- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Country
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Here tis, for what it's worth. I stuck it by itself rather than in the other thread.
The Providence arena is a relatively small arena, but it was not nearly full. A number of spectators arrived late however, failing to realize that these cheesefests do not have any second tier skaters. As a result, they may have missed Plush, who IMO was the top act here. If you are going to a cheesefest, remember to get there early!. I was interested to see that parked outside the arena where two large Champions on Ice tractor trailer trucks. Apparently (and it makes sense), they do coordinate these events. However, it does not make sense to take competitors who have done at least three tour stops and give them little time to practice in an arena, and then make them go back to skating their long programs. This procedure, typical of spring cheesefests, does not lead to the very best skating in general, and that was also true tonight.
The percentage of the crowd that were young children was high. I was surprised that the organizers allowed flowers to be thrown on the ice, and that what flowers were thrown were not well wrapped. Also a number of people, despite being warned, persisted in using flash cameras. The competitors were aware of both these problems, and it showed in the skating, with most of the competitors exuding an air of caution.
The arena was full of NCAA and NIT banners, which kept me, as a person who went to grad school at UConn, wondering how the women's basketball championship was going: UConn, where men are men and women are champions; it is sort of like the US in figure skating.
We were seated near the top of the VIP seats, 8 rows off the ice, just behind the judges. Dick, Peggy and Peter Carruthers were all there. Dick appeared to have a pale ice green tie, and they all had a huge tub of popcorn at the start of the event.
One thing about cheesefests: There are only 5 judges. Scoring is the 6.0 system, and it is Not Anonymous.
For the men, the judges were:
1 Weitzman France
2 Pennichenko Russia
3 Kubota Japan
4 Butcher Canada
5 Dick? USA
Don't count on the names; I didn't see them spelled out, but the countries are correct.
First to skate was Evan Lysachek in a red, blousy shirt with gold spangles around the neckline and black pants. He opened with a nice 3A3T, perhaps a bit two footed on the 3A. He was skating very slowly, so it seemed to me. He followed with a second 3A, and then stepped out of a 3loop. He did a flying camel into a donut spin variation where he bent his knee to go down and then went back up again. Then a reasonably good 3lutz 3toe and a nice cannonball sit spin, followed by a back sit spin.
He centered up again and did a combination spin. He then did more or less nothing for a while for a nice rest. He then did a 3S with a slightly wiggly landing, some moves in the field, a nice spread eagle, a flying sit spin, a shaky 3flip, and then his straight line f/w which seemed relatively easy. He definitely needs more speed and power in his skating, but he skated this program very accurately.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5
5.3 5.5 5.5 5.4 5.5
Next to skate was Plushenko, doing his Nijinsky routine in the same black with gold spangles jump suit he wore at World's. It looks very nice on him. He skated very well, but exuded an air of caution and fell on his 3lutz, but there may have been a flash camera at that corner...he fell where the were sitting people that were warned about flash camers after his skate.
