Men Free Skates

[hikki]

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

You seem to be insinuating that the negative reaction towards Chan was mostly from the Japanese, but I can tell you that in the section I was in, where about 1/5th of the audience was Japanese (southwest corner, second row), the booing was coming from the non-Japanese crowd. The Japanese were sitting rather awkwardly. Well except I booed loud when the score came out (defo not during the interview/ medal ceremony), but I've been living overseas too long. A French lady sitting next to me with a Canadian husband and I talked, and she was booing and I told him no disrespect to Canada. So that's that in my section.

Being amongst the passionate crowd was the best experience of live skate events I've ever had!! I cried and had goosebumps for one skater after another. KVP, Joubert, Hannyu and Takahashi. This is after all why I'm a fan of this sport!

I admire Chan's skating, I spoke to him on Friday and seemed like a super nice guy. I felt goosebumps watching him and Takahashi fly so fast in the 6-minute warm-up on Friday. But last night, I felt disconnected. Blame my potential patriotic bias etc, but that's how I felt. And seeing PE and IN in the protocols now, I'm thinking were the judges in the same building last night, really?

[Puchi]

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.

Wasn't it “American beats Kwan.” ?

[hikki]

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

This I agree.

[Ryan O]

The crowd was also booing when Joubert did not surpass Yuzuru to take the bronze medal...which shows just how unreliable crowd opinion really is.

Sorry, but I agree with the crowd on that. Hanyu was the most over-marked skater of the night - he got Patrick Chan level inflation. No way should he have moved up from 7th all the way to 3rd and surpassed Joubert considering Joubert skated a flawless program and Hanyu fell in the middle of his.

[Becki]

Sorry, but I agree with the crowd on that. Hanyu was the most over-marked skater of the night - he got Patrick Chan level inflation. No way should he have moved up from 7th all the way to 3rd and surpassed Joubert considering Joubert skated a flawless program and Hanyu fell in the middle of his.

Using your argument, Chan shouldn't have won with his falls too, right?

It's call CoP. It wasn't a major fall, and he lost a mark for it already. The rest of his program just racked up the points very well, and he's a very expressive skater.

[Olympia]

You seem to be insinuating that the negative reaction towards Chan was mostly from the Japanese, but I can tell you that in the section I was in, where about 1/5th of the audience was Japanese (southwest corner, second row), the booing was coming from the non-Japanese crowd. The Japanese were sitting rather awkwardly. Well except I booed loud when the score came out (defo not during the interview/ medal ceremony), but I've been living overseas too long. A French lady sitting next to me with a Canadian husband and I talked, and she was booing and I told him no disrespect to Canada. So that's that in my section.

Being amongst the passionate crowd was the best experience of live skate events I've ever had!! I cried and had goosebumps for one skater after another. KVP, Joubert, Hannyu and Takahashi. This is after all why I'm a fan of this sport!

I admire Chan's skating, I spoke to him on Friday and seemed like a super nice guy. I felt goosebumps watching him and Takahashi fly so fast in the 6-minute warm-up on Friday. But last night, I felt disconnected. Blame my potential patriotic bias etc, but that's how I felt. And seeing PE and IN in the protocols now, I'm thinking were the judges in the same building last night, really?

Thanks for the in-person report! And I'm glad to hear that it wasn't the Japanese who were booing. (I had just assumed it was the locals, or the general audience, not a particular nationality who were booing, but I'm glad to get confirmation of that.) One of the lovely aspects of skating is that people who attend live events might have a chance to meet the athletes, or at least to see them close up. I once went to Wimbledon, and there was no question of meeting any of the players. And that was long enough ago so security wasn't an issue.

[Ryan O]

Using your argument, Chan shouldn't have won with his falls too, right?

It's call CoP. It wasn't a major fall, and he lost a mark for it already. The rest of his program just racked up the points very well, and he's a very expressive skater.

I know it's COP, but that's one of the problems with the COP system, and one of the reasons the audience was booing tonight. It's also part of the more serious problem of why viewership is declining for figure skating and why t.v. coverage has also been cut. The mainstream networks in the U.S. (eg. NBC, ABC) didn't even cover the Worlds this year.

[skatingfan04]

Sorry, but I agree with the crowd on that. Hanyu was the most over-marked skater of the night - he got Patrick Chan level inflation. No way should he have moved up from 7th all the way to 3rd and surpassed Joubert considering Joubert skated a flawless program and Hanyu fell in the middle of his.

Hard to call what Joubert did a program. All I saw were a bunch of jumps and 4 minutes of skating on two feet.

