Figure Skating

[Dots And Stripes]

2 minutes ago, gatopretoNYC said:

It looked like they were setting up the medal stands, as they cut away.

Olympic Ice just said it's the flower ceremony. They showed 3 seconds of it.

[twoods]

I am still getting teary eyed when they show replays of Mirai nailing the triple axel and her celebrating at the end. So proud of her!

The Shibs are too cute and so much fun to watch, but Moir and Virtue are on another level that they can't compete with. Maybe they can sneak in for a bronze?

Hoping Nathan Chen can fight off those demons from the short program and do well in the individuals.

[galaxygirl76]

Usually medals are given at medal plaza at night. All sports at once. There is a ceremony at the event where the medalists get a stuffed mascotte animal. Did not know if it's different for figure skating.

[Shaynaa]

Just now, Dots And Stripes said:

Olympic Ice just said it's the flower ceremony. They showed 3 seconds of it.

Is that what this is?  Not familar.  They are announcing the teams and giving them stuffed animals that kind of look like Hello KItty's but seem to be bears...umm, okay.

[Jaded]

What animal are those stuffed animals the skating medalists got? I didn't restart the standard stream until the first couple of US skaters were given theirs.

[meep.meep]

1 hour ago, Zanzibar said:

Evan Lysacek skated to Rhapsody in Blue when he won Worlds in 2009.  He skated to Firebird and Scheherazade in the 2010 Olympics.

But Ilya Kulik used it when he won the 1998 Olympic medal.

[Dots And Stripes]

1 minute ago, Shaynaa said:

Is that what this is?  Not familar.  They are announcing the teams and giving them stuffed animals that kind of look like Hello KItty's but seem to be bears...umm, okay.

I think they are white tigers. You should look for the gifs of Red Gerard with his. It's adorable. 

[Jaded]

1 minute ago, Dots And Stripes said:

I think they are white tigers. You should look for the gifs of Red Gerard with his. It's adorable. 

That makes sense. I didn't think they were bears even though they looked like it.

[superdeluxe]

2 minutes ago, Dots And Stripes said:

I think they are white tigers. You should look for the gifs of Red Gerard with his. It's adorable. 

They are cute.  I want one.  And he looked a child with his.

[friendperidot]

Quote

Medvedeva distracts me with her mouth constantly being open. 

That was all I could see too. A couple of other skaters had open mouths too, but hers was distracting to the point I couldn't pay attention to her skate.

[Jaded]

Tonight's Olympic Ice just started online.

http://stream.nbcolympics.com/figure-skating-olympic-ice-team-event-ladies-mens-dance-recap

[Snow Apple]

Awww. Just saw some pictures and gifs. The three teams look so cute with their little stuffed tigers. 

[gatopretoNYC]

https://mobile.twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/962909253949272065/photo/1

Aww, the tigers have little hats! :D

[HartofDixie]

[Jeddah]

What a team! I’m so happy for all of them!

ETA: @HartofDixie beat me to it!

Edited February 12, 2018 by Jeddah

[kalystia1983]

52 minutes ago, Minneapple said:

How old are those kids now, anyway? They must be in what, second grade by now? Sniff. THEY GROW UP SO FAST.

The first one would be 8, the second and third (cause apparently they are now hiding three children) I have no idea...nor do I really want to know.  Apparently the crazy baby blog also says that Hubbell and Donohue have a secret baby.  

I now know way to much about the crazy baby blog....sigh.

[Minneapple]

14 minutes ago, kalystia1983 said:

The first one would be 8, the second and third (cause apparently they are now hiding three children) I have no idea...nor do I really want to know.  Apparently the crazy baby blog also says that Hubbell and Donohue have a secret baby.  

Man, don't you hate that when you have to hide THREE secret babies. 

Also, there's another pair with a secret baby? It must be contagious. Is this baby also locked away in someone's basement? I seem to remember that poor Tessa and Scott's secret babies were hidden in someone's basement.

[kittykat]

I'm still catching up but hooray for US for pulling bronze and amazing performances by Adam, Mirai and the Shibs.  Bitter me says it should've been silver but Skating While Russian persists...er pardon Skating While Olympic Athlete of Russia.

