Men Free Skates

[evangeline]

Patrick's performance in 4CC was not that great due to the altitude. If you compare his 4CC performance with his national and GPF performance, you will notice his speed in 4CC was a bit slower. He was visibly tired after the program. Aslo, different judges will have score differently. Let's take this factor into account.

Patrick's 4CC performance was not that great? That's certainly a revisionist perspective I haven't quite seen before. If so, I do wonder how he scored a season's best of 185.99 in Colorado, a score that remains the highest among all the men this season. Personally, I thought Patrick performed very, very well at 4CC--for one, he was not visibly struggling to catch up with the music, and certainly skated with more conviction, confidence and purpose than he did at Worlds. In terms of execution--no contest.

By the way, speed is part of SS criteria, not PE.

[romanoff81]

Dai was still slower than him and skated a less difficult program, some judges i think just dislike his style as well.

[Boeing787]

Well, it's not like the judges are always 100% correct either. Remember that professionally-trained judges used to give high 7s and 8s in Transitions to Plushenko despite the fact that he admitted he hardly had any?

But that was in Euro and years ago when COP was just introduced. Now the system is more mature. Patrick has been beating Dai consistently in the past two years. Dai also lost to Hanyu this time in LP. What does this tell you? It's not like he is a new comer with no reputation. There is some weakness about his skating. I am not an expert but I have gut feeling. His skating lacks the force I sense in Patrick's. Patrick's skating is grand.

[Bluebonnet]

Dai was still slower than him and skated a less difficult program, some judges i think just dislike his style as well.

Probably because Dai skated "small" but Patrick skated "big".

[evangeline]

But that was in Euro and years ago when COP was just introduced. Now the system is more mature. Patrick has been beating Dai consistently in the past two years. He also lost to Hanyu this time in LP. What does this tell you? It's not like he is a new comer with no reputation.

You must not have seen Plushenko's marks at this year's Euros. Or at 2010 Euros.

I have no issue with Patrick beating Daisuke consistently for the past two years. He has been the better skater in past competitions. However, I'm just not sure how bringing up that point is supposed to justify Patrick beating Daisuke so thoroughly in PCS at this particular LP at this particular Worlds. Aren't judges supposed to mark on how skaters perform in a particular competition and not who has been beating who in the past? They are professionally trained, after all.

And what does bringing up Yuzuru accomplish? I'm talking about PCS here, and Daisuke beat Yuzuru on PCS. Yuzuru had the highest TES fair and square.

[Bluebonnet]

I'm hearing mixed reactions to Patrick's score from the French audience.

Have you noticed how many Japanese and Japanese flags in the audience?

[skatinginbc]

Probably Dai skated "small" but Patrick skated "big".

I agree with you in terms of the technical aspects (e.g., jumps) where Patrick picked up the huge GOEs and won "rightfully" in my mind. Can you elaborate more about it? I think some people would like to know why Chan beat Dai in GOEs with such a great margin.
I don't agree with you in terms of presentation (i..e, PE, CH, IN). Dai's presentation is bigger than life. I wonder how many people noticed that Chan had been behind the music a while had he not finished late and received a time deduction. That shows how "good" the choreography was. It mesmerized the judges with skillful movements that did not necessarily have to go with the music.

[hikki]

Anyway, I think Koz's PCS also show that if you skate in the earlier group, your PCS marks are automatically going to be lower than those skating in later groups. That's why we have skaters with low technical content - but stunning basics for example - recieving SS marks that say the opposite because they can never get into later groups in competition. How can judges be consistent if this is how things roll?

I was in the audience for both SP and LP and I was amazed how great Kozuka's skating is. Especially in the 6-minute warm-up on Friday Kozuka was so fast it felt as though he only needed half the time everyone else does to skate from one end to the other. And that gorgeous eagle!

[Bluebonnet]

All Asian sweep.

What do you mean? I thought Chan is a Canadian. This made me think about 1998 Olympics when Lipinski won gold and Michelle Kwan got silver, some American medias wrote: American beat Chinese.

[Ryan O]

I found the results of the Men's long program very disappointing. It's really too bad that Brian Joubert skated a perfect long program, and ending up finishing 4th. He really deserved to finish 3rd. I don't understand why someone who made mistakes in his short program and was in 7th was moved all the way up to 3rd with a MASSIVE score even though he fell in his long program. Hanyu skated very well, but for him to have received one of the highest scores of the entire season was too much.

[Becki]

I found the results of the Men's long program very disappointing. It's really too bad that Brian Joubert skated a perfect long program, and ending up finishing 4th. He really deserved to finish 3rd. I don't understand why someone who made mistakes in his short program and was in 7th was moved all the way up to 3rd with a MASSIVE score even though he fell in his long program. Hanyu skated very well, but for him to have received one of the highest scores of the entire season was too much.

You have to look at it this way. This is no longer the 6.0 era, where a 7th place in the SP will not land you on the podium.

Yuzuru placed 7th, but he was only 8 points off the podium. This would've been different if he placed 7th, and was 20 points off the podium. A 8 point difference is immaterial in the grand scheme of CoP.

He fell on a required element, so it was -1 from his total score. Patrick fell, and I think he got -2. So these falls are reflected in the total scores.

[Becki]

What do you mean? I thought Chan is a Canadian. This made me think about 1998 Olympics when Lipinski won gold and Michelle Kwan got silver, some American medias wrote: American beat Chinese.

Patrick Chan is Canadian in nationality, but Chinese in ethnicity. If you are Chinese, you are also Asian. Therefore, Patrick is Asian.

Daisuke and Yuzuru are Japanese - they are also Asian.

[Ryan O]

Florent was ahead of Brian in the lp and wind up 4th place over Brian so maybe they wanted him on the podium.

Yes, Brian should have been on the podium in the bronze position, not Hanyu. Amodio finished 4th in the long, but 5th overall. Brian was the most consistent of this group between both the short and the long.

[Mathman]

What do you mean? I thought Chan is a Canadian. This made me think about 1998 Olympics when Lipinski won gold and Michelle Kwan got silver, some American medias wrote: American beat Chinese.

In fairness to the Seattle Times, however, the main headline was, "Lipinski wins gold." And then the subheadline was, "American beats Kwan."

The way it came out some people thought they were saying Michelle wasn't American, but what the newspaper intended was to identify Tara's nationality. The general public was well acquainted with Michelle and knew that she was an American -- in fact, that she was the American favored for gold. Tara was not nearly so well known outside of skating circles. Maybe some people would think she was Polish or something, by her name.

I bet the Times wishes they had said, "Fellow Anerican beats Kwan."

[aftertherain]

Patrick Chan is Canadian in nationality, but Chinese in ethnicity. If you are Chinese, you are also Asian. Therefore, Patrick is Asian.

Daisuke and Yuzuru are Japanese - they are also Asian.

To get all technical, it'd be "All skaters-of-Asian-descent sweep".

Some people find it offensive if you discount his Canadian nationality. I don't blame them, but I don't blame those who don't find it offensive either.

The "American beats Kwan" title though ... totally different story.