 Worlds did not measure to what she accomplished in 2003, however, I think it is a major improvement from her results in the last few years. Taken together with her very good skate at Euros, I think that she is starting to show potential, although as her disastrous QR skate and Olympics performances have shown, she still has a way to go before she can realize it.

That said, it's kind of interesting that all of those things apply to Carolina Kostner. She can be great when she is on, but she's not on quite that often. It will be interesting to see whether Kostner will be able to beat Sarah Meier at the next year just like she did last year. Meier's stock is rising and she has been consistently improving her skating. I wouldn't put it past Meier to beat Carolina

Skate Sandee · Oct 29, 2006

Red Dog said:
Really? that's totally messed up! They really need to tweak the "standings" so that it more accurately reflects who is the best in the world. And once it becomes accurate, more people, including the skaters will put more stock into it.

Well don't forget, they started using those standings at a time when Kwan was not doing the GP events. If they had used it back in the late 90's and early 2k, she would have spent some time at the top of the standings. Which is why the list isn't the best yardstick of evaluating individual skaters. It's only a good yardstick for those skaters that participate in the GP series and Worlds combined. And even then, someone could come in 2nd at a GP event with a strong performance that could have easily beaten the winner of a weaker GP event by virtue of the competition present at the events.

soogar · Oct 29, 2006

I think Shiz is a consistent skater only she was always getting robbed. She was skating well the whole season prior to the games and at the preceding worlds, even though she was having some troubles, she was robbed in teh SP. I thought her troubles in the LP were more due to frustration with the scoring. It must be very difficult to perform your best when you feel that you are not going to be rewarded for it.

Mathman · Oct 29, 2006

I think one way that the point system could be improved is by increasing the points differential between placements. For the major championships the gap is only 50 points (out of 1200) between first, second, third, all the way down to twentieth.

So Sokolova got 1050 points for her fourth place finish at Worlds, compared to only 1200 for Arakawa's Olympic gold medal.

Suguri, by the way, got 0 points for finishing fourth at the Olympics, because that score was superceded by her second place at worlds (you can't count both).

enlight78 · Oct 29, 2006

With the new COP system wouldn't it be better to determine ranks by the total of points they accumulate over the season instead of what they place in individual events. Aside from the fact that all panels of judges are not identical I think it is the best representation of how a skater perform. I could get first at a competition is everyone else is ill or injured; but to get a high score one will be force to earn it. I feel the same way about the GP events.

SeaniBu · Oct 29, 2006

Mathman said:
Suguri, by the way, got 0 points for finishing fourth at the Olympics, because that score was superceded by her second place at worlds (you can't count both).

Thanks for *making me really darn mad* again!!!!!!

That is something I only want hear once. :laugh:

Why does the sys seem to pick on Buunii-chan so much. Sasha runes her tights :laugh:

Then they don't give her points for competing VERY well to say the least. I will stop before the vain in my head gets any bigger.

What a lady to put up with all of this and still hold her head high :bow: