The Agony and The Ecstasy at This Years Worlds

This has been the most injury fraught Worlds, I have ever seen. One skater after the other is hobbling off the ice in pain or is not even making it to the ice. Marcoux and Buntin of Canada almost did not make it to the Worlds, but somehow managed to pull it off despite the pain; Takeshi Honda ended up in the hospital with an injured ankle. Shen and Zhao had to withdraw due to injury and even the Golden boy Plushenko is skating with an injury. Even the Chinese pair who came third showed he was suffering at the end of their skate as he held his back in pain at the end. It's just unreal!!

One wonders has the bar been raised so high in skating now that these skaters are becoming injured to accomplish the impossible? Really in the end is it worth it? The new marking system seems complicated to me and almost too demanding for these skaters. Give me the good old days complete with figures and yes the now defunct 6.0 system. I would rather see healthy skaters than injured skaters.

Just my rant for the Worlds 2005.

People need to take a lesson from Lambiel and stay off the ice until fully recovered Although to be fair Lambiel is in the unique position of being the only top flight skater coming out of his country so they have reason not to push him too hard.

Also I think skaters are under a great deal of pressure at this Worlds as it is the qualifying competition for next years Olympics. The IOC have said that only skaters in the top 24 will be allowed to compete and the commentators have siad on numerous occasions that the skaters own federations have put their own requirements on the skaters, for example the Belgian federation have said that Kevin Van der Perren must finish in the top 12 in order to be allowed to go to Olympics. I'm sure their are a lot of skaters thinking, get through this and then rest and prepare for Olympics.