Celebrate! Wagner's Silver Ends Drought

[mrrice]

This is hilarious, and heartening. I feel like you've given me a good dose of the other side of the Rafael that Ashley loves. I've seen glimpses of him over the past months and years, plenty enough to see past the stoic, stern Russian he sometimes seems like.

I saw Raf at Worlds in 2001 when he was coaching Alexander Apt. He is In fact Alex was very popular with the gals....

 

[stella luna]

It's good to hear about Anna and Ashley. They stopped showing the medals ceremony on TV so long ago I am embarrassed to admit exactly how long, and I don't always watch them on the Internet. But the competitors always congratulated the other winners before climbing onto the dais. It would be a shame if a little moment of grace and sportsmanship fell by the wayside. hwell: BTW, the emoticons in your reply got me busted by the emoticon police! I had to erase them.

 

[skylark]

I saw Raf at Worlds in 2001 when he was coaching Alexander Apt. He is In fact Alex was very popular with the gals....

Well ... understandably so.

I saw Raf with Adam and Ashley at 2013 SA. A bit confusing, since I knew John Nicks was Ashley's coach. This was before I heard the whole story about how Mr. Nicks told Ashley in spring of 2013 that he wasn't going to travel to competitions any more.

Ashley was thrown off track. I mean, this was the Olympic year ... not a good time to be forced to de-stabilize and have to adjust to all the idiosyncracies .. ha!.. of a new coach. And it proved to be a difficult adjustment for her, and probably contributed to her subpar performance at 2014 Nationals and beyond. The lady never offers that as an excuse, though. She takes responsibility. She did say recently that when she first started with Raf, she resisted his methods because she thought she could continue to do it her way.

I can't provide a link at the moment, but what she said about the Olympic year is in TSL interview of Ashley (2013 I think), which is in 2 parts.

If anyone, like me, is having a hard time letting go of 2016 WC and the highs, I recommend giving a listen to some of the in-depth TSL interviews. I can personally recommend the ones of Ashley Wagner, Sandra Bezic, Kori Ade, Caitlin Yankowskas, and Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim. Also a shorter one of Dr. Caroline Silby, sports psychologist.

 

[skylark]

It's good to hear about Anna and Ashley. They stopped showing the medals ceremony on TV so long ago I am embarrassed to admit exactly how long, and I don't always watch them on the Internet. But the competitors always congratulated the other winners before climbing onto the dais. It would be a shame if a little moment of grace and sportsmanship fell by the wayside. hwell: BTW, the emoticons in your reply got me busted by the emoticon police! I had to erase them.

 

[skylark]

Another green room comment: I was equally sorry at last year's worlds when Elizaveta and Elena were so happy together, and poor Satoko was completely excluded and ignored. Then I felt that way about Gracie this year, but with Anna and Evgenia. I think that may be partly why Gracie retreated to her phone.

OTOH, a wonderful example was 4CC ... actually, all the green room shots were great IIRC, men's, pairs, and dance. But the ones where Mirai was chatting with Satoko and Rika in Japanese, then started translating for Gracie to include her.... Well, one more thing to make me love Mirai. :luv17:

 

[tulosai]

Another green room comment: I was equally sorry at last year's worlds when Elizaveta and Elena were so happy together, and poor Satoko was completely excluded and ignored. Then I felt that way about Gracie this year, but with Anna and Evgenia. I think that may be partly why Gracie retreated to her phone.

OTOH, a wonderful example was 4CC ... actually, all the green room shots were great IIRC, men's, pairs, and dance. But the ones where Mirai was chatting with Satoko and Rika in Japanese, then started translating for Gracie to include her.... Well, one more thing to make me love Mirai. :luv17:

I do think a lot of these situations result from language barriers as I think your post kind of points out... if two competitors share a language and the third doesn't, unfortunately, the inevitable outcome is going to be that the third is excluded to some degree. If Mirai didn't speak English, Gracie would have been equally excluded in the other example you mention- not from malice but just because if you don't share any common language, yeah, it's hard to communicate and unfortunately, I think it's natural if one person is being ignored or excluded, and perhaps almost inevitable, though it is unfortunate.

