 |
| J3ssica and her then-healthy ankles frolicking in, presumably, Jamaica |
I'm sort of surprised that Jessica's ankle problem kept her from the Liberty competition (July 17-21), the Quebec summer competition (August 9, 21) and HPC (this past week of September). Her ankle must be brutally injured. This is a girl who stabbed her toe pick into the ice for the 3 twist in pairs one day after tendonitis in that same leg took her out of the long program competition in singles. This is a woman who competed in the 2010 Quebec summer comp despite owy wrists, and someone who has skated with various joint braces and supports after various accidental sprains and strains, who skated another lp suffering from a horrific 24 hour singles flu virus. This ankle problem just drags on and on and on, she can't work herself up to skate even at HPC level? Think of her Worlds and 4CC level last season, her Liberty level last season, and she can't skate through it and get feedback on the layout and transitions? Wow. Poor poor Jessica.
By any chance is this ankle stuff bullshit, a placeholder sweeping what actually went on under the rug?
It's SC and it's Jessica - what are the odds?
Did the team have a falling out and only patch it back together late in the summer? Did Jessica decide to take the money and the summer off, claim ankle issues, figuring she'll be ready by Canadians and who cares otherwise? It's not like pre-season or GP has ever developed her skating in the past. She skates all "feh" till Canadians, steps it up, then dials back to wind up the season, even if it's the Olympics and Worlds.
I'm so curious. Is her ankle post-Jamaica getaway but pre-hard work bad? Is the ankle a cover up for something SC doesn't have the spin for yet, and is waiting til more immediately important stuff has has passed? If Jessica is claiming ankle issues, is SC taking her at her word?
I look forward to Grand Prix season. If she shows up, at least she has her falling-on-ass excuse built in for 2012-2013. The ankle flared up again. Troublesome ankle. Seemed fine, but just as she went for the salchow, it gave out.
There should really be a betting pool.
Snort. Her “injury” must be so horrible that she can’t do any kind of training at all because she’s HUGE right now: http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/386060_347781351975570_1420114833_n.jpg When Bryce had his first surgery (and was totally non-weightbearing!) he worked his ass off at the pool and the gym trying to be in the best shape he could be when his knee was healed enough to go back to skating. Obviously Jess doesn’t feel the same urgency . I noticed that Alexandra Najarro (who was legitimately off for the summer recovering from knee surgery) was at the camp for the National Team festivities and was included in the team photo. The fact that Jess/Seb weren’t there for any portion of the camp says to me that TPTB at Skate Canada don’t expect to see them any time soon, if at all this season.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Annie will install Jessica as a coaching assistant.
Delete8:36
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how your link proves anything about Jessica's current shape. However, I do think blogger is on the money that the whole thing smells like something else is going on.
About Skate Canada's HPC. So far, at fsu the US Champs Camp thread has multiple pages and 300+ posts. HPC thread? Still on page 1. Less than 20 posts.
Isn't this already practically the last day of HPC? Gosh, such fan enthusiasm. Or wait. Skate Canada didn't really put out enough material to make it more than about 20-posts-worth of comments and excitement.
I'm sure Skate Canada thinks it's somehow the fans' fault there's not equal hype among fans for HPC as there was for Champs Camp. Those darn fans with their short attention spans. Skate Canada's way of "sharing" of course has nothing to do with it.
