Hi there. I just got back from Vancouver where I attended the men's short program and thought some of you might be interested in some of my impressions.
First off, the crowd was really supportive of all the skaters, which was great to see. Of course Patrick Chan and Vaughn Chipeur got the loudest applause, but all of the contenders had significant cheering sections — and not just from their home countries. There were a lot of partial standing ovations for those who performed really well, and a lot of commiseration with the few who imploded.
Overall, it was a really well-skated event. It was almost five hours long in total and the quality in all the flights was pretty good. The first skater of note was Amodio from France. He had a really great night and stood out amongst the early skaters. Then, of course, Plushenko in the second flight had a great program. His jumps were letter perfect but I noticed he surprisingly did not carry great speed through the footwork sequences. His spins, as always were good, not fantastic.
I know enough about skating that I explained a lot of stuff to the woman sitting beside me who wasn't that knowledgeable. She did not know the judging system and I explained that the skaters accumulate points, rather than having a perfect score they're aiming for. I told her during the first flight that the top guys would likely hit around 90 — which turned out to be extremely prophetic. It was very helpful in the arena to have two large screens that, while the skater performed, displayed what their personal best score for the short program for this season was. It gave the crowd a good general idea right off the bat whether the scores were good or bad. Also, after Plushenko skated, there was an obvious score to shoot for. I would venture to guess that many in the arena were like the woman sitting beside me in how much they understand about the scoring system etc., but there was little dissatisfaction with the scores or placements, which I also thought were pretty accurate.
The skater I thought most gifted in the scoring was Lambiel, who had two pretty major jump errors, yet still finds himself in the thick of things. He was very entertaining, but the judges were generous. All three of the Japanese skaters were impressive, with Takahashi the one who really performed his program out to the audience the best. I can understand now why Kozuka doesn't get the highest scores — he really didn't reach out to the audience during his program and when you're reaching into the top tier that makes a difference.
Joubert looked shell-shocked by his skate. Verner had a similar meltdown, and Abbott looked pretty devastated. These three were a shock.
I had all my fingers and toes crossed for Chan, and while he didn't totally self-destruct, in such a well-skated event you could tell by his face he wasn't happy with his skate. He looked relaxed beforehand, but was only doing double axels in the warm-up, which made me wonder. He was very gracious to the crowd, who were all behind him, in spite of his disappointment.
My favourite skate of the night was actually Lysacek. He put his whole heart out there on the ice with this one and the audience could feel it. I thought after his skate he might be in first, despite no quad.
I felt bad for Brezina. He was the last to skate, and after Abbott finished a lot of the crowd got up and left. Those that were left loved him. His jumps were gorgeous and he skated beautifully. This was the one skater's marks booed by the crowd. Everyone thought he had scored higher. My general impression was that he had as well, though I think his footwork may have been easier than some of the top guys — I have not looked at the protocols so can't say for sure.
Of course, once again, I haven't seen that much of Amodio. Maybe he's had skates that great before.
