Farce as an Olympic sport

farce
färs/
noun
noun: farce; plural noun: farces
1.
a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.
synonyms: slapstick comedy, slapstick, burlesque, vaudeville, buffoonery

These two improved seven points in a week. Just amazing. Better scores than Virtue Moir got when competing Carmen and most of this season.

I want to know why it's okay to criticize the hell out of the ladies competition, but nobody can criticize ice dance (Yes, I know - because Russian).  And why it's okay to insinuate (or immediately uncover and publicize) iffy shit about the judges on the ladies panel (including names and history) but turn a blind eye to the judges on the dance panel. It's amazing how, when there's the correct agenda in place, some of the otherwise obtuse members of the media immediately get hold of useful information.

When it's not convenient, nobody knows anything.

Nobody, meaning, nobody in skating, except Beverly Smith (and she has her lips zipped about the judges on the dance panel). Virtue and Moir's various dramaturgs in the media have attempted to state the case, but these feeble efforts carry no weight, because they they can't back up their complaints with relevant specifics, because they undermine their case (by saying DW are a great team, because they're unable to see for themselves what DW are and aren't doing on the ice), because don't know what the relevant specifics are, and that's because in all of their years covering skating, they've never set out to learn - for themselves - about what constitutes skating technique, which means recognizing what is and isn't going on at blade level, which means recognizing that what the media pretends is "style" (carriage, extension, detail) is, at the highest level, actually a form follows function attribute that further establishes superior technique. So, not knowing what they're talking about means even VM partisans enable the destructive narrative at the root of all of this, which is that DW are great but VM are merely better.

No, Davis and White are NOT great. It's not that Virtue and Moir are simply on an even higher plane of great. Davis and White are NOT great. They're not good for ice dancing. Their innovation as regards this sport is that they've bastardized skating and dance, and thereby officially defeated real dancers and skaters. Through Davis White, the sport has stripped skating and ice dancing of their actual meaning, and turned established, objective criteria for superior skating inside out. In fact, they've dispensed with real criteria completely, and used the protocols as cooked books.

It's only cheating if they're Russian, and looking at figure skating journalism

Christine Brennan, who after two decades still doesn't know all that much about figure skating at blade level, who looked away when Virtue and Moir won the ice dance competition on the ice, but the judges gave the gold to Davis and White instead, has no problem with that outcome.

She's mad because, in ladies, the judges gave ladies gold to the Russian instead of the Korean.

There is actually a case to be made for Adelina Slotnikova versus Yuna Kim (she has a triple loop, for one), and there is none for Davis White versus Virtue Moir.

So of course North America is taking up the Yuna's cause, because blaming Russia never gets old. All of North America will never get over the butt hurt that Russian skaters were the better skaters for a number of decades. Being better at an expensive sport that one must begin in early childhood tends to happen when the sport is underwritten by the state and the state proactively seeks out talent all over the country, and nurtures that talent, giving it every opportunity to succeed. That's how it tends to work everywhere with any sport. It's not something that should keep you up at night for Christ's sake. In those days Russia prioritized skating. N.A. did not.

What IS North America's issue with Russia in skating, an issue they don't seem to have with skaters from other countries?

The media has managed to unearth all kinds of things about the tech controller and the judges in the ladies free, but nobody thinks to explore the scoring patterns of competitions where VM lose to DW despite outskating DW. It's all a freaking mystery.

When Americans win, deals and cheating is okay.

But she WILL celebrate Meryl and Charlie

As we all know, and as is being discussed in the comments section in the post below this, Skate Canada has this fixation on Paul Poirier that went nuclear when he dumped Vanessa Crone and teamed up with a rich, spotlight hungry American girl.

The blog also discussed this girl's campaign to become a Canadian citizen based upon her "special services" to Canada. Services like this, during the ice dance team competition in Sochi.

Keep it up Meryl and Charlie, from a loyal Canadian, Piper Gilles.

Piper's loyalty to anything but Piper seems a bit suspect, it will surprise nobody to hear. During the opening ceremonies she had this tweet:

Seriously, she had to SHARE. Texting wouldn't do. She had to let the world know that the Canadian team's entrance had no meaning without Piper. At least, no meaning to her.

THIS is the girl up whose ass Skate Canada has been living for two years. Cheering on Meryl and Charlie in freaking SOCHI. Days later, she gave Tessa and Scott lip service (wonder what prompted that) but this is the first thing out of her twitter. Not just you give me goosebumps, but KEEP IT UP. Keep winning, Meryl and Charlie.

Yes, the blog and others were so so bad, so so mean, to object to fast tracking Piper Gilles to Canadian citizenship, leap frogging her over the backs of would-be citizens who were logging their second year of wait time (or more). The blog pointed out that any justification for accelerating her application was exceedingly thin - Canada was and is lousy with talented, competitive, already Canadian ice dance talent, and adding one more hardly merited categorizing her as providing a "special service." When Piper spoke to the merits of her application, she argued that she also loved Canada very very very very much. She doesn't even celebrate American holidays anymore! But she will publicly celebrate the American ice dance team being set up to rob her erstwhile teammates, Canadians Tessa and Scott.

We'll keep this in mind, Piper.

Piper Gilles taking her oath of citizenship.

