Men's Free Skate - Thurs, 18th 8pm EST

Raatkirani said:

Does anyone have to a link to where Plushenko said he was beaten by a woman when referring to Lysacek? I could have sworn I read it somewhere...

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I think the quote was actually from Tim Goebel back in 2002.
He called both Yags and Plush a couple of women because they were afraid to match his three quads. Goebel went on to say that by only doing two quads Yags and Plush were taking skating back to the 90's.

Goebel, showing poor sportsmanship then proclaimed three quads was the future of Men's skating and that 4 quads would be done by the 2010 Olympics.

With his one quad program in 2010 Plushy once again succeeded in taking skating back to the 90's.
However it could be argued that Plushy's wimpy spins and simple footwork really took skating back to the 80's.

Plushenko should take some lessons in how to be a gracious silver medalist from Michelle Kwan, circa 1998. Before this competition started, I wasn't a particular fan or a non-fan. But with this sour grapes attitude and completely unsportsmanlike bitterness, I am now an official Hater. I hope I never have to see him again in a competition. Yuck. Ugly One, begone--I don't care how many quads you have. :disagree::disagree::disagree: :scowl:

Nadine said:

whole post

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Thanks for sharing your impressions, Nadine! I love reading them. :-D Btw, are you going to watch the ladies live, too?

bigsisjiejie said:

Plushenko should take some lessons in how to be a gracious silver medalist from Michelle Kwan, circa 1998. Before this competition started, I wasn't a particular fan or a non-fan. But with this sour grapes attitude and completely unsportsmanlike bitterness, I am now an official Hater. I hope I never have to see him again in a competition. Yuck. Ugly One, begone--I don't care how many quads you have. :disagree::disagree::disagree: :scowl:

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Actually he could take lessons from Evan. I was pleasantly surprised at Evan's graciousness in his late night interview with Bob Costas last night. Bob kept trying to goad him into saying something snarky about Plushy but he wouldn't do it. I've never been a big Evan fan..thought he was arrogant but I may have to change my stance on that. He was humble and complimentary to Plushy. Said he had always been a role model to him.

Hello everyone.
This is my first post. I usually just enjoy reading your comments, but I can not help mentioning what I saw or heard while I was watching Men's LP live on TV.
After he confirmed his score in K&C, Kozuka said " Denis, Ganbare ( means Go Denis ) ".
I thought it's really cute and nice.

Justafan said:

Actually he could take lessons from Evan. I was pleasantly surprised at Evan's graciousness in his late night interview with Bob Costas last night. Bob kept trying to goad him into saying something snarky about Plushy but he wouldn't do it. I've never been a big Evan fan..thought he was arrogant but I may have to change my stance on that. He was humble and complimentary to Plushy. Said he had always been a role model to him.

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I feel the same way you do. I'm lukewarm about Evan's skating, especially in comparison to Takahashi, who's both technical and elegant (alas for that quad!), but when I watched that interview last night, I was awed by his calm graciousness and his verbal dexterity as well. His comments were so articulate, diplomatic, and mature. That's not easy to do: even people used to the spotlight can say the most boneheaded things in the heat of an emotion-laden moment--and we've all seen it happen with politicians and other people that we're sure should have known better. This guy could give them lessons.

I realize after this week how tough it is to be a skating fan. Skiing fans can curse the snow gods if their fave doesn't win. But skating is a judged sport, and there are all sorts of opportunities to blame nationalism, fixing, and things you used to hear of only in a movie about corrupt boxing practices that ended with Brando or Sylvester Stallone lying on the mat with blood trickling from his mouth.

I suppose I should turn away and devote myself to curling, but they don't glide quite the right way for me. So skating it is.

janetfan said:

I think the quote was actually from Tim Goebel back in 2002....

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:agree:

Sally250 said:

Hello everyone.

This is my first post. I usually just enjoy reading your comments, but I can not help mentioning what I saw or heard while I was watching Men's LP live on TV.

After he confirmed his score in K&C, Kozuka said " Denis, Ganbare ( means Go Denis ) ".

I thought it's really cute and nice.

