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Thanks to poster in comments section for the link.
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| Ann Arbor's hiring the "Rocky" sculptor to install this in front of Arctic Edge. Although Sylvester Stallone has better posture. |
It's only going to get more obnoxious from here to Sochi. It's obvious the USFSA and icenetwork are going to implicitly bash VM every time they promote DW. Look at the above. Everyone else gone home - including the uppity, entitled Olympic champions. Davis and White are putting in the work. Whoa, my bad. Puttin in the work. See how relatable. I mean who on earth can Tanith mean when she mentions that everyone else has gone home? Those lazy Shibutanis?
Could she mean - those entitled 2010 Olympic champions who think they can waltz into Sochi, skate more brilliantly than anyone else and just be handed another gold? Without ever hunching over with their backs to the camera wearing hoodies, observed only by dreary, lonely looking late night fluorescent lighting and a devoted First Girlfriend? Could this be who Tanith means?
If VM went home, that means they're not puttin in the same work as Meryl and Charlie. They should have stayed late as well, see if with enough time and effort they can align their spines, acquire unison and sustain an edge. Meryl and Charlie aren't there yet, but it's early days.
Considering everyone, including the First Girlfriend, prefers to talk about skating your heart out, staying late, giving their all, and not about the skating, it's obvious everyone's gotten the message that 2014's Olympic gold will be awarded to the ice dance team who puts in the most effort, and, in case any other skating team turns out to be actually, you know, training too, let's stipulate that "most effort" means who makes figure skating look like it's really really the most hard for them to do. Look at the two of them up there. Skating is harder for Meryl and Charlie than Mitch running for President was for Ann Romney. Geez the poor kids can't even stand up straight.
You know that's just their style. So's them bein on one-footed blade flats or very very extremely shallow almost negligible 'edges'. That's some 10s in pcs we're lookin at.
Look at those two. Stayin late, clutchin each other for ballast per usual, and they still can't get an edge into the ice. But they'll work and work until they get it or can fake it.
If the ice dance gold in Sochi were going to be awarded for skating, Tanith wouldn't have used the photo above, because that photo shows that Charlie and Meryl damn well better be puttin in the work, and maybe they should consider puttin in even more work, because traditionally ice dance has involved skating on an edge.
Instead of bent over like a crab, hips tight, shoulders tight, and on a flat. Heads and necks jacked up. And even then, they're not even pretending unison. Their upper bodies are all squashed like usual, because they have to be pasted together to stay on their feet. Do that tent thing. I wonder which one of them is about to knee slide or scurry.
There seems to be a little effortful choreographic emoting emanating from the body language in that photo as well, so I'll go out on a limb and wager that Davis White aren't reinventing the wheel for Sochi. They're gonna bullshit, "us too" and pretend their defects are their style. Their posture looks a little like a bastardized, junk shop attempt at 'modern' - or, let's be real, letting Davis White be Davis White, but slapping a label on it like Domnina Shabalin did with their aboriginal program where Maxim was crippled so they chose crouched choreography to make it look on purpose.
Modern is all about bad posture - don't you know that? Sure it's really about getting deep in the knees and dropping your center of gravity, but cramping up and distorting your spine and hunching your shoulders forward while pushing your head forward is sort of the same thing, right?
Tanith has been a skater how many years, yet she posts this because the important message for Sochi is how deserving Charlie and Meryl are as people. It's not as skaters - obviously. Or she'd be insane to publish that image. They're deserving as people. Unlike, you know, some undeserving people she's not going to mention but let's just say they're complacent. They're home with their feet up counting their money, lying to the folks, and texting Cathy Hilborn to get the bat signal out to Cass (Code phrase: "Take the garbage out.")
P.S. It's sort of implicit that everyone else can go home before the season even starts, right Tanith? The road to Sochi is on instagram and personality politics and spin.
I'm sick of the pro DW media and we still have months and months of this. They're ramping up the digs at VM, can you imagine how it's gonna be later on?
ReplyDeleteBat code? Can you explain please? This sounds interesting.
"Tanith has been a skater how many years, yet she posts this because the important message for Sochi is how deserving Charlie and Meryl are as people. It's not as skaters - obviously or she'd be insane to publish that image. They're deserving as people. Unlike, you know, some undeserving people she's not going to mention but let's just say they're home with their feet up counting their money, lying to the folks, and texting Cathy Hilborn to get the bat signal out to Cass (Code phrase: "Take the garbage out.") "
ReplyDeleteAlso, or alternately, more deserving than that team with the girl with the bum legs who just can't train as hard. That's a favorite line of the D/W ubers. "D/W just train so hard and V/M can't put in that many hours because of Tessa's legs." No one ever explains exactly how it is they know how many hours each team puts in per week or how they know they exact status minute-to-minute status of Tessa's legs...
Nevermind that for years one of the things that the commentators did share with the audience is that one of the goals was to make the difficult look easy. I've heard this since I was literally a child just getting into watching skating. Now, the message is that hard is better. How hard D/W work, how hard what they're doing looks, etc. It's all about how hard it is for D/W.
Last summer, there was an article on icenetwork about P/B. They discussed how they'd declined summer appearances because they wanted to be able to challenge the top teams and felt like they really needed to put in the work to improve and didn't want to lose any time they didn't have to. (Silly of them really to think that the way to move forward was to work on their skating for real and have real, visible improvement in what they were doing on the ice prior to Bourzat's injury. Almost as silly as V/M thinking they can win by being better skaters and dancers than D/W.) Now, we have D/W talking about how hard they work along with them not doing any shows this summer. V/M aren't the only team they're stealing from. It's directed at them, but the "us too" is also coming from a few other places. Especially when it's V/M, but I think that anytime any team says something that D/W thinks sounds good, they chime in with an "US TOO!"
Interesting that they seem mainly concerned with spotting and then covering p.r. bases, while neither they nor their partisans appear very concerned with making the case for their skating. All the talk is around their skating, not about it and nobody dares get specific.
DeleteMaybe they realize they don't need to, so the job from now to Sochi is to spot and pre-empt any objections to the gold they already know is theirs.
Wait - I should say all the talk is around their skating while piously pointing out VM's mistakes - without of course alluding to the huge difference in skating skills, actual real world level of execution, and actual real skating level of difficulty. Then DW are positioned as martyrs - plucky martyrs. They're also described as "clean' while their entire program is constructed of junkshop elements with minimal skating or dancing in between. The scraps of skating and dancing are presented as highlights we're meant to find so impressive that they're actually doing, it's the cue for Charlie to start leaping and and Meryl to two-foot.
DeleteWell said - OC. D/W's PR is not actually about why they are better skaters than V/M. And you've hit it on the nail - that the USFSA and the D/W ubers want to in the end showcase that D/W are hard workers and that as PEOPLE they deserve the gold medal in Sochi. Prior to this year, a lot of skating fans who were D/W fans or were on the fence could argue that D/W are a very good team. But I think that with what V/M did with Carmen - and with D/W just rehashing - it opened the eyes and the only way they can now justify D/W winning is that they are nice working people. I mean look when Nathalie Pechelat commentated during 4CCs this year at the short dance - she clearly indicated that V/M was her favourite team and she gave her reasons. I for one would like a reporter to ask D/W why they are better team than V/M - unison - nope, edging - nope, difficulty of lifts - nope, size of patterns - nope, musicality - nope, power - not really but they would say that...transitions - nope, difficulty of holds - nope - how close they dance together - nope - besides the groping on the lifts...so please...if other athletes can explain what they do well - what can't these 2...oh yeah because if they do..video-evidence suggests otherwise...
DeleteThat's why it's always non-skating stuff. "Exciting" "Athletic".
DeleteThey also claim speed, but that's illusory. They're in no way faster than VM in the only speed that counts in skating - how much ice they cover per stroke. They do a lot of tricks in order to create momentum for the initial rotation - their elements don't launch off an edge and avoid finishing on an edge. And they do a lot of visual trickery to make it seem as if their momentum is sustained in their elements but visual trickery is all it is.
They also do "clean" but they don't want anybody looking to closely at what it is they're doing "clean" because then people would see very elementary mechanics and crap technique.
Awhile back Cassandra's mother tweeted @casshilborn (Cassandra's twitter handle).
ReplyDelete"@casshilborn - did u put the garbage out. answer phone."
and then
"@casshilborn - answer the house phone - important"
The blog had fun with that and right afterwards, Cathy Hilborn protected her tweets. Cathy is also standing next to "Cass" at Worlds (see photo of lady with blonde bangs, white shirt, standing to Cass's left in the combined photos of Scott's nieces at Worlds that is featured in the top right section of the banner). Cathy can be seen in the side of the photo combo that features Charlie's daughter.
It seemed silly for Cathy Hilborn to interrupt her daughter's one-woman twitter show chronicling this full-on romantic/beautiful mess's saga about loving, missing and adoring Scott Moir, about competing with his career for his time and penning lyrics about it, but she did.
It was like Ralphie's mother interrupting his fantasy of taking out the marauders in "A Christmas Story" by telling him to come downstairs and help his baby brother.
Since Cathy is Cassandra's wingperson in this, WTF? But then I realized Cass may have been too absorbed snapping and uploading/tweaking selfies to remember she was meant to tweet that night about wishing on a star - her fabulous star. "take the garbage out" sounds like an inoccuous instruction from mom but considering Cathy's role in the sham, and the twitter's role in the sham, and Cassandra's love affair with the mirror, maybe Cathy was told to tell Cass to get hash tagging.
[["take the garbage out" sounds like an inoccuous instruction from mom but considering Cathy's role in the sham, and the twitter's role in the sham, and Cassandra's love affair with the mirror, maybe Cathy was told to tell Cass to get hash tagging.]]
ReplyDeleteBwahahahaha!!
I love it. Every new wrinkle in this affair is more absurd. Oh yeah, welcome to the big time, eh? Working for Scott Moir must be the most gratifying job ever, the things his girlfriends and their families are willing to do for him. I can't wait to see what she's willing to do in posing for the upcoming set of beach honeymoon pictures. Wheee!!
(Take out the trash. Lol)
Maybe Scott will end up looking like he's also banging mom if they stick mom in any photos that show up.
DeleteIt's so gross to have a fake girlfriend on twitter getting histrionic about being apart from Scott when he has a child he won't admit exists. I'm sorry, that kills me - not kills me ha ha but just plain kills me. It's so wrong. I used to say Scott and Tessa deny each other more frequently than Peter denied Christ but to, in public, pretend this child doesn't exist while a fake chick shows off her need for the attention of that child's daddy is horrible.
What child wants to know that shit was out there or was once out there or is still out there, no matter what the reason?
According to a picture back in 2008, Kiarra Hilborn skated in a synchro team coached by Sheri Moir and Carol Moir. So Cassandra's mom - would definitely know the Moirs from back in the day. Mrs. Hilborn appears to be in real estate and she probably has her hands full with some of her kids thinking that they are the next Kardashian wannabes.
DeleteCassandra, going back pre-sham, is in that whole group of Scott's "buddies" that would pitch in and help wrangle Jessica or amen the Jessica sham when it played out in facebook photos.
DeleteI'm also thinking what a legacy Scott and Tessa have left for their child when it comes to how they believe a believeable relationship should be presented to the public. Self-obsessed, possessive, exhibitionistic and narcissistic.
It might be exciting when the kid is an adult and their adult friends learn their parents were world champions and Olympians in the first three years of the child's life. "Are you on TV?" nope. Do they call your name when they get scores? nope.
Why not?
Well, they were pretending I didn't exist.
Oh my.
9:02
DeleteAh, well that clears up the mystery of how it came to be that Cassandra and her family were chosen for this special assignment. The "gf" is part of Scott's crowd of buddies and her Mom is in with the senior Moirs. Nice.
You think Mrs. Hilborn has her hands full with her kids' aspirations? I rather think it looks like she's on board with the idea that any public exposure must be a positive, regardless of what kind. Why else would she greenlight her daughter's participation in something so gross? No one in that family or group of friends appears to be having any problems with Cassandra publicly acting like a mistress with the hots for her celebrity-lover, who btw happens to be a married guy with a child. Class? Integrity? What's that?
OTOH, Scott and Tessa can always play the "Be grateful you were even born" card. "We could have waited."
DeleteOr, we wanted you so much we had you even though we knew we'd have to lie about it, so what an honor, huh sweetie?
She's not acting like a mistress, she's acting like a girlfriend. We're not meant to know Scott and Tessa are married. In the realm of this public performance, Scott has no wife and no child. He's got a newish girlfriend just as eager to pose and posture for social media as the other girlfriend had been.
DeleteThey don't have a relationship, so she can't post specifically. I'd imagine the shammers don't want to dig even deeper and make UP shared experiences to talk about specifically on social media. But as this job exists, what else is she supposed to talk about? Her job is to be his girlfriend on social media. She actually has no relationship with the guy. So, to do the job, what she talks about is the fact that she IS his girlfriend, and to make it convincing goes on that she sure does miss him. She doesn't want anyone thinking she doesn't care much that he's on tour because then maybe people wouldn't find her convincing.
Is it all completely "special"? Yes. Is any of it actually doing what they're pretending it does - not really. But as long as she has the job that's the job - to pretend on social media she's his gf. It's a one way street as ever - the girl's task, not Scott's task, and handicapped by the fact that they don't have a relationship and apparently Team Virtue Moir thinks that the girlfriend acknowledging Tessa in any way hurts the credibility of the sham, when of course it's the opposite.
The ones who experience the mistress vibes are the ones who know Scott's married and has a child so the antics of the fake gf creep everybody out. However, she's not posing on line as the mistress of a married man. The Scott on social media is single.
About Cassandra - Ick and Gross to the whole thing.
DeleteI wonder if another factor in this choice of girlfriend was her family owns a home in Florida? Perfect photo set-up. A bunch of family and friends can descend on the place but take photos of Cassandra and Scott as if they're alone. It doesn't take as much planning and $$ as some other exotic locations.
Such lies that photos can tell.
I'm not saying it's not disgusting. It is and always has been. If something like this is going to be done at all, it has to be disciplined and professional.
DeleteThis is grotesque. They're fine with it.
This is a little OT, but Moirville presents itself as this down home, kid-loving, family oriented, neighbor oriented community, but even before the blog happened, in the conduct of the sham they seemed to be expressing a lot of nasty shit. Just a real glee in being mean and spiteful. They clearly felt they had been prepared their whole lives to deal with the public and knew what to do, but they overplayed it so horribly in so many ways you wonder what is really going on with this group. Are they so loyal to and yet so defensive/insecure about where they come from they're all nasty, small-minded, parochial douchebags under the skin? This whole thing has been revealing. They do not have generous spirits. One on one, sure. They like to show that off. In the larger sense? They don't. They're dicks.
I get, in general, what they're doing or think they're doing with the sham.
1. Scott presents himself in public as unmarried. This is because he and Tessa wish to keep their marriage a secret (secret, not 'private').
2. To persuade us that he's not married, and definitely not with Tessa, a girl appears (it's always the girl's job, not his, beyond photos) to declare him her bf and swoon over him on social media. That's to establish the credibility of the relationship and his single status.
3. Because they don't have a relationship, and for whatever other reasons, the girl can only restate on social media that she's his girlfriend and he's the best, and all she thinks about or wants is him.
4. So it comes off gross.
5. But most of all, all of this is performance. It's not real, so it doesn't count.
The irony is, these two who constantly proclaim that on ice they're only acting, aren't really acting all that much on ice. They're using their real intimacy. Sure, the literal story might not be theirs, but what they draw upon to tell it is really theirs. Carmen takes a lot of trust on a bunch of levels, and a real connection intimacy on a bunch of levels - as they skate it.
It's off ice that they act.
And the reality is, the fact that it's a performance, and mostly in two dimensions (photos and social media) doesn't change the fact that he IS married and a father. A performance doesn't create a barrier between what's real and what's fake. He's married. He's pretending in public he's not. He's pretending in public he is not a father, despite having planned this child. He's pretending he's got a girlfriend.
They think they can compartmentalize everything, and they're wrong. He's married on social media. He's married in public. He's married in interviews. He's just lying. Everything else is just spin, but it doesn't change the fact that he is married, is a dad, and there's a girl on social media acting like he's hers. Two girls, in fact, neither his wife.
oc
Sham relationships have been done before, but this one is a sick puppy. This is poorly compartmentalized. This is logic is whatever we say it is.
DeleteThis is a married man with a child. You can't keep a kid in a bubble. It's not fair. It's a married woman who can't keep her child in bubble either, unless they want to restrict their child's interaction with the world. They're creating a toxic alternate reality in the real world. It's two dimensional alternate reality but if they don't think it will have an impact psychologically in good old three dimensions they're crazy. Well, they are crazy. It would be nice to believe they don't think it will have an impact on their child down the line, then to consider they figure it probably will but don't care.
Why did they have a child just to deny they have one again? To prove something to themselves about themselves?
As nice as they seem, Scott and Tessa often appear to have difficulty understanding anything outside themselves, and that appears to extend to their child now. The child is a nobody in their own right, based on Scott and Tessa's decisions. Just an extension of themselves and what's expedient for them. The child immediately had to fit into pre-existing patterns of coping through avoiding, coping through appeasing, coping through buffers, coping through lying. It's all about right now. They may be willing to deal with whatever blowback they experience in years to come but I'm pretty amazed they brought a child into this world and decided they didn't need to worry about the more unsavory aspects of the sham blowing back on their child.
Hell, they've added new material for their child to deal with since the child was born. It's all for them, it's not for the kid, but they don't see the difference. Their behavior never convincingly shows that they have any idea about other people besides themselves.
It's two dimensional, it's public, it's fake, but it's in the real world, not on stage, not on ice. Everybody no matter who it is - and none of these people are fans of any stripe or care who Scott and Tessa may be - are revolted. But Moirville is not.
I think there's something wrong there and has been since long before Scott and Tessa were a thing. Their only reality is the ice rink. Everything outside it isn't real to them. That's fucked up.
How many times has Tessa said she wants to be more than a skater? She wants balance. She wants to experience things outside the insular skating world.
Why doesn't this apply to her toddler? The first three years of her kid's life are constructed around lies and denials that go directly to the narrow skating universe and apply to no other reality or larger world.