You can still smell it from here/roller coaster derailed

The sport has always been political, but in elevating D/W to the top the way it did, it took the only pure thing the sport had going for it - the actual skating - and bastardized it. In the past, some skaters/teams certainly won on account of political wrangling, but NEVER were attempts made to redefine or obliterate the definitions of every aspect of the skating in order to justify the elevation of one skater/team over another. Until now. Comments section, February 19, 9:08 p.m.

  *****

It's more athletically demanding to be artistic and to have the proper components. We've packed that program full of technically hard elements with extremely demanding transitions....

You have to be more of an athlete to be able to execute that.

I still love this free dance. It is a really difficult program to perform and the last minute is really demanding and to finish like that it was special.
Scott Moir.

The bolded sentences in both quotes, especially.

Listening to Virtue and Moir's press conference, it almost seems as if everybody thinks they're being daring by discussing the actual skating. But not too much. Even while emphasizing the difficulty of being "artistic" and having proper components, making it implicit that this is what their competition does NOT do, Scott shrunk from being explicit. Must not discuss the skating of their opponents. Where else does this happen in freaking SPORT? Where you have to act like it's a pageant - or at least the Canadian side does. The U.S. side can have it both ways.

Also, that's some very emphatic stuff from Scott. How come in the reality show we had to hear how subpar, underperforming, uncertain and up against it they were? Wouldn't it have been helpful if, in the reality show, the fact that it was more athletically demanding to be artistic and do the proper components had been emphasized so this fact would reach a wider audience? They just spent episode after episode acting like they sucked, didn't trust themselves, had no faith in themselves, and were worried about beating freaking Weaver & Poje. Throughout their reality show we heard NONE of this (well, the Marina stuff, not the stuff about how strong they knew their programs were, and that they fully understood what it demonstrated about their athleticism and their skating skills, and why it then deserved to be rewarded. It was a CANADIAN FREAKING NETWORK, but no. We had to hear that they thought they were BAD and DW were perfect.)

The Marina stuff feels like reality show to me. She can't split herself in two. She had three teams, two of them American. That appears to me to have been the deciding factor in the opening ceremonies. It also is contradictory to say "Needs to bring her A game" in one breath and the next say she pours her heart into your choreography, every note in the free is handcrafted, and you still love it.

THEN WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

It was unbelieveable to me, however, the yay Skate Canada. On its face, in public, Skate Canada has enabled the selling out of Virtue and Moir to Davis & White. I say don't crawl into their heads with Marina, so I won't crawl into their heads with Skate Canada and assume they don't know what's going on, but their Federation has done them no favors, and their Federation is not a neutral, let the chips fall where they may entity. The Federation is supposed to advocate for them, and only them. Not the Americans. It didn't.

Can any ice dancers even pretend to believe their protocols after this? Look at the pcs up there (and review the KP calls in the short). It's fiction.

Although we've known this was coming pretty much since last season, and particularly after the Letter of Inquiry following the interruption in Carmen, and we knew definitively after the Grand Prix Final that there was nothing Scott and Tessa could do, or DW NOT do, to win, this thing still leaves a stench that's not going away.

What this sport did was spit on itself. It made a DECISION to do so. It's more than awarding a dumbed down, tricked out, politically enabled dance team. In order to do that the sport had to turn around and intentionally repress every single standard of the sport, everything it tells the world ice dance ought to be, everything it has said figure skating is meant to be, down to what is stroking, what are edges, what is speed, what is rhythm  - down to every fundamental, this sport repressed the team that fulfills/executes the defined standards of this sport better than anybody before and likely, better than anybody since, in order to reward a team that faked it. It's not just that DW were given a gold medal (they certainly did not win it). It's what the sport did to itself - pretty much shat itself - sorry - to get it done.

Some people complain about - isn't there going to be an investigation?

This was happening in plain sight for almost two years. Not just the elevation of Davis White, but the suppression of Virtue Moir. Everybody saw it coming. If anybody was interested in investigating/stopping, they'd have done it a long time ago.

But as soon as Skate Canada gave the green light, why would anybody bother? Skate Canada left the doors unlocked, the lights on and the safe open.

It looks to me as if Virtue and Moir had resolved to be at peace with the results, but it's turning out to be a little more of a task than they expected.

As usual, everybody is focusing on coaching (and Virtue and Moir re-affirmed their faith in Marina after going overly-reality show in post-competition remarks), and not focusing on Federations.

One timeline as I remember it is Marina mentioned in a Vancouver-era interview that the USFSA gave her the third degree about Phantom - wanting to know why Virtue Moir got Mahler and Davis White got seemingly overused, second hand goods.

In 2011-2012, the USFSA kicked Le Strada to the curb and Marina had to set the program to new music with different timing. The USFSA knew what it was doing with Davis White. The USFSA knew what it was aiming to pull off with Davis White.

Meantime, in 2009-2010, Skate Canada assured us that the judging was going to be pristine in Vancouver.

In 2010-2011 Skate Canada proactively pushed Scott and Tessa's lies at us.

And after that, VM were somehow dumped.

Tessa and Scott have never played ball in the same way Davis White have played ball; this is a very petty, obviously 100% political-is-personal and vice versa sport, and maybe some people thought Virtue and Moir were uppity - even in their own Federation.

In 2011-2012 Skate Canada threw Tessa and Scott under the bus at Canadians (Funny Face), and had nothing to say about Funny Face versus Die Fleudermaus - it was all about promoting Gilles & Poirier.

