I like Hubble & Donohue's program better - I think. Needs more speed or at least the appearance of speed - more sustained energy coming out of elements (which helps with the appearance of if not actual speed). Her edge comes off at the very end of the final twizzle rotation and she timed the step out with where it would be anyway - I looked twice because I thought there was a small interruption of flow.
I don't think Papadakis & Cizeron will win gold in 2022. I think it will be Sinitsine Katsalapov, these two, and Papadakis & Cizeron bronze. The sport has made P&C's deficiencies into features, so it's difficult for them to lose unless they visibly, to the eyes of a civilian, screw up, but that's what I'm actually expecting.
This one. This is the short program. Including because I've been following her since the blog began.
 |
| Hot mess. |
Back in the day when all things Jessica Dube drove me mental, I saw Kirsten Moore-Towers as her antithesis and antidote. Now she's become her. Comes onto the ice looking like someone hurt her feelings, skates without commitment, hedges every move, can't even keep her free leg up steady in the standing split part of the pairs spin. The lift was almost as labored as 2016 KMT + M.
Like Dube, she probably has more athletic and skating talent in her pinky finger than - I'll use Meghan Duhamel as the obvious example - but that mental maturity game is weak. She's avoiding herself like crazy. This is no shade to Duhamel.
I think P/C missing worlds was a bad decision.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think they will screw up ?
Based on what I've read on forums, twitter and youtube many are still behind P/C and S/K don't seem to have a lot of supporters even in Russia.
I think they'll make an obvious error - or 2-3. Miss a connection, or actually fall.
ReplyDeleteWon't they actually need to skate something difficult in order for that to happen ? Katsalapov is more likely to make an error than they are.
DeleteWho do you think the next breakthrough team will be after the top teams retire in 2022?
I'm rooting for anyone but P/C to win the next Olympics.
ReplyDeleteSame. But only S/K have a chance. If P/C skate clean they will be given gold. I really doubt we'll get lucky like in 2018, only V/M have this amount of luck.
DeleteTo the writer of the blog, what do you think of our ice dancers who won world juniors gold in 2019? They are from Quebec and last names both start with an L.
ReplyDeleteHere is an interesting opinion about P/C from Maxim Staviski's interview:
ReplyDelete"When they (P/C) won their first season, I wouldn't say I was really amazed by their free program, but I really liked it. It had amazing unity, like TAT loves to say.
But then I looked carefully at the dance holds, steps and realized that there is nothing. If you remember that when P/C just appeared they were compared to Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
So I want to say that any program of the French team Canadians can skate just as well with the minimum amount of training. But what V/M did, P/C will never be able to do.
- Are you talking about the difficulty of the elements?
- I am talking mostly about what happens between the elements. In figure skating we call it transitions. And the French skate the same program. Just with different music. To me it's a little bit weird.
https://www.sports.ru/figure-skating/1092279427-maksim-staviski-to-chto-delali-na-ldu-virchu-i-mojr-papadakis-i-sizero.html
Have you seen the interview Asher Hill did with Gabby Papadakis during Worlds? She basically insinuated that S/K are not "real rivals", and then compared the rivalry to their "rivalry" with VM. She said that for two years, P/C and V/M were so close that no one ever knew who would win (although that is completely untrue about 2016-17 season, where VM won every time by pretty decent margins), whereas S/K are not "real" rivals because they've only beaten them once. She then said that she feels P/C and S/K are much more similar than P/C and V/M were in their strengths and weaknesses, and then essentially suggested that V/M did not skate with as much speed as P/C or S/K. Woooooow.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I think P/C are going to win the Olympics in 2022 unless they actually fall. They could probably make 2-3 small errors and still win.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX-6iRsHtkQ
DeleteHave you watched the sibling team, Oona and Gage Brown from New York, coached by Inese Bucevica?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ice-dance.com/site/siblings-in-skating-oona-brown-gage-brown/
From April 10, 2021 at 6:54 PM -- Forgot to add a performance of the Brown siblings.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.blabbermouth.net/news/watch-ice-dancers-oona-and-gage-brown-perform-free-dance-routine-to-metallicas-nothing-else-matters/
Technically rumor for now, but looking pretty much confirmed -- Eric Radford is reported to be coming out of retirement to compete with Vanessa James.
ReplyDelete6:27 PM again. This has now been announced, and the PR is pretty gross: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figureskating/eric-radford-vanessa-james-return-1.5995937
DeleteIt's gross because if you don't know the backstory, this suggests some dirt suddenly, unexpectedly swirled around Morgan last year, leaving Vanessa totally clean. But that's not how any of this went:
Initial report of an incident from 2017:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2019/12/10/sexual-abuse-olympic-figure-skater-coaches-being-investigated/2629777001/
Case reopened by the sheriff's office:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2020/06/30/sex-abuse-allegation-sheriff-reopens-case-olympic-figure-skater/3282129001/
Cipres retires:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2020/09/29/sexual-abuse-olympic-skater-morgan-cipres-under-investigation-retires/3573251001/
Coaches suspended/on probation for intimidating victim/covering up allegations:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/03/09/former-olympic-skater-suspended-after-accusation-sex-abuse-cover-up/4635608001/
This was not surprise news in 2020. This was something that happened during James/Cipres's partnership and of which AT THE VERY LEAST their coaches were fully aware. J/C competed in 2018-19 as well. But Skate Canada's PR is making sure to protect their new star from any of it.
It also seems the new partnership was not handled very well by Eric, with Meagan saying that she wasn't informed of the plans for a new partnership until it was finalized, while she and Eric had still planned (to her knowledge, and that of show organizers) to resume their show career once Stars on Ice returns.
Thanks Anon April 19/21. Good summary.
ReplyDeleteI hope OC will cover this in the next blog post. I recommend watching Duhamel on TSL. She gets into a lot of issues around touring with young children which would be of interest to this blog. One sub issue here is Radford making a statement that he thought Duhamel was moving on in part because she had a family and wanted another child. She says she skated two tours while pregnant and only missed one due to pregnancy while they missed two due to his injuries. It's led to a lot of discussion on the boards about other women who skated pregnant. It's amusing in the context that the same people who are all for female empowerment and how pregnancy doesn't have to stop you would be the first to laugh at the idea that Tessa skated pregnant.
It's not the idea Tessa could skate pregnant. It's the idea of hiding a child and marriage. Because there is no reason to do that.
ReplyDeletehas anyone seen the ad (can't remember which one) where Tessa's VO says something about being "there for the people you love" right on top of a shot of her taking a little girl by the hand and leading her out onto the ice? seems total blog-bait :P
ReplyDeleteYep! It's a Nivea ad, and here's a link: https://virtchandmoir.tumblr.com/post/646479928612831232/video-nivea
DeleteIt was certainly a, uh, choice.
Sometimes I think Dave Lease is right and Tessa writes this blog herself.
Deletewhen I read the collection of hatred and bullshit uttered against P / C I tell myself that this chauvinistic shit blog to the glory of these two nerds who are the so vulgar V / M so-called lovers is well in the image of Canada: A blog and a country of nationalist and crude morons Your two idols you have made believe for years in their love of junk and you have swallowed that ...
ReplyDeleteAs for Staviski, this prehistoric skater who wouldn't even be able to do 1 minute of a P / C program, better to laugh at his rotten opinion of the French
I hope you will all die of jealousy when the French win the gold in Pekin bunch of putrid larvae
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkEKfhzQt9I
ReplyDeleteV/M on ice....