[Cherpumple]

2 hours ago, COESpiral said:

"Hey, you know what would be a great idea for a dance?  If you were blind!  That'll tug at everyone's heartstrings!"  I'm rolling my eyes so hard I can see into the past.

Yeah, it was pretty dumb. I was hoping they would just lean into it and use the theme music from "Ice Castles" (a 1978 film about a figure skater who goes blind).

 

So, if back-loading a program with jumps gives a mathematical advantage, why don't more people use the Zagitova strategy? Is it an issue of stamina, and some people can't physically do it, or is there another reason? As annoying as it is to watch, if some people are already exploiting this loophole to rack up points, it seems stupid to let yourself fall behind rather than using the same tactic to be on equal footing.

Edited February 12, 2018 by Cherpumple

[displayname]

Alex and Maia should just pretend to be blind and grab each other's faces for their next free dance. At the end, to increase the interpretation score, they can take a leaf out of the Med's book, and have someone add sound effects of their mother flipping the light switch on, and they can finally find out that they were dancing with each other or something.

 

(I mean this in a silly, funny, broadway sense.)

Edited February 12, 2018 by fan94

[friendperidot]

what is meant by "salty"? In my youth, it was usually connected with language and meant swearing. I guess somehow tied to sailors and their infamous off color language, i.e. salty language. My interpretation from comments seems to be sly, throwing shade, snarking, somewhat insulting in a bit of a sarcastic manner.

[displayname]

6 minutes ago, friendperidot said:

what is meant by "salty"? In my youth, it was usually connected with language and meant swearing. I guess somehow tied to sailors and their infamous off color language, i.e. salty language. My interpretation from comments seems to be sly, throwing shade, snarking, somewhat insulting in a bit of a sarcastic manner.

Exaggeratedly annoyed at something. Motivated by "being over it". Kind of an "Of course this happens :eyeroll:". Keep posting about one's annoyance at that thing, too.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Salty

Usually used for someone "You're just salty that they won!". But someone can embrace their saltiness and have the salt ready in case Med wins. : D

30 minutes ago, Cherpumple said:

So, if back-loading a program with jumps gives a mathematical advantage, why don't more people use the Zagitova strategy? Is it an issue of stamina, and some people can't physically do it, or is there another reason? As annoying as it is to watch, if some people are already exploiting this loophole to rack up points, it seems stupid to let yourself fall behind rather than using the same tactic to be on equal footing.

Stamina; people respect the art too much. :P

Edited February 12, 2018 by fan94

[Dots And Stripes]

I absolutely think if more women could physically backload all their jumps, they would. The fact that she’s doing something others cannot do is what makes me ok with the reward. Also, the back half of the program became really exciting. Landing the jumps in time to the music was fun. 

[pennben]

When Mirai was interviewed by Andrea Joyce just after the Italian skater skated, she mentioned how much she appreciated the support of her teammates before she started because there was discussion of giving her a deduction.  Does anyone know what that's about? Possibly they were thinking about a deduction because her athletic tape showed through her hosiery/leggings or whatever you call it?

[Souris]

7 minutes ago, pennben said:

When Mirai was interviewed by Andrea Joyce just after the Italian skater skated, she mentioned how much she appreciated the support of her teammates before she started because there was discussion of giving her a deduction.  Does anyone know what that's about? Possibly they were thinking about a deduction because her athletic tape showed through her hosiery/leggings or whatever you call it?

I guess she was lagging getting to her starting mark -- which would trigger a deduction if she took too long -- and Alexa Knierim yelled "START!" at her, which I guess Mirai heard.

Twitter post:

Knierim: We were really calm when Mirai started. When Mirai was skating around, she had the look that we all knew. But she was a bit slow to get to her start pose, and I called out “start!” And I found out after that she did hear me.

