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| Ok |
http://dubemoir.blogspot.com/2014/06/ive-spent-better-part-of-week-blog-wise.html
Excerpt:
"Fedor Andreev
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| Fedor and Tanith |
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| Fedor and Tessa |
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| This was briefly a thing. |
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| Fedor and Meryl. |
This from a guy who had "Not sure" in his "sexual orientation" category on myspace. Guess he's made up his mind. "
Around 2009 Fedor briefly started sucking up to a very young Maia Shibutani on social media, but thank the stars above that never became a thing.
Figure skating can have plenty of off ice histrionics, but the coach's son running through all his mom's star ice dancers in succession without creating even a ripple of drama among the women themselves is far-fetched, not to mention skanky, not to mention we know the implied thing w/Tessa was a complete sham.
Fedor, we can speculate on why he makes the choices he makes. Since she revamped her look and froze her face - and WHY her face is frozen I have no idea - everything about Meryl has been a mystery. The overcompensation deployed to enable her to make basic movements in her sport, and to make basic movements on the dance floor, her inability to hold herself in space, the necessity of having a billion redundant points of contact to make the most elementary transition - WHY? It's an enduring puzzle.
The only theory ever proffered to me is that muscle tone doesn't = strength, and underweight people who are extremely ripped may completely lack strength, and so Meryl sacrificed strength for a "winning" aesthetic. That theory doesn't cover all the bases though. Never seen anyone like her.
Everything about Meryl is uncanny valley in my opinion, and this latest development only compounds that impression.
Vimeo interview.
What does it take to win a gold medal? - Scott Livingston interviewing Tessa and Scott from Mystic Seasons on Vimeo.
Yes, Scott and Tessa, what DOES it take to win a gold medal? What do you have to be willing to do to win that gold? ("Win" should always be in implied quotation marks. Not that they don't legitimately win, it's just that the legit part of things has nothing to do with why they're winning.)
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| Sell ourselves out. |
I could screen cap their micro expressions forever though.
Their answer was: "Early on, we were willing to do those things that our competitors weren't."
Tessa is describing what she calls the "sacrifices" they made in terms of conventional middle and high school activities in order to train for optimum development and performance as skaters. If she'd meant "willing to do those things on the ice" that their competitors weren't, the obvious retort would be "Willing to do, and being able to do, things on ice that your competitors couldn't is one of the reasons you DIDN'T win the gold you deserved in 2014."
Leaving home at 13-15, changing coaching centers, missing out on extra-circular activities at school - these are things very few ice dancers do while developing their careers, except for just about every single one of them, and it gave Virtue and Moir an edge.
I mean Jesus Christ, Tessa. Exactly which of your high school age competitors never got up early, didn't miss a party, and never traveled far away from home? Come on.
That said, the interviewer is trying to quantify exactly what they did that made them succeed, as if it's something they DID. It's a stupid angle for the interview. They were more talented. Athletically, as skaters, rhythmically, and as dancers and as partners. That isn't something you DO. That's something you are. You can't decide to be that talented, and then make a serious of choices and practices that create talent. You can wring every drop out of the talent you're given, and they did. A lot of very talented people coast. They didn't. As usual, Tessa and Scott are reluctant to call a spade a spade.
I didn't finish the entire interview, because Tessa started speaking and framing her words with her hands, and when that happens, I'm always scared of what's going to come out of her mouth next.
I have to say their willingness to toss anybody under the bus when they're done w/them continues to take the breath away. Marnie McBean, David Pelletier - remember the fawning back in 2010? FF to 2017 and they made no contribution. Scott even name checks them to make the point.