He started with a careful, and correct 4t3t . Then relatively plain skating to a 3A that was very high and very gorgeous. He then stopped and executed a resting sequence, followed by a 3A 2t. He could only get a 2t because he pretty much came to a dead stop out of the 3A. Then a 3S, followed by what appeared to be a 2somethingorother; was this supposed to be his second 4T??, and his very nice flying camel into donut spin. Children, if you ever want to learn a donut spin, do Not study Baiul who has to stick her rump up to get hold of her foot. Watch Plush! He just curls his leg around, and it is seamless and totally excellent. He then did a bunch of little dumb tippy toe steps, and set off on his absolutely great S/L footwork with real twizzles, and kicks of various sorts, to great applause from the crowd. He then did a half stepout, half fall on a 3lutz, then a 3flip?I think, and did his combo spin with the Bielmann and another donut, a Biellmann spiral (very nice), a 3loop and into his final combo spin followed by a very fast, and headless? scratch spin. He got good applause, but no standing ovation. I still prefer his QR round at last year's Worlds by quite a lot.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.8 5.8 5.8 5.7 5.8
5.9 5.9 5.9 5.9 5.9
He was followed by Brian Joubert, in his usual Matrix outfit, skating his same Matrix program. He started by turning around and facing the judges and sticking out his hands. He did a 4t nicely, skated some more, did a 3lutz(I think), wiggled his shoulders but did nothing with his feet. This is a very empty first part of the program. He did a nice 3A3t, a slow spin that travelled quite a bit, posed a lot, walked backward, and then skated into a 3f3t (again I think I am right, but I might not have the first jump correctly identified. Was it supposed to be 4t? It didn't seem high enough or fast enough.). He did a very nice 3loop, a sit, change sit, adequately done, some relatively simple footwork, posed, did a nice spread eagle, a wobbly 3f (?) another travelling spin, another s/l f/w with toe steps but not that much complexity. It was slow. Very slow. He finished with a 3S, to a flying axel sit spin with out much spin, and stood facing the judges. He did not get as much applause as Plush. No way will this place first, I thought, and it didn't. But he did win on
the Canadian judge's card and tied on the French and Japanese cards, winning one and losing the other on the tech/pres tie breaker rule. So Plush was ahead because of the American judge. I don't see how this empty program with simple f/w and mostly not exceptional spins was that close to Plush.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.9 5.8 5.9 5.9 5.8
5.8 5.8 5.8 5.9 5.8
Then it was Tim Goebel's turn. It took the judges a lot of time to figure out how to handle Joubert vs. Plushenko. Plus there were loose flower petals all over the place, and flower girls trying to pick them up.Tim skated around a lot, and did a 3toe and a 2axel while he was waiting. I presumed that this was a warmup to trying the 4t and 3A that are in his Queen Symphony program. I didn't like his costume which is a gray jump suit with a loose piece of chiffon flapping around, going down his sleeve. He did not appear to be wearing the hinged boots, as far as I could tell. During the warmup, I was looking at his skating, trying to see how it compared to his national's skating. He is still doing that kind of shuffling, chugging around, my- hip- hurts step between skating program sequences, but less so. And he seemed to have a bit more flow back in his skating. However, in warmup he did a 3A2t, but it was kind of squeaky, and I didn't see him try a 4t. Finally he got to start, and with the music being the Who Wants to Live Forever? part of Queen's song, very sad when you remember Tim's problems. He tried the 3A and fell flat. He did a decent 3loop and a spread eagle into an attempted 4toe and fell flat. Then butterflies into a sit spin and a cross foot spin. Then a hydroblade move followed by a 3f3t. Not too bad. A forward spiral, 3S footwork sequence, performed pretty decently, into a 3lz, followed by 3flip finishing with 3toe by itself. I think I may not have those jumps right. His final combo spin was quick and well centered.
Well, since he has only been training the quad for about 2 or 3 weeks since physical therapy and getting inserts for his boots, it wasn't that bad. Funny enough, while the program was not up to Plush's level, this is not an empty program. There's quite a bit going on even with the jumps gone. It does not score well and he goes into last place. With the two warmup jumps, Tim kept up good energy for about 5 and 1/2 minutes, so fitness is not his problem.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.0 5.3 5.2 5.3 5.3
5.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 5.3
It is a sad commentary that it is the US judge that disliked his skate the most, and the Russian judge who liked it the best.
Other than the US judge, Tim can take some heart that the other judges gave him quite decent presentation marks for the level of the program. Maybe it's the contrast between the words to Queen's songs, and Tim's situation, I found it a touching presentation.