In 2012-2013 Skate Canada threw Scott and Tessa under the bus at Canadians and then backed it up and ran it over them a few times and played "me too" with the ISU by downgrading a key element, forcing VM to rework it and use another. That's the ISU's game - suddenly Skate Canada was playing.

It had nothing to say when mud was slung at Virtue and Moir after the 4CC's interruption. Nor after the Letter of Inquiry from the ISU.

IOW, Skate Canada said to the ISU and the judges at large - do what you want with them. We won't protest. We'll help when we can.

It let Virtue and Moir swing in the wind.

The USFSA, meantime, to say the LEAST, was busy protecting Davis White, from awarding them monstrously inflated scores at every Nationals to dumping the team (Shibutanis) that had been nipping at their heels in 2011.

Skate Canada had nothing to say after the Grand Prix Final 2014 when the ISU hijacked VM's scores, gave them to Davis White and added a bonus so Davis White could win, even though Virtue and Moir had resoundingly defeated Davis White on the ice.

There's more - the U.S. had no problem whatsoever taking potshots at Virtue and Moir (go back and read ice network), while Skate Canada fell over itself promoting the notion that Davis White versus Virtue Moir was "apples and oranges" or a matter of preference, or too close to call because Davis White were superb.

Skate Canada has no conflict of interest. Skate Canada isn't supposed to promote U.S. skaters. Skate Canada spent as much time promoting Meryl and Charlie as being on par with Virtue Moir as it did promoting Virtue Moir - actually much more time, because it didn't promote Virtue Moir at all.

Did the USFSA show respect in turn, acknowledge Virtue Moir as incredible skaters and dangerous rivals?

Virtue Moir who?

It's fine if people want to spit and hiss at Marina Zoueva, who gave Virtue Moir much better programs than the dumbed down reheated material she gave Davis White every year, but I find it outright bizarre that the one entity that is meant to promote Virtue Moir and ONLY Virtue Moir - did worse nothing. Washed their hands. Touted the American rivals. Didn't utter a peep after Virtue and Moir were ripped off at the Grand Prix Final.

What did Mike Slipchuck say after the Sochi free dance? He sounded like freaking Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: "For those who find the results questionable, those will be questionable results."

But never mind, these things happen. (Paraphrasing)


And that was ONLY after the free dance. He couldn't bring himself to question the seven point differential in the team event. After all, Virtue and Moir made a visible wobble and we all know Davis and White made no mistakes, except they did, as they do every single time.

Thanks Mike. I can't wait to hear the fuming from SC next time RUSSIA does something. Since the L'Equipe article came out, again, it was Canada blaming RUSSIA and running interference for the U.S., because it looks to me as if Skate Canada loves Meryl and Charlie as much as the USFSA does.

Yes, you should have, Bev

Something is rotten in the state of sochi

She says she should have written this a long time ago. Well, YES.

But here are excepts:

Virtue and Moir skated the performance of their lives, easy to see in Moir’s reaction when he did a joyful, spontaneous dance when they finished. When the marks came up, I knew it was over. They weren’t going to win this one. And of course, they were dinged in the Finnstep, receiving a level three, rather than four, although Tracy Wilson on NBC had said they were clean. Of course, they were called for making a mistake. They always are.  It’s always something.

*****

And what about Davis and White’s levels in Sochi? They received level four for all of their elements, wrapped up in huge execution and component marks. It seems that every time they set foot on the ice, they set a world record – and they did again in the short dance.

*****

And the Americans set a world record? During the team event, a television camera clearly caught Davis and White out of unison going into twizzles. But did those sharp-eyed callers catch it? Apparently not. Are skaters being judged by the same standards?

She also goes into DW more and asks if the Emporer is wearing new clothes, that the narrative has overpowered the judging. Well, DUH.

But who listens to fans?

Meantime, Lynn Rutherford at ice network is busy tweeting that past unfair scores justify yesterday's unfair scores, and scores can't possibly be unfair. If she has to diss the inventor of the Finn Step to make that point, she will:

I'd also like to know how come the fans aren't shown a close-up in slo mo of the supposed missed level?

Robbery in Progress

This excerpt from Rosie DiManno's new article (thanks 5:02, below):

Said Moir: “We sat in the kiss ’n’ cry and looked at each other and said, it doesn’t matter, because that was the moment we wanted to have.”

He was asked: Do you feel like you can win gold?

“Who knows?”

I think everybody knows.

Why was the lift changed?

Lynn Rutherford (and others) appear to be confirming that Scott and Tessa have changed the first lift so that Scott remains in a spread eagle. Rutherford understands this will help them get Level 4 on steps WHICH MAKES NO SENSE.

What make sense to me is this is the third or fourth time the judges or the isu have given last minute feedback to Virtue and Moir to ditch or amend the most spectacular, accessible element in their program. The public and the press might not be able to tell sloppy feet from clean feet, two feet from one foot, closed hold from open hold, lifts with many points of contact from lifts with no redundancy at all, but the public can tell a spectacular move from a pedestrian-looking move, no matter if the spectacular looking move takes extraordinary skating skills (Scott and Tessa's original straight line) or has nothing to do with skating skills whatsoever (DW' sling the backpack lift).

Now DW have what APPEARS to the casual viewers to be a "spectacular" move where Charlie slings her up onto his back in a counter-motion, while Scott has Tessa in what looks to be a simple pose while she's in arabesque. That should make the silver medal go down easier to both media and public.

For what?

