Figure Skating

[Jeddah]

So much drama!

[Mellowyellow]

1 hour ago, Jeddah said:

So much drama!

While being locked at home!!!

Seriously this sport is so dramatic!!!

[ChicksDigScars]

God, Russian figure skating should be a Lifetime reality show. 

I wondered how long Trusova would stand for being the Quad Queen, but being stuck third on the Russian ladies/Eteri depth chart. 

Another thing I read on Twitter was that Madison Hubbell commented that Gadbois liked to "switch up" ice dance partners for warm ups, and that only one pair flat out refused. Tessa and Scott. I supposed Scott was just being protective over the mother of his imaginary basement children.

Edited May 7, 2020 by ChicksDigScars

[annzeepark914]

9 hours ago, ChicksDigScars said:

God, Russian figure skating should be a Lifetime reality show. 

I wondered how long Trusova would stand for being the Quad Queen, but being stuck third on the Russian ladies/Eteri depth chart. 

Another thing I read on Twitter was that Madison Hubbell commented that Gadbois liked to "switch up" ice dance partners for warm ups, and that only one pair flat out refused. Tessa and Scott. I supposed Scott was just being protective over the mother of his imaginary basement children.

Well, Scott's a bit short so maybe he didn't feel confident (dare I say physically capable?) of skating with possibly a taller female partner. That's an interesting tidbit out of Gadbois. Do other training facilities do this?

[HartofDixie]

21 hours ago, Jeddah said:

So much drama!

 

and

 

[Sew Sumi]

Can't stand Dave Lease. He's catty and a poor analyst.

[Mellowyellow]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/eurolifetrash/how-well-do-you-know-russian-fs-drama-9wj09qk02j?bfsource=bfocompareon

I got 8/10! I know way too much about Russian figure skating drama!

I loathe those TSL guys. They are super nasty and have said some really nasty things about Rika 😠

[Sew Sumi]

They bashed RIKA? She's one of the least bashable skaters out there today. She's adorable.

[Jeddah]

I love Dave and Jonathan. Probably because I’m a catty bitch too.

[ChicksDigScars]

 

Okay, so does "full blade assist" mean that the ISU grew balls and is finally going to address the cheating take offs on jumps? 

 

Yeah, it's been a bad week for you, Eteri.  /HappyDance

[displayname]

But it's not just Eteri though? Lol. Several men AND women use "full-blade assists" on their jumps. It's very few who don't actually. Not a rule that's going to be applied anyway.

[carrier76]

What does “full blade assist” mean?

[redpencil]

I found this in one of the ISU documents:

Quote

Poor/cheated take-off: For example a toe-assisted jump is taken off from the full blade, Toe Loop is executed like a Toe Axel or there is excessive rotation on the ice at the take-off. The reduction in GOE is -1 to -3.

This whole description is new. So basically it sounds like one example is a toe jump where they're using the full blade instead of just the toe to take off. But it could also apply to any other jump where there is too much pre-rotation on the ice.

[Darknight]

I don't know what the hell is going on right now. Between Trusova leaving  and the ISU making a Lz and Flip equal. So what's the point of good technique? The sport is going down the drain. We know the ISU will not call put technique. Poor Mao was hammered and had to fix her technique. If only she skated now. 

[Avaleigh]

7 hours ago, Darknight said:

I don't know what the hell is going on right now. Between Trusova leaving  and the ISU making a Lz and Flip equal. So what's the point of good technique? The sport is going down the drain. We know the ISU will not call put technique. Poor Mao was hammered and had to fix her technique. If only she skated now. 

I think it's only fair that the ISU is taking a stand with issues like pre rotation and skaters who rely on the full blade assist but I don't feel confident that the rules will be applied equally. 

I don't get how the lutz and flip are considered to be equal. To me that just means more ladies are going to put a flip as their combo in the short. 

Good for Trusova for leaving if she wasn't getting enough time and attention. My worry for her though is that she's going to continue to only focus on the jumps when it's the other areas of her skating that really need work. I can't see Team Evgeny doing much to help her grow artistically. 

On 5/8/2020 at 9:24 PM, Jeddah said:

I love Dave and Jonathan. Probably because I’m a catty bitch too.

