Sunday, June 1, 2014

I think many figure skating fans have already read Jacquelyn Thayer’s most terrific new interview on her popular Two for the Ice web site, which features this quote from Alexandra Paul of the Canadian team Paul/Islam:

“After Skate Canada, [Krylova] decided that we needed more of a bold costume,” says Paul. “The gray was too subtle and too light and she wanted us to stand out more and look more dramatic. As soon as we got these costumes made, we stepped on the ice for just a practice in them, and it was just amazing. Everybody was saying how much different it made the program look, just from a costume change and looking bolder on the ice. So you can thank Anjelika for that one."

I loved the new costumes. Particularly Alex’s beautiful dress. But it continues to disturb, how much the conversation about ice dance revolves around everything but the actual skating and dancing. "Impact" is a word I'm learning to hate in connection to ice dance, because in practice it means "impression", not content. "Effective" is in the same category. Yes, ice dance, as in all figure skating, has a performance component, but a reading of the rules and guidelines reveals that the performance component is actually a technical category, just as "presentation" used to be a technical category under 6.0. A lot of fans don’t bother understanding that, because the broadcast commentators prefer to perpetuate the erroneous idea that it’s “opinion” “taste” and “trend”. It doesn't mean acting, chemistry (connection, as revealed in skating and dancing, is different than "chemistry"), program theme, music, style, or personality. It is all grounded in execution, techniqiue and skill. I don't know if judges are dumb, explicitly schooled in all of this bullshit and none of them ask how come the rules aren't getting all of the emphasis, or if it all goes to the corruption that's been driving the sport, most particularly this past quad.

There are a ton of great quotes from Paul/Islam in this article, including pretty rare specifics about the Olympic environment, training schedule and pressured, constricted practice time, but I do want to mention this:

“You know, when you see a team for example going around hand-in-hand, just stroking, stroking, stroking, that’s something that we want to stay away from as an ice dance team.”

Well, they'll never win Olympic gold in that case, but good for them.

It’s a shame that the “fashion” for ice dance is not to actually skate or dance on ice, and IMO it may have played a role in their ridiculous 18th place finish in Sochi. I think if ice dance is going to be about fashion, trends, impact, effectiveness, and style, the rulebook needs to reflect this. Right now we have a rulebook saying one thing and everybody else – the judges, the commentators, the journalists, the skaters – telling us the rulebook is irrelevant to the outcome. The rulebook is about skating skills, yet we all know you can have the best skating skills, and execute the most and the best in a given competition, and it will be blithely treated as a sidebar to the competition with no explanation as to why an event that is about skating skills considers them an also-ran in the outcome.

Elsewhere in skating, here's Tessa, Scott and SC team members at ACGM. I guess they're still part of Team Canada, or else they've forgotten it's post Olympics 2014, not post-Olympics 2010. Tessa is certainly dressing like it:


And this article from Faces Magazine, where Scott and Tessa allude to judging politics, and getting the short end of the stick, but then default to saying all the skaters are technically sound, so the outcome comes down to style and personal preference, so what can you do. We all know this is exactly how it's laid out in CoP.  As usual, Tessa and Scott take a topic, walk in a big circle around it visiting the sights, and wind up back at zero.

And this:

.”


David Dore is the vice president of the ISU. He's the highest ranking ISU official from a figure skating background. The President, Cinquanta, is a former speed skater.

Dore presided over an Olympic quad during which Davis White received scores they didn't earn, according to CoP's own rules, standards and criteria, and during which Virtue and Moir were stripped of points and continuously had showcase elements gutted under one pretext or another, the last time after they arrived in Sochi and learned that they risked losing points on their step sequence if they left in their spectacular showcase straightline lift. Yes, because it's VM that have timing issues, not DW.

How did this happen? For four years Dore, the vice president, had no idea what was going on in the ice dance scoring? He had no idea that Virtue and Moir were being low-balled and held to a double standard? He did his job in earnest, and it was others, lower down in the ISU hierarchy, who elevated DW and lowballed/trip-wired/whispering-campaigned Virtue and Moir, and it never ever came to his attention?

There you go. #great person. He's WONDERFUl for skating.

That's the "sport".

29 comments:

  1. As much as I adore Tracy Wilson, something that's always annoyed me about her commentary is when she says things like, "Virtue and Moir sometimes get too caught up in themselves and the emotions of the storyline and let the technical slip a little bit."