Patrick Chan upholds the tradition of Canadian silver medalists in the men's discipline. How badly Canada must want gold in MEN's. Canadian skating seems a little obsessed with all things MEN in general.

At least Chan managed better than Kurt Browning.

 



 



I put this into a post because it of course plays into the position of those in the comments section who believe that Skate Canada threw Virtue and Moir under the bus - handed them to the USFSA as a chew toy - in order to smooth Chan's path to the top of the Olympic podium. And now, oops, Canada has another men's silver medalist it doesn't need, and it has already thrown itself 100% behind the bogus position that all of Virtue and Moir's losses to Davis and White have been fair, including the GPF 2014. So there's that. Patrick may be apologizing because it was all for nothing.

At least this makes sense

Counterpunch (DW aren't as good as VM)

Here's an excerpt:

The French sports magazine L’Equipe reported last Friday a rumor that a deal was in the works between the Russians and the Americans. The deal was that the American judges would support the Russian skaters in the newly instituted “team competition” in exchange for support from the Russian (and possibly other Eastern European) judges for the American Dance team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White in the individual dance competition. Sadly, that rumor sounds all too plausible. Despite the gold won by the Russian pairs team yesterday, for the first time in many years, Russia was not well positioned going into the Olympics to win any individual gold medals in figure skating, so a team gold would certainly be very attractive (and face saving) for them. At the same time, Davis and White, while they have been mysteriously beating their Canadian rivals and defending Olympic champions, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, for the last couple of years, are not nearly so good as the latter. It could thus be difficult for them to continue their inexplicable winning streak at an event so visible as the Olympics without some help from the Russian judges.

My only dispute here is that, since the sport has worked for two years to unfairly elevate DW over VM so that their win over VM would go unquestioned in the Olympics,  they wouldn't require a Russian trade-off to make it happen.  Furthermore, it doesn't matter that this is an incredibly visible competition if nobody knows what the fuck they're looking at. Daylight robbery is simple under these circumstances.

The fix was ALREADY in.  Even the ISU got in on the act with its "Letter of Inquiry" about 4CC's 2013, helping to facilitate the bullshit that Tessa and Scott took a break cause they were afraid they couldn't beat DW on the merits.

Well they CAN'T because the sport won't allow it.

This does remind me of S&P versus B&S when everybody preferred to squawk about the French judge instead of looking at the two long programs to decide who deserved to win the gold. It happened like that back then because back then the figure skating journalists didn't understand figure skating and figure skating worked hard to make sure they didn't. If you look at the vast difference between the two teams, B&S the clearly superior team, superior running away, one wonders, when looking back at 2002, why a deal would have had to be made to insure that the superior team won the gold medal.  Even if one believes the French judge, instead of suspecting she was pressured to confess she was pressured. Why would a DEAL have to be made to help the better team win? I mean suppose it was true - isn't that a scandal in itself -that a DEAL would have to be made to be sure the better team won at the Olympics?

Same thing now. Figure skating journalists claim the fact that Meryl and Charlie are winning justifies their coming win in Sochi, no deals required. NOBODY is asking why Meryl and Charlie have been winning because nobody is capable of looking at the skating in an informed manner and judging it according to CoP's own rules and criteria. NOBODY. They just go straight to - the story must be a Russian plant!

This would not happen in any other sport. Journalists and media would scrutinize the GAME, the players, from an educated standpoint as part of the process of weighing the merits of the claim. Here there is no weighing of the merits because nobody writing about it knows what the fuck they're talking about when it come to skating, and the ISU and the skating world is falling over itself  making certain ignorance remains the journalistic standard in the skating world.

The scoffing at "L'Equipe" doen't prevent some journalist from casting aspersions on what may be going on in the ladies division, cause ... Russia.  There, it's perfectly possible a deal has been struck, right? No need to look at the skating there, either. 

Also interesting to me that the response to L'Equipe has been to look at Tessa Virtue instead of looking at Davis White.

I want to congratulate Moore-Towers Moscovitch for finishing fifth at their first Olympics, a higher finish than real, actual Canadian skating stars Dube Davison finished in either of their trips to the games.

But then I remembered this:

Nor by Olympic results either, I'd imagine, since this Ontario skating insider couldn't possibly have been wrong. We've all seen over the past few years that when there's brains being handed out, the Ontario figure skating community likes to get up early.

Congratulations MTM! Even though very few people in Canada like you, *I* like you!

I confess, I could not get through Episodes 6 & 7 of Tessa & Scott. They may not feel humiliated but I felt humiliated for them, straight across the board: the horrific penis stuff, finding out Tessa's a psychopath, realizing Cassandra's a low talker:

and how the whole thing appeared set up as a companion piece to their inexorable march to Sochi gold and how it just sort of curled up and turned to dust, a little artifact of delusion.

Re the shot of Cassandra above - we saw her at the point in Ep. 6* when Tessa v.o.'d that they weren't introduced (because that makes sense) because Scott is so good at keeping his private life from his skating life, which is why you'd need a yeti-sized proctoscope to get his family out from up the ass of his skating career.

Then I enjoyed this gif:

So you know, this was completely accidental, per tumblr.
He is not kissing her.
This is what makes me laugh when people want to know
how they could hide a baby.They could have a little
girl walking between them wearing an "I'm Tessa and Scott's daughter"
sandwich board and these fans would explain to us it meant something different.

What are they doing up there? I'll have to go over to fsu to find out how this fits into their reality show narrative of their relationship, not to mention their narrative of the story of their free dance, because I seem to always get it wrong.