Next to skate, was Johnny Weir, in his icicle costume to Dr. Zhivago. He started with a very smooth 3A3t, then a 3S, and a 3A that he stepped out of. He had a nice donut spin, a 3lutz3toe, and then a thing that I called a 3toe with a squeaky landing. I am undecided whether this was supposed to be a 4t that was popped to 3, or whether it was a 3f and I missed it. Johnny grabs his head. He skates into a 3loop, very nicely done, and did his front catch spiral, butterfly and his final pancake spin with the arms going down. There is a lot more to this program than I am saying, but I was too busy watching it to take very good notes. Somewhere in there there is a very nice footwork sequence where Johnny does some kind of 1 1/2 rotation jump. I thought COP limited you to only one rotation, or the stunt was counted as a jumping pass. Then I remembered that Johnny has never compted under COP. However, Johnny skated this a lot better both at World's and at Nationals.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.6 5.4 5.6 5.6 5.7
5.7 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.8
I found it interesting to note that the US judge thought this program was hugely better than Goebel, but the Russian judge thought it only 0.1 better, and no better in presentation. It was the Canadian and US judge that were going crazy for this program.
Last to skate was Michael Weiss, as usual to his patriotic medley, as usual in his Union Army uniform. He started with a 4toe with one hand down. He skated around, did a cute little jump (is it a mazurka?) and another triple, maybe a flip. He does a 3axel, with wonky landing but stayed standing, and skated to a 3loop. He did a flying camel with this odd kick in the air that looked clumsy to me. and did his spin while saluting. Then he performed his moves in the field section, bent knee spiral, a walley and did what looked like a 2A2t to get the combo in? Then a 3S, and a 3lutz that landed on the music, a touch I liked. He had a nice cannonball sit spin, as usual, change to back sit, then his Mike Pike, and a 3toe (I think) thrown in. He did his s/l footwork, which was pretty good, and a nice flying camel into a final spin that he had trouble controlling. I have never liked this program, but Mike relates to this music pretty well. I wish Brian Wright were still alive to choregraph him.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.6 5.7 5.4 5.7 5.4
5.8 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.5
And thus we see the US judge really liked Weir, compared to the two other US skaters, Weiss and Goebel.
Final result:
1. Plushenko
2. Joubert
3. Weir
4. Weiss
5. Lysacek
6. Goebel
An interesting aside: Peter Carruthers interviewed Plush after his win, and the interview was run over the loudspeaker system. Plush said that to win next year, he will be adding a 4S and a 4loop to his program.
The Providence arena is a relatively small arena, but it was not nearly full. A number of spectators arrived late however, failing to realize that these cheesefests do not have any second tier skaters. As a result, they may have missed Plush, who IMO was the top act here. If you are going to a cheesefest, remember to get there early!. I was interested to see that parked outside the arena where two large Champions on Ice tractor trailer trucks. Apparently (and it makes sense), they do coordinate these events. However, it does not make sense to take competitors who have done at least three tour stops and give them little time to practice in an arena, and then make them go back to skating their long programs. This procedure, typical of spring cheesefests, does not lead to the very best skating in general, and that was also true tonight.
The percentage of the crowd that were young children was high. I was surprised that the organizers allowed flowers to be thrown on the ice, and that what flowers were thrown were not well wrapped. Also a number of people, despite being warned, persisted in using flash cameras. The competitors were aware of both these problems, and it showed in the skating, with most of the competitors exuding an air of caution.
The arena was full of NCAA and NIT banners, which kept me, as a person who went to grad school at UConn, wondering how the women's basketball championship was going: UConn, where men are men and women are champions; it is sort of like the US in figure skating.
We were seated near the top of the VIP seats, 8 rows off the ice, just behind the judges. Dick, Peggy and Peter Carruthers were all there. Dick appeared to have a pale ice green tie, and they all had a huge tub of popcorn at the start of the event.
One thing about cheesefests: There are only 5 judges. Scoring is the 6.0 system, and it is Not Anonymous.
For the men, the judges were:
1 Weitzman France
2 Pennichenko Russia
3 Kubota Japan
4 Butcher Canada
5 Dick? USA
Don't count on the names; I didn't see them spelled out, but the countries are correct.
First to skate was Evan Lysachek in a red, blousy shirt with gold spangles around the neckline and black pants. He opened with a nice 3A3T, perhaps a bit two footed on the 3A. He was skating very slowly, so it seemed to me. He followed with a second 3A, and then stepped out of a 3loop. He did a flying camel into a donut spin variation where he bent his knee to go down and then went back up again. Then a reasonably good 3lutz 3toe and a nice cannonball sit spin, followed by a back sit spin.
