US Team: 4CCs and Worlds (updated)

[CoyoteChris]

I was at both. I would have to say that for Nathan's performance, I didn't feel any magic. I would probably say I was amazed, astonished, happy to think that maybe we have someone who can compete at the highest level on the world stage, happy for Nathan (and Raf!)...Riverdance was just in a whole other realm. The audience was "in it" from the first notes, and the audience's excitement just kept building and building as the program kept building and building. By the time Jason was getting to the end of the program, the audience was having a hard time staying in its seat! What did Scott Hamilton say, "They're going to have to close this building down for repairs after this program is over, cos the audience is going to blow the roof off". And that was about it. Loud? OMG! Dang it all, I'm getting excited again just typing about it!

When I watched Riverdance for the 500th time a while ago, I noticed again that you can see in the first few rows (and it's a little hard to see beyond that) that many of the people are smiling throughout the whole program. And the applause and cheering at the end were deafening. The icing on the cake was that the marks were such good marks too...Ok, thank you for allowing me to relive that memory! :scard7:

The magic of Riverdance is easy to describe. I could sit here and write 1,000 words about it and more. Nathan's magic is much harder to describe. Here is a guy who was seriously injured. His artisty IN PERSON many who were there agreed is coming along...sure, he is no Jason but he has improved. He is trying. Maybe the magic was/is the possibility that he could blow the roof off of US men's figure skating if he was mostly clean.....and blow the roof he did. If he stays consistant, Hanyu will have to look over his shoulder. I am a Hanyu fan, but YU better take care....there seems to be so many young guns coming up the ranks....say, who was the last Ladies Oly Champion again?????

 

[Arriba627]

Nathan's magic is much harder to describe. Here is a guy who was seriously injured. His artisty IN PERSON many who were there agreed is coming along.

Good point - his magic is more intangible. I think once his ballet training kicks in and starts to shine through, his artistry is going to be awesome. And overcoming his injury is truly inspirational!

 

[Tavi...]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences! Arriba, what a great description of Riverdance! I think one reason the video went viral must have been that the excitement you guys felt in person really comes through in the video - partly because Scott himself gets so excited and narrates what's happening.

I think....my appreciation of Nathan is intellectual - he's a great competitor, he's doing amazing things, he's made huge strides in his presentation and consistency since nationals.

But Jason...he reminds me somehow of Joakim Noah - a fierce competitor, yeah, but with a lot of heart.

 

[yuzushenko]

I feel like Mariah and Karen are both being a little underestimated - if either skates well, I see no reason why they shouldn't score around the same level as Maria Sotskova. It is the first Worlds for all 3, and both Karen and Maria are a little rough in regards to having world-class choreography, though both sell it well (and both struggle with underrotations). A clean Mariah, with the attention to detail in her programs and her skating skills, spin quality, etc., is really quite honestly better than Ashley, and could podium under the right circumstances.

Or are we just assuming Mariah and Karen will be lowballed in PCS because reputation?

yep that's pretty much it tbh

we have to be realistic here

why would reputation suddenly not be a factor at this specific worlds? gotta be practical about our hopes

you're right, mariah is a better skater than ashley, i think both karen and mariah have better SS and choreography than many of the top skaters russian or otherwise yet reputation unfortunately precedes them. that's just the way it is sadly, there's nothing fans can do to change that except show our distaste at the scoring if we're actually at a live competition like how they boo'd at the judges for putting madison and evan 2nd..

 

[begin]

Can I just say that I'm super excited for 4cc? It's looking to be a great competition for American skaters

Thank you all for sharing your experiences! Arriba, what a great description of Riverdance! I think one reason the video went viral must have been that the excitement you guys felt in person really comes through in the video - partly because Scott himself gets so excited and narrates what's happening.

I think....my appreciation of Nathan is intellectual - he's a great competitor, he's doing amazing things, he's made huge strides in his presentation and consistency since nationals.

But Jason...he reminds me somehow of Joakim Noah - a fierce competitor, yeah, but with a lot of heart.