Skate Canada has shared more program details with the public than the USFSA, but otherwise it's, typically, used the skaters to promote Skate Canada and enthuse about Skate Canada, instead of Skate Canada providing virtual access to the figure skaters, creating an environment where the public can get a genuine sense of the skaters' personalities in a "safe" way for the skaters (which the fucking "scrum" certainly doesn't achieve). Yes, avid skating fans who have been speculating all summer are happy to get rumors about programs and music confirmed. I don't think the average fan is on the edge of their seat about that stuff. What's to say about it until the programs themselves are seen? Just more speculation. OTOH, the entire way Champs Camp is presented makes the public feel welcome, from casual fans to the die hards on message boards. They project a genuine enjoyment of the ability to interact via the internet - the skaters and the Federation are making the most of it and fans are having a great time. OTOH, the "public" now knows who at SC is skating what, but of course how is that really useful until the programs are unveiled? It's nice and all, and a lot of people are glad to know so they can start a new round of speculation and complaining or speculation and approval, sight unseen. And the other thing the public knows is that Thomas Sabo is SC's new sponsor. The skaters, as always, are kept behind a screen as far as accessibility and their personalities. Exuberance like Paul Poirier's is recruited strictly to kiss Skate Canada and Thomas Sabo ass (the public gets to be impressed). They don't give of themselves. They don't share themselves as athletes and as personalities. The scrum format is smothering and makes even the most unassuming figure skaters seem inhibited and mechanical. Who do I see the most at HPC? P.J. Kwong. Always, always a filter.
DeleteP.S., I wouldn't say Jessica is "huge" but I'd be lying if I pretended recent photos don't make me lift an eyebrow, especially compared to the condition Bryce kept and keeps himself in during his injury. The face does reflect the type of shape the body is in, and Jessica's is fuller than ever, and there's something semi-furtive feeling about the latest photos on facebook - she's all covered up except for shoulders and face in all of them (except for at the b'day party of Annie's daughter, where we see knees). Her torso is hidden. One or two photos okay, 4-5, plus the face, she doesn't look like she's been training all summer (or following her various "f'itspirations!" on pinterest.
DeleteNone of this looks good for Jessica. I hope that this is Skate Canada finally get fed up with her bullshit. What's the reason why she and Sebastien couldn't be arsed to show up for the team photos? That ankle must be really bad.
ReplyDeleteIMO Skate Canada is to blame for a lot of Jessica's bs. But now that she's no longer an essential component of keeping their star team happy--VM--it looks like she's suddenly being treated according to what she's doing as a skater and not someone's pretend girlfriend. Perhaps she's not used to that.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I see her still being treated as an exception. If something other than an ankle is going on with Jessica - and if Jessica SAYS ankle, at this point SC has to be dubious - Skate Canada is covering for/enabling her with the ankle excuse, while excusing her from HPC (as mentioned above, another skater who'd been injured still attended). If she were treated as an ordinary skater, whatever went on this summer wouldn't be under deep cover. If they'd split, we'd know they'd split. I wonder if Jessica didn't try to have it both ways this summer - take most of it off using one excuse and another, figuring ramping it up closer to season's start is really all she needs. Does the summer training do her any good - one can see her logic. She's been skating the same program for years. By her own admission when she did skate singles with pairs she barely prepared for the singles competitions (when she was part of D&D). Her skating stays the same throughout any given season. It's not as if an early start and summer prep sets her up to "evolve the program" as Tessa Virtue says. Why pretend?
Delete"Does the summer training do her any good - one can see her logic."
DeleteIdk. You're crediting Jessica with an awfully lot of personal insight. Does she have this level of awareness that she's always skating basically the same program or that her training, such as it is, is not producing ever-increasing results? I get more the idea that she sees herself as someone who trains hard, working "new" programs. I'm more inclined to think that if she took a big chunk of the summer off it's a combination of laziness and hubris. That she thinks she's so good, it's no problem to catch up at the last minute. Not so much that she knows she doesn't put in the effort to change her programs so why try.
Based on what I see as irrelevent and/or indiscernable differences among the "idea" photos she pins on pinterest, I'd agree there's every liklihood she doesn't see herself skating the same program each year, and that inconsquential, minor differences in her programs loom in her mind as significant.
DeleteShe can get away with a lot, and as long as Scott and Tessa maintain that they're platonic and Jessica is officially considered an ex-real girlfriend rather than what she was, which was social media fiction, she's still playing a role. So perhaps she tested her boundaries, felt both aggrieved and entitled, and had one of her not infrequent crisis of motivation over the summer.
