2014 Olympics Team Event Mens Free Skate

StellaCampo · Feb 10, 2014

Hi, everyone,

I've now had a chance to watch replay of men's team event on BBC's website and found out more about what Robin C said. His co-presenter Sue Barker informed us that Robin was shaking his head when Plushenko's score came up. Robin said that he was v surprised that he was ahead of Reynolds. There you are!

TMC · Feb 10, 2014

StellaCampo said:
Hi, everyone,

I've now had a chance to watch reply of men's team event on BBC's website and found out more about what Robin C said. His co-presenter Sue Barker informed us that Robin was shaking his head when Plushenko's score came up. Robin said that he was v surprised that he was ahead of Reynolds. There you are!

I'm trying to imagine what it would look like if any one of the other four did Plushenko's program exactly like he did it. Cannot picture anyone getting better than 4th with it.

karne · Feb 10, 2014

babyskate said:
I also feel Jason was under scored but was really disappointed in Tara and Johnny's commentary. I feel they were too critical saying he lacked energy and looked tight. They did not say much positive afterwards. He had an enormous smile his whole program and really tried to sell it to a less than enthusiastic audience. Yes it wasn't his best, but it was still great. I did not get to hear Scott's commentary from the prime time broadcast. Can someone tell me if Scott was more positive in his words afterwards.

So I had to resort to watching a youtube video of the Johnny/Tara commentary instead of Channel Ten's porting of the British commentary (since I was clever enough to somehow mess up/miss all three showings of the men's FS on TV!). I agree. Johnny and Tara were extremely hypercritical almost to the point of nastily picking holes in everything Jason did. In fact, I'd even say they were ALMOST as bad to Jason as Scott/Sandra were to Plushy in Vancouver, and they were horrible.

I'm sorry, but all I heard in Johnny's words was a bitter man who realised that even if he HAD come back the kid on the ice would have kicked his backside and been totally loveable and wonderful while doing it. Were they at all harsh on Jeremy? I feel like the level of harsh in their commentary towards Jason was completely disproportionate to what happened on the ice. As for "Jason has an underrotation problem"? Since when? Sometimes, on some jumps, in certain circumstances; apart from the 3A, though, I don't think I've seen him get a UR on a jump since JGP Courchevel 2012! It's not like it's a chronic problem. Heck, if that was the criteria, Jeremy has an underrotation problem too.

Yes, Jason was tight. He was nervous. He's nineteen, for crying out loud, and no-one thought he would make the Olympics. It's THE OLYMPICS! EVERYONE IS NERVOUS! Plenty of skaters skate tighter than usual. Heck, I can guarantee that even the King himself had butterflies last night. At least Jason delivered most of his program, and when he did fall, immediately bounced back.

Of course the program was not as magic as Boston. In Boston he was playing to a packed house who already loved him. Here, he was playing to a packed house who definitely didn't want him to win, though I think they were interested to see what was going on. And I didn't think the crowd were that bad - they were clapping out the step sequence, and I heard plenty of cheering at the start of the sequence.

About the nicest thing they said was when they related the cute little story of the King telling Jason he liked his skating, and Jason's predictably wonderful response!

Mrs. P · Feb 10, 2014

StellaCampo said:
Hi, everyone,

I've now had a chance to watch reply of men's team event on BBC's website and found out more about what Robin C said. His co-presenter Sue Barker informed us that Robin was shaking his head when Plushenko's score came up. Robin said that he was v surprised that he was ahead of Reynolds. There you are!

He also mentioned it not once, but TWICE, afterwards -- once before the Ladies Free Skate and then again during the Free Dance. The scoring really bothered him!

karne said:
So I had to resort to watching a youtube video of the Johnny/Tara commentary instead of Channel Ten's porting of the British commentary (since I was clever enough to somehow mess up/miss all three showings of the men's FS on TV!). I agree. Johnny and Tara were extremely hypercritical almost to the point of nastily picking holes in everything Jason did. In fact, I'd even say they were ALMOST as bad to Jason as Scott/Sandra were to Plushy in Vancouver, and they were horrible.

