Gabriella Papadakis, Guillaume Cizeron to miss Worlds; focused on next season

[gsk8]

Even though we aren't sure the event will be held yet....

Gabriella Papadakis, Guillaume Cizeron to miss world championships

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron will not defend their ice dance title at the world figure skating championships in March.

olympics.nbcsports.com

 

[Blades of Passion]

I'm disappointed there haven't been plans for a virtual World Championships announced yet. It needs to happen, we can't have yet another skating season without the most important competition of the year.

 

[Amei]

I'm disappointed there haven't been plans for a virtual World Championships announced yet. It needs to happen, we can't have yet another skating season without the most important competition of the year.

Virtual is a terrible idea in my opinion the immediate problem to me is that it would full of accusations of coaches filming multiple attempts at a program and the cleanest skate being submitted.

 

[ladyjane]

I'm disappointed there haven't been plans for a virtual World Championships announced yet. It needs to happen, we can't have yet another skating season without the most important competition of the year.

I agree. Although I would much favour an in person competition, I don't understand no plans for a virtual competition have been made (a plan B so to speak). We've seen that it can be done in an honest way. I was particularly impressed by the way the Skate Canada Challenge was organised, filmed, judged and broadcast. A pity that some skaters obviously were not yet in form but still. I haven't heard anything accusatory about just submitting the cleanest skates. And there were examples enough of not so clean skates which the athletes might have liked to repeat but that wasn't part of the game. I realise of course that setting such a thing up internationally is much more complicated, but still.

 

[ladyjane]

But to come back to Gaby and Guillaume: what a pity. I've missed seeing them this season, and now I definitely won't. Nobody will. Even if there is a Worlds (for which I'm still hoping) I understand the reasons, and it is their choice of course. We might see more of that happening though if the WC go forward and people don't trust the safety measures taken (as well as not being in competition form due to lack of ice and/or training).

 

[Blades of Passion]

Virtual is a terrible idea in my opinion the immediate problem to me is that it would full of accusations of coaches filming multiple attempts at a program and the cleanest skate being submitted.

The performances need to be officially timestamped. You give each skater a time they must compete (and can work with the skaters on exactly when is best for them to secure ice time), require a log-in to a personalized ISU webpage with a world clock that must be kept in view during the performance, and require the performance video to be submitted swiftly or else get disqualified.

 

[moonvine]

https://twitter.com/olyphil/status/1353720458999451649?s=20

https://twitter.com/olyphil/status/1353721116062330880?s=20

Apparently having them in a bubble is being considered.

 

[TontoK]

The performances need to be officially timestamped. You give each skater a time they must compete (and can work with the skaters on exactly when is best for them to secure ice time), require a log-in to a personalized ISU webpage with a world clock that must be kept in view during the performance, and require the performance video to be submitted swiftly or else get disqualified.

I agree with you on this. People are too timid.

Just because something hasn't been done before... doesn't mean it can't happen now.

People all over the world have had to adapt to new circumstances, a new way of working, communicating, interacting...

The ISU can figure this out. There are lessons to be learned from other virtual competitions; it's not like starting from a blank slate.

 

[Skater Boy]

P and C missing worlds might be a smart move. They have been on top so long and while loved their frreeskate tends tolooksimilartotheir pastfreeskates. So they can keep it fresh they are the class of the field still. In factthe worldscancellationlast year might have been ablessing as they riskedlosing to theRussians who came on strong. But admittedly it would appear P and C s biggest challengeisthemselves and then the Americas right now as the Russians have had health issues. It is hard to keep it fresh for so log so I don't think skippingworlds is a bad tingin light of the pandemic. Who knows what the skating conditions have been and it may have been hard to motivate themselves with so few or no competition.

 

[Petrushko Sashenko]

The World(s)'s loss.

 

[TontoK]

P and C missing worlds might be a smart move. They have been on top so long and while loved their frreeskate tends tolooksimilartotheir pastfreeskates. So they can keep it fresh they are the class of the field still. In factthe worldscancellationlast year might have been ablessing as they riskedlosing to theRussians who came on strong. But admittedly it would appear P and C s biggest challengeisthemselves and then the Americas right now as the Russians have had health issues. It is hard to keep it fresh for so log so I don't think skippingworlds is a bad tingin light of the pandemic. Who knows what the skating conditions have been and it may have been hard to motivate themselves with so few or no competition.

Are you suggesting that P and C are better off skipping World's because the judges might view their skating as stale?

Frankly, it's a viewpoint I can appreciate.

But wouldn't they be better off knowing that before the Olympic season?

 

[Mista Ekko]

P and C missing worlds might be a smart move. They have been on top so long and while loved their frreeskate tends tolooksimilartotheir pastfreeskates. So they can keep it fresh they are the class of the field still. In factthe worldscancellationlast year might have been ablessing as they riskedlosing to theRussians who came on strong. But admittedly it would appear P and C s biggest challengeisthemselves and then the Americas right now as the Russians have had health issues. It is hard to keep it fresh for so log so I don't think skippingworlds is a bad tingin light of the pandemic. Who knows what the skating conditions have been and it may have been hard to motivate themselves with so few or no competition.

I'm not sure there was such a risk, If anything the Russians would've been facing backlash after the Europeans, The GPF judges didn't go for them at all, The one team that actually did come on strong that season with a shot at challenging for the gold imo were Chock and Bates

 

[Blades of Passion]

I'm not sure there was such a risk, If anything the Russians would've been facing backlash after the Europeans, The GPF judges didn't go for them at all, The one team that actually did come on strong that season with a shot at challenging for the gold imo were Chock and Bates

It would have been very interesting to see the politics play out. Chock/Bates had the best program, P/C have the most talent, and the Russians are Russians.

 

[peepsquick]

Are you suggesting that P and C are better off skipping World's because the judges might view their skating as stale?

Frankly, it's a viewpoint I can appreciate.

But wouldn't they be better off knowing that before the Olympic season?

Give me stale every day then! ... They just didn't get a chance to perform at all this year ... stuck in no man's land so to speak : they couldn't perform in either the US or Canada. France was not even an option. Gabriella might not have been allowed to reenter Canada, if she left the country. Hard to stay motivated or high-performing that way. I do wish we could have seen their Tango FD ...