This is poorly compartmentalized. This is logic is whatever we say it is. This is a married man with a child who is not going to be able to live in a bubble, and a married woman who can't keep her child in bubble either, unless they want to restrict their child's interaction with the world, who are creating a toxic alternate reality in the real world. It's two dimensional, it's public, it's fake, but it's in the real world, not on stage, not on ice. Everybody I've described this to in person - none were fans of any stripe or care who Scott and Tessa may be - was revolted. But Moirville is not.
I think there's something wrong there and has been since long before Scott and Tessa were a thing. Their only reality is the ice rink. Everything outside it isn't real to them. That's fucked up.
How many times has Tessa said she wants to be more than a skater? She wants balance. She wants to experience things outside the insular skating world.
Why doesn't this apply to her toddler? The first three years of her kid's life are constructed around lies and denials that go directly to the narrow skating universe and apply to no other reality or larger world.
12:53
DeleteThe sham might be mostly one-way as far as Scott only posing for photos and the GF doing all the social media disgusting lovey-dovey talk, but I think Scott does his part also in other ways. He doesn't have any qualms looking straight at a camera and making clear statements about not dating Tessa or not being romantically involved with her off ice. He doesn't even try being ambiguous, he easily flat out says they are not together. He also has been the one to say "my girlfriend...". I don't think Tessa has ever said "my boyfriend....". I know she also denies Scott, but she's more about the details such as making sure to mention living with her mother or that she sees Scott in the morning at the rink. I think Scott is generally more direct about making those "not a couple" statements.
what an obnoxious thing to say tanith
ReplyDeletesomeone should call tanith out
ReplyDeleteTanith has been shady from the start of the past season. She is just warming up. The first time she commented on Carmen she ignored the stunning display of athleticism and skating skill. She ignored that they were doing something different - more aggressive, more dynamic, more powerful. She shut her face during all of that. It's like she was ignoring what they were doing on the ice. When did she open her trap? During the softer part that flowed out of the spin. Suddenly she declares this is their best - the comforting intimacy.
DeleteShe was politicking for Meryl and Charlie while commentating on Tessa Scott. She didn't want to acknowledge that Tessa and Scott were being athletic and dynamic, powerful and strong. She only chose to speak up when the program got soft. Ergo, she was implicitly unimpressed with and diminishing Carmen, and telling VM to get back in their box. Powerful and strong and athletic are DW's cards to play. When Virtue Moir showed those attributes, Tanith blatantly ignored most of their program.
When VM do something more traditional this coming season, Tanith will use that to diminish them with head pats. Same old soft sweet VM. Performance only. She won't deal with their skating but will spot mistakes.
Charlie and Meryl will be praised for risk-taking and skating their hearts out.
She sounded ridiculous, btw. Carmen was being skated and the only thing she praised were the lyrical-ish Mahler parts. Anything that threatens DW, she diminishes or dismisses. She was out loud with that last season. It will get worse this season.
She's already doing it. "Everybody gone home" may as well be "everybody GO home".
oc
oc 8:46
DeleteIt's so unprofessional for Tanith to be doing commentary in any competition that includes DW, and because VM are considered their nearest rivals IMO she should also recuse herself for any competition that includes VM.
*Of course* in figure skating this isn't considered a problem. Typical.
I noticed she started damning the Shibs with faint praise as well.
DeleteThis is a bit old, from the end of March, but I find that parts of it make me a bit stabby: http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2013/03/interview-with-pj-kwong.html
ReplyDeletePJ is ever positive and non-controversial, but it is discouraging that these respected skater-reporters have never dared question the scoring in ice-dance the last two seasons. Not just V/M and D/W, also for example G/P and the dumping of the Shibs, who skate cleaner elements than D/W.
DeleteSuch evident corruption and favoritism, and PJ and Tracy and others spin about a preferred style or in other ways say V/M and D/W are equal. That's where the mafia mentality must kick in, they have to say what the ISU wants to hear.
With all of the photos from 2013 stars on ice going up on twitter. Why aren't Tessa/Scott in any of them? Are they really that hated by the rest of the skaters, or are they busy tending to something else?
ReplyDeleteTessa and Scott are rarely photographed with other skaters at anything, be it a competition or the tour. I don't think it's that they're hated, I think they just have such a different life from the rest. On this tour, they have other obligations such as Lindt promotions and who knows whether or not the little one is along for the ride. I'm thinking no, they probably left her at home with one of the sets of grandparents.
ReplyDeleteIf either of them are photographed and the photographs show up, it's usually for sham purposes. That's mostly stopped now though with Jess being out of the picture.
"If either of them are photographed and the photographs show up, it's usually for sham purposes."
Deleteoc mentioned in an earlier comment how the execution of a sham needed to be disciplined and professional. But when it comes to getting photographed, I'd say Tessa and Scott have been very disciplined. The above comment is right - public photos have been mainly for sham purposes for years. It's weird, actually, how there aren't even candid photos within a group setting like the SOI skaters out on the town. You could count on one hand the candid photos of Tessa and Scott together in any given season that become public.
I agree that V/M seem to appear in very few candid shots, but I will say that there have been very few pics in general from SOI this year compared to years past, even from the skaters who normally seem to be in to posting pics. The most notable of the out-on-the-town shots with the skaters this year were the night that V/M filmed their interview for the Strombo (or whatever it's called) show, so I'll give them a pass on that one.
DeleteNow that this has been mentioned. T/S will appear in other cast membrrs photos. LOL. I truely believe. ?.Not too many other skaters like Scott. Evidence from WTT 2012, and other copms, and rehersals.You can just tell...
ReplyDeleteRemember when Scott & Charlie were best friends??? Now @ 2013 Worlds Scott said that He isn't going to pull the wool over anyones' eyes. Saying that now they are not & just respect each other ( Verified by Charlie's tweets from 2010/2011 season). What happened to their friendship??? Could it be thst Scott went off like a dickhead and insulted Marlie??? I think Scott is losing everything for T/S. Nobody likes Him. I know they won Worlds after that comment, even
ReplyDeleteI know they shouldn't have. I think Scott and his big mouth ruined their chances...
"I know they won Worlds after that comment, even
DeleteI know they shouldn't have. "
just like marlie won worlds this year when they should'nt have :).
maybeit was charlie who was being a passive agressive giant dickhead to him first?
moreover scotts comments at gpf wasn't direct towards marlie but towards the judges. if it was, they wouldn't be posing for photographs together right after the event.
Deletenot everybody hates scott. there are just a vocal minority who hate him.
DeleteI know they won Worlds after that comment, even
DeleteI know they shouldn't have.
hahahahaha ok then.
I'm sorry for you, really. I don't give a shit if Meryl and Charlie are the better people. Get used to the fact that TS are the better skaters and ice-dancers. Meryl and Charlie shouldn't be in the top 5 and they shouldn't have won any gold medal over Tessa and Scott.
I'm going to assume you think Scott and Tessa shouldn't have won Worlds that season because you don't think Scott was nice. If you mean Die Fleudermaus deserved to win, Die Fleudermaus was as big a hustle as Giselle. They didn't skate that program. They hopped and trotted it, and two footed and slidt it.
DeleteFurthermore, while Scott expresses his frustration at times, the butter-wouldn't melt-in our mouth, self-serving, passive-aggressive sanctimony that now characterizes Davis White's interviews and the media around them looks much uglier on them than the occasional vent does on Scott.
DeleteDW are so humble and such good sports in the face of unjust results. If they do say so themselves.
"Furthermore, while Scott expresses his frustration at times, the butter-wouldn't melt-in our mouth, self-serving, passive-aggressive sanctimony that now characterizes Davis White's interviews and the media around them looks much uglier on them than the occasional vent does on Scott."
DeleteThe idea that Scott is not nice and therefore loses points is made-up legends on some message boards. There is no history to back that up, except for a couple remarks that people didn't like. Where is any history of disrespect? Of rudeness? Both he and Tessa are nice and charming to fans and interviewers alike. They say the correct and respectful things about their families, their country, their coaches and their fellow-skaters. Except for the relationship questions, they are direct but amiable.
The dislike in some places is uglier than anything Scott ever said or did. It sounds more like some people can't distinguish between their own fanfics and reality.
And I agree DW have increasingly taken an ugly passive-agressive tone. VM have never undermined any fellow competitor that way. Never.
Davis and White are all about letting us know they're the better, bigger people. How no matter what happens, they'll just continue to work hard. Sure they're "surprised" when they don't get the numbers they expect, but they're not the sort to question the validity of the numbers, even though sometimes it sure is a puzzlement. It just wouldn't be how they was raised.
DeleteEverything they say positions themselves against a not so imaginary, not so dedicated or hardworking, not so deserving, unnamed other. Who, WHO could it be?
I wonder if Belbin Agosto would have bragged on everybody gone home when they trained with Domnina Shabalin. Or if anybody at the DSC would start p.r.ing how they work harder and are more focused on Sochi than anyone else training there.
DW are aping GP. Everything GP say about themselves is a comparative intended to diminish unnamed competition. Their unnamed competition lacks personality. Their unnamed competition is tedious (somebody is by implication tedious if you're "refreshing"). Everything DW say about themselves is about patting themselves on the back while sticking the shiv in the back of the unnamed Virtue Moir - right, Tanith?
