Pairs FS | Page 5 | Golden Skate

Pairs FS

DianaSelene

Medalist
Joined
Aug 2, 2011
Surely they're pretty and have this certain something, but all in all it is a rather big man with a rather small woman, like K/S or the Zhangs are too. I like the harmonic picture S/S represent and I admire Szolkowy for what he does despite of not having this advantage.

Aren't Volosozhar and Savchenko almost the same height? And height is not what makes me like or dislike a pair. It is their skating qualities.
 

aniela

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 23, 2009
Yeah, I noticed she'd filled out more. She looks good. An odd way to put it though if that's what they meant.
her wikipedia bio says she's grown.
Zhang Dan is the tallest currently-competing female pair skater. In 2008, she was 1.63 m and in October 2009, she reached 1.675 m,[6] surpassing Tatiana Totmianina (1.65 m) and ending in a virtual tie with Viktoria Borzenkova (1.68 m) who are both retired. As of August 2011, she is the tallest female in elite pair skating, being 1.695 m in height.

Aren't Volosozhar and Savchenko almost the same height? And height is not what makes me like or dislike a pair. It is their skating qualities.
according to their bio Savchenko is 1.53 m (5 ft 0 in) and Volosozhar is 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in), Szolkowy - 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) and Trankov - 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in).
 
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DianaSelene

Medalist
Joined
Aug 2, 2011
her wikipedia bio says she's grown.



according to their bio Savchenko is 1.53 m (5 ft 0 in) and Volosozhar is 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in), Szolkowy - 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) and Trankov - 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in).

So Florian was wrong in saying that Trankov has a small woman and Szolkowy has a bigger one. The ratio is exactly the same. They are proportional. He/she was wrong about the Zhangs as well.
 

Dots

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 18, 2007
I was surprised at how little I enjoyed V/T. After hearing all the raves I was expecting something out of the water, but they skated very sloppy. They almost fell out of the last spin for god's sake! How was this FS scored so close to S/S??? :confused2:
 

skateflower

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 5, 2011
Dan Zhang is too tall for an elite pairs/single skater. She's grown to almost 5'7.

Happy for S/S! V/T are overrated pair.
 

skateflower

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 5, 2011
I was surprised at how little I enjoyed V/T. After hearing all the raves I was expecting something out of the water, but they skated very sloppy. They almost fell out of the last spin for god's sake! How was this FS scored so close to S/S??? :confused2:

Because they're Russians.
 

lavender

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I like V/T but they are not better than S/S but it's going to happen where the only way S/S will be able to win is if V/T make a mistake just because...imo.
 

jcoates

Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2006
Female pair skaters used to be much closer in height to the male partners before twists ans throws became core pair elements. Babilonia and Gardner were virtually the same height once the finished puberty. So were Starbuck and Shelley and the Protopopovs. The difference is the Hao is a beast. He can manage the physical strain those more modern pair elements impose. In fact their unison, death spiral and quality of position in lifts have clearly improved. I never liked them much pre-injury, but I have to give them credit for the obvious work they've put into improving their presentation and on ice projection.
 

koatcue

Medalist
Joined
Aug 31, 2011
Country
Russia
I hate it when people write that someone wins because of being Russian/Japanese and so on...=/
 

skateflower

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 5, 2011
Female pair skaters used to be much closer in height to the male partners before twists ans throws became core pair elements. Babilonia and Gardner were virtually the same height once the finished puberty. So were Starbuck and Shelley and the Protopopovs. The difference is the Hao is a beast. He can manage the physical strain those more modern pair elements impose. In fact their unison, death spiral and quality of position in lifts have clearly improved. I never liked them much pre-injury, but I have to give them credit for the obvious work they've put into improving their presentation and on ice projection.

You're absolutely wrong to say they've improved unision, death spirals and lifts, etc. On the contrary, all of their elements prior to Dan's continuend growth spurt were 1st rate. Unfortunately, the quality has declined substantially since then. Even Han Zhang is a beast, it is still very very difficult to lift a girl who's 5'7!!!
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
VoloszharTrankov announced in presser they will not be at Russian nats. They wish to take time to heal from injuries (her leg, his groin)

twitter.com/LynnRutherford

Amazing isn't it.
they could have won if they didn't had the injuries and they still placed 2nd.
 

jcoates

Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2006
You're absolutely wrong to say they've improved unision, death spirals and lifts, etc. On the contrary, all of their elements prior to Dan's continuend growth spurt were 1st rate. Unfortunately, the quality has declined substantially since then. Even Han Zhang is a beast, it is still very very difficult to lift a girl who's 5'7!!!

My apologies. I never meant to offend your obviously superior sensibilities about pair skating. I obviously know nothing about what I'm talking about and neither does Peter Carruthers who agrees with me. We will defer to you henceforth. :bow:

Back to the real world, her line in her descent into the death spiral remains unbroken at the waist throughout and the speed is fairly continuous throughout the move. A real rarity among today's relatively poor basic positions in death spirals. Also, her height is not the real issue. It's her height relative to him and also her weight that matters most in lifting. He remains five inches taller than Dan and is significantly heavier than her. So maintain that she is not too tall to skate pairs and certainly not too tall for him. Also note that I never said lifting her would be easy, but rather that his size and strength enabled him to continue to perform the explosive pair moves apart from lifting. Pair lifts have been manageable for teams of far closer proportions for decades. However, massive twists and throws are enabled either by size differences or by the strength of the male partner (also note that their height difference is only slightly less than the other great Chinese pairs but the size difference is far greater).
 

demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Congrats to Robin and Aliona, V/T and K/S. All three teams skated beautifully. Very nicely skated program by Z/Z not as good as the other teams
but I think that they have improved quite a bit. All and all great skating from the pairs.
 

Mirunna

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Could someone explain to me why K/S scored 8.36 for CH while V/T scored 9.00 for CH?(with S/S scoring 9.07, just 0.07 over V/T). And the scores for transitions too. Thank you
 
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