He centered up again and did a combination spin. He then did more or less nothing for a while for a nice rest. He then did a 3S with a slightly wiggly landing, some moves in the field, a nice spread eagle, a flying sit spin, a shaky 3flip, and then his straight line f/w which seemed relatively easy. He definitely needs more speed and power in his skating, but he skated this program very accurately.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5
5.3 5.5 5.5 5.4 5.5
Next to skate was Plushenko, doing his Nijinsky routine in the same black with gold spangles jump suit he wore at World's. It looks very nice on him. He skated very well, but exuded an air of caution and fell on his 3lutz, but there may have been a flash camera at that corner...he fell where the were sitting people that were warned about flash camers after his skate.
He started with a careful, and correct 4t3t . Then relatively plain skating to a 3A that was very high and very gorgeous. He then stopped and executed a resting sequence, followed by a 3A 2t. He could only get a 2t because he pretty much came to a dead stop out of the 3A. Then a 3S, followed by what appeared to be a 2somethingorother; was this supposed to be his second 4T??, and his very nice flying camel into donut spin. Children, if you ever want to learn a donut spin, do Not study Baiul who has to stick her rump up to get hold of her foot. Watch Plush! He just curls his leg around, and it is seamless and totally excellent. He then did a bunch of little dumb tippy toe steps, and set off on his absolutely great S/L footwork with real twizzles, and kicks of various sorts, to great applause from the crowd. He then did a half stepout, half fall on a 3lutz, then a 3flip?I think, and did his combo spin with the Bielmann and another donut, a Biellmann spiral (very nice), a 3loop and into his final combo spin followed by a very fast, and headless? scratch spin. He got good applause, but no standing ovation. I still prefer his QR round at last year's Worlds by quite a lot.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.8 5.8 5.8 5.7 5.8
5.9 5.9 5.9 5.9 5.9
He was followed by Brian Joubert, in his usual Matrix outfit, skating his same Matrix program. He started by turning around and facing the judges and sticking out his hands. He did a 4t nicely, skated some more, did a 3lutz(I think), wiggled his shoulders but did nothing with his feet. This is a very empty first part of the program. He did a nice 3A3t, a slow spin that travelled quite a bit, posed a lot, walked backward, and then skated into a 3f3t (again I think I am right, but I might not have the first jump correctly identified. Was it supposed to be 4t? It didn't seem high enough or fast enough.). He did a very nice 3loop, a sit, change sit, adequately done, some relatively simple footwork, posed, did a nice spread eagle, a wobbly 3f (?) another travelling spin, another s/l f/w with toe steps but not that much complexity. It was slow. Very slow. He finished with a 3S, to a flying axel sit spin with out much spin, and stood facing the judges. He did not get as much applause as Plush. No way will this place first, I thought, and it didn't. But he did win on
the Canadian judge's card and tied on the French and Japanese cards, winning one and losing the other on the tech/pres tie breaker rule. So Plush was ahead because of the American judge. I don't see how this empty program with simple f/w and mostly not exceptional spins was that close to Plush.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.9 5.8 5.9 5.9 5.8
5.8 5.8 5.8 5.9 5.8
Then it was Tim Goebel's turn. It took the judges a lot of time to figure out how to handle Joubert vs. Plushenko. Plus there were loose flower petals all over the place, and flower girls trying to pick them up.Tim skated around a lot, and did a 3toe and a 2axel while he was waiting. I presumed that this was a warmup to trying the 4t and 3A that are in his Queen Symphony program. I didn't like his costume which is a gray jump suit with a loose piece of chiffon flapping around, going down his sleeve. He did not appear to be wearing the hinged boots, as far as I could tell. During the warmup, I was looking at his skating, trying to see how it compared to his national's skating. He is still doing that kind of shuffling, chugging around, my- hip- hurts step between skating program sequences, but less so. And he seemed to have a bit more flow back in his skating. However, in warmup he did a 3A2t, but it was kind of squeaky, and I didn't see him try a 4t. Finally he got to start, and with the music being the Who Wants to Live Forever? part of Queen's song, very sad when you remember Tim's problems. He tried the 3A and fell flat. He did a decent 3loop and a spread eagle into an attempted 4toe and fell flat. Then butterflies into a sit spin and a cross foot spin. Then a hydroblade move followed by a 3f3t. Not too bad. A forward spiral, 3S footwork sequence, performed pretty decently, into a 3lz, followed by 3flip finishing with 3toe by itself. I think I may not have those jumps right. His final combo spin was quick and well centered.
