Whereas I agree that the idea of athletes needing to retire to make room for others is bizarre (except maybe in pro wrestling...), tennis in particular has had a real problem in generating new stars, which is demonstrated by players like Serena, Novak, Nadal and Federer winning majors well into their 'geriatric' years. Over last 10 years, only new 'potential GOAT level' player to have emerged is Alcaraz. And part of the reason for that is how the sport is structured.
iga... aryna... in the women's field a lot of great players have emerged... barty who retired early... and all these one time winners. it's great that is no longer only serena winning everything
And TBH if they are winning, they should continue competing. There is no rule that athletes should rotate in whatever years cycles, long and succeful career is substantial factor that makes an athlete GOAT.
What does Tennis have to do with this? I think it seems if you look at the results of Worlds for the last three years the judges really really really like Chock and Bates. They won two world championships with major errors. They tend to score higher than perhaps warranted like this year even if you think they should win they probably shouldnot have such a lead over in this case Piper and Paul. THere is a lot of movement i ice dance unlike the past. Parsons and Green and Careirra and Ponamarenko moved up a lot. Lala and the French were thought to be possible podium contenders moved down. There is only one sure thing - Chock and Bates will win OGM next year. We won't know a lot until well see what the new French team can do and if they are eligible for the olympics. THe olympics are in Italy so we will see if the dance win a medal for the Italians. I do think Fear and Gibson are vulnerable. They potentially could be beaten by the Italians, Chock and Btes, Gilles and Porier, two FRench teams, Lala, and PC so they could go to bronze to eight maybeeven ninth with the finns. I feel for the Italians, Piper and Paul and Lala who kind of got the short end of the stick in my mind. THere are only three olympic medals and you will aslo have a Russian team most likely next year. I don't expect a lot from them but you never know.
It's a response to "some skaters are here to long" comment. TBH Brits as much as I like them should be beaten both by Italians and LaLa.
Well, but you have to admit it is sort of simpler, if not necessarily easier, in tennis than in FS. In tennis you have it all on your racket, the ball is round, the court is equal for everyone, and even a child can count the points right. In FS - it's all in the hands of judges which for a skater are way more difficult to control and predict than their own racket for a tennis player.
Fully agree. I've tried to think of why I'm weary of them, and I've landed on an analogy.
Absolutely, the problem with tennis has been however that the structure of the sport has not for some time encouraged growth of new talent. Lot of the athletically gifted juniors move to other sports (or never even pick tennis as it is a huge risk career-wise), because the system has been built around existing megastars.
On the other hand, some of the actors/stars considered the greatest of all time, including (but not exclusively from) from the 'Golden Age', had huge popularity, stardom, audiences and even awards while basically playing themselves or slightly varied versions of themselves. And more than a few of them did it brilliantly.
If you think that FS is expensive... My boy was training tennis for 2 years in a local amateur club, with 0 thoughts about competing even on regional level. That WAS expensive, FS isn't even remotely close. Luckily, he got bored bc he was best in his group and this was the best group in this club for this age
? True. And before that they really liked Paoadakis and Cizeron. And before that they reeky liked Virtue and Moir. And before that they really liked Grishuk and Platov. And before that they really liked Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy.
It's ice dance. The more you know about skating, the less you understand the judging. In 6.0 system they didn't pretend it was fair. Now they do pretend and sometimes it's hilarious but more often just sad.
Yeah but they can't if they are being hosed by their own federation.
OMG I was furious. The results were an absolute joke. C&B free dance was a snoozefest and Piper and Paul are never rewarded for their creativity and wonderful skating skills. Just awful. Green and Parsons below C & P was also ugh. The results did not reflect the actual competition at all.
This is quite true. Gilles and Poirier are endlessly innovative and entertaining. They come up with one quirky outside-the -box program concept after another.
