For me, Takahashi's FS was boring. Why? It seems as though he has a limited repertoire of style and his programs all look same-ish, from facial expression, gesture to his costumes, even the color is almost always predominantly black in the last few years.
Sweetheart, are you sure you have a colour TV? La Strada, Mambo, Blues, etc. costumes have a little or nothing in common. Even his hair style depends on the costume he wears. The same facial expressions in different programs? Oh, that's easy to find- go on youtube and search for "Patrick Chan".
It's getting boring- to call everyone who disagrees with you some dumb close minds who knows nothing. It rather describes you well than you opponents since ending up with name calling is your best "weapon" left.
I'd bet Fusar-Poli/Margalio over Anisina/Peizerat was not especially welcomed by general audience, and Krylova/Ovsyannikov over Anissina/Peizerat in Helsninki-1999 was definitely not. I also remember a lot of booing then a flawed performance by Berezhnaya/Sikhaurlidze beat clean Shen/Zhao, but I am not sure if it was WC or not. Ditto for Totmyanina/Marinin vs. Shen/Zhao, at very least in Dortmund (S/Z won the LP, but were 4th in the SP, so they had to settle for silver, despite being quite magical that night).
Besides, I believe the reason for the booes was the fact that up till Patrick's skate Joubert was ranked third. The moment his marks were announced Joubert was kicked off the podium.
You know, the French but in fact an international audience was not some drunk football hooligans who occasionally dropped in to watch the FS Worlds. They realized that Brian lost the medal when they saw his scores and his name under Hanyu. Brian even had to show some gestures to cool people down. The booing that took place after Chan's skating was about the unfair judgement that put him on the 1st place. Your reference to pairs and dances is irrelevant. I think it was quite obvious that I was talking about Men's event, not about some diva-ish dances, especially of that era. But even then I doubt that skaters were actually booed on the podium. In Men's event Chan is the only up to now who is keeping that record. But you don't have to be upset much. He said that he didn't actually hear anything, just some noise in the background. What a good middle finger to the paying customers.
In Japan, Takahashi is certainly more famous than Hanyu and he's heavily favored by the JSF simply because he was the best shot at world/olympic medals.. But the international judges seem to have little trust in Takahashi anymore. The results at WC (almost perfect Takahashi <= Hanyu w/ one fall) has proven that the ISU is going to promote Hanyu thereafter. Even the JSF should know Takahashi's brand is falling in its value. They don't have much choice.
Pardon but your speculations don't correspond to the facts. Takahashi was more than generously marked at NHK by international judges (with no chanadian as a competitor there) where he got the record score in SP this season. Hanyu didn't actually have super succesful performances and he got partly lucky that he won Cup of Russia. His skating in LP at Worlds, and only there, was a surprise for everyone, but a fair and honestly expected surprised. JSF doesn't have any reasons to drop Dai as #1 of Japan due to a very simple explanation- Chan vs. Hanyu simple doesn't work for Japan favour at Olympics. Because in this case Chan obviously has an advantage over a J-teen. Basically, the only one who win in this case would be Chanada, and win in advance. That is not the scenario that JSF wants in Sochi. You know. In case you don't- the JSF official Yoshiko Kobayashi said: "Not only competing to win by himself but Daisuke is always trying to show his good performance for audience. He would not like them to see a fixed game at all. And also Daisuke knows that he will compete with Chan to give a boost to the figure skating world." (translation by Dai forum). I would add that the comment about "fixed game" is quite a hint, if not a snark for that indirect language.
I think that record is held by Trixie Schuba at the 1971 World Championships in Lyon.
Janet Lynn won the free skate, but was only fifth in figures and did not make the podium. The audience booed so loud and so long that eventually the French official (legendary pairs skater Pierre Brunet) had to tell Janet Lynn to go out onto the the ice and take a little bow and tell the crowd to stop booing.
(The upshot of this was, the ISU changed the scoring system. Just saying...
)
Some kids around were not even in a project in 1971 so I can't possibly remember that incident. But it's indeed on youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzvtjbcv-Cs#t=2m07 Nice to hear that the reason why the changed the system was make a better connection to the audience, and we know who did it better at Worlds-12. But I am not so optimistic about possible changes. What I know about David-oldboy, if he becomes the next ISU boss, it will be ISU=Skate Canada with the secrecy of judging in apply. What I don't get the most is what's the point. The system that they introduced after SLC is not working, the popularity of the sport is declining rapidly. And yet David&Co will definitely keep it till death. ISU officials remind me of directors of Soviet plants- the system doesn't work, it doesn't bring any profits but they stick with it just becuase they believe the system is best! Well, the next WOG host country definitly has some expertise in destroying Soviet economy plants. But knowing that they harness horses slowly but drive fast, I guess now they are still at the stage of thinking to move their butts to the stables or not.
