2014 Olympics Pairs Free Skate

[Chemistry66]

I am pretty sure Max/Tanya (V/T) are confirmed together and have been for a few years.

In the little "fluff" on NBC they danced around it, saying they're not "dating" because it would distract them but "maybe after the Olympics". Pretty much that there's something there but nothing completely official is what it sounded like they were saying.

 

[Chemistry66]

Some of these are hilarious. I particularly like the one of Paige Lawrence just casually floating over people's heads and the one of Felicia Zhang (though that photoshop job is a little sketchy). The one of Pang in the lift would be great if they hadn't forgotten to remove Tong's hand. Thanks for sharing

Vanessa's looks a bit awkward.

 

[peg]

Vanessa's looks a bit awkward.

Yes, that hand placement is

 

[skateluvr]

Moore-Towers & Moscovitch were even more worthy of a medal at this competition than the perennially held up S&S. What a joke. So much for any impending controversy over the Russians, who simply blew everyone away, and it is S&S who will have to deal with days of controversy over their undeserved medal while the Russians simply bask in their completely deserving and obvious 1-2 finish.

Canadians deserved silver.

 

[Skater Boy]

Russia are going to defeat them on the medal count though. After they win the Men Bronze, Ice dance Silver And Ladies Gold AND bronze

I don't want to insult you but is this a joke? What people call trolling? Or is this serious????

 

[Skater Boy]

Team Gymnastics cannot be compared to Team Figure Skating. In Team Gymnastics you have 5 gymnasts, 3 of whom are selected for routines on each apparatus. If the Team Event in Skating followed the same methodology, it would be like if a country sent 4 male and 4 female figure skaters, and then of these, 2 men had to do singles, 2 women had to do singles, 2 teams of 1 man and 1 woman had to do pairs, and 2 teams of 1 man and 1 woman had to do ice dance. So, essentially some men and women would have to perform routines in more than one discipline.

Obviously this is ridiculous because it's rare for a technical skater to be good at ice dance, and vice versa. Whereas a team event participant in gymnastics is usually good on at least 2-3 apparatuses (with exceptions like McKayla Maroney or Annia Hatch who are extremely good at one apparatus).

Team Gymnastics is about points, not placements, too. Which is why a poor performance has a strong effect on the team's standing, just like a strong performance can boost it. In skating, it's all relatively placements, so even a strong performance is negligible whether it's 0.1 or 10 points behind first place. There are too many differences.

Well then come up with another idea for the team event is my suggestion or people realizing we are killing the sport we love ourselves. Bickering, whinign, complainng with no solution does little to promote in this case skating. Skating has fallen faster than Jeremy Abbott (though who knows the gold medallist Abbott may be back in form). We need to rally the troops and cheer on our lovely sport before the coffin is nailed. Figure skating is much like soap operas right now it seems.

 

[Skater Boy]

I didn't hear anything, but I was shocked when Robin fell, so I didn't pay attention. This whole thread is very depressing and so full of negativity it hurts.

I wish we had several gold medals - I know how ridiculous. The pure agony s squared went through all in the dream and love of Oly gold. I am not sure if the fact it wasn't a nailbiter meant anything or helped. They could be like Chan they peaked a few years ago. Eerily reminds me of Shen and Zhou who had the lead over Totmiania and Marin (sorry I don't know their names) and then injuries nad the fell behind and lost the oly gold to T and M. But I can't recomined them staying on for another 4 years. I am not sure K and S will last long enough for 2018 but who knows. I think sui and han might be next ogm unless the Russians have another promising pair team. I think Duhamel and Radford might be heading in the new direction - big singles jumps and tricks.

 

[Skater Boy]

Yes, they had a higher number of bogus victories than any pair in the last 30 years, and when they actually lose a close event they arguably should have won (I can see how that was a shock to their senses after almost Chan like judging bias in their favor for years) they whine to the point of turning it into a Games overshadowing event rather than congratulating their rivals who had been blatantly robbed by them several times in the last year alone. I have tried to erase them from my memory completely, so please dont bring them up again, lol!

