Will Evan's Win and Russia's Fury Hurt the Other Events? | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Will Evan's Win and Russia's Fury Hurt the Other Events?

Alatariel

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 15, 2010
OK, maybe I'll give him the benefit of the doubt there. When he said "My enemies, I have many enemies" he meant "My competitors, I have many competitors".

Please, trust me on this one, I honestly mean it as I deal with languages and translations and people speaking not their own language every single day and there are many issues of this kind.

Like in Italian - instead of saying it doesn't function, some Slavic language speakers always say - non lavora instead of non funziona - it's the work/function bit but they have one word for something and it is difficult. I've heard Plushenko speak English many times and his vocabulary is not extensive at all, he uses a certain set number of words with not too good grammar which is usually indicative of learning because you have to and in a half-hazard manner. He gets his point across usually but I've seen him run out of words too.

Of course there is a small chance, to be fair, he meant enemies but again different languages have different words that often convey nuances and when you don't speak the foreign language well the ability to 'hit' the right word, as you would in your own, is practically non-existent.
 

Raatkirani

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
The Russians seem to think they're entitled to golds. Remember 2002?

Acutally, it was the Canadians that thought that they were entitled to gold. The unprecedented duplicate medal proves that. If Evan can win without a quad, then certainly the Russians can win with a very minor stumble in a exponentially difficult routine.
 

MissIzzy

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 26, 2006
Acutally, it was the Canadians that thought that they were entitled to gold. The unprecedented duplicate medal proves that. If Evan can win without a quad, then certainly the Russians can win with a very minor stumble in a exponentially difficult routine.

And then, apparently, they spat all over B&S's moment and ruined it for them.

Which, of course, only EVIL North Americans do.

Oh wait...
 

gfskater

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 4, 2009
Of course there is a small chance, to be fair, he meant enemies but again different languages have different words that often convey nuances and when you don't speak the foreign language well the ability to 'hit' the right word, as you would in your own, is practically non-existent.

I watched the segment again on DVR. Perhaps he meant "my detractors, I have many detractors". In other words, there are many people that are angry that I am coming out to compete after being away.
I do agree with him that any gold medalist should have the right to defend their title. I believe anyone who wins a gold medal should automatically qualify for the next event. I understand that he was probably talking about the people that were giving him the "How can you think you are entitled to come out of retirement"

I did however think the whole segment portrayed a “me against the world” attitude followed by "they are just afraid of me, the great one, and they should be." He may be right but I am not sure it was a good message. The real problem with that attitude is when you do not win. Now you have some splainin to do. You should not however blame the system or the judges. The system worked correctly. He had a poorly constructed program and suffered for it. Even if the system or judges were wrong, the best athletes accept defeat with a positive attitude and congratulate the winner.
 
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gfskater

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 4, 2009
After the post skating comments by Evgeni and coach, Evan spoke highly of Evgeni as a great guy. Evan said that he may not of meant it the way it came out.

I wonder how much the media had to do with all of this. They may have taken 3 hours of interviews and pieced them together into a 60 second segment that would hype things up. No, they would never do that!

That is why athletes (and politicians) should remember to always be gracious toward their competitors. The media can twist and replay a single comment out of context over and over.

After some thought my respect for Evgeni has come back up. HE has always been one of my favorites and I lost a little respect for him this past week. I need to remember the media is the media, and have faith that Evgeni is a great guy as Evan said.
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
In the mind of the US yes, it's probably King Evan. Not so much in the mind of the rest of the world. I am still to hear a complimentary thing about his win.

In the German ZDF-broadcast the commentator was complimentary towards Evan: An artist won the springer... Also Robin Cousins in the BBC broadcast had no problem with Evan winning, quite the opposite.

I think that only those ignorant commentators who don´t understand the current CoP-system, may have problem as they probably are thinking of the 6,0 system where it was enough if a skater did not have a fall, the quality of the jumps did not matter.
 

NatachaHatawa

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Beyonf the whole Evan vs Evgeni thing, if Evgeni's mouthing off means D/S won't get gold, then I'm happy. Evgeni can quad, The pairs teams have good technique, but D/S are just soooo overrated.
It would be awful if the only way Russia gets a gold medal is through D/S.

I think the small margin by which Evan beat Evgeni reflects how close it was. I think it's difficult to objectively saw who desereved to win - it really depends on criteria and taste. I prefered Evgeni, but I wouldn't say he was robbed. This isn't the first time scores are so close and in competitions there must be a winner.
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
I have two words for Plushy: Ryan Bradley.
He will be at Worlds and plans to drop TWO QUADS in his LP.