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Thanks for joining us, Sally. Welcome to Golden Skate! Post often, post long.

Thanks to the members who posted photos and the articles about Dai. I would love to see more. Dai is like the forgotten one in this thread which is a shame because his accomplishments this season is a testament to his determination and his love of the sport. One of the commentators reported that this would be Dai's final Olympics. Any news on what his plans are? I would hate to see him retire.

Thanks Nadine for your great report.

Sally2505 said:

Hello everyone.
This is my first post. I usually just enjoy reading your comments, but I can not help mentioning what I saw or heard while I was watching Men's LP live on TV.
After he confirmed his score in K&C, Kozuka said " Denis, Ganbare ( means Go Denis ) ".
I thought it's really cute and nice.

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After reading your post, I watched the clip again. Yes, he said "Denis, Ganbare"! I have not noticed it. I love his personality. Thank you for your post!

jumps scores went something like this evgeny 63.77
evan 63.47
johnny 61.
nobunari 59

daisuke
stephane

evgeny didn't lose it on jumps he -lost it on spins/spirals you know email what to watch out for
stephan 22.60
patrick 22.10
evan 21.10
daisuke 19.90
evgeny 18.94
jeremy 18.50
nobunari 18.30
johnny 17.98
this was spin and spiral sequence , i only did top ten in free skate

^ Very interesting statistics. :yes:

So this is where I blame Plushenko's coaches/choreographers. Knowing that Plushenko was behind the other conteders in spins and step sequences, they needed to increase the difficulty and quality of his jumps to compensate. By having a lead of only a fraction of a point over Lysacek in jumps, Plushenko's team put him behind the eight ball.

Ah..i watched some of competition again on tv last night, I skipped some performances but overall

Kozuka is my new fav, it was the best skate of the night for me. He is aetherial even when he falls. I ll try not to invest emotionally in any skater again and it was mostly what I did with the ones I grew up with and most were from 6.0 era, so now all are retiring so now I grew up and if I see fs men again which I m not sure when that will be (sorry I try but still a little sad) it will be with a new mindset not caring about results , at least I ll try to watch Worlds that way.

I dont like what Plush speaks now but he has same age as me so maybe I would do the same, it now shows he is not as confident or villain as it looks, he has too many experiences packed in not so old age, he just takes out his frustration in wrong way. I take his comments as fever after losing, he will grow up and be happy about it eventually. Judges pampered him with higher marks all year long and he has not learnt to lose that often and unfortnately so have his fans.

Stephan was not in his usual self, nevertheless a great program, I wish he had brought the arena now.

It showed me that even oldies in Olys with experience and all are human and have a heart that beats, Evgeni Stephane and Brian all looked extremely nervous to me, more than Europeans, so I guess Oly fever got them.

Plush didnt sell his program as in Europeans, I dont think it would made a difference anyway. He was more relaxed at least comparing to 2006. Too tight though and it has been long since I saw him off axis so much. About the forgotten loop, now I saw again, in the first combo he was with no flow out after 3t so he wouldnt do it, same after 3lutz-2toe, only place where he would have added it and I dont know why he didnt is after the axel combo. Dont blame him that he thought he won right after, Eurosport and greek tv commentators thought the same. It was too close and I m puzzled for Mishin still and his plan. And he should have gone for a second quad in any case.

I had many ifs last day about medals, like if he had done the 2loop, or a 2nd quad, if Evans 2nd axel was penalized, if Plush had more margin after sp and / or better music, if Weir was marked better, If Stephane had half point more he would be on podium. I think Plush lost it from short program anyway. But biggest if is the If Takahashi had landed the quad he would have beaten both deservily so, so I abandonned ifs.

More enjoyble programs for me that I would rewatch Amodio, Schultheiss, Kozuka, Weir, Borodulin, Javier, Ten, Chan, Abott, Stephane and Takahashi - and probably Evgeni's with a grain of salt this one.

demarinis5 said:

Thanks to the members who posted photos and the articles about Dai. I would love to see more. Dai is like the forgotten one in this thread which is a shame because his accomplishments this season is a testament to his determination and his love of the sport. One of the commentators reported that this would be Dai's final Olympics. Any news on what his plans are? I would hate to see him retire.