Bogus is in the eye of the beholder. Look at this site - wow tonnes of disagreements. Oh and my two bits at least this freeskate the top 8 teams were amazing and I would probably add C and S they skaed four great programs and if enough teams retire they could podium - okay probaly the two Candians teams would have to falter badly but C and S were impressive.

 

[Skater Boy]

When Russians offer caviar, Germans offer Sauerkraut. This was never going to work.

Sure and Canadians offer maple syrup or beer, Sweden offers Ikea products and the Americans offer Ralph Lauren splattered star splanged banner on your body like a bad Betsy Ross quilt

 

[Antilopa]

Sure and Canadians offer maple syrup or beer, Sweden offers Ikea products and the Americans offer Ralph Lauren splattered star splanged banner on your body like a bad Betsy Ross quilt

:scratch: Sweden offers their "surströmming" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vEl6Ey8Gdc). That's why they lose!

 

[boo69]

Last night they didn't even show Stolbova-Klimov's SP.

I was disappointed that they weren't shown considering they placed 3rd in the short. They could have sacrificed Z/B. But, since they are Americans, they gotta be shown even if they placed 14th in the short.

 

[Blondie12]

Katelyn, even Ashley (who did a good job, but it was workman-like, not Olympic medalist caliber), American and Canadian pairs teams, I mean they are all good skaters in their own right but there's another level to Olympic medal caliber. Then they are just gifted a medal basically.

The only way I would be happy with the team event going forward would be if the IOC gave out ONE medal to the team, to be kept at the federation's headquarters or something, with the athletes being accredited as team members. That would appease me a bit.

Well, think of gymnastics. The lady who does 4 events in 2 days gets the same medal as the lady who does one vault one day. To give out medals to a country would never be something the Olympics would do. It would be unfair to the "leaders" like Davis and White who potentially could sacrifice individual glory for the team medal. Indeed, why would anyone do the team event if they could not physically keep the medal? V/T would never have competed if that was the case. That one or two skaters skate poorly should not be reason enough to deny everyone a medal. Someone physically can get the medal.. That does not mean they will get the glory that goes along with it. Whoever wins those individual medals is the one who will get the main endorsement deals, attention, etc.

Time will tell in within the FS community the team medal means anything. Likely it will not, on terms of helping wity individual prestige. like that Abbot got a bronze means nothing in terms of his rep for individual.

 

[auser]

Thank you Olympia for this message:
Though it was heartbreaking to watch Aliona and Robin, there was something uplifting about their performance as well. After Robin fell, they both had to know that they didn't have a chance at gold or maybe even silver, but they kept going and gave it their all. And then they attempted the throw triple axel! What strength of character. They were true to themselves and to skating.

I had similar thoughts when I watched this program earlier. The way they fought after the fall with beautiful skating afterwards and the throw 3A attempt exemplified why I have so enjoyed their skating. I will miss them and wish them all the best going forward.:agree: Apologies that I posted in this way, but I had trouble with the "reply with quote" feature(meant as explanation not a complaint-- love GS and mods!).

 

[ciocio]

oh, not only that. I am starting to think to V/M will get neither the silver medal not the gold. . They will get bronze, and I/K will get silver.
And of course Plusyenko will get gold

LOL @ Plushenko winning gold. Plushenko won't win any gold, nor Julia and V/M will probably be second after D/W, unless the competitors bomb seriously. I don't get how people can believe such a ridiculous scenario, I mean how russophobe could they be? :think:

 

[will74lsn]

I always wonder how V/T can get so many 10.0 on CH and IN. How is that program even remotely close to an artistic masterpiece?