I enjoy the commentary even if I don't always agree with it. Hell, I'm just happy that there's somewhere to go for amusing commentary about the sport that can supplement what I listen to when I'm watching NBC. I mostly feel like Dave Lease has fun with it and doesn't have to play by the rules as much as Johnny and Tara do so it's a fun change of pace. I find the enthusiasm of Dave and Jonathan to be genuine and it's nice to hear since hardly anyone cares about skating anymore. 

Last year I actually revisited a lot of the episodes Dave did with Jenny and I thought it was a lot of fun especially the flashback to Lillehammer. Anyone here know what happened to cause Jenny to leave TSL for the second time? Was she getting too much flack from people for Dave's catty tendencies or was it just a time to move on in general sort of thing?

[Growsonwalls]

1 hour ago, Avaleigh said:

Last year I actually revisited a lot of the episodes Dave did with Jenny and I thought it was a lot of fun especially the flashback to Lillehammer. Anyone here know what happened to cause Jenny to leave TSL for the second time? Was she getting too much flack from people for Dave's catty tendencies or was it just a time to move on in general sort of thing?

Idk what happened exactly. I know Kirk wanted to go back to school and I believe she did get her degree in social work. But her second departure from TSL seemed frostier than her first. Too bad because I thought she brought a levelheadedness to Dave Lease's bitch sessions. 

[Darknight]

4 hours ago, Avaleigh said:

I think it's only fair that the ISU is taking a stand with issues like pre rotation and skaters who rely on the full blade assist but I don't feel confident that the rules will be applied equally. 

I don't get how the lutz and flip are considered to be equal. To me that just means more ladies are going to put a flip as their combo in the short. 

Good for Trusova for leaving if she wasn't getting enough time and attention. My worry for her though is that she's going to continue to only focus on the jumps when it's the other areas of her skating that really need work. I can't see Team Evgeny doing much to help her grow artistically. 

I enjoy the commentary even if I don't always agree with it. Hell, I'm just happy that there's somewhere to go for amusing commentary about the sport that can supplement what I listen to when I'm watching NBC. I mostly feel like Dave Lease has fun with it and doesn't have to play by the rules as much as Johnny and Tara do so it's a fun change of pace. I find the enthusiasm of Dave and Jonathan to be genuine and it's nice to hear since hardly anyone cares about skating anymore. 

Last year I actually revisited a lot of the episodes Dave did with Jenny and I thought it was a lot of fun especially the flashback to Lillehammer. Anyone here know what happened to cause Jenny to leave TSL for the second time? Was she getting too much flack from people for Dave's catty tendencies or was it just a time to move on in general sort of thing?

Evegeni out of all people to go to. However, she has her old coaches so maybe it will work. I think Eteri has too many skaters at once. Both seniors and juniors. Trusova wasn't packaged well at all. All she has are jumps. When she was a junior they should've worked on her skating skills instead of quads. Then they added more quads and she couldn't land them. A 4,5 quad program is too much for the men. Let alone a 15 year old. I'm sad she is getting hate. Skaters leave coaches all the time. Heck, Jason Brown left his coach he trained with for 20 years. Skaters aren't obligated to stay. 

 

Lz is harder than flip. I don't understand why they're the same value. I guess the ISU said screw it. Most skaters can't do a real Lz. It's unfair to skaters who work hard for a Lz jump. 

 

If judges did their jobs we wouldn't have this issue. 

 

Again, they refuse to do two separate panels. One for technique and for for PCS. I've never seen a sport change rules so many times

I'm not a fan of TSL but they're one of the few who keeps up with what's going on in the skating world. I hardly watch them but a few times they actually have good information. 

[HartofDixie]

4 hours ago, Growsonwalls said:

Idk what happened exactly. I know Kirk wanted to go back to school and I believe she did get her degree in social work. But her second departure from TSL seemed frostier than her first. Too bad because I thought she brought a levelheadedness to Dave Lease's bitch sessions. 

Jenny has appeared on TSL since her departure and does a show with Dave on CYA Live. I follow her on Instagram.

https://instagram.com/jennykirklmsw?igshid=ctrqyte3q024

 

[redpencil]

3 hours ago, Darknight said:

Again, they refuse to do two separate panels. One for technique and for for PCS. I've never seen a sport change rules so many times

I think the biggest issue with this is the amount of trained judges you would need (unless you cut down the number for each panel, which I don't think would be a good idea--would just make the outliers count for too much). Sure, for big international events it would be fine. But for smaller events, especially national events for smaller federations, it would be a big issue, and you would just end up with less competent judges. I remember awhile back reading somewhere that for those smaller federations, something like that could be a major hindrance and actually be damaging to the sport in those countries.

