My thoughts on Michelle at 2004 Worlds

[gezando]

Curious that Kwan was not received as a 5X world champion

I am curious what kind or reception you gave Kwan, Cohen and Slute after their free skates. Did you drop Cohen like a "hot potato" like the rest of the crowd? Among the 3, who received the loudest cheer from you?

paricularly because the magic "6.0"'s are taken as more than placeholders, but also as endorsements of perfection

There we have to disagree, 6.0 to me is still a place holder. They already gave Cohen a 5.9 for your so call "lifeless" performance, so what should they mark Kwan who had better presentation than Cohen? To me there is nothing magical about 6.0. Unfortunately the commentators had a habit of calling 6.0 "perfect" I never recall them calling 6.0 magical though.

[hockeyfan228]

Originally posted by gezando
I am curious what kind or reception you gave Kwan, Cohen and Slute after their free skates. Did you drop Cohen like a "hot potato" like the rest of the crowd? Among the 3, who received the loudest cheer from you?

About the same for Kwan and Cohen. I felt badly for Cohen, because she look shell-shocked when she was done with her LP, but she had two great skates before that. Respectful for Slutskaya for showing up and getting past her illness enough to compete at all, but she skated badly, and I think she was overmarked in each program, so the applause wasn't for the quality of her skates.

There we have to disagree, 6.0 to me is still a place holder. They already gave Cohen a 5.9 for your so call "lifeless" performance, so what should they mark Kwan who had better presentation than Cohen? To me there is nothing magical about 6.0. Unfortunately the commentators had a habit of calling 6.0 "perfect" I never recall them calling 6.0 magical though.

I don't think 6.0 means perfection. But a number of posters have argued that in other cases/posts, e.g. Yagudin at the 2002 Olympics, Cohen's at '04 Nationals, that they didn't deserve the scores because they weren't perfect.

[soogar]

6.0 was NEVER a placeholder until this year's worlds. I think they gave out more 6.0s at this worlds than in ALL the WOrlds combined for the past 10 years. Anyone who calls a 6.0 a placeholder has not been watching skating for a long time b/c if you did, you would know that normally a winning program gets 5.8's and 5.9s. Now nationals is a different story where they always give MK 6.0s, but in Worlds she rarely gets as many as she does at Nationals.

Alexei got 6.0s in the 2002 Olympics b/c quite frankly, he had the perfect program. He skated clean , had a quad-triple-double combo , maybe didn't attempt as much as Plushenko or do as much as Tim , but his technique was perfect and he performed his program incredibly well. Plus it helped that he was the last one to skate.

[gezando]

6.0 is a mark and placeholder just like the 5.8s and 5.9s in any year. I don't know what you meant by normally a winning program is 5.8/ 5.9. Lu Chen's two 6.0 in world 96 was just a placeholder, until Michelle too earned two of her own.

If you feel the judges were giving more than the share of 6.0s this year, it is because they inflated the marks of the rest of the field. When they gave P&T, and T&M 6.0s, they had no choice but to give S&Z twelve 6.0s to hold their place as #1 in the free skate. If you want to take issue with the overall inflation of marks for all skaters, I agree. I really don't care if S&Z received twelve 5.0s as long as P&T, and T&M receive 4.8s and 4.9s.

Alexi won olympics fair and square and deserved the placeholding 6.0s relative to the rest of the field in olys 2002. No one is perfect including Alexi, and Torvill and Dean. They deserved their 6.0s relative to the rest of the field in 1984 olys, but they weren't perfect either.

[mzheng]

Originally posted by gezando

Alexi won olympics fair and square and deserved the placeholding 6.0s relative to the rest of the field in olys 2002. No one is perfect including Alexi, and Torvill and Dean. They deserved their 6.0s relative to the rest of the field in 1984 olys, but they weren't perfect either.

First I tend to agree the 6.0 as a place hold, if the rest field all got inflat marks then the winner program rightfully got 6.0.

Second Alexi's Oly program was not perfect. Yes he didn't fall or step out his jump but he was just bearly hung on one or two of his jumps. One of the reason he got 6.0, IMO, he was the last to skate among all the contenders (or he was the last to skate?), so judges didn't need hold any marks.

[Joesitz]

Watching each of the three Ladies take to the ice, I notice Shizuka without any kind of emotion, take her starting pose, and skate.

Michelle, after the nonsense was over came out and as usuall she shakes her legs after circuling the arena. She posed, and waited for the music. She was set to skate with fire.

Sasha came out and fiddled with her shoe laces, then skated blandly around the arena; let out some breaths and skated. It was not with the intensity of the QR.

Miki Ando was out of place with these 3 'pros'.

Joe

[Yazmeen]

Joe: That was a fascinating insight as to their preparation. (Dare I say "first rate????") Seriously, its an interesting point how each prepares. I agree, especially with Sasha. She just didn't have the intensity as she had before she started her short, and as for Michelle, you could DEFINITELY see that "OK, I've had it, TAKE THIS!!!" attitude before she started.