2014 Olympics Team Event Mens Free Skate

As a big fan of plushenko, i was actually very surprised and disappointed to see reynolds and machida place behind him. i thought for sure machida was ahead of plush. overscoring aside, i did love to see plushenko skate. I'm probably in the minority here, but i hope plushenko will skate in the individual event.

Chemistry66 said:

Apparently Plushenko told Jason at practice that he liked his skating and Jason had a typical Jason reaction (excitement, can't believe it, etc). If only they had that on video.

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That would have been awesome...

From the Olympic quote sheet: http://www.usfsa.org/content/Sunday, Feb. 9.pdf

On being on the same ice in the warm-up group with Evgeni PLUSHENKO (RUS):
"It was so surreal. I watched him win silver in 2002, and four Olympics later, I'm on the same ice
as him."
"This morning I was nervous (in practice). It was the first time I was on the same ice as
(PLUSHENKO), but he was so nice."

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Plushy definitely over-scored. I don't' get why the Olympics let this happen. It shouldn't matter what country the Olympics are held in. who ever said that should give favoritism to the host country? I find this rather appalling. It just takes the true Olympic spirit out of it. It lessens the value of the medals. They should not let there be any judges or tech callers from the host country. it's so obvious, why would you want a medal when it was awarded due to politics and not because you were the best?

I watched BBC live broadcast with Robin Cousins commenting. Before Machida's score came up, Cousins said that Machida did better than Plushenko, who he thought was over-scored. He later said that with that skate Plu would be nowhere near the podium in the individual event.

This team event has the prestige of the Olympics with the judging of a made-for-TV cheesefest.

So, i'm not loving what appear to be inflated PCS for some skaters and perhaps generous GOE either. But, just for the spectacle of it all, it was fun to see Plushy look happy and to have the whole stadium applauding him. Yes, the program lacks a lot - but love his competitive spirit and am so impressed with what he can do given the numerous surgeries and years of wear and tear on his body.

I was like where to Reynolds come from??? I didn't get to see Canadian nationals and didn't see him in the Fall (was he injured?)....then, 3 quads, and the third I didn't notice at first. Amazing. Now, of course he lacks in other areas, but it is always nice to see someone do what they can do well, really well.

Machida - he just grew on my all season, and he skated nicely today - there is something about his line and flow that I quite like. And Brown, well not nationals - but what an a great debut. Plus, his smile is infectious. I'm so glad he got to compete today and can't wait for more! (PS very cool that Plushy introduced himself - that really must have been a precious moment).

FYI for U.S. viewers on the east coast:

NBC's broadcast coverage of the Team Men's FS just started. (So far, NBC has showed a bit of the warm-up, and now it is showing a fluff piece re Plushenko.)

NorthernLite said:

As I said elsewhere:
Pluschenko gets held up more often than a bank in a bad neighborhood.
Why bother to change the whole scoring system if he can go out there and do the same 1998 program over and over: Land a quad, double a couple jumps [I almost wrote "junks" - Freudian slip], do elementary footwork, a shoulder roll and a Nijinsky pose that's an insult to Adam Rippon - and get hugely overmarked.
(

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golden411 said:

FYI for U.S. viewers on the east coast:

NBC's broadcast coverage of the Team Men's FS just started. (So far, NBC has showed a bit of the warm-up, and now it is showing a fluff piece re Plushenko.)

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Thanks golden411. That means 5 p.m. PST...1.5 hours from now. Better go to the gym and get my run in now...

With the way Plushenko is being 'oversocred' in this team event, he will be on the 'podium' in the singles event unfortunately. It is making me sick and makes me wonder whether I would even want to watch the rest of the 'Men's' event. The 'Men's' single event was the one I thought I was most looking forward to this Olympics. I thought it would be the most exciting event in this Olympics with the high levels of choreography from all the men and the technically superior jumps they can do. However, with the arrival of Plushenko and his endless preening and posing in front of the judges plus the 'obvious' over scoring, I feel so sorry for the rest of the men. If you were someone like Machida, Takahashi, Javier or Abbott who I think the Bronze is their grasp (while Yuzuru and Chan on the lock for Gold/Silver), the judging is extremely unfair and biased. These guys competed all through the season (garnering income for the ISU), trained hard, just to have a former Olympian with political favour to come in and overscore you with very little work on choreography and jumps that were 'just' enough. You would wonder what is the point, why not just hand to Plushenko the medal the judges wanted to give him while the rest have a 'legitimate' competition.

I watched Plushenko's SP, the PC marks were way overscored. His LP choreopgraphy consist of contorted deformed like posture, heavy twisting and fidgeting of arms. Some of his poses remind me of a 'drag queen' - just plain awful. They were nothing like the 'balletic' style of Machida, 'smoothness' of Abbott and the 'interpretative' choereography of Daisuke, let alone that of Yuzuru and Chan. I was a fan of Plushenko when he was a great skater but to see him skate like this is simply embarassing. Then to be awarded those inflated marks is unwatchable. His PC was 43 for the SP, for very little edge work, dance material nor interpretative content. At this moment, my heart goes out to Chan, Hanyu, Daisuke, Machida, and the rest of the men, all these last 4 years of hard training, competing in the GPS, etc. just to have this cocky, arrogant and shallow individual turn up and rob your chances of a medal is belittling. Plushenko doesn't have the grace to let others nor his younger countrymen the chance for a great Olympic. It has to be all about him, all the time. My prayers go to Chan, Hanyu, Machida and the rest. At this Olympics, they know they are by far the better skaters. Fans will admire them for that.