Thanks Nadine for your great report.

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he will continue to skate at least untill the 2011 worlds in tokyo. he said he wanted to be a champion.

yangjie said:

he will continue to skate at least untill the 2011 worlds in tokyo. he said he wanted to be a champion.

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Thank you that is good news.

BravesSkateFan said:

Evan has plenty of artistry. Its just not the same as Johnny's artistry. In the visual arts You have impressionism and you have op-art, you have surrealism and abstract art. In danc there is ballet, crunk, hip-hop and interperative. While you may not enjoy one particular style it doesn't make it any less artistic.

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I liked his SP and the last minute of the LP. They matched his style. But during the first three minutes of LP, I didn't feel that he owned that program. I didn't feel that the music matched his style or that he really expressed that music. Perhaps I would have had a different impression if Evan had chosen a different piece of music that went better with his style. I wanted to see a program that is really memorable from the Olympic Champion. I am okay with skaters without versatility and I would enjoy it when they skate to programs that make their on-ice personality shine the best. Scheherazade is one of the most overused pieces of music in skating. I've seen a lot of expressive performances skated by others. If you go for the most generic orchestra version, you want to be expressive. If you want to turn it into something unique, it also would be interesting. But I am afraid that I saw neither much expressiveness nor uniqueness in the first three minutes of his LP performance.

Re: Plushy's post result comments, which do come across as petty: I doubt he's really as childish as he sounded. After all, any athlete in any sport who has basically never lost a comp for 8 years is bound to become confident (or over-confident). Then, losing by such a small margin, combined with the ego factor and expectations, and voila! It takes a very special person in that situation to sound classy, eg; MK after losing to Lipinski. Don't get me wrong, I do not love what he (and others, like his jackass coach) said, but I am trying to understand it. BTW, that's what I do for a living, so even though I'm loathe to analyze someone I've never met or spoken to, I'm basing my post on what appears reasonable given the circumstances.

BravesSkateFan said:

Evan has plenty of artistry. Its just not the same as Johnny's artistry. In the visual arts You have impressionism and you have op-art, you have surrealism and abstract art. In danc there is ballet, crunk, hip-hop and interperative. While you may not enjoy one particular style it doesn't make it any less artistic.

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No matter what the style is, the requirement is that the person interprets the music if it is to be called artistry. Evan doesn't do that. He just mimics the choreography that is given to him. He isn't creative or musical.

Then come the skating skills, in which he is below other Men as well.

Evan is consistent, has good body body line, and pretty good spins. These things are beneficial but do not constitute artistry.

Morning Glory said:

Yes, Midori apologized, but at that time many people thought " You don't have to apologize. It's us who have to apologize for pushing you under so much pressure."

As for Takahiko and Nobu, they get little focus but people admire Takahiko for his first succees of the quad and bravery to do it at his first Olys. As for Nobu, feel sad but admire his attitude not giving up to the end. Last night Nobu cried durling the interview saying " It's all my fault", but today he seemes to be refreshed.

http://vancouver.yahoo.co.jp/photos/detail/20100220-00000018-jij_vanp-spo.view-000

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KAWAIIIII! How cute Team Japan -- I just love those guys. Takahashi, Oda and Kozuka, they're just great!

Blades of Passion said:

No matter what the style is, the requirement is that the person interprets the music if it is to be called artistry. Evan doesn't do that. He just mimics the choreography that is given to him. He isn't creative or musical.

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I think Evan does as much as most of the guys. He states to rambunctious tunes and he gives a rambunctious performance. Others skate to graceful music and try to be graceful, etc.

What seemed much stranger to me was Plushenko's short program, where the music was a barely audible lullaby and he was doing vigorous footwork twice as fast as the music. (Someone on the board explained this to me, that there was supposed to be a frantic violin playing, but they edited out the violin and forgot to change the choreography.)

Mathman said:

(Someone on the board explained this to me, that there was supposed to be a frantic violin playing, but they edited out the violin and forgot to change the choreography.)

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how does one just "forget" to do something like that???