Another one, not pertinent to the answer but really lovely:

Knierim: Mirai’s program is one that I will remember forever. I see her run clean programs like it’s nothing at home. I was sobbing when she finished and all I thought was I’m glad I put on waterproof mascara. It was such an emotional moment for the team 

Edited February 12, 2018 by Souris
Twitter links

[ChicksDigScars]

We'll probably see the medal ceremony tomorrow sometime, as they're all given at the medals plaza, in the evening, Korea time. They'll get their bronze at the same time Jamie Anderson gets her Gold that she just won in slopestyle (around 5:00 AM Eastern time). I think they're 14 hours ahead of US Eastern time. 

Edited February 12, 2018 by ChicksDigScars

[NUguy514]

It was nice to see the Canadians cheer when Mirai landed her 3A; I also saw Medvedeva clapping for her.

Am I counting correctly that Mirai landed eight triples to Zag's seven?

[HartofDixie]

1 hour ago, kalystia1983 said:

The first one would be 8, the second and third (cause apparently they are now hiding three children) I have no idea...nor do I really want to know.  Apparently the crazy baby blog also says that Hubbell and Donohue have a secret baby.  

I now know way to much about the crazy baby blog....sigh.

The infamous blog: http://dubemoir.blogspot.com/?m=1

[displayname]

2 minutes ago, NUguy514 said:

Am I counting correctly that Mirai landed eight triples to Zag's seven?

Yep.

[NUguy514]

4 minutes ago, fan94 said:

7 minutes ago, NUguy514 said:

Am I counting correctly that Mirai landed eight triples to Zag's seven?

Yep.

Cool, that's what I thought.  I'm going to pull a Sochi and complain that Mirai should've beaten Zag then; after all, the (hilarious) defense of Sotnikova's win over Yuna was that she "out-jumped" Yuna.

[displayname]

15 minutes ago, NUguy514 said:

Cool, that's what I thought.  I'm going to pull a Sochi and complain that Mirai should've beaten Zag then; after all, the (hilarious) defense of Sotnikova's win over Yuna was that she "out-jumped" Yuna.

Haha

 

Just so happened that the GOEs were assigned properly in this case. (Or at least they favoured the person they should've favoured)

 

And to be fair, Alina should've beaten Mirai on PCS, too, even without the hyper-inflation. More transitions, more places to display SS (whatever their quality), elements timed to the music, and performance that was alive in the beginning at least, as opposed to Mirai's look of concentration for 90% of that program. Now that she has her medal, I hope she performs more in the individual event.

 

(Also, to set the record straight for anyone reading, Yuna had 6 clean triples. Sotnikova had 7 triples in total, and botched 2 of them -- so she had only five clean triples. No one in their right mind should think that she "out-jumped" Yuna, the single most technically accomplished female jumper of that quad (not counting Mao on a good day, who still didn't have Yuna's technique, or Kostner if she decided to show up).

Edited February 12, 2018 by fan94

[NUguy514]

5 minutes ago, fan94 said:

And to be fair, Alina should've beaten Mirai on PCS, too, even without the hyper-inflation. More transitions, more places to display SS (whatever their quality), elements timed to the music, and performance that was alive in the beginning at least, as opposed to Mirai's look of concentration for 90% of that program. Now that she has her medal, I hope she performs more in the individual event.

 

(Also, to set the record straight for anyone reading, Yuna had 6 clean triples. Sotnikova had 7 triples in total, and botched 2 of them -- so she had only five clean triples. No one in their right mind should think that she "out-jumped" Yuna, the single most technically accomplished female jumper of that quad (not counting Mao on a good day).

Oh, Zag certainly deserved to win that free skate, for all the reasons you mentioned.  I just can't with the Adelina defense because, as you said, she did NOT out-jump Yuna.  That line of reasoning was, is, and always will be preposterous; the gap in skating quality between the two was the size of the Grand Canyon.  Seriously, the worst skating result I can recall (give or take the mess that was Baiul over the clean Kerrigan). #justiceforYuna

[displayname]

7 minutes ago, NUguy514 said:

#justiceforYuna

I won't be shocked if the 5 seconds of skating she did in the opening ceremony ends up being the best 5 seconds of ladies figure skating we get this Olympics.

 

She can just be crowned 3 time OGM winner then.

