Can Takahashi Close The Gap On Patrick Chan?

Actually I think Patrick's biggest rival in Sochi could be Hanyu. With a young man, you never know what to expect. He might improve drastically just like Patrick did in the past several years.

^^^Agree!

Bluebonnet said:

^^^Agree!

Click to expand...

Me 2 ..... Two years is good enough for any upcoming skaters to improve if they set their hearts and minds towards the goal. The Sochi gold is not for Patrick to take.

Mathman said:

Or...we could all get together and give Paula a prize.

Paula created and sustains this board by thousands of hours of hard work and thousands of dollars out of her own pocket, just to give us a place to chat about figure skating.

Click to expand...

:thumbsup: Thank you so much, Paula! This is a great forum!

Who is Paula? Sorry, I am an ignorant newbie to GS? Anything to give me a peep into the life and inspiration of Paula?
Anyway, agree that a prize should be given to Paula as GS has given me the opportunity to know some 'virtual FS fans' and share rumours, horror stories, jokes and whatever under anonymity.
But I still think one of us should get a prize for being the last one to post in this thread too.

Paula is the board owner. She posts as gsk8. (Generally when she is giving us a link to the articles in the GS newsletter and GS front page.) As you say, we are anonymous on the boards, unless we choose to be otherwise.

Thanks Doris. Paula's labour of love is our gain indeed. :thumbsup:

dorispulaski said:

Paula is the board owner. She posts as gsk8. (Generally when she is giving us a link to the articles in the GS newsletter and GS front page.) As you say, we are anonymous on the boards, unless we choose to be otherwise.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Paula! This board is a wonderful place for us skating maniacs to congregate. Besides being fun, for me it's been like college for skate fans.

Olympia said:

Thanks, Paula! This board is a wonderful place for us skating maniacs to congregate. Besides being fun, for me it's been like college for skate fans.

Click to expand...

^^^^That's exactly what I want to say!

let me add my thanks and admiration!

I might be late for the bus, but let me thank to Paula, too!

I have always enjoyed all the articles on this Golden Skate during my lurking period, especially in the earlier years and learned a lot about figure skating; e.g. its trend, rules, insightful information on foreign skaters that I seldom know, through these articles.

It also helped me a great deal to understand the results thru pre and post competitions reports.
It was and is still a great vehicle for me to learn writing/reading English, too. Thanks a million!

In some ways when I read this post I think, hmm in many ways it was Chan closing the gap and passing Daisuke. Chan sort of played Dai's game just with less style. Chan is beatable; I actually detest the fact people villanize him as though he is the root of all evil or causing some kind of unfair or unjust placements. If that is the case maybe we should villainize Carolina Kostner the woman who could win worlds with no triple lutz and just one triple flip. This the woman who constantly lucks out on the podium. But we should probably not villainize anyone = they are all beatable if people can outskate them Dai has all the tools - pcs, choreography, program and jumps =- it's just ggetting them there when it counts.

Skater Boy said:

In some ways when I read this post I think, hmm in many ways it was Chan closing the gap and passing Daisuke. Chan sort of played Dai's game just with less style. Chan is beatable; I actually detest the fact people villanize him as though he is the root of all evil or causing some kind of unfair or unjust placements. If that is the case maybe we should villainize Carolina Kostner the woman who could win worlds with no triple lutz and just one triple flip. This the woman who constantly lucks out on the podium. But we should probably not villainize anyone = they are all beatable if people can outskate them Dai has all the tools - pcs, choreography, program and jumps =- it's just ggetting them there when it counts.

Click to expand...

So true:thumbsup:, but some people just can't see it, what can we do?:disapp:

Olympia said:

if someone gave me the magical power to look like anyone I chose, "Jennifer Aniston" would not be the first words out of my mouth.

Click to expand...

From another woman, I totally agree.

Skater Boy said:

In some ways when I read this post I think, hmm in many ways it was Chan closing the gap and passing Daisuke. Chan sort of played Dai's game just with less style. Chan is beatable; I actually detest the fact people villanize him as though he is the root of all evil or causing some kind of unfair or unjust placements. If that is the case maybe we should villainize Carolina Kostner the woman who could win worlds with no triple lutz and just one triple flip. This the woman who constantly lucks out on the podium. But we should probably not villainize anyone = they are all beatable if people can outskate them Dai has all the tools - pcs, choreography, program and jumps =- it's just ggetting them there when it counts.

Click to expand...

The problem has been that Chan has been consistently held up by the judges. Takahashi is a great skater and a great performer. He is not some immature kid who knows no basics. Recently Chan with 4 mistakes was placed over Daisuke who made just one mistake. Chan has great basics, but Daisuke is not a third rate skater to put him below Chan for THAT performance. It's biased judging that causes anti- reactions from some fans. When Chan makes mistakes, he has to pay for them. Unless that happens he is unbeatable because even Chan knows that no matter how anyone skates, he is going to win. No pressure at all.

Vash01 said:

The problem has been that Chan has been consistently held up by the judges. Takahashi is a great skater and a great performer. He is not some immature kid who knows no basics. Recently Chan with 4 mistakes was placed over Daisuke who made just one mistake. Chan has great basics, but Daisuke is not a third rate skater to put him below Chan for THAT performance. It's biased judging that causes anti- reactions from some fans. When Chan makes mistakes, he has to pay for them. Unless that happens he is unbeatable because even Chan knows that no matter how anyone skates, he is going to win. No pressure at all.

