2014 Olympics Free Dance | Page 3 | Golden Skate

2014 Olympics Free Dance

elif

Medalist
Joined
Jan 28, 2010
For the record If Ilinykh/Katsalapov win bronze medal, she is going to be second ypungest ice dance medalist in olympics after Klimova.
 

noidont

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Looking at the draw and considering the programs... everybody's buzzing about D/W and V/M for 1-2 but I see I/K sneaking in for silver. Call me crazy, I just do... V/M's strength is the SD and they're not ahead enough that I/K's Swan Lake can't catch them. I/K will will have the crowd going wild!! Seems pretty clear that D/W will take gold and it should be V/M and I/K for silver and bronze either way. P/B will be low-balled just on the draw and B/S will be completely overshadowed by I/K. Can't wait to see it all unfold!

Would only happen if V/M gets 2+ points in lift deduction or something, which frankly isn't impossible. They are at least 3 points ahead in PCS. I love V/M's FD, but there were visible sloppy parts when they skated it in the team comp. The lifts are also not pretty.

Let's be honest. The main problem is Tessa's size, which makes their lifts look less light and acrobatically adept than D/W and even I/K and P/B. I find myself worry about their lifts, even though I think their steps in the Glazonov FD are by and large the most artistic. We might be seeing a lot of dance teams with relatively bigger size difference being on top for the years to come.
 

caitie

Medalist
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
I feel like ppl are jumping the gun. There is no way IMHO that V/M will not win AT LEAST a silver, and the gold is not in DW's hands yet. They could fall on an element or something. Crazier things have happened!

Re: their lifts, apparently Virtue/Moir have changed the first lift in their FD that they struggled with in the team event:

The fight will continue up through the medals ceremony. Coaches are still tweaking elements, determined to give their teams the edge. Among them: Marina Zoueva, coach of Davis and White, and Virtue and Moir.

"This was perfect, their best practice so far," Zoueva said of Virtue and Moir's Saturday afternoon session. "So much unison, so together. Very confident skating."

While Zoueva has not modified any of Davis and White's elements, she said she had adjusted the first lift in the Canadian's free dance: "We changed the position, made the lift smoother."
 

flaneur

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
With the way the judges undermarked V/M in the SD I am starting to think there may be a chance that they somehow drop to bronze with I/K taking silver.

In any case, I really hope that V/M have the skate of a lifetime to wrap up their remarkable skating careers! It's really bittersweet/sad to think that this will be their final skate ever.
 

NoNameFace

GS given name - Beatrice
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
I hope for justice, fairness, karma and that they all skate well but no over marking please.

uh, THIS...after yesterday I'm prepared for judging fest - Tessa and Scott dancing before Elena and Nikita give a real opportunity for Russians to challenge that silver medal IMO - but ofc there must be errors from Canadians and a stellar, clean performance form Russians, but maybe without these things it will happen...As I said in other thread - big gig feeds on big scores

Both duets are capable of things I wrote below - Canadians to error/fail and Russians to standout - I think that this is the real question now.

And personally I'm glad that I won't see this - the judging slowly makes me sick and kills for me this competition. After I get home I'll check the results and probably chek your comments on this thread because of slow internet connection in my house (so I will have to wait to next monday to rewatch FD).

So in advance - good luck to all competitors - Sara and Adria please don't fall this time, this is my particular request :)
 

hyperinflation

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
jeez yall are making me seriously paranoid about i/k getting silver

then again they skated lights out in the team event and were still behind a sloppy-*** v/m by several points
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Country
Australia
I am hoping for Dani and Greg to get a new personal best and skate their hearts out for their Olympic dream! :love: They deserve it!

My DVR is set! But no doubt by the time I wake up this thread will be over 100 pages of whining, whinging, moaning, crying, and wuzrobbing from the V/M stans or D/W stans and the number of times the word "fix" is mentioned will break a new world record. :sarcasm:
 

Ryan O

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
Canada
As I was just saying on the Short Dance thread, I hope that the D&W and V&M hardcore fans realize that there are some of us that like both teams and can appreciate whoever skates well and whoever deserves to win. It doesn't make sense when hardcore partisans of one team or the other claim that one of them is 10,000 times better than the other! Those of us who have followed both teams for the past number of years know they are close in ability, so come on!

