Let the Competition and Complaining Begin! | Golden Skate

Let the Competition and Complaining Begin!

jettasian

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Ok, I don't know if this belongs here or World thread....feel free to move it....

Chan responds to French skater's criticism over lack of quad.

http://www.tsn.ca/figure_skating/story/?id=272432

Patrick Chan would prefer that Brian Joubert does his talking on the ice.

The Toronto skater fired back Monday over criticism from Joubert, the former world champion from France, at the lack of quad jumps in male figure skating.

"I think Joubert is constantly, always complaining," Chan told reporters after practice Monday at the Staples Center. "Because he never has anything else to say."...

"Yes, okay, fine, men are doing worse according to (Joubert)," Chan said. "But if you're going to say, let's all do quads, then he better have three quads in his program and do them good. Or else he has nothing else to say.

"He just says that because he just wants to have an excuse."
 
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demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Chan better watch out. lol If Chan wins gold without the quad Joubert will be doing some serious trash talking, Joubert was slinging it (imo) when Buttle won last year without the quad. No telling what Joubert will do if it happens again.
 

evangeline

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 7, 2007
Patrick gets personal!!

Well, Chan and Joubert still have quite a few ways to go before they reach the epic Yagudin-Plushenko levels of snarky rivalry, but I'm still hoping for some over-dramatic fluff pieces from this. Especially with the Olympics coming up.
 

jettasian

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Joubert's strenght is his jumps (Quads). Shouldn't he be glad that other skaters don't do it, so he has an edge over them? Well, now he's lighting Chan's fire to get a Quad by Olympic, he's just asking for trouble :laugh:
 

Tigger

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Brian, Brian, Brian...

He really and truly learned nothing last year, did he?

Good for Patrick for calling him out and standing his ground as well.
 

Particle Man

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 23, 2008
I'm still hoping for some over-dramatic fluff pieces from this.

NBC is giving 2 hours of coverage to the entire event. I am hoping for NO fluff from them. And I am someone that likes (properly made) fluff.

Maybe Oxygen will have fluff pieces - they certainly have plenty of scheduled time for them - but I can't believe they would be of the same quality as the old ABC ones. And am I alone in fearing the broadcast being on Oxygen will create some kind of estrogen overdose? :rofl: (I'm having disturbing visions of giddy girls spending 20 minutes talking about Evan's muscles...)
 

Buttercup

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
I think if the situation were reversed and Brian had made the remarks attributed to Patrick, people would have criticized him for it, and rightly so. For the last five years, Joubert has spoken about his belief that quads are important, and he has backed this up on the ice by attempting them in every program he does, SP and LP. He is allowed to say that men should be doing quads and that the system should reward it. Patrick Chan is certainly allowed to say otherwise, but to make it a personal attack is uncalled for - and something Jeffrey Buttle, whom Patrick seems to think he's defending, never did and never would have done.

Here, BTW, is what the article quotes from Brian:
Chan probably doesn't have to worry, as Joubert didn't seem bothered by the comments in the least. "No, I don't care," the Frenchman said after his final practice late Monday night. "... I can understand that figure skating means not only quads and jumps. It's everything - choreography, skating, spins, footwork. But I think for the sport, for the audience, for the judges, it's great to see a quad jump."

Some of the stuff attributed to Patrick in this article is really unpleasant, and I hope most of it was taken out of context. But I guess many people feel Joubert is fair game, and would applaud anyone who said something negative about him, never mind if it was true or not.
 
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NatachaHatawa

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
I think these comments are quite unfair.

Yes, Brian always goes on about quads (and in my opinion he focuses a bit too much on them - for example, I loath Jeff's skating but I believe that he was the clear winner at last year's Worlds) but Patrick's comments are too harsh.

"But if you're going to say, let's all do quads, then he better have three quads in his program and do them good. Or else he has nothing else to say.

As is has already been said, Brian always attempts at least one quad in competitions. He would like to do more, as he as already said, but if he doesn't always try to it's because if he's not in good mental shape his quads don't always go right. As the system doesn't priviledge this kind of risk taking and as in the past when Brian did take these kind of risks but was penalized for it, he just doesn't bother taking so many risks nowadays, despite his view on what skating should be.

"Because he never has anything else to say."...

Wrong. It's just his quad remarks are infamous.

If anything, I think Patrick's comments are going to make Brian more determinded than ever to do three quads in his program.
 

skatingbc

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
I would be interested to see if Brian could improve his footwork and spins by putting the quads on the backburner for a season.

I think quads are important to Brian because, imo, he needs them to be competitive. His footwork and spins can be lackluster at times, but his jumps are what elevate him to the elite level.
 

Buttercup

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
I would be interested to see if Brian could improve his footwork and spins by putting the quads on the backburner for a season.

I think quads are important to Brian because, imo, he needs them to be competitive. His footwork and spins can be lackluster at times, but his jumps are what elevate him to the elite level.
Joubert has worked very hard on his spins the last few years, and while he will never be the best spinner, he is more than adequate now, and got high levels on most of them at Euros. I personally like his footwork, though I realize this is subjective. He has had problems with the levels there because he doesn't seem to like upper body movement, at least not enough of it. Personally, I share this view :laugh:.

