How did your Olympic podium hopes pan out? | Page 3 | Golden Skate

How did your Olympic podium hopes pan out?

DesertRoad

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Umm...excuse me but Belbin/Agosto won the silver medal at Torino in 2006. They are North American.

Other North American couples have podiumed in Ice Dancing: Colleen O'Connor and James Millns from the US won bronze at the first Olympics with ice dancing. Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall of Canada won bronze in 1988 (and thank heavens they did or we wouldn't have the height-obsessed ice dancing commentator in Wilson we do now). Well, ok, that was it until Belbin/Agosto in 2006. This is really a discipline that's friendly towards non-European teams, until now, I hope.
 

~tapdancer

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Other North American couples have podiumed in Ice Dancing: Colleen O'Connor and James Millns from the US won bronze at the first Olympics with ice dancing. Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall of Canada won bronze in 1988 (and thank heavens they did or we wouldn't have the height-obsessed ice dancing commentator in Wilson we do now). Well, ok, that was it until Belbin/Agosto in 2006. This is really a discipline that's friendly towards non-European teams, until now, I hope.

I hope, too. And yes I knew about the other NA medalists, I was surprised to see aurora100 saying that V/M were the first NA medalists in Olympic ice dance. At least that's the way I took the sentence to mean.
 

bethissoawesome

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Perfectly, except for Men's...

Ladies turned out exactly how I wanted them: G: Yu-Na S: Mao B: Joannie.... if only there were more room on the podium, I would have loved to seen Mirai up there too :)
Pairs: As long as Shen/Zhao got their Gold at last, I didn't care about the rest of the results.. glad to see Pang/Tong up there too :)
ID: I was rooting for Vitrue/Moir and Davis/White equally, so the fact they took 1-2 had me overjoyed too
Mens: I would have loved to see Kozuka on the podium... such a great skater. I've never been a huge fan of Evan, but he got the job done when it counted. My dream podium would have been Takahashi (G) Kozuka (S) Weir (B)
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2006
I'm deeply contented and relieved about Shen and Zhao. All it would have taken was one... well, two... slips to lose that medal but they pulled it off!!! :love:

If Yu Na had to win, I wanted her to win with beautiful skates and she did. I was hoping Mao would come close if not win, so that was disappointing, but hey, 3 3As and a silver are not too shabby. I was also hoping Miki would have the skate of her life and grab bronze. I was yelling YES! YES! at the TV when she hit her jumps, but alas, she didn't kick it up a notch. And finally I was hoping Mirai would shine - and didn't she though! :clap:

My main hopes in Dance were that Del-Schoe would manage a little miracle and that Dom/Shabs would not get held up. :cry: But I'm very happy with the top two. B&A should have gotten bronze.

Men - I was rooting for Dai (gold), Joubert, Chan, Abbott or Lambiel with great skates (silver) and Johnny (bronze). So many talented guys who coulda, shoulda been outdoing each other - this was the most disappointing event but at least I can be happy about (and for) Dai, and Johnny has received some kind of justice - the Fans' Hearts award! :thumbsup:
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
Mens I really wanted to see Abbott, Lambiel, Takahashi on the podium in any order, got one of them only. Was OK with Lysacek up there, given the way he skated. REALLY wanted Plushenko out of the medals no matter what. I hate him and his skating, and prayed he would splat multiple times but my prayers were not answered. He was gifted on PCS big time. At least he didn't win, and proceeding to make an @ss of himself with his sore loser commentary. Wanted Chan kept off the podium because he needs more seasoning--better skating to back up his mouth. In the end, disappointed with Abbott and Lambiel, and thought the latter definitely overscored. Was thrilled that Johnny Weir put it all together, he deserved better PCS and at least 4th.

This post is simply orgasmic! Completely agree.

Although, given his programs, I actually wouldn't have wanted Lambiel on the podium in retrospect if everyone had skated their best. I was hoping his programs would improve from Europeans but he didn't change anything. Very sad to see the most talented skater since Yagudin come up with his 2 worst programs in the Olympic year. Kozuka would have deserved (DID deserve) to be up there.
 

NatachaHatawa

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
:laugh::laugh:I always laugh with your sharp humor. You should have been here, vodka and popcorn helped a lot.

Senorita, your love for food and drink makes you an honoury French citizen!!:bow:
I don't like popcorn, but I'll say yes to the vodka!

I think you'll agree with me when I say that the vodka could have become a drink of celebration rather than a drink of despair if Evgeni had had an amazing skate (like at 05 Euros)!:agree:
 

Mafke

Medalist
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Pairs:

I wanted S/Z to win the gold medal they should have been able to win in 2006 (if not for very late rule change). Wanted P/T to be on the podium beyond that didn't much care.

wishes fulfilled: 100 %

Men

Was hoping someone would outskate Plusehnko (at least the way he'd been skating iruing n his comeback) to win (yeah, he's an all time great, and his comeback was generally amazing, but ... let's spread the wealth a little already) on the other hand, I can't say I've ever been a fan of Lysacek (or Takahashi) was hoping for Oda, Weir and Lambiel to be on the podium ... somehow (my dream podiums are never very realistic).

wishes fulfilled : 25%

Dance

Didn't much care who won as long as not Russian D/S (nothing against them personally, they seem like very nice personable people and I'm the first to admit that they do some real strengths as skaters but rightly or wrongly they became a symbol of politically driven results and since they spent a lot of the season injured a last minute super increase in their results would have been .... suspicious)
Hoped French D/S would make the podium (though I realized they probably wouldn't since they missed the whole season)
Beyond that I didn't really care (I did hope against hope that the Italians or Kerrs might make their way to the podium but I realized that was very unlikely)

wishes fulfilled : 25%

Ladies

Hoped Kim would win, hoped Ando would make the podium beyond that I didn't much care (since Nakano wasn't there). After Rochette's trauma I was hoping she could make the podium (I can't say I've been a fan but she wins gut-check of the decade award so far).

wishes fulfilled: 50 %

100 + 25 + 25 + 50 = 200

Total competition 50 %

*to be clear, had D/S and/or Plushenko really skated lights out and had the SOTL I wouldn't have had anything against them winning, but I thought the chances of that were pretty low and as it turned out neither was at their peak.
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
I wanted S/Z to win the gold medal they should have been able to win in 2006 (if not for very late rule change).

What rule was that? As far as I know, S/Z didn't win Gold in 2006 because they didn't skate their best...
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
What rule wasn't? The entire pairs rules were changed in a way that disadvantaged S&Z and P&T.

1. Triple twists were valued equal in value to double twists with lots of features
2. Their combination/'sequence was disallowed, in the way they usually did it 3t 2A seq (For P&T, their alternative 2a 2a seq also was disallowed because the set of steps they used between was disallowed) in the LP
3. Their single jump could not be a 3t if a 3t was included in their combination. in the LP (these changes to the jump schedule caused S&Z to try to add 3t 3t either seq or combo, I'm not sure which) to their LP, with the result that Zhao injured himself practicing this. Furthermore it was a change that blatantly favored T&M whose biggest strength was that they had a jump schedule of 3t2t and 3S. T&M also had a chest crashy twist, and the devaluing helped.
4. If you remember T&M had trouble with the axel entry lasso lift, lev 4, which was the lift with the highest base value. A rule was made that did not allow the axel entry lasso lift to repeat in the program. Previously, teams with a good one, used to do it more than once in the LP. This disadvantaged pretty much every top team with respect to T&M, but was particularly hard on PetTikhs and Z&S, who had awesome lifts. This might have been changed 2005 season, but was still in effect in 2006 Olympics.
 
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Mafke

Medalist
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Yeah, the point was these were pretty big systematic changes to introduce in the middle of an olympic cycle. It's not the only reason I never liked T/M very much, but it certainly didn't make me appreciate them more.
 

NatachaHatawa

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Blue cheese is much better! :biggrin:

Evgeni's skate was ok, but he was shaky technically and one thing I really love about him is his technique, especially his quad technique!!!:love:
But the time it was his turn to skate I wanted him to win gold, but as he didn't I wanted him to win bronze so he'd have a medal of each!:p

I'm not too keen on mjitos - what do say to Martini?:biggrin:
 

Mafke

Medalist
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
I wanted him to win bronze so he'd have a medal of each!:p

I actually think in a way, a complete set is cooler than two silvers and a gold, but something tells me most skaters don't agree (unless the bronze comes first as an early career surprise).
 

hongligl

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 18, 2004
Well, I did super well with my prediction/wish for three catagories:
Pair: Shen/Zhao for Gold!!! S/S and P/T (prediction) or P/T and S/S(wish) for the silver or bronze...... I got my wish! After the pair competition I found myself suddenly became very tolerent and indifferent, nothing was that important anymore:)
Ladies: Yu-Na, Mao, Rochette, and I even got Mirai there! Miracle, exactly what I predicted and wished.
Dance: V/M and D/W, didn't care about who got the bronze, also difficult to predict.
Man: I wished Jeremy Abbott for Gold, and thought one of the Japanese guys would do well. Completely off:(

All in all, a great olympic "experience"
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
[Lots of pairs stuff]

I didn't know about these details. Thank you for that.

I wonder if Zhen and Zhao would have won 2004 Worlds under CoP-styled scoring. Their Long Program was so much better than the Russian's.
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
What rule wasn't? The entire pairs rules were changed in a way that disadvantaged S&Z and P&T.

1. Triple twists were valued equal in value to double twists with lots of features
2. Their combination/'sequence was disallowed, in the way they usually did it 3t 2A seq (For P&T, their alternative 2a 2a seq also was disallowed because the set of steps they used between was disallowed) in the LP
3. Their single jump could not be a 3t if a 3t was included in their combination. in the LP (these changes to the jump schedule caused S&Z to try to add 3t 3t either seq or combo, I'm not sure which) to their LP, with the result that Zhao injured himself practicing this. Furthermore it was a change that blatantly favored T&M whose biggest strength was that they had a jump schedule of 3t2t and 3S. T&M also had a chest crashy twist, and the devaluing helped.
4. If you remember T&M had trouble with the axel entry lasso lift, lev 4, which was the lift with the highest base value. A rule was made that did not allow the axel entry lasso lift to repeat in the program. Previously, teams with a good one, used to do it more than once in the LP. This disadvantaged pretty much every top team with respect to T&M, but was particularly hard on PetTikhs and Z&S, who had awesome lifts. This might have been changed 2005 season, but was still in effect in 2006 Olympics.

It wouldnt have mattered atleast as far as T&M winning is concerned. Lets face it Pang & Tong were never any threat to T&M at all. Totmianina & Marinin skated so much better than Shen & Zhou just coming back from injury at the 2006 Olympics that Shen & Zhou had no hope of beating them under any rules either. Maybe it would have made a different to Zhangs winning silver, I dont know, the Zhangs didnt deserve the silver anyway though.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
What it did was cause Shen & Zhao to have to change their entire jump layout in the LP-which resulted in Hongbo Zhao injuring his leg badly, which led to them having a flawed performance (but hugely gutsy) at Olympics for the Bronze medal. I agree, the Zhangs were not superior to T&M at any time.
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Totmianina & Marinin did beat Shen & Zhou 3 out of 5 meetings in the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 seasons when both were healthy. They had the clear edge in consistency, they skated cleanly virtually everytime out while Shen & Zhou as great as they are often did not. Shen & Zhou's Vancouver performances when fully healthy would not have beaten Totmianina & Marinin either, the fact they lost the LP to Pang & Tong and would have lost the competition had Pang & Tong even been 3rd in the short already shows that. Shen & Zhou skating cleanly probably would beat Totmianina & Marinin but it is alot to assume for sure they would have even had they been healthy and at their best. And they clearly had to skate cleanly to beat Totmianina & Marinin, anytime that quadrennial they competed against them and made any mistakes at all they lost.

I am not a fan of Totmianina & Marinin btw, but I predicted them to win the 2006 Olympics a long way before the event.
 
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