I think in situations where a common language is shared, or where NONE is shared, things tend to be better- if none is shared they usually try good naturedly to muddle through with hand gestures and the very few words they do know, and if all do share a language often it becomes quite chatty but if everyone speaks a language but one person it often does seem like a sad situation- again, I don't think due to malice but due to our natural ways of communicating.

 

[[email protected]]

I personally find the whole idea embarassing. Legendary Mao has to sit there giving forced smiles and waiting for someone to push her out. Of course, it would be hard to expect the Russians communicating with non-Russians as they hardly speak any English. And of course they do not expect anyone speaking Russian. What would Lena and Liza say to Satoko, same as Zhenya and Anna to Ashley? "Hai u wea veri gut".

 

[tulosai]

I personally find the whole idea embarassing. Legendary Mao has to sit there giving forced smiles and waiting for someone to push her out. Of course, it would be hard to expect the Russians communicating with non-Russians as they hardly speak any English. And of course they do not expect anyone speaking Russian. What would Lena and Liza say to Satoko, same as Zhenya and Anna to Ashley? "Hai u wea veri gut".

Right, I mean I do think there should be some basic acknowledgement when a competitor enters the green room, at the very least a sincere smile and a gesture of 'good job' even if you don't know the words to say that in their language, but after that I really don't see what people expect if there is an absolute language barrier.

 

[charmblade]

I was at the small medals ceremony for the ladies free skate and was there early and was standing right next to Satoko and Evgenia when they were there early as well. They seemed to be smiling and giggling with each other. I think they might have tried to exchange a few words but since i doubt they have a common language (I know Satoko speaks English, I'm not aware that Evgenia does) they didn't talk much. But they still seemed to be having a good time and getting along very well. I thought it was super cute to see and shows that you don't need to speak the same language to get along with your fellow skaters.

 

[MaiKatze]

I hate that green room thing. Johnny Weir said once last year (probably in a men's competition) that he thought it was awful to make the skaters publicly watch their competitors' skates, and I totally agree. Someone said a few days ago that it's probably inspired by the reality shows, and I went aha. It's no excuse, though. Figure skating has beaucoup de drama on its own. It doesn't need those cheap efforts.

I'm not sure if it's based on reality tv, I think the basic idea comes from other winter sports as skiing or ski jumping where the current leader has to wait and smile into the camera. For figure skating, I think the kiss and cry is already dramatic enough. Look at poor Shoma Uno, crying in front of the whole world on live tv. I think this moment will haunt him. It's painful enough to not meet your own expectations, but being filmed when you break down is no fun. The green room is full of girls who look at their smartphones, or girls pretending not to care when they are probably fuming inside (look at Lena at Europeans), or in the case of worlds a girl who is beyond happy that she just got her first medal after a lot of disappointments, dances around but now is under scrutiny for not respecting her competitor. I must admit I enjoy this behind the scenes look from time to time, but can be weird and awkward as well.

 

[SarahSynchro]

From where I was sitting in the arena I had a good view of Raf at the boards while Ashley was skating her FS. He was almost as much fun to watch as Ashley! He would sort of squat down at the boards so he was eye level with the top and focus in on some element she was doing. And then sometimes he would just pace around the back and not look at all, and then he would be back at the boards eyeing Ashley, and then he couldn't look. He was great! And at the end you could tell he was absolutely ecstatic.

I would absolutely love to see a video of this.

 

[skylark]

I think in situations where a common language is shared, or where NONE is shared, things tend to be better- if none is shared they usually try good naturedly to muddle through with hand gestures and the very few words they do know, and if all do share a language often it becomes quite chatty but if everyone speaks a language but one person it often does seem like a sad situation- again, I don't think due to malice but due to our natural ways of communicating.

Well, in the scenes at Ladies Worlds 2015 and 2016, it wasn't about conversation. In each case, two girls had their arms around each other, a cozy twosome, while the third girl was isolated.

