Men - Free Program
- Thread starter Rosaleen
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
Hand down does not mean downgrading. 4 turns in the air is a quad and a hand down would take a minus 2 at the most from CoE.
Do you really believe that the audience came to watch Lambiel to skate and expected him to be at his best? I believe the general audiences come to watch a competition between several skaters, and that is what they got for their money.
I think being a World champion is not a guarantee that a skater always succeeds in a competiton. On the other hand, Lambiel succeeded to win and that surely was his aim? One really has to remember that this is early in the season and it is 4 months till the Worlds. As this is not an Olympic season, Worlds is the competition where the top skaters try to shine, so to speak, LOL.
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- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
Why am I not surprised at this?
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
It seems Lambiel is the target of his nonfans.
What happened to Daisuke and Johnny? any comments?
What happened to Daisuke and Johnny? any comments?
I´m a big fan of those on the podium, and have not seen Daisuke´s performance yet. The difference between the freeskate by Johnny and Stephane was the fact, that the latter really seems to have backbone and does not give up in his performance.
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- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
nymkfan51 - I am not surprised by the podium being disappointed. Lambiel is not and has never been a world wide favorite (except for me). As Hockeyfan andJaana say he skates beautifully. Daisuke fans who want an all Japanese Worlds podium may get that but that's down the road, but I doubt Daisuke will be on top. If any it will be Nobunari who skates beautifully. Now Johnny who skates beautifully, should have walked away with this. What happened? Let's see.
OMG !!!! Weir's look ...
He may be a wonderful skater, I really think he's getting more and more ridiculous.
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
I don't know, Joe, I guess I am just nostalgic for the good old days when world champions like Michelle Kwan always delivered the goods, early season, late season, world championship, cheesefest.
To answer your question, yes, I do think that the audience expected Lambiel to do his best. Weir, too. Why go out there if you are not going to do your best?
These contests have to stand on their own merit if we want anyone to attend. We can't just say, oh well, maybe you will see better skating when the world championships roll around.
To answer your question, yes, I do think that the audience expected Lambiel to do his best. Weir, too. Why go out there if you are not going to do your best?
These contests have to stand on their own merit if we want anyone to attend. We can't just say, oh well, maybe you will see better skating when the world championships roll around.
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I loved Daisuke at last year's SA, so I guess I was just hoping for more of the same. I like Lambiel, but I can't say I have ever been overly enthused with his skating. Johnny is, well, Johnny. I certainly didn't expect quads or the like at this point of the season, but triples are a piece of cake for him ... so I, too, am anxious to see what happened in this performance.
So far this season I have been totally impressed by Miki, Oda and Melissa&Denis ... hopefully more to follow.
So far this season I have been totally impressed by Miki, Oda and Melissa&Denis ... hopefully more to follow.
Just saw Johnny's lp. What was going on there? Unfocused is not enough to say. Everything looked so unfinished. How do you think, is it because there are too many changes made so he can't pull it all together or what? His jumps are usually so beautifull and consistent, well, not this time. Something happened to his spins also. And the costume...when I think I wasn't all in favour for his sp costume this year, now I'm pretty much, God, how I love that costume...I hope he's gonna polish this program, still he has time for it. And he should finally decide whether he does the quad or not before the program, not just change the decision when enetring the jump, that messes up with everything later on. Actually I don't know what to expext from him this season. I miss the old Johnny.
Also Lambiel won. Wow, from what place did he jump to the podium
?Even he didn't expect it, sitting in his "normal" clothes in the public.
Also Lambiel won. Wow, from what place did he jump to the podium
?Even he didn't expect it, sitting in his "normal" clothes in the public.Actually - I'm a huge Lambiel fan - among other skaters including the other two on the podium. I am happy that lambiel won (happy for him that is), and I do like this aspect of COP that you can jump from behind to medal - to win even! However, it is disappointing that that jump to win was also based on lots of other people making mistakes - including 1-2 from the short programs. That is, this was by no means a slam dunk winning LP performance. As I said earlier, by the time Weir was up to skate, I just figured he had it in the bag (after Takahashi was already in second), but he didn't execute and should have done better (even for the first time with a program). So in terms of the competition it was lacking - but here I am writing about it which suggests I'm 'in to it' nonetheless!
And again...i'm loving these reports!!!
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
Kwan and Plushenko were exceptions of consistency, but I remember some messy early performances by Kwan. Ordinals didn't tell the story of how well skaters did, especially if they skated early in the last flight and the judges left room. It's a relatively recent phenomenon for early season events to be televised and the organization of them into a Grand Prix series.