I think they're being clever. Here's what it looks like to me: there's a shadiness and lack of up and up, lack of adding up, around the public narrative of VM's personal life that has reached the public consciousness, at least somewhat. DW's pr is trying to exploit that vibe and apply it to their skating and their scoring. There's something kind of not legit about how VM get their points, no? I mean, DW would never say, but sure - plenty of people come up to them and tell them they should have won all the things, how they're under appreciated despite being VM's equal in all things, but it's not in their personality to make a big deal of that stuff. Yeah, it's disappointing but they're sure there's a good reason, and even if not, nothing will stop them working hard. That's who they are as people.
So let's get this straight.
DW are the only skaters who work hard enough to deserve gold in Sochi. Their rink mates are home watching the basketball play-offs.
DW are the only friendly, good-natured skaters in the sport.
They're the only ones the crowd ever thinks should win anything.
Did we mention they're very humble despite him resembling Baryshnikov and her looking like Ava Gardner?
It looks to me as if DW and the USFSA, Tanith and a lot of media are aware DW's scores are a hustle and a crock. Before that fact starts creating buzz, they're trying to seize control of the narrative and tell us it's VM's scores that have been a hustle, that in a fair world DW would have won every World Championship since 2010 (that's right - DW think they should be 3 time world champions - that's how inferior VM are to them) and if the sport wants to even pretend to be fair, it will give DW the gold in Sochi.
Sure, the sport can go ahead and be the same old deal making, back room favor trading cesspool it's always been, and it that's the way it goes, DW will be good sports.
But ice dance wants to be legit, right? Doesn't ice dance want to make a statement that hard work pays off? If they do, then DW will win gold in Sochi. If not, disappointing, but darn it, everybody feels in their gut that 2014 is when goodness prevails and DW win.
That's what everybody wants from Sochi. They don't want the best skaters to win - that would be VM. They want the best people to win. Let's start telling everyone DW are the best people - by miles. There's nobody else that's good people. Just them.
There's something off about those other skaters who've gone home.
Delete
"The dislike in some places is uglier than anything Scott ever said or did. It sounds more like some people can't distinguish between their own fanfics and reality.
DeleteAnd I agree DW have increasingly taken an ugly passive-agressive tone. VM have never undermined any fellow competitor that way. Never."
I agree that what Scott has ever said to the media doesn't justify what fans think of him. But I am starting to wonder, is there some truth to skaters/commentators not liking them? I think OyCanada was right that most of the ugliest garbage of the sham was hidden out of sight on social media, but if we as fans can put two and two together that this is bad for their child, then I think people in their real life (except Moirville) can do the same thing. They don't need to see how bad it is, it's bad even in the basics of denying the child. What really got me thinking is why Tanith is being so unprofessional. Is it really as simple as she's the girlfriend? She's not a whole lot better than CH then. Or is there a sense that it's ok to take digs at V/M now, even if that's a subconcious decision??
I just know that their instincts with not just the sham, which has been most of their social media outreach, together with what little of their social media presence has not been sham, has been off key, off-putting and often lacking context or empathy.
DeleteAnd some of the stuff their families have chimed in with has been really inappropriate at times too.
There are skaters on social media whom I don't believe have been trained in social media, who nevertheless seem incapable of doing some of what Scott and Tessa have done - not just in terms of the sham, but how they treat people on social media. Their basic decency doesn't allow what Scott and Tessa do to even occur to them.
Most skaters are pretty much in agreement about fans - there's some ok ones but then, oy. The skaters on social media with good instincts just abide by a "do unto others" rule of thumb. Scott and Tessa don't seem to know what that is or means.
What do they even tell their peers? Whatever explanations they give the media, fellow skaters KNOW that privacy is not that big of a deal. Are there actually conversations reminding people to "hey, make sure you don't get my kid in that picture, because no one is supposed to know she/he exists" ? Does a memo get sent out to everyone reminding them how to act around V/M? Has it been going on so long no one even bothers to ask why?
DeleteI don't think a memo needs to go out - everybody knows perfectly well it's "secret" (i.e., not public).
DeleteEverybody has their secrets and stuff they want to keep private. I don't think everybody is working a pro-active scam on this scale, but the privacy some of the skaters maintain is still important to them - they're not going to "out" Virtue Moir just because HOW Virtue and Moir are keeping it secret is so ridiculous.
If you think of the skaters whose private life we know nothing about - i.e., did we know about Charlie's prior to Tanith, do we know anything about Meryl's (we don't - she's not dating Fedor or Jeremy Abbott) - it's not some accident. These skaters don't want their private life out in the public realm. They just handle it differently. They don't draw people's attention to their private life, for one thing. They don't make their secrecy about their private life a topic of their interviews, and they pro-actively engage in other, professional, genuine ways.
I mean the reality is Tanith Belbin also managed to keep her private life private until Charlie, using a method similar to Virtue Moir, only she wasn't working the other side of the street and constantly babbling on about who she was NOT dating, while posing in bridal magazines with the person she was not dating, and telling the world that the person she was not dating was part of her, and the person she was not dating wasn't gay. She wasn't doing that nonsense.
Skating is a very very very self-absorbed sport. A skater's career is fragile. It's doubtful that the skaters think about this (Virtue Moir) as much as fans do - in part because it's so taken for granted.
What I think MIGHT hurt them is collateral issues around their lies. Skate Canada's participation. If Skate Canada is an unhealthy organization and some of its officals spent a lot of time being Virtue and Moir's body people instead of attending to the real business of the organization, that's going to come out later. People - skaters, families, etc., are going to be pissed.
The sort of thing that could come out later might be in the tone of when Elizabeth Manley openly griped about Katia Gordeeva's opportunities vis a vis her own. I read about this, didn't read it first hand, but apparently she bitched that Gordeeva had no jumps, was not a singles skater, and got opportunities she didn't deserve while someone like Manley had to struggle for professional chances. The reality was Gordeeva was more popular and that's what Manley didn't want to face, so instead she bitched - that an Olympic silver medalist in singles can't get hired, and a pairs skater with no jumps gets more $$$ as a singles skater due to who she knows, who supports her, and her fame as a widow. I may be wrong but a component to Manley's bitching might have been to suggest she was saying what other people thought but didn't say. She was wrong in this case because it was a straight up marketability issue around pro skating. It wasn't about eligible athletics. I could see her bitching about pro competitions, though, versus tours, because Gordeeva got much more of those than did Manley.
I can see a similar tone happening after Sochi from some of the have nots of skating, or those who struggled more, about Virtue Moir's rarified world and the effort it took to maintain it, at possibly the expense of other skaters.
I also feel that when Virtue Moir won gold everybody in Canadian Skating thought it was going to be a rising tide lifts all boats effect and everybody would benefit - Skate Canada, other skaters, Canadian skating's popularity, etc. It worked out pretty much the opposite way - you could stretch a metaphor and claim the obsession with VM and all the agendas piggbacked onto them sunk a few SC boats.
Virtue and Moir, while they have challenges "unique" to them, are also free from some of the challenges and stresses that best other skaters - financial being a big one. Other skaters couldn't afford to treat the public the way Virtue and Moir treats the public, and they wouldn't want to run a hoax in part because they wouldn't want blowback to damage their marketability down the line. Virtue Moir dont' have to worry - I imagine they think they'll still be marketable, but if not they won't have to go down the mine, as Lady Grantham said on Downton Abbey.
DeleteI think the skaters, many of them, are all well aware where Scott and Tessa come from and how that presents "unique" challenges that other skaters haven't faced. In the article linked here in the comments section Scott and Tessa talk about skating in London as the best thing ever - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that it's a whole lot more complicated and exhausting than that.
That said of course there's joking and eye rolls. I think it will depend upon how considerate Scott and Tessa have been towards their fellow skaters - not just one on one and as teammates and tour mates, but how perceptive they've been about other things that, while convenient and in their best interest, have inconvenienced others. I believe that back when this was in its heyday, most of the eye rolling was at Jessica, which is kind of a double standard.
" Virtue and Moir, while they have challenges "unique" to them, are also free from some of the challenges and stresses that best other skaters - financial being a big one. Other skaters couldn't afford to treat the public the way Virtue and Moir treats the public, and they wouldn't want to run a hoax in part because they wouldn't want blowback to damage their marketability down the line. Virtue Moir dont' have to worry - I imagine they think they'll still be marketable, but if not they won't have to go down the mine, as Lady Grantham said on Downton Abbey. "
DeleteWho are V/M's sponsors these days ? Is Toyota still in the run ?
I'm 10:40, I didn't mean why don't people out them, and of course, every skater has things they don't want broadcast to the public. I'm just curious how the conversation about V/M even goes. When someone new or non-North American is clued in. When someone they don't know well realizes "wait, you're still doing this, even with a kid??" What explanation do V/M give when they split apart (or leave Tessa out) for photos? Or have people learned to not even ask?
Delete"It's doubtful that the skaters think about this (Virtue Moir) as much as fans do - in part because it's so taken for granted."
Yeah, you're probably right. And they do seem to be genuinely liked in many cases. I still wonder if there are red flags going up at this point though, the same way we all here are more disgusted and worried than ever before.
While reading, I stumbled across this passage from the dystopian science-fiction book "Shift" and couldn't help but think about the sham.
ReplyDelete>>"Tell me, Donny, how good are you at keeping secrets?"
... "I got elected, didn't I?"
