Team Event Too Much? | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Team Event Too Much?

Joined
Jan 22, 2004
I was horrified at the thought. It seemed more in line with the 'skate and singer' crap that has replaced competitive skating on TV. But I'm enjoying it, and I get to see more skating. I mostly ignore the points... So I hope they keep it.
One thing I don't care for are the stony-faced teams when the competition is on the ice. I understand medals are involved, but at this point, it doesn't seem like a meaningful event yet. Would it really hurt for the teams to show some support, and at least applaud at the end of each skate? They seem like pouting children, and are on TV, as the camera pans by.
Dare I say - it looks Putin-ish!

I agree!

But we also got this gem:
Mishin, Morozov, Zhulin, Plushenko and Avdish cheering for V/T :biggrin:
 

bekalc

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
I see teams applauding. Russia is going crazy applauding. Ksensia even did a little happy dance.
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
i don't think skaters are taking it that seriously. ...

It is a new event and even though people want to do well in it maybe deep down inside they just don't give it that much weight... yet. ...

To avoid fatigue before the team skating segments, a number of skaters (including first-time Olympians, such as Ashley Wagner) forfeited marching in the opening ceremony -- a once- or twice-in-a-lifetime dream experience for skaters. I'd say that they are taking the team event seriously.

ETA, I should have said a dream experience that happens only once/twice/thrice or four times (how could I forget Plushenko :eek:?) in a skater's lifetime, but you get the idea. ;)
 

bekalc

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
To avoid fatigue before the team skating segments, a number of skaters (including first-time Olympians, such as Ashley Wagner) forfeited marching in the opening ceremony -- a once- or twice-in-a-lifetime dream experience for skaters. I'd say that they are taking the team event seriously.

I know and every big athlete except for the Chinese and German pairs did at least one event, if they thought they even had an outside chance at a medal. But it just means nothing. Yes I think its new that its difficult to get into that mindset. But its an Olympic medal! As both Kwan, Tara and Johnny said.
 

Alex

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 4, 2008
The team event definitely needs some improvements. For example, change the marks in the LP to 10-8-6-4-2 instead of 10-9-8-7-6 (the way it is now, the SP means MUCH MORE than the LP, which makes no sense), and free the federations to use WHICHEVER skaters they want, no matter if they skate in the single events or not.

If these things are fixed, the team event is a great idea.
 

juppiter

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
I am enjoying the team event. It's interesting because there is less pressure so we should see more risk-taking. But with some skaters who crack under pressure (e.g. Ashley Wagner) we are seeing clean performances because of the pressure to do well for the team.

Like with COP, it will take a few years to adapt and strategize for it, but in the next Olympics some nations will have their strategy for it down.
 

yuki

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
at one point there wasn't more than one or two downhill events, too... sport changes and evolves. Those that don't get left behind and die. The Team Event has caught people's attention. If the elitist fans can't get on board with it - and that's what it sounds like with the whole "we don't need it. it's just a way to get more medals" talk I've read by fans the last few days - then the fandom will just have to change too.

Yes, because the opportunity to get more medals is just TERRIBLE. :rolleye:
The one gripe I have with the team event so far is that the podium is a bit predictable. Then again, it's the same in gymnastics - everyone expected the 2012 Women's Olympic podium to be three of: USA, Russia, Romania and China, but that didn't make the competition any less exciting to watch.

Bring it on. The more the merrier.

:clap:
I'm glad that more athletes get the chance to have the Olympic experience (see Matthew Parr of GB, who only competed in this event).
 

louisa05

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
I am not saying the skaters are whining. I'm saying that the fans that are, are not helping the sport.

I think we over estimate our own importance.

And the once every four years fans actually have no idea what's going on. At our neighborhood breakfast place this morning, the woman at the next table was holding up the sports page with a pic of Julia on it and explaining to her husband and daughter that she had won the silver medal last night and beat YuNa Kim. She also did a quad.

The worst part of that story was that she claimed she watched it and that is the information she walked away from her television with.
 

Iscariot

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 18, 2009
I am just curious that all team russia got personal best some point and none of the others did..except kostner
 

Angryyew

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 16, 2014
I'd like to see the team event be after the individual events, much like relays usually come after the individual races. It would remove the chance of injury or fatigue affecting individual chances and provide a shot at redemption for skaters who have disappointing individual results.

Plus the kind of lighter atmosphere of it seems more fitting as a closing out the Olympics sort of thing. I'd like to see it stay, but I think the format needs tweaking. The long program rounds are rather anti-climatic with the current format, since there isn't much room for placements to change. I think it either needs to be weighted higher or they should just add scores together or something.

The judging needs to be addressed as well, though whether that's unique to the team event or will carry into individuals remains to be seen.
 

Near

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 25, 2013
Country
Canada
The format definitively needs to be tweaked to avoid the gold medal essentially being decided on the first day, but having a team event is definitively a good thing. There was a lot of good skating over the event, including some unexpected gems - Reynolds, Kostner, Pluschenko (yes, I had written him off) - heck, even Parr gave a good performance. The team kiss and cry is a ton of fun. It also gave the chance for casual fans from 10 countries to get to know their entire figure skating team.

