Men's Free Skate

[Doggygirl]

And this CCTV thing is like drugs. I don't know how I'll ever get work done....

AMEN. I really can't wait to see the score sheets. Oda was spinning SO fast in the air I couldn't tell anything about a 3 v. 4! What a great young talent!! (17, I think??) But good skate for Honda too.

What an AWESOME start to the season!!

DG

 

[emma]

Ok...i have to make myself stop by logging out....but just quick: If Weir can get it together physically and mentally, I just want to go on record saying I think I would really like this program clean...I particularly like the 'tano - toes' (that's what they are, right?), and although these may not be his 'original' spins, they look good imho.

I missed Oda....but will download! It's too bad given what we've seen so far that the Japanese men only have one Olympic berth and I assume only one world's too. Anyway, this was fun but gotta run.

 

[Mathman]

Oda skated his little pea-pickin' heart out! He's the male Mao Asada. This is the first international senior event for this junior world champion, right? How many men can japan send to the Olympics?

Editied to add: I see from Emma's post, only one That's because of Honda wthdrawing from Worlds, right?

 

[Vash01]

It is interesting that so many Japanese men are skating well this year, and not just in the jumps department. May be the Japanese ladies challenged them. The sad thing is only one of them can go to the Olympics. I hope they will send a different skater to worlds so that two of them will get to be on the world stage. My gut feeling is that they will send Honda unless he bombs. At least next year they should have more than one spot at worlds.

 

[XxSweetKissesxX]

Oh my lord, I hope that Johnny is OK, not just physically but mentally stable to carry out the rest of the season. I have this awful gut feeling that he is reverting back to the 2003 Nationals incident . Atleast he finished the program!

 

[blackrose050]

Oh my lord, I hope that Johnny is OK, not just physically but mentally stable to carry out the rest of the season. I have this awful gut feeling that he is reverting back to the 2003 Nationals incident . Atleast he finished the program!

I think the fact that he DID finish the program (horrible as it may have been) shows how far he's come since 2003. Apparently he injured himself on the very first jump, and skated the whole way through on the injury. That's pretty gutsy of him.

I hope he's ok, too.

 

[Vash01]

I hope Johnny's injury is not serious and I hope he does not rush back to training and competing. It is OK to miss the GP.

The injury time out may give him the opportunity to rest and reflect upon what kind of program he wants to skate. He has not sounded happy in his public comments about COP. Perhaps he should skate a program that he feels happy with. It could be with the same music or a different one. What is really important is that he enjoys skating to it.

The injury could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Vash

 

[Jaana]

I´m feeling sooo sad for Weir.... What a pity that he even got an injury. He sure has had bad luck and seems to have made some not so good choices for this season. Weir apparently has had nothing but problems because of the choreography. Actually I don´t understand all those problems. Didn´t he in past season have a freeskate that was CoP-friendly? Maybe he should go back to that and make just some little adjustments to get a higher lever for some elements? I would hope that till US Nationals the problems have been fixed in one way or another.

It looks like Weir is out of GPF... I´m though very, very glad for Sandhu!!! There has been so much negativity towards him, that a win like this was needed. I just hope that he will in future manage to skate well BOTH sp AND lp...

 

[rain]

Wow, Sandhu looked great. I can't believe he pulled that off again - coming from so far back to win it. Oh, for some consistency. I'll have to watch his program a few more times to decide if I really like it. He certainly performed it, but I found his music quite esoteric and lacking melody - that's going to be a very tough piece to pull off if he's ever having an off-competition.

Poor Buttle - that was a tough end to his program. I'm surprised the ref. didn't call it after he ripped his pants. All I could think of - and I'm sure all the audience and Buttle himself were thinking of after that point was whether or not that rip was going to extend upwards embarrasingly. Another beautiful David Wilson program. I look forward to seeing it develop as the season goes on.

Sawyer looked good as well.

Both of the Americans were off. Savoie looked like a shepherd in that outfit and his program lacked any and all sign of spark. And Weir had a meltdown. Good on him for finishing his skate, but I hope he wasn't seriously injured.

 

[Kateri]

Johnny.....

The word from Canada is that Johnny's sprained his ankle, and has his foot in a walking cast (whatever that is......).
I really wish people wouldn't talk about him wimping out and giving up on the program - you could see how much pain he was in. This is a minor competition, why should he go all-out to win and make the injury worse right before the Olys? That's crazy. I'd rather he'd given up after the jump where the injury occurred. He finished the program for pride, and gets my respect for it, even if I think it was maybe a bad idea.

Get well soon, Johnny!

 

[Doggygirl]

The word from Canada is that Johnny's sprained his ankle, and has his foot in a walking cast (whatever that is......).
I really wish people wouldn't talk about him wimping out and giving up on the program - you could see how much pain he was in. This is a minor competition, why should he go all-out to win and make the injury worse right before the Olys? That's crazy. I'd rather he'd given up after the jump where the injury occurred. He finished the program for pride, and gets my respect for it, even if I think it was maybe a bad idea.

Get well soon, Johnny!