Edited February 12, 2018 by fan94

[NUguy514]

4 minutes ago, fan94 said:

I won't be shocked if the 5 seconds of skating she did in the opening ceremony ends up being the best 5 seconds of ladies figure skating we get this Olympics.

 

She can just be crowned 3 time OGM winner then.

That sounds fantastic to me!

[voiceover]

Can someone link me to an explanation of the scoring?  I'm sure it must be somewhere here but I  must've skimmed past it.  Thanks!

[displayname]

http://www.isuresults.com/results/season1718/owg2018/OWG2018_TeamLadies_FS_F_Scores.pdf

[qtpye]

I am so happy for Mirai, Rippon, and the Shibs.  I don't care about their metal color...all of them should be proud.  I think the Americans all had strong performances, except for Chen.  If Chen was better would we have gotten a gold or silver...or do I need a math professor to explain the complex algorithms to me?

[NUguy514]

13 minutes ago, qtpye said:

If Chen was better would we have gotten a gold or silver...or do I need a math professor to explain the complex algorithms to me?

Canada had the gold on lockdown, so we never really had a chance at that one.  We wouldn't have gotten silver either, given the Skating While Russian bonus Kolyada received.  Chen's terrible showing didn't really cost us anything in the end, largely because everyone else met or exceeded expectations.

[GreyBunny]

7 hours ago, CherryMalotte said:

And I'd love to be their roommate!  I can't even imagine - no matter how well mannered they are in public, they look like away from it all they probably have a lot of fun. 

I bet they have burping contests and have races to see who can snort a noodle up their nose the fastest. 

Congrats to both, I'm thrilled Mirai got her 3A and Rippon won me over.  Too bad he was ROBBED.  Good job Shibs, they look like they have some energy.

Congrats to Canada! 

For the individual event, even though they annoy me, I hope V/M get gold just so they can outdo the trashy Grishuk and Platov, (Grishuk is anyway. Evgeni is okay.)

[specialj67]

Even the weekend crew at Jezebel thinks Adam wuz robbed.

I do hope the ISU will recalibrate the relative values of quads vs. triples or something to discourage some of the “throw in a quad on a wing and a prayer” strategy that is going on.

[Jillibean]

I completely agree that the scoring system needs to change (and they usually do their overhauls right after the Olympics, right?) The fact that the Olympic Ice commentators are having to explain to a casual audience why people who fell all over the place are scored more highly than people who were clean should not be. It makes this sport look farcical. The Rippon skate is clearly one that has both hardcore and and casual fans shaking their heads, and they need to take a look at that. As for the backloading of the programs for the Russian ladies, I think that the fact that they are, like, fifteen points ahead of their nearest competitors speaks to the fact that it needs to change. I understand that they deserve the current advantage by being the only ones who can perform within those boundaries, but it's an artificial advantage created by a rather arbitrary rule. They should absolutely limit both the number of jumps you can put in the back half as well as the number of jumps for which you get credit for changing your arm position to over your head. 

If Nathan had performed as expected, Shoma might still have won the short program, and the additional two or three points the US would have received wouldn't have closed the gap with Russia. Also, it's impossible to tell if the Knierims would have skated the short program they did if they hadn't HAD to do it after Nathan's falls. That being said, the Russians clearly got several gifts during this event. Kolyada one hundred percent should not have been ranked above Adam in the free, and I also think the short dance from the Russian team was over-ranked by at least one point. If you start to look at the numbers in that way, where the US should have earned more points over Russia but didn't because of gifts from the judging panel, then hypothetically the competition gets a lot closer if Nathan doesn't fall. 

It was so nice to see how genuinely happy team USA was about Mirai's skate. So Karen and Vincent came for night one and Evan and Madi C for night two, making H/D the only members of the US Olympic figure skating team not to put in an appearance to root on team USA. Not surprising, but it would have been nice for them to be the bigger people here. But who knows; maybe it would have cut into the righteous indignation they plan to channel into their individual performance. The scoring for the Shibs in the team event clearly leaves the door open a bit for H/D. That said, my gut feeling based on nothing really at all is that the judges are still most likely to give it to the Shibs over the other American teams. And I absolutely now give the advantage for gold to Tessa and Scott after a very dominant and engaging performance across both programs in the team event. I think skipping it could turn out to be a big mistake for P/C.  

