Current Field of US Skaters

periperi said:

I kind of agree with that, but only with the ladies. I think that a Jeremy Abbott in his Olympic season shape has the ability to put significant pressure on the international scene. In terms of skating skills, he is still right up there with Patrick Chan and Takahiko Kozuka (and definitely Daisuke and Nobunari). His footwork sequences and transitions at their highest caliber and technical difficulty are also very comparable to Chan's, IMO.

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Even at his best, Abbott has never scored anywhere near what Chan, Takahashi and Kozuka have achieved. Jeremy lacks the power and command of the ice that the other three have. He never looks relaxed or confident on the ice, which Chan and Takahashi do with ease. Jeremy makes the difficult look difficult whereas, at their best, Chan and Takahashi make the difficult look easy.

I've seen all four skaters live, more than once and at the same competitions, and Jeremy Abbot is not in the same league as Patrick or Daisuke, even when he skates his best. Kozuka isn't quite there yet, but he's getting very close. I doubt that Abbott will be beating him again.

Dragonlady said:

Even at his best, Abbott has never scored anywhere near what Chan, Takahashi and Kozuka have achieved. Jeremy lacks the power and command of the ice that the other three have. He never looks relaxed or confident on the ice, which Chan and Takahashi do with ease. Jeremy makes the difficult look difficult whereas, at their best, Chan and Takahashi make the difficult look easy.

I've seen all four skaters live, more than once and at the same competitions, and Jeremy Abbot is not in the same league as Patrick or Daisuke, even when he skates his best. Kozuka isn't quite there yet, but he's getting very close. I doubt that Abbott will be beating him again.

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I do agree that when Jeremy gets nervous during a program it really shows. Watching the man skate is not comfortable, because unlike Taka's cool demeanor that automatically allows me to sit back and enjoy, Jeremy's deer in the headlights look makes me tense just watching him. It does kill command he could potentially garner over the audience, and on a technical level his skating suffers as well, particularly his jumps and speed. I probably focused too much on his potential (2010 Nats) rather than on how he's been scored on the international scene. You are right that his scores simply don't compare to the men you mentioned.

I will have to downright disagree that at least the certain qualities of his skating I pointed out before don't compare to Patrick, Takahiko (who is my personal fav if that matters ) or Daisuke, though.

While Abbott's footwork is definitely good, I wouldn't compare it to Chan's in terms of technical difficulty or execution, nor skating skills.

Many of us (or some of us) are old enough to remember when the US women were a major force in all international competitions. The US women won Olympic gold medals in 1956 (Tenley Albright), 1960 (Carol Heiss), 1968 (Peggy Fleming), 1976 (Dorothy Hamill), 1992 (Kristi Yamaguchi), 1998 (Tara Lapinski), and 2002 (Sarah Hughes). And, there were a large number of World gold, silver, and bronze medals won during those decades. For years, a US woman was always on the World and/or Olympic podium.

That hasn't been the case in recent years. Despite the best efforts of the American women, the fact is that the world has caught up - and in some cases bypassed - them. The Japanese, Korean, Canadian, and other skaters outside of the US are extremely talented, great competitors, and have fairly and squarely bypassed the US women in a number of competitions.

Forgive me, folks, but I'm not overly impressed with the quality of the US women these days. I just do not think Rachel Flatt will ever be at the same level as Mao Asada, nor will Alissa Czisny.

Figure skating championships are given to skaters who possess the complete package of athleticism, artistry, and grace. Some of the US skaters excel in one of these areas, but so far none have excelled in all of them.

Again, forgive me if this sounds critical. As an American, I would love to see one of our women skaters win the Worlds and Olympics. I just don’t see this happening, not with the current roster of US skaters and the current roster of international skaters.

Just my two cents, of course!

^ Yes, I've thought that ever since Kwan and Cohen retired. There have been some major shifts in the skating world- the loss of US dominance in ladies one, and the loss of European dominance in ice dance another.

periperi said:

I kind of agree with that, but only with the ladies. I think that a Jeremy Abbott in his Olympic season shape has the ability to put significant pressure on the international scene. In terms of skating skills, he is still right up there with Patrick Chan and Takahiko Kozuka (and definitely Daisuke and Nobunari). His footwork sequences and transitions at their highest caliber and technical difficulty are also very comparable to Chan's, IMO.

His recent boot problems are really what has stopped me from writing him off completely because I still think he has it in him. Of course, even with his boot problems solved there's still his issue with consistency... :think:

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I agree with what you mentioned about the level of skating skills of some skaters. To me, Abbott is definately the best US male skater even though Evan is the winner of olys.
Tell me if there are performances from any other skaters in 2009-2010 which were better than Abbott's at Nats 2010. Yes, he lacks in presence on ice or charisma compared to some of others.(However, this is really a subjective matter.)

I have always thought his skating quality and style were not rewarded accordingly for whatever reasons. And the boots problem really hindered him last season. So smaller jumps and problematic spins. As I see his recent pics, he seems to have trained seriously. I hope that he will have a breakthrough this season as Kozuka had last season.

I wouldn't say the Canadian women have passed up the American ladies. Except for Joannie Rochette the last few years Canada has no skaters as good as Mirai or Alissaor for that matter Agnes or Rachael. In fact our Junior skaters could almost had beaten the canadian Senior ladies at the Canadian nationals. Canada usually averages one good ladies skater a decade quite frankly.

Jammers said:

I wouldn't say the Canadian women have passed up the American ladies. Except for Joannie Rochette the last few years Canada has no skaters as good as Mirai or Alissaor for that matter Agnes or Rachael. In fact our Junior skaters could almost had beaten the canadian Senior ladies at the Canadian nationals. Canada usually averages one good ladies skater a decade quite frankly.

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I think that's being generous. I think a head-to-head comparison would have USA's #2 higher than Canada's #1 more often that not.

"Good" and "behind USA's #2" are not mutually exclusive, if USA's #2 is also good.

Jammers said:

I wouldn't say the Canadian women have passed up the American ladies. Except for Joannie Rochette the last few years Canada has no skaters as good as Mirai or Alissaor for that matter Agnes or Rachael. In fact our Junior skaters could almost had beaten the canadian Senior ladies at the Canadian nationals. Canada usually averages one good ladies skater a decade quite frankly.

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The state of Canadian women's figure skating is abyssmal at the moment. Cynthia Phaneuf is always going to struggle with new programs because of her height. Tall jumpers have no margin for error. It's incredible that's she's come back to this point but as for the rest, there is no one skating singles who is capable of landing all 5 triples on anything that approaches a consistent basis. No one in seniors or juniors. I'm told there are some girls in Novice who look promising. I haven't been this discouraged about the state of women's skating in Canada since Josee retired.