To be honest, I wasn't expecting Mikhail to have back to back great skates, nor did I really want him to at this point in the season. The technical content and demands of his programs are so great, significantly greater than in prior seasons, and he and his coaches wisely seem to be taking the patient and steady approach, not expecting perfection right away but working slowly toward making incremental improvements with each competition. It would not have boded well for him to have peak performances now. CoC was a huge step forward (yeah, his sp is already among my all time favorites), and he did have some good moments in the fs too. Despite the pops, he totally deserved to win overall. But it's not fun seeing the negative posts. I guess that means he's "arrived" so to speak, and people are starting to see him as a threat to their favorites? I just don't get the incessant whining that Mikhail's scores are due to the Russian federation holding him up, as opposed to his hard work and technical and skating qualities. (E.g., there's one particularly bitter and mean-spirited poster, hard to miss unfortunately, who begrudges every success Mikhail has -- oh he only won due to others' mistakes-- hello, isn't that often the case, even with proven champions like Yuzuru and Javier?? -- and who resorts to personal attacks in reaction to the judges' perceived inflated scores. He/she even belittled Mikhail's saying he was satisfied with his effort in the fs at CoR and suggested that he won't amount to much bc he doesn't have a fighter's mentality and doesn't want it badly enough. Come on, really???). I mean, how does that work exactly? Did the Russian fed hold a gun to the heads of the judges at both CoR and CoC and convince them to inflate his scores? Also, I get that some may not like his programs or skating style, but their personal biases often prevent them from seeing or appreciating what the judges see, like his superb skating skills, spinning, and jumping technique, which are among the best in the world. One last point to my vent (sorry
) People rightly complain about reputation judging all the time, but Mikhail doesn't have a big enough reputation yet on the international scene for that to be a factor with him. No, the judges simply punish him when he misses (as they should) and give him credit where credit is due.
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