2008 BC SummerSkate | Golden Skate

2008 BC SummerSkate

passion

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
The number two skater in Canada is beaten by an unknown American skater. I keep being impressed by Mira's progress. Her skating skills are really good now and she has impressive speed and top notch spins. Is it just that the Americans are way ahead of the Canadians? I believe the Americans also came first and second in other levels, as well, at this week's competition.
 

geoskate

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
I'm not exactly sure what the big deal is. She's been beaten by lots of Americans in the past on the GP series.

To answer the question: the American skater is Laney Diggs, coached by Frank Carroll.

More interesting to me is that Cecylia Witkowski, a relatively obscure Canadian junior skater, was only about one point behind Mira in the short program. (Mira didn't skate the long program). Mira has some work to do - but as flying camel pointed out, it is the training season.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
BTW, Laney Diggs finished 20th and last at 2008 US Nationals. So Canada's #2 lady was beaten in BC by US #20. In her SP, Mira fell on the 3F and underrotated the 2A (as usual).

But the other top Canadian skaters who competed at the Quebec championship didn't do too much better, and some of them were worse.

Cynthia Phaneuf fell on both 3Z and 3F in her SP. Joannie Rochette popped the 3F (so no combo) and doubled the lutz. Joannie didn't do the FS, but Cynthia did, and she was unable to land either 3Z or 3F. Myriane Samson didn't land one triple jump in her FS. Doesn't look as if these 3 ladies headed for Skate Canada are anywhere near ready, and Skate Canada is just a little over 2 months away.
 
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singerskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
A lot can happen in 2 months. Joannie hasn't been around much to train doing shows and stuff for most of the summer and spring. Joannie should get it together by the time Skate Canada comes around. She's a quick study but not an instant study. I'm better that Joannie had her program for a week or two before competing.

And even if Joannie doesn't do as well as I'd hope she would do at Skate Canada, she could do a Jeffery Buttle and end up winning the World title. But anyone has the chance with the COP to do anything at any time. That's what I love about COP, it's not a given but it's a much fairer marking system that the secretive 6.0 system. It's whatever each competitor brings out on competition day at each competition. Each time you start out fresh. No giving skaters free points just because they were world champion the year before or 3 years ago. The skaters are in the drivers seat with COP/IJS/CPC.
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003

nadster

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
I'm not exactly sure what the big deal is. She's been beaten by lots of Americans in the past on the GP series.

To answer the question: the American skater is Laney Diggs, coached by Frank Carroll.

More interesting to me is that Cecylia Witkowski, a relatively obscure Canadian junior skater, was only about one point behind Mira in the short program. (Mira didn't skate the long program). Mira has some work to do - but as flying camel pointed out, it is the training season.

Cecylia has been assigned a JGP. She skated 2 solid programs in BC with good levels and PCS scores but salchow and toe are her only 2 triples so expect her short program score to go down a lot when she does her JGP. But at least she is consistent with what she has. She scored 49.48 in the short and 81.52 in the long for a total of 131.00. However I think that those marks look inflated given her technical content and she still popped one of her 2 axels in the long.

The most disappointing skate in BC was the free skate of the JGP-bound Rika Inoda in junior ladies. She won the free but only with a score of 58.69 which is very low indeed. No protocols are up yet for junior ladies but that score suggests no triples at all.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
And even if Joannie doesn't do as well as I'd hope she would do at Skate Canada, she could do a Jeffery Buttle and end up winning the World title. But anyone has the chance with the COP to do anything at any time. That's what I love about COP, it's not a given but it's a much fairer marking system that the secretive 6.0 system. It's whatever each competitor brings out on competition day at each competition. Each time you start out fresh. No giving skaters free points just because they were world champion the year before or 3 years ago. The skaters are in the drivers seat with COP/IJS/CPC.

Ah, but Buttle had won multiple World medals and an Olympic medal before he won the Championship. Joannie is not in the same league as Jeff, who had always received very high PCS scores even when he didn't skate well because he has a gift for interpreting music that Joannie has never had. Joannie is a strong, athletic skater, but she has yet to impress the judges because she just can't seem to skate two clean programs. Not being quite ready for the season is not going to change the ISU's impression of her.
 
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Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
The most disappointing skate in BC was the free skate of the JGP-bound Rika Inoda in junior ladies. She won the free but only with a score of 58.69 which is very low indeed. No protocols are up yet for junior ladies but that score suggests no triples at all.
Jr. Ladies FS protocols currently can be found at the "Junior Ladies Short" link: http://www.skatinginbc.com/Images/compresults/Summerskate 2008/JWFSD.html
Inoda landed 3S+2T and 3T+2T but had downgrades on her 3F, 3Lo and 3S.
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
Here's a summary article about the young U.S. skaters at BC SummerSkate: http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080818&content_id=50879&vkey=ice_news
There are also 2 photo galleries of backstage Team USA shots on Icenetwork.

