This is an interesting re-write of history. I'm guessing you really dislike Patrick Chan. The truth of the matter is that the skaters who most pushed the technical (jumping) side of skating forward following the 2010 Olympics was Chan. Prior to 2010 Chan was a young up-and-comer was still working on his technical arsenal. Per interviews with him, he had actually planned to learn a quad for that Olympic year, but was unable to due to the back injury that hampered him all of that season. But I digress. Sure, Chan was scoring relatively well in competition at that time due to his superb skating skills that really were (and are) second to none. But there were a lot of guys at that time that were competing at the elite level without a quad (e.g. the Olympic champion), and those who did have quads tended to be noticeably lacking in other important PCS areas (something of a holdover from the transition to IJS) so he was hardly dragging the field down.
Then, in 2011 he rewrote the rules of the game when he came out and nailed not one, but two quads in his LP, one of them a quad-triple. This technical superiority (at the time, nobody else in the field was doing this), along with his skating skills forced the competition to a new technical level. Was he always successful in landing his jumps over the next four years? Nope. But I'd argue that none of his victories were any more arguable than Hanyu's five-fall victory last season, head injury or not (I don't give pity points).
I just couldn't allow your misrepresentation of Chan's career and effect on the field to go unanswered.
As for Jin, the concerning thing is the judge's predilection for giving big PCS marks, deserved or not, to people with big technical content. They may start out separating the two when someone is a relative unknown, but it seems that changes as the judges get more familiar with them, whether there's been any noticeable improvement in other skating skills or not. It's not a problem that's unique to Jin.
Thanks for your opinion. But I have to state that I actually do like Patrick Chan's skating, and have always thought that he contributed a lot in bringing artistry in figure skating to a higher level. Perhaps it is my fault that I did not state my stance in this particular post, hence leading you to think that I dislike Patrick Chan. Let me make it clear this time. I absolutely adore his performance so I hope you would also stop accusing me of ad hominem.
However, I have to disagree with you on giving credits to Chan for pushing the sports on the technical sides. You have been in the forum for 12 years longer than me (WOW!!) and I am sure you have more experience in this sports than I do. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a quick research on the history of quad in figure skating dawned upon me that the ones who really pushed the sports to include Quads were people like Plushenko, Brian Joubert, Yagudin, etc.. It all began from Kurt Browning who landed it back in 1988. Yagudin landed two quads in 2002 Olympics, a quad-triple-double, and a solo Quad. Plushenko also included two. Quads have already been there since those times. It slowly became something so essential in the sport that in 2008 when Jeffrey won the World Championship without a quad, it sparked some interesting debate. Similarly in 2010 when Evan won the Olympics without a quad, the controversy had so much impact in the sports that it lead to the increase in Quad's BV. There are many other skaters who have already been attempting Quads in their programs (another good example is Takahashi), all had happened before Chan even started including Quad in his program. In addition, I think I have read articles where Patrick made his opinion clear that he sided with Jeffrey and Evan and he thought both of them deserved their medals because of their overall quality of the program even though they are a little behind technical wise. It seems like you have been following his career closely for quite sometime and you watch his interviews too, I'm pretty sure you are aware of this. =)
Although I agree that his performance is second to none during his era, but I also can't allow you to misrepresent Chan's effect on the field here.
He definitely pushed the sport forward, but only with his skating skills, and not technical wise. His increase in technical skills post Vancouver was a result of the efforts from the Quad pioneers and the consequence of the increase of BV values in Quads. He did not rewrite the rules of the game, he merely followed. So is the case with Javi and Hanyu and all the skaters that we are seeing these days.
I believe that competitive sport should be an activity that challenges the human physical limit. Compared to other sports in the Olympics, sometimes I encounter people asking me if figure skating and artistic gymnastics etc can really be TRULY considered as a sport because it requires human judgement. But I believe the fact that we are all gathering here, means we have the same answer in our mind. Figure skating is a sport, and it is a beautiful one.
From this perspective, I would like to see figure skating to be an activity that will encourage the skaters to keep challenge themselves physically so it is really, a sport! And it deserves to be included in the Olympics agenda. Hence this is why I think figure skating should be lead by skater, *ANY SKATER*, who will keep exploring the limit of the human body. Additionally, because figure skating is a
beautiful sport, it comes with an additional condition - the skater should also be able to present a beautiful performance that is aesthetically pleasing too.
In that sense, I think Patrick has done only half the job very well- the latter. His presence made a huge impact in the sport. Like what you said, there were many people with Quads who had noticeably poor presentation. What he had done to the sport is that he had put on pressures to other skaters to improve their presentation better so they can at least compete with him on the same level. And I like it when I see athletes play the catch up like this
That's competing and that's just the nature of sport.
Overtime, the field became even more interesting. I think the other skaters have realised that increasing their presentation could only allow them to be on par with Chan. It wasn't enough to beat him. Again, like what you said, his skating skills was second to none, so he has some points to cushion even when he doesn't deliver his best performance. Chan's Worlds'12 title over Denis Ten - I still feel bad for Denis but the one with higher points is the winner in this sport, so Denis can only admit defeat. *Awww poor Denis*
It's fine if this happens once a while. But just imagine if situation like this is were to happen over and over again, will it still be fun to watch? I certainly wouldn't find this interesting and I probably would change my mind thinking that figure skating might as well be considered as "a sporty art performance" rather than "an artistic sport". What happened next was that the other athletes stepped up and increase their TES so they wouldn't just only be able to compete with him
on the same level, but to actually
win him. Now the game is getting even more interesting!
This is why I think it is good to see people like Jin entering the field. It brings some fire on the ice. It puts some pressure on the rest of the field to play the catch up. That's competing. That's sport. Just writing this as I imagine how others react to his presence is already making me as a spectator so excited.
I don't particularly dislike any skater. And I don't give criticism just because I "dislike" someone. I just want to see more competitiveness in the sport so I think it is worth buying a ticket to the Worlds 2016 in Boston. Trust me, I actually hope that Patrick will actually increase his TES to beat Javi and Hanyu next season, or maybe in the World. It was quite disappointing when I read an interview with Patrick after what happened at NHK that he is "not going to change a thing". That's quite boring
https://sportymags.wordpress.com/20...terview-thoughts-about-yuzus-nhk-performance/
http://www.thestar.com/sports/skati...e-catching-up-to-do-in-barcelona-dimanno.html
Btw, your post is also an interesting re-write of history. :agree:
), sort of like all classical music in three movements: fast, slow, very fast. By a stroke of luck this was just for the thing for the skaters, too. Jump, jump, jump, rest, rest, rest (maybe a spin or two), jump, jump, jump. The whole world in perfect harmony. :yes:
