2014 Olympics Pairs Short Program

[chiocciola]

V/T seemed nervous, huge pressure, but delivered. THought it would have been 85, 84 agree!
S/S 'mouvais ton' for a leader to show a former program. Elements were very good, but the SP lacked in tr and the program seemed very simple in comparison with a loaded difficult waltz by VT and other SPs Would have them behind PT.
P/T very nice
D/R I like them immensely, could have scored higher unless the mistakes. I don't like their apperance though, her hairdo and a dress.
M-TM - lovely, but she definitely needs to lose weight, seem sloppy
S/K very good, the elements were clean as a whistle!
B/L - should have not left their former coach.

My standings
VT - 84
PT - 79
SS - 77
SK - 74
MTM - 72
DR - 71

 

[Olympia]

S/S 'mouvais ton' for a leader to show a former program. Elements were very good, but the SP lacked in tr and the program seemed very simple in comparison with a loaded difficult waltz by VT and other SPs Would have them behind PT.

S/S aren't the first leaders to show a former program by any means. The 1992 Gold won by Mishkutenok/Dmitriev was earned with a program from the year before, Liszt's Liebestraum, if I recall correctly. Petrenko used an old program also that year. Come to think of it, Sale/Pelletier revived Love Story to replace their planned program for 2002. All three of these examples resulted in gold medals. I don't love the idea, but I don't think there's anything unsuitable about it. With Petrenko and M/D, one could say they didn't make the effort to try something new, but In the case of S/S and Sale/Pelletier, it certainly wasn't laziness, because both pairs worked on new programs and then had to rework these older ones when they went back.

Anyway, I'm glad S/S have started their quest, and that we'll get to see them on TV tonight. (At least, so I hope.) It's going to be an interesting battle between them and V/T. Bring it on! Two beautiful teams to watch.

 

[Chemistry66]

My roommate just saw the info on screen that Eric wrote his and Meagan's SP music and got so confused.

 

[Tesla]

Crap. Did NBC show S/K and I missed it?

 

[yuki90]

wow. Again Crazy Russian Inflation. Im really sorry for P/T. Justice in FS is done.

 

[Chemistry66]

Crap. Did NBC show S/K and I missed it?

They didn't.

 

[Tesla]

They didn't.

Ugh. Thanks. I was hoping NBC would show a lot more skating. I don't gave a provider, so I can't watch online.

 

[ManyCairns]

I really enjoyed S/S's Pink Panther and wish they had had more time with the program. Are they going to Worlds? I hope so.

But tonight in terms of performance quality V/T were amazing. Smooth, fast, hit their elements. Wow. Maxim had a bit of a pomade fail in the KnC that was kinda endearing.

P/T were incredibly emotional for me. Beautiful quality.

Really enjoyable pairs sp.

 

[spread beagle]

It is ridicolus people say S/S should be more close to V/T. It is fact, V/T should be more points in the lead. The reason obvious:

1: S/S went back to old program show clearly they can not handle their own artistic goal and must try to impress in cheaper funny music but judges note that in pcs.

2: S/S made big speech often to include triple axel and have best technical level. Where is triple axel now? Do they have great twist like Tatiana and Max? Triple salchow? Nothing of it but low level death spiral.

3: All quality of posture and basic skate skill are better with V/T, it is refinement in absolute manner.

4: Program of V/T is more complex and include much more transition for elements. Not only for Masquerade but also Jesus Superstar, both masterpiece skate.

99 percent result can only be gold for Tatiana and Max. Even if will be mistake on element it should not matter.

 

[Olympia]

I really enjoyed S/S's Pink Panther and wish they had had more time with the program. Are they going to Worlds? I hope so.

But tonight in terms of performance quality V/T were amazing. Smooth, fast, hit their elements. Wow. Maxim had a bit of a pomade fail in the KnC that was kinda endearing.

P/T were incredibly emotional for me. Beautiful quality.

Really enjoyable pairs sp.

Pomade; haven't heard that word in awhile. I noticed it in the skating itself as his hair flew around.

Maybe there was home-turf point inflation, but in terms of ranking, V/T certainly seem to deserve first place for this program. It was beautifully executed and intricately designed.

It was lovely to see Pang/Tong skate so beautifully, also. V/T skated a grand performance, which was justifiably rewarded, but P/T displayed intimate emotion. There's an appeal in that.

 

[Sabrina]

I have a question to those knowledgeable. MT/M lost most of the points with their death spiral. They did a BiDs, but Kirsten face was down and her back was up. That made the position look slightly elevated. But I don't understand, BiDs would't be with the lady's face up? Was the position a mistake or just another variant of Ds?

 

[Angryyew]

Nice to see lots of clean skating. Thought both the top two were really good, though the Russians looked a bit tight (understandable).

The two US teams did a nice job. None of the programs really grabbed my interest, but good, solid skating. Looking forward to the LPs.

I'm a bit afraid of what viewing that pink body suit may do to my retinas when I rewatch in HD here in a bit

 

[ManyCairns]

Pomade; haven't heard that word in awhile. I noticed it in the skating itself as his hair flew around.

