Replay Lounge 2026 Four Continents: Recaps and Discussion
- Thread starter gsk8
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- Sep 1, 2020
I must be remembering the struggles Moriguchi had in juniors with his previous partner, Haruna Murakami. Apparently, Moriguchi had aged out of juniors prior to the ISU relaxing age restrictions for male partners due to the female age limits for seniors instituted after the 2022 Olympics. Although Moriguchu and Japan fed were likely aware that efforts were underway to extend junior age limits for male partners, they decided to drop Murakami and secure Moriguchi an older partner. And yes, I stand by my 'traded her in' reference. It is what it is in this tough sport. To pretend otherwise might be more polite, but also disingenuous.
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- Sep 1, 2020
Yes, that's what I had heard at the time. Moriguchi did not wait to see the outcome of the effort to extend age limits for junior male pairs athletes. That seems to suggest that he and his coaches were looking to find him another partner in any case, as he and Murakami had experienced some struggles in juniors and may not have been the best match.
LOL! Honestly, Japan fed has Mervin Tran and Julie & Bruno Marcotte to thank for giving life to a Japanese pairs discipline. Tran devoted five years of his career to partnering Narumi Takahashi under the Marcotte tutelage, which resulted in T/T's surprise World bronze medal win in 2012. Because Japan refused to provide citizenship for Tran, Narumi was forced to end their partnership. I do not think that Narumi was happy about that, but she was told it would be the only way for her to go to the Olympics. What they forgot is that she needed to have a good, well-matched partner she trusted in order to qualify for the Olympics. Enter Ryuichi Kihara, a skater nabbed from singles. Thus began Kihara's pairs saga. Sadly, he did not match well with Narumi, who seemingly mourned the loss of Tran for the rest of her career. She went through a few more partners, but nothing successful was achieved. Kihara continued in pairs with a number of partners, too, until he paired with Miura who had unremarkable results with a prior partner. Lightning struck, and the over-hype followed.
Yes, M/K are fast with great skating skills, deep knee bend and generally strong, if sometimes inconsistent, jumps and throws, so-so spins, and a nice looking twist in the air -- not so nice on the dismount, yet consistently given high GOE by the judges.
M-F have given M/K a very strong fp this season, IMO. And, as usual, M/K are favored and often helped to make top of the podium. Naga/Mori clearly have greater aesthetic potential, if Yuna can gain more consistency on throws, and if they develop a palpable connection.Well, that doesn't sound great. Hopefully, they will find time to train in-person with Savin's team during the off-season.
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- Sep 1, 2020
I enjoyed the men's event. However, I disagree with the final result. While this is nice for Kao, it would have been nicer had he truly earned it in his fp. He skated very well in the sp, but he was helped a bit by the judges after that nervous fp. Yamamoto skated well, but he watered down his fp content, and his aesthetics leave much to be desired. As a quadster, Yamamoto is often over-rewarded on pcs. I feel sorry for Tomono. He skated so well in the sp and not too poorly in the fp, plus his aesthetics are so delightful. I think Kao is favored a lot over Tomono. I would have had Jun Hwan Cha in first, Kao second, and Tomono third, with Yamamoto 4th.
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- Mar 7, 2015
that's a very interesting take. You are probably right. I didn't get to see the pairs at all yet... but I am not surprised about this statement from other competitions I have seen. Nagaoka/Moriguchi are improving so fast and have skills other teams do not have at all, and have caught up on the other skills needed to be good pairs skaters much quicker than thought. Sui/Han can be added to the list of the not so good comebacks of this year (at least, for now - she was injured, if it's minor, maybe they can come strong in a couple weeks but the timeline is short).
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- Jun 11, 2012
I don't think Sui and Han can be written off so cavalierly. (is that a word? 
) She was obviously injured possibly before the free skate and definitely during the free skate. I don't know if they'll get the gold but they'll for sure be in the conversation. They have improved immeasurably since they first competed this past fall. They're still a class act.
) She was obviously injured possibly before the free skate and definitely during the free skate. I don't know if they'll get the gold but they'll for sure be in the conversation. They have improved immeasurably since they first competed this past fall. They're still a class act.
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- Dec 20, 2022
I could have missed it. I didn't see a singular article regarding U S. Women at 4CC.
They mention the men finishing in top 10. The historic win of U S. pait teams and placement of other two teams.
They mention the dance swept podium.
I didn't find articles about U.s. women
They mention the men finishing in top 10. The historic win of U S. pait teams and placement of other two teams.
They mention the dance swept podium.
I didn't find articles about U.s. women
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- Jan 25, 2013
I agree Chris is very enthusiastic and there are worse commentators than him, the trouble is we simply had too much of him in recent years. You need a bit of variety. And I tolerate him better when he is not alone commentating ( like in Boston). I do not mind if gets names wrong. What drives me mad it is his constant overuse of idioms. Can he speak in plain English? !!
Plus it is evident he puts in zero preparation. He just well talks and keeps talking. Often wrong - praising an element and straight away saying that it is going to be reviewed by the tech panel - so which is which was it good or not - he never corrects himself or explains to a viewer WHY it is to be reviewed - just moving to the next one.
Mark Hanretty I like much better and respect that he very evidently puts in effort to learn things about skaters, programs etc from e.g. social media, I always learn something interesting from him. Whereas Chris just babbling on one platitude after another. How many times for example he told us about Alisa's citizenship issue over this week?! Ad nauseam...