I think I have just about resigned myself to the free dance results, although I am still flabbergasted that ANYBODY in Moirville on social media professes to be somewhat in the dark about how the results in the team dance came about. Perhaps Moirville hasn't been paying attention the past two years because they've been focusing on other things.

_______________
*I checked out, but did not exactly watch, Ep. 6. I heard about something in it and thought I could have fun with it, but when I ff to that part of the episode it was too dull.  Before I gave up, though, I was at least cheered by another glimpse of this pretty face:



Still have both condoms?

Hoisted by their own petard?

First, I want to share this link:

DW's scores explode

This is a piece by Jacquelyn Thayer, one of the best ice dance journalists out there (not a backhanded compliment by any means despite there being so FEW decent ice dance writers anywhere. Her work stands up to anyone's.). She reports for icedance.com as well as her own site, two for the ice, which hosts the article linked above. Thayer is much admired by many, including this blog, for her rigor, research, good taste and, not least, an incisive, waste-not, want-not voice that appears inspired by E.B. White's famous mantra: "Make every word tell."

Now:

The conversation in the blog has noted many times that Scott and Tessa's hoax has been a group effort. Over the years they've been enabled by Skate Canada, by Arctic Edge, by Meryl and Charlie and other teammates, by every skating insider, by every skating commentator. All of them have contributed to hoaxing us, to hustling us, to, basically, lying about us and attempting to gaslight us. Prior to 4CC's 2011, Mike "nothing to see here" Slipchuk was out there hustling, telling us to expect TWO TWO TWO performances from Virtue and Moir, letting us know Virtue and Moir ("and the other Canadians") had arrived in Taipei. MAN they were anxious to let us know Virtue and Moir were there to skate two programs, in case any one suspected that maybe they were there for some other reason, which is only natural, since that happens all the time - skaters enter a competition, arrive at the competition, but do something else instead. Right? Not Scott  and Tessa! They were going to skate TWO programs.

It's not a small thing. Even broadcast networks got in on the act. After all, back in Vancouver, Jessica Dube was a high profile member of the Canadian figure skating team with a colorful back story (the face slash) and, was for the free dance, planted among the Moir family so we couldn't miss her, and the Moir family had a giant ass camera set up to record their reactions. NBC didn't see fit to mention her presence. Why not? Why wasn't that relationship part of NBC's package for Virtue and Moir? Think of the interviews Virtue and Moir gave during that time, and yet not a single journalist thought it relevant to ask Scott how Jessica felt about Virtue and Moir winning gold while she and Bryce had disappointing skates and did that impact their relationship in any way?

It begs disbelief to think most of the ISU in power don't know that Virtue and Moir are the married parents of a little girl, don't know Virtue and Moir are aggressively marketing huge lies. David Dore for damn sure knows. Benoit Lavoie certainly knows. NONE of these people had a word with them, advised them that it would be a good idea to tone it down? That arrogantly flaunting how untouchable you are is not the right way to engage with the public for their sport, that there are obvious long term pitfalls not just for their credibility but the sport's credibility? The sport had some influence, surely, and if word had reached VM to cool it, they'd have cooled it.

Apparently that didn't happen. The sport just gave VM enough rope and when the time was right, yanked, and it was a noose.

Setting aside the fact that the more one looks at this cast of thousands, the more offended one becomes when considering how the ante has continually been raised, offended by how NOBODY in this entire machine appears to think there's a single thing wrong with proactively stuffing a lie down the throat of the public while simultaneously blaming them for it, sees nothing wrong with proactively marketing a complete hoax while flaunting the contempt they feel for the poor suckers they're screwing with - while ENJOYING that contempt - you have to figure there's a whole lot more wrong with this sport than the scoring for Davis White. It's holistic. The sport got involved with it, the sport helped them out. As the blog has said before, this isn't about a zone of privacy, this isn't about rote denials - nobody's playing defense. This is aggressive.

When the blog has talked about karma being organic, this is what it looks like. Scott and Tessa's hoax is enmeshed in the ISU infrastructure, or certainly was when it counted, as much as it is in Moirville. It was propogated by the commentariat as well, all of whom knew what they were pushing at us was a lie.

And it certainly looks as if now that this same infrastructure has decided to fuck over Scott and Tessa with lies about the scores Davis and White deserve for what they put on the ice, Scott and Tessa are trapped because of the lies this same infrastructure has enabled them to tell about their lives.

Their lies have screwed their competitive viability vis a vis Davis and White. Their community, which  preens itself about skating being everything, has FUCKED OVER this sport and their own skaters because they've used the system, the relationships, the organization, to advance an agenda that has nothing to do with skating, that's organized around a huge public lie, which meant that when the organization turned around and decided to fuck them over, they could do nothing because everybody has the goods on them.

I hope it was worth it, because not only did they screw themselves, WE got screwed on both ends. We got screwed by continually being sold a hoax and blamed for the hoax, and, more importantly, we got thoroughly and completely fucked over as fans of ice dance, thanks to the greatest ice dancers of all time.

Scott and Tessa - NICE JOB.

P.S. VM have spent their careers, with of course, the eager assist of the media as well as various skating insiders -  working overtime to undermine the credibility of the public - wait, not the public - THEIR FANS - painting us as a bunch of pathetic, delusional headcases drunk on fantasy, fans who just can't get it through our heads that they are not a couple. Never mind that outside of this blog, the primary message from all of Virtue and Moir's fans is they are not a couple. Go to fsu and goldenskate; they're not a couple. Never mind that though - we're fucking crazy.

