Lambiel Injured Again - No Skate Canada?

[KayMil01]

No, no retirement yet! I'd cry lol.
He said he's retiring after the 2010 Olympics, so at least have 2 more seasons of competitive skating from him yet.

 

[skatergirl45]

Personally, I think he is past his prime. He has been dwindling the last couple seasons. I agree that he should just become a show skater.

 

[museksk8r]

I believe Stephane Lambiel is the only one who has a definitive say at when his competitive career will be over. Every skating champion has had ups and downs - it's the way of sport, you can't win ALL THE TIME. Stephane quitting for me will be the equivalent of Michelle quitting. There will be MANY tears shed....................until then, Lambiel has all my faith, win or lose - my love for his skating will never dwindle.

GO STEPHANE!!!

 

[Jaana]

I believe Stephane Lambiel is the only one who has a definitive say at when his competitive career will be over. Every skating champion has had ups and downs - it's the way of sport, you can't win ALL THE TIME. Stephane quitting for me will be the equivalent of Michelle quitting. There will be MANY tears shed....................until then, Lambiel has all my faith, win or lose - my love for his skating will never dwindle.

I too appreciate his skating really much and would love to see him competing again. Sometimes one has to listen to one´s body though, before it is too late. IF his injury will continue and prevents him from participating in ISU competitions, he anyway can have a very florishing show skater career.

 

[Ladskater]

Yeah, I wonder what's up with that.

There is a big difference between competitive skating and show skating. Like Jeff maybe Stephen's "heart" is not in competitive skating anymore.

 

[KayMil01]

I don't know...if his heart wasn't it it anymore, I don't think he would have even wanted to move to New Jersey and switch coaches. He's said several times he's going to skate at the Olympics in 2010. Stephane said he likes competing, like the pressure and stress of competition etc. Sure Jeff said that too, but just because Jeff retired doesn't mean Stephane will before the Olympics too...he's not Jeff.

It'll only be 2 season until he retires from competitive skating...as sad as that'll be, it's true. He's said that many times.

I for one want his injury to be healed up 100% and am very curious as to how the coaching chance is working our for him and if he can improve on his jumps etc.

What about all the other skaters who've had injuries or surgeries or had technical problems and overcame them and skated very well after...doesn't mean they shoud have retired when they had their injuries. Look at Plushenko who had a groin injury, had surgury, and a year later won Olympic gold. Irina Slutskaya's health problems...got better and skated great. Brian Joubert and his health problems last year...sure, he may not have been 100% himself, but he still skated after he got better, just like Irina. And so on...I like stories like that...ya know, overcoming adversity.

Stephane himself came back from injury a few times before...he's had 2 knee surgeries within 2 years of each other...injured his knee before the Olympics...came back and won the silver medal...and then he re-injured his knee again, right before 2006 Worlds...and still, he came back and won the World Championship for the 2nd time.

Stephane's my favorite skater and I thoroughly enjoy his skating and enjoy watching him skate competively...if only for 2 more seasons. I don't want to count him out just because he's going through hard times...I just want to see the best he can be. I mean, he's still young yet, only 23...Johnny Weir and Brian Joubert are a little older than him. Not that that makes a difference...but just sayin' lol.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

As his number 1 fan from day 1 (everyone back then was ahhhing and oooing Joubert while I went for Stephane) I am happy to have him around competitively for a couple of more years at least.

He is a full fledged member of my very special Club of very unique skaters: Curry, Browning, Lambiel. Style, Musical, Technique.

I have to agree with museskater, only Stephane can decide when to go Show only.

 

[kandidy]

Sorry to hear about his injury.
I always like his choreography on ice.
Hope he gets well soon.
With Jeffrey retired , Stephan injured.
Mens' field will be kind of bored.....

 

[museksk8r]

As his number 1 fan from day 1 (everyone back then was ahhhing and oooing Joubert while I went for Stephane) I am happy to have him around competitively for a couple of more years at least.

I took to Stephane right away too from the very first time I saw him perform that guest exhibition at the 1997 World Championships in Lausanne as a wide-eyed wee lad thrilled to take the ice at such a large stage and in the same arena as all those world class skating stars. He was precious and drew my attention!

I can honestly say that I believe Stephane at 2000 Junior Worlds displayed a better grasp of choreography, musicality, and flow than Brian Joubert does now as a senior skater. Those qualities have always been Lambiel's forte, along with his spectacular spins and snappy, dance-like footwork. Joubert may have the more steady jumps, but IMO, that's the only edge he has over Lambiel. Even though I like them both for different reasons, Stephane will always be the one I prefer.

 

[libby]

New Update to his Official Site

Stephane has had a new update added to his official site today:

Ready to resume training
September 21, 2008

After having seen his doctor on Friday, Stéphane was allowed to resume training. He already had a good feeling at the shows in Japan after a break of several weeks. His return to the US is set for next week.

This week Stéphane has been working on the choreography of his programs with Antonio Najarro in Geneva. He will also go to Zürich to put the finishing touches to his short program with Salomé Brunner.

 

[Jaana]

Stephane has had a new update added to his official site today:

Ready to resume training
September 21, 2008

After having seen his doctor on Friday, Stéphane was allowed to resume training. He already had a good feeling at the shows in Japan after a break of several weeks. His return to the US is set for next week.

This week Stéphane has been working on the choreography of his programs with Antonio Najarro in Geneva. He will also go to Zürich to put the finishing touches to his short program with Salomé Brunner.

Wonderful, I´m very happy about these news and will be looking forward to his programmes!!!