I'm sorry, but all I heard in Johnny's words was a bitter man who realised that even if he HAD come back the kid on the ice would have kicked his backside and been totally loveable and wonderful while doing it. Were they at all harsh on Jeremy? I feel like the level of harsh in their commentary towards Jason was completely disproportionate to what happened on the ice. As for "Jason has an underrotation problem"? Since when? Sometimes, on some jumps, in certain circumstances; apart from the 3A, though, I don't think I've seen him get a UR on a jump since JGP Courchevel 2012! It's not like it's a chronic problem. Heck, if that was the criteria, Jeremy has an underrotation problem too.

Yes, Jason was tight. He was nervous. He's nineteen, for crying out loud, and no-one thought he would make the Olympics. It's THE OLYMPICS! EVERYONE IS NERVOUS! Plenty of skaters skate tighter than usual. Heck, I can guarantee that even the King himself had butterflies last night. At least Jason delivered most of his program, and when he did fall, immediately bounced back.

Of course the program was not as magic as Boston. In Boston he was playing to a packed house who already loved him. Here, he was playing to a packed house who definitely didn't want him to win, though I think they were interested to see what was going on. And I didn't think the crowd were that bad - they were clapping out the step sequence, and I heard plenty of cheering at the start of the sequence.

About the nicest thing they said was when they related the cute little story of the King telling Jason he liked his skating, and Jason's predictably wonderful response!

Wow. Glad I didn't have to listen to that one.

Scott and Sandra were a lot more friendly during the NBC broadcast about Jason's perofrmance. They noted the mistake (in fact, Scott -- for once!!! -- explained exactly what caused the problem: "You can see in the slow-mo, that Jason's speed slows down after the Lutz, causing him to not have enough to pull off the salchow) but otherwise said that he should be proud of that performance and that it was something to build on for the individual event.

Also a bunch of my non-skating friends who watched it were impressed IN SPITE OF the mistake...so there you go.

Jason definitely has problems on the second 3A -- as I noted several times before, I feel it's a mental thing since he seems to pull off the 3A in his SP and the first one in the FS for hte most part -- but he was really close on this latest attempt. I did a slow mo and if you see when his toe pick hits the ice it's ALMOST to that 1/4 mark. So he's getting there. And the 3S UR was due to a lack of speed (as Scott noted) from the Lutz, so no there is no chronic UR problem.

And also, karne, Scott and Sandra VERY friendly in their commentary about Plushy. They spent several minutes before the Ladies Free Skate saying how much they admired his performance here. Sandra made a point saying that it was something special to witness and Scott called him one of the greatest skaters of all time.

dress · Feb 10, 2014

I was very impress by jason Brown's performance. He has a lot of potential and very good qualities. I'm eager to see him improving in the next years. He is someone to watch in the next years. A joy to watch!!

I liked to see Plushenko skating. He is one of my old time fav :biggrin:

. It's impressive to see him performing at 31 years old after back surgeries. He's artistry and transitions are not very good. he also does a lot of posing. He was overscored in the program components(if my memory is good, it closed the gap of 8 points he had with reynolds). He should not have pass ahead of Reynolds.

I was impressed by Reynolds because it was his first outing of the season. He performed well. 3 quads WOW! He improved is artistry and he's skating skills. There is still room for improvement. He must increase the level of difficulty in his step sequence to be more competitive.

CanadianSkaterGuy · Feb 10, 2014

Ziggy said:
The scoring was just absolutely appalling.

What the judges said was that it's enough for Plushenko to just turn up to get generous GOE and PCS in the high 8s, or 9s even.

