Mens - Long Program

[Nadine]

I just want to point out once again the touching moment between the veteran Brian Joubert and the youngster Florent Amodio, seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me5IkAy7mwk

It brought a tear to my eye the first time I saw it and each time subsequently (I have it on my faves).

It reminds me of Gillis Grafstrom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillis_Grafstr%C3%B6m) passing the torch onto Karl Schafer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Sch%C3%A4fer), of course I'm sure it wasn't as touching as the moment between the French men, especially from what Sonja has said, but nevertheless a defining moment in the history of the sport.

On the contraire, I've never seen the American men or women act like that toward one another (nor the Russians), which makes it all the more special between the French, whom seem to value country & friendship more than the others. Jmho.

p.s. when Brian bowed toward Florent I almost cried, and then did when Florent grabbed Brian around the neck in a huge hug.

[wallylutz]

Amodio IS skating. See the skates on his feet? A ballerina wouldn't be able to move like that - they aren't trained to dance on ice in skates. If he was just standing around doing nothing that would be one thing but Amodio is creating a narrative and using his whole body. Are you also going to criticize Kurt Browning's Casablanca for the big "posing section" in his program?

PCS, as well as its predecessor, Presentation score under 6.0, strongly discourage and penalize skaters for doing excessive pausing or rest periods when they were not skating. Just because someone has skates on his/her feet, it doesn't mean he/she is skating. Precisely, Amodio stopped skating in way too many instances in his Free Skate in order to express his music. Some ballerina like Tessa Virtue can dance on ice with skates just fine.

Let's face it, no skater can get through a program by just standing around and doing nothing. You seem to have an excessively lenient standard that is inconsistent with the construction of a balance free skating program. Many people and observers felt that Florent Amodio were not demonstrating appropriate interpretative skills because several of the more "entertaining" parts of his program were done on two feet and/or standing still on ice, not once or twice, but numerous times. If one were to count the amount of time he spends doing those moves that were not actually skating, i.e. not relying on his skates and edges to glide across the ice while performing those upper body movements, it wouldn't be hard to conclusively demonstrate he spends quite a bit more time doing non-skating moves in his program vs. what other Top 10 men do on average.

As a result, his PCS, all five components must be penalized accordingly since the criteria and language used in the rules, specifically call for the skater to actually perform while skating, where the mere fact of wearing skates is insufficient to demonstrate.

[wallylutz]

sometimes amodio can make you forget he is wearing skates- and that can be a major compliment to him. Because of the moves he is doing on ice on skates are hard for some to do when they are not on skates. LOL. It is like when Domnina and Shabalin won the compulsary dance at the olympics. That wasn't politics it was because they were so good and easy on their skates that it seemed like were doing a tango on a floor not ice.

Then we are talking in purely subjective terms then. Because someone else could tell you he/she feels that's the longest 4 minutes 30 seconds in quite a while. I get that not everyone is used to watch figure skating in a dispassionate manner like most skating judges do. I could personally like a program very much but at the same time, the same skate is to be considered technically deficient in the first and second scores. I think I could enjoy Amodio's FS as a show program and would feel entertained by it. As a competitive program however, it's something to be strongly discouraged for the reasons stated previously.

[ImaginaryPogue]

I just want to point out once again the touching moment between the veteran Brian Joubert and the youngster Florent Amodio, seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me5IkAy7mwk

It brought a tear to my eye the first time I saw it and each time subsequently (I have it on my faves).

It reminds me of Gillis Grafstrom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillis_Grafstr%C3%B6m) passing the torch onto Karl Schafer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Sch%C3%A4fer), of course I'm sure it wasn't as touching as the moment between the French men, especially from what Sonja has said, but nevertheless a defining moment in the history of the sport.

On the contraire, I've never seen the American men or women act like that toward one another (nor the Russians), which makes it all the more special between the French, whom seem to value country & friendship more than the others. Jmho.

p.s. when Brian bowed toward Florent I almost cried, and then did when Florent grabbed Brian around the neck in a huge hug.

It was a very lovely moment, wasn't it. The bow, the hug (and lets toss Morozov into that as well - there's such pride in his eyes), Amodio's glee - it was a great moment.

I will say that I found Charlie and Meryl interrupting Virtue and Moir's interview for a congratulations hug was also awesome.

[prettykeys]

I just want to point out once again the touching moment between the veteran Brian Joubert and the youngster Florent Amodio, seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me5IkAy7mwk
...
p.s. when Brian bowed toward Florent I almost cried, and then did when Florent grabbed Brian around the neck in a huge hug.

Eeee, that makes my eyes a little wet, too. Ditto with the hug for Morozov, as ImaginaryPogue mentioned.

However, I must say I agree with colleen:

About Amodio...Last year was the first time I'd seen him and I was very excited about his emergence. His jumps were good ,he was expressive , musical .. a bit unpolished , but just dripping with potential. I didn't much like his programs . Well, the FP particularly sticks in my mind . I thought it was a bit juvenile , relied too much on his acting ability ,and I'm firmly against face paint, glued on moustaches and such in competition skating ( exhibitions are another matter ). I remember commenting to my sister ( my main watching buddy ) ..What a talent..imagine if he gets some better choreography next year !

I was upset when I heard he went to Morozov, because I don't like NM's coaching style generally , and although he can have some very nice choreographic flashes , I usually dislike his work. (For many reasons that I won't go into here ,not wanting to take the thread off on another tack.)

So while I heartily agree with blades as to Florent's talent and abilities , I feel these are being used in the cheapest , easiest way ( which makes me sad to see ).I'm afraid this could mean that we'll just see more of the same in future which will be boring for me and will stunt Florent's development.

With this victory in his pocket, I guess Florent will stay with Morozov for a long time, a prospect I am not happy with. I don't like the patched-up, disjoint quality of his LP this year; there is no unified theme or concept...feels like he's doing 2-3 skits on the ice. Florent is marvelous at what he does, but his talent is being wasted on hideous choreography.