Click to expand...

They have competed head to head three times this season. In which event(s) do you think Takahashi should have won? If we go back to last season too, did Chan win GPF and Worlds over Takahashi because he was held up?

I am not the hugest Chan fan - though I think he is quite an all around skater but I can see how he can beat Tak even with some errors. Its like how Lambiel could win even over Buttle who ithought was undermarked comparatively. I guess you are saying the same thing except it is Tak. I just can't figure out why such outrage and none about Carolina being constantly held up or how come no one is attacking Davis and White - they aren't built for the spanish type skates yet the judges hold their marks over those including Virute and Moir who are much more suited to such music and it should show at least in interpretation and then what about S and S in pairs; they often make a mistake and get held up over the Russians (both V and T and K and S) Obviously the majority of the judges see things the majority of don't agree with. Skating is subjective and it all depend what side you are on.,

Vash01 said:

The problem has been that Chan has been consistently held up by the judges. Takahashi is a great skater and a great performer. He is not some immature kid who knows no basics. Recently Chan with 4 mistakes was placed over Daisuke who made just one mistake. Chan has great basics, but Daisuke is not a third rate skater to put him below Chan for THAT performance. It's biased judging that causes anti- reactions from some fans. When Chan makes mistakes, he has to pay for them. Unless that happens he is unbeatable because even Chan knows that no matter how anyone skates, he is going to win. No pressure at all.

Click to expand...

Based on the above, I read your conclusions as follows:
1) Dai is not third rate skater hence he should be placed above Chan - how does not being a third rate skater ensures that noone else should be placed above that skater?
2) Dai made one mistake and Chan made four hence Dai should be placed above Chan - a competition is not just based on the no. of mistakes one made. The type of mistakes, the marks allocated to each mistake and the total no. of marks which the skaters have accummulated in other components. (Think how you are being marked in an essay assignment, if you have done any before. You always start off your assignment by understanding the set of marking criteria and the marks allocated to each criteria. Your final marks is highly dependent on how well your essay meets these criteria and how much you get out of each criteria .. not soley on how many errors you made.) I hope I have not confused you.
3) Dai is not an immature and know no basics skater - I am not disputing that but does it mean that a matured and capable skater cannot lose in a competition?
4) It is biased and caused anti-reactions from fans - just because Chan won does not mean the judges were partial. If all fans think like that, all judges are indeed partial because in every competition there will be winners and losers. Chan has lost to Dai and other skaters before so as an unhappy fan, shall I blame the judges for being partial? Why is it that it only when Chan wins that the judges are partial but when he lost, the judges are impartial? Anti-reactions? Perhaps as poster pointed out, unhappy fans should throw eggs at the judges after the competition if it makes the fans of the losing skaters feel better?
5) What makes you think that Chan 'didn't pay for his mistakes'? Marks were deducted.
6) Chan knows he will win no matter how anyone skates - did he tell you that? Surely only a fool will think so. It doesn't take an Enstein brain to know that competition is every fluid and noone is unbeatable forever. Winning today does not guarantee winning tomorrow. You may not improve, but other skaters will.

I hope your favourite skater does not make excuses like you do because no skater will ever win any competition by constantly blaming the judges for losing.

Skater boy was correct in pointing out the reverse: It is not that Dai has not caught up...it is that Patrick caught up in 2011 because of his quads. Don't forget that Dai beat Patrick pre-2011. Similarly, Dai (or any other skaters) can catch up and beat Patrick in future. More likely 2013 and beyond because it takes some time to improve one's skills.

For your information, I like Dai and Patrick but that does not mean I have to border on hysteria and accusations on judges' partiality when my favourite skaters lose to the other skaters.

Vash01 said:

The problem has been that Chan has been consistently held up by the judges. Takahashi is a great skater and a great performer. He is not some immature kid who knows no basics. Recently Chan with 4 mistakes was placed over Daisuke who made just one mistake. Chan has great basics, but Daisuke is not a third rate skater to put him below Chan for THAT performance. It's biased judging that causes anti- reactions from some fans. When Chan makes mistakes, he has to pay for them. Unless that happens he is unbeatable because even Chan knows that no matter how anyone skates, he is going to win. No pressure at all.

Click to expand...

Outstanding post and very well said on all counts. All it will do is continue draining the almost non existent popularity of figure skating to virtually nothing in North America, so they cook their own goose it turns out. Funny how even Golden Boy Chan complained about sometimes not being able to afford a taxi ride home earlier this year, so even he isnt really benefitting from the sheer stupidity that figure skating is spitting out (especialy regarding scoring) these days.

pangtongfan said:

Outstanding post and very well said on all counts. All it will do is continue draining the almost non existent popularity of figure skating to virtually nothing in North America, so they cook their own goose it turns out. Funny how even Golden Boy Chan complained about sometimes not being able to afford a taxi ride home earlier this year, so even he isnt really benefitting from the sheer stupidity that figure skating is spitting out (especialy regarding scoring) these days.

Click to expand...

Well, why are you watching and talking figure skating if you hate figure skating? Turn off the t.v. I don't think the skating officials will miss you. What stupidity is the figure skating world spitting out? Tough elements where your favourites cannot master? Too bad if they are not up to mark.
And what has Chan's saving on taxi fare got to do with so called figure skating 'stupidity'. In fact, I like the fact that he is prudent.