Thoughts on WTT

[TontoK]

I agree with Tonto. This team thing has the potential to become the skating event of the Games for the television viewers. No one has ever heard of Ashley Wagner or Gracie Gold, but...USA! USA! USA!

In addition to the ISU I think the IOC has expectations that athletes will participate. Plus, who wouldn't want to skate their fool head off at the Olympics Games if given the chance?

Sometimes there are a few athletes in both the Winter and Summer Games who decline to be part of the relays because they want to save themselves for their individual events. They end up looking unpatriotic and selfish.

As for the possibility of injury in the team competition -- Menshov notwithstanding, you are more likely get injured in practice or to catch a cold on the day before your event. This is the Olympics! No time to get timid and scared of what might happen.

That's the spirit! For most, the Olympic Games are a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Make the most of it! Who wouldn't want to skate for team glory and an Olympic Gold Medal? As for the possibility of getting hurt... that can happen any time to any person. It's part of being an athlete.

I with there were ways to have even more teams participate.

Good point on the relay analogy. What a tragedy it would be for a favorite to skip the team event, watch his team win gold without him (or face speculation that his absence cost them the gold) and then splat miserably during the short program. There's a nice Olympic memory to carry the rest of your life.

 

[karne]

I just have one question I want answered by the ISU.

Let's talk about the situation Russia finds themselves in with the men. (I'm using them as an example.) Russia picks Menshov. Now, because they only have one man, Menshov HAS to do the team event AND the singles. In the long program of the team event, he slips forward off a triple Axel and dislocates his shoulder/breaks something (vis a vis WTT13).

Can Russia replace him for the singles, or is it a case of "too bad, so sad"? (Knowing the ISU, I'd be willing to bet it's the latter...) Has it been mentioned in any of the announcements for the team events? The ISU can't just stick their head in the sand and say "Oh, it won't happen". Because it CAN.

 

[TontoK]

^^^

In that event, wouldn't Russia be able to have the alternate skate? I wonder what the timeframe is for enrolling alternates?

These are good questions.

 

[Mathman]

Spot on! -The olympics is here... what to watch...? only figure skating... oh well at least it's some sort of a sport I bet the ratings will be sky high

This could really help ice dancers and, in the U.S., Charlie and Meryl especially. People hardly know that there is such a sport as ice dancing, and would dismiss it with a smirk if they did. But this way, like Snowflake says, a huge audience will be watching just because there is nothing else on and the skating event will benefit from a lot of the general Olympics hype.

Plus, here will be ice dancers holding up their end of things, earning points for the team victory -- even, in the case of the U.S., leading the charge!

 

[deedee1]

A bit late as usual, but here are my impressions/thoughts after watching the 3rd World Team Trophy live. Will post a little by little as usual.

Day 1: Thu Apr 11th, from 14:35 local time

-14:35~ Opening Ceremony

First of all, I was so surprised to see such a packed arena (seats approx. 80% occupied already at the opening ceremony!) in spite of Thursday afternoon. At 2nd WTT last year, Day 1 was only half-occupied until Ladies Short was to start after 18:00. Talked with my husband it was probably because of Mao to compete this time.
No blanket no gloves needed. Inside the arena was very warm, especially where we sat, literally being 'stucked' to the ceiling. However, guessed it must be a bit hard for skaters to breathe properly during perofrmances, we concerned about it for Day 2 and 3 when they had to skate their Free...

-15:15~ Short Dance

The Reeds: Was great! Chris did not miss twizzels. Been a while to see them skate cleanly. The audience supported them with cheers and claps throughout. Good for them! I was a bit (pleasantly) surprised they beat the French team, though.

Chock/Bates: First time to see them skate live and loved them! Prior to their skatnig, Madison looked so tiny besides tall and well-built Evan. But once they started, she did not look like that at all! because she could skate 'big' and project quite well.

Carron/Jones: Loved their program! Very fun, lots of interesting choreos throughout. This team, especially Lloyd improved a lot under Mr Shpilband, didn't they?