[displayname]

2 hours ago, redpencil said:

I think the biggest issue with this is the amount of trained judges you would need (unless you cut down the number for each panel, which I don't think would be a good idea--would just make the outliers count for too much). Sure, for big international events it would be fine. But for smaller events, especially national events for smaller federations, it would be a big issue, and you would just end up with less competent judges. I remember awhile back reading somewhere that for those smaller federations, something like that could be a major hindrance and actually be damaging to the sport in those countries.

IMO, 5 each would be just fine. 10 judges total. We already get 9 at big events, and 7 at small ones (which can be bumped up to 8).

We already can see that this judge did a good job with the GOE, but dialed in on the PCS. So if we just had 5 focusing on GOE and 5 on PCS, it could work, giving them more time for each category.

I agree that if we had 9+9 judges for an event, a small fed would be damaged. Just that IMO we don't need to go that far.

Edited May 13, 2020 by displayname

[healthnut]

Great article by Phil Hersch about the new values for quads with some thoughts from Nathan Chen. Potentially a big game changer for both men and the Russian ladies. 

Figure Skating Scoring Changes

[surreysmum]

Didier in the news again - nobody can say M. Gailhaguet doesn't have chutzpah.

https://www.barrons.com/news/former-french-skating-chief-demands-300-000-euro-compensation-from-sports-ministry-01590498010

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2020/05/15/figure-skating/disgraced-former-french-skating-chief-refuses-quit-olympic-post/#.XtQtKTpKiUl

 

[HartofDixie]

Yikes!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/christinebrennan/2020/06/01/olympic-figure-skating-johnny-weir-deletes-controversial-tweet/5310204002/

[Sew Sumi]

All kinds of yikes in that article. w/r/t Plushenko, I expect nothing less. 

[KittenPokerCheater]

I wonder who will replace Johnny at the nbc, because I can't see how he could possibly keep the job now.

 

[AuntieDiane6]

Quote

I wonder who will replace Johnny at the nbc, because I can't see how he could possibly keep the job now.

Why not?  I'm not sure what it means since I'm boycotting twitter... He needs a gun for protection from looters?

 

[Jeddah]

1 hour ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

I wonder who will replace Johnny at the nbc, because I can't see how he could possibly keep the job now.

 

I’ve loved his skating and his commentary, but yeeeeeah. I certainly don’t want to hear any of his opinions now. And he’s trying to say it was a typo!

3 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

Plushenko, I expect nothing less. 

Plushenko wearing a shirt with Putin wearing a MAGA hat? We live in strange, strange times.

[justmehere]

Johnny also tweeted this:

 

[HartofDixie]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/christinebrennan/2020/06/02/olympic-skater-out-leader-usopc-us-figure-skating/3122506001/

[Sew Sumi]

I think Rachael Flatt is a great replacement. I don't know much about Evora these days, but it can't be worse than Ladwig.

[KittenPokerCheater]

I wish Kurt Browning would be one of the commentators.  He's so gregarious and knowledgeable and fun.

[ChicksDigScars]

Charlie White has been a good commentator for NBC Sports Channel and the Olympic Channel.  And he actually seems to know what he's talking about!

 

And color me SHOCKED that Plushy AND Zach Donahue said/did something douchey.  

[ChicksDigScars]

Speaking of douchey, evidently Alexei Yagudin has opened his fucking mouth again. This time wishing death on homosexuals and using Adam Rippon's photo to emphasize his point? WTF?

 

[KittenPokerCheater]

Since I am not fluent in russian, what is the bigoted twerp saying exactly?

[peachmangosteen]

It's translated in the tweet, I believe. Here's the tweet itself; it might be easier to see there. 

 

[KittenPokerCheater]

What a terrible odious man!

[annzeepark914]

On 6/6/2020 at 10:47 PM, ChicksDigScars said:

Charlie White has been a good commentator for NBC Sports Channel and the Olympic Channel.  And he actually seems to know what he's talking about.

NBC would be very smart to hire Charlie as a replacement. He's a Gold Medalist and he's always been a diplomatic member of Team USA. 

[Sew Sumi]

Charlie already works for NBC, just down the line doing broadcasts on the Olympic Channel and NBCSN. Mrs. White does the dance commentary on NBC.

