Belbin & Agosto | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Belbin & Agosto

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
So we finally know their OD is Tap.

The issue about the Olympic sized ice at IceWorks is important. I did not know that they had never trained extensively on the larger ice surface before. This should be very good for them.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
here's hopin the judges respond well to their OD out of the gate this year...
 

lcd

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Will be strange to see them in Kiss/Cry without Shpilband/Zoueva. A new look on and around the ice. Looking forward to it.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Skate America is a packed competition where it will be hard to medal. Not only are Belbin and Agosto and Delobel and Schoenfelder there.

Also, the Kerrs are fresh from a win at Finlandia, Carron and Jost look to have the win in the bag at Karl Schäfer Memorial, since they have a good lead after the OD, Samuelson and Bates are the Jr Worlds Champions and just won Nebelhorn. And Summersett and Gilles place third at Nebelhorn. All these teams are in excellent competition shape.

It's going to be an amazing competition.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
ice dance in general, any more, is just amazing... I know I'm in the minority, but I think the CoP has really helped the skaters just because they know that there is room for movement in the placements... granted there's still room for fudging from the judges, but still... there isn't as long a wait your turn.
 

mycelticblessing

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 9, 2007
ice dance in general, any more, is just amazing... I know I'm in the minority, but I think the CoP has really helped the skaters just because they know that there is room for movement in the placements... granted there's still room for fudging from the judges, but still... there isn't as long a wait your turn.

Actually, I agree with youu, I think V/M and K/N would probably not have medalled at worlds if it wasn't for CoP. B/A's success is also largely due to CoP. Besides, I honestly prefer Ice Dance after CoP. For me, it's now more interesting in the past. Out of all the disciplines, Ice Dance probably benefitted the most from the change in the judging system. I'm pretty sure pairs suffered the most though.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
I agree with you. Pairs has suffered the worst, largely because the ISU can't decide what's important to a good pairs program. The changes to the rules every year has got to be very difficult for the pairs teams, because there have been huge changes every year since 2005. Twists have gone from being minimalized in importance back to paramount. The screwing around with what's a jump sequence has been annoying. I think there was more variety in technique in lifts, spins and sequences with pairs than in singles, and as a result, every change favors one group of pairs over another, so the politicking has been huge.

And the resulting skating mostly disappointing.
 

1795

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 6, 2006
im liking the mature direction they are going....mature...or "classical"...conservative?
 
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Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Today's Detroit Free Press (Jo-ann Barnas) had a huge article on Tanith and Ben and the start of the figure skating season. It was the lead story on the front page of the sports section, with a picture that took up almost the whole page (the one on the upper right of the web version).

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008810190483

About reevaluating their position in the sport after finishing off the podium at Worlds (and especially after being overtaken by Virtue and Moir as the number one North American couple), Tanith says:

"We need to set ourselves apart from other teams in North America, but we also need to set ourselves apart from what we were typically perceived as. People always liked us for our energy, for our chemistry, for our personalities. And it was always in their minds that Tanith and Ben are good at this, but they're not good at that -- that we're not going to have the quality, we're not going to have the extension. So we needed to give everyone a reason to reconsider us; to give us another chance to reconsider us."

On the personal aspects of the relocation:

Because she and Agosto will likely retire from competition after the Vancouver Olympics, she views her stay as temporary.

"I'm not going to lie -- it's not the same camaraderie that we had in Detroit," Belbin said. "The truth is, what I've found, the relocation is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. But change is exciting. I don't regret my decision, but it's a challenge. I've now come to realize that it's so much easier when you're younger, to make changes and make new friends and meet new people. I feel like this time when I moved, I'm not looking to re-create the relationships I had in Detroit because those are the ones that are true and strong and that they're always going to be there."
 
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demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Thanks for the article. I was impressed by Tanith's honesty and intelligence regarding their skating and the decisions they made to improve their skating and how she admits that they needed to improve to stay competitive. She is not just another pretty face. I chuckled when Tanith said that "when you are younger....". I believe Tanith is 24, only in figure skating is 24 considered old.
 
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Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
not just figure skating, a lot of individual sports have their athletes and the commentators placing the athletes over 20 in a nursing home.
 

Binthere

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2008
and the whole age thing is so odd thinking about how until Code of Points, weren't most of the top ice dancers in the world in their late 20s and 30s? Think of the 2006 Podium... Tanith and Ben were the babies... Go back to the 80s,... those ages would be "Masters adult" by today's standards :biggrin:
 
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