Skating Awards go digital

Ladskater said:

I think Brian Orser should have won Best Coach, he's had the most results with Hanyu.

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And Yuna and Javier, don't forget.

TallyT said:

And Yuna and Javier, don't forget.

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I think it’s technically supposed to be annual, so only counts 2019-2020 season... Orser would have been my pick as well though

Ladskater said:

Happy for Kurt Browning being awarded the Lifetime Achievement award - he deserves it and also Cheers to Shae-Lynn Bourne for winning Best Choreographer. I think Brian Orser should have won Best Coach, he's had the most results with Hanyu.

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Sorry, I love Brian and all, but there is no way anyone other than Tutberidze should have won Best Coach.

Zagitova and Tursynbaeva won gold and silver at 2019 Worlds, while Alexandra and Anna won WJC gold and silver. Then Alexandra/Alena/Anna/Alina dominated the 2019 Grand Prix Series - and her skaters swept at the GPF -- making her the first ever coach to have a medal sweep at the GPF in singles. Valieva & Usacheva (who were 1st and 3rd at the JGPF) went on to win 2020 WJC gold and silver (Kromykh was 4th too). And on top of that, she coached Morisi Kvitelashvili to Georgia's first European men's medal... unquestionably confirming her status as best coach.

Brian had very good results with Hanyu and good results with Brown, and kudos to him for coaching Medvedeva to a World bronze. Arutunian had good results with Mariah and continued to cement Nathan's hold as the top men's skater currently, but that's about it. Tutberidze smoked everyone and has the hardware to show for it. The only ones who had results even comparable were the coaches at Ice Academy of Montreal in ice dance, and M-F/Patrice weren't nominated.

Eteri won deservedly.

lariko said:

I think it’s technically supposed to be annual, so only counts 2019-2020 season... Orser would have been my pick as well though

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Bumping up this old thread,

If they continue doing awards shows, then they should be done once every two or even four years. Preferably right after the post-Olympics Worlds and right after the Worlds at the midpoint of an Olympic quad. I hope the pandemic accidently pushes them in that direction. I was not in favor of the awards show to begin with but I'd be a bit sad if they don't continue it because it would signal an overall unwillingness to follow experiments through. Good ideas often start off as bad ideas that had to be evolved overtime. That being said, I'd prefer cancelation to an annual awards show.

The problem with having an annual awards show is that it doesn't signal anything interesting that can't be gleaned by just browsing the results lists. And for some of these awards there's just not a big enough body of work in one year to really make it meaningful. Those who hate awards shows(and many nominated surely fall into this camp) can tolerate and even be intrigued by one every couple years... but the award show will become a chore if it's done yearly.

If figure skating had a much different schedule structured more like Ice Age or Battle of the Blades where they did more than the same 2 programs in a year I could see a need for an annual awards program. But not how figure skating is currently structured.

I'm also not a big fan of fan voting though I can see how it could engage some fans. I would prefer either judges or past medal winners vote. Perhaps it would be best to do both... have the judges pick and the fans pick.

So in summation, of more interesting awards show would be held less often and give out two separate awards in each category: One selected by the judges or past medal winners and another award voted on by the fans.