- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
Baiul
I'm not a Baiul fan but I appreciate good skating when I see it. She has had her moments (her gold performances of course being the best of them) but there are certainly limitations. Way back at the start of this thread a few people were discussing skating history and putting people in a larger context. For some of the fans here who are relatively young, it may seem a little hard when the older ones of us put Oksana in a wider historical context. She won a gold - that puts her on the map, no doubt. But in terms of stature and influence, her eligible career (at the top of her game) was so short that she's blip on the historical radar eligible-wise and she hasn't been able to follow it with a strong professional career showing to augment that.
My opinion - people keep calling her a ballerina on ice because she used, most memorably, ballet music and gave us a lasting impression of one solo from Swan Lake. If I had to pick a true ballerina on ice, regardless of the music, it would be Yuka Sato for sure and maybe Janet Lynn too.
Her personal problems have certainly overshadowed her skating but let's hope all the negative stuff is way behind her and she has nothing but clear sky ahead. As someone who wants young people to succeed and appreciates the huge issues she has faced, I am really on her side but even today, I find her skating distressing. I saw her skate live several times this season and I have to admit, I don't get it.
The fist pumping and moments of "triumph" almost every time she lands a jump interrupts the flow of her programs and is starting to look darn silly. Her performances are sometimes less about the program and great skating than about the "come back story." Cheer for me because I hit a jump. Yup, for a while. It's getting old - someone on another board said she was doing this last week in performance. She's supposed to hit double jumps - she's a gold medalist and someone people pay good money to see. I would like her to concentrate in a more focused way on her program when she is on the ice and try to leave her personal angst in the dressing room. Please skate. I know that a skater can't compartmentalize themselves completely and they bring all of themselves to the ice. But like in the bad old days (I am especially thinking of seeing her live in the old World Pros, 2000 maybe, when the performances were like train wrecks), we have too much of Oksana's story played out on the ice - it overshadows her strengths. Her Russian Dance program - great music, great costume, great possibilities for performance - has such potential but she keeps interrupting the flow just to fight through elements or celebrate the ones she's hit. Quite a few bad positions, coming to almost complete stops after some jumps, lots of obvious "trying" but that's uncomfortable to watch outside of the junior ranks. I don't know if she needs more sensitive coaching (I suspect she does) but something's still not there. I hope for her that it soon will be. If not I think she may not be remembered very much at all in years to come. In many ways not her fault but not a particularly happy story either.
I'm not a Baiul fan but I appreciate good skating when I see it. She has had her moments (her gold performances of course being the best of them) but there are certainly limitations. Way back at the start of this thread a few people were discussing skating history and putting people in a larger context. For some of the fans here who are relatively young, it may seem a little hard when the older ones of us put Oksana in a wider historical context. She won a gold - that puts her on the map, no doubt. But in terms of stature and influence, her eligible career (at the top of her game) was so short that she's blip on the historical radar eligible-wise and she hasn't been able to follow it with a strong professional career showing to augment that.
My opinion - people keep calling her a ballerina on ice because she used, most memorably, ballet music and gave us a lasting impression of one solo from Swan Lake. If I had to pick a true ballerina on ice, regardless of the music, it would be Yuka Sato for sure and maybe Janet Lynn too.
Her personal problems have certainly overshadowed her skating but let's hope all the negative stuff is way behind her and she has nothing but clear sky ahead. As someone who wants young people to succeed and appreciates the huge issues she has faced, I am really on her side but even today, I find her skating distressing. I saw her skate live several times this season and I have to admit, I don't get it.
The fist pumping and moments of "triumph" almost every time she lands a jump interrupts the flow of her programs and is starting to look darn silly. Her performances are sometimes less about the program and great skating than about the "come back story." Cheer for me because I hit a jump. Yup, for a while. It's getting old - someone on another board said she was doing this last week in performance. She's supposed to hit double jumps - she's a gold medalist and someone people pay good money to see. I would like her to concentrate in a more focused way on her program when she is on the ice and try to leave her personal angst in the dressing room. Please skate. I know that a skater can't compartmentalize themselves completely and they bring all of themselves to the ice. But like in the bad old days (I am especially thinking of seeing her live in the old World Pros, 2000 maybe, when the performances were like train wrecks), we have too much of Oksana's story played out on the ice - it overshadows her strengths. Her Russian Dance program - great music, great costume, great possibilities for performance - has such potential but she keeps interrupting the flow just to fight through elements or celebrate the ones she's hit. Quite a few bad positions, coming to almost complete stops after some jumps, lots of obvious "trying" but that's uncomfortable to watch outside of the junior ranks. I don't know if she needs more sensitive coaching (I suspect she does) but something's still not there. I hope for her that it soon will be. If not I think she may not be remembered very much at all in years to come. In many ways not her fault but not a particularly happy story either.
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