... "And so you probably learned the best lesson there is about secrets... Denial. Denial is the secret sauce in this town. It's the flavor that holds all the other ingredients together. Here's what I tell the newly elected: the truth is going to get out- it always does- but it's going to blend in with all the lies. You have to deny each lie and every truth with the same vinegar. Let those websites and blowhards who bitch about cover-ups confuse the public for you."<<
That pretty nicely sums it up actually. Thank you for sharing this!
DeleteYes. There's a good one in the novel East of Eden (John Steinbeck) as well, about the depraved Cathy. He describes how she lies.
Delete“Cathy's lies were never innocent. Their purpose was to escape punishment, or work, or responsibility, and they were used for profit. Most liars are tripped up either because they forget what they have told or because the lie is suddenly faced with an incontrovertible truth. But Cathy did not forget her lies, and she developed the most effective method of lying. She stayed close enough to the truth so that one could never be sure. She knew two other methods also -- either to interlard her lies with truth or to tell a truth as though it were a lie. If one is accused of a lie and it turns out to be the truth, there is a backlog that will last a long time and protect a number of untruths.”
Tessa and Scott never have to confront the truth, so they don't have to be as disciplined as Cathy. They forget their lies all the time. They don't forget the main lie, but they do forget and change all the stories around the main lie.
Steinbeck is right about the most effective method of lying - stay as close to the truth as possible. Of course, the main VM lie is truth's opposite, but they try to use their real personalities and some of their real experiences and timelines to sell it. I also think they take their emotions from a hidden, secret experience and repurpose those emotions to sell a totally made up experience (the rift). So the emotions might be authentic - the event is just made up.
Tell the truth as if it were a lie is very clever - don't know if Scott and Tessa have used that one. I don't know if they have the talent to play that many levels. Scott always tries to be clever, but it often backfires or is otherwise jammed up.
Basically, what we're talking about is nothing fancy. It's manipulation.
wikipedia describes it like this:
"Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics.[1] By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at another's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative, abusive, devious and deceptive. "
I'm always amused by the number of fans and posters who try to manipulate the hell out of other fans but presume Scott and Tessa are incapable of manipulation. It's a default setting for a lot of people. Examples are everywhere. It doesn't take rocket science, and Scott and Tessa aren't rocket scientists. Maybe it's the mutual inflated egos that allows this to go on. Fans think Scott and Tessa are too stupid, young, unaware, innocent to do it. Scott and Tessa think fans are too stupid and unsophisticated to figure it out.
"Steinbeck is right about the most effective method of lying - stay as close to the truth as possible. Of course, the main VM lie is truth's opposite, but they try to use their real personalities and some of their real experiences and timelines to sell it. I also think they take their emotions from a hidden, secret experience and repurpose those emotions to sell a totally made up experience (the rift). So the emotions might be authentic - the event is just made up."
DeleteDid you see this? http://www.joomag.com/magazine/five-magazine/0921861001362783444 I think it sounds like "the rift" was actually based on a real problem he had in coping with training by himself.
Anon at 1:25 pm - thanks for the link to the article. In terms of the first surgery, it wouldn't surprise me if Scott would have been frustrated with the lack of prognosis, recovering timelines etc. That is totally to be expected. And let's face it - when your skating partner is basically missing in action on the ice - it is hard to continue to train. Not that the motivation wasn't there - but it may have been misguided at times. And who knows what Igor and Marina did at the time vis a vis the situation. Let's not forget that Scott was 19-20 years old and for an elite male athlete who wants to go go go...this was not an easy situation...and lastly let's face it who at Skate Canada would be a mentor to him and talk to him about injuries..hell I know I wasn't too impressed with Skate Canada's medical physician - Dr. Julia Alleyne...so naturally dealing with the second surgery would have been easier due to experience...it doesn't surprise me that Marnie McBean was a mentor to them prior to the Olympics since she won olympic gold medals in doubles with Kathleen Heddle and in eights - so she would know how to work in a team environment...it's probably too bad that Marnie McBean wasn't in the picture earlier to guide both of them...my two cents on the topic..
DeleteNow on to Tanith Belbin - she needs to recuse herself from commentating this season period. We all know that she has been unbiased these past 2 seasons and I can't imagine what will come out of her mouth this year. And this photo caption - yes - she is dissing everyone that trains at Canton including the Shibs..so Canadian of her...not...at this rate - let's just have Tanith be the technical caller at the Olympics...as pointed out earlier - I don't think Krylova or Carmenlengo would like if this sort of tweet came from the Detroit Skating Club...can you imagine if D/W were skating at the DSC and Tanith tweeted the same thing - do you think that Kaitlyn Weaver or Nathalie Pechelat would not take offense...please they so would...
As for the Cassandra situation - well everyone has a right to social media...but once you are in the real world workforce and no longer a student blah blah blah..you need to be thoughtful of what you put on facebook and twitter...it's a no-brainer..irregardless of age...
Me at 5:30 pm - clarification - Tanith Belbin has been biased these past 2 seasons lol..not unbiased..my bad...
DeleteIn terms of timelines, Tessa was back on the ice in less than eight weeks after her surgery. While she recovered, Scott was with her, and, as Marijane Strong said, they were constantly working at home.There was no separation, there was no 'alone' - he was with her in London. The rift was a lie, not based on reality. They were super close. The way they portrayed their relationship in 2009 to the extent they acknowledged being even closer - was true.
DeleteThere are mysteries around Tessa's shins - one being why did she get compartment syndrome in the first place. It's more commonly found in track and field athletes. It would seem that ice dancers should get it often as well, due to the pressure on the legs from hitting deep edges and clean turns in footwork sequences (there's a reason certain elements are taken out when a program becomes a show program). If they know why she got it, they're not sharing, but it's not a common sports condition for skaters. She's speculated a change of boots - who knows.
Second, she says the pain surfaced in 07 - November. You can see it in her demeanor and in Scott's increasingly solicitous demeanor in the second half of the season. But they say it took a long time to diagnose. That's bizarre. A sports doctor should be able to identify it right away.
I, personally, suspect that any tension they had that they used for the rift fantasy might have been around Scott getting timelines about when they could be 'out' as a couple - looking at some specific video from 09 it certainly appears this is something he anticipates sooner rather than later - only to have the timeline change on him repeatedly, and then postponed indefinitely, then cancelled.
And one wonders if her shins played a part in her desire to keep her relationship under wraps as well - something she COULD control. Scott makes shit up all the time so I don't want to make too much of it, but when he claims he'd get a date for Tessa's return, get all excited, then be let down, repeat, it makes one wonder if he's re-purposing an experience where she'd agree to a date or deadline to come clean, he'd get excited, then she'd renege. Because there were no timeline shenanigans with her recovery. She was back training to the extent she could in a blink of an eye - bang on when she needed to be to have a hope of Canadians, ready or not, and she was mostly not ready. But she was there. He never ever had to question that.
Scott was completely involved and present and they worked together to set themselves up for her return to the ice to be ready for Canadians. They wanted the Olympic gold desperately and saw Worlds 2009 as key - they had to show for it.
One should never EVER underestimate the importance of and passion for skating in skaters like these, and they had to completely subdue any fears that they wouldn't make their goals because of this. They both did everything to make it happen.
DeleteBTW - some fans think Scott pressures Tessa. This is a "fertile imagination" category. There's nobody who could pressure Tessa like Tessa. Nobody.
If there's anything to that suspicion that the real deadline disappointment went to Scott being excited by a reveal timeline, only to have the goalposts move on him repeatedly, the psychology on Tessa's part is understandable, but the perspective, the logic that underpins the psychology is not. There comes a point where if every blip in the atmosphere becomes a pretext to delay, postpone, or cancel a reveal, you don't want to reveal. You're looking for excuses, and everything qualifies as an excuse if that's what you're looking for.
In that article I also find it odd that Scott says because he and Tessa are still competing they have to "isolate themselves from the world." I've heard skaters say they have to focus, they don't have the same lives as their friends, but not isolate themselves. I don't see other skaters isolating themselves - not Davis White, not the Shibs, not the rest of the Canadian team. It's statements like that that make them seem as if long ago their thinking went off the rails.
I'm the one who linked the article. I didn't mean that he found being alone in Canton hard to cope with, because as you said, they were together in London. But did he too stay off the ice for 8 weeks? I more meant that his statement here could be the truth behind the "we didn't deal with the first surgery as well as the second" part that has been an element of the rift story since it's unveiling in 2010.
DeleteI agree about the other quote. "We still have to sort of isolate ourselves from the world because we're still amateur athletes..." True amateur athletes (ie little compensation) have neither the need to isolate themselves for privacy or the luxury of doing so. The top competitive figure skaters are professionals. So I guess the point is the "still competting" thing, but seriously?? I don't know if I've ever heard an athlete describe concentrating on their training as "isolating" themselves.
Well since we are on the topic of people kinda throwing other skaters under the bus - you should check out PJ Kwong's latest video interview with Mitch Islam and Alexandra Paul. The throwing under the bus is subtle - but it's definitely there. Let's see if PJ interviews either Lane teams whether she dwells on how G/P finished 18th at worlds or how R/H did at Nationals. PJ also asks P/I what to expect from the fall competitions being fully aware that unless P/I gets thrown a bone - there won't be any GP assignments for them...(naturally they should be able to do a Senior B competition)...the favouritism shown to the Lane teams is a bit much...Mitch and Alex handled the questions with poise and professionalism. Here's to them making it to the Olympics cuz third place should still be undecided after what happened to G/P at worlds...