[annzeepark914]

14 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

Charlie already works for NBC, just down the line doing broadcasts on the Olympic Channel and NBCSN. Mrs. White does the dance commentary on NBC.

I know. But I was thinking of CW being hired as a replacement for JW. 

[Sew Sumi]

They'd put Tanith in the head booth ahead of Charlie. The network seems to love her. But neither will happen since singles isn't their expertise.

[Jeddah]

Adam’s awesome response to Alexei Yagudin.

[Aerobicidal]

On 6/1/2020 at 4:47 PM, KittenPokerCheater said:

I wonder who will replace Johnny at the nbc, because I can't see how he could possibly keep the job now.

 

If they replace Johnny (and I have no idea how likely that is), I would love them to pick Adam. He's articulate, he has good politics, and he has the potential to bring new fans to the sport.

I also like Tanith and Charlie, although I prefer watching skating with no commentary if possible.

[annzeepark914]

7 hours ago, Aerobicidal said:

I also like Tanith and Charlie, although I prefer watching skating with no commentary if possible.

Most people, I think, need/like some things pointed out during a skater's program (technical stuff). This way they have a better understanding (usually) of the score received. It's the extra babble that drives me crazy & as we know, that can get worse during the O's.

[Aerobicidal]

3 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Most people, I think, need/like some things pointed out during a skater's program (technical stuff). This way they have a better understanding (usually) of the score received. It's the extra babble that drives me crazy & as we know, that can get worse during the O's.

Yes, I get that. I have a fairly decent understanding of technical elements and scoring, but I know that isn't true for more casual fans (or even serious fans).

[Jillibean]

I’ve watched Tanith and Charlie do commentary together, and they’re pretty respectful of not just constantly talking over the program. I agree that Adam would be a good replacement for Johnny, and he has great name recognition. But I’m sure by the time we get skating again, NBC will be able to get away with pretending this never happened. 

Zach D is just giving me more reasons to fervently hope that H/D get permanently displaced as the number one USA ice dance team by unproblematic faves Madi and Evan.

[peachmangosteen]

11 hours ago, Jillibean said:

Zach D is just giving me more reasons to fervently hope that H/D get permanently displaced as the number one USA ice dance team by unproblematic faves Madi and Evan.

What did Zach do/say? I somehow missed it. And I welcome more reasons to hate him lol.

[annzeepark914]

On 6/1/2020 at 5:47 PM, KittenPokerCheater said:

I wonder who will replace Johnny at the nbc, because I can't see how he could possibly keep the job now.

 

I just emailed NBC Sports (via their website form) asking them to say goodbye to JW. His snark was offensive and so unprofessional. There are plenty of US champs who could take over that job and work well with Tara & Terry (& maybe help Tara do a better job as well).

[Mellowyellow]

Rika adding Orser as second coach

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/stories/news/amp/kihira-rika-future-hanyu-coach-brian-orser/?__twitter_impression=true

I hope it's true that he's only the second coach and that she still keeps Hamada. Hamada has done a fantastic job with her while I can't say the same for Orser and Zhenya.

 

 

[SeanC]

Rika Kihira has announced that she's adding Brian Orser to her coaching team and will be splitting her time between Hamada's base of operations in Japan and the TCC.

3 minutes ago, Mellowyellow said:

Hamada has done a fantastic job with her while I can't say the same for Orser and Zhenya.

What do you think Orser should be doing for Medvedeva that he hasn't done?  She's been undergoing a total reworking of her technique even down to basic skating; that takes years.

Kihira's in a different boat, she doesn't need technique fixes, other than continuing to refine the quad attempts.

Edited June 14, 2020 by SeanC

[Mellowyellow]

3 minutes ago, SeanC said:

Rika Kihira has announced that she's adding Brian Orser to her coaching team and will be splitting her time between Hamada's base of operations in Japan and the TCC.

What do you think Orser should be doing for Medvedeva that he hasn't done?  She's been undergoing a total reworking of her technique even down to basic skating; that takes years.

Kihira's a different boat, she doesn't need technique fixes, other than continuing to refine the quad attempts.

I don't know to be honest. I guess I kept waiting for things to improve and they never did. I don't know that I necessarily blame Orser because rewatching even the Olympics skate I can see Zhenya's jumps deteriorating.

I do find her programs lack transitions after she moved to Orser.

I've very very very invested in Rika and thought she was doing amazingly both mentally and physically towards the end of last season so I'm nervous about the change.....