Philip Hersh I told you so article

[AwesomeIce]

To everyone who is whining because Caroline "had" to do the lutz, she could have just done a nice easy double instead of the triple. And its not like she's the only skater who has problems with the lutz but had to do it at this competition. EVERYONE had to do it, too bad for her that she couldn't pull it off. At least she did it at Jr. Worlds and not in front of a home crowd at Sr. Worlds.

 

[luvsasha]

wow. that was very..harsh. I'm starting to really loathe his articles. Seriously, would it kill him to think positively about something for once?

 

[ks777]

wow. that was very..harsh. I'm starting to really loathe his articles. Seriously, would it kill him to think positively about something for once?

He was positive about Mirai Nagasu, at least.

 

[R.D.]

I usually agree with him, but this time he REALLY jumped the gun IMO.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

He's a critic and that's what crictics do. One does not have to agree with him. In fact, one doesn't have to agree with the results.

 

[Mathman]

The play's the thing.

He's a critic and that's what crictics do. One does not have to agree with him. In fact, one doesn't have to agree with the results.

The trouble with critics is that they exaggerate their own importance to the point where they think that their wit and wisdom are more interesting to their readers than is the performance that they are critiquing.

This article is not really about Caroline Zhang. It is about how clever Phil Hersh is.

 

[dancingqueen]

The trouble with critics is that they exaggerate their own importance to the point where they think that their wit and wisdom are more interesting to their readers than is the performance that they are critiquing.

This article is not really about Caroline Zhang. It is about how clever Phil Hersh is.

Great point ! :agree:

and unfortunately, many people are similar to him..

 

[Alicja]

I don't get why so many people are whining about this article being harsh, biased etc. Hersh himself says that everybody can have a bad day which I think is something we all can agree on. The point is really simple: what happened to Caroline Zhang here could have happened to her at the WCh as well(of course, we'll never if it would've happened). Now people argued that Alissa Czisny could fall apart at Worlds because she's inconsistent(without any doubt that could happen but we don't yet know if it will). Rachael Flatt also is a human being which leads to the conclusion she also could have a meltdown short at Worlds. All three of the ladies mentioned have issues to work on. Czisny and Flatt earned their spots at Nationals because of their 1st and 2nd place finishes, respectively. We can always argue about skaters being underscored(or overscored) but that won't change that much. They all have their issues and as long as they have them we'll have to take the good with the bad. There are two sides to every coin and everybody is free to prefer one of them but we should look at both.
I agree that this article isn't really about Zhang but it isn't about Hersh's cleverness either. It uses Zhang as a example to show that this is a sport and you'll never know what happens the next day, at the next competition and that is the reason why we shouldn't jump to any conclusion all that quickly. A world team of Zhang and Flatt would do better than a world team of Czisny and Flatt? Maybe. Maybe not. Three spots for the Olypics are unlikely with either team and I actually believe our focus shouldn't be on that.
I like all three skaters I mentioned for another reason that's why I can overlook their flaws when watching them compete but I know there's something they can improve and that's good because they're young woman, not roboters. This year the world team is Czisny and Flatt but this is a sport who knows what might happen next season.

 

[ks777]

I am just happy that someone is at least writing about figure skating! Christine Brennan doesn't even write about figure skating anymore...

 

[Buttercup]

I am just happy that someone is at least writing about figure skating! Christine Brennan doesn't even write about figure skating anymore...

That's no great loss, IMO. I think Amy Rosewater writes about figure skating for ESPN.com, though not very often. She did a general sort of Winter Olympics "athletes to watch" piece a couple of weeks ago, and actually metioned non-US skaters as well as the top Americans.

 

[merrybari]

No details as I didn't see the entire competition, but Caroline fought back, won the free skate and took silver!

So much for Hersh's doom and gloom re: one of Team USA's strongest "up-and-comers." As many here said after the SP - it was a bit too soon for him to have written her off.

Shame on him! And good for Caroline!! Way to go, girl!!

 

[jennylovskt]

He's a critic and that's what crictics do. One does not have to agree with him. In fact, one doesn't have to agree with the results.

True. I see no point of joining in fashionable critics of accusing Hersh about every article he wrote.