I think the long term effects will be positive: its something casual fans can get into, it offers the best possible preview of the individual events, it will give an incentive to national federations to develop skaters in all four events and it more than doubles the number of medals handed out to figure skaters, which might mean some skaters stick around longer since they won't necessarily need to be top 3 in their event to get a medal at the Olympics.

Overall I like it a lot but the format really needs to be revised.
 

Ice Dance

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 26, 2014
Thoughts on making the event better if it continues:

I agree it should be held last. This eliminates almost all my major concerns. It would ensure that skaters without teams aren't left at a disadvantage in the individual events to those who do skate with teams. It would ensure that inflated scores during the team event wouldn't impact later individual events. (Sometimes inflated scores are a natural outcome of any event with fewer athletes. Scores also tend to have a momentum in a team event.) It would ensure that the pairs skaters aren't forced to leap into their individual events more quickly than athletes from the other disciplines. It would also encourage teams like China & Germany whose best athletes are medal-worthy pairs teams to compete their top athletes in the team competition. And THIS would help ensure that the best teams in the world actually make the final and stand on the podium. It would also help smaller countries, like Italy, who have a smaller pool of really top-notch athletes use those athletes in both programs without concerns of fatigue. I do think fatigue is a real issue, especially for athletes who deal with perennial injuries like P&T. When Worlds included a qualifying round, there were always some skaters who flat-out had a rougher time breathing during the second long program.

Also the two-discipline substitution rule is just silly.

And, yes, I think this event could contribute to a more balanced focus on all four disciplines within different countries. Crossing my fingers.
 

Figure 8's

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
I enjoyed the Team Event. And I would think it would be a big plus for the skaters who were competing. They get a feel for the ice and the rink. They get to put there program out there to be judged in an Olympic setting. Should also be a big plus in taking the edge off of the nerves. I bet all the skaters found it to be a positive experience.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I love the team event concept. It's great! Only thing is that I think the freeskate should count for more so there is greater opportunity to move up and down the standings until the very end. In this case, by the time the ladies' FS concluded the medals were a done deal and the ice dance final was only a formality.

Because of the team event, I'm watching more of the Winter Olympics than I otherwise would have. Also it got me watching/invested in the other disciplines(!) which I otherwise don't care about. I was watching the men's final this morning for crying out loud :rofl:

Now I'm back on hiatus until the ladies' event next week. :laugh:
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
The one gripe I have with the team event so far is that the podium is a bit predictable.

This is one thing I don't like. There are only three countries who can field a team of world class athletes in four events. Furthermore, the order was predictable. There was a big stink over Jeremy's performance but he needed to WIN the short program to make any difference in the final result, and skating early he could not have beaten what Chan, Plushenko, or Hanyu put out there. A few disaster performances from the US wouldn't have dropped them to 4th either.
 

amateur

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
I enjoyed the Team Event. And I would think it would be a big plus for the skaters who were competing. They get a feel for the ice and the rink. They get to put there program out there to be judged in an Olympic setting. Should also be a big plus in taking the edge off of the nerves. I bet all the skaters found it to be a positive experience.

If indeed it was a beneficial thing, I find it unfortunate that, for example, every one of the top contending Ice Dance teams got an opportunity to do such a test skate on the Olympic ice except Weaver/Poje. Is that fair?
Of course others like Kim and Fernandez without teams miss out on this chance too, (and I'm not referring to any top skaters who had their own say in not participating), But W/P doubly miss out in a sense, because they would have been perfectly capable of contributing to and sharing in the team medal win - even if it were a tight race, W/P would have easily held ground, losing at most 1 point from what V/M gained - had the format allowed them to step in for V/M, who, for all we know, might have appreciated the break and weren't "needed" twice in any sense other than to satisfy an arbitrary rule.

One can hope that this doesn't matter to them. Or maybe it was clear all along that they were never going to skate (not even as any sort of Plan B), that the team priority was always to give both pairs and Kevin Reynolds a chance no matter what (which makes perfect sense given factors such as the timing of the individual events, and Reynolds' lack of opportunity to compete this year) and so put it out of their minds. That is surely what all the non-participants do anyway.

In any proper team event (soccer, hockey, whatever), don't those on the bench, who are ready to play if needed, also get medals?
Not to say that such a medal for a "bencher" in this case would be felt as very meaningful, and not to say that this is any sort of proper team event. It is a contrived event that is really quite silly, even if it is enjoyable on some level.
I did find it enjoyable to watch nonetheless because of the good skating, its spotlighting of a few lesser-knowns I might not have watched otherwise, and its "main event preview" quality.
 

Violetti

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 11, 2014
I liked to watch the team event. I think it should be after the individual competitions.

But it will always be for the big skating countries. USA, Canada and Russia will always be in the top 5 and maybe Japan, too. So very few countries can really fight for the medals. Some countries do not have even one pair in pair skating, even tradition in pair skating at all.

Team spirit is great.
 
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
The Team Event will not be after individual competitions as long as IOC's biggest clients want it first.

This is one thing I don't like. There are only three countries who can field a team of world class athletes in four events.

The other countries better get to work on their Ice Dance and Pairs programs then.
 
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