Weaver/Poje: Shame they missed the twizzles...Beautiful music (all from 'The Sound of Music!) and so beautiful on the ice. Audience just loved them. Seems Andrew has lots of Japanese ladies fans, including myself. During 5min warm-up, I kept talking to my hubby that Andrew was such a great ice dancer with great skating skills, stood out on the ice, blah blah blah, then he snapped back at me; 'Are you talking about his skating itself or including his apprearance?'

Overall, while the audience was very appreciative and supportive with claps to every teams during SD, a bit too much well-behaved, quiet, and 'less enthusiastically', compared to last year I thought. One reason was because of no participations of top ice dancers, especially Meryl/Charlie and Nathalie/Fabian (they normally get HUGE love from the audience whenever they compete in Japan!), but another reason was the majority of audience that night probably were only interested in Singles, more precisely in Ladies, and some of them were just interested in Mao I guess...

(cont'd)

 

[deedee1]

-16:35~ Mens SP

Mens SP was the comp of Day 1 that my husband and I were looking forward to seeing the most. Specifically Yan, Aaron, Joubert, and Daisuke for me, of course ^^.

Very glad to see Maxim, under Team Tarasova, did improve a lot since last WTT. :yes: But please, he is not Alexei. I hope Madamme Tarasova will find the better/different music and its choreo which suit Maxim well and showcase HIS OWN skating next season.

We l~~~oved the speed of Han and Max!!! My jaws were like by their speed going into jumps, its distance and heights! Max needs a bigger rink. No joke. Max might be crashing into the board, and Han might be flying over the fence, I feared!

Sorry to say but Jeremy's SP was a bit of a letdown to me, compared to last season's great SP. A skater as great as Jeremy doesn't need that kind of music at all. He doesn't have to channel a spy...could do so much better and so much more with different music and choreos than this one.

During 6-min warm of the 2nd group, Brian and Dai got the loudest cheers from the audience! And hundreds of yellow towels which say 'D1sk' all over the arena. Though Brian (looked to me) skated a little heavier than his usual, got the standing ovations and lots of flowers/stuffed animals after his almost clean SP. And sighs of relief by many, I heard I thought, after Dai's decent enough SP with no falls, cause everyone knew he was struggling with 3A and 4T all season due to having to deal with his new blades and boots. :yes:

However, The Skater of the Night who stole the show was Menshov! Perfect SP. We both were very happy for him, because we rooted for him the most prior to the comp. He got lots of applause and claps from the audience, but not so much love from judges I guess...

 

[Mathman]

Thanks, deedee1. Great report. I really like these first-hand impressions from the arena. :yes:

 

[Mrs. P]

Thanks deedee1 for the great reports!

(Also at your husband's quip. Didn't he get a bit jealous last year about Daisuke? Hehe...)

 

[Reginald]

I do think that there is a reason why Patrick, however unfairly, has become a lighting rod for people who don't like the IJS and the programs and results that it produces.

Patrick is the quintessential CoP skater. I don't know why others haven't copied his style -- perhaps they lack the blade to ice skills to do so. Under 6.0 it was straightforward: "stand up on your jumps and look pretty." Now -- well, it's still straightforward: "get in the revolutions on your jumps and keep your feet busy in between." Patrick is the all-time "get in your revolutions and keep your feet busy" champion. If you like "land your jumps and look pretty" better, then naturally Patrick is the number one target for what is wrong with figure skating these days.

A good contrast is Yuna Kim. At worlds, she skated two great 6.0 programs. She landed her jumps and looked pretty. Luckily for her she also collected a bunch of CoP points. No one is complaining that Kim is overscored, Kimflation, results like this are killing the sport, etc.

Wow. I couldn't have said it better myself.



My 200th post!

 

[dorispulaski]

Thanks so much deedee1

First hand reports are just the best!

 

[demarinis5]

Thank you deedee!

 

[seniorita]

thank you deedee, cant wait for your next reports

why there is an "1" in d1sk flags? I want a flag like this!

 

[Mathman]

My 200th post!

 

[Skater Boy]

Wow. I couldn't have said it better myself.



My 200th post!

Congrats on your 200th post and I T A - well put Mathman.

 

[Jtsmith12]

I just thought of something the next WTT will be hosted by the japanese federation and I will they be still be able to draw a big audience with out any of their top stars for Team Japan? No Mao, Akiko, Kanako, Daisuke etc..