......bc Jason Brown's jumping is as ugly as Joakim Noah's jumper??

I guess it's fortunate that figure skating doesn't have anything equivalent to a freethrow lmao

 

[Mrs. P]

......bc Jason Brown's jumping is as ugly as Joakim Noah's jumper??

I guess it's fortunate that figure skating doesn't have anything equivalent to a freethrow lmao

Another GS poster said Jason is more like Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs. Nathan Chen could potentially be LeBron, not as far as GOAT (Nathan needs a lot more comps under his belt), but I think their technical-driven styles are similar.

I compared him to Stephen Curry mainly cause of the underdog aspect in his early career, but Steph is two-time MVP and three-point king, now, so I agree Tony Parker is a better example

Actually can find this.

I wrote my analogy first (http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/sh...gure-Skating&p=1564441&viewfull=1#post1564441) and you can see the responses below. (including CDG, which was really good! http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/sh...gure-Skating&p=1564916&viewfull=1#post1564916)

 

[ice coverage]

... Quite honestly, a lot of the hype and endless fluff on NBC turned me off - it's like they're trying to will Nathan into being a star in order to revive interest in the sport and bring in higher ratings.

My two cents:

I am fine with NBC trying to revive interest in figure skating and to bring in higher ratings.

Higher ratings obviously could lead to increased coverage of the sport, which I would consider to be a good thing.

Going into Nats, NBC did not need to "will" Nathan into being a star.
Nathan already had shown himself to be a star of the GPF. Outstanding competitive results in Marseilles + a very pleasant off-ice demeanor there.

If/when other U.S. skaters "step up" to the extent that Nathan has, I would be fine with NBC promoting them heavily as well.

NBC capitalized on Nathan's potential to make history at Nats. And Nathan delivered. All good, IMO.

 

[Tavi...]

My two cents:

I am fine with NBC trying to revive interest in figure skating and to bring in higher ratings.

Higher ratings obviously could lead to increased coverage of the sport, which I would consider to be a good thing.

Going into Nats, NBC did not need to "will" Nathan into being a star.
Nathan already had shown himself to be a star of the GPF. Outstanding competitive results in Marseilles + a very pleasant off-ice demeanor there.

If/when other U.S. skaters "step up" to the extent that Nathan has, I would be fine with NBC promoting them heavily as well.

NBC capitalized on Nathan's potential to make history at Nats. And Nathan delivered. All good, IMO.

My response to NBCs coverage was clearly different than yours.

 

[el henry]

Can I just say that I'm super excited for 4cc? It's looking to be a great competition for American skaters



......bc Jason Brown's jumping is as ugly as Joakim Noah's jumper??

I guess it's fortunate that figure skating doesn't have anything equivalent to a freethrow lmao

Okay, I've read a posts from lot of folks who would probably criticize Jason for crossing the street too slowly, but this just makes no sense.

"Ugly" jumps? Ugly???

Doesn't have jumps, yes. Doesn't rotate jumps, maybe. But for ugly jumps, there are about 18 skaters in front of Jason (most of them scrunching themselves into ugly positions and throwing themselves into the air to revolve a quad.)

lmao, to coin a phrase (and one I usually scorn because it has no meaning. But I am overcome with the irony gene here )

 

[deedee1]

Nothing for Marissa/Mervin; no worlds nor 4CC, in spite of the fact finishing the second??? Oh c'mon. :sarcasm:

 

[Mrs. P]

Nothing for Marissa/Mervin; no worlds nor 4CC, in spite of the fact finishing the second??? Oh c'mon. :sarcasm:

Yay! An on-topic post.

But yeah, totally lame that the Castelli/Tran couldn't get one assignment since they're silver medalists.

 

[FlattFan]

In contrast, while Jason usually doesn't have the most difficult jump content, the program and his performance of it commands people's attention.

Mrs. P is such a Jason-uber. Does Jason ever have the most difficult jump content? Maybe compare to the ladies.

