2018 US Men's Oly/World/4CC team announced

[mrrice]

Except it wasn't. The first on the list of the criteria for choosing the team is placement at Nationals. However, that is only ONE thing on the criteria. If there were no Nationals, Jason Brown would be on the team instead of Vincent. His placements in all of the criteria except the last two Nationals beat Vincent. Vincent made the team because his 3rd place at this Nationals trumps Jason's 6th place as well as his 2nd last year beating Jason's third. Jason had a chance to make the team and blew it. Because last night's results counted. But they were not the only results that count.

Beyond that, if Ross continues, his placement last night will put him in a higher team envelope for next season which will give him higher funding and likely mean he gets at least one GP assignment next year. Because that's one of the main things Nationals determines. By finishing 5th at the last two Nationals prior, Ross put himself in a bad place for making this Olympic team--he lost GP assignments, he doesn't have Worlds on his resume, etc... By finishing 2nd last night, he has put himself in a better place to continue.

It's nice that Ross had the skate of his life. Good for him. But USFSA has wisely decided that having the skate of your life on one night shouldn't be the ONLY criteria for making the Olympic or World teams.

Really??? Tell that to Sarah Hughes......She's an Olympic Champion who has ZERO National Titles. She won because she skated better than the rest of the field and that's what should have happened with Ross. As a judge, I'd want the skater that I chose based on the skating they did in front of my eyes. Ross was scored based on what he did in front of the judges under pressure......I feel like it was a slap in the face to judges as well.

 

[sowcow]

Is "I'll be skating forever....." really that much humbler? :sarcasm:

Thanks for emphasizing this...

I’ve seen one newspaper article calling Rippon’s self-aggrandizement “witt”. They evidently don’t catch the intent.

Well flipsydoodle, I for one, literally, don't appreciate you dragging Ms. Katarina — the 2-time Olympic gold medalist — into this at all! :roll5: (...especially as she will forever be a legend in the skating world!)

[hehe ]

 

[qwertyskates]

He won't be furious bc he's a sweet guy

Nice guys finish last...:sarcasm:

Oh, I mean, they might finish Silver but still end up last-ish.

 

[flipsydoodle]

You seriously can't see the difference between "I'll skate for as long as I can.." and "Im gonna skate forever...."? One spoken by a World Champion and one by a National pewter medalist?

I'm gutted for Ross, but is it too much for someone to ask Adam to just not rub salt into Ross and his coaches' wounds for now?

I heard Mitchell is quitting figure skating. :sarcasm:

This post is much appreciated.

And, if Rippon wants to represent TeamUSA like an Olympian, he might catch a clue that sarcasm and humor don’t go over well internationally. For starters, they lose in translation, words are taken literally, many cultures don’t use “humor” that way and don’t understand it.

 

[mrrice]

Nice guys finish last...:sarcasm:

Right.......And that's the problem. Ross didn't finish last....He got screwed.

 

[flipsydoodle]

Well flipsydoodle, I for one, literally, don't appreciate you dragging Ms. Katarina — the 2-time Olympic gold medalist — into this at all! :roll5:

[hehe ]

Oops!

 

[ks777]

Really??? Tell that to Sarah Hughes......She's an Olympic Champion who has ZERO National Titles. She won because she skated better than the rest of the field and that's what should have happened with Ross. As a judge, I'd want the skater that I chose based on the skating they did in front of my eyes. Ross was scored based on what he did in front of the judges under pressure......I feel like it was a slap in the face to judges as well.

You can't use Sarah Hughes as an example. Sarah won many medals at GPs. She even beat both Kwan and Slutskaya at a GP event in that Olympic season.

 

[PyeongChang2018]

Well flipsydoodle, I for one, literally, don't appreciate you dragging Ms. Katarina — the 2-time Olympic gold medalist — into this at all! :roll5:

[hehe ]

This post is genius. Funny and highlights exactly what they did in incorrectly writing Rippon's words and choosing to paraphrase.

 

[flipsydoodle]

Do you have a link to this?
I haven't exhaustively searched for the official publishing of the criteria, but what I've got so far is a link from the NBC Sports site that clearly includes it as Tier 2:

http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2017/12/27/how-us-olympic-figure-skating-team-chosen/

I think we’re on the same page. By “last year” I meant 2016-2017 season; that would be GP 2016.