That means that, thanks to Virtue and Moir, we can easily be painted as fucking delusional about the skating as well. So VM, THANKS.

This is also how it happens off the ice

Suddenly, Davis and White exist. Suddenly it's okay to notice their actual skating:

Here's Beverly Smith on the article in L'Equipe:

russia-u-s-have-vote-swapping-deal-to-deny-virtue-moir-ice-dance-gold-says-lequipe

L'Equipe broke the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.

If one is better than the other, I really hope they [judges] let it happen,” says Paul MacIntosh, a dance coach who developed Virtue and Moir, but who also admires Davis and White. “I do fear. I was worried at Grand Prix Final, because I thought Tessa and Scott were spot on. And we didn’t win either portion, but we were better both days, way better the first day. For sure. No question. “And they didn’t let it happen.”

AND

In Europe, judges currently seem poised to drop Virtue and Moir should they put a foot wrong in Sochi — but Davis and White aren’t facing the same scrutiny. One source said: “I know a few on the panel might even stick [French team Natalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat] second in the free dance if Virtue and Moir make a mistake.” Davis and White aren’t seen to make mistakes.

*****

Davis and White are known for their speed and their memorable routine to Die Fledermaus a couple of years ago, which stuck in the mind of MacIntosh. “It was like they had wings,” he said. However, there is a difference between speed and power. Virtue and Moir are the most powerful skaters in the world, says Ann Shaw, a Canadian who originally set out the code of points for ice dancing. White sometimes gathers speed by “wide-stepping” like a hockey player, one expert said. Davis gains speed with hops and jumps, not edges. The rules specifically discourage excessive amounts of toe steps. On the other hand, Virtue and Moir derive their speed from rhythmic knee action, which makes the stroke appear effortless.

WHERE HAVE THESE PEOPLE BEEN FOR TWO YEARS?

This is how it works. Somebody ELSE finally gets in front and says what everybody else already knows. Once it's out in the open, it's like floodgates - here comes everybody. But  nobody will speak up until somebody else first takes the flak. This is the pattern everywhere - in politics, in sport. The reporting of these subjects is every bit as political as the topics they're supposed to be covering.

The time for this topic to have been thoroughly aired was TWO YEARS ago, if not sooner. Not days before the Olympic ice dance competition. Some of the people now speaking up have been the same people pretending Virtue and Moir and Davis and White were equally superior, with the edge to Davis White.

If one reads up on the first Clinton sex "scandal" - Ginnifer Flowers - one way the mainstream media covered the story was to cover the coverage of the story (unlike later sex scandals that were positioned as abuse of office - Monica Lewinsky in the case of Clinton, prostitutes in the case of Elliot Spitzer - the Flowers story was straight up infidelity and considered a marginal topic for mainstream media).

By pretending to report on the gossip rag coverage of the story instead of directly reporting on the story, mainstream news entities maintained their serious, legit media bona fides while reaping the benefits of salacious tabloidesque content.

Here, everybody is letting L'Equipe' take the hit - everybody is now looking at the skating of Davis White, suddenly it's okay to talk about the skating of Davis White, suddenly everybody notices Davis and White don't skate - under the guise of reporting L'Equipe's claims.

This is how it works or would work with Virtue and Moir's lies about their personal life as well. Some other entity would have to decide it was worth blowing open, and then everybody else would ride the wake of that coverage, telling us what was being reported, and in the process, it would become obvious that they, too, knew it was true.

Just  as now, people are reporting on L'Equipe's claims while demonstrating they've been aware all along that Davis White have been receiving dubious scores, demonstrating all along they know CoP scores can be juiced. Shit, the article above specifically notes that scores can be gamed so that Virtue and Moir's lowest scores aren't thrown out but Davis and White's are. In a sport that is won on tenths of a point, there's nothing easier.

It should also be noted that fans have been talking about this for years. In other sports, the media reports what fans are saying. Not in figure skating. In figure skating, they make up what fans are saying.

A whole lot too late from Beverly Smith

Beverly Smith calls Virtue and Moir the best in the world and tells us why

Of course the ice dance segment of the team competition is this weekend, so this accomplishes precisely nothing.

This article implicitly takes down Davis and White - but fails to mention Davis and White. Why?

Figure skating is a competitive sport. The Olympics are NOW. It's not performance art. It's not an evening of dance vignettes. It's not apples to oranges. It's apples to apples - the skating skills and dancing of this team verus that team for the Olympic championship.

There is no reason for this article to exist other than to take down Davis and White, but apparently if you mention their names in conjunction with criticism the ISU strips your credentials and you're banned from the sport. Has to be. In ladies singles the ladies are compared CONSTANTLY. Pairs, the same. Men as well. Just not the top two in dance. One cannot notice that Davis and White are being rewarded for flaunting the sport's own rules and standards, and for skating with inferior, dumbed down technique. One can only point out all that Virtue and Moir are doing and pretend everybody knows what you're really saying. But you're not allowed to really say it.

If you're not going to really say it, what is the point?

