52 Days to Compbells | Golden Skate

52 Days to Compbells

Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Is the list of participants finalized yet?. I'm sure the invited Americans will be there but what about Miki, Shizuka, Carolina and Irina? Also Takeshi, Brian, Evgeny and Emanuel? Have they all accepted?

There are 8 Ladies and 7 Men. Do you think they are holding a place for Michael to accept?

Joe
 

Chrystia Mee

Rinkside
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
BravesSkateFan said:
I'm not so excited about the skaters that have been invited this year....I miss Fumie...I want to see her :(

You're not a lone! :cry:
I'm a huge Fumie fan. I was really hoping she would still magically get invited despite a bad ending to her season since this is the first time I'll be watching skating live. I am looking forward to seeing all of these other skaters though. They've been running ads with all of the names of those invited in the ads still, which may not mean anything or it may mean they are coming. I don't know! lol.
 

Fossi

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 23, 2003
Why were Irina and Kostner invited, but not Fumie?
Fumie is the reigning GPF champion, and many felt she was undermarked in the LP at Worlds. (Some people felt Fumie should've beaten Sasha in the LP.)
Please explain why she wasn't invited?
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I can't understand it either. Maybe they figure Shizuka and Miki are the new hotshots from Japan, so people want to see them more so than Fumie. Fumie did have a bad final placement at Worlds (despite her great LP), and also a bad final skate of the season.

Not only is Fumie that GP champion, she also was the belle of the ball on the COI tour. In the recent Blades on Ice feature on COI the reviewer says. "In many ways, the finest performance came from Fumie Suguri."

Maybe she (also Michael Weiss?) was invited, but chose not to participate.

Mathman
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
If it has to do with the Worlds results, then I think it makes sense to invite Ando and Arakawa over Suguri. Suguri was the bronze medallist in 2002 and 2003, therefore she got invited to the other events in those years.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I think it has more to do with selling tickets than with placement at worlds. For sure, if I were the Campbell's Soup company I would be inviting the folks that I thought the audience wants most to see.

Irina S. (a perennial crowd favorite as well as a past champion), Jenny Kirk, and Amber Corwin (but they're Americans) all finished lower than Suguri at Worlds. Maybe there is a national quota -- no more than two commpetitors from any other country besides the U.S.

Sokolova (then World silver medalist, plus she's a gorgeous beauty) was invited last year, and she tried the best she could while coping with injury.

What i thought was funny was the Olympic year. Only American skaters were invited. At the time I thought the reason was so we wouldn't be giving any help to our foes that year.

Mathman
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
MM I think you might be right about the "selling tickets" part, and the limit as to how many skaters can participate.

Since it is an American event, I think they will want a few Americans at that event as well as some people from other countries. I don't know why they picked the people they did, but I think Arakawa and Ando are (in general) generating more interest (heading up) than Suguri (her best days behind her?) as far as Japanese skaters are concerned, therefore why they left her out.
 

BravesSkateFan

Medalist
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
Well I personally would rather see Fumie than Miki, Shizuka and Carolina combined. In fact I'd pay just to see her and Michelle...
 

lavender

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I think Fumie should be invited over Ando for sure. Who knows, maybe Fumie and even Weiss were invited but declined. I'm kind of glad Weiss isn't there but I would have rather seen Jeff Buttle.
 

JOHIO2

Medalist
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Wasn't Ando the Japanese ladies champ? And, of course, Arakawa won the worlds.

Who really knows how these things are decided? And, of course, invitees can always turn down the chance for reasons we'll never know.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I'm glad to see Amber invited. I thoroughly enjoyed her Breakfast at Tiffany's program last year. I think she brings a maturity and sophistication to the ice, as well as some fine technique. JMO.

Mathman
 
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