 

[deedee1]

(Also at your husband's quip. Didn't he get a bit jealous last year about Daisuke? Hehe...)

Yes he did. but not this year. He knows Dai has been struggling all season, and his 3As, which normally are strong consistent jumps, were hit or miss competition after competition. So he feels sorry for Dai a bit, maybe?

 

[dorispulaski]

Did he like C&B as much as you did?

 

[deedee1]

Did he like C&B as much as you did?

I think he did. We saw all competitions almost from the ceiling but luckily facing the center, so that we could see differences by each of particiating skaters/teams: e.g. flows on the ice, not only its speed but also acceleration/deceleration of speed, ice coverage, how they use the rink, if they skate big or rather small, if they try to reach the judges/crowd or rahter look down on ice. And we were pretty impressed by Chock/Bates' speed, flows and ice coverage. :yes: When it comes to speed and ice coverage, I would probably place Meryl/Charlie first, then Madison/Evan second over Tessa/Scott whom I saw at last year's WTT. And Madison's presence on the ice was very remarkable in spite of her body size (being tiny for an ice dancer). I could not take my eyes off her, she just draws the audience in.

 

[dorispulaski]

Igor has really done a remarkable job with them.

 

[deedee1]

why there is an "1" in d1sk flags? I want a flag like this!

Wishing to be the best skater in the world someday, Daisuke picked up "1" instead of "i" when designing his towel himself , I heard.

-18:40~ Ladies SP

By the time Ladies SP started, the arena was almost FULL in spite of Thursday.
Gabrielle, Lenaelle, Kaetlyn, Zijun AND Liza; lots of skaters for us to see live for the first time, so that we really looked forward to!

So excited to see all girls went for the hardest jump layout of their own; mostly 3-3 and 3A from Mao, even though most of them either had a fall, got </<< or popped it. The audience was very supportive to every skaters upon mistake(s) and encouraged them to go on with warm cheers and claps. Great to see Ashley, in particular, going for 3F-3T! but at the same time I had to wonder: why didn't she try it more often eariler in the season? I mean, she won SA, right? then she could have tried it at her second GP and at the Final, because her team would have known she needed 3-3 the most come Worlds, where YuNa and Carolina get to compete after their breaks, if she wanted to get onto the podium.

I loved Gabrielle's and Lenaelle's costume in pants. Especially Lenaelle's color and design! Only French girls can do justice with this kind of color and design, don't you think? Personally, I would prefer girls pick up something unique and original, other than princess-on-ice like costumes in light pink purple blue or whatever color, trying to be pretty baby-ballerina and skating to soft slow beautiful music.

So sad for Liza and Mao. Mao's fall on 3A was so scary...The audience sounded very disappointed by her rather low score. But her 3A<< was visible even from our seats far and above, and I talked with my husband that if the tech panel was strict, 3F on her combo probably got < as well.

Here, Adelina and Akiko were the best in speed, ice coverage and performance-wise. Same as last year, Adelina skated big using her whole body and all her jumps were huge. Akiko was the best in edge work as wlways. A bit of a shame she popped 3T of her combo into 2T, though. Believe me, Akiko was like a fireball going for the first 3T! I mean, too much speed, and lost her control for the second 3T I think. Forever a mystery to me that judges still do not want to give her 9s in Performance/Execution and Interpretation for her programs season after season... In Ladies right now, no one else can sell programs like Akiko does.

Ashley and Kaetlyn skated a bit smaller than I thought they would when seeing them on TV. But we truly enjoyed their progrma with so many intricate choreographies. Well done girls!

I also loved Mae's and Kexin's text-book jumps. I just love when girls can jump high and far, with speed and on the correct edge! I hope they can get better progrqms in order to highlight their strengths. Kexin in particular needs a better costume, better makeup+hairmake, and with smiles, she can look completely different, much much better on the ice.

slightly off topic but my husband is a big fans of YuNa, Akiko and Liza already (plus Sasha and Nathalie, of course). This season Zijun at NHK and Kaetlyn at Canadian Nats stole his heart, it seems. Now I am worried; how is he going to root for these girls and can wish them all a podium finish come Sochi??? He needs to buy a platinum and a pewter medal by himself!