On the one hand, I was happy to see Plushy skate reasonably well for a 31 year old skater, who has barely competed in 8 years on his home ice. On the other, he was way over scored and probably should have been 3rd. Reynolds skating between jumps is kinda fugly, but he did land 3 quads and plushy is no great artist.

Team event needs some changes in format and judging. The scoring reminded me a lot of the world pro championships they used to show on TV. Not gonna do a lot for figure skating's rep as a legitimate Olympic sport.

Yes, Plushy was overscored, but he will not get on the singles podium with that performance. 168+ is high....but most of the top contenders are going to score 170+ or higher. The following skaters have done so this season:

1 196.75 Patrick CHAN CAN ISU GP Trophee Bompard 2013 16.11.2013
2 193.41 Yuzuru HANYU JPN ISU Grand Prix Final 2013/14 06.12.2013
4 175.55 Javier FERNANDEZ ESP ISU European Championships 2014 18.01.2014
5 174.20 Tatsuki MACHIDA JPN ISU GP Hilton HHonors Skate America 2013 19.10.2013
6 172.76 Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN ISU GP NHK Trophy 2013 09.11.2013


So I'm not that worried.

Reynold has become a very effective skater. Seems once you get a reputation, there are those who won't give credit for improvement. There is no way Plush should have won this event, but there is a message there since his score is very close to that of Reynolds and Machida, who are not frontrunners for a medal. Machida practices figures several hours a day; other skaters would do well to follow his example.

Are the protocols out yet?

PS Since reynolds had so few opportunities to skate his program this year, this is one time I would like to see a program carried over to the next year.

Icey said:

Reynold has become a very effective skater. Seems once you get a reputation, there are those who won't give credit for improvement. There is no way Plush should have won this event, but there is a message there since his score is very close to that of Reynolds and Machida, who are not frontrunners for a medal. Machida practices figures several hours a day; other skaters would do well to follow his example.

Are the protocols out yet?

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Yes: http://www.isuresults.com/results/owg2014/owg14_TeamMen_FS_M_Scores.pdf

Thoughts:

Plushenko--I thought he hung on and did ridiculously well for someone who hasn't competed in a serious competition in four years. (Evan only wishes he could have pulled this off).

Kevin--Very impressed by him for skating at this level in his first Olympic performance after being out all season. (The three quads are amazing! Though, come on people, his presentation is almost nil).

I'm not saying that Plushenko's is that great, but . . .

Machida--I agree with Robin Cousins. Yes, he had some mistakes; but IMO this guy is in a whole different class than the other two at this stage in their careers. (Ah! What is Tara TALKING about? Of all the men in the world with lousy performance ability, she picks on JASON? and MACHIDA?. You've got to be kidding me! Clean, they were not; but they PERFORM and they express the music).

Jason--Overall, I thought he did a good job for his first performance at the Olympics. He has the same problem that Sasha always had which is that his programs are so magical, we want them to be PERFECT; whereas, you don't care nearly as much when there's an error in a program that doesn't have the capability of "magic."

With the way Plushenko's overscoring is happening, he could come back at the next Olympics and the next Olympics until he is 50, do more ridiculous/ackward poses as 'choreography', land 'some' jumps and yeh!!, he got a medal. We all know that this type of individual could never get back to mainstream normal life as they need to feed on fans' attention and judges' favoritism. The 'real' athletes would not do this, the likes of Kurt Browning, Michelle Kwan and Alexei Yagudin. They retire with grace and still holding the strong and loyal admiration of their fans. I have completely lost my respect for Plushenko.

icekiwi said:

With the way Plushenko's overscoring is happening, he could come back at the next Olympics and the next Olympics until he is 50, do more ridiculous/ackward poses as 'choreography', land 'some' jumps and yeh!!, he got a medal. We all know that this type of individual could never get back to mainstream normal life as they need to feed on fans' attention and judges' favoritism. The 'real' athletes would not do this, the likes of Kurt Browning, Michelle Kwan and Alexei Yagudin. They retire with grace and still holding the strong and loyal admiration of their fans. I have completely lost my respect for Plushenko.

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Well said!!!:agree:

I thought Plushy was overmarked as I keep saying on pcs but I still find it amazing he is competing with the big boys and he is an old man. Yes, I don't think Evan could be so daring or competitive. I wonder how Plushy will do in the individual event. I hope he doesn't pull out. Even if he places in top ten that will be amazing.

Kudos to Reynolds for really pulling it together considering the rough year he has had. also Brown skated fairly well too but he didn't place as well as expected. reynolds and Brown could both be in the top ten but I doubt a medallist.

Kudos to Plushenko for still being able to pull those performances out of his hat. But boy was he overscored. His spins were poor and he had no choreography. Something like 6.5 SS, 4 TR, 8.5 PE, 4 CH and 7 IN would have been more in line with reality.

Out of the five, I would give the win to Machida, Brown second on GOE and PCS, Reynolds third, Plushenko fourth with much lower GOE and PCS; and Parkinson a distant fifth.