"(She can get away with a lot, and as long as Scott and Tessa maintain that they're platonic and Jessica is officially considered an ex-real girlfriend rather than what she was, which was social media fiction, she's still playing a role.)"
Delete^^ This.
I can't wait for the day when Jessica cannot use this anymore as part of her persona. As it stands, it makes everyone dance attendance and enable her. It's ridiculous how this grown woman can get away with her crises, moodiness, treatment of her ex-partner, all because having been Scott's GF is supposed to give her some kind of special status. I'm sick and tired of it.
It was interesting to see that Cynthia Phaneuf was missing from the team photos even though she is injured...
ReplyDeleteBut we knew her status going into HPC. Jessica and Sebastien were scheduled for both Liberty and Quebec and were basically no shows because there was no explanation for their non-appearance either before or after. There was nothing said about Jessica and Sebastien prior to HPC either. I think it was only after a few inquiries on twitter that P.J. requested an "official" reason for their absence and Slipchuk's ankle explanation (first anyone has heard of it, and this for a woman whose summer skating activities have usually been in the spotlight) appeared only in a Quebec (French language) outlet.
DeleteVarious SC HPC attendees (skaters) have tweeted what a wonderful time they had. So much fun. Well gee, how nice. And nice of you to share personal photos and comments.
ReplyDeleteIs this their idea of great pr? SC posted what, about 15 photos? Most of them repeats, just slightly different poses. It's pathetic.
Well at least we didn't see Barb or Debbi in the photos...it was interesting to see the tweets thanking Thomas Sabo for their new jewelry...as probably instructed by Barb but yeah you know it's bad when Skate Canada puts more pictures of G/P than Patrick Chan on their facebook page...
DeleteI knew Paul and Piper were going to be front and center at this HPC. They are the team (other than D/W) that needs Skate Canada most, wants the hype, and apparently SC feels the same way about them.
Delete"And nice of you to share personal photos and comments."
DeleteI hope it's understood this was meant to be sarcastic.
I wouldn't call the few photos shared nor the idiotic scrum interviews any kind of real sharing.
Business as usual from SC. A big fat zero when it comes to competent PR.
You would think Skate Canada would hire a professional PR firm to handle their promotion properly. They are after all, waving the national flag. They embarrases other Canadian culutural organizations.
ReplyDeleteOh but BARB is a professional. Check out her credentials.
DeleteThe main thing SC gets wrong is to use events and figure skaters to promote Skate Canada instead of using SC to promote figure skating and skaters. Why should the public give a fuck about Skate Canada, the organization?
At the moment Skate Canada has Scott and Tessa belatedly promoting London restaurants on Twitter (in his case, his family's place, Shoeless Joe's), but all fans do when they see the tweet is go oh, a photo of Scott or Tessa. It has no effect because it's not coming from them, it's coming from SC so it's SC -> Scott and/or Tessa -> whatever restaurant. Scott's photo, as usual, shows us nothing about what he's doing and in Tessa's, where she poses by a turkey burger, we're meant to cutely believe she cooked, when transparently, she has not, but okay.
Looking back over Jessica's season last year, I'm kind of surprised at the evil funk she was in after splatting her way through Worlds. Attending Worlds was a gift, more than she and Sebastien could have expected. Her ambition was the podium, and thanks to MTM she got one level higher than that. I'm seriously curious what she anticipated. Maybe her pride was wounded. Knowing she was criticized for how she went from Bryce-to-Sebastien, perhaps she felt skating well would be the best revenge on critics and was embarrassed. Hard to imagine that makes sense, considering some of the debacles she'd had with Bryce. It didn't say she was nothing without him, it pretty much just said she remained the same skater she's always been the past few years.
Pj's new video is certainly interesting. If they were any closer together, she'd be in his lap and he just can't stop staring at her. Here's a hint guys: this isn't how "just partners and friends" behave.