Delete6:08, do you mean that PJ was throwing P/I under the bus? I disagree. What happened to P/I was a truly devestating mistake, without which they would gone to 4CCs (silver at Nats, eh, probably not) and which left a GP spot for them up in the air. I thought it was appropriate for it to be addressed. R/H's mistake didn't really alter the course of their season, and with G/P, the case isn't as simple as "that twizzle mistake was a huge setback". G/P were dumped after 4CCs (as they should have been) beyond what can be explained by the twizzle mistake, and as much as PJ promotes them, I thinks she knows that they are as sloppy as hell. And it might be addressed with the two teams if she interviews them anyways. I totally agree that PJ is in the tank for Lane's teams which sucks, but I also think she's a huge fan of P/I from what I can tell.
DeleteLoving Miss Cassandra's new Facebook profile pic! The heart wants what the hearts wants and hers wants Scott Moir! It's all so terribly romantic. I do hope she's getting along alright without him as the tour has wrenched him away from his love.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHA. OMG. I had no idea and I doubt she does either.
DeleteCould that photo be from some time ago and not recent? I don't know that it's been summer weather in Western Ontario yet. Besides whatever new material is generated for social media, I wonder if Miss Cass has spent time going through old albums for anything that might apply to her current job of narcissistic, love-struck moron.
DeleteI don't think it matters. The photo of GMac flipping the bird was taken before the blog existed and was in Carol's album a long time, so when Carol decided to make it her profile picture it came off like she was using it to send a message. Otherwise why would a prominant member of a community like Ilderton, somebody who with her sisters runs skating programs and skate camps for kids, want to highlight that in a profile picture?
DeleteIn Cassandra's photo is Heather Raposo, and old school sham enabler when the girl was Jessica, and what seems like a "send them a message!" t shirt.
These people make a big deal about skating's demographic. Mid-life, female. The sham is ostensibly aimed at that demo. That demo remembers Woody Allen. Unless they're in the Ilderton/London skating community where they don't know or remember jackshit about what goes on outside a skating rink.
Remember the Friends episode where Chandler tricked Joey into taking the stage name Joseph Stalin? This Moirville crowd seems about that bright, but minus Joey Tribiani's genuine good heart.
I don't know if the photo is new or old, but this past week there were (finally!) a couple days warm enough for outfits such as those.
DeleteOh, and I love how many Friends references you can make about this situation. I think as Tessa gets older she is looking more like Courtney Cox, and I wonder if she has Monica's obsession with "we can't let them win!" Of course, the "but they don't know we know they know" has already been discussed here before, and that's the most perfect comparison of all.
DeleteTher's definitely a "can't let them win" about this whole thing.
DeleteIt's amazing how they dished it out than ran around to the receiving line and pretended they were the ones who were put upon.
"steal my thunder" - they both give off that impression ALL the time
DeleteSomeone should definately call Tanith out. SHE can not be unbiased. She should be ashamed of Herself
ReplyDeleteOC @ 9:49, 9:51
DeleteWhat's strange about the time you reference - mostly from 2008-2009 and even 2010 - is that while it sounded like they might be close to publicly saying they were a couple off-ice, this was the time when the patterns of the sham became established and entrenched. Especially looking back, they really sound like they were laying groundwork for "coming out" and at the same time Scott and Moirs were very busy taking photos of Scott and Jessica and writing ridiculous posts about them on facebook.
But how does that work - let's prepare to come out, but let's bring Jessica to Ilderton around Christmas and stage the family-holiday & romantic gift (just as an example of their shenanigans around that time).
And when they spent time with Steve Milton for their book - wouldn't Tessa have been pregnant already? They couldn't have known her body would cooperate and hardly show. So they were probably expecting the normal-looking pregnancy, but they still insisted on the platonic stories, knowing the book was to be published around the time of an impending birth.
In spite of any teasing about a reveal, I think it looks like they've never intended saying the truth. They kept making the sham stronger, not less, even throughout a pregnancy!
The sham patterns are so important to them - it almost looks like they tried going without for a few months but they felt too exposed or vulnerable or something. So hurry up and create a new face/name (but same patterns) for the season. Can they ever be real in their public status quo? It doesn't look like they ever will.
I didn't say they were planning to reveal in 2009, but laying the groundwork for a reveal in the following year.
DeleteTessa and Scott have had their goals in place a long time - marriage, Olympic gold, family (baby). A lot pivoted on getting the gold. For example if they hadn't gotten it in 2010 the question might be - do we have a baby at this age and afterwards continue on to Sochi? A lot of uncertainty and variables. With their life's dream achieved, everything afterward in skating was just gravy to them at that time - more world titles, another Olympic gold - all icing on the cake. It was liberating - their choices opened up (such as green light for 2010 baby).
I don't think they intended seriously to reveal prior to Vancouver - and remember all the hinting was in legit media - it was social media where they shammed. So there's no inconsistency with that. Furthermore, it goes to not showing your hand and protecting your options. Remember prior to 4CC 2011 they knew they weren't going to skate the free program, and they and Skate Canada set about amping up expectation for the free. The hype even landed on ice network.
So their advertising doesn't always = their intentions, and in this case I mean that amping up the sham prior to the Olympics doesn't mean they didn't expect to reveal afterwards. Also recall that in the run-up to the Olympics they had everyone up their ass, anxiety over Tessa's shins, etc., people wanting a piece of them, so the sham serve a purpose there - to occupy and involve Moirville during a time they really couldn't make themselves available to everyone they knew who clamored for their time or clamored to be heard or get a message to them. Don't forget that piece of it. Reveal or not, Moirville still needed something to do.
I don't think the book factored into their plans for a reveal or not a reveal either way. During the promotion Scott still threw in the occasional "not yet anyway".
I completely disagree that they never intended the truth. They're not great at making things match up. I wouldn't expect some perfect professional run-up to the announcement, or them thinking "oops, if we say this in the book it's going to look funky when we tell the truth." Why should they? They have never ever worried about contradicting themselves. I couldn't believe more strongly, and have reason to believe it, that their original game plan was not to sham til Sochi.
That said, it's not unusual for public personalities in under the radar relationships to plan to come clean and then get cold feet, or re-evaluate the timeline. Scott and Tessa would not be the only ones.
Once they went ahead and announced: "it's shins and only shins sidelining us this season" - of course they're going to sham. That's when they would have announced their real status, if they were going to follow through with that. Instead they chose shins. At that point of course they're going to up the sham. It was over then.
And they were spending more time in London. She's pregnant. They have public appearances to make. They don't have a regular training schedule. Give those folks (the community) something to do!
I don't know what you mean by tried going without for a few months. This is how it works. They're not going to go "out with the old girlfriend", "in with the new" without a pause. Jessica's role had just ended. Of course they're going to wait before introducing "meet the new girlfriend, same as the old girlfriend." Just as they waited nearly a year to fire her after she dumped Bryce.
DeleteMeantime, they let us know that Scott went to Anabelle and Cody's wedding and Tessa didn't. They let us know all was amicable with Jessica (she included Scott among those she missed after the Langlois/Hay wedding). Scott still had a fan page on facebook.
As soon as Scott said he was closing his fan page but the "new season was right around the corner" that's when we know the new gf was in place, even though she didn't officially debut for all his fans (including those not on twitter) til m'ovember. I didn't know it at the time - I, of course, like everyone else, hoped they were done with that aspect of it, but in retrospect it's very clear they never tried 'going without'. They were just decent interval-ing and transitioning. If they hadn't had an interval it would look exactly like what it was - recasting the role.
I personally wonder if opinions of Scott and Tessa altered inside the skating world after they chose to keep their child secret from the public. It's one thing for two barely out of their teens "kids", skating for gold in a home Olympics, to want to keep their private life private. Especially since there was such a significant event - marriage - taking place the same season as the Olympics. People around Scott and Tessa almost believed they would be like rock stars or movie stars - screams and swooning. What young couple about to compete for a gold medal wants strangers in their relationship. This thing that fans want to happen - to see things develop between Scott and Tessa right under their eyes - is every public figure's nightmare. Of course the other skaters would be geez, yeah, anything we can do to help and btw congratulations you guys!
But then they're safely Olympic medaled. They're married over a year. Everything is safely in the past, was allowed to happen out of the public eye.
They're expecting a baby and it's still 3 years away from the next Olympics, which is nowhere near Canada. It's the quietest year in skating. What better time to come clean and there's three years for the public to get used to it. But they don't. Okay, maybe Tessa wants to keep her pregnancy to herself (publicity wise) just like the marriage. Then the baby's here. Then the baby is a few months old, and Scott and Tessa win silver at Worlds. Then the season's done.
And still they're - yeah, we're staying secret. Why? A child is a human being. It doesn't pass into history, like a wedding, an Olympic performance, or a birth. It sticks around. You can't wait out a child. The child is here to stay.
So I wonder if Tessa and Scott continuing to sham after they no longer had their wonderful, sympathetic and totally understandable reasons to do so has impacted opinion about them among some in figure skating.
It's an overdone phrase, but Scott and Tessa's issues epitomize first world problems, and they don't seem to realize how many people around them have real world problems. That, too, can erode sympathy.
