Men's Free Skate

**Joesitz** · 11-20-2004, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by SailorGalaxia518

So they question becomes:

Can anyone (besides Brian Joubert) possibly beat Plushenko before the 2006 Olympics????

Joubert did beat Plush as did Sandhu and Yagudin. We'll see if Johnny can before 2006. If no one can beat Plush before 2006, I'm not so sure he is a shoo-in anymore but I do believe he will be the favorite. He should be, he's been around the longest and has had lots of experience.

Joe

**equestrianguy** · 11-21-2004, 08:41 AM

Well if you look back at the last two Olympics MK was the favorite in the ladies. Of course, you all know the outcome..Tara out jumped her in 98 and MK fell in 2002... So anything can happen at the Olympics if Plushy's the favorite or not.....

**Doggygirl** · 11-21-2004, 09:14 AM

Equestrian Guy, WOW 23 years and competing at the World level. How cool! I'd love it if you started a thread in Le Cafe and tell us more about the nature of your showing....I've never followed quarter horses and appaloosas much, but would be interested in hearing more. I've been away from the horses for quite awhile now, but still miss them sometimes.

IIRC, only 3 men skated with no deductions, but Takaheshi had 4. Some people were speculating that he might be injured.

I can't wait for COR, especially if Plush shows up to see how that goes. I'm not crazy about his style either (just a personal preference) but like everyone else, I respect him. Definitely a powerhouse. BUT...he's not undefeated, so favorite or not, no one is unbeatable.

ITA that the men's comp should be very exciting through the Oly's.

DG

**Joesitz** · 11-21-2004, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by equestrianguy

Well if you look back at the last two Olympics MK was the favorite in the ladies. Of course, you all know the outcome..Tara out jumped her in 98 and MK fell in 2002... So anything can happen at the Olympics if Plushy's the favorite or not.....

Tara was the reigning Worlds Champion going into the 98 Olympics. That's fact!

Irina was the odds on favorite in 2002 Olympics with her outdistancing MK, SC and SH in the technical. That's just about fact. You all know the outcome.
I believe Plush should be the favorite, but as you say, anything can happen in the Olys and it certinaly did in 2002.

Joe

**Kasey** · 11-21-2004, 02:05 PM

Eman apparantly crashed and burned on both quad attempts, and as gravity shows, it rolled downhill from there.....

Kasey

**diver chick** · 11-21-2004, 06:45 PM

I'm Brian fan but IMO he really needs to work on his artistry and the choreographical aspects of his skating. Under the old system Brian could probably have beaten Johnny as they quad would have made a big difference. Under the new system, from what I can gather, one jump won't be the difference between winning and losing any more because there seems to be more emphasis on other aspects of the program and a lyrical skater without a quad can make up the difference against a more jumping bean skater with more difficult spins, footwork etc.

Thinking along those lines, I imagine a skater like Stephan will not be in too difficult a position when he makes a return, provided he can get all his triples and keep up the difficult spins and maybe increase the difficulty of his footwork and include more choreographical detail in the programs.

I am really interested to see how Plushenko does under the CoP.

**Joesitz** · 11-21-2004, 08:00 PM

Originally Posted by diver chick

Thinking along those lines, I imagine a skater like Stephan will not be in too difficult a position when he makes a return, provided he can get all his triples and keep up the difficult spins and maybe increase the difficulty of his footwork and include more choreographical detail in the programs. I am really interested to see how Plushenko does under the CoP.

First of all and imo, Plush should not have a CoP problem. He has style, he has appeal, and he has quads. he should skate well and bam, he will win.

As for Stephane - (Is there an e at the end of his name?) He is, imo, the best musical skater out there. He does quad, and his spins are outstanding. But the poor guy has had injuries since day one (a la Abt) and this will hurt him. Hopefully the judges see the true nature of figure skating and give him the gold.

Joe

**diver chick** · 11-22-2004, 04:47 AM

I agree that Plush should not have a problem with the CoP as he does have the whole package. Personally I am not a huge fan of his style but I won't be complaining if he wipes the floor with the competition under the CoP as provided he skates his best and has two programs as choreographically difficult as he normally does

As for appeal, well he doesn't appeal to me but that's just me, I am more a fan of the softer style a la Abt and Lambiel

As for Stephane, yes I agree that the injuries may hurt him in terms of having not competed under the CoP and also in terms of lack of exposure. Unfortunately these are things that shouldn't matter but they do. If Stephane was to turn up, put out two good performances and be marked accordingly, he wouldn't have a problem with CoP. Hopefully he will use Euros as a warm-up to sort out the level of his program and then be competitive at Worlds.

oh and yep there is an 'e' at the end of his name. my mistake

**equestrianguy** · 11-22-2004, 09:01 AM

Well Joesitz, MK was the world champion going into the 2002 Olympics...Thats a FACT!! lol I'm just saying that MK has had more fan back up and is the most beloved skater in history.. I believe that has made her the favorite everytime...Even in the judges eyes...AND they would have gave the Oly gold to her in 2002 definately...

**Joesitz** · 11-23-2004, 06:39 PM

Well Equestrian - I was thinking of the 98 Olys, where Tara was the 97 World Champ and MK was the 98 Nats Champ before the Olys. No matter, you are correct about the many fans MK has in the US. I might add nowadays, Irina has more international fans and Sasha's fans are growing steadily. I think, too, Shizuka is getting high hopes up in Asia. Why not?

Joe