ReplyDeleteAlso looks like Scott's personal FB page is gone. Will he reappear under a new name? Or has he now made like Tessa and removed himself entirely from social media. It's a shame that neither of them ever had any interest. He should probably take down that fanpage as well, since it's never updated anyway.
P.S. - you're wrong about neither ever having had interest in facebook. Both were on facebook, and Tessa would even interact with fans from time to time. Scott's was more open too. They were both reticent - but not fanatical. Both were younger then, presumably needing more relationship privacy. More and more I doubt the lying is about privacy, despite the party line that even some of those close to them have been led to believe. Somehow money has to play into it too. And what they presume is expedience, a poor grasp of what revealing the truth would actually mean on a practical basis, and, not to understate it, a huge amount of personal politics. I can't help thinking that part of the reason they hold back is if they officially admit the truth they take down their enablers as well, or at least embarrass them - their families, and all of Skate Canada. About the only person who'd wind up unembarrassed is Marina Zoueva. Let's just procrastinate til the Olympic career is done. They've got courage for the ice, but definitely not for facing the music off ice.
DeleteOnce the facebooks began being used as a propaganda tool for a widespread hoax, they became useless for facebook's usual use - it became impossible for Scott and Tessa's friends and family to interact on facebook even in the limited-but-genuine way the families and friends of other figure skaters interact on the facebooks of those skaters.
The other skating teams interviewed are sitting close too, but as ever with Scott and Tessa their body language exudes intimacy. This is how Scott and Tessa have been since their first interview, yet now with Jessica presumed "former" some fans pretend it's new.
DeleteI can't get over how insulting it is for these fans to exhort Scott and/or Tessa to wake up or open their eyes. How old do they think Scott and Tessa are - four? Do they really think having a so-called platonic partnership involving feeling each other up on the ice for 13 years plus, all kinds of anecdotes about crushes, accidental kissing, "not yet anyway", hints about maybe being a couple some day, open dissection (lies) about their relationship in interviews and other stuff that would makes you cringe is something they're comfortable doing, not to mention both presenting themselves as as experienced with other love interests, but still Scott or Tessa is too shy to rock the boat or see the other "that way"? Get out more, people and open YOUR eyes and wake up. The alternative those fans have wanked up for themselves is patronizing.
I'm just stunned that Charlie White managed to work up the courage to ask Tanith out, since they started out as friends and were nothing but teammates and training mates for years yet neither Scott nor Tessa are brave enough.
"This is how Scott and Tessa have been since their first interview, yet now with Jessica presumed "former" some fans pretend it's new."
DeleteThank you for saying this.
I haven't seen anything different in Scott and Tessa's behavior or words. What are the fans going on about? I think they're mistaking the maturity of being older with a "change in feelings."
What would be truly different is an acknowledgment of being together. Otherwise it's the same as always -- the obvious signs of couple-love but without admitting it. Although I do have to say it's very nice not to have them forcing fake SO's on us and continually telling the world how they're so separate and so not together. At least they seem to have stopped trying to pointedly bring that up all the time. I hope they don't go and ruin it by acquiring some new pretend SO's to tide them over till Sochi.
"I can't help thinking that part of the reason they hold back is if they officially admit the truth they take down their enablers as well, or at least embarrass them - their families, and all of Skate Canada."
ReplyDeleteYou know, all the enablers will be embarrassed no matter when this becomes public. What is gained by waiting. Isn't the anticipated embarrassment just getting worse the longer they wait.
Not really. A lot of the embarrassment is because of how exposed everybody still is in the positions they occupy.