Here's Smith:

So what is it that they do so well that makes them the best ice dance team in the world, perhaps of all time (Robin Cousins once compared them to Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.)  Well, the way their bodies move, for one thing. They stretch their bodies. One canny expert explains that they straighten their knees and point their toes, they extend their necks upward, they open their chests, using their entire bodies to interpret music. Virtue in particular has a very mobile torso and they both arch their backs to create shapes, and they involve their hips and shoulders like no one else to produce movement that the style and rhythm of dance commands. Their movement is beautifully coordinated. They complete their movements, with extended legs and arms. The tension in their bodies’ changes as the music dictates. The tension is never static.
The foxtrot of the short dance this season calls for a sway – and they have a gorgeous sway – and the rise and fall of a soft knee. Says Ann Shaw, guru of international ice dance: “You’re supposed to have an elegant look, and use your knees in the foxtrot and have a syncopation of approach. [In the quickstep] they have an elegant upright, light airy look, and they have the best interpretation of the rhythms required of anybody this year. They interpret the quickstep and foxtrot like nobody else does.”
Speed? It’s supposed to come from rhythmic knee action, since the rules specifically discourage excessive amounts of toe steps. This is no problem for Virtue and Moir, because, Shaw says, they are the most powerful skaters in the world. Speed is just the velocity across the ice, no matter how you get there. It is not the same as power. Some are fooled by speed, but how is it generated? Virtue and Moir have a hidden power, that comes from deep knee bends, and it allows them to float across the ice. Their stroking is so smooth and well-matched, that it appears effortless.

Is there a LAW somewhere that says one can't say the names of Davis and White, can't point out that they DON'T do these things? That the excessive toe action and two-footing that enables speed without glide and big curves is discouraged by the rules, not meant to be rewarded by the rules with record-shattering scores?

It is COMPETITION. Why are Virtue and Moir's competition not mentioned in this article?

Every single point loudly and implicitly tells us that Charlie and Meryl do NOT do what Virtue and Moir do, that everything they do is dumbed down and inferior.

What use is implication? WHY is it against the political law to CALL OUT MERYL AND CHARLIE.

Smith here cites unattributed experts and attributed experts, she speaks from an informed perspective, she understands the sport, she understands the rules, but she will not mention that Meryl and Charlie have been rewarded this year, and most assuredly this weekend, and next week, for skating that is manifestly, by the rules, inferior to Scott and Tessa's.

WHY NOT?

What’s more, Virtue and Moir can vary their speed and change direction seamlessly – important in the transitions category of the program component mark and also the choreography category to some extent. They can slow to a stop, and then regain top speed in three or four strokes. The variation of speed allows for the shades and light of interpretation. They change dance holds frequently, easily, eschewing the same-direction skating that is so much easier. “Their movement from one hold to another is just like little rose petals unfolding,” Shaw said. “It’s superb. They skate in close relation all the time. But you are never aware that they are changing hold. They sort of fold into each other – and I think that is superior to anybody.”

Footwork? Virtue and Moir have challenging footwork with big curves. The size of the curve that a skater’s edge creates is important, and never more so than in footwork sequences. Virtue and Moir trace huge arcs with their edges both into and out of their turns. They have dainty, precise feet.

Lifts? From a young age, when Virtue and Moir began to learn more difficult lifts, Virtue was taught to feel like she was doing the lift herself, rather than the male partner forcing the woman somewhere and the women reacts. “She moves herself from one position to another and she doesn’t wait for Scott to move her,” says Marijane Stong, known for her knowledge of dance, music, and costuming. “That was when she was quite young and she has maintained that. Ballet dancers don’t wait for the man to put them somewhere.”

In other words, Virtue has an ability to manage her own body in the lifts. Rather than Moir supporting Virtue, there are fewer points of contact between them during a lift, and Virtue extends her own free leg, without help from the partner. The positions in their lifts require a lot of strength in Virtue’s core and hips and back. Their style of stroking also is taxing on the legs, knees and thighs. This team is physically strong.

This is a waste of time. Everybody knows Virtue and Moir can do these things. Nobody is calling out that Davis & White DON'T do these things. The sport didn't hesitate to call out Plushenko's deficiencies in 2010 - the lack of transitions, the posing, the absence of non-jump content. They didn't just hype Lysacek - they went after Plushenko, specifically. Frank Carroll pointed out he saw a lot of jumps in Plushenko's programs and not much else - that was his reaction to the scores.

How come only in ice dance has everybody been silenced about Meryl and Charlie? Beverly Smith giving more support to Tessa and Scott than they've bothered to generate for themselves is pointless when the scoring is all "Us too - PLUS" for Davis and White. The only value in this type of deconstruction is to point out what Davis and White are NOT doing and ask why they're scored as if they are. And even in Canada, one dares not say.

Every word of this has Davis and White between the lines. Every syllable. Yet Smith won't or dares not come out and say it.

Moreover, it's only days before the first event. Why did she wait this long?

I'm just amazed, amazed, that someone in the skating world is bringing all of this up but failing to mention Davis and White and only getting specific about Virtue and Moir's superiority when it's too late.

In keeping with the two-year trend of Davis White committing glitches, mistakes and oops's, and everyone agreeing to say they didn't, let's look at these video comparisons shared in a comments section further down.

With thanks once again to canadablue.

GPF:

Start at 2:53

Nationals.

At 7:11



At 6:45



Kaitlyn Weaver at 4:45



I don't know if the segment edits will transfer - I think not, but the videos are worth it in their entirety and I've noted the minute/second point for the relevant segment.

