Most Disappointing Moments of Last Season

[Dee4707]

This is a spin off of most surpising moments of last year thread. Here is mine..........I was so disappointed when I found out that Sasha C. had changed coaches. Now mind you I don't claim to know all that there is to know about the situation. I think her family moving clear across the country said a whole lot about the sincerity of the coaching change to Tatiana. When I was at Skate Canada I saw a lot of Sasha and Tatiana together and they looked OK. I am just disappointed in that change but since I like Sasha's skating I still support her.

My next disappointment was Mishin and Evgeni either not knowing the rules or just pushing them aside in the Grand Prix. What a disappointment. I just hope they know why he lost.

Dee

 

[lavender]

I don't know but I'm not disappointed in anyone. I'm not really a Sasha fan but I think things worked out for Sasha with Robin. I think there was more stress for her with TT for whatever reason. However I would be really concern about letting TT go because of the programs she comes up with. TT made Sasha strengths stand out but truthfully Sasha really couldn’t handle it. It was too much for her to do all the jumps and all that intricate choreography. It happens to the best of them. Falling on jumps won’t win it for you no matter how intricate the choreography is. It wasn’t helping Michelle either so she focused on the jumps, speed and not so much the in betweens.

 

[Kasey]

disappointed that Yagudin had to officially retire from eligible competition...I would have liked to see him compete under the CoP....

kasey

 

[berthes ghost]

- Fumie's bad placement at worlds
- If I lived thru G&P's "reign of terror", I guess I'll live thru Plushy's too, but I won't enjoy it.
- Security (or lack there of) at Dortmund
- Dortmund. Gosh, is having worlds in a city that's not a pit too much to ask?
- N&K and T&M. Oh, I cry for the great days of Russian skating of old. Are they sending out robots now?
-"Quadrophenia: the kids are alright". I'm sorry, was there anyone who wasn't injured this season?

 

[Dee4707]

disappointed that Yagudin had to officially retire from eligible competition...I would have liked to see him compete under the CoP....

kasey

Yes Kasey, that was also a big disappointment!!

Dee

 

[KMK0902]

* Yagudin's retirement
* Sandu's melt down in Dortmund
* Dubreil&Lauzon's inability to move up


That just about sums it up. Worlds was so bad, I didn't even save the tapes, one disapointment after another.

K

 

[euterpe]

Jenny Kirk's performances at Worlds--all 3 of them
Matt Savoie's dismal Worlds placement
Kwan's QR at Worlds
Ryan Jahnke finishing off the podium at 4CC
Tim Goebel's disastrous Nationals
Angela Nikodinov
Evan Lysacek's silver at Junior Worlds

 

[sk8m8]

Sasha Abt's retirement and the feeling that he never did get to live up to his potential and medal at worlds. He is a marvelous skater who was plagued by injury with a capital P. His lyric style and beautiful skating will be missed.

As for disappointment mentioned about Angela in a post above...I was a little disappointed, but mostly proud that she even showed up for Nats. Her rehab period was just barely over and most people to not recognize that her shoulder injury was career threatening. I hope this year's "disappointment" will give way to next year's triumph, lest she end up in my "sasha abt regrets" (see above)

 

[Ximena]

Puttin aside performances, I was disspointed/sad about

- Yagudin retirement, I'm not a fan of him, at all. I was sad because of why he retired, if he had retired just because he felt that he did everything he wanted to, that would be good, but that he had to because of his injury, that was really sad. Skaters like Alexei, are not the kind that appear every season...or every 4 years. (I think we all should be very lucky that Plush and Yags appeared at the same time, the way they pushed each other made increased the level of the sport).

- Ilia's coach dying, that was soo sad. Ilia looked up to him as a father figure and Mr Rusakov was almost eveyrthing for him, that was very sad.

- Alexander Abt retirement, I knew it was going to happen but so sad that he never got any big title, although he did retired as the Russian Champ.

- Irina's illness, that broke my heart but I'm so happy she is recovering.

- B&K split, I haven't heard Kratz side, but after all those years being together, it does seemed things went wrong.

- Victoria leaving Oleg, don't know what she did it, Oleg made her a very good skater, she got wonderful results and then she moved to Elena and din't work and now with Kudriatsev and with all that she lost a whole season.

- Men injuries: Plush, Takeshi and Tim, the 2003 World podium and the only one left when the season was over is Plush and he is far far from being healthy. Plus all the other injuries Lambiel, Ilia etc.

I have more but that's what I remember now.

 

[miffy_1306]

Lang & Tchernyshev withdrawing from US Nationals. (& Peter now not having a partner)

Alexei Yagudin & Sasha Abt retiring.

 

[sarahmistral]

I don't know but I'm not disappointed in anyone. I'm not really a Sasha fan but I think things worked out for Sasha with Robin. I think there was more stress for her with TT for whatever reason. However I would be really concern about letting TT go because of the programs she comes up with. TT made Sasha strengths stand out but truthfully Sasha really couldn’t handle it. It was too much for her to do all the jumps and all that intricate choreography. It happens to the best of them. Falling on jumps won’t win it for you no matter how intricate the choreography is. It wasn’t helping Michelle either so she focused on the jumps, speed and not so much the in betweens.

