What will the 2010/2011 bring us in ICE DANCE?

[colleen o'neill]

...It's what Doris says about the eggs in one basket that really makes it matter to me. I have great admiration for Vanessa and Paul as committed young athletes , and have said nothing against them personally.

I respect L/R for what they do well, but I'm not shy about saying that as Emperors, they're only half clothed at best.

Politics exist in all federations to one extent or another , but I doubt that Skate Canada is anywhere near the worst in this respect. Also , all federations have, and need to have, a strategy for how best to support their skaters, promote them and bring along new talent.

Media and press people are guided by the federations' press releases and seek info. from them about what are the new prospects , what would make an interesting story, etc.,etc.

Skate Canada has had a pretty poor history ( over the 30-40 yrs. I've been watching ) of just promoting their gold medalists ( or the competitors who they think will get them the best result internationally ) to the media and press, and largely ignoring the rest , even those who are very close in ability.They have had their strategies backfire on them a number of times.. ( Remember the awful episode when L/H won Nationals and there was not only no fluff for them, even though the fans and SC knew they had the goods to potentially challenge, but they weren't even interviewed after they won.. However there was fluff prepared for the expected winners, and they were interviewed about their loss. ) Of course the TV network was guilty , but don't tell me the network didn't try to check out the lay of the land beforehand. That would only be standard practice. It doesn't seem like it can have been stressed to them that either team could win,on any given day. There have been plenty of other examples of SC outsmarting themselves, but that's just one that springs to mind off the top of my head.

I had hoped for a major change in strategy at SC from the new leadership ( and I still dare hope ),but as all the hoopla has progressed, I can't help wondering if it's a case of here we go again. I feel bad for the athletes, because there's the danger of putting too much pressure on the ones in the spotlight..setting them up for major deflation if they don't live up to expectations ,or running the risk of having it all go to their heads ; while for those just out of the spotlight, they have to start wondering if their middle name is chopped liver, as far as SC is concerned.

I don't have a problem with C/P being marked ahead of W/P at SA - it' was a competition, after all... but I think it's possible that the size of the margin and how all the PCS scores stack up is a bit dubious.

I'm all for skaters ( and our #1 team ) getting press coverage, but I don't think we should draw comparisons with the coverage V/M recieved last year, considering that they were our champions ,considering their placement in the world at the time, and the fact that they were in contention for Olympic gold .( I would also contend that a couple with their combination of talent and skill might only appear in a given country once in a generation, but others may not agree. )

Then too, C/P are only our #1 by default. They haven't won our title...yet. Can't we wait for Canadian's before proclaiming them ?... I find it a bit unseemly to be promoting them as if they were our champions already. It may make people think it's in the bag ...And if judges are at all swayed by general perception....it's not very fair to W/P,in particular ( and perhaps others ), because there really isn't a huge difference in ability between them.

[herios]

Actually Skate America didn't show that. W/P had better tech marks, weirdly enough. It showed that one set of judges called it that way at one event. It could well happen that C/P and W/P meet again in the GPF-it depends on whether C/Z are second at TEB, something that is not a lock, for sure. It will be interesting to see how they both do there, if that happens.

It seems to me, as a complete outsider, that Skate Canada has stuck all their eggs in the C/P basket. Not unusual. The US tends to always go for the younger of 2 teams when it's close.

It is quite obvious to me that W/P FD is not as strong as their SD. They lost ground with the FD in both their events, didn't matter if C/P were there or not. They need to add some more content. The judges sent them a clear message, as far as I am concerned.

[dorispulaski]

Yes,that's true, but their SD shows they are capable of getting the technical levels needed to score quite a bit better with the FD. Whether they will improve more to that level or not remains to be seen. W/P have improved a lot between this year and last.

[ImaginaryPogue]

1. I dunno doris. The errors they make tend to be ones of execution. They had a three point headstart on base value (in the SD) compared to C/P at Skate America and saw that dropped to 1.5 when GOE were added on. Those errors in execution tend to affect base value as well (the twizzle in the NHK FD, the Rotational lift in the Skate America FD) and I think that holds them back on PCS and TES.

2. I don't know what to think about Faiella/Scali. The last time they rocketed out of the gates on the GP circuit was the 08/09 season, winning gold and silver in their two events. They made their first GPF, won their first Euros medal, and seemed primed to match their finish at the previous Worlds, but saw themselves beaten by P/B and the Kerrs. They had a slow start last season (third at CoC) and withdrew from their second event, but had a great Europeans/Olympics/Worlds. So part of me doesn't want to write them off (plus I really like them). And this season has been unnaturally cruel to Italian ice dancing - C/L having the slow start causing them to completely redo their training environment and Alessandrini/Vaturi having the injury taking them off the GP circuit. F/S have been to three Olympics, made top five at the their most recent one, won two Euro medals along with World bronze. The young teams are improving rapidly and Pechelat/Bourzat are posting the top European scores of the season - right now it's pretty clear that they'll be the top Euro team at Tokyo and I wouldn't be surprised if they won gold (provided that V/M aren't there).

3. Israel has two spots for ice dance. Do they have two teams that they'll send to Worlds? Their National Championships seem woefully underpopulated. See, if we're gonna have politicking, I wanna see the ability to trade spots. No nation should be able to trade a solo spot, but if they have two spots - trade one for a spot elsewhere.

[herios]

The italians had been really cursed. Was this because they just won a world medal again? Just joking.
These numerous injuries should not be as surprising. The ice dancers have to chase the levels in their lifts and therefore the lifts became riskier and put a strain on their bodies.
This sport has changed the most since the COP introduction, but even more so since lifts became mandatory, day and night what it used to be 30 y ago. Those days the lifts were only highlights not a lot of acrobatic elements.
A new young viewer, would have hard time understanding the dances before T&D era.
As far as how the season evolves, I was expecting a 3 team race in Europe (P/B, K/K and F/S) followed by a secure 4th for B/S.
The italians and brits injuries are instead paving the way to the european podium for B/S and for P/B for the Euro title.
I am not going to anticipate what will happen at Worlds yet, to early imo.
As I mentioned before, I have a soft spot for P/B who never medaled at the Europeans, so I will be very happy for them with any medal, not to speak about gold.
For the russian leaderboard, I was right from the get go, that I/K won't be able
to match yet B/S, who were imo the most likely russian team to get in the front. Ice dance in seniors needs a lot of more experience and "skill". The junior teams tend to have less speed, ice coverage and flow, therefore the PCS's will reflect that for their first few years.