I'm totally disgusted with the crowd's reaction to Chan. How dare they, or anyone, boo a skater? These are all extremely talented athletes, and they deserve nothing but respect. Disagreeing with the results is one thing, but that was just rude. I've never seen any skater booed anywhere before. And it's not like Chan won by 30 points, or like he fell four times. He also had much more jumping content than Takahashi, and he didn't skate badly at all. That was so uncalled for.

[evangeline]

Sorry, but I agree with the crowd on that. Hanyu was the most over-marked skater of the night - he got Patrick Chan level inflation. No way should he have moved up from 7th all the way to 3rd and surpassed Joubert considering Joubert skated a flawless program and Hanyu fell in the middle of his.

It's not like Brian Joubert was completely clean either. He tripled his 4S and under-rotated a 3 Lo, which decimated his base value (Joubert's BV was 71.68 while Hanyu's was 79.25). Hanyu also put higher-scoring jumping passes (notably: the 3A-3T, 3Lz-2T-2T in the second half of his program, which gave him a lot more extra points due to the 10% bonus. To contrast, Joubert's second-half jump elements were 3S-2T, 3Lo<, 3Lz and a 3F-2A sequence. Then there is also the fact that fact that Hanyu had a LOT more transitions and connecting moves than Joubert throughout his LP.....that boosts his GOE and also the TR and CH mark.

[Mathman]

I know it's COP, but that's one of the problems with the COP system, and one of the reasons the audience was booing tonight. It's also part of the more serious problem of why viewership is declining for figure skating and why t.v. coverage has also been cut. The mainstream networks in the U.S. (eg. NBC, ABC) didn't even cover the Worlds this year.

Agree. I think the ISU has pretty much abandoned the idea of figure skating as a spectator sport any more.

[Olympia]

Agreed. I don't care what anyone thinks of the judging system, the athletes should be off-limits for that kind of behavior.

There was one incident of booing that I have seen footage of from years ago. It was in 1974 or thereabouts, and a skater preceding Dorothy Hamill was given low marks. The audience started whistling, which in Europe is equivalent to booing, and Hamill thought they were whistling at her. She started to cry and had to leave the rink. Finally she pulled herself together and came out to skate. So booing might not just distress the particular skater but might also upset another skater completely unrelated to the first one. It's bad sportsmanship on every level.

[Bluebonnet]

Wasn't it “American beats Kwan.” ?

Probably. I don't remember the exact, so I didn't use the quote " ".


I haven't finished reading this loooooooong thread yet. But I just like to say this for now: Congratulations to Chan, Takahashi, and Hanyu! I love all these three's skating! Proud for Chan. Highly respect for Takahashi. Thrilled for Hanyu! Sad for Joubert that he didn't get onto the podium. But he skated the way he could be proud of himself.

[Skater Boy]

If we step back i wonder if how childish and silly we all look. First, who really cares about figure skating compared to most sports - sad to say but true. Second, this isn't life or death. Third, do we forget we are dealing with real people with real feelings. Patrick had 1 fall and a deduction for the music issue. But he did 2 quads and a 3 axel along with some great spins and footwork. As has been argued he does COP well Some of the things I think the judges can see but not the average joe or josephine is that he did skate faster than Takahashi, he has wonderful transitions and skating skills and it is not like he killed Hanyu, Takahashi - it was close. Takahahsi skated extremely well and |i like his performance better but if you break down what the judges see I can see what Patrick won. I doubt all these judges could constanatly be wrong. The problem is we don't understand cop We are but mere armchair coaches.

[FTnoona]

Just wondering, is it because the sport is figure skating that people are so shocked by athletes getting booed? Talented athletes in other sports are booed all the time, ie basketball. I mean Lakers' fans boo their own team all the time, not just opposing teams. I saw only tv versions of the medal ceremony and no fancams yet, but from the tv versions it didn't sound so much like booing just more like loud noise. Was it that more audible live or on other live streams? How is the crowd's reaction different from all the fighting about Dai and Chan? The way I view it is that we are just booing these skaters behind their backs and some people sure do meaner things than just boo them...

[doctor2014]

both French guys royally gifted on PCS, would have scored atleast 5 points lower anywhere else.

I don't know how any plausible judge judging fairly could give Amodio a 9 for categories like SS and CH like that one judge tonight. If Amodio receives a 9 in those categories, a skater like Takahashi should receive an 11 or 12.

The most overmarked skaters at this competition were Amodio and Joubert, esp. Amodio. So much posing in their programs, even performing to music with words but not getting deductions! Such home advantage!!! They did much easier programs than Patrick, Hanyu, and Daisuke, so of course it was much easier for them to skate seemingly “clean” programs, and yet they were still not really clean.

I understand that the home crowd wanted French skaters to podium, and I’m sooo glad that P/B won bronze, but Amodio and Joubert… Come on, they did not deserve those scores they got!