I respectfully disagree with you on that last point, Lavender; it's true that the choreography laden, 6-7 jump programs, when you factor in the nerves, are hard to handle, but I think that skaters of their caliber, if they are to make any significant artistic contributions to the sport as far as exquisitely choreographed programs that people watch and enjoy twenty years from now--and Michelle and Sasha are just the ones with the gifts to do so--have to up the ante in the choreography department as much, or more so, than in the jump department. If you look at Michelle's experience with intricately choreographed programs, yeah, it was more difficult to land all the jumps, but she eventually managed it and gave performances to remember, for their speed and clean jumps but also--and to me, especially--for their choreography. As beautiful as both ladies are, being a huge fan of dance and loving to dance myself, I really can't appreciate programs that are watered-down choreographically to the point of resembling laundry lists of elements to check off. And if there's a little bobble, or even a fall, which has happened to the best of them, so be it; I can still watch the program and admire an excellent step sequence or so many gorgeous in-betweens. Take the opposite scenario: a watered-down program with one or more bobbles or falls; YAWN.

Sarah

 

[Ptichka]

Sarah, ITA with you. Did you check the Protopopovs thread? It mentions many things you have talked about.

 

[mzheng]

disappointed that Yagudin had to officially retire from eligible competition...I would have liked to see him compete under the CoP....

kasey

This was my disappointment as well.

 

[sarahmistral]

just read & saved Protopopovs' letter...

They're ADORABLE, not to mention right on target!!! I love their humility and feeling of unity among figure skaters, how they emphasize that figure skaters are one big world family, and that the only rival is one's own nerves and demons on the ice.

I'm going to write them a gushy fan letter now

Sarah

 

[hockeyfan228]

* Abt continuing to have injuries, having to retire, and not having been offered a contract for Stars on Ice immediately upon leaving eligible skating.

* Klimkin's injury and withdrawal from Worlds

* Appalling judging at Worlds

* Cohen and Sokolova showing so much improvement in the World qualis, and leaving all of it out of their LPs

* Plushenko, Lambiel, and Cohen doing fabulous performances in the World qualis and having none of them on tape

* Program Elements scores under CoP in GP's

* Buttle withdrawing from GPF and not qualifying for Worlds

* Totmianina and Marinin using "Cotton Club" during GP instead of being able to hone "Art on Ice" all season

* Denkova/Staviyski losing all year to Navka/Kostomarov

* Nikodinov's "comeback"

 

[boggartlaura]

-Sasha's retirement
-Jeff withdrawing from the GPF and not qualifying for worlds
-L/T withdrawing from Nats and then splitting
-Ilya withdrawing from worlds
-Pang/Tong and Winkler/Lohse getting 6.0's

 

[NansXOXOX]

Lang & Tchernyshev withdrawing from US Nationals. (& Peter now not having a partner)

Alexei Yagudin & Sasha Abt retiring.

Ditto and ditto.

At least most of the others are still competing and whatever disappointments they (and we) had this season can be overcome next season. I feel very fortunate to be able to still see Alexei skate in SOI and hold out a lot of hope for Peter to find a partner so that he can skate *anywhere!*

Nan

 

[lavender]

I respectfully disagree with you on that last point, Lavender; it's true that the choreography laden, 6-7 jump programs, when you factor in the nerves, are hard to handle, but I think that skaters of their caliber, if they are to make any significant artistic contributions to the sport as far as exquisitely choreographed programs that people watch and enjoy twenty years from now--and Michelle and Sasha are just the ones with the gifts to do so--have to up the ante in the choreography department as much, or more so, than in the jump department. If you look at Michelle's experience with intricately choreographed programs, yeah, it was more difficult to land all the jumps, but she eventually managed it and gave performances to remember, for their speed and clean jumps but also--and to me, especially--for their choreography. As beautiful as both ladies are, being a huge fan of dance and loving to dance myself, I really can't appreciate programs that are watered-down choreographically to the point of resembling laundry lists of elements to check off. And if there's a little bobble, or even a fall, which has happened to the best of them, so be it; I can still watch the program and admire an excellent step sequence or so many gorgeous in-betweens. Take the opposite scenario: a watered-down program with one or more bobbles or falls; YAWN.

Sarah

I agree that Michelle can do them (well she use to). I am starting to wonder if she can do them now and I'm a big Michelle fan. If she comes back I hope she proves me wrong because I truly miss her detail oriented programs.
I still don't know if Sasha can do more in betweens with a 6-7 triple jump performance.

 

[shine]

- Denkova/Staviyski not able to even win the FD at both Euros AND Worlds against the Pink Panter
- Ota not making the world team
- Lambiel not medalling at Worlds - should have so been 2nd in the free skate
- Klimkin withdrawing from Worlds
- Jahnke not medalling at 4cc - should have been FIRST in the free skate
- Sandhu's complete melt down after a fantastic QR at Worlds
- Savoie getting dumped by judges - doubt he'll ever make world team again
- Lee/Faustino's split before actually having skated in any competition

 

[Becca84]

Alexei's retirement & ABC not showing his goodbye skate (Though I'm so glad he's still able to do SOI!)

L&T not finishing at Nationals & their split (although I'm happy for Naomi).

B&K splitting.

Timothy's horrible season.

The U.S pairs :sheesh:

& sorry to say, but this yr I regretted that Michael hasn't retired. I hope he can either bring things together, or that he'll just move on. He'd be much better in SOI or shows, IMO...