 

[LeCygne]

Okay, well here's what we've all been waiting for:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2009/02/zhangs-silver-s.html

 

[Mathman]

One thing you can give Phil Hersh credit for is that he treats figure skating like a real sport. Sports columnists are not shy about heaping criticism on underachieving baseball and football teams (Detroit Lions, 0-16 )

 

[Kwanford Wife]

One thing you can give Phil Hersh credit for is that he treats figure skating like a real sport. Sports columnists are not shy about heaping criticism on underachieving baseball and football teams (Detroit Lions, 0-16 )

Exactly! While I probably wouldn't invite him over for cake, Phil doesn't bother me mainly because I read a lot of sports reporters and part of their job is to point out the areas that athletes and teams can improve. If we want skating to be treated like a sport, then we have to take the good with the bad... and not let our sensibilities get all ruffled.

As for the Lions ... well... they deserve what they get. 0-16?!? Phish Posh...

 

[gold12345]

If we want skating to be treated like a sport, then we have to take the good with the bad

Where, exactly, is the good? The US won the most medals out of anyone at this Junior Worlds, and all he writes about is how Caroline Zhang isn't ready for Seniors. The guy is almost exclusively negative. I can take the good with the bad when the writing is not so one-sided. Hersh writes a few nice articles every once in a while, but he is almost always over-the-top negative and ignores anything positive going on.

 

[Tinymavy15]

Hilarious that he said "she reacted with little emotion after her freeskate...she must have generally felt relieved." and the picture caption says that she "exults" after her freeskate, and the picture she looks overjoyed!

 

[gold12345]

Hilarious that he said "she reacted with little emotion after her freeskate...she must have generally felt relieved." and the picture caption says that she "exults" after her freeskate, and the picture she looks overjoyed!

Actually, I think that picture was from 4CC, and Hersh pointed out twice that Caroline didn't look nearly as happy after her clean skate at Jr Worlds. Hersh is just trying to downplay how well she skated so that he doesn't look like a total fool for writing her off after one bad short program.

 

[Medusa]

I think that the reason for our sensitivity is that figure skating is such an individual sport that is so very different from other sports.

We got the K&C where we see the skaters suffering with their coaches, we see them greeting their parents / friends / teachers / cleaning ladies / cartoon movie characters - we often see them crying or extremely happy and all that time the attention is just on the one skater / pair. Then we got the whole costume, make-up, charisma, personality - and all of those things also have an impact on the performance, it is evaluated to a certain extend.

Another thing is that we have just these very few competitions each season (compare that to a football player who plays ideally once a week in the National League, then every few weeks in the Champions League / UEFA Cup, every few weeks in the National Cup and of course in the international matches for his National Team that are always going on - and always 90 minutes or more). Skaters have just so few chances to redeem themselves and a harsh opinion like Hersh's always seems so final. A football player can just suck it up and score a hat-trick in the next game next week. But one bad competition and the skater sometimes has no chance to redeem themselves for 6 or 7 months - and everybody only talks about this last bad competition.

A sport that is similar is probably Tennis or Golf. Only a few big meetings (very few care about the Tennis apart from the 4 Grand Slams). You hear / read people talking about Federer's tears, his great new outfits for Wimbledon, Rafa's newest strange colour... But there is still a difference, because Tennis is somehow objective, the one guy won the last tie-break and therefore the tournament.

Figure skating just isn't objective, it's judged from the start. Not only the judges judge the skater, the audience does too, the federations, the coaches, all the little living room judges (like us). That's why it's so emotional. And that's why it often gets vicious here, because we all have our personal opinions, that rarely have a lot to do with how great the Triple Axel is but rather with our personal impressions of the skaters.

And the worst thing that can happen to us living room judges is that some guy gets his personal opinion published in a major newspaper. A guy who some of us think of as not really qualified. And that makes the tiny living room judge really mad, because here on the boards we can at least slaughter each other, bicker as much as we want and build some additional houses on our ignore list for more inhabitants. But this guy just publishes his stuff in a major newspaper, we can't slaughter him, we can't make the statements go away, non-skating fans will read it and consider it useful information and then might not like our precious favourites. Every skating fan has to live with the fact that the judges determine the outcome of the competition, the fate of the favourites, of the tiny lovely girls and cute boys. But I think that lots of us don't want to live with the fact that some journalist determines the image of these skaters in some national publications.

 

[Tinymavy15]

I agree with Medusa. In baseball the players get to redem themselves every day, more or less, and even the pitchers play twice a week or so. In skating you are only as good as your last competition, so the pressure that girls like Caroline and Mirai are under is enormous.