- Joined
- Jan 23, 2004
Didn't Ashley place first last year?
All this pushing of kovtun and assignments for kovtun makes me think everyone in the Russian federation knows plushenko is not going to go or compete and the person will be kovtun. That's why he's getting all these assignments for no reason whatsoever.
If Kovtun skates well that may not happen, however. Menshov had a consistent season but so did Kovtun. Kovtun had 2 meh competitions - Nats and Worlds, but was very strong at all his other events. If I had to guess, at WTT Menshov will beat him, but by a very narrow margin. It's not like Menshov is some kind of skate god and Kovtun is a piece of crap kid like some are suggesting. He beat Han Yan at JGP Croatia and Farris and Brown at JGPF, and those guys are all good, winning 4CC bronze and JWC gold and silver this season. Clearly he is very talented.
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This will make it a little harder for the US. Glad Jeremy is going though!
You point out how his problems started with senior length skates starting at nationals. Once he it seniors because all his training and success was in juniors he started to bomb horribly. It does not matter that menshov is Not a skate god he was better than kovtun. There is a difference between juniors and seniors and kovtun shows difficultly handling it. Euros was mixed for kovtun not any kind of great triumph. He was lucky plushenko withdrew.
Okay so maybe he would have been better off going to JW. Given how well Joshua and Jason skated there, if Kovtun had competed and won (which I think he would have had a good possibility of doing, especially if he landed 1 or 2 quads there), then everyone would be talking about how great he is and how he should have been sent to senior worlds because he is the future of our sport and needs to compete in Sochi, instead of how people are talking like he's terrible now. It's kind of silly, because the only way people wouldn't get upset would be if Menshov went to Worlds and placed top 10 and Kovtun went to JW and didn't win, any other outcome and there will be wuzrobbing arguments either way.
Akiko won last year... I thought Ash was third.
Also regarding WTT, perhaps USFS asked Farris or Brown but they declined because they are already on their offseasons and preparing to graduate highschool in the next couple months. Or Jeremy was probably 1st on the list and when he accepted the invite, that was the end of it. You would assume that Josh and Jason were on the list to be asked, likely right after Jeremy, or perhaps with Dornbush in between, but there's no way of knowing. Apparently other ladies (I'm assuming Mirai and/or Agnes) were offered WTT last season and declined and only then was Gracie invited (although that was a bit anyways considering she didn't even compete as a senior at nationals and had to make a senior FS specifically for the purpose of WTT, showing how hard the USFS wanted to push her).
On some level though, I do agree, I'm a bit upset about how Gracie, and in the case of Russia, Kovtun, are able to come out of nowhere and get special treatment and politiking just because they have promise. I'm still convinced USFS talked Josh Farris out of competing on the senior GP this season and that staying junior this season was not a decision he or his coaches particularly wanted, but rather accepted, and while it ended up working out for him, with 2 spots on the Olympics team, idk, getting out on the GP this season and skating well could have made the difference in 2nd or 3rd place at US Nats instead of 4th and a trip to 4CC or Worlds, which with a good result could help give him a better chance to make the Olympic team than he does now, even as JWC. And all this, oh he only would have gotten 1 spot, I'm pretty sure he could have gotten 2 if the USFS was willing to push for him to get 2 instead of pushing for the likes of Rippon, Miner, and Dornbush to get 2 and giving SA to Doug Razzano. Farris won silver at JW just like Gracie (but by a 0.5 point margin instead of a 15 point one ), and unlike Gracie, he had an established reputation internationally and decent WS, having qualified for the JGPF twice, winning bronze at it earlier that season in addition to winning 3 JGP golds at that time (compared to Gracie's 1) and another JGP silver. Given all that, the fact that Gracie was able to get 2 GPs and one was not Skate America just makes me think the Feds really have the ability to do whatever they want in regards to skaters, they needed a "star" in ladies so jumped on the Gracie Gold bandwagon and pushed for her to get as much exposure as possible so she can be sent to Sochi. Poor Christina Gao getting held down at Nationals after doing better than Gracie on the GP just to make sure Gracie does enough to make the Worlds team after flubbing the SP because it seems like the plan all along was to get Gold on the senior worlds team at whatever cost.
But then for the men...oh no, we don't need a new star, we are going to sit around and twiddle our thumbs and hope one of these guys who have been around for awhile and have not proved themselves yet are going to suddenly become a star now. It's just frustrating. Seeing Razzano decline this season and Rippon and Miner not doing well at Worlds in 2 consecutive years, and Abbott doing okay but delivering programs far below his potential, in both years being nowhere close to gaining 3 spots, you think they would change things up by now. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they keep Jason Brown on the JGP another season to make room for Lysacek comebacks, Abbott space cadet performances, and lukewarm results from Rippon and Miner on the GP rosters...if they do I will be really angry, like Joshua, Jason too was ready to compete on the GP this season, and after that great FS at JW he definitely belongs on the senior ranks now.
Kovtun is basically getting Gracie Gold treatment and while I get it on some level in both cases, as they are really talented, it's a little annoying, as it's not like they are the only young talented skaters in their respective countries, not by a long shot. And while I do relate Menshov to more of an Abbott in that he is older, near the end of his career, and has generally been inconsistent, he did skate pretty well this season and with better consistency than before, but it didn't get rewarded. In that sense he's a lot like Christina Gao, but having finished 3rd at Nationals instead of 5th!
Not official, I`ve tolk to Alexander Gorshkov - the president of russian figure skating assosiation.
Not so simple.I believe the rule is that you HAVE TO compete at WTT if you are the top ranking skater/couple (two two for singles) AND you finish top 10 at Worlds. Otherwise everything is fair game.
Calvinball is a game invented by Calvin in which one makes the rules up as one goes along. Rules cannot be used twice. No Calvinball game is like another. The game may involve wickets, mallets, volleyballs, and additional equipment as well as masks.
There is only one permanent rule in Calvinball: One can't play it in the same way twice. For example, in one game of Calvinball, the goal was to capture one's opponent's flag, whereas in a different game of Calvinball, the goal was to score points by hitting badminton shuttlecocks against trees using a croquet mallet. An apparent rule in Calvinball is that one must wear a black mask and that one isn't allowed to question the mask. Another apparent rule is that any new rule made up by each player must be accepted. A third apparent rule is that you cannot make any plays you made in a previous game.
Me too, and now that D/W have WD, too, I think that 90% B/S will win... I'm not sure, but I don't think that P/B are going, too: because of his injury their Worlds result was not so good, and I don't think that they want to risk a worse injury because of a WTT, so C/J will probably go...W/P are going to WTT instead of V/M. Cant say that I am surprised....
I agree: I'm an Adelina fan, but it's evident that she's the best Russian lady at the moment, for me. I saw her at Euros, and I can tell you that there's no comparison between her SS and Liza's, and in the last big competitions she has been a lot more consistent than Liza (Euros, Adelina two good programs, only one mistake, Liza two mistakes in the SP, excellent FS; worlds, Adelina quite good SP and a couple of mistakes in the FS, Liza disastrous SP again, a couple of mistakes in the FS) and her scores have been a lot better than Julia's even with the mistakes; the only other girl that is as good as Adelina at the moment is Radionova.You should really pay attention to what she produced on the ice lately. She didn't fall and only singled a jump at her last 2 competitions (Europeans and Worlds). I know she had many other technical issues but that doesn't make her a headcase. She stayed on her feet and attacked her programs pretty well. She is Russia's best lady skater at this point also, this including your beloved Julia