[Mellowyellow]

5 hours ago, NUguy514 said:

Oh, Zag certainly deserved to win that free skate, for all the reasons you mentioned.  I just can't with the Adelina defense because, as you said, she did NOT out-jump Yuna.  That line of reasoning was, is, and always will be preposterous; the gap in skating quality between the two was the size of the Grand Canyon.  Seriously, the worst skating result I can recall (give or take the mess that was Baiul over the clean Kerrigan). #justiceforYuna

Omg this brings back bitter memories!

I adore Yuna and she skated beautifully. I was heartbroken when she was beaten by that awful jack on the box girl who kept leaping around the ice looking wobbly and horrid.

***

One thing I don't understand is why a lot of people seem to think Kwan was better than Lipinski. I thought Lipinski nailed her skate that Olympics and Kwan was oddly lethargic and slow looking. Especially her spins! Lipinski was awesome! 

[AAEBoiler]

Going shallow here but Canadian skater Patrick Chan really has that "crazy eyes" thing going. He's freaking me out!

[absnow54]

If Nathan had performed as expected, Shoma might still have won the short program, and the additional two or three points the US would have received wouldn't have closed the gap with Russia. Also, it's impossible to tell if the Knierims would have skated the short program they did if they hadn't HAD to do it after Nathan's falls. That being said, the Russians clearly got several gifts during this event. Kolyada one hundred percent should not have been ranked above Adam in the free, and I also think the short dance from the Russian team was over-ranked by at least one point. If you start to look at the numbers in that way, where the US should have earned more points over Russia but didn't because of gifts from the judging panel, then hypothetically the competition gets a lot closer if Nathan doesn't fall.

The final score was OAR 66 and USA 62. If you'd swapped Adam and Kolyada in the ranking (I will be bitter about this forever) it would be 65-63, so if Nathan performed as expected, and had gotten 2nd in the SP, the US would have tied for silver, and would have won silver if he had taken the SP (assuming Skating While Russian hadn't impacted further scores). I also would have knocked off a point from Russia's Short Ice Dance and given it to the Italians, which would have given the Americans a little more wiggle room. But yeah, it's assumed that the points that Nathan lost, were made up by the Knierims unexpected performance.

I do feel really bad for Nathan. He has so much pressure to perform, and everyone else on his team managed to deliver, and have set a great tone for their individual competitions. Nathan on the other hand has to overcome what was probably the worst performance of his career. I hope he gets things together before the end of the week.

[mostlylurking]

It's already been said here multiple times I'm sure but I have to chime in--I am So Annoyed at the way Rippon was scored!!  How can someone skate a kick ass performance filled with technical and artistic content and STILL be behind two competitors who Fell Multiple Times???  (I heard the explanations, I just think it's bullshit.)  I mean I get that jumps made later in the program are more difficult and riskier, thus earning a higher score.  I can get behind that.  Apart from that, I still think he was totally robbed.  I think he was awesome.  Mirai was excellent too.  Couldn't stay up late enough to watch the Shib Sibs, but I am happy USA got a medal.

[ChicksDigScars]

1 hour ago, Jillibean said:

It was so nice to see how genuinely happy team USA was about Mirai's skate. So Karen and Vincent came for night one and Evan and Madi C for night two, making H/D the only members of the US Olympic figure skating team not to put in an appearance to root on team USA. Not surprising, but it would have been nice for them to be the bigger people here. But who knows; maybe it would have cut into the righteous indignation they plan to channel into their individual performance. The scoring for the Shibs in the team event clearly leaves the door open a bit for H/D. That said, my gut feeling based on nothing really at all is that the judges are still most likely to give it to the Shibs over the other American teams. And I absolutely now give the advantage for gold to Tessa and Scott after a very dominant and engaging performance across both programs in the team event. I think skipping it could turn out to be a big mistake for P/C.  