P.S. - a lot of skating partners in long term committed relationships with each other marry after they retire from competition. Scott and Tessa planned it the opposite - in the most significant competitive year of their careers they wanted to do it married. They wanted to be married - one, if you will - skating for gold. That says a lot not only about their feelings for each other, but the significance of the Olympics - that they wanted to be married for it. It's something surely that made them even stronger. Who wouldn't understand that? Who would want them exposed at that time? Who wouldn't help them hide in plain sight?
DeleteIt's a very persuasive and appealing story that had a lot of power to it. Also the Monaco angle had a lot of glamor to it.
Stayed too long at the party is how the sham feels at this point.
"but in retrospect it's very clear they never tried 'going without'. They were just decent interval-ing and transitioning. If they hadn't had an interval it would look exactly like what it was - recasting the role."
ReplyDeleteThis makes so much sense. I've never understood how they could "go backwards" when the summer went so well (from a fan perspective), but it was just consistently shamming to them.
"Of course the other skaters would be geez, yeah, anything we can do to help and btw congratulations you guys!
...
So I wonder if Tessa and Scott continuing to sham after they no longer had their wonderful, sympathetic and totally understandable reasons to do so has impacted opinion about them among some in figure skating."
Exactly. How could anyone feel completely comfortable around and supportive of a couple like this? Maybe they know stuff we don't know, but still. I don't know, but I feel there's something subtle going on with D/W/Tanith's attitude and others avoiding the issue completely. They don't seem to have a lot of people in their court.
6:53 (and all of OC's comments) -
DeleteI had not thought of it that way before, either, that the timing of the new gf is in reality consistent and not "going backward."
Interesting about a possible change of attitude among their own world that's in the know. It makes total sense that a certain fatigue would set in after a while, especially when it's no longer perceived as necessary. Remember that article - about a year ago - where Charlie said there would be no shocking DW revelations down the line...what a difference to several years ago when he seemed to enthusiastically help the sham.
That's another possible benefit of putting in a gf from the group of hometown friends. The skaters don't have to "work" for VM (and Jessica) as much plus it gives Moirville a task that feels important.
I don't see why people would be uncomfortable and outright not supportive in necessarily the way you suggest. Just a little more - this isn't totally what we thought it was anymore.
DeleteIt's a different situation than before and people may feel more distant from the decisions Virtue Moir have made to continue with the sham, then during the original circumstances when the sham was launched. Before it was a whole lot easier for anyone "inside" skating to completely understand.
Consider:
They're in love.
Together for a long time.
They've planned this year forever. Even when their plans were challenged, almost seemed under assault, from events like her shins, they made it happen. They proved their love, their commitment etc. in ways people don't even know, and triumphed.
The timing is incredibly romantic, and how wonderful this is their real life plan, but
if the public knew, the media knew, if people who knew them felt free to speak up to the media - how unbearable. Only an exhibitionist would want to do this publicly in real time - Canadian, 20 and 22, newlywed, skate Mahler in front of Canada. Win gold.
Being public at that time would open the door to so much inappropriate - including criticism. Such as - married during the Olympic season? Sounds like they're caught up in a romantic fantasy - hate to see reality set in when the Olympics are past and they mature.
Baby right away?
More of the same.
Who needs that crap? Who wants to justify your private decision to people just because the whole thing looks larger than life from the outside?
So among their large skating circle (and among the media who knew) - who wouldn't - and didn't - get it?
If they'd come clean about planning to marry and compete at the Olympics the same year, it would have felt like going through the most personal and intimate events of their lives in the Roman Coliseum. Let's not even bring up that they also planned a baby. Are they cruising for a nervous breakdown?
In that light, it's very sympathetic.
But now they're older. They're married a few years, as in love as ever. The Olympic and marriage year are far enough in the past that they don't even look exactly like the same people anymore. She's had the baby and the baby isn't even a baby anymore, but a toddler.
And Skate Canada tasked a lot of people to the Scott and Tessa situation, and what did Skate Canada get out of it? What did other skaters end up with but a Federation with no money, a runaway CEO, and a do-nothing Director of Business Development?
A few years of that can make people cynical.
continued below.
Honestly, when it comes to how the other skaters view V/M, it seems like most everyone seems to still like them as people very well (I've been told as much by someone who would know). The only camp making the jabs is team D/W-Tanith-USFS, and we all know there's another agenda at play there given D/W don't have the goods to win skating merit alone.
DeleteI think it boils down to that inspite of everything V/M, are still far more well-liked as people than the D/W ubers want them to be. Of course, the certain contingent of D/W ubers in question want V/M to be hated by all. Now, I do think given the OTT PR blitzkrieg from Team D/W that they might try to use V/M's activities to turn people against them. D/W are campaigning on the they deserve gold because they're better people platform.
FWIW, I think even if V/M had come clean and there was no sham right now, etc., Team D/W would still be waging this PR war and playing dirty. It's just the narrative would change. Nevermind that there are several other examples of women winning an OGM for skating after having a child (Gordeeva, Navka, and Rodnina immediately come to mind), I think it would be used against V/M, insinuating that they weren't as fully devoted, etc. because of the kid (and who knows, maybe they're doing this behind closed doors). I just think in an alternate reality where V/M are out, this same type of media war against them would stil be going on. D/W want that OGM badly and they know if it's on the basis of skating alone, they have no shot. (Or, who knows, maybe they do buy into their own hype.)
DeleteI wonder most about how some of the skaters with Skate Canada feel about it.
Scott and Tessa's Arctic Edge training mates aren't really affected.
All I think about Tanith and D/W is they're opportunistic. They'll capitalize on undertones created by VM stopping a 4CCs free program twice, and kind of try to fan the flames a bit. I found it super suspicious how people jumped on the second time Virtue Moir stopped a 4CC program.
The people who jumped on it tipped their hand and betrayed that there was ongoing agenda at play.
Something else: did someone ask Sinead to tweet "I love Scott and Tessa BUT"? I wonder. Have someone seemingly without agenda get some buzz going. It was so random that she decided to say something.
I don't think Tanith and D/W are reacting to the sham. Just being opportunistic. They all want D/W to win gold - super super bad. I think they feel they need to win it off the ice as much (or more) than on. So they'll work it. It's all undertone and subtext and a lot of what's not said.
Considering Meryl has fun releasing photos of herself with Jeremy Abbott and now Fedor, and considering she's not dating either, and considering Tanith until Charlie, these are not the people who'd be most put off by the sham as a sham, and they do know where Scott and Tessa come from as far as their small, skating mad community and Scott's skating-fixated family.
I think they're exploiting and fanning the flames for self-interest, period.
Everything said about Meryl Charlie has a component that there's someone else who is not all the good things they are.
It's gamesmanship. Tanith plays it with the Shibs, too. It can't be thought for a second that the Shibs are anywhere near DW. But Tanith will happily talk up Gilles/Poirier, who were wrongly scored in VM's ballpark.
THIS part - the Tanith and DW part, is about the gold medal. It's not principle. Tanith is, in her own way, as big a "nature of our sport" believer as Tessa.
8:46 you and I were typing at the same time when I was correcting my "to be continued" post, and we agree. My "to be continued" was all about what D/W and Tanith are prepared to do to angle D/W for gold.
DeleteAlthough I wonder about an attitude shift among some of their colleagues, I very much doubt it has much to do with Virtue and Moir revealing themselves as "people like this". This is figure skating, a sport where self-interest rules - bye bye childhood coach, by by current partner/bff hello new partner, self-aggrandizement left and right.
I'm thinking more fatigue, and possibly down the line that, when some skaters reflect, they feel they and fellow skaters were shortchanged by where Skate Canada put their priorities. The justification for being full-service to Scott and Tessa (meaning the sham and other things) - is/was that their success benefits everyone. When the dust cleared, it didn't work out that way, and some important officials spent more time basking in the spotlight and currying favor than acting in the self-interest of the organization, and the organization was in no kind of shape to afford such skewed priorities.
Yes, if there no sham, D/W and Tanith would still be playing dirty, just working a different narrative. Such as, she had a baby. Tessa's slip-ups this past year - still resulting in performances that ought to have won over D/W - would be pitched as - she's not the same. Shins, baby.
DeleteBut why can DW play so dirty without an answer? Where's the friend at court who responds that amazingly, despite baby and shins, Tessa is still able to skate her program instead of being literally held up by her partner, unlike Meryl. Or the person who points out that female figure skaters in pairs and dance have a tradition of skating even better after giving birth? A tradition of winning?
There's nobody. Their most vocal supporter, Tracy, serves two masters because she's under contract to an American network. Tanith has no such constraints. She throws both the Shibs and VM under the bus with faint praise, while selling DW as the only ones throwing down. There's nobody talking about the skating, unless there's a glitch by VM. Meryl, OTOH, can lay her whole leg out on the ice sliding out of a lift at Worlds and the judges and Tanith and everyone else pretends they didn't see it, among other things they pretend not to notice.
The problem isn't really DW's dirty pool, it's that VM have no answer. They could. It's not impossible. They are well-liked, despite a disinformation campaign pretending D/W are liked better both off ice and on, which I don't think is true in either case. The US media has treated "foreign" rivals with great affection before when they're appealing enough - and VM are appealing.