Patrick is very good at footwork, and we know he can do lovely triples out of footwork, so now he needs to move on and work on something that's difficult for him.

Nathacha, thanks for the second link!

ETA: Why on earth did Chan feel compelled to extend his criticism to Alexei Yagudin, of all people?
“Well, if you look at Yagudin at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, his program wasn’t as difficult as any of ours,” said Chan, expanding the discussion to include his fellow Canadians, Vaughn Chipeur of Calgary and Vancouver’s Jeremy Ten, who stood at his side looking like a couple of uncomfortable bodyguards.
That is beyond ridiculous.
 
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SusieH

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
.

If anything, I think Patrick's comments are going to make Brian more determinded than ever to do three quads in his program.

I certainly hope this will come true.

"It [Joubert's criticism of Buttle's win at worlds] was a bit of a turnoff, definitely," Chan said. "He's kind of a sore loser, I guess. If he doesn't win, then he always has an excuse for not winning or not skating well. Unfortunately, that's his personality and I don't really like it. I'm still not going to trash talk about him all the time or I'm not going to say anything bad.
"Other than this time, I guess," Chan said, smiling sheepishly.

I really don't like this remark. It is out of line. I don't think Chan knows Joubert well enough to judge his "personality." This whole piece is bad publicity for Chan IMO, especially because this attack from Chan seems to be totally unprompted. Does anyone give him money and ask him to spice up competitions a bit so that more tickets or whatever can be sold or TV ratings can be higher?
 

NatachaHatawa

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
I really don't like this remark. It is out of line. I don't think Chan knows Joubert well enough to judge his "personality." This whole piece is bad publicity for Chan IMO, especially because this attack from Chan seems to be totally unprompted. Does anyone give him money and ask him to spice up competitions a bit so that more tickets or whatever can be sold or TV ratings can be higher?

I agree. With Brian, what one sees on camera is genuine (I doubt he'd fake stuff that lands him harsh criticism). Although I appreciate Patrick's honesty, I do think he went a little over the top, especially when, as Buttercup mentioned, his comment on Yagudin's program. But I also think that Patrick seems like a nice guy and that a lot of those comments may seem ruder on paper than what they really were.
 

skatingbc

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
ETA: Why on earth did Chan feel compelled to extend his criticism to Alexei Yagudin, of all people?
That is beyond ridiculous.

I don't think it's ridiculous at all. He said:

“Well, if you look at Yagudin at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, his program wasn’t as difficult as any of ours,” said Chan, expanding the discussion to include his fellow Canadians, Vaughn Chipeur of Calgary and Vancouver’s Jeremy Ten, who stood at his side looking like a couple of uncomfortable bodyguards. Both are older than Chan.

“Our footwork today is pretty much a program, you’re pooped after footwork. You can’t really compare it to back then. If you look at their footwork and even their spins, it’s nothing compared to what we do.”

Their programs weren't as difficult in terms of transitions and footwork. In stroking class, we used to watch tapes of the major competitions and recreate the footwork. Yagudin's was a lot of toework, mohawks, lunges and not too hard to try to do yourself. Obviously he did it better than us and with a lot more speed but the basic steps were very simple.

In terms of the whole program, the programs today, imo, are more difficult. There may have been more difficult jumps in 6.0, but the footwork lagged behind. It was entertaining for sure, but nothing compared to what they are doing now. I know this is subjective though.
 
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seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Chan is power in steps and transitions and Joubert is quads, critising Joumbert about his talk is nonsense, cause Chan does nothing less than Joubert does now talking about his kind of skating, from the point i see it they both talk in favor of their strong elements. And i m not even a Joubert fan but he gets a lot of trash cause he speaks.(I wish he didnt sometimes though)
Concerning Yag i guess the interview transferred in written speech seems a bit rude and maybe he didnt intend to sound like that, of course in terms of COP their programs are more difficult than yag's or anyone of that era in terms of steps (what about jumbs?) , but that means nothing cause it is a different era and the skaters were constructing their programs according to the rules. The example of Yag was not a good one, having a more difficult program does not mean he could do the program Yagudin did. It is too early for him to speak about former skaters in my opinion, moreover about an Olympic Champion.
His program is more difficult to the ones of Dick Button, so what?Funny similarity, they both have not mastered the triple axel:laugh:(I m not judging Mr Button of course)
 

mycelticblessing

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 9, 2007
Oh, my. Bless his frankness, but some things you probably shouldn’t say, even if you think they’re true.

First the French, now the Russians.

And Chan hasn’t even won a world championship medal yet. He might want to look after that small detail this week, all things considered.

Even the writer sounds critical of Chan's complaint of Joubert. Maybe someone's out to sabotage Chan's image before worlds.

About Yagudin, I doubt Chan was trying to really criticize him, but it would be much better if he hadn't mentioned any names at all. It's pretty easy for people to misunderstand his intentions in this case.

I can't wait to hear what Joubert has to say.
 
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