Well, since he has only been training the quad for about 2 or 3 weeks since physical therapy and getting inserts for his boots, it wasn't that bad. Funny enough, while the program was not up to Plush's level, this is not an empty program. There's quite a bit going on even with the jumps gone. It does not score well and he goes into last place. With the two warmup jumps, Tim kept up good energy for about 5 and 1/2 minutes, so fitness is not his problem.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.0 5.3 5.2 5.3 5.3
5.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 5.3
It is a sad commentary that it is the US judge that disliked his skate the most, and the Russian judge who liked it the best.
Other than the US judge, Tim can take some heart that the other judges gave him quite decent presentation marks for the level of the program. Maybe it's the contrast between the words to Queen's songs, and Tim's situation, I found it a touching presentation.
Next to skate, was Johnny Weir, in his icicle costume to Dr. Zhivago. He started with a very smooth 3A3t, then a 3S, and a 3A that he stepped out of. He had a nice donut spin, a 3lutz3toe, and then a thing that I called a 3toe with a squeaky landing. I am undecided whether this was supposed to be a 4t that was popped to 3, or whether it was a 3f and I missed it. Johnny grabs his head. He skates into a 3loop, very nicely done, and did his front catch spiral, butterfly and his final pancake spin with the arms going down. There is a lot more to this program than I am saying, but I was too busy watching it to take very good notes. Somewhere in there there is a very nice footwork sequence where Johnny does some kind of 1 1/2 rotation jump. I thought COP limited you to only one rotation, or the stunt was counted as a jumping pass. Then I remembered that Johnny has never compted under COP. However, Johnny skated this a lot better both at World's and at Nationals.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.6 5.4 5.6 5.6 5.7
5.7 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.8
I found it interesting to note that the US judge thought this program was hugely better than Goebel, but the Russian judge thought it only 0.1 better, and no better in presentation. It was the Canadian and US judge that were going crazy for this program.
Last to skate was Michael Weiss, as usual to his patriotic medley, as usual in his Union Army uniform. He started with a 4toe with one hand down. He skated around, did a cute little jump (is it a mazurka?) and another triple, maybe a flip. He does a 3axel, with wonky landing but stayed standing, and skated to a 3loop. He did a flying camel with this odd kick in the air that looked clumsy to me. and did his spin while saluting. Then he performed his moves in the field section, bent knee spiral, a walley and did what looked like a 2A2t to get the combo in? Then a 3S, and a 3lutz that landed on the music, a touch I liked. He had a nice cannonball sit spin, as usual, change to back sit, then his Mike Pike, and a 3toe (I think) thrown in. He did his s/l footwork, which was pretty good, and a nice flying camel into a final spin that he had trouble controlling. I have never liked this program, but Mike relates to this music pretty well. I wish Brian Wright were still alive to choregraph him.
FR RU JPN CAN USA
5.6 5.7 5.4 5.7 5.4
5.8 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.5
And thus we see the US judge really liked Weir, compared to the two other US skaters, Weiss and Goebel.
Final result:
1. Plushenko
2. Joubert
3. Weir
4. Weiss
5. Lysacek
6. Goebel
An interesting aside: Peter Carruthers interviewed Plush after his win, and the interview was run over the loudspeaker system. Plush said that to win next year, he will be adding a 4S and a 4loop to his program.
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