Maybe there was home-turf point inflation, but in terms of ranking, V/T certainly seem to deserve first place for this program. It was beautifully executed and intricately designed.

It was lovely to see Pang/Tong skate so beautifully, also. V/T skated a grand performance, which was justifiably rewarded, but P/T displayed intimate emotion. There's an appeal in that.

lol re: "pomade," I know, it was a deliberate choice of words -- greased-back hair is not a look I care for at all though I assume he is doing it to go with the costume. But if you're going to slick your hair back, better do it all the way and make it one shiny mass of shellac a la Evan's in Vancouver, or you will have lanky greasy-looking flyaways like Maxim did. I'm pretty sure I asked in 2010 if Evan were a Dapper Dan or a Fop man. Everything I know about pomade I learned from the movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"


And while we're on hair, why does everyone dislike Megan Duhamel's so? I quite like it; it's different and goes well with the soft theme of the sp, I think.

 

[wordsworthgirl]

I taped the live feed on NBCSN and watched EVERYONE, then watched the taped NBC feed tonight. Tonight, NBC only showed five pairs!

Johnny and Tara's commentary was FAR superior to Scott and Sandra in every respect. They were eloquent and funny, they caught errors, they praised in an articulate and informed way, and they called out unfair judging- they agreed V & T should be in first, but thought P & T should have been ahead of S & K, and said that the third Russian team was majorly overscored. In contrast, Sandra and Scott just played cheerleader as always. Sigh.

So, my take was that V & T were spectacular, S & S just wonderful- adorable and clean as whistles-, and P & T should have been in third- gorgeous, fluid, lyrical program and such intimacy between them. Johnny pointed out what a rare beautiful male pairs skater Tong is with his pointed toes and his extension. I thought M-T and M were energetic and spunky with good unison and innovative choreography (Johnny loved it) and were underscored. D & R were not as good as in the team event, but still had a very nice performance. I am really not a fan of hers, but he is quite exceptional, and the program is very well-choreographed and packaged with the exception of her dress.

Marissa and Simon were FABULOUS! The best I've ever seen them do that short. So happy for them. I would have had them in 7th place. and I agree Felicia and Nate are so adorable I want dolls of them. Too cute.

 

[Skater Boy]

S/S aren't the first leaders to show a former program by any means. The 1992 Gold won by Mishkutenok/Dmitriev was earned with a program from the year before, Liszt's Liebestraum, if I recall correctly. Petrenko used an old program also that year. Come to think of it, Sale/Pelletier revived Love Story to replace their planned program for 2002. All three of these examples resulted in gold medals. I don't love the idea, but I don't think there's anything unsuitable about it. With Petrenko and M/D, one could say they didn't make the effort to try something new, but In the case of S/S and Sale/Pelletier, it certainly wasn't laziness, because both pairs worked on new programs and then had to rework these older ones when they went back.

Anyway, I'm glad S/S have started their quest, and that we'll get to see them on TV tonight. (At least, so I hope.) It's going to be an interesting battle between them and V/T. Bring it on! Two beautiful teams to watch.

I quite liked Ssquared but some of their eleents really didn't go witht he music and their costumes really are quite jarring at best ugly at honest. I noticed they ade the worst dressed the most by far on the worst dressed list. I thought Duhamel was fine though her hair today was in a way worse than the team - in the team it was curlier or wavier now it looked like it was just kind of falling apart. But at least it wasn't a pony tail or bun.

 

[Skater Boy]

congratulations to all the skaters. It was a great night for skating. The top 8 teams or so were really quality and wonderful skates. Really good skating not particularly special or memorable but great skating. To me exceptionally outstanding skating is rare ie. Gordeeva and Grinkov, Dimitriev and Mishnikonek (sorry really bad with names), maybe B and S and S and P but these teams just aren't that special. Yes, there will be fans of P and T who really are a cheap knock off of S and Z, v and T really more in the vain of T and M = grat powerful Russian skaters but not special, S squared - kind of a hit or miss team which put this as another great team but not spectacular. Kind of sad that quality teams like D and R and M mtim won't even be close for a medal.

 

[Ziggy]

The scoring is once again absolutely ridiculous.
Tell me, how in the world did S/K get more than two points better than P/T, who had a far far superior program?

S/K had better elements. They did lose the PCS to P/T.

Even with the debatable triple toe

It was cheated (noticeable with a naked eye so no wonder they checked slo-mo) and it was a weak landing with no flow out.

S/K have really, really weak skating skills, choreography, and nonexistent transitions, and their PCS deserves no more than 31.

Their SS aren't 'really weak.' They aren't great but they aren't bad either. Above average. The program was choreographed to the music more or less (although it was a little to 'subtle' IMO given how strong the music was). And there were some transitions. Not obvious ones but S/K are good at handling slightly less usual element layout and having entries into the elements which aren't that long. It wasn't exceptional and PCS were too generous but then it's not a problem with S/K per se but how the PCS are used across the board. S/K were confident and showed strong elements so they got high scores.

The scoring of B/L was also quite laughable, how the hell did they score about 70 with that program?