However, I also felt it was rude in the Pairs 2016 green room. The German pair (I think?) were on one couch. The Canadians and their coaches, all four, sat together, on a couch perpendicular to the other one. Which left Sui and Han with no place to sit at all; they had to stand. They were smiling and may even have volunteered to stand; who knows. That would make it just looking awkward, not actually rude.

:gaah: #stupid green room#

 

[skylark]

I'm not sure if it's based on reality tv, I think the basic idea comes from other winter sports as skiing or ski jumping where the current leader has to wait and smile into the camera. For figure skating, I think the kiss and cry is already dramatic enough. Look at poor Shoma Uno, crying in front of the whole world on live tv. I think this moment will haunt him. It's painful enough to not meet your own expectations, but being filmed when you break down is no fun. The green room is full of girls who look at their smartphones, or girls pretending not to care when they are probably fuming inside (look at Lena at Europeans),

If Johnny Weir was watching, I'll bet he enjoyed and approved of Lena's expression.

And you're right; I felt so awful for Shoma that I'd already put it out of my mind. That was just painful.

 

[SarahSynchro]

Honestly it seems like the green room just causes drama amongst us fans. Lots of speculation and rumour starting based on who's sitting where, body language, so-and-so being "left out", etc. I'm sure 99% of the time we are all just overthinking what we think we see going on in there.

 

[Interspectator]

Honestly it seems like the green room just causes drama amongst us fans. Lots of speculation and rumour starting based on who's sitting where, body language, so-and-so being "left out", etc. I'm sure 99% of the time we are all just overthinking what we think we see going on in there.

I will continue campaigning against the green room forever!
:curse:
I didn't want to see Shoma crying and Yuzu crying for him. It has scarred me.

But back on topic. Hooray for Ashley. I was in total shock by what she did. It was perfect and amazing.

 

[SarahSynchro]

I will continue campaigning against the green room forever!
:curse:
I didn't want to see Shoma crying and Yuzu crying for him. It has scarred me.

Regarding Shoma, I thought it wasn't right that millions of people watching got to see him in complete anguish, something that ANYONE would want to do privately. He can't win though: if he stayed in the green room, we all see his pain and sadness, but if he was to leave and we didn't see his tears, the rumour mill would start, accusations of him being a "poor sport", etc.... So I'm with you when you say we are better off without the green room.

 

[R.D.]

...we're not celebrating Wagner's silver any more are we?

 

[SarahSynchro]

...we're not celebrating Wagner's silver any more are we?

Oh, I am! I still watch her free program at least twice a day.

(for real, not even kidding, I'm obsessed)

 

[theskatingbutterfly]

Oh, I am! I still watch her free program at least twice a day.

(for real, not even kidding, I'm obsessed)

Same. I literally can't stop watching it.

 

[tulosai]

Well, in the scenes at Ladies Worlds 2015 and 2016, it wasn't about conversation. In each case, two girls had their arms around each other, a cozy twosome, while the third girl was isolated.

However, I also felt it was rude in the Pairs 2016 green room. The German pair (I think?) were on one couch. The Canadians and their coaches, all four, sat together, on a couch perpendicular to the other one. Which left Sui and Han with no place to sit at all; they had to stand. They were smiling and may even have volunteered to stand; who knows. That would make it just looking awkward, not actually rude.

:gaah: #stupid green room#

It's not that I completely don't get what you're saying, but what would you propose they do? There is the language barrier so a conversation is extremely difficult if not effectively impossible, and the two girls who share a common language are friends or even close friends. Are they supposed to pretend they are not close friends and sit far from one another on the couch, not saying anything to each other or to the other skater due to the language barrier, basically pretending their relationship is nonexistent even though it's very close, just so that some random people on the internet will say that there must be some intense rivalry between them and they don't like each other, or else why wouldn't they act more warmly with each other, being from the same country?

In any case, I think we do agree fundamentally that the green room is indeed stupid. As many others have explicitly said here, I wish it would be abolished.