He did land two exceptionally executed jumps (3axel and 3lutz - second and third jumping pass) but there rest were either 'just' ok or had slightly weak landings. Spins were very subpar (poorly extended positions, lack of rotation speed) and there wasn't much of a program to speak about. He stroked from one element into another and did some posing in between. There were hardly any transitions. He wasn't very fast to begin with but then after the halfway point, it became apparent stamina was an issue. He started to double jumps and his skating became noticeably slower. He still showed a decent posture, lines and carriage and lot of energy and confidence but PE was the only thing he had going for him.

For all of their strengths and weaknesses, Reynolds, Machida and Brown all showed actual programs - choreographed and executed to the music. Why did they bother? Why bother with more complex element layout, all that upper body movement performed in time with the music and connecting footwork when you can just stroke from jump to jump, wink at the judges and get high 8s or 9s. It's just a bloody insult to the skaters, coaches and choreographers who actually cared and who were in a physical shape good enough to execute both that and jumps.

Especially when you think of Reynolds. Watch him skating 4 years ago or so. He used to be all about jumps and his upper body movement was extremely awkward. He has worked very hard to improve his presentation and he got better programs.

As if we expected otherwise. What an appalling result... Machida and Reynolds should have easily cleared him, and you're right -- this shows that all Plushenko had to do was show up and get 9's. Particularly infuriating were his multiple pauses. I practically yelled at my TV, "Stop standing and posing, and skate for Christ's sake!" :laugh:

The only thing that was unexpected about this result was that Plushenko wasn't given 95 points of PCS again. :sarcasm: To be honest, I honestly thought he would end up being given 90+ points of PCS, but thankfully there were non-Russian/Euro judges to keep his scores at bay. Gotta love when the guy with the lowest base value wins the segment thanks to PCS. :rolleye:

I give Plu a lot of credit for two solid programs in the team event, including with a quad and all the axels, and acknowledge that Reynolds and Machida made errors (not that Plu didn't double two jumps), but this was ridiculous. Reynolds should have scored at least 80 points of PCS, which would have given him the win, and it shouldn't have even been a close win at that.

On a more positive note, congrats to Reynolds for 3 quads! :clap:

Some judge (likely Russian) clearly had it out for Reynolds too, giving him 0 GoE on all 3 quads, his ChSq, and a +1 on just one spin. :rolleye:

CanadianSkaterGuy · Feb 10, 2014

icekiwi said:
With the way Plushenko is being 'oversocred' in this team event, he will be on the 'podium' in the singles event unfortunately. It is making me sick and makes me wonder whether I would even want to watch the rest of the 'Men's' event. The 'Men's' single event was the one I thought I was most looking forward to this Olympics. I thought it would be the most exciting event in this Olympics with the high levels of choreography from all the men and the technically superior jumps they can do. However, with the arrival of Plushenko and his endless preening and posing in front of the judges plus the 'obvious' over scoring, I feel so sorry for the rest of the men. If you were someone like Machida, Takahashi, Javier or Abbott who I think the Bronze is their grasp (while Yuzuru and Chan on the lock for Gold/Silver), the judging is extremely unfair and biased. These guys competed all through the season (garnering income for the ISU), trained hard, just to have a former Olympian with political favour to come in and overscore you with very little work on choreography and jumps that were 'just' enough. You would wonder what is the point, why not just hand to Plushenko the medal the judges wanted to give him while the rest have a 'legitimate' competition.

I watched Plushenko's SP, the PC marks were way overscored. His LP choreopgraphy consist of contorted deformed like posture, heavy twisting and fidgeting of arms. Some of his poses remind me of a 'drag queen' - just plain awful. They were nothing like the 'balletic' style of Machida, 'smoothness' of Abbott and the 'interpretative' choereography of Daisuke, let alone that of Yuzuru and Chan. I was a fan of Plushenko when he was a great skater but to see him skate like this is simply embarassing. Then to be awarded those inflated marks is unwatchable. His PC was 43 for the SP, for very little edge work, dance material nor interpretative content. At this moment, my heart goes out to Chan, Hanyu, Daisuke, Machida, and the rest of the men, all these last 4 years of hard training, competing in the GPS, etc. just to have this cocky, arrogant and shallow individual turn up and rob your chances of a medal is belittling. Plushenko doesn't have the grace to let others nor his younger countrymen the chance for a great Olympic. It has to be all about him, all the time. My prayers go to Chan, Hanyu, Machida and the rest. At this Olympics, they know they are by far the better skaters. Fans will admire them for that.

