You mean that the 5th place finishers are in the exhibition but not the 6th place??
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6th placers usually get to skate when they're from the home country.
You mean that the 5th place finishers are in the exhibition but not the 6th place??
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You mean that the 5th place finishers are in the exhibition but not the 6th place??
Now I know why a certain person who fell several times in both his short and long program was put in front of another individual who skated clean (in the men's.) Not that I'm mentioning any names here.
Onto the ladies.
The technical panel is very strict, no gifts; we are living a fantastic season, to be in the Top Five at the Games is wonderful.
What do we miss to be at the same level of the Canadians and the Americans? They are very clean performing their programs; in base values we are about at the same level, but they perform each element very well. We are anyway very happy of our technical step up, and still have room for improvement. I can't wait for Worlds, there will be no Canadians nor Russians, we'll fight with Americans for victory»
Here is what Massimo actually said, quoted from the italian daily newspaper "La Stampa":
«The technical panel is very strict, no gifts; we are living a fantastic season, to be in the Top Five at the Games is wonderful.
What do we miss to be at the same level of the Canadians and the Americans? They are very clean performing their programs; in base values we are about at the same level, but they perform each element very well. We are anyway very happy of our technical step up, and still have room for improvement. I can't wait for Worlds, there will be no Canadians nor Russians, we'll fight with Americans for victory»
Original:
«Il pannello tecnico è rigidissimo, non ti regalano nulla; stiamo vivendo una stagione fantastica, essere fra i primi cinque ai Giochi è meraviglioso.
Cosa ci manca per essere ai livelli di canadesi e americani? Loro sono molto puliti nell’esecuzione dei programmi, sul tecnico di base siamo più o meno allo stesso livello, ma loro eseguono ogni elemento veramente bene. Noi siamo comunque contentissimi del salto tecnico che abbiamo fatto e abbiamo ancora margini di miglioramento. Non vedo l’ora che arrivino i Mondiali, non ci saranno nè i canadesi, nè i russi, lotteremo con gli americani per la vittoria»
The «They aren't real dancers» part looks a very free interpolation and interpretation by the article's writer.
Massimo, Luca and Anna use to comment Ice Galas on Italian television, beside some sport journalists who usually know just a little Figure Skating. They are very good, while Federica seems a bit shy. When it comes to talk about Virtue and Moir, they actually don't say anything but enthousiastic about this wonderful young, fast, soft Canadiam team.
6th placers usually get to skate when they're from the home country.
Some people suspect that Patrick Chan was pushed up in the standings so that he could skate in the gala. Is that true?
There is a home ice advantage (or for a person who doesn't deal with media well, a home ice disadvantage);
1. The home ice person has probably skated at the arena where the competition is a number of times more than other competitors and is used to the quirks of the arena, including the size and quality of the ice.
2. The home ice person is not ever fighting jet lag and may indeed be able to go to their own home, and thus be less likely to be getting food poisoning in restaurants and more likely to be getting a good night's sleep.
3. The crowd will cheer more for the home ice person than for other competitors. They will clap during compulsory dances. The enthusiasm of the crowd often causes the performer to do better. OTOH, they can be so loud that the competitor cannot hear the music. (not so good)
4. The judges are part of the audience. When the audience is going nuts, particularly the Performance and Interp PCS components will be a hair higher--especially since ability to convey the choreography to the audience is one of the requirements.
So yes, there's a home ice advantage--not from secret cheats, but just from ordinary things that add up.
whole post
chan would have skated in the gala, no matter what placement he had. home skaters always skate in the gala.
I'm hoping they were misquoted and/or there was a language barrier issue as English is difficult and journalist do often create/slant story lines. But I'm sorry, even a Russian Helen Keller would of been able to tell that the Virtue and Moir free (and Davis/White) is going to go down as one of the best performances ever. It actually proved that you can have artistic moving programs under the new system. It just requires exceptional dancers and athletes. I'm pretty confident if they showed those performances in Russia and Italy, most people would agree on the results.What's a Gold medal win without a little hoopla.
"Canadian gold exposes dance divide", Yahoo! Article by Martin Rogers
Article doesn't sound too crazy... except for the quote from Scali.
“I don’t agree with the system. They [Virtue and Moir] are not real dancers. They are very technical and don’t really ‘dance’ on the ice.”
Shabalin:
"We skated the best performance and we have a bronze medal,” Shabalin said. “What can you do? We did everything we could."
I hope he meant that they skated the best that they could have skated and not that he believes they skated the best out of everyone last night, otherwise he's just delusional.
I'm not sure if that's the case.
Are you saying all the Canadian skaters will be skating in the gala regardless of where they placed, including Crone and Poirier (14th place) and Vaughn Chipeur ( 23rd place)?
The only thing I didn't like about the Ice Dancing competition was that skate order appeared to play a big part in how the scoring took place between D/W and the Canadian couple. After each seemingly charged performance by D/W the Canadian couple topped that both times in that they even increased their lead in the free skate.
I'm hoping they were misquoted and/or there was a language barrier issue as English is difficult and journalist do often create/slant story lines. But I'm sorry, even a Russian Helen Keller would of been able to tell that the Virtue and Moir free (and Davis/White) is going to go down as one of the best performances ever. It actually proved that you can have artistic moving programs under the new system. It just requires exceptional dancers and athletes. I'm pretty confident if they showed those performances in Russia and Italy, most people would agree on the results.