Meanwhile, P/T brilliantly choreographed and performed program can't even break 9.0 in CH and IN because a 1A somehow ruins the entire program. I wish judges would stop tying PCS to the tech scores...and get rid of the damn PCS corridor already (like how one judge gave Plushenko 4 for transitions).

Totally agree! One way would be to have 2 separate panels for the GOEs and for the PCS. I wonder if we really need 9 judges to award GOEs ( I was judge myself and awarding GOEs was quite easy with the rather detailed guidelines). So, we could have something like 3-5 judges for the GOEs and 4-5 for the PCS. The judges for the PCS should be very knowledgable in aspects related to the 5 components (e.g., choreographers). Am I wrong or there are a number of other sports where there are different judges to judge different aspects of the performance? Why not in FS?

 

[Ryan O]

The surprise in pairs for Canada was M-T&M finishing 2 spots ahead of D&R. D&R were expected to be the best shot Canada had of getting to the podium in this event, but considering the two teams have been getting closer over the past year perhaps D&R were a bit over-hyped. Meghan has to be somewhat disappointed after waiting this long to get to the Olympics after missing out in 2010 and then not skating to her full potential here, but she seemed to handle it well afterwards. Will be interesting to see whether D&R stay in until 2018 since they are both pushing 30. Based on the interviews out tonight, it sounds like M-T&M are planning to stay until 2018.

 

[Olympia]

Thank you Olympia for this message:
Though it was heartbreaking to watch Aliona and Robin, there was something uplifting about their performance as well. After Robin fell, they both had to know that they didn't have a chance at gold or maybe even silver, but they kept going and gave it their all. And then they attempted the throw triple axel! What strength of character. They were true to themselves and to skating.

I had similar thoughts when I watched this program earlier. The way they fought after the fall with beautiful skating afterwards and the throw 3A attempt exemplified why I have so enjoyed their skating. I will miss them and wish them all the best going forward.:agree: Apologies that I posted in this way, but I had trouble with the "reply with quote" feature(meant as explanation not a complaint-- love GS and mods!).

Thanks for the shout-out, Auser. I had been very nervous about watching Robin and Aliona's long program because I knew ahead of time what happened, but I was surprised to have such a positive reaction to it. They not only kept going, but they invested their movements with such quality and emotional connection that their program gave me a feeling of gratification, not one of despair. There are moments when the results aren't as important as the process itself, and this was definitely one of them. I'm so glad to be a fan of theirs, and of Ingo Steuer. By the way, don't you love the way he consoled Robin when they came off the ice? His reaction was so classy.

There's a verse by Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen that I keep on my fridge to remind me of an aspect of life that can also have great beauty. I think it applies here.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There's a crack in everything;
That's how the light gets in.

 

[auser]

Yes Yes Yes to everything you said

 

[sky_fly20]

I wish we had several gold medals - I know how ridiculous. The pure agony s squared went through all in the dream and love of Oly gold. I am not sure if the fact it wasn't a nailbiter meant anything or helped. They could be like Chan they peaked a few years ago. Eerily reminds me of Shen and Zhou who had the lead over Totmiania and Marin (sorry I don't know their names) and then injuries nad the fell behind and lost the oly gold to T and M. But I can't recomined them staying on for another 4 years. I am not sure K and S will last long enough for 2018 but who knows. I think sui and han might be next ogm unless the Russians have another promising pair team. I think Duhamel and Radford might be heading in the new direction - big singles jumps and tricks.

coming from someone who said S/S would win OGM and Osmond would crush the russians
D/R lack S/S, no chemistry she skates like a stiffboard, and with their ugly lines they will never be a top skater, even S/K are better than them
I'd take MT/M are more promising than D/R

 

[sky_fly20]

Last year on Canada, in London the attitude to Bobrova and Solovev was worst then that and it was very hostile for Russian skaters. I remember watching on TV and I was shocked. Don't blame Russians only. Canadian did it to.

yep B/S got a cold and muted response
while W/P got a standing ovation,