    Given how Virtue and Moir skate, that kind of comment doesn't make sense. Sure, like all teams they occasionally make mistakes on elements and what not. But if they aren't nailing the skating technique, they couldn't get "caught up" in the emotional aspects of their performances because the two things cannot be separated from one another. If they aren't doing the right things with their blades and their body movements aren't precise, they wouldn't have the freedom to play with the characterizations like they do. That stuff doesn't exist independently of the skating skills, it's all part of the same technical whole.

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  2. It's amazing how icedance in the last quad has become everything but the dance and skating. And with VM and PB out of the picture - it will be interesting to see who sells out their skating over the next year or two to be on the podium...no wonder the "sport" is in decline...I really do feel like Paul/Islam have a great attitude and really enjoy skating...and I wish them the best of luck...
    Kudos to Jacquelyn Thayer's articles on icedance...they are a breath of fresh air and really give an insight to the teams and how this Olympic experience was for PI...it further emphasizes how well VM dealt with the pressure and how they skated knowing full well especially after the team event that DW were going to be handed the individual gold and that IK were going to be given a nice push...
    Anon at 12:43 pm - couldn't agree with you more - unless you have the technical prowess and confidence - you push yourself. Its the whole package...hell the emotional/character is part of the dance - whether for VM is the tango romantica, farrucas, a joyous waltz, etc...the improvizations is what makes it great and what we enjoy about a program growing throughout the season...otherwise we might as well watch robots - which we see enough of in single and pair skaters thank you very much...art is subjective and we all get that..but I honestly think long term fans of VM - get the "whole" picture...and let's be honest the technical 'slip" here and there is so ridiculous that VM should have a 5 point technical cushion over the field..

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    1. Tracy's remarks were irresponsible.

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    2. It was especially glaring during the season of VM's Carmen how much the commentators were shying away from the technical and focusing on whatever it was that DW were getting praised for (speed, impression, feelings, etc). Only at the beginning of the season Carmen got some high praise but soon it went by the wayside. As if the commentators had all gotten the memo: DW are better/the winners. Period. The comments must reflect that. Forget that VM's Carmen was a brilliant masterpiece, miles and miles ahead of any other icedance team's programs. It's a travesty that Carmen never won against DW's shite program. Probably the best constructed program in icedance in a generation, and executed with superb skill, and the judges and commentators turned a blind eye.

      By this last season (Sochi) forget it. They didn't even try making a case for VM's superior skills. It was all about equal teams just different preferences and oh yeah, this year the judges prefer DW's "style." No one had the guts to say differently.

      ISU doesn't even try hiding the corruption in icedance. Everyone knew the fix was in and even Skate Canada felt obligated to spin it favorably. It's disgusting.

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  3. If I had any doubt that Tessa is pregnant again, it is gone now that I have seen that photo. How much more obvious can you be?! She could give birth on the ice and fans would still deny she is pregnant and married to Scott.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. what photo are you referring to?

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    3. She's seriously looking like late summer/autumn 2010, but exactly like that. Only four months earlier.

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    4. Yep. I think she looks fantastic. And pregnant.

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    5. She looks like a beautiful, glowing, pregnant woman.

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    6. It's because the belt isn't cinching anything, it's sitting on top of something. Also her jacket is clearly open to conceal the tops of her thighs, part of her butt, and the sides of her torso. And the hem of her top is being pushed away from her body, and you can see contour below the hem. This is fall 2010 wardrobe strategy.

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    7. I think she should skate up to her due date carrying a large purse, skating front to someone else's back, or perhaps toting a ficus. Many fans would think nothing of it.

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    8. I think they are referring to the picture within the blogpost--

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  4. does anyone know what picture they are talking about here concerning tessa's birthday or who she was with? Also, I'm wondering what other sites people go to about tessa and scott besides here?
    http://tessavirtue-lightandloveofmylife.tumblr.com/post/86131084627/its-tessa-virtue-and-scott-moir-not-tessa-and-scott

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    1. I love how in the middle of this person's missive, she's all "Nobody has any clue what their relationship is really like." and by that she means their status. Unbelieveable.

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    2. I like how she has enough sources to tell her where Tessa ate on her birthday, but no one, no one at all, could possibly know if she and Scott are a couple!

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    3. Where do people get off saying things like that? Nobody has any clue?

      This person doesn't know for sure and has decided to declare that "nobody" else does either. Please. There are plenty of people who know.

      They're no different than people who say "we can't know, but we do know this is how Tessa would probably react in this situation because she's like this, or Scott would react in that situation because he's like that, blah, blah." They don't know fuck all about how either one of them would react in a private situation or what they're "really like." They only know what Virtue and Moir have chosen to tell them and how they act when they're in public with fans.

      To me, it's no different than people who say "the longstanding gay rumors about George Clooney are probably not true, but nobody knows for sure." What does that mean? Of course SOMEBODY knows for sure. And where do these people come off saying it's probably not true he's gay? How the hell would they know one way or the other? The only George Clooney they've ever been privy to is the public Clooney carefully cultivated by himself and his PR team. It's quite possible to interact with the public but still not show them the real you.

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    4. "They don't know fuck all about how either one of them would react in a private situation or what they're "really like." They only know what Virtue and Moir have chosen to tell them and how they act when they're in public with fans."

      Also, even if VM were 100% honest and and always been about being married parents, these people still wouldn't know how VM would react in private situations because they don't know VM. These people see VM, or any celebrity or semi-celebrity on tv, and think they know them. They don't.

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    5. Oh, but this fan had a few minutes of interaction with Tessa and Scott, the skaters, at a structured meet&greet. And they were nice to her, and hugged her. Doesn't that mean she knows ALL ABOUT THEM?
      Bwahahahahaha.

      These fans are ridiculous.

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    6. 10:12 AM - fans routinely get it exactly backwards. They think essential, basic facts about Virtue and Moir are unknown to everybody. Nobody knows for sure! Dear God. Of COURSE people know for sure!

      But the thing one might really say "nobody knows for sure" - what they're like, how they feel, what they'll do and why - that's easy! Plenty of fans know the answers exactly.

      Yes, ridiculous.

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    7. Something that persists with fans is many believe how they're treated is a tell about the celebrity. I get it in a way. On some level fans perceive they're low on the totem pole, so if a celebrity treats them well, they think that's a baseline, and celebrities can only be assumed to treat people they actually know even better.

      But it doesn't work exactly that way. Yes, fans are low on the totem pole, in that fans as individuals don't really matter. Fans are like the market or the client and part of the public image. How a celebrity interacts with fans doesn't tell us anything how they interact in business, with family, with colleagues or as significant others. Fans seem to think they can extrapolate up the totem pole. You can't. They're in a completely different category than a celebrity's "real life." They're not on the same grid as the components of a celebrity's real life. I'm not saying many celebrities aren't fundamentally decent, or professional, or they manage their actual lives 180 degrees from how they deal with fans. And of course, some celebrities are idiots and treat fans badly. But there's no link that a fan can reasonably make between "they treated ME nicely in a meet and greet or when I encountered them in public, ergo this reflects how they are in the private realm." It doesn't. We're not part of their private OR their professional realm.

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  5. "I think if ice dance is going to be about fashion, trends, impact, effectiveness, and style, the rulebook needs to reflect this. Right now we have a rulebook saying one thing and everybody else – the judges, the commentators, the journalists, the skaters – telling us the rulebook is irrelevant to the outcome. The rulebook is about skating skills, yet we all know you can have the best skating skills, and execute the most and the best in a given competition, and it will be blithely treated as a sidebar to the competition with no explanation as to why an event that is about skating skills considers them an also-ran in the outcome."

    This is what it comes down to at this point in time. What the rulebook says seems to be irrelevant at this point. The sport as reverted back to using language and putting emphasis on the very subjective things that were supposed to be eliminated or reduced within ice dance with the introduction of CoP. If they have no intention of following CoP, then they need to stop pretending that's what they're doing and write up the criteria they're actually using to judge the skaters.

    I too loved the costume change for Alex Paul, but if the CoP were being followed, it should make no difference whether she skates wearing gray, red, or a burlap bag.

    "
    And this article from Faces Magazine, where Scott and Tessa allude to judging politics, and getting the short end of the stick, but then default to saying all the skaters are technically sound, so the outcome comes down to style and personal preference, so what can you do. We all know this is exactly how it's laid out in CoP. As usual, Tessa and Scott take a topic, walk in a big circle around it visiting the sights, and wind up back at zero."

    I'm actually giving Tessa some slack here because what else can she say? If there is any desire or thought in their minds that they may want to continue competing again at some point, VM can't rock the boat on this subject. They can't say they're better than anyone else; that gets them raked over the coals and there's already enough trouble special Tessa-and-Scott Only changes and additions to the rules. Saying that DW aren't good would be politically lethal for any team. Tessa's comments in this situation, IMO, are a symptom of the bigger problem that ice dance is a mafia.


