Originally Posted by
jcoates
Have not read Brennan yet but as an Evan fan (I like Abbott too and respect Weir) I felt the scores were fine. I need to take a painkiller before I do read her and do some deep breathing simply because the woman is insipid and had done more to harm my two favorite sports (skating and tennis) than any other journalist. She's a hack who lives to create drama.
That being said, what Frank is pointing out, fairly or not, is that the other federations understand the importance of sending a strong and clear message heading into Olympics. The man has been coaching for over 40 years, he has some experience from which to speak.
It's rare that one of the runnersup at any nationals win the OGM. That's why so many top skaters in other countries sit out their own if not up to snuff in an Olympic year. Arakawa was an exception, as were Hughes and Lipinski. Fortunately for Evan, what he has in common with them is that they were each part of very deep field from their countries in those years and the judges acknowledged that. While I hope that is the case this year for skaters from our federation (and Japan for that matter), that does not always happen though.
In Chan's case, I saw his SP. If he had skated it that way in our nationals, he would have been below 80 easily. He botched his 3F/3T with a hand down on the flip and had to add a 2T to to his lutz to get in a combo. Compared to our top three and what they did, he was not up to par. Yet the Canadian panel gave him a 90! In doing so, they are attempting several things. Obviously guaranteeing sending their best hope (based on past performance) to Vancouver and giving him some confidence. (Some posters may not like Evan for whatever reason, but over the last four years, he has been the most consistent performer among US men.) You don't want your best skaters to have doubts in the final weeks of training unless absolutely necessary. They also want to send a message to international judges if possible to remember their skaters and last they want to build buzz with the public. Look at Plushenko and his super inflated 100.
US skating rarely does this. Of course national marks are no guarantee of international ones. Everyone knows that. But they can be a "Hey look at me!!!" symbol to maintain attetion in a crowded field. Remeber there will be at least 8 to 10 men in Vancouver with real to outside podium chances. That's a lot of skaters to keep track of.
The same is happening in Canada in dance with V/M. Do they deserve high marks? Of course. But a 70 for an OD in a comparatively weak field spells one thing, boosting. More than any skating medal Canada wants the gold in ice dance and they are being quite clear in their message about it. I bet every score they get for each program will be significantly higher than those they got on the GP. They want to remind people that their team is far better than those who have competed in their own nationals up to now and arguably the Americans too. Will the same happen next weekend with our dance teams? Who knows.
As far as the PCS, it's possible that a US panel liked Jeremy's Beatles program last night better than the internationsl judges have with Evan's classical SP. There is sometimes a disconnect between how a skater's national judges view him and how international ones do. Russian judges always prefered Plushenko over Yagudin, for example.
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You have to skate like you deserve 9's in PCS; you shouldn't just be entitled to them because of your past successes. :sheesh: 
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