Irina's interview ....

[michaelfsfan]

IIRC, in a interview, Irina said she diddn't found out until the next day of SP that she watched a big billarboard or screen at SLC street which was playing Michelle's SP, that she realized that she out skated Michelle in every element in short except the spiral. So it was imposible she insisted her federation file protest for her.

Irina may have thought she had outskated Michelle in every element except the spiral in the SP, but the judges (and the audience) didn't. Anyway, as other posters have mentioned, Irina's SP was not perfect -- she paused to telegraph her 3F after the footwork, her Biellmann spin travelled and she finished after the music. I don't recall Michelle making the same mistakes.

The point is: Irina was 2nd coming into the LP, behind Michelle and ahead of both Sasha and Sarah, and she could have still won if she had skated her Tosca LP to its full potential, complete with 3-3 combinations. But she didn't. She was tentative, and there were some mistakes technically, IIRC she corkscrewed her way out of one of the later jumps, which was landed very close to the boards. Also, Sarah had skated first, so Irina knew what she had to do to beat Sarah (and Michelle) but she didn't rise to the occasion. End of story.

 

[mzheng]

Don't argu with me. I just provide some info that I read from one of her interview. I diddn't necessary agree with her. I believe what I read was a translation from Rusian interview. Still my point that different skaters have different attitude in their native language interviews. I never heard MK said she outskated her competetor after a lost close or not.

It happened all times in real life that some ppl know how to be objective with their own work, some not. I've seen ppl in my line of work, when there was a problem in production, some ppl quick to point fingers, "it's not my problem". Some always step back first inspect their own eare to make sure nothing wrong, then help out with possible cause of the problem. The later type usually develops high quality products.

 

[Mathman]

I don't think many people would dispute the fact that the final placings for the Ladies were correct, ie 1. Hughes 2. Slutskaya 3. Kwan

But among those few disputers were 8 of the 9 judges. Only the American judge, Joe Inman, scored it that way.

MM

 

[euterpe]

IIRC, in a interview, Irina said she diddn't found out until the next day of SP that she watched a big billarboard or screen at SLC street which was playing Michelle's SP, that she realized that she out skated Michelle in every element in short except the spiral. So it was imposible she insisted her federation file protest for her.

Amazing. IRINA "realized" she had outskated Michelle. It doesn't seem to make any impression on her that the judges saw something entirely different. Irina has also watched replays of her flawed SLC FS and still thinks she outskated Sarah---she never noticed how slow and flat her FS was, or how she had stumbled on her 3F.

Irina has never been objective about her own skating. Any time she has lost, she's always believed she should have won. The problem for her is that she STILL obsesses about past losses, even after 3 or 4 years. That isn't healthy or positive for her. If by some happenstance she doesn't win in Moscow, I can't imagine the effect that would have on her.

 

[Excidra2001]

I'm trying so hard not to debate the slc SP results, so hard. The competition was held in American soil, it doesn't take a genuis to realize that the audience will cheer for their own regardless of how they skated. As far as the SP judges(aka "evil pigs") I have nothing to say regarding them.
Tatiana Tarasova put it best "Irina is a pioneer when it comes to 3/3s, I can't believe she left them out of her LP" Tat is basically saying Irina was her own enemy in the LP and leaving a 3/3 out of her program left her with a Silver medal. I totally agree with her. Whatever happened in the SP, she and her federation shouldn't have dwelled on it and just skate the best free-skate she's ever skated considering she was in the top 3 and had a good chance at winning gold.

 

[Mathman]

Excidra, I greatly appreciate the tone of your posts on this thread. :agree:

MM

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

But among those few disputers were 8 of the 9 judges. Only the American judge, Joe Inman, scored it that way.MM

And Joe inman was considered by the AntiKwan fans as a Pro Kwan judge, yet he gave it to Sarah. I think Kwan would have won if he gave her the numero uno.

Joe

 

[Excidra2001]

Excidra, I greatly appreciate the tone of your posts on this thread. :agree:

MM

Thank you, Mr.

 

[michaelfsfan]

I'm trying so hard not to debate the slc SP results, so hard. The competition was held in American soil, it doesn't take a genuis to realize that the audience will cheer for their own regardless of how they skated. As far as the SP judges(aka "evil pigs") I have nothing to say regarding them.

The audience at SLC did not determine the placements for the Ladies SP, the nine judges did. Michelle received 5 1st place ordinals and 4 2nd place ordinals. Irina, on the other hand, received 4 1st place ordinals, 2 2nd place ordinals and 3 3rd place ordinals, so it wasn't as if the results were a clear 5/4 split. There were 3 judges in the panel who put Sasha ahead of Irina. So in the opinion of the judges (whose decisions are the only ones who count), Irina did not skate better than Michelle, she didn't even skate better than Sasha.

Tatiana Tarasova put it best "Irina is a pioneer when it comes to 3/3s, I can't believe she left them out of her LP" Tat is basically saying Irina was her own enemy in the LP and leaving a 3/3 out of her program left her with a Silver medal. I totally agree with her. Whatever happened in the SP, she and her federation shouldn't have dwelled on it and just skate the best free-skate she's ever skated considering she was in the top 3 and had a good chance at winning gold.