 

[siberia82]

Stéphane might have to withdraw from his GP assignments :no:: http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081010&content_id=52896&vkey=ice_news

 

[ManyCairns]

Reading closely, I'm not sure there's any new info here. He's still saying he'll compete as long as he keeps getting better! The only new slant is maybe pointing out the obvious, that the time is getting short.

Of course, he may need to sit out the Grand Prix to be better healed for Worlds.

 

[KayMil01]

Perhaps he did this interview at the time when the 'news' first came out that he had the injury and might withdraw from the GP. he said he wants to go to Skate Canada.

I think Stephane is doing shows in italy right now, and I read on his message board that someone seen him skate his new LP there.

I'm hopeful he'll participate at SC.

Lovin' me some lambiel:thumbsup::agree:

 

[chuckm]

It's amazing that the injured Lambiel can still perform at shows and in tours. If he is doing his FS in the shows, then how injured can he be?

Even if he leaves out all the hard stuff, doing the shows doesn't do much to speed healing.

He was just back starting practices this week, from the article. That means he has only 3 weeks to get into competitive shape, and he can't afford to overdo because his muscle is still not healed. I would be surprised if he is ready for Skate Canada. He talks about making the GPF, so maybe he feels the field isn't so tough with Buttle retired, and he can get away with minimal content. Hmm. He might be in for a surprise....

 

[Snowgirl]

Last year he got away without a 3A and with numerous mistakes on other jumps, and still medaled in both of his events and made the GPF. Same for Weir in 2006 - he was totally unprepared, but medaled in both of his events and made the GPF. Lambiel can medal in SC nov, with Buttle gone - he may lose to Chan and Lysacek, but I doubt he'll lose to others until they have the skate of the life. Voronov may push him off the podium, but he is not that ready as well.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Last year he got away without a 3A and with numerous mistakes on other jumps, and still medaled in both of his events and made the GPF. Same for Weir in 2006 - he was totally unprepared, but medaled in both of his events and made the GPF. Lambiel can medal in SC nov, with Buttle gone - he may lose to Chan and Lysacek, but I doubt he'll lose to others until they have the skate of the life. Voronov may push him off the podium, but he is not that ready as well.

Wow, opinions of Lambiel!

It's his life. Not many male skaters can claim 2 World titles. For me, he has past his prime but I would never negate him. He could lose to many skaters this season, so what? He's in demand as a performer and arguably, the most appreciated performer. Voronov had a great skate in Gothenborg. Let's see if he can repeat that or even go better than that.

 

[chuckm]

Voronov can be quite inconsistent---good one time, not so good the next.

 

[Medusa]

Voronov had a great skate in Gothenborg. Let's see if he can repeat that or even go better than that.

Have you seen the new Voronov-sp? It's not good, to put it mildly (my opinion of course). I have the feeling that he has some profound problems connecting to the music. He might be always good for the podium, especially if others fail to land their jumps, because he just has good and solid jumps that include Quad and Triple Axel - but he needs to find ways to really perform. Yes, he is still young - but there are 5 to 10 juniors with better performance abilities.

I just hope that Lambiel is really ready if he decides to do the GP. He is one of my favourites, but I really hated it last year when he made the podium (and ultimately the GPF) with jump content and TES that would have given him the 6th place in the JGPF. Is that really fair to the young upcoming skaters like e.g. Kozuka who had a good 8 Triple program with minor deductions at Cup of Russia (compared to Lambiels 1 Quad and 3 Triple program)? I don't know.

Not many male skaters can claim 2 World titles.

That is true, and in 2006 he was brilliant. But 2005 was actually a very typical Lambiel performance, only 4 clean jumps I think (including the two Quads which probably gave him the victory), some popped ones, other minor mistakes... I think that he actually is quite an inconsistent skater, much more so than Joubert, Lysacek or Takahashi.

He has those two World titles - but he has no European title, which is quite interesting in my opinion. The last European who was World Champion and didn't become European Champion at some time was Sergej Volkov from the Soviet Union in 1975. Even Urmanov (who wasn't World Champion but Olympic Champion) managed to win one European Championship. This kind of proves Lambiel's inconsistency - the European Championship is 6 weeks before the Worlds, but till now he never managed to pull himself together for them.

I have this huge figure skating videos databank on my computer and I collect the most impressive and clean performances of the skaters. Mostly sorted after nationality, but Weir and Lambiel got their own file. And you know what's really difficult? To find clean performances by Lambiel, there aren't many. Even a clean sp is not his forte. I've got so many clean Weir performances (he was never absolutely inconsistent except for the season 06/07 and even then he produced clean shorts) - but there are very few clean Lambiel performances. I compare Lambiel a bit to Urmanov and Petrenko who also tended to have at least one major mistake or a few minor ones in their programs (and both of them became Olympic Champions and a consistent guy like Browning never did so maybe being incosistent is a good thing - I just think that in the long run people remember skaters like Browning). But Lambiel's artistry and performance level is of course outstanding, perhaps even unique.

And one last thing (I am not trying to bash Lambiel here - I do love the Zebra very much) - can he please not make such a huge fuss about this? It's the second icenetwork article that says "maybe - maybe not", he had several statements on his personal website. How about one statement: I got abductor problems, two weeks before Skate Canada I will tell you if I can skate or not. Or like Lysacek before Worlds - just say it if you really can't skate. But not this huge build-up.

 

[SailorGalaxia518]

Poor Lambiel, ever since winning the silver medal at the 2006 Olympics and then winning his 2nd gold medal at the 2006 Worlds, it's been pretty much a dismal performance up to and including the present except of course winning the 2007 Grand Prix Final.

Hopefully with a new coaching change and his recovery (hopefully) of his groin injury, this will turn around for Stephane