From this audience member's viewpoint, I didn't expect either Lambiel or Weir to do his ultimate best; that would be competitive suicide at this stage in the season. I expected them to do the best they could at this point. In general, because I don't want to see either peak now and because I expect early season performances to be works in progress, with the choreography still new, or with the skater's head in a new program while skating the old. (A lab of sorts.) In particular, because the post-Olympic season, where the tank was drained, was followed by a tour into August. For Lambiel, the beginning of a season after he was injured and probably didn't have a chance to rest enough before COI. For Weir new programs that demand a lot more from him in energy, attack, and timing and that are stylistically different. In the short term, I think the this is messing with his jump technique: once textbook, he's now lurching into his 3A, making it coarser, I suspect because the choreography isn't giving him his typical set-up time.
Should Takahashi not compete because he's inconsistent and can't "guarantee" a top performance? If that were the case, we would have been denied his spectacular short and his amazing skating skills, speed, and flow in the long, not to mention a few successful jumps where he had lovely timing and knee-bend.
It's through performances like these that you come to appreciate what it takes to be a top international competitor, because there's so much beauty and accomplishment in the "B" game of the top skaters. What I resented paying $100 to see was Baryshnikov sleep-walking through Les Sylphides. (But even then, in that performance, I got to see a number of other, wonderful dancers, including a number of younger ones.)
Maybe you will see better skating and maybe you won't, but this contest did stand on its own merit: the crowd was loving Vaughn Chipeur and Shawn Sawyer (and Marc-Andre Craig in the SP), and not because they were home boys: Chipeur had the highest and most powerful jumps of the competition because that's his style -- and to think he was 16th at Canadian Nationals last year -- and Sawyer lit up the house with the execution of detailed choreography, aside from some issues with jumps. (He should have been the bronze medallist, in my opinion.)
One of the biggest receptions for any program was for Jamal Othman's. He doesn't have a 3A or a quad, and he's filled out since last year (no longer the tall, wispy boy, but rather a tall, hunky young man.) He has a tendency to land his jumps down, with little flow-out, but he moves beautifully across the ice, albeit with not the same speed as a Takahashi. But he used his entire body to interpret his choreography, and gave a phenomenal performance that his PCS did not reflect.
Ponsero had a number of jump issues, but he showed great potential, and he's still young. Verner couldn't hold it together in the LP, but made a valiant effort at the quad, and he has superb edging. (Tracy Wilson is right that his program is lacking, and that he has the skills to do so much better.)
I've been sitting next to three really nice women who've been attending Skate Canada and other events in Canada for a number of years, and they talked about Skate Canada as the competition where you see the younger skaters for the first time and/or early in their careers, and how that was the thrill of this early season competition. The Weirs and the Lambiels are just gravy.
Even Michael Jordan wasn't MICHAEL JORDAN, and even Tiger Woods isn't TIGER WOODS every time they stepped on the court/course.
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I don't know why so many people pick on Lambiel. I saw the CTV broadcast and Lambiel's win was very convincing to me. What impressed me most is that after a disaster SP, he pulled himself together and gave a dynamic performance with attacks (except for the 3A that he chose to double). He was the only man attempted two quads in the LP and his spin and footworks were superb. It seemed the quads were fully rotated. I'm also impressed by Stephane's good manner during the interview. He's such a well rounded skater/person.
Takahashi tried hard but unfortunately as the commentator said" the stratigie of the program design backfired". Didn't pull off the big tricks despite of the long breathing time in between at the beginning of the program and the back to back triples after the 2 min line didn't get a chance to earn the extra marks.
Jonny Weir, what I can say, Lack of focus and attack and not smart, except for the 3A nothing to mention about. doubled I guess most of his triples, even his spins were not there. That was a gold for him to loss, and he did.
I'm impressed by the newer faces, like Chipeur. Good to see the potential in the field.
Takahashi tried hard but unfortunately as the commentator said" the stratigie of the program design backfired". Didn't pull off the big tricks despite of the long breathing time in between at the beginning of the program and the back to back triples after the 2 min line didn't get a chance to earn the extra marks.
Jonny Weir, what I can say, Lack of focus and attack and not smart, except for the 3A nothing to mention about. doubled I guess most of his triples, even his spins were not there. That was a gold for him to loss, and he did.
I'm impressed by the newer faces, like Chipeur. Good to see the potential in the field.
Chipeur has the tricks, the program choreography needs work before nationals.
It's time to apply that 10 years of ballet traning. It is true believe it or not he has formal ballet training. I saw some exam results and he was commended on his exams.
Next season hee needs to pick music that is strong to show off his technical elements.
It's time to apply that 10 years of ballet traning. It is true believe it or not he has formal ballet training. I saw some exam results and he was commended on his exams.
Next season hee needs to pick music that is strong to show off his technical elements.
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2006
OMG, Weir's costume. LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://photos.skatetoday.com/displayimage.php?album=48&pos=61
http://photos.skatetoday.com/displayimage.php?album=48&pos=61
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