Oh, I definitely noticed that Hubble and Donahue were no-shows in the Team USA box, while Chock and Bates, who were also not selected, were there on two of the three nights, AT LEAST.  Makes me root for Chock and Bates over Hubble and Donahue even more. All the more reason that I do NOT want to see them complete the Montreal Sweep of the Olympic podium.  I noticed on the whacko V/M secret baby blog (yes, I read some of it. I feel shame), that they do not like H/D because Madison and Gabriella Papadakis are BFF's and working against Virtue and Moir.  So I guess Madison AND Gabriella are the new Meryl Davis up in Secret Baby Land. 

Here's another question. Team Canada had another substitution to give. They really didn't NEED Virtue and Moir's free skate. They could have given one of the other dance teams a shot at a gold medal.  Was this gamesmanship? Sticking it to Russia (which I'm fully behind them doing), or making a statement to the judges that Papadakis and Cizeron are NOT the pre-determined gold medalists.  

[absnow54]

Here's another question. Team Canada had another substitution to give. They really didn't NEED Virtue and Moir's free skate. They could have given one of the other dance teams a shot at a gold medal. Was this gamesmanship? Sticking it to Russia (which I'm fully behind them doing), or making a statement to the judges that Papadakis and Cizeron are NOT the pre-determined gold medalists.

Virtue/Moir were the team captains, so maybe they felt it was their duty to do both programs, but really, they could have subbed in the Canadian Ice Hockey Team and still taken the gold. Strategically, given how strict the Ice Dancing judges were on the Short Program, it makes sense that Virtue/Moir would want to test out their free dance to see what the judges might be picky about so that they can improve it for the individual competition, so I can't really fault them for that.

[ChicksDigScars]

12 hours ago, Growsonwalls said:

No that was her. It's ironic because here's a recent video of her:

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Young-Skater-Wants-to-Follow-Olympic-Mothers-Footsteps-465237453.html

And she's very in shape. 

Not the same thing can be said about Artur:

 

Artur looks like he is suffering from Puffy Alcoholism Face.  Maybe too much vodka? He should get into shape. (/snark)

Natalia's daughter is cute as a button.  I'd love to see her skate for the U.S. in seniors, someday. Her mother was beautiful to watch. 

In Secret Baby Blog Land (stop me. It's ice skating drama crack. SO addictive....and unintentionally hilarious), they're claiming that Papadakis and Cizeron are hiding an injury, due to the fact that first they claimed that they would come to the Opening Ceremonies and march with Team France, and WOULD participate in the Team Event, then they changed their minds about both. 

Edited February 12, 2018 by ChicksDigScars

[herbz]

No- they couldn't have done that with V/M. Substitutions cannot be made on the day, start lists were finalised the day before. Chan is unreliable at best, and Daleman has had her share of messy skates too. At that point, they had no idea they wouldn't need V/M's 10 points for gold, and W/P could well have ended up 4th. 

Edited February 12, 2018 by herbz

[ChromaKelly]

I'm wondering if perhaps the scoring system can be changed to make falling/failing to land cleanly a bigger point deduction? Here I am with a child that figure skates, who tends to rush his landings and wants to include jumps he has down about 75% - but his coach won't allow him to include anything that's not 100% and emphasizes clean landings that are held properly - meanwhile we're watching the Olympics and skaters are falling but scoring higher just because they tried a higher jump. What's that teaching a young skater? 

5 minutes ago, ChicksDigScars said:

Artur looks like he is suffering from Puffy Alcoholism Face.  Maybe too much vodka? He should get into shape. (/snark)

Natalia's daughter is cute as a button.  I'd love to see her skate for the U.S. in seniors, someday. Her mother was beautiful to watch. 

In Secret Baby Blog Land (stop me. It's ice skating drama crack. SO addictive....and unintentionally hilarious), they're claiming that Papadakis and Cizeron are hiding an injury, due to the fact that first they claimed that they would come to the Opening Ceremonies and march with Team France, and WOULD participate in the Team Event, then they changed their minds about both. 

Any links for the skating drama blog? Asking for a friend...