I just went and watched his 2007 short. The music is a bit different (although still a take on a classical piece) but honestly it still looks very similar choreographically to his other programs.
Johnny's 2006 SP
Johnny's 2007 SP
How do those look "very similar"?
Don't you think it is also naive to blame the system for Johnny's failures though? Yes, the system changed and Johnny needed to adapt but it changed for everyone. Buttle, Lambiel, Plushenko, Joubert, Lysaeck, etc. were able to make the system work for them, and they are all very different skaters. Skating is still skating no matter if it is a different system in place. It is still the glide of the blade on the ice and the beauty that comes with that.
I'm not blaming the system for his "failures", I'm blaming the system for restricting artistry. The style of performance that became trademark for skaters like Lu Chen, Michelle Kwan, and Johnny Weir has been made nearly impossible these past 6 seasons, especially in recent years with the huge craze on OMG TRANSITIONS!!!! The sentence I bolded in the quote is absolutely not true anymore. You can not say that about figuring skating in the past several years. Figure skating in the past several years has been about cramming all kinds of extra (often ugly) movements into spins, footwork, spirals, and jumps to gain as many points as possible.
Regardless, the judges haven't been good at scoring in CoP. Spins should automatically get 0 GOE (or negative GOE) for positions that don't look good. Footwork sequences should be penalized if they break from an actual pattern. The "choreography" and "interpretation" Program Component marks should be taking a big hit, if judges were paying attention to how well the moves actually match up with the music and create a whole that is greater than the parts.
The fact that almost all of the top skaters are now doing all 3 of their jumping passes back-to-back-to-back in the SP and still receiving high Choreography scores is a testament to how poor the judges have been at evaluating the sport.
Lysacek is absolutely not my favourite skater either, but IMO it is ridiculous to say his skating regressed from 2007 - not sure if you are kidding or not...
If you don't feel his skating has regressed then, by all means, please show me a performance from him that is on the same level as it was at 2007 Nationals.
I'm baffled by your criticism of Weir never doing anything new when Evan has absolutely not done anything different at all. He has been recycling and watering down his choreography for years and giving basically the exact same performances to different background music.
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