The Big Surprise at Worlds

[soogar]

I think Todd is American as apple pie with his clean , neat as a pin masculine skating and textbook spins , jumps and footwork. BTW, I love Todd's skating so I'm not disparaging him but Todd is also very American in his interpretation of his music. He picks a sountrack and goes with it. He's very masculinely conscious.

 

[PrincessLeppard]

As I see the European Style for Men is basically front loaded quads and triple combos
Joe

That is EVERY male skaters style. I try to look beyond it, into the fluidity of movement that comes with understanding and skating to the music. Klimkin does this very well, but so do a lot of other European skaters, as well as skaters from other parts of the world.

Laura

 

[Matt]

Joesitz, that's Russian style (not that I complain about that). Petr Barna was very well liked in the early 90's and always got good scores from the judges without a 3axel (though he did have a quad).

Did he really?! That surprising for a skater that early in the '90s. Did he do it in competition often. I apologise because Petr Barna was before I really started watching and following figure skating (plus I was only 5 when he won the Olympic bronze at Albertville!)

As to the European style debate and who is a good example of it, I give you four words: Kevin van der Perren

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Apologies to anyone for putting the European style into a front load jump fest, especially since I myself, made exceptions for two diverse skaters and from reading onward I could add van de Perren also. It's just when the subject came up all I could envisage was male skaters circling around the rink after posing to their theme music and all very cautiously executing very wonderful quads and triple combos. The music became totally background music. BTW, this is a good summer topic.

Again, I apologize, not all European male skaters are like that.

Back to topic: I think there may be a surprise in the Men's Division and also in the Pairs Division. Much depends on faults by the top contenders.

Joe

 

[soogar]

Matt: He won the bronze medal at the Olympics b/c he did a quad as his first jump in the long program. The quad was two footed but back then , any quad attempt was something and a two footed quad definitely counted. The hardest combo Barna did was a 3ltz/3loop and b/c he didn't have a 3 axel, he needed a quad to place on the podium.

In the early 90's, most of the male skaters did 3lz-3toe as their combination in the short program. Viktor Petrenko was the only skater who was very consistent with the 3axel-3toe and he did this in his short and long program. I think Viktor won because of this technical achievement and he really set the bar for all the other guys b/c after he won in 1992 ,the 3 axel-3toe became a requirement until it was surpassed by the quad-triple.

Kurt Browning learned to do a quad b/c at the time he didn't have a 3lutz and he needed another jump to compensate. Once Kurt got a 3lutz, he stopped doing the quad (this is per Kurt , not my theory). In the 1992 Olympics, besides Barna, Alexei Urmanov did a quad as well. If I remember correctly Alexei's quad was clean.

 

[Matt]

In the 1992 Olympics, besides Barna, Alexei Urmanov did a quad as well. If I remember correctly Alexei's quad was clean.

If that's true, then the commentators at Nagano were confused, because IIRC, they gave the first quad landed at the Olympics to Guo Zhengxin of China (who was the first to do two quads at the Olys). I know Ilia Kulik did a quad and he was the first man to win the Olys with a quad.

But this is getting off topic...

 

[soogar]

I'm watching the tape right now and Alexei just touched his hand down (like a hand skim) so it didn't count. However according to commentator Scotty, when asked by Verne Lundquist if it counted, said "That's the closest anyone has come this evening to landing it. It will count." Alexei skated before Barna though but Barna's was two footed.

 

[2WhereUR]

Hey it's the worlds things usually happen. I think having Irina Slutskaya there will be surprising. She's been out all year, so who knows what she can do. And then all the Japanese girls. And there is always Sasha Cohen.