Sotnikova to headline field at NHK Trophy

desertskates · Jul 9, 2014

Thanks, Mrs P. for providing the link to the fair articles! Although I'm not a fan of some results, I hate attacks that place so much weight on the shoulders of girls that are so young. I'm really happy to see Adelina's return. I truly had doubts that she would, but it proves that she is tough as nails.

wanpe · Jul 9, 2014

desertskates said:
Although I'm not a fan of some results, I hate attacks that place so much weight on the shoulders of girls that are so young.

Can't agree more, all these hate attacks are not really necessary. As she is a (deserved or not) gold medalist, I do have high expectations and can't wait for her performance.

drivingmissdaisy · Jul 9, 2014

Mathman said:
I look at it this way. My favorite skater missed out on the Olympic Gold Medal twice, both times losing to skaters that I will go to my grave believing that she was better than. But Tara in 1998 and Sarah in 2002 skated like they wanted it, and that’s how it turned out.

Until you mentioned Tara I thought you were talking about Mao

ManLady · Jul 9, 2014

Mathman said:
I look at it this way. My favorite skater missed out on the Olympic Gold Medal twice, both times losing to skaters that I will go to my grave believing that she was better than. But Tara in 1998 and Sarah in 2002 skated like they wanted it, and that’s how it turned out.

holy crap someone finally said it! sotnikova came to beat herself, which she did. kim did not come to beat herself, and she did not. both were deserving, but it defaulted to adelina since she wanted it more. nuff said.

Sandpiper · Jul 10, 2014

What a bitter, badly-written, poorly researched article. If you're going to write about the GP series, it's best not to drown out the actual news with ramblings about Sochi judging. It's reports like this that are turning me off from the hardcore Yuna crowd (even when I agree with them on the issue). Adelina doesn't deserve this crap. Heck, Yuna doesn't deserve certain crazy fans (of which this writer seems to be one) making her entire fandom look nutty.

Even the part about the actual GP series is pretty :laugh:

.

Russia’s Julia Lipnitskaia (who finished fifth in Sochi)

Such a good summary of Yulia's accomplishments. Not misleading readers at all.

With Sochi silver medalist Patrick Chan of Canada and Daisuke Takahashi taking the season off, it appears that Hanyu’s primary competition is likely to come from Kazakhstan’s Denis Ten, the surprise bronze medalist in Sochi.

I'm not sure even Team Denis Ten has that much confidence in Denis Ten.

Alba · Jul 10, 2014

Sandpiper said:
What a bitter, badly-written, poorly researched article. If you're going to write about the GP series, it's best not to drown out the actual news with ramblings about Sochi judging. It's reports like this that are turning me off from the hardcore Yuna crowd (even when I agree with them on the issue).

It's journalist like this one, and Brennan, that hardly makes me take FS journalist in general seriously. Especially when they complain about the "beautiful dying sport of FS". :sarcasm:

lady_bee · Jul 10, 2014

Well, do not worry.
"Japan Times" is not so important media in Japan.
Even one of my friends, an native English speaker, who is teaching English at one of the most prestigious university in Japan,
says the newspaper is not worth to pay.
She said it's a kind of newspaper for snobbish Japanese men who want show off "I can read English!".

anyanka · Jul 10, 2014

skatedreamer said:
Agree; Mrs. P is spot-on. :yes: My beef is that the first 12% of the article sort of drowned out the rest of it, which was legitimate news. The "move on" concept got lost in his rant at the ISU.

Even though I basically agree w/ Gallagher's opinion, the self-righteous tone he takes just rubs me the wrong way. I, of course, am always right and never, ever self-righteous. (And if you believe that, there's a bridge not far from here that's for sale -- a famous one that has a nice view of Brooklyn! )

Throw in a knish stand and season tickets to the Knicks and you've got a deal.

skatedreamer · Jul 10, 2014

anyanka said:
Throw in a knish stand and season tickets to the Knicks and you've got a deal.

I'll see about the knish stand. Can't guarantee Knicks, but why bother w/ them anyway? They're the highest paid underperforming bunch of egos in the business. Just my not-so-humble and totally non-self-righteous opinion. :biggrin:

pangtongfan · Jul 10, 2014

Sandpiper said:
Adelina doesn't deserve this crap.

Yeah like Adelina would be so emotionally shattered and broken about what some random Japanese writer writes. :laugh:

Adelina has an Olympic gold medal she totally doesn't deserve at home, she is the last one you should be feeling sympathy for in the world right now.

Mathman said:
^ I think Drivingmissdaisy’s point is that besides the two judges that you mentioned, there were also seven other judges from all over the world and they liked Sotnikova’s performance, too.

I doubt we will ever learn how much they really liked Sotnikova's performance. They sure liked that huge cheque from Putin though (who wouldn't), and the comfort of their own safety as long as a Russian girl went home wearing a gold medal (I shudder to think of their fate if this somehow didn't happen).

anyanka · Jul 10, 2014

skatedreamer said:
I'll see about the knish stand. Can't guarantee Knicks, but why bother w/ them anyway? They're the highest paid underperforming bunch of egos in the business. Just my not-so-humble and totally non-self-righteous opinion.

I just wanna hang with Leo DiCaprio, George Clooney and all their friends courtside.

Sandpiper · Jul 10, 2014

pangtongfan said:
Yeah like Adelina would be so emotionally shattered and broken about what some random Japanese writer writes. Adelina has an Olympic gold medal she totally doesn't deserve at home, she is the last one you should be feeling sympathy for in the world right now.

Just because she's living a better life than you and I doesn't mean this clown of a journalist should insult her endlessly for something that wasn't even her fault. In an article about a totally different topic (the GP series). By this logic, there are very few people we should even treat like people: such pointless sympathy should be reserved only for those who'd be "emotionally shattered and broken" otherwise. Everyone else, let's treat them like rotting garbage! I mean, they're not devastated, so we haven't done anything wrong.

Mrs. P · Jul 10, 2014

Okay, again, Jack Gallagher did not insult or slam Adelina in the piece. His criticism was directed at the judges and the ISU. I'm not defending him bringing up a dead horse, but it seems unfair to keep saying he did something he did not.

Sandpiper · Jul 10, 2014

How much more does he have to do to qualify as "direct insult"? "Yuna Kim robbed of a second gold" "What should have been the pinnacle of a fantastic campaign descended into farce..." "The sad show brought new meaning to the term “home cooking”..." "another miscarriage of justice." He spends four paragraphs on this controversy that has next to no relation to the article he's writing.

Of course, maybe I didn't make it clear enough: Gallagher being insulting isn't the biggest issue. The biggest issue: the article is badly written. Ranting for four paragraphs on an unrelated topic is a just a poor way to structure your writing. He could've written: "Adelina Sotnikova, who controversially won Olympic gold ahead of South Korea's Yuna Kim, will headline the NHK Trophy..." He can mention the controversy, no problem, because the gold was controversial. Spending that many paragraphs talking about it makes him sound like a rabid fan who can't see past his own fandom. The GP series isn't about Yuna.

Mrs. P · Jul 10, 2014

But he didn't say Adelina robbed her of the gold, though. i mean I'm not saying this column was all that great or is an example of great sports column writing, however, I do recognize who he is directing his missives at.

And as I said earlier, I really think it was just a quick recap of the last season and his way of saying, okay this is what happened let's move forward. Now did he use this writing device well? Not really. There are probably better ways to transition to the season ahead, but I think it was just poor writing structure we're seeing here.

In addition, I really think he is outraged at the judging and is not a rabid Yuna fan. He's written plenty about other skaters too. YMMV, though.

Actually, I thought this column he wrote about Akiko Suzuki winning Japanese nationals and Murakami getting on the Olympic team was really nice: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/...sion-that-make-skating-magnetic/#.U78FL41dXCk

Sandpiper · Jul 10, 2014

Oh, I'm sure he's more mad at the ISU than Adelina. But a guy who spends 4 paragraphs on her controversial win certainly sounds like he'll seethe every time he sees her picture. Which is fine. I suspect I'd seethe if Michelle Kwan were robbed at the Olympics. The problem is he couldn't keep his personal feelings out of an unrelated article.

I dunno if he is a rabid Yuna fan. I said it "makes him sound" like one. I agree with you--it's poor writing structure. Poor writing structure that makes him sound furious and unprofessional.

I'll repeat what I said about the Hersh article: Having done good work in the past doesn't excuse a journalist from having to continue to produce such work in the future. (Also, the part about Arakawa is confusingly worded--it could be read as her being the oldest to win Japanese nationals, or the oldest to win the Olympics... but the latter is obviously untrue. I'm not sure about the former).

As you can probably tell by now, I'm a stickler for good writing. My feelings there are even stronger than what I feel for skating. :biggrin:

Hence why I'm very critical of bad articles. However, if I were being paid to write a column on skating, hopefully I wouldn't spend four opening paragraphs ranting about apostrophes before getting into the GP series.

skatedreamer · Jul 10, 2014

Both Mrs. P & Sandpiper are making excellent points as usual. Having said that, why not just ignore Gallagher and...excuse the expression...let it go? :slink:

(just to be clear: that's a rhetorical question & isn't directed @ Mrs. P or Sandpiper or anyone else

)

Mrs. P · Jul 10, 2014

My main point was not to pin the guy as some sort of Adelina hater because of his rambling on the judging.

I also appreciate good writing and I also write for a living. I think we agree it was poorly written.

But was it Adelina slam piece? Hardly. At least to me.

eta: I don't have anything else to say..so to quote Mr. Gallagher, "move on, we must!" Sorry, skatedreamer, there was no way I was going to use another Frozen reference! :laugh:

Sandpiper · Jul 10, 2014

And my main point is, I don't know if he's an Adelina hater. The article makes him sound like one (to me), which doesn't speak well about the quality of the writing. But we should probably take Skaterdreamer's advice and let it go.

At this rate, we'll start discussing the components of journalistic writing and start going as off-topic as Gallagher himself. :laugh:

Icey · Jul 10, 2014

ManLady said:
holy crap someone finally said it! sotnikova came to beat herself, which she did. kim did not come to beat herself, and she did not. both were deserving, but it defaulted to adelina since she wanted it more. nuff said.

How much a skater wants "it' is hardly the only thing that determines who gets it imo. If that were true, I suspect there would have been a whole lot of different outcomes. I doubt Hughes wanted "it" anymore than Kwan or Slutskaya.

Sotnikova to headline field at NHK Trophy

desertskates

wanpe

drivingmissdaisy

ManLady

Sandpiper

Alba

lady_bee

anyanka

skatedreamer

pangtongfan

Match Penalty

anyanka

Sandpiper

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

Sandpiper

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

Sandpiper

skatedreamer

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

Sandpiper

Icey

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