By having exceptional non-jump elements.

P/T were massively lowballed (this was almost as bad as 2008 WC, where they got UR calls for no reason at all.). There triple toe was maybe a little under, and that element didn't deserve a very good score, but every single other element of theirs was far superior to S/K and comparable to S/S

Not every other element. For example: S/K and S/S had a clean 3twist. P/T's 3twist was two-footed.

They deserve almost as much as S/S, maybe a few tenths less.

S/S have better basic skating and much more transitions than P/T. Their choreography is more complex.

D/R skated a well composed program with fabulous transitions

They had two very interesting and creative transitions into their elements (throw and death spiral). Nice dance lift at the start. But looking at that program again, it didn't actually seem to have that many, as a whole.

Elements were very good, but the SP lacked in tr and the program seemed very simple in comparison with a loaded difficult waltz by VT and other SPs

Savchenko/Szolkowy had a lot of transitions. No other team had entries into the elements that short. Their program was skated quite close together. V/T's program had some transitions here and there but it also had quite long entries into some of their elements.

It is ridicolus people say S/S should be more close to V/T. It is fact, V/T should be more points in the lead. The reason obvious:

1: S/S went back to old program show clearly they can not handle their own artistic goal and must try to impress in cheaper funny music but judges note that in pcs.

'Going back to an old program' is not part of the PCS criteria.

3: All quality of posture and basic skate skill are better with V/T, it is refinement in absolute manner.

S/S manage to generate speed despite using much less cross-overs in their programs and skating quite close together. They skated on deeper edges. Their SS are more even between the two partners. Their postures and lines are very good.

4: Program of V/T is more complex and include much more transition for elements. Not only for Masquerade but also Jesus Superstar, both masterpiece skate.

It's not more complex and it doesn't include more transitions. It's decently constructed in terms of relating to the music with the waltz theme being recurrent throughout but all the big elements have numerous cross-overs going in to them.

(And Jesus Christ Superstar? Seriously? That program is hardly anything other than cross-overs.)

Again: S/S had much shorter entries into the elements than any other teams.

Look at the 3toes for example. S/S have a short entry, with preceding transitions, done very close together. They don't need to stroke from one end of the rink into another like the vast majority of teams, including V/T.

I have a question to those knowledgeable. MT/M lost most of the points with their death spiral. They did a BiDs, but Kirsten face was down and her back was up. That made the position look slightly elevated. But I don't understand, BiDs would't be with the lady's face up? Was the position a mistake or just another variant of Ds?

Her hips and her bottom were raised.

 

[Buttercup]

Ziggy, I'd like to add to your excellent post, focusing specifically on S/S:

1: S/S went back to old program show clearly they can not handle their own artistic goal and must try to impress in cheaper funny music but judges note that in pcs.

2: S/S made big speech often to include triple axel and have best technical level. Where is triple axel now? Do they have great twist like Tatiana and Max? Triple salchow? Nothing of it but low level death spiral.

3: All quality of posture and basic skate skill are better with V/T, it is refinement in absolute manner.

4: Program of V/T is more complex and include much more transition for elements. Not only for Masquerade but also Jesus Superstar, both masterpiece skate.

99 percent result can only be gold for Tatiana and Max. Even if will be mistake on element it should not matter.

1. It shows that they felt this program would serve them better. Not to mention that technically, they learned a new program, since Pink Panther was not an SP and had to be redone. As for "cheap music", skaters should be encouraged to skate to a variety of styles and music, as S/S have done in their career, and not just Serious Classical Stuff. V/T's LP isn't exactly highbrow fare and the judges don't seem to mind it.

2. You judge skaters on the elements they do, not on the elements they hoped to include. S/S did a throw 3F and did it well, so that is what should be judged, not a hypothetical 3A. Remind me again what throw V/T are doing? Oh right, it's the easier throw 3R, since they couldn't handle a throw 3F. Both pairs did 3Ts yesterday and got the same scores for them, so this hardly demonstrates V/T's great superiority, but it does demonstrate that you don't know what you're talking about. It is true that V/T have a great twist and that in this one program S/S lost levels on the death spirals. Sometimes good skaters get lower levels.

3. That's an opinion, not a fact.

4. Maxim skating around Tanya while she takes a break to set up for the second half in JCS is not great transitions. JCS is a program unworthy of skaters of V/T's caliber, it's badly constructed and doesn't showcase their ability well at all. The SP is good. But to suggest that S/S are doing less complex programs than V/T shows that you are either ignorant, have problems with your vision, are watching on a fuzzy stream, or are extremely biased in V/T's favor. Or all of the above.

You know what S/S lack? A major federation to watch their backs and ensure that they get 99% chance at gold and mistakes don't matter.

 

[GF2445]

One of my favourite triple twists was from the Canadian No. 3 (Lawrence and Swiegers) but they only got a level one for it. Can anyone tell me why?

 

[gnom]

Ziggy, I'd like to add to your excellent post, focusing specifically on S/S:


You know what S/S lack? A major federation to watch their backs.

So true. Still figure skating is just politics.