After the Team Event, should it have been Individual Ice Dance before Mens/Pairs/Ladies? | Golden Skate

After the Team Event, should it have been Individual Ice Dance before Mens/Pairs/Ladies?

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
After the Team Event, should it have been Individual Ice Dance before Mens/Pairs/Ladies?

Part of me is wondering why after the Team Event they didn't schedule Individual ice dance earlier in the Olympic program to allow pairs/men's/ladies to skate later? (Obviously with ice dance being put earlier in the Team Event.)

Not to trivialize how hard ice dance is, but it's not a marquee event, and the teams in ice dance are far less likely to have a splatfest than pairs or singles, even with little recovery time.

The pairs seemed to be relatively okay (especially the SP), but the men were a disaster - with laboured performances by some of those who were in the Team Event. Perhaps it would have made more sense to create more time for the singles disciplines to recover? I mean, the ladies could be a splatfest and prove me wrong, but intuitively this makes sense to put the athletes with the least chance for marred performances up front to give the high-risk discipline (i.e. singles) athletes more time to recover.
 

CarneAsada

Medalist
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
A lot of people were complaining about the lack of an off day between the SP and the FS for both pairs and men. Supposedly, many of them only at dinner at midnight and they had to be up at 6. That's probably the bigger issue.
 

moviechick

On the Ice
Joined
May 7, 2008
Chan and Hanyu only skated the SP in the Team Event and that was over a week ago. I think these guys all just have problems getting through a LP with their nerves and mentality. You could just tell in the warm-up that the pressure was getting to them and then their performances reflected that.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
I think if Team was after, a lot of individual medalists would pull out, resulting in a somewhat lacklustre competition.

As for this being an inconsistent era of men's skaters, of course it will be more inconsistent because more difficulty is being attempted. Only 4 men tried a quad in the SP in the 2010 Olympics, and 17 men tried a quad in the SP in the 2014 Olympics. As much as it is leading to inconsistency, at least they are challenging themselves. Perhaps if they were given a bit more rest they might have performed better. I was very surprised men was the 2nd event after the team SP. I would have had ice dance, pairs, men's, women's (arguably men last because they're the hardest difficulty figure skating has to offer, but obviously the ladies FS is the marquee event of the Olympics).
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I don't feel sorry for the men. Only a week to rest up for the individuals? Poor babies.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
I don't feel sorry for the men. Only a week to rest up for the individuals? Poor babies.

True. But that's not the topic at hand.

Do you think it would be beneficial to have the ice dancers go first and have the high-flyers go afterwards, with the intention of having a potentially cleaner singles competition?
 

Rachmaninoff

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
I'm rather skeptical about the notion that the poor skates in men's were due to being worn out from team. For one, the pairs was even sooner after the team, and that was no splatfest, and some of the cleanest skates there were from pairs who'd done a segment of team. Secondly, the men were pretty good in the SP, with Hanyu and Chan both scoring better than they did in team. The mistakes in the free really weren't uncharacteristic of Chan or Hanyu, either, although of course we all hoped one of them would hit at the Olympics.

So I don't see any reason to point the finger the team competition. As for whether dance is a marquee event, I'd think that would depend where you are, I would think.

As another alternative, though, perhaps only have one skate in the team event? That would also ensure the best skaters from each country are going head-to-head, and maybe the one skate would be seen as more important and draw a bigger audience.
 

emma

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
I can't see how the team event impacted the men's (perhaps the pairs) with the exception of Plushy, and that is a very unique situation.
 

Frenchie

I'm gonna customize the CRAP out of this title!
Medalist
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May 4, 2013
A lot of people were complaining about the lack of an off day between the SP and the FS for both pairs and men. Supposedly, many of them only at dinner at midnight and they had to be up at 6. That's probably the bigger issue.

Peter Liebers said in a german interview that he was asked to go to the doping test very late the night of the SP, and so he only got to go to bed at 2AM. Pretty significant if you consider he had to skate the FS the very next day...

I do question the future of the Team Event though. I found all the empty seats in the country favored from the start to win the Team Event a worrying sign for the future of the event

I was just watching a recap of yesterday's women's curling. Russia (with very attractive looking ladies! ;)) was playing against the favorite Canada. After 5 out of 10 ends (like rounds, if you don't know curling), Canada got in the lead with 5-2. Still, everything could happen in the second 50% of the game. Yet, the Russian fans who yelled "Russia! Russia!" at the top of their lungs took that moment to start leaving the arena en masse. The Russian ladies - who were playing really well and working their cute butts off, obviously had to see that exodus and think "wow, they don't even believe we have a chance." That again was so depressing from the audience. :no: Depressing TO THEIR OWN TEAM.

So I really don't think we should interpret "all the empty seats in the country favored from the start to win the Team Event" as a worrying sign for the future of the event.
If I take these Olympic Games so far, I'd just take holding a competition in Russia in the future as a really, really bad idea. Sorry Russia, I love you, but your audiences are giving the world a poor image of your level of fair play and general interest in sport.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
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Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
If I were looking in theory, what teams/ skaters should have been most negatively affected by the Team event, I would have guessed those pair teams who skated both the SP and FS IN the Team event.

