International Challenge Cup - The Hague, Mar 8-11 | Page 13 | Golden Skate

International Challenge Cup - The Hague, Mar 8-11

shine

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I guess I have to disagree with you on the PCS. Regardless of personal taste, you don't suddenly develop musicality and interpretation over 1 season. Caroline does good routines like great gymnast can do on time to the beat, but none of the choreographed movements are felt from the heart with an unique opinion from this to other program she perform in the past. If you switch the music off on all Carolina's program, they are hardly different.
The two programs she has this year, in particular, could not have been choreographed MORE to the music. I completley disagree with you on that. Kostner did not just develop musicality and interpretation over 1 season. She has been doing unique, interesting programs for years and has always been scored very well in the PCS despite her many inconsistent, sub-par performances in terms of jumping. Why else do you think so many used to think she's consistently "overscored"? Beginning last season though, she seems to have found inner peace and is skating with a calmness and confidence that we have not seen before, and can finally present her programs in a way that really welcomes the audience in to enjoy the performance and be absorbed by it. It only makes sense that her PCS go up even higher.

Ultimately, the whole idea PCS is suddenly the most important thing in figure skating is ridiculous, when their technical content do not match up to the standards of the past gold standard and most importantly to others they compete with IN the same competition. If this standard applies to the ladies, why arn't it applies to the men, where Jeremy and Daisuke certainly deserve higher PCS since they excel in the areas you mentioned.
As if Yuna Kim hasn't been a beneficiary of inflated PCS during her competitive days...
I still do not understand what point you are trying to make. You haven't given any example of why Kostner's PCS is overscored, and you seem to suggest that Kostner shouldn't been given the PCS she did because she doesn't have the highest level of jump content (namely, she did not include the lutz). Okay. But why was that Kim deserved her PCS when she didn't have a loop?
 
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lcd

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
the timing and selection of this event puzzles me
When there is so little money available to sponsor events, why host something of this importance and calibre so close 2 weeks before something like worlds?
 

Trewyn

Medalist
Joined
Dec 10, 2008
It's unusual for the Callenge Cup to gain this much attention in the first place! That's entirely due to all the elite skaters that suddenly showed up. I think the timing is awkward too, but otoh skaters often do GPs with one or two weeks in between: some may even prefer that kind of rhythm in competing. I'm sure that goes for Carolina, otherwise she wouldn't have elected to do *three* GPs. I think timing etc wouldn't make a big difference in sponsors or attendance. The big names may have helped, but even then, attendance is mostly people from the area who are into skating themselves. The crowd that shows up at a World Championship is entirely different (most of the skating fans I've met at Worlds don't skate themselves).
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
the timing and selection of this event puzzles me
When there is so little money available to sponsor events, why host something of this importance and calibre so close 2 weeks before something like worlds?
Because there are lots of skaters NOT going to Worlds and it's great for them to have opportunities like in Challenge Cup in The Hague to compete? :)

USFS usually sends young skaters who are JGP age-eligible for next season and who have not yet competed internationally to spring developmental competitions such as this one -- Leah Keiser and Jessica Pfund/AJ Reiss won the Junior Ladies and Junior Pairs gold medals, respectively, in The Hague and gained valuable experience there.

Off-Topic: I quickly skimmed and didn't read every post in this whole thread, and just wanted to make a correction to this post:
... but I take issue with the fact that in his [Adam Rippon's 2012 Nationals] FS which was considered a good performance for Adam, and got a huge score, he only managed to produce one clean 3a (and it wasn't a pretty one), he doubled the quad attempt, he's never landed or even rotated a quad in international competition before, and his first 3a was UR.
Rippon was credited with landing both of his 3A in his Nationals FS. The << you saw in his protocol was on the 2T part of his 3A combination. I give him props for at least trying the quad in his long program all season when he could have taken a safer route.

Back on topic... here are the video playlists for Challenge Cup organized by event: http://www.youtube.com/user/challengecup2012/videos?view=1
 

draqq

FigureSkatingPhenom
Record Breaker
Joined
May 10, 2010
If he doesn't have a quad, Jeremy needs to do triple-triples at the very least. There's no reason to leave two triple toes out of the program and lose about 5 points on base value alone by doing double toes.
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
You don't know that for sure. The idea could have been to get the crappy skate out of the way. ;)

Read my post #29 on 2012 Challenge Cup thread where I speculated the coaches probably wanted to sandwich a crappy skate between the Nationals and Worlds because Abbott and Alissa are one year on and one year off, as well as alternating beautiful and lousy performances at competitions. That's probably why they held a send off skate event for the club before the Nationals. Those evil twins have to be invited in turn!

Everybody always assumed Abbott tended to peak at the Nationals and bombed at Worlds and the Olympics. So last year he tried not to peak at the Nationals, ending up not making the Worlds Team but put out a good skate at the event after, the 4CC. I even joked that he should be selected for Worlds when he bombed the Nationals and kept away when he was glorious at the Nationals. :biggrin: Yeah, let his evil twin show up at this crappy little event so the good twin can compete at Worlds! He is a Gemini you know. ;)
 

mskater93

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 22, 2005
That seems to be exactly the case of good/bad/good/bad (except they've had a send off for a long time at DSC, one of my coaches took part back in the 90s).
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
That seems to be exactly the case of good/bad/good/bad (except they've had a send off for a long time at DSC, one of my coaches took part back in the 90s).

But it was the first for Alissa and Jeremy, wasn't it? Alissa, especially, bombed it and caused a lot of worries. This is actually not her year (even number) so she came in second at Nationals.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I don't have any inside information, but I have come to think that Jason and Yuka's strategy for Alissa is to have her skate as much as possible, period. Maybe the idea is if that she is out in front of a crowd all the time, then when a big event comes along she will be better able to treat it as "just another competition" and not get so nervous.
 

mikeko666

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
Can you give an example of where Kostner is being overscored and why you think so?

2008 Worlds. I don't think any explanation is necessary. She won the Silver with this sloppy performance.
http://youtu.be/qcC3MX1xVfM
BTW, where are the transitions? I see almost none except for 3Lo.

She didn't deserve the podium, but Nakano did.
http://youtu.be/0QvYddTt_bA
I still believe the UR/DG on her 3A and 3F were questionable. She deserved the Gold IMO.

Kim' PCS was ridiculously high in Vancouver, so was Kostner's in this competition.
Kostner will win the Gold next week as long as she can keep her butt of the ice no matter how low her jumping contents will be. The judges will try to inflate her PCS as much as possible. PCS is actually more effective than the presentation mark in the old 6.0 system as a place holder.
 
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NMURA

Medalist
Joined
Jul 14, 2010
I don't think Kostner was overscored in 2008. She "landed" seven triples including 3-3-2 and had the highest total TES (actually, Asada was the third). Kim was gifted in the SP by overlooking the underrotated 3Lz. If it was properly downgrated, she would be out of the final flight and that should be enough to put her off the podium.
 
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