DeleteAmong the "embarrassed" are Skate Canada officials. They don't want it out there that, oh yeah, we've schooling them in how to lie to you and we've directly stage directed hoax scenarios aimed at you (see Mississauga "book signing" with Tessa and Scott, with Debbi claiming to be "in line" in a virtually deserted staging area, see the "hug" photo op after the Vancouver medal ceremony). Everybody is still working with and on behalf of Tessa and Scott, and vice versa. On top of that, the media people who know are still going to be working with Tessa and Scott through Worlds in London and at Sochi (P.J. Kwong, Tracy Wilson, Beverly Smith, etc.)
The families have dialed it back on facebook but will be prominent at London Worlds.
About the only up side is that Jessica's active role has been terminated and as a bonus, her status in the Canadian skating world has diminished. It's not even known if she'll return. She'll be a has been by Sochi and it's unlikely she'll be in the awkward position of being called upon (or not called upon if media is so instructed) to comment on the Great Fake, because she won't be around. Which is too bad.
All of this is contingent on the assumption that they'll come clean post-Sochi, which I believe everyone assumes (as quite a few people around them assumed they'd do post-Vancouver). At this point I wouldn't put it past them to stay mum out of basically spite once Sochi is done, and let people figure out what they want (versus a grown-up confirmation of the truth).
Worth noting that fan reaction might not be their biggest concern. Even though a lot of people in the international skating community know or have a good idea, it's still going to put Skate Canada one down to have dug itself in, and this is an organization that prefers to act superior.
If their main concern is the embarrassment of poor Skate Canada they really are stupid. Skate Canada has been their biggest PR problem. SC has done them great harm imo.
DeleteReality is reality. Tessa and Scott are star members of Skate Canada's national team. They and their families are part of Skate Canada as much as the self-seeking likes of Barb and Debbi are Skate Canada. They can't separate. Scott and Tessa can't come clean and thus expose these people (as they, I'd imagine, see it) considering they compete as members of the national team under the umbrella of Skate Canada.
DeleteTessa and Scott won't be clear of it til after Sochi.
I agree SC has done them great harm. What a fucking debacle. However, I can't blame SC completely seeing as how everything done, sham-wise, was a violation of common sense, basic decency and good taste and people who are not Skate Canada directors (i.e., the Moirs and Virtues), signed off. You don't have to be worldly and sophisticated to resist a bunch of the stuff done under Skate Canada's direction, yet the supposedly wise Scott/Tessa co-signed. It appears there's a chip is missing, to quote Jennifer Aniston. Anyone else, no matter how much they desired to conceal their real status, would instinctively WTF? WTF? at even half the stuff executed in the name of the sham.
There's no cure for stupid. I still have trouble reconciling the presumably tasteful, intelligent Tessa Virtue with some of the utterly vulger and stupid crap that got the green light from her. Or maybe the chip is missing in Kate Virtue. Either way, WTF with all of those people.
**It appears there's a chip is missing, to quote Jennifer Aniston.**
DeleteLol. The best explanation so far.
What if everything they've presented about themselves is true (I don't believe it but suppose...). There's a chip missing when a couple (Scott&Jessica) puts out the kind of crap they did to thousands of strangers. Starting with the moronic dirty-linen interview from Jessica and Bryce and all the way through post-Olympics. They were OTT eager to share all about their couple-ness.
Talk about a chip missing.
I agree that they will "stay mum out of spite" after Sochi. I don't know if they are planning on retiring then but if they do, and are no longer in the public eye doing interviews, then they will not have to answer questions to anyone. They could drop off the face of the earth if they wanted to.
ReplyDeleteI see that Jessica managed to get herself onto the ice at some point for a photo session. What a trouper!
ReplyDelete"It appears there's a chip is missing, to quote Jennifer Aniston...Or maybe the chip is missing in Kate Virtue."
ReplyDeleteYeah, what the the hell with the parents signing off on this stuff. Moirs, Virtues, and Dube's. Apparently, not a chip to be found among the lot of them.
Question - If Jessica is out of the picture for real, will Tessa and Scott + the families still manage to put out something stupid? After all, if they really don't get why their little sham was disgusting, who's to say what they'll come up with next.