Those teams would be Castelli & Shnapir of the U.S., Berton & Hotarek of Italy, and Takahashi & Kihara of Japan.
C&S hit successive personal bests in all 4 programs. It would be difficult to prove they were negatively affected.

T&K got within a point or so of their personal best in the individual SP, and did not qualify for the FS.

B&H scored considerably worse in the individual. FS than in the team event.

It is hard to make a firm case either way.
 
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dress

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 9, 2014
The human zamboni festival of the men's LP is linked to pressure. It was a mental game, and a lot of skaters weren't able to cope with it. The unusualy high number of falls is linked to the fact that it was very tight after the SP. 7 men were in the hunt for the bronze medal. That's rare, and it put a lot of pressure on them.
The break down was purely mental
 

TontoK

Hot Tonto
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Jan 28, 2013
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This sounds like groping to find an explanation as to why the men's event was so awful.

It's not like we've had consistently stellar performances over the past four years. Really, most of men's competitions in that timeframe have been lackluster. Many of them have been "last man standing" wins. Not so different than what we saw this week.

It's just not been a good quad for men's skating.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
I'm not saying that the men's event was wholly attributed to its placement in the program.

It's a bigger question of, if there's a team and individual event, why have a greater gap between the ice dances versus the mens, when the men would likely benefit more from more time off than the ice dancers (who are likely to go clean whether they're first up or last up). I agree that ice dance performances require stamina and all that, but the elements can still be executed relatively cleanly negligible of the rest given to the skaters, whereas singles skaters would surely benefit from greater rest.


Having Ice Dance automatically be the first after overlooks how physical and demanding ice dance has become. "

Does that trivialize how demanding Pairs is then? Somebody's gotta go first. ;)
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
I can't see how the team event impacted the men's (perhaps the pairs) with the exception of Plushy, and that is a very unique situation.

I don't think it was the team event as much as the event forcing these back-to-back days of SP/LP. The LP is a stamina test as much as anything, and asking a skater to skate their best the day after the emotional stress of the SP is a lot to ask. It's the Olympics, the most important event for these athletes, and I'd like to see them be given the opportunity to perform in peak condition.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
I don't think it was the team event as much as the event forcing these back-to-back days of SP/LP. The LP is a stamina test as much as anything, and asking a skater to skate their best the day after the emotional stress of the SP is a lot to ask. It's the Olympics, the most important event for these athletes, and I'd like to see them be given the opportunity to perform in peak condition.

Exactly. I mean, to me, an ideal schedule would have been:

Day 1:
Team Ice Dance SD
Team Pairs SP

Day 2:
Opening Ceremony

Day 3:
Team Men SP
Team Ladies SP
Team Ice Dance FD

Day 4:
Team Pairs FS
Team Men FS
Team Ladies FS



Day 5 & 6:
BREAK

Day 7:
Individual Ice Dance SD

Day 8:
Individual Pairs SP

Day 9:
BREAK

Day 10:
Individual Ice Dance FD

Day 11:
Individual Pairs FS

Day 12:
Individual Men's SP

Day 13:
Individual Ladies' SP

Day 14:
BREAK

Day 15:
Individual Men's FS

Day 16:
Individual Ladies' FS

Day 17:
Gala
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
This schedule ensures every skater gets at least 1 day of rest between team programs (benefiting skaters who do both segments), 3 days of rest between the team competition and individual competition for pairs/ice dance (7 and 8, for the men and ladies), and 2 days of rest between individual short and individual free programs.

Ice Dance:
- 1 day between team SD and team FD
- 3 days between team FD and individual SD
- 2 days between individual SD and individual FD

Pairs:
- 2 days between team SP and team FS
- 3 days between team FS and individual SP
- 2 days between individual SP and individual FS

Men:
- 2 days between team SP and team FS
- 7 days between team FS and individual SP
- 2 days between individual SP and individual FS

Ladies:
- 2 days between team SP and team FS
- 8 days between team FS and individual SP
- 2 days between individual SP and individual FS


With the current schedule, pairs have 2 days rest between the team and individual, the men have 3, and the ice dancers have 6 (the ladies have 9).

With the above schedule, ice dancers and pairs have 4 days rest, the men have 7 and the women have 8? And all disciplines have 2 days of rest between both segments, which is adequate time to recover and put on their best performance, instead of having to do it the day after and be exhausted.
 

moviechick

On the Ice
Joined
May 7, 2008
From a TV standpoint, it's probably not a good idea to mix disciplines like that. Viewers are very restless and they like seeing a full event completed before starting another one.
 

Madness-Overload

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
To be honest I was thinking the same thing.Why didn't put Ice Dance first? Well at least after the couples?

Even tho I do feel that the mens should have take a rest, the pressure + the nerves really got to everyone and mostly to the last group. I think with a little bit of rest, the men's LP would had been so much better and not the trainwreck we saw.

But a part of me thinks that is good that Ice Dance is place in the middle, just before the Women's comp.
 
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