And speaking of Vincent, do any of y’all remember 2017 when third place Jason - coming off a horrible performance at NHK and recovering from stress fractures in his landing foot - was sent to Worlds over second place Vincent? Do you remember the huge outcry? Now the shoe is on the other foot, and Vincent has been given the benefit of the doubt. As with Jason’s showing at 2017 nationals, what was his impressive about Vincent here was his ability to perform under adverse circumstances. I think he is a fine choice for the World Team and I hope he, Jason, and Nathan kill it!
Agreed. If Vincent performed poorly and squeaked out 4th and was sent over Tomoki, that would be more egregious, but Vincent was superb here, can upgrade (whereas Tomoki seems maxed out), and of course, is the reigning World bronze medalist. I completely forgot about 2017 Nationals, but yeah, Zhou
did beat Brown there (by about 9 points), but Brown was sent to Worlds (which made sense at the time based on BOW). Of course, it all worked out... Vincent went to Junior Worlds and slayed there, and I think that might have helped him more than the pressure of senior Worlds and getting 3 spots - which Chen/Brown managed to do. So this time around, it makes sense that he is sent over Tomoki, especially when you know he will add difficulty.
Tomoki was splendid but I don't think he would have gotten the same PCS internationally as he did at Nationals, and Vincent has a bit more senior experience. Tomoki will most likely have his shot at Worlds in the future... his jumps were wonderful - but the program choreo is a bit messy... I think I've seen fewer superfluous leg kicks in a Tutberidze program!
Those Russian splits though - wow ... they reminded me of Sasha's.
Regarding the interrupted coverage: I can’t believe people are complaining about and in any case I don’t think this is the right thread to do it. But I will point out that at the start of group 3, NBC notified viewers that it would happen and there was a banner at the bottom of the screen throughout the entire group that coverage would be interrupted. Anyone with NBCSN could have changed channels and not missed the coverage. If you were relying on the NBC broadcast only, well, it’s too bad - but it’s a risk you take with that kind of television service. This kind of thing happens all the time when there’s breaking news.
Agreed. While it was unfortunate that people missed Nathan and Jason LIVE, those are performances people can always watch replays after the fact. In fact, most figure skating is aired at a later point. Whereas breaking news is just that - news that is in the moment and takes priority.
One of the most prominent athletes ever died in a helicopter crash. So it stands to say that NBC Sports would be covering that. I would absolutely bet that if Kobe's death/news report happened during the Super Bowl or the NHL playoffs or any other major league sport, they would have STILL cut away from that to the breaking news reports/police statement as well.
It's okay to be disappointed that you missed the performance live, but come on, people... we aren't entitled to watch figure skating or any other sport in lieu of breaking news.