So why did Irina blame the "ugly pig" judges, the "stupid Americans" and everyone other person on the earth except herself for not becoming the Ladies Olympic champion at SLC? Maybe she should learn to take responsibility for her own actions. The fact remains that Irina had mistakes in both her SP and LP, and yet she thinks she deserved to be crowned Olympic champion? Granted, the two American ladies did not have an error-free competition; Michelle had errors in her LP and Sarah in her SP, but in the old 6.0 system, the LP carried more weight (2/3) than the SP, which is why Sarah ended up on the top of the podium. As I mentioned earlier, Irina was in 2nd place going into the LP, and both Sarah and Michelle skated before her, so she knew what she had to do to become Olympic champion -- skate a kick-*** LP, complete with her 3/3 combination. Did she do that? No. She was tentative, she didn't attempt a 3/3 combination and she corkscrewed her way out of her 3F. And 3 years after that performance, she STILL thinks that perhaps her latest win was to make up for "all those years when I was unfairly placed 4th, for the Olympics." And those are HER words, not mine. I rest my case.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

What happened in SLC was that Sarah skated 1st in the LPwith not much chance of gold but a possible podium positiion if someone faltered. She had nothing to lose so she just did what she does everyday - a clean skate. The judges were happy to see her do so well and they rewarded her with high scores but left room for three other skaters to do better.

It was still a question of which of the three SP placers would skate the best. Sasha andMichlle fell and Irina bobled in more than one place.

The result: The clean skater won.

Maybe they didn't want another mayhem over clean vs. bobbling as in the Pairs Pairs. But for me, and I am not a fan of Sarah, she deserved the gold THAT NIGHT!!

Joe

 

[Mathman]

Irina has that fiery Slavic passion. She thinks she deserves to win everything she enters. Probably kicks over a few chairs when she loses. Lots of athletes are fierce competitors like that. No harm done. Like her, or not.

Mathman

 

[mzheng]

Irina has that fiery Slavic passion. She thinks she deserves to win everything she enters. Probably kicks over a few chairs when she loses. Lots of athletes are fierce competitors like that. No harm done. Like her, or not.

Mathman

So do her fans.

 

[Mathman]

Touche, LOL.

 

[Excidra2001]

So do her fans.

I suppose you know us all. :sheesh:

 

[Kuchana]

I suppose you know us all. :sheesh:

And she's entitled to her opinion just like you are to your own. :sheesh:

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

I've never known anyone who did not have passion.

Some do it with their eyes.

Some do it with the mouth

Some do it with a lot of noise.

Some do it with flailing arms.

Some do it by hiding it.

But everyone has passion.

Joe

 

[curious]

And Joe inman was considered by the AntiKwan fans as a Pro Kwan judge, yet he gave it to Sarah. I think Kwan would have won if he gave her the numero uno.

Joe

the uproar would have huge far worse than pairs kwan winning with a fall

 

[Casper]

Since over half of my family still live in Russia, I read from the Russian media quite a bit. Many of the athletes do not censor themselves in the Russian media like they do for the US. You really don't see the positive spin on things that those news magazine shows try to portray here.

A good example is the Russian media's take on the pairs fiasco. B&S were considered the correct winners with no questions asked. Reporters who had not even seen the skates of B&S or S&P chimed in to say that obviously B&S won rightfully because they were Russian.

To say anything else would have been unpatriotic. When you consider Irinia, she does her interviews in Russian with the personality of the champion who she is there. Irinia was not in the position that she could say that she was happy that Sarah had a good skate in the LP or that Michelle was wonderful in the SP. That would have been to admit defeat. That is the culture.

Irinia is not in the position that Michelle is to say that she skated her best and is happy with the results. It is expected of her to explain why she lost or why she did not win.

I can remember growing up that many of the athletes interviews in Russia were the same way. Before the event they would say that they were the best and they were going to win. There was none of that stuff about having fun or enjoying themselves or trying their best. When it was over, the athletes would say things like see I told you if it was a win for them. If it was a loss, they would blame faulty judging, equipment, etc. The thought always was that the country wanted to send winners out into the world to win. People who so easily accepted defeat were not worth the time or energy of the organization.

I'm not saying that I agree with her statements. I just think that it is interesting to note the differences in culture. I happen to be a big fan of Michelle. My family in Russia do not appreciate her that much because of her more laid back attitude. They think she should be more vengeful in her interviews. They thought she was very weak when she said she won the silver instead of losing the gold.

 

[chuckm]

Maybe Russian skaters have that attitude because of Valentin Piseev. He trash-talks against his own skaters if they don't win the gold medals he expects of them. At this point, I am sure Piseev expects 4 gold medals from the Russian skaters in Moscow. I am equally sure that's why Irina says she is nervous skating at home.

I remember back in 2002, when Piseev arrived in SLC, he was already saying that the Russian skaters would not do well because the competition was in the US. Yagudin and Plushenko won gold and silver, Lobacheva / Averbuch won silver, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze won gold, and Irina won silver, but that wasn't good enough. Piseev was furious that Irina hadn't won gold and threatened a protest.

 

[mzheng]

Thanks, Casper. I htink your post just confirmed my thought and many posts in this tread that the personality and attitude is more related to your upbring and/or cultural thinny than the right or wrong.