In fact he could have mentioned that Misha was a 4CC champion before with his previous partner in 2022. And before him it was Danny O'Shea with his previous partner (I mean amongst US skaters) that would be interesting trivia to a casual viewer would it not? But he probably even did not know it himself.
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- Joined
- Feb 4, 2018
By far, the commentator I learn the most from is Mark. He tries to show why something was/should be scored a certain way based on the rules and visual cues. Really wish they'd put him on the World Feed for the Olympics. I am not familiar with Belinda and Olly, so hopefully they'll explain instead of just saying things like, that was an under rotation w/o explanation. But I really can't see why Mark isn't on every stream. The reason we have commentators is to try to tell us why what is happening in the sport is happening. Chris does that sometimes, so I'd take him over many of the other commentators. Have we ever had a Mark/Chris pairing? Also, wonder why Tonia or someone else was not on this stream? For even the best commentator, commenting solo is tough. She and Chris are night and day, so EC was interesting to start, but they improved as a team over the course of the event.I agree Chris is very enthusiastic and there are worse commentators than him, the trouble is we simply had too much of him in recent years. You need a bit of variety. And I tolerate him better when he is not alone commentating ( like in Boston). I do not mind if gets names wrong. What drives me mad it is his constant overuse of idioms. Can he speak in plain English? !!
Plus it is evident he puts in zero preparation. He just well talks and keeps talking. Often wrong - praising an element and straight away saying that it is going to be reviewed by the tech panel - so which is which was it good or not - he never corrects himself or explains to a viewer WHY it is to be reviewed - just moving to the next one.
Mark Hanretty I like much better and respect that he very evidently puts in effort to learn things about skaters, programs etc from e.g. social media, I always learn something interesting from him. Whereas Chris just babbling on one platitude after another. How many times for example he told us about Alisa's citizenship issue over this week?! Ad nauseam...
In fact he could have mentioned that Misha was a 4CC champion before with his previous partner in 2022. And before him it was Danny O'Shea with his previous partner (I mean amongst US skaters) that would be interesting trivia to a casual viewer would it not? But he probably even did not know it himself.
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- Apr 5, 2017
Well, presumably because Mark has other commitments besides commentating. IIRC last season when many were asking "where is Mark?" he was doing the Dancing on Ice TV show. At Euros he obviously preferred to be doing in-arena hype stuff/winner interviews. Sometimes it really is a matter of availability... Chris is presumably more available than Mark, same for Ted.
I do think the world feed should strive to have paired commentators (and an option to turn off commentary entirely for those bothered by it, especially on rewatch) as a general rule. Especially if they are willing to sometimes (constructively) disagree with each other about skaters/programs... can be interesting.
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- Feb 4, 2018
Ah, I see. Can't blame him for wanting to do other things. Still, I feel the sport needs to invest in commentary training or something of the like. Perhaps even giving commentators the ability to draw lines and pause replays like the major sports do. Those commentators make those sports super accessible. But I am sure that is a lot more crew and a lot more money than the ISU has. My guess is that they wanted paired commentators for here, but it didn't work out. Good on Chris for doing it solo. And I do respect that he errs on the positive side. It is better than others whose default is negativity.
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- Jun 11, 2012
One aspect I think needs mentioning - and underlined- is that both Mark and Chris are very positive. They ALWAYS find something nice to say about every skater even if the program has been a total bomb. They don't focus on the negative aspects of a skate unlike some other very famous (in their own minds) commentators. I generally feel it's better to have 2 people broadcasting - kind of breaks it up a bit.
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- Feb 19, 2010
I actually really like Belinda. Nowhere near as much as Mark, who I agree is the outstanding current commentator - and I have no problem saying he's the best I've ever heard in 40 years. He's one of the few commentators that is qualified to make comments about ice dance, whereas most other commentators have almost nothing to say.
However Belinda is good as well - it's just weird hearing an Australian accent commentating on figure skating!
Wikipedia page does mention his former partners now, maybe someone recently edited in a lot?
He started with Ikura (now junior singles and senior ice dance) both as beginners in 2021-22, only appeared once in Bloom On Ice and broke up before any competitions due to Ikura's injury iirc, then teamed up with Haruna in 2022-23, lasting only one season, Haruna wanted to do singles for a while, according to news articles at that time, which convinced me that the pair didn't work.
I am not very sure how hard it is for 13 or 14 yrs old girls, who once dreamed or still dreaming of being a singles skater, to team up with a 20+ yrs old university student. I would assume 6 years age difference is a huge gap for low teens to stay motivated enough to work hard with, even if it may not be a big deal once you're in high teens. Maybe it's just me thinking this way, and many athletes might see things differently no matter their age.
That said, Kenji Miyamoto's talk show had YunaSumi as guests before and talked about their version of the story.
They are training in Germany with German and Dutch pairs after 4CC until Olympic starts, according to Nikkan Sports. Hopefully they get to train there after the Olympic too, as they talked about enjoying themselves training with those other pairs.
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- Aug 16, 2018
That sounds good! I do hope they get some coaching as well.
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- Apr 23, 2018
Just think about how weird it is commentating - or watching - skating in 41-44deg C (105-111F) heat...........
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- Dec 9, 2019
What a pity that we don't have flying carpets to exchange for a moment!Just think about how weird it is commentating - or watching - skating in 41-44deg C (105-111F) heat...........
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- Sep 7, 2023
I'm worried. She looks hurt and it's less than 2 weeks til the Olympics. Not to mention- there is a possibility they will have to compete 4 programs (if team China make the free) as they can't split the team event this time.I don't think Sui and Han can be written off so cavalierly. (is that a word?
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