BC SummerSkate was one of 3 "Developmental Internationals" for U.S. skaters this year (along with Triglav Trophy in Slovenia back in the spring and COS Thornhill last weekend) -- for more info on this USFS program:
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080812&content_id=50727&vkey=ice_pressrelease
 

Medusa

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 6, 2007
Ah, but Buttle had won multiple World medals and an Olympic medal before he won the Championship.

Multiple World medals? One silver (2005) in what was probably the worst Worlds in quite a few years.

I enjoy Joannie's skating and am glad that we get to see a lady out there among the young girls. I don't know what's lacking in her skating - perhaps the wow-factor. Her jumps are alright, her spins are alright, her skating skills are alright... The Buttle-comparision works to some extend, because IMO there is nothing really wow about Buttle's programs - except for his outstanding musicality. And that makes perhaps the difference - after seeing Joannie I think, oh, that spin was okay, the Salchow was nice, footwork was alright... With Buttle it is often that through his musicality the program seems to belong together, all his good elements come together and create something whole and really enjoyable (though it rarely grips me as Lambiel's, Weir's, Joubert's or even Verner's programs do). And I remember Buttle's programs, I can't remember any of Joannie's though. All of this is of course just my opinion ;-)
 
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ChrisH

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 31, 2007
BTW, Laney Diggs finished 20th and last at 2008 US Nationals. So Canada's #2 lady was beaten in BC by US #20. In her SP, Mira fell on the 3F and underrotated the 2A (as usual).
Laney's combined score of 139.88 is no suprise given her personal best of 140.10. You're shortchanging her if you only judge her based on her performance at Nationals.

Since the USFS gave Laney the Summmerskate assignment, it will be really odd if they overlook her performance. And beating Mira is better than medaling at Gardena, right?
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
I enjoy Joannie's skating and am glad that we get to see a lady out there among the young girls. I don't know what's lacking in her skating - perhaps the wow-factor. Her jumps are alright, her spins are alright, her skating skills are alright... The Buttle-comparision works to some extend, because IMO there is nothing really wow about Buttle's programs - except for his outstanding musicality. And that makes perhaps the difference - after seeing Joannie I think, oh, that spin was okay, the Salchow was nice, footwork was alright... With Buttle it is often that through his musicality the program seems to belong together, all his good elements come together and create something whole and really enjoyable (though it rarely grips me as Lambiel's, Weir's, Joubert's or even Verner's programs do). And I remember Buttle's programs, I can't remember any of Joannie's though. All of this is of course just my opinion ;-)

I agree that Joannie lacks the 'wow' factor and indeed she does not have Jeff's musicality. What I see when Joannie skates is a strong, athletic skater intent on completing all her elements as cleanly as she can. I do not see her performing the program, as Jeff does. Where the sum of Jeff's efforts is somehow greater than the whole because of his 'performance' factor, the sum of Joannie's efforts is less than the whole.

It's not that it is impossible for Joannie to ever have a 'wow' performance. I never, ever saw a 'wow' performance from Sarah Hughes until the 2002 Olympic FS (and I never again saw one from her after that). If Joannie could just once concentrate on selling the performance and not the individual elements, maybe it could happen for her.
 

museksk8r

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Country
United-States
Joannie had this same type of lackluster performance at last season's Canada fluff summer competition for the same reason - lack of training time due to her touring schedule and for the simple reason that it's a brand new program and the very first time she's competed it. I find it very humorous that some make such a big deal out of a meaningless dress rehearsal event such as this. By the time of Skate Canada last season, she was landing a 6 triple LP and threatening Yukari Nakano for 2nd place overall. She only finished 1.25 points behind Nakano with bronze (169.43 vs. 168.18). Joannie should be ready for Skate Canada . . . she usually is ('05 silver, '06 gold, '07 bronze). There's still plenty of time for her to be ready where she wants to be for this season.

As for a "wow" performance from Joannie, I think her 2004 Trophee Eric Bompard LP, 2005 Nationals LP, 2006 Olympics LP, 2007 Cup of Russia LP, and 2008 4CC SP certainly qualify.
 
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Ginask8s

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 27, 2008
That summertime show program has double wow. I think she has great musicality, a wonderful back and enormous potential. She is unable to put it all together much of the time,due to her inconsistency. When you miss jumping passes it always is distracting. Some skaters are allowed to make many mistakes (Kostner for example) and it goes unnoticed. The number of "clean" programs for any skater is going to be decreased due to how hard the programs are and the number of times they are asked to do it "perfectly" When Joannie does do a clean program I am pretty sure it will have the wow factor.
 

passion

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
Mira appreciates your continued support and good wishes.

Well, I do hope that she reaches her dreams. I mean, you can tell that she has made a note of her weaknesses and has been working at them. She seems to be the kind of person to want to do the newest thing that the top ladies do. Most recently, she has practiced a pearl spin and she does it very well. Figure skating is such a tough sport and so competitive because there are so many great skaters out there. She continues to plug along and do her thing.
 
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