Correct me if I'm wrong.... but the events were shown on NBC Sports and other NBC affiliates during the day (being shown live) and at night the tapes of those events were combined together - it wasn't actually a break in the competition.
Yes to the Team Event. But, the news of the synchronized skating event makes me uneasy if the competition doesn't get deeper by 2018. Therefore, this may be terrible. Frankly, I was extremely relieved of synchronized skating not being allowed in 2014.
Finland, Canada, USA/Sweden already locks for medals in synchro podium. :disapp: If they add the event to the 2018 program the competition better be deeper. I hope it will not be like the whining ski-jumping women from 2010 who whined and wasted court money and time filing lawsuits, using a nation's constitution to falsely claim 'gender discrimination' when in fact they were rejected due to the severe lack of competition. I don't even agree with allowing women to ski-jump at the Sochi Olympics, even though competition increased, I still did not think it was competitive enough. Oh well. I hope the IOC/ISU do not fold under pressure if something like this happens in 2018.
Ultimately I hope to see deeper competition by 2018; only in this case should Synchro Skating be allowed in the Olympic programme.
I hope they can expand the team competion to non-Olympics events as well...
But your exact argument against synchro in the Olympics can be applied to the team event as well. Who really has a shot at a medal there, except Russia, Canada and the US? I can only think of maybe Japan and Italy, but against the 3 big guns they hardly have a chance.
Yes to the Team Event. But, the news of the synchronized skating event makes me uneasy if the competition doesn't get deeper by 2018. Therefore, this may be terrible. Frankly, I was extremely relieved of synchronized skating not being allowed in 2014.
Finland, Canada, USA/Sweden already locks for medals in synchro podium. :disapp: If they add the event to the 2018 program the competition better be deeper. I hope it will not be like the whining ski-jumping women from 2010 who whined and wasted court money and time filing lawsuits, using a nation's constitution to falsely claim 'gender discrimination' when in fact they were rejected due to the severe lack of competition. I don't even agree with allowing women to ski-jump at the Sochi Olympics, even though competition increased, I still did not think it was competitive enough. Oh well. I hope the IOC/ISU do not fold under pressure if something like this happens in 2018.
Ultimately I hope to see deeper competition by 2018; only in this case should Synchro Skating be allowed in the Olympic programme.
No, not the same. Quite different, actually. Synchro skating is a completely new & different discipline (different skaters, different skills, different judging, different performances etc.) than that of individual/pairs skating. The team event is merely a conglomeration of individual/pairs skating teams (containing very deep fields in their respective individual disciplines, might I add, unlike that of synchronized skating). In the team events, for example the ladies, all witnessed the performances of Kostner, Lipnitskaia, Asada, Suzuki, Gold, Wagner, Osmond ... And even that field didn't include the individual gold medalist, Sotnikova.
So no, synchro skating is nowhere similar to the Team Event in this regard. I mean, not even Machida was asked to skate in the Team Event. And Reynolds, who bombed his individual event and nowhere a threat to medal there, scored something like 167.xx in the Team Event free skate, higher than Machida and Brown.
My point in using Machida and Sotnikova in the examples is to provide example of the depth of these countries, and thus, the depth of their respective disciplines.
And the team event rewards the countries with the combination of most DEPTH on their team (which, I may add again, is composed from their respective individual/pairs disciplines).
Synchronized skating is very different. It is a separate discipline in itself. Unlike the team event, synchro does not conglomerate the deep individual/pairs fields into one team. Quite simply, the competition in synchronized skating is just not deep. After Finland and Canada, there is a significant drop off. And after third place, there is another drop off.
I get what you mean, but that is not what you argued for in your original post. Yes, the competition within the categories can be deeper overall, but the medals are already locked. Who is going to really compete against Russia, Canada and USA for the TEAM medals? Maybe Japan only. All in all, the team competition isn't any deeper than synchro because there are barely any countries competing for the medals.
But don't get me wrong, I hope the team event stays and I hope synchro is added.
I think Italy also has a chance. France and China have potential, but so far it's just... potential. Hopefully the Team Event can convince them to develop that potential. I think, as the Team Event sticks around longer, countries will start caring about it and fighting for it, instead of just doing China's "Oh, we calculated the points, we have no chance, let's give zero effort" in Sochi.I get what you mean, but that is not what you argued for in your original post. Yes, the competition within the categories can be deeper overall, but the medals are already locked. Who is going to really compete against Russia, Canada and USA for the TEAM medals? Maybe Japan only. All in all, the team competition isn't any deeper than synchro because there are barely any countries competing for the medals.
But don't get me wrong, I hope the team event stays and I hope synchro is added.
Maybe they could do teams but within the same discipline?
SP from Person/Team A, LP from B, EX from C, add up the marks? :scratch: (This doesn't sound as fun as the current Team Event to me).How would that work out of curiosity?
Personally I would prefer if the team event occurred after the individual championships.
That's how I feel also. Personally, I have zero interest in synchro - but I'd be happy for the fans of the sport, and for those who may become fans. The more the merrier.