Your "Best and Worst" of 2009 Worlds list...

[dorispulaski]

[...!

Disappointments:

The audience in L.A. - honestly, from all those years of watching competitions I can't remember ever having seen such a subdued and seemingly disinterested crowd. Strange since Americans are, in my view, generally very enthusiastic about things. Maybe people with no real interest in skating or skaters had been given tickets? I don't know, but there seemed to be no buzz or excitement in the arena (and where were the usually ubiquitous banners?).!

It was LA. I was at a nationals there, and it was the same. Other than Michelle, they weren't really going nuts for anyone, AFAIR. And Michelle was a local sports hero.

You can't generalize about Americans too much. We differ a lot by region. The banners being missing (or so high in the rafters they were impossible to see) was a policy of the Staples Center, announced before the event.

However, the crowd did go nuts for D&W's FD.

1795, how did you enjoy Worlds overall? I hope you'll write a report!

[Alicja]

Best

Yu-Na Kim being in a class of her own. You've got to be impressed with her skating

Denis Ten for letting us throw a glance at the future of men's skating

More dance teams than expected more or less healthy at worlds

Rachael Flatt showing the world that they'd better keep an eye on her in the future

Candice Didier getting up after that fall. Same goes for Yuko Kawaguchi

Anna Jurkiewicz and Przemyslaw Domanski making it to the final with a really good showing

D/B's coach being so touched by their performance and their reaction as well

Evan Lysacek throwing down two great performances

Meryl Davis calling on the crowd to stop booing. Classy girl!

Worst

Candice Didier falling that hard on her hip

Sonia Lafuente not making it to the final

Tomas Verner starting out so good in the LP and then letting it go away from him

K/N being dumped because of being the russian #2

C/J most likely not being able to go to the olympics because the french dance teams missed the requirement by one spot

Ozerova/Enbert not being able to show their potential

Tanith Belbin looking soo disappointed at the FD press conference

Carolina Kostner popping or falling on almost every jump in the LP






On a side note why can't we have like 6 spots on the dance podium???

[1795]

another best was seeing tanith drunk, walking around the hotel
interesting how evan just left her...

[Michelle'sFan]

Worst

Tanith Belbin looking soo disappointed at the FD press conference

I didn't see the press conference but you've got to admit coming so close to win the first ever gold for your country IN your home country only to miss it by just over a point, has GOT to be disapointing.

Michelle'sFan

[Alicja]

I didn't see the press conference but you've got to admit coming so close to win the first ever gold for your country IN your home country only to miss it by just over a point, has GOT to be disapointing.

I put that under worst because I felt so sorry for them. I had really hoped it would finally happen for them at this years' worlds...

[Michelle'sFan]

I put that under worst because I felt so sorry for them. I had really hoped it would finally happen for them at this years' worlds...

Me too. And when Evan won, I was SO hoping Tanith and Ben would make it to the top--IN the USA too. But on the other hand just to have them come back so strong after missing the podium last Worlds and them Ben's injury to make it back to the podium was great. But yes, I still would have prefred the gold around their necks.

Michelle'sFan

[Kinga]

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but Tomas Verner! To be honest, I would have had him in the lead after the SP, and definitely somewhere on the podium in the end. He didn't have his best LP, but it was one of the better ones from him in awhile. Such a great skater, and you can just tell how much he enjoys skating.

Thank you for saying that! I think that I was the only person in the Men LP thread who said that Tomas should have won a medal. So it is a disappointment for me.

Other negative sides:
Apart from S/S, boring and forgettable LPs from other pairs.

Ice Dance and Men SP judging

Mao's LP that I love, not skated to its full potential


Good things:
Sarah Meier performances and her dresses

Denis Ten, every aspect of his skating

Oda's quad

Men competition in general

Kerrs OD, there were very few great dances on that night

Everything about Miki's skating

Something positive about Carolina K: I love her SP outfit (and her styling for that program) and her new LP dress.

Other shallow notes : Na Young Kim SP dress, Tessa Virtue OD dress, V/M costumes for CD. So different then others.

[formersk8ter]

Best:

The discovery of Denis Ten!

Worst:

Oda's hitting the boards. He's been skating great and could have possibly made the podium, but it wasn't to be this year. (But that 4-3 in the LP was amazing!)

[encore]

Exhibitions Gala!
Especially those of Ando and Verner! It’s not often when I find exhibitions more exiting then the competitions yet this was the case.

[siberia82]

Absolute Best:
Fedor Andreev appears on the Entries List for Azerbaijan!!!

Absolute Worst:
His name disappearing from the aforementioned page 5 days later.


There were other highs and lows, but none of them affected me as much as those two.

[fairly4]

To me the Worst was the (generous) very overmarked scores in both the ladies short and long.
In the long they overlook two mistakes for the top 12 women skaters.

The best was the mens free skate --hard call between Patrick and Evan.
Evan look cleaner--Patrick looked a bit messy to me.
The Dance competition-was the best to .

[AwesomeIce]

I forgot my other best: Caroline Zhang being in the audience, not on the ice. Alissa may be a headcase with poor technique, but I'll take her over the Pwitty Pwincess Caroline any day.

[skatingfan04]

Best:

Yu- Na Kim's tears on joy on the podium

Joannie FINALLY pulling it all together

Savchenko & Szolkowy's amazing FS

The battle between Daves/White and Virtue/Moir

Virtue & Moir's first CLEAN FD of the season

Evan Lysacek winning at home

Worst:

The messed-up ice dance judging

Patrick Chan & Brian Joubert's unneccesary and immature battle in the press

Carolina Costner's FS (poor girl!)

[ImaginaryPogue]

Newcomer, so I figure I'll post in a safer thread first (if there is such a thing...)

Favourite Moments, no real order

1. D/W's freedance. I'll always prefer Virtue and Moir (they really resuscitated my interest in skating) but it was a little sad seeing D/W just miss out on the podium after that free dance.

2. Yu-Na Kim's short. Just blazing.

3. Ivana Reitmayerova barely able to contain her excitement after skating her long program.

4. Seeing talented newcomers in pairs: Denney/Barrett and James/Bonheur in particular (and M/B, though they didn't have a great worlds). I've been very underwhelmed with pairs of late (and it used to be my favourite discipline), but I'm rather excited to see how these duos progress.

5. Any time a newcomer exceeded their own expectations and their reactions

6. The look on Brian Orser's face after Kim's score was announced.

[Mathman]

Welcome, ImaginaryPogue. Post often, post long!