Should we just tell Ryan to stay home and his WC Gold medal will be mailed to him? ;)
 

ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Can someone who thinks none of the Canadians, Americans or Russians are evil incarnates explain to me the 2002 debacle? Because the number of people blaming the Canadian Federation is startling and suggests a knowledge that I lack.

My biggest issue with this controversy is that portraying it as "quality vs the quad" (as Rod Black did on CTV) is too reductive, and suggests you can't have both (Takahashi at 2008 4CC or Worlds 2007; Lambiel at Worlds 2006).
 

gfskater

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 4, 2009
After some thought my respect for Evgeni has come back up. HE has always been one of my favorites and I lost a little respect for him this past week. I need to remember the media is the media, and have faith that Evgeni is a great guy as Evan said.

OK, My respect for Plushenko just went away again. Plushenko is so full of himself it is disgusting. I believe he really is arrogant and it was not just a media trick. You lost Evgeni. You and your coaches knew the rules and you did not skate within them. You lost and deserved to loose!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHjvG-nEEfo
 

tralfamadorian

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
I don't think all of Russia is in an uproar over this, at least that's not the impression I have from reading actual Russian articles and forums, but anyway:
just a few days ago all of North America was in a huge uproar at the mere thought that the some arrogant Russian incompetent enemy skater may win over the honest hardworking American. I can't imagine what would have happened if that arogant bad Russian who had to be taught a lesson actually won...

Not to mention, all of North America accused that the Russian will just win absolutely no matter what because (and this is self-explanatory since everyone remembers from the cold war), Russians are all corrupt villains, and if they ever win anything it can only be because of corruption, because obviously Russian skaters have no merits, only North Americans.

Of course, North American media speaks the truth and Russians are egositic poor sport losers.
Double standards much?
 

watchvancouver

Match Penalty
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
I hope Mao will benefit from this by landing two 3As and win the title. I hope the technical controller will stop downgrading her 3A.
 

ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
I love that your hope is not that she fully rotates her triple axel, but that the tech controller doesn't downgrade them. Very telling (in two ways, really).
 

Tinymavy15

Sinnerman for the win
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
OK, My respect for Plushenko just went away again. Plushenko is so full of himself it is disgusting. I believe he really is arrogant and it was not just a media trick. You lost Evgeni. You and your coaches knew the rules and you did not skate within them. You lost and deserved to loose!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHjvG-nEEfo

All he is hurting whatever fan base he had left. Sure, it is hard to lose. But he is oldest one there, why can't he act like it? Does he want a second gold like Sale and Pellitier? Why keep talking about "the new system" which happens to be the very system he won by 20 points in Torino with.
 

Smuusik

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 30, 2010
He is probably spitting against the wind even though he is right in his own way. And I believe it is painfully obvious he wanted the second gold, no matter what he said beforehand. And truly, his disappointment should be understood. It was a controversial call but probably served him well... I hope he is going to wake up and starts learning how to manipulate that part of the system which remains the same.

As for his fanbase. It hasn't left neither Asia nor Europe really.
 

tralfamadorian

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
All he is hurting whatever fan base he had left. Sure, it is hard to lose. But he is oldest one there, why can't he act like it? Does he want a second gold like Sale and Pellitier? Why keep talking about "the new system" which happens to be the very system he won by 20 points in Torino with.

I wouldn't worry about Plush losing his fan base, maybe some people in North America won't like him (though I don't think he had much of a fan base there to begin with) but I don't think he cares too much about that since these days NA is no longer the center of show skating and Plush has been doing very well touring Europe with his own show. Plus, the NA audience doesn't seem to appreciate him all that much and probably he prefers to skate for people who do appreciate him. (And judging by comments on this board, most people outside NA, where there wasn't such a negative media campaign against Plush don't seem to share your views.)

I didn't see anything wrong with that interview to be honest, and if his opinion is that the quad should be valued more, that's just as much of a valid opinion as saying that transitions and spins etc should count for just as much. It's just the other side of the same coin really, so if one side of the argument is ok, I don't see why the other side shouldn't be able to express their opinion also. And this is not dissing Evan at all imo, Plush was criticising the system and not Evan, and whether you agree with him or not he does make some valid points as well.

Think of it this way: if Plush had shown up at the Olympics with Evan's content, no matter how beautiful the spins and transitions (and I'm sure Plush is capable of doing a program with beautiful spins and footwork and transitions if that was his main focus), it would have been a major disappointment and everyone would be thinking that it's a major stepback for him. If Plushy performed Evan's program, it would have been considered weak and not an Olympic champion performance. So he does have a point IMO.

And I don't mean to diss Evan either, I applaud him for giving his 100% and for his ability to consistently deliver his best under so much pressure, he really presented himself as a champion and deserves credit for that, but I don't think he should be OCh.
 
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