At the time I made a comment that he "quit" on his program, nobody knew why. That was during live coverage. There was no way to tell whether it was a physical need to do what he did, or a mind thing. I'm very sorry that he is injured. I think this has been a frustrating start to the season for him. And he is one of by faves so I am really for him. I did not intend my comments to come off sounding like he was a "quitter" in a broad sense. I was just reporting what I saw right on the spot - better words would have been that he stopped skating his program, then started skating it again, then stopped skating his program. Hope I didn't offend anyone.

DG

 

[Ptichka]

Here is what USFSA says about Johnny:

Weir was sporting a half-cast on his foot after his skate. During his program, it was obvious something was wrong but not even his coach Priscilla Hill realized that something had popped when he landed his first jump - a triple toe.

Twice, Weir appeared to forget what he was supposed to do next and just glided around the ice.

"He couldn't take the pain, but he didn't want to get off. It was like a tug-of-war," Hill explained, noting Weir was unable to move his ankle joint laterally after he removed his skate.
Still, he managed to get triple flip and triple Salchow combos done after the mishap and accumulate 107.59 points for the free skate, 177.59 overall.

What rotten luck... Though I do have to wonder if this happened because he didn't spend enough time practising the jumps.

 

[76olympics]

This has been a nerve-wracking season, thus far. Johnny has seemed downcast since the competitions began. I think he had a lot of confidence pre-trial in the Tarosova program and it really rattled him when it didn't please the powers the be. I just hope he can heal and get some distance from the stress factor (I know, this will be quite a feat in an Olympic year. It's not the easiest time to be nochalant.)

He didn't appeal to me right away-but I have grown more and more fond of him in the past year. I like his honesty in interviews. I noticed that he commented on the flower girl's dress in K and C after the SP and I thought that was a nice gesture.

 

[Frau Muller]

That's it! Time for Johnny to ditch that crappola of a program, along with his 'aloof liberal artiste' demeanor. Enough is enough. He's too talented to remain nonchalant.

 

[Kateri]

That's it! Time for Johnny to ditch that crappola of a program, along with his 'aloof liberal artiste' demeanor. Enough is enough. He's too talented to remain nonchalant.

What's wrong with being an aloof liberal artiste?

k. (bad programmes, now, are another matter...)

 

[Mathman]

Well, we've seen Joubert, Weir, Lysacek, VanderPerren, Honda, Takahashi, Buttle, Sandhu and Goebel. Anything can happen, and we haven't seen Lambiel yet. But so far, if Plushenko doesn't win the gold medal in Turin I'll eat my hat.

MM

 

[Dee4707]

But so far, if Plushenko doesn't win the gold medal in Turin I'll eat my hat.

MM

And if he doesn't, I will be right here to remind you of that.

I am so sad about Johnny!! We need to send some good vibes his way.

Johnny has seemed downcast since the competitions began. I think he had a lot of confidence pre-trial in the Tarosova program and it really rattled him when it didn't please the powers the be.

76Olympics, I agree. His attitude from last year to this year is really quite the change.

Dee

 

[jan]

This past weekend was the first time I had the opportunity to see Johnny Weir skate live. I always admired his skating on TV. I must say though that in person his run of the blade, turning ability etc. is not in the same league as SAndu or Buttle. I watched all of his practices. I was wondering whether that was just this year or he always was like that.
I have to say that Sandu is without question the most talented of all the men with regards to jumps, programs, and quality. He is certainly a natural in all departments.
My new favorite is Oda. He is supremely gifted and his jumps are textbook perfect. He has a great personality as well.
One last comment...Please bring back fast footwork in all of the disciplines. If I see one more slow twizzle and laboured footwork sequence I'll scream. It is destroying the flow of the programs.

 

[rain]

One last comment...Please bring back fast footwork in all of the disciplines. If I see one more slow twizzle and laboured footwork sequence I'll scream. It is destroying the flow of the programs.

I couldn't agree me. This has happened due to the push for difficulty in the footwork passes as all skaters are trying to reach category three.... however, a lot of them are trying to jam too much in at the expense of the overall look and suitability of the steps to the program. And I hear you on the twizzles - the number of skaters who can hardly do them is painful.

 

[slutskayafan21]

The Japanese men should have went 1-2 here IMO. Honda was severly underscored on PCS scores in both the short and long programs. Oda also was underscored in the short. Awesome to see Honda skating so well so soon into his comeback. Oda has alot of potential. Unfortunately I think both will be looking up to Takahashi at the Japaense nationals and he will get the lone Japanese berth. It is too bad all 3 could not go.

I am dissapointed in Buttle, I expected alot more of him, but everybody has an off outing, hopefully he picks up from here. I think working on the quad might hurt his already suspect consistency on the triple jumps though. I was glad to see Sandhu come back from a rough short program outing, to do such a strong long program, however I hope he doesnt delude himself, he will never get away with a short program like that in a stacked field, and his one mistake in the long program is a worrisome syndrome to because he popped the triple axel to a single rather than rotating it. Under the new system much better to rotate and fall than pop jumps, especialy the harder ones with higher base value, like a triple axel, and popping into singles is a bad habit of his.