Very well said. I hope Plushenko skates well, but he doesn't belong anywhere near the podium unless Chan, Hanyu, Machida, Fernandez, Reynolds, Takahashi, and even Brown all royally bomb.

It's what we expected - Plushenko just has to show up and he'll be placed ahead of those more deserving with far more intricate programs and choreography. Doesn't mean it's right. He will be propped up onto that podium, and Russia will cheer for him, but every true skating fan will know reality.

phaeljones · Feb 10, 2014

museksk8r said:
I thought Tara's commentary on Jason Brown was a little too harsh. . . . He did not wilt!

In a previous life, Tara might have been a tiger, the type who eats her young. If I have one worry about Jason being at the Olympics, it is that people will expect too much from him and that is not fair considering where he is in his development and his amazing potential. We should all be proud of Jason because he did keep trying hard right to the end and, although he had some problems, he skated well enough that his talent showed through. This experience will pay off big time for him and U.S. skating as he matures as a skater, but, right now, at these Olympics, expectations for what happens here should be kept to a minimum.

amusedstranger said:
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I thought Reynolds should have won this segment. I thought Plushenko's PCS were too high for what he did.

That was one of the best skates I have ever seen Reynolds do. It had good flow, three quads, and he kept his composure all the way through. He was even able to add back and make up later in the program for the jumps he had missed out on doing earlier in the program. And he did it seamlessly.

Plushenko's score and placement was not justifiable, but it was predictable. It reflects badly on the ISU and Russia. However, the whole world is watching and judging as well. (I do very much admire Plushenko though.)

Mrs. P · Feb 10, 2014

phaeljones said:
In a previous life, Tara might have been a tiger, the type who eats her young. If I have one worry about Jason being at the Olympics, it is that people will expect too much from him and that is not fair considering where he is in his development and his amazing potential. We should all be proud of Jason because he did keep trying hard right to the end and, although he had some problems, he skated well enough that his talent showed through. This experience will pay off big time for him and U.S. skating as he matures as a skater, but, right now, at these Olympics, expectations should be kept to a minimum.

You know this, of course, but the only expectations he needs to keep mind of is his own and by expectations, I mean whatever goals he has for that event (i.e. skating two clean programs, etc.)

Jason, as far as I'm concerned, has already done well so far by helping team USA keep its bronze medal by skating a good, if not his best, program. I'm sure he'll be looking at that skate and making adjustments for the individual event.

That was one of the best skates I have ever seen Reynolds do. It had good flow, three quads, and he kept his composure all the way through. He was even able to add back and make up later in the program for the jumps he had missed out on doing earlier in the program. And he did it seamlessly.

I agree. I was very pleasantly surprised how much I liked Kevin's performance. He has made improvements on the second mark, too. Hope he keeps this up for the individual event.

Regarding where you place Brown, I respectfully disagree, and I am a total uber-Brown fan. Here is why: Brown was less clean than Reynolds and his skate had nowhere near the difficulty or the polish that Reynolds had. Not in that competition on that day. But even if both skaters had had perfect skates, there is no way that Brown with the skating that choreography presents along with its and his technical and skills limitations (he still has to develop in certain areas), should be scored over a smoothly skated skate having three quads and generally greater difficulty. Not if this a sport. There is simply too much difference in the difficulty and execution of the skates to be made up by PCS and Brown's superior artistic skills. Reynolds is also not totally absent artistic ability, imho, even if he is weak in that area.

I would have put Reynolds over J. Brown too, and EVERYONE knows I love Jason. The lower PCS is probably OK given he was slower/ nervous.