 

[Mrs. P]

Mrs. P is such a Jason-uber. Does Jason ever have the most difficult jump content? Maybe compare to the ladies.

Uh, reason you're referring to me in third person? Okay, take out "usually" and put in "never." Fight settled!

Mrs. P is a fan of Jason's skating. Mathman is a fan of Michelle Kwan's skating. Golden Skate moderators are allowed to enjoy skaters.

(Also it doesn't change the premise of Mrs. P's point).

#BobDoleVibes

 

[TontoK]

My two cents:

I am fine with NBC trying to revive interest in figure skating and to bring in higher ratings.

Higher ratings obviously could lead to increased coverage of the sport, which I would consider to be a good thing.

Going into Nats, NBC did not need to "will" Nathan into being a star.
Nathan already had shown himself to be a star of the GPF. Outstanding competitive results in Marseilles + a very pleasant off-ice demeanor there.

If/when other U.S. skaters "step up" to the extent that Nathan has, I would be fine with NBC promoting them heavily as well.

NBC capitalized on Nathan's potential to make history at Nats. And Nathan delivered. All good, IMO.

I was fairly dismissive of the hype until Scott Hamilton compared Nathan to Dick Button in terms of how far and how quickly he had pushed the technical boundaries of the sport.

I'm not a huge Scott fan (especially as a commentator) but he IS an Olympic champion, well versed in the history of the sport. That statement made me perk up my ears greatly, as that is a HUGE thing to be said about any skater by someone as noteworthy of Hamilton.

 

[Mrs. P]

I do not mind the promos of Nathan either. I thought the promo where he's skating during the gala in 2010 U.S. Nationals in Spokane -- I totally remember watching that program; so cute! -- and then transitions into him now was super awesome.

Also since I have a friend who works for NBC Sports now, I really want NBC to make more money so he and his colleagues can keep their jobs, lol.

Go Nathan and up those ratings!! Woot, woot!

(FWIW, Nathan's video on NBC Olympics FB page has 2.5 million views and thousands of re-shares, so it's resonating with people, though it's interesting to see the comments on this video compared to the Shibs. The Shibs video attracted a lot of non-skating fans while Nathan's video has a lot more hard-core skating fans).

 

[deedee1]

Yay! An on-topic post.

^^ As always I feel for you and all moderators for all your HARD works maintaining the forum level-headed, and esp. in this peak season. Please do take good care of yourselves.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

I was fairly dismissive of the hype until Scott Hamilton compared Nathan to Dick Button in terms of how far and how quickly he had pushed the technical boundaries of the sport.

I'm not a huge Scott fan (especially as a commentator) but he IS an Olympic champion, well versed in the history of the sport. That statement made me perk up my ears greatly, as that is a HUGE thing to be said about any skater by someone as noteworthy of Hamilton.

Scott can be a bit excitable, but Nathan really is attempting the hardest jump content ever. I don't know how any US fan isn't excited about Nathan's medal prospects. His success is dependent upon mistakes from top men like Yuzu and Patrick, but Javi has won the last two world titles winning only one of the four segments skated, so if Nathan can put together two solid skates he can certainly find himself on the podium.

 

[Chemistry66]

Yay! An on-topic post.

But yeah, totally lame that the Castelli/Tran couldn't get one assignment since they're silver medalists.

I even get why Cain/LeDuc get 4CCs, since it's at the Olympic venue. That makes some sense. But for Castelli/Tran to not even get 1st alternates for Worlds over them is weird.

 

[Mrs. P]

^^ As always I feel for you and all moderators for all your HARD works maintaining the forum level-headed, and esp. in this peak season. Please do take good care of yourselves.

Thanks for the super kind words, deedee! And as always for your cheers and enthusiasm on this forum!

 

[Mrs. P]

I even get why Cain/LeDuc get 4CCs, since it's at the Olympic venue. That makes some sense. But for Castelli/Tran to not even get 1st alternates for Worlds over them is weird.

Yeah... maybe it's cause C/L had that steller SP while C/T had two so-so programs.