 

[NanaPat]

Man Ross looked like the happiest man in the world on that podium. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmyWOGMnPjI

So heartbreaking, but he probably saw it coming. :sad21:

I'm surprised USFS didn't come out during the medals ceremony to announce the teams and kick Ross off the ice. Not really, but if they won't make him first alternate, I wouldn't put anything past them.

 

[xeyra]

<---- This international audience here has no issue with Adam's sense of humor. Who'dve thunk?

 

[gravy]

Awww... Ross. :sad21:

Using the BoW argument it totally makes sense but it doesn't leave a good taste in my mouth. I don't like how it's selectively applied though. First example that comes to mind is Bartholomay & Zhang who had the skate of their lives in Boston and were sent to Sochi over Denney & Couglin even though the latter had a superior track record and was arguably the best American team at the time.

Only 2nd alternate status for Ross across Olympics/Worlds is much harder to swallow though. :disapp: I'm not too invested over anything in skating at all but this really doesn't sit well with me. Meh.

 

[mrrice]

You can't use Sarah Hughes as an example. Sarah won many medals at GPs. She even beat both Kwan and Slutskaya at a GP event in that Olympic season.

I absolutely can use Sarah as example.......Her "Body of Work" consisted of beating Irina and Michelle exactly ONE time before SLC. I see this situation differently....Sarah was the National Silver Medalist in 2002 and can you imagine if they gave her spot to 4th place Angela Nikodinov...Ross has been to Senior Worlds and that should have made a difference with the committee. I love Vincent but, he LOST to Ross and should not be going.

 

[Tavi...]

Really??? Tell that to Sarah Hughes......She's an Olympic Champion who has ZERO National Titles. She won because she skated better than the rest of the field and that's what should have happened with Ross. As a judge, I'd want the skater that I chose based on the skating they did in front of my eyes. Ross was scored based on what he did in front of the judges under pressure......I feel like it was a slap in the face to judges as well.

Sarah Hughes went to the Olympics in 2002 and was already a world medalist. The rules in place 16 years ago may have been different. The key point is that Ross and all the skaters knew going into this season what the criteria were. The current rules are very clear that medalling at Nats does not = an Olympic spot.

 

[jinhamasaki]

Why even bother doing Nationals if your second place finish doesn't get you anything??? (Sorry 4CC fans...)

 

[spread beagle]

It's an awkward situation but no....nationals is no longer everything. What would Ross bio look like. Seriously I don't know.

I can accept nationals no longer being everything. But it certainly needs to be something. Giving Miner 2nd alternate makes it almost nothing.

 

[breadstal]

They should at least give Ross a Worlds spot...

 

[jimini]

I absolutely can use Sarah as example.......Her "Body of Work" consisted of beating Irina and Michelle exactly ONE time before SLC. I see this situation differently....Sarah was the National Silver Medalist in 2002 and can you imagine if they gave her spot to 4th place Angela Nikodinov...Ross has been to Senior Worlds and that should have made a difference with the committee. I love Vincent but, he LOST to Ross and should not be going.

Sarah's body of work also included a World medal the year immediately prior, 2 straight GPF bronze medals, and a gold & silver on the GP circuit that season. Angela's body of work couldn't compete with that.

Ross' senior worlds was back in 2013 and he placed 14th. It isn't counted within the selection criteria and if it were, it would have reflected very badly on him.

 

[schizoanalyst]

I broadly agree with the announcement. I see an argument for Miner>Zhou, but I agree with sending Zhou. I am a little surprised they went this route really. Zhou doesn't really need to be at the Olympics since his body of work criteria isn't phenomenal (though better than Miner) and he isn't going to medal. He'd probably score higher than Miner and is more likely to make it into the top 10. But I'm surprised they decided to invite the controversy of passing the Silver Medalist to send a skater like Zhou. Kicking Miner by placing as 2nd alternate seems cruel to me though.

 

[RemyRose]

I'm surprised USFS didn't come out during the medals ceremony to announce the teams and kick Ross off the ice. Not really, but if they won't make him first alternate, I wouldn't put anything past them.

Well the lady who were giving the skaters their pins did drop Miner's. I think that was his signal.
https://youtu.be/PmyWOGMnPjI?t=5m33s