FWIW, the TES at this event:

K. Reynolds: 89.00
T. Machida: 83.13
E. Plushenko: 81.48
J. Brown: 79.22
P.B. Parkinson: 66.97

And PCS:

E. Plushenko: 86.72
T. Machida: 82.72
J. Brown: 79.22
K. Reynolds: 78.92
P.B. Parkinson: 56.26

Agreed with others Plushy's PCS is WAY TO HIGH. Even if you wanted to give him a life time achievement award, keep it in the low 80s, like 81.

If they did that, here what the placements/scores would have been with my adjusted PCS marks:

K. Reynolds: 167.92
T. Machida: 165.85
E. Plushenko: 162.20
J. Brown: 153.67
P.B. Parkinson: 121.23

merinheart · Feb 10, 2014

Hmm, unlike some here I wasn't too impressed with Reynold's skate. Yeah he had the 3 quads but I found the rest of his program kind of underwhelming. It was my first time seeing him though. Imo, the judges were right to score his PCS below Jason though it wasn't by much, less than half a point I think?The problem was that both Jason and Kevin's scores were way under-marked compared to Plushenko. That huge gap should have been tighter even if Plushenko still got first on PCS due to a "technicality" (ie. judges' bias).

As far as Tara's commentary on Jason, that's been like the 3rd or 4th time now that I've heard her say something disparaging about him. I honestly don't get why she's so critical of him. I think she even nitpicked on his Boston performance (!!!)- step sequence being too slow or some crap like that. I mean, really Tara? I just can't take her seriously when it comes to Jason. Disappointing because I otherwise prefer her and Johnny's commentaries over the other NBC crew.

Was I the only one who heard the crowd (probably the American fans) chant Jason's name after he skated? The reception at Sochi wasn't that bad I thought. He seemed to receive a much warmer applause than some of the other non-Russian skaters.

CanadianSkaterGuy · Feb 10, 2014

Fine, give Plushenko all the PE marks in the world, but it's a travesty that his SS was higher than Machida, and he had the highest CH and TR marks of everyone.

I agree that Plushenko should definitely not even been close to clearing 165 with that skate.

Mrs. P · Feb 10, 2014

merinheart said:
As far as Tara's commentary on Jason, that's been like the 3rd or 4th time now that I've heard her say something disparaging about him. I honestly don't get why she's so critical of him. I think she even nitpicked on his Boston performance (!!!)- step sequence being too slow or some crap like that. I mean, really Tara? I just can't take her seriously when it comes to Jason. Disappointing because I otherwise prefer her and Johnny's commentaries over the other NBC crew.

Yeah, I seem to recall that she wasn't all that impressed with his Trophee Eric Bompard FS, while CBC and Eurosport were just gushing about his difficult entries, step sequence, choreography etc.

It could be a style or preference thing. Tara won because she had harder technical content and the fact that Jason isn't even TRYING to put a quad in might be against her sensibilities for whatever reason.

Tara is hit-or-miss for me, which I agree is a shame, because she seemed really promising early on. I get really sick of the "Oh when I was competing...blah blah blah" comments. I think when it's just Johnny commentating alone, he's a lot better. Despite the fact I like them as a pair outside the commentating booth, as a commentating team it doesn't work for me.

YesWay · Feb 10, 2014

Yay for Paul Bonifacio Parkinson !

He was never going to score the big points... and just like the SP, his FS was all over the place. But I can't help liking the guy. Despite being way out of his league, he tried hard, and rather than being overawed or intimidated... he wore a confident, charming smile throughout... and looked like he was enjoying himself. Actually, from his expression, you'd think he was world champion or something! Great attitude, good sport!

dress · Feb 10, 2014

YesWay said:
Yay for Paul Bonifacio Parkinson !

He was never going to score the big points... and just like the SP, his FS was all over the place. But I can't help liking the guy. Despite being way out of his league, he tried hard, and rather than being overawed or intimidated... he wore a confident, charming smile throughout... and looked like he was enjoying himself. Actually, from his expression, you'd think he was world champion or something! Great attitude, good sport!

He compete like someone who was just very happy and proud to be at the olympics. He made me smile with his attitude.

seniorita · Feb 11, 2014

Obviously I m looking from far away and not as close as TV but I didn't think Reynolds should score that high, after the quads it felt like he is just going through the program, it was flat, but I thought Machilda would be first , Plush sat and watch all Machilda 's program up to ths marks and by his reaction to Mishin I think he thought the same, Jason program was not as Nationals but I loved him, audience is not cold as you seem to write, of course for Russians they go crazy but the arena us not only Russians, there see lot of Japanese and USA fans, lots of Europeans, between ice breaks they interview lot of group of fans from other countries it is cool. The arena is gigantic, I haven't seen Canada's but it 3 times bigger than Torino's.

StellaCampo · Feb 11, 2014

Mrs. P said:
He (Robin C) also mentioned it not once, but TWICE, afterwards -- once before the Ladies Free Skate and then again during the Free Dance. The scoring really bothered him!

Thank you for this information. I will watch the replay to hear Robin's comments. I wasn't sitting in front of TV throughout, I should have done!!

Thanks.

Ziggy · Feb 11, 2014

babyskate said:
I also feel Jason was under scored but was really disappointed in Tara and Johnny's commentary. I feel they were too critical saying he lacked energy and looked tight. They did not say much positive afterwards. He had an enormous smile his whole program and really tried to sell it to a less than enthusiastic audience. Yes it wasn't his best, but it was still great. I did not get to hear Scott's commentary from the prime time broadcast. Can someone tell me if Scott was more positive in his words afterwards.

I haven't listened to their commentary (I would never watch North American skating coverage unless you paid me a lot of money for it or I had no other option

) so maybe they were too harsh overall but I think they were right in saying he lacked energy and looked tight. Brown's program is fantastic but he did seem tense and didn't present it as well as he's capable of. I guess he was just nervous and hopefully he can do better in the individual event.

David21 · Feb 11, 2014

CanadianSkaterGuy said:
On a more positive note, congrats to Reynolds for 3 quads! Some judge (likely Russian) clearly had it out for Reynolds too, giving him 0 GoE on all 3 quads, his ChSq, and a +1 on just one spin.

I'm sorry but those extremely low jumps do hardly deserve anything higher than a 0 GOE or maybe +1 GOE at best.

Mrs. P · Feb 11, 2014

Ziggy said:
I haven't listened to their commentary (I would never watch North American skating coverage unless you paid me a lot of money for it or I had no other option ) so maybe they were too harsh overall but I think they were right in saying he lacked energy and looked tight. Brown's program is fantastic but he did seem tense and didn't present it as well as he's capable of. I guess he was just nervous and hopefully he can do better in the individual event.

I do agree he was tight and nervous, but I think he held up OK. I hope that now he knows what the ice is like he can skate his best on Thursday!

Blades of Passion · Feb 11, 2014

CanadianSkaterGuy said:
Reynolds should have scored at least 80 points of PCS

No, he should NOT have. His skating is just as empty as Plushenko's, but with weaker basic skating, weaker projection, and less performance ability.

Reynold's 3rd Quad was underrotated but he was not called on it.

Plushenko deserved to win this LP. He hit all of the most important jumps and his spins were actually solid; better than Reynolds'.

2014 Olympics Team Event Mens Free Skate

StellaCampo

TMC

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

dress

CanadianSkaterGuy

CanadianSkaterGuy

phaeljones

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

merinheart

CanadianSkaterGuy

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

YesWay

四年もかけて&#

dress

seniorita

StellaCampo

Ziggy

David21

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be

Similar threads

Connect with us

2014 Olympics Team Event Mens Free Skate

in Emergency Backup Mode

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

&#22235;&#24180;&#12418;&#12363;&#12369;&#12390;&#

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

Skating is Art, if you let it be

Similar threads

四年もかけて&#