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    1. "I'm actually giving Tessa some slack here because what else can she say? If there is any desire or thought in their minds that they may want to continue competing again at some point, VM can't rock the boat on this subject...Saying that DW aren't good would be politically lethal for any team."

      The same can be said for coaches, yes? If they want futures or to be successful in the sport, they can't rock the boat either.

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    2. Exactly 11:00 AM. But some believe that a coach who pushes back against the ISU can do so with impunity and still have elite skaters knocking at the door of their rink, blithely unconcerned that the ISU might push back against that coach's skaters. Only entire Federations and individual skaters need to worry about contradicting the ISU narrative and calling out pre-determined outcomes. The coaches do not. :P

      10:46 - I actually don't have the expectation that Virtue Moir can push back in public. Even if they were retiring (and I still think signs are they're not), Scott's family is embedded with Skate Canada and works with some of the people that colluded to screw them over in Sochi. The only way anybody can be 100% comfortable speaking out is if they leave the sport entirely. It IS like the mafia.

      The only outcomes you can push back against are Russian outcomes. That's allowed. It's part of the theatre of figure skating.

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    3. As of late - there has been speculation that beyond 2018 Winter Games in Korea - no nation has shown overwhelming enthusiasm to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Reason - economically - they are a bust long term...the general population is finally catching on that the Olympics are no longer about amateur sport...it's a business for the IOC...if it was about sport - like many suggest - the Olympics would invest in 2 or 3 permanent locations worldwide instead of "building cities" from scratch...the IOC is full of cronies, as much as the ISU...as both Speedy and Dore are...here in Canada..Marcel Aubut who is a figure head with the Canadian Olympic Team is starting to feel like a greasy politician...no wonder the likes of judges and Dore can be bought out on a dime...the money is no longer there in the public sector to fund athletics...hell in North America we've basically cut physical education to the core in elementary and high school...all this fund raising for sport has literally become another "special interest group"...and its evident that like most other industries - money talks and backdeals were done. You take a look at the Benoit Lavoies, David Dores, William Thompsons, Michael Slipchuks etc and really these folks care zero about the sport. And as OC pointed out - its almost like you win the lottery and you are able to get a permanent government job with great benefits as long as you are not a whistleblower...And that's one of the reasons that I think at least in Canada - many skaters who you would have thought might work for Skate Canada - never did. Why? the corruption factor...and its not just Skate Canada that is crap...look at the USFSA...if Ashley Wagner wasn't basically a walking ad for Procter and Gamble just before the Olympics and the backing of IMG (ie David Baden) - do you think she would have made it to Sochi...no...Mirai would have gone...
      Going back to Scott - I hope he takes his time to figure out what he wants - whether it would be a combination of school and coaching or whatever...but I hope that its somehow independent of his family's involvement with Skate Canada which is probably easier said than done.

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    4. " its almost like you win the lottery and you are able to get a permanent government job with great benefits as long as you are not a whistleblower.."

      And who would anyone whistle blow to? The people who cover figure skating don't know figure skating and are discouraged or diverted from learning about it. The Big Bad Russians play their role in the diversionary tactics too. The media is always encouraged to jump on results that favor the Big Bad Russians. Surely that demonstrates the sport dislikes corruption and fixed outcomes. Somehow though, it's always only Russia, and no sports "journalist" has caught on. It's not sport, it's theatre. And it's become obvious that the move from 6.0 to CoP, touted as a means of making the sport accountable, is more theatre. CoP plays no role in outcomes. CoP is more easily manipulated than the 6.0 system.

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    5. lol OC yup you are right - who do you whistle blow to? this does not bode well for the next quad...

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    6. There is no one to whistle blow to. I think some of the better ones have been unable to take it and have simply left the sport. Realized change is impossible and gave up.

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  6. You know what I recently realized? That PJ Kwong's co-interviewer, Jeffrey Paul Dore, is David Dore's son. So I'm sure we can expect some hard hitting journalism from her any day now.

    The article from TFTI really was just fantastic. P/I have such a strong awareness of what they *should* be doing on the ice, and I respect them so much for that. At the same time, they (and their team) know how to be aware of silly things like costumes, and make it work for them where it can without sacrificing their ideals about how they want to skate. They sound like they're in such a great spot right now - confident, but knowing where they can improve. At least we can enjoy them getting better and better, and maybe by some miracle, this quad won't be as bad as the last scoring-wise. The Grand Prix should be very telling.

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