- Joined
- Mar 25, 2008
Re Shen/Zhao, that's an opinion, not a fact Clearly they did not generate such a response from everyone. For me, I didn't like it when they played up the romantic/passionate aspect, and early in the Olympic season, I realized I enjoyed S/S's skating and programs much more. I was happy for Shen/Zhao for what they'd achieved, but for better and for worse, they were no longer the pair I'd fallen for all those years ago. As to why they felt the need to change - if you read The Second Mark, they worked to make their style more appealing to western judges and audiences because Bin Yao knew that doing so would make them winners; they tried pushing on the tech side, but still couldn't compete on the second mark. So they did what they had to do to win.I think the last two posts illustrate why T/M have not been named by most postesr in this thread. They were very good, but not inspiring; probably due in part to the fact that S/Z generated such a sustained emotional response from audiences no matter how they skated.
T/M were not romantic, and they didn't really have the ability to be playful, either, so their range seemed narrow and it wasn't easy to respond to them emotionally. But what they did, they did very well, and they were really, really strong when it mattered most in 2006. Also, Tatiana actually held her landing positions, which is something I miss in today's skating.