cianni said:
antmanb, I agree about the sentimental side wishing that would happen and maybe it will. I would like an explanation about Irina and Sasha . i dont see the lock in for these two. Will a spin you win give Sasha the gold or got the bielman down over and over and you win. I dont see really clean programs without flaws for either of these two. I would like to know how you see the win here. This is not about Michelle as I agree if she doesnt do the GP and add a lot more to her programs no Medal. Im speaking about skating clean balanced programs. I dont see a medal with trip, falls, hands down , stepping out of jumps or repeating the same spin over and over. I dont see the quality of the skating anymore . The judging is another whole ballgame as we might just get the setup win and I wouldnt count that out. Anyway Id like your feedback and how you see the two to beat. I also like Arakawa, and maybe the come out of nowhere ala Sarah.
To be honest my comment about Slutskaya and Cohen was more about the judging than the skating, my own personal view point is that a clean 4 or 5 triple program from Kwan is better (read more intersting to me!) than a clean 7 triple program from Cohen. ONe aspect of this for me is just body type - i don't really enjoy the teeny tiny skaters that look like they're skating on the ice not into the ice. Cohen looks to me like she's skidding on top of the ice where kwan and slutskaya look like they're really skating into the ice, like if you froze them in time and looked at the ice half their blade is sunk deep into the ice! A lot of the small tiny skaters look like they're skaidding around on top of the ice, Kwan for some reason despite being tiny actually looks more athletic on TV even though in real life i'm sure she is very petitie and Irina looks more athletic which i prefer visually.
As for the other parts - Kwan for me is the best basic skater - she has the cleanest, fastest most secure running edges and (her last few competitive LPs nothwithstanding) has the best exection of choreography - down to movements of fingers, economy of facial expressions (contrast cohen) placements of arms and feet in very pretty positions in a genuinely musical way that, to me, is the personification of musicality. Every cross over, every movement is done in time with the music. Her SPs are still like this and although her chorpgegraphy has gone down a bit in the LPs in the last couple of seasons i'm hoping she'll pull something fantastic out of the bag for this up coming season (it is a dream on my part but hey we live to dream!).
So Kwan for me is number one, a very very close second (again this is just for me) ...so close that depeding on the performance of the skate, these two can change backwards and forwards as my favourites is Slutskaya...jumps that are just to die for (telegrpahing notwithstanding) she really attacks every jump and flies on every one - she's the one that excites me because you just don't know whether she'll do the most amazingly difficult jump combination out of nowhere or if she'll play it safe and do a beautifully executed clean jump. I remember a Europsort commentator in an SP once saying "well we know the first jump in the combo will be a triple lutz but the second jump could any on of 2toe or 2 loop or 3 toe or 3 loop, she did all of them this morning in pratice!". She, as i said above, has amazing edge control but less so than kwan and tends to use more raw power in her speed than a genuine use of the skate blade to conserve energy a la kwan. Her spins are fast and she's extremely flexible but the thing that gives her huge points is the genuine feeling of her skating performances, where kwan is a true artist on the Ice Irina usually gets her personlity across in the skate and that is worth a million CoP points - her bubbly smile and personlity really come through - she just can't help herself if she lands an extrememly diffuclt jump she smiles and it lightsup the arena. The call between her and Kwan for me really is - how did they do on the day? I think Irina has the edge if she has a skate like the LP at '05 worlds (with a seventh triple that counts) and Kwan skates the life out of a a six triple program, if they're both on seven triple with or without 3/3s for me - its the feeling on the day and it boils down to who sold the program the best - they both have sentimental stories that tug at your heart strings - and it depends how you feel on taht day.
Cohen for me is in a different to league to these two skaters while she is an extremely beautfiul girl, i find her skating lacking in beauty, part of it is the extreme body positions (like i hate the over arched back that gymnasts seem to have) and Cohen to me is a gymnast on ice and that to me isn't aesthetically pleasing. I don't want to go off on a rant about why i don't particulalary care for her skating so what I will say is that cohen needs a strong choregogrpaher that can give her the best program possible in a "choreograph by numbers" way. I don't think cohen feels the music - her choreography looks to me like she thinking "oh right the music crescendos next so i have to get ready to put my arm in the air...the music goes into a quiet phase so i must now pull and agonised face" the choreogprahy is kind of small scale - its done for the cameras and the TV viewers not the people in the arena. That aside she is a wicked spinner and her body position/air position in jumps is second to none but the take offs and landing are iffy - she really does muscle the triples out where Irina is just super solid and you more or less expect her land every one (which is why watching '04 worlds was so painful).
Eek...i've gone on and on so i'll end it there!!!
Ant