Skate America

at 2:43



NHK

2:47




These videos help establish that the entire Canadian team has pushed past Davis White. NOBODY is skating like Davis and White. Nobody else's programs look like Davis and White's. Why? These are the programs that are winning and will win in Sochi. Moreover, they have a clear, easily deconstructed formula with lots of filler, and dumbed down lift mechanics that receive monster scores. WHY are no other teams doing what they do or even imitating?

Also let's link to this:

http://daviswhite2014.blogspot.com

Davis and White out of synch in their Level 4, +3 Twizzles at the GPF.
And the screen cap doesn't show Charlie's stumble into the
entrance of the sequence.
As noted in the comments section, Davis & White
only do two twizzles, and one of them was this
much out of synch.
+3!

Virtue and Moir's power and speed crushes Davis White's. So naturally, the skating chattering class, even those who pretend to be Virtue Moir supporters, say these are the only areas where Davis White best Virtue Moir. What - these are the areas that have traditionally won in ice dance? You don't say.

In fact if you shut up and slept the
whole way it would be great.

Look at them sitting together on the plane,
something they never ever do.

As DW's p.r. hammers home they have
exactly zero competition, not even Scott and Tessa
(who have become nameless in a lot of DW hype),
the reality show reminds us that everybody
is VM's competition, and they still struggle
to separate themselves.

"It's hard to know if it's skating that has kept us
together, or if it's our marriage, small daughter,
and lying. We might get rid of all of it
after we retire."

I love how incredibly uncomfortable Scott looks at times when Tessa lies, such as when she says they had to come to Paris to spend time together off the ice. But when it comes to hyping up his dick, he's all over that. He's got emasculation panic or his family/community does, and she is a straight up psychopath.

I'm going to put up some of the skating videos later. It feels a bit futile, as if it's beating a dead horse. We KNOW what's going on. We don't need to prove it. But I think it's important to have it there anyway.

Episode 5, Part 2

Who will get the Final Condom.

"I love coming home. I have a great group
of guys that I grew up with ..."

Who knew Scott was 42?

News alert. Scott has a penis.

Well - maybe not.

Tessa is one rough-looking twelve-year old.
"What do you say if you try to pick up a guy?"

Just FYI, at least two of the school girls in that tub are married women.

Don't come round here with your feminist
nonsense, sweetheart.

Let me tell you how to get a guy.

Damn. She's been so sure of yourself up til now.

Part three to come.

The Fifth Episode (Nothing Sacred)

I've already vented elsewhere but I've got enough in me to re-vent, and my main thing is - I will never understand how context makes it okay to throw what's valuable and sacred in your life under the bus. 

Scott and Tessa treat their public relations like a toxic waste dump. Forget the insult to the public that's obvious in that. What is in them that WANTS to do that? How profound must their stupid be to believe that putting the opposite of the truth on parade protects their private lives? The opposite of being married isn't contempt. Every move they make reveals something about them I don't think anybody wants to know.

Everything they want to accomplish (or appear to want to accomplish) is possible to accomplish without this degree of contempt and degradation. It's not even that they're lying. It's the nature of their lies. Their lies are like a grotesque experiment in virtual boundary breaching. There are a million ways to convey "we're platonic" and there were a million ways to stage this "reality show" facade without copping to their actual reality, but they chose this. It's the package that is so blood-curdling with them, because it's not necessary to their agenda, so the package they chose shows us something else about them.

In addition, this reality show is pandering to the crap on the internet that Scott and Tessa claim not to read. It's another way of pissing on the public. These two - and theirs - must be epic levels of stupid to get off on one-upping internet message boards. They have a taste for humiliation that borders on sadistic. The fact that this reality show plays into message board speculation encourages the posters on those boards to set themselves up and humiliate themselves even further.

I was saying - not on the blog - that I was hoping that the absolutely hateful, stupid narrative of this reality show would make it easier to deal with the silver medal Tessa and Scott are assured of winning in Sochi, but that's not true. I don't think I will EVER be reconciled to a Davis White gold medal and the stone cold corruption that will make it reality. I'd be more at ease if B&S won gold, because they actually skate. And the very fact that the promotional push for DW absolutely ignores the fact of Virtue and Moir's existence because there's no way to acknowledge Virtue and Moir and still position DW's slated win as deserved just emphasizes how corrupt this win is going to be, and IMO, like all medals awarded this way, it's going to stick in skating's craw for decades. It's not going to be what the ISU appears to be setting up - a just this once situation and then we can all move on. Maybe if it weren't at the expense of Virtue and Moir's skating. But given that the win will be over VM's skating, it will, IMO, permanently damage ice dance long after the two teams retire.

At least Scott looks pretty.

The bright spot in this for me is Johnny Johns.

Don't cut her open. Not only will snakes and frogs escape,
the acid will melt your face.

I can't with Tessa whiffing the golf swing and Scott pretending he's going to be a redneck after figure skating.

Gross.

Here comes Scott's penis. He's not fucking Tessa except he is, and all of his friends are jealous and would love some of that action. That's his wife. But because they're pretending that's not his wife, but his platonic partner, they script a scene where all of his buddies talk about how they want to get with Tessa, because that's the sort of scene people want to act out about their wives. All hail Scott's penis.

Also, how romantically successful are Scott's "buddies"? They all act like they're in middle school and he's envied because he's the first to have a girlfriend.

At least it was a very realistic conversation a man would have about his platonic business partner in front of his girlfriend.

To be continued.