Anyway, this whole rivalry may be coming to an end today anyway. It's possible that one or both of these teams may be retiring after the Olympics or after Worlds. So this endless debate about which team should win at which event might be coming to an end. ;)
 

TontoK

Hot Tonto
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
Country
United-States
Ryan, thank you. I'm rooting for my countrymen, D/W. I really want them to be the first American couple, dance or pairs, to win the OGM. I also happen to prefer their style of dance.

However, I am still fans of V/M. They are beautiful.

The time is coming when we'll look back at this time and realize it was a golden age. Two teams at the top of their game. Only they have been capable of beating the other. No other team in four years has ever come close to knocking one of them off. For four years, we've had a back and forth, down to the wire rivalry (yes, I know things have gone D/W way recently). They've both delivered amazing programs in this timeframe.

I hope they'll both be able to look back and marvel at what they've accomplished, and I hope once they hang up their skates, we'll be able to look back, too, without the bitterness and rancor.
 

Ryan O

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
Canada
I'm also hoping that the work V&M and D&W have done will help pave the path for more of our favourite Canadian & American dance teams to move up in the years ahead, and that it will keep the playing field more level for North American dance teams than was the case in the past.
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
I just hope that if I/K do medal here that they, and the rest of the ice skating world, do not take it as an ok fromTPTB to shift back to programs where style matters more than substance, where technical complexity and excellence take a back seat to Uber!Drama! and "emoting." I like I/K and can certainly acknowledge their talent, but that is a 6.0 program masquerading as an IJS program. A lot of dramatic smoke and mirrors serving to distract us from the reality that it is a program which technically is a decided step backwards.
 

hyperinflation

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
yeah i doubt i'll watch much ice dancing after v/m and d/w retire. it was never my favorite discipline but i really warmed to it these past quad and a half-ish mainly due to these two teams. no one else really holds my attention. i like i/k, i guess, and maybe i'll like them more when they mature a little but i don't see the same quality and charisma in their skating. who knows...(although i'm apparently cooling on ladies now that yuna and mao are on their way out and yulia's an emotionless little baby robot and the state of men's skating is, well, you know, so maybe i'm just over figure skating as a whole until the next michelle kwan pops up)
 

KKonas

Medalist
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Free Dance Judging Panel
(No change in Tech Panel from SD)

Makarova - UKR
Buchanan - GBR
Rettstatt - USA
Krauzizene - LTU
Ceccattini - ITA
Andreeva - RUS
Abbott - CAN
Nechkina - AZB
Fukudome - JPN
 

hyperinflation

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
sigh, the one downside to the reeds not qualifying is me not being able to make all my 'the reeds are the worst' jokes
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
The French judge is gone and with UKR, RUS and AZE on the panel, the bronze will go to RUS for sure.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Ryan, thank you. I'm rooting for my countrymen, D/W. I really want them to be the first American couple, dance or pairs, to win the OGM. I also happen to prefer their style of dance.

However, I am still fans of V/M. They are beautiful.

The time is coming when we'll look back at this time and realize it was a golden age. Two teams at the top of their game. Only they have been capable of beating the other. No other team in four years has ever come close to knocking one of them off. For four years, we've had a back and forth, down to the wire rivalry (yes, I know things have gone D/W way recently). They've both delivered amazing programs in this timeframe.

I hope they'll both be able to look back and marvel at what they've accomplished, and I hope once they hang up their skates, we'll be able to look back, too, without the bitterness and rancor.

That's my feeling exactly. When they're both gone, we'll realize what a treasure we had in our TWO astonishing couples. One can prefer one or the other, but the fact is that each brought out the best in the other in so many ways. In fact, one might argue that Marina Zoueva upped her game in terms of program design and coaching methods because she had two such extraordinary couples to work with. It almost doesn't matter which one gets gold and which gets silver. They are both among the greatest ever, regardless of outcome here.
 

deedee1

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Wish Nathalie & Fabian another great skate! The Olympic Bronze medal to go out of their competitive career would for this lovely couple would be great!!!! Fingers crossed. :)

A glass of wine, ready! :) A plate of nuts and chocolates ready! :) .....a box of kleenex, ready;;;;; oh I'm gonna miss Nathalie/Fabian, Meryl/Charlie, Tessa/Scott a lot when the Games are over.

Good luck to every dance teams! :yay:
 
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