There's no answer from VM but Today's Bride.
I'm 6:53, I hear what you're saying, but I have some questions.
Delete"Something else: did someone ask Sinead to tweet "I love Scott and Tessa BUT"? I wonder. Have someone seemingly without agenda get some buzz going. It was so random that she decided to say something."
What would her motivation be for doing this? Is she close with D/W/Tanith?
"Everything said about Meryl Charlie has a component that there's someone else who is not all the good things they are."
This is my point. You've stressed before how incredibly close the friendship between the two teams has been, and I believe you. But this doesn't look like friendship to me anymore, even with a gold medal on the line. Scott has questioned the judges through their mistreatment, he has never taken a direct swipe at D/W (to my knowledge).
"Although I wonder about an attitude shift among some of their colleagues, I very much doubt it has much to do with Virtue and Moir revealing themselves as "people like this". This is figure skating, a sport where self-interest rules - bye bye childhood coach, by by current partner/bff hello new partner, self-aggrandizement left and right."
Fair enough, but how much of this blog has been about how V/M are a breed apart when it comes to the crazy? How much recent discussion here, including your banner, is concern that this is incredibly screwed up for their child? I'm sure that fellow skaters/commentators etc aren't focused on it the way we are, but aren't some of them seeing this is incredibly f***ed up? When I said "not completely comfortable around or supportive of"....I'm not meaning people avoid them, or freeze them out, or purposefully sabotage them. But if their peers see 10% of what we as fans see, does that not affect their feelings and actions at all??
"Where's the friend at court who responds that amazingly, despite baby and shins, Tessa is still able to skate her program instead of being literally held up by her partner, unlike Meryl. Or the person who points out that female figure skaters in pairs and dance have a tradition of skating even better after giving birth? A tradition of winning?"
Shouldn't this be something that is - to an extent - spontaneously happening on their behalf? Where is their Tanith (or is sleeping with one half of the team the only way that happens?)
10:33
DeleteI'll take it one at a time:
"Something else: did someone ask Sinead to tweet "I love Scott and Tessa BUT"? I wonder. Have someone seemingly without agenda get some buzz going. It was so random that she decided to say something."
What would her motivation be for doing this? Is she close with D/W/Tanith?'"
They don't have to be close - they can just relate more to their style of skating, they can know them better, been around them more, have more of a friendship. Skaters are opinionated. They often have axes to grind. They often feel "x" is overlooked in favor of "y". They're not logic whizzes, history experts, or even, depressingly enough, skating experts.
I didn't say I know she was encouraged to tweet what she did, I just said I suspect this. There was too much piling on right after the 4CCs that was disproportionate considering that DW won the 4CCs, that a pairs team had won Olympic silver in 2006 after stopping, that the Shibs had received mostly sympathy when Alex cramped up, that G&G had been disqualified because they did NOT stop. The reaction was overdone and hypocritical. The rule has been in place for decades but a competition like the 4CCs (relatively lesser) where the outcome isn't affected is the one that gets people saying - gee, that's unfair. The only thing that distinguishes this instance of stopping from any other is WHO stopped.
I still suspect this re Sinead, considering what followed in the same vein in other quarters. There's not much on social media that's done unself-consciously.
Skaters have chips on their shoulder. Gordeeva tells a story of her and Sergei driving back to their rented house with the fourth place finishers at Olympics 1994, and the fourth place finisher dude bitched about G&G coming back in 1994. "you already had gold medal. If you'd stayed away we could have been on the podium." She told the story but no fights broke out and the couples at the rented house continued to socialize.
continued below
"Everything said about Meryl Charlie has a component that there's someone else who is not all the good things they are."
Delete"This is my point. You've stressed before how incredibly close the friendship between the two teams has been, and I believe you. But this doesn't look like friendship to me anymore, even with a gold medal on the line. Scott has questioned the judges through their mistreatment, he has never taken a direct swipe at D/W (to my knowledge)."
It's not for me to account for how these two things can co-exist, it's them.
They are and have been close, and nevertheless this is what they're doing and there's no other way, IMO, to read their p.r. I can't explain it because I'm not them. I don't know what their rationale is. All's fair in love and war? Scott has said he and Tessa want DW to be at their best and they want to be at their own best and beat them. Scott has said he considers himself and Tessa the best in the world. Some people find that frankness more offensive than the back door passive aggression that has recently characterized DW's media.
Tanith has always been self-serving, skate-wise, and people seem to just roll with it. She was self-serving at the start of the Olympic season 2010 until she saw the writing on the wall (that no way she and Ben were getting gold) and dropped it. She dissed Cirque de Soleil acrobats teaching lifts (Arctic Edge), she implicitly dissed Marina/Igor, she claimed she went to Linichuk because she and Ben wanted to bring real dance back to ice dance, not acrobatics (again, her manipulating the Cirque de Soleil story). FF two (?) years later to when she was on BOTB and Scott gave her and her partner a supportive shout out. She's dating Charlie and she apparently pitches in coach-wise at Arctic Edge, like Fedor did, and Arctic Edge is Marina's domain. Back during the media surrounding Vancouver Marina said that Tanith and Ben were nice people but selfish (skating-wise). And yet there doesn't seem to be any residual hard feelings. Everybody might be used to how it is in skating - it's neurotic. There's pettiness and jockeying for spin, particularly among those who aren't clearly the best skaters, but still contenders. Skaters are insecure. If everybody held that shit against each other nobody would be talking to anybody. The ones who sail above it are the ones who are far and away the best skaters. G&G never worried about the other teams, they might worry about politics (i.e., would the judges favor Brasseur Eisler at Skate Canada), or skating their own best, but they were above chewing over someone else's skating or choices. Were they that much better as people? I think not - I think they just were that much better as skaters and it gave them the ability not to be threatened by anyone.
Virtue and Moir are clearly the best skaters - no matter how many games have been played this quadrennial, that's a fact, they know it. They're not threatened by other teams. They may be angry at times at "the system" and they've a right to be. That gives them a different slant on things than Meryl/Charlie and other teams.
"Although I wonder about an attitude shift among some of their colleagues, I very much doubt it has much to do with Virtue and Moir revealing themselves as "people like this". This is figure skating, a sport where self-interest rules - bye bye childhood coach, by by current partner/bff hello new partner, self-aggrandizement left and right."
Delete"Fair enough, but how much of this blog has been about how V/M are a breed apart when it comes to the crazy?"
Yeah, but it's not the "crazy" that would cause the attitude shift. Crazy is crazy. There's always crazy in figure skating. There's absolutely insane parents. There's dysfunctional partner dynamics. There's dysfunctional coach/skater dynamics. There's lots of stupid.
A lot of that is internal. VM's crazy is "special" because they've taken it on the road. They've taken it public. Skating generally likes to keep this stuff inside the rink, inside the sport ("This stuff" being the crazy).
BUT. I don't think the skaters give a shit how "crazy" VM are as SUCH if they're not affected. If they're affected, then they DO care and that's what I was talking about. And as the Olympics come closer, there's the other thing that wil happen, which is the jealousy and resentment that always exists in figure skating.
"How much recent discussion here, including your banner, is concern that this is incredibly screwed up for their child? I'm sure that fellow skaters/commentators etc aren't focused on it the way we are, but aren't some of them seeing this is incredibly f***ed up?"
DeleteTHIS is where I think you're completely off base. The "attitude shift" of which I speak is just garden variety bitchiness/pettyness now that it appears Virtue Moir are extending the sham past the intensity on and off the ice of the Olympic year. You seem to believe that there's some type of moral center or ethical compass guiding all the other skaters that they apply to their fellow skaters and Virtue Moir have sailed past it and that the other skaters have *strong* opinions as to Virtue and Moir's choices for their own kid. To that I say "Eh". Why should they care? They've got an Olympics to worry about, a future on the line.
" When I said "not completely comfortable around or supportive of"....I'm not meaning people avoid them, or freeze them out, or purposefully sabotage them. But if their peers see 10% of what we as fans see, does that not affect their feelings and actions at all??"
Why would it? Their peers see MORE than we see, and that gives them a different perspective as well. They know Scott and Tessa, the people. Scott and Tessa the parents are a reality to them. A lot of them handle fans differently but SEE fans the same way, if that makes sense. How much time do you imagine any of these people spend thinking about what Scott and Tessa are doing with their own family? How many, do you think, SHARE the opinion of the blog that it's not healthy for their child? Tanith made a joke on her facebook that she and Charlie have a hidden child and a bunch more because they started churning them out when he was so young (18) they thought revealing it would hurt their olympic career (this was a joke she made under a photo of her and Charlie with his niece). I actually don't think Tanith was taking a direct hit at Scott and Tessa with that. I think it's a mindset among skaters. Hide the relationship til after the career. Hide this and that til after the career.
It's just that Scott and Tessa have not only taken what they're hiding to an extreme, but they've been extremely manipulative. They've played hide-and-seek. They've pulled strings and pressed buttons. They've mocked fans. All of that doesn't lend credibility to their "we're so sensitive and private and need to isolate ourselves" claims, because if they were so acutely protective they wouldn't try to agitate fans and get fans paying attention to their private lives, over and over.
How many skaters are following all that shit? Do you think the other skaters give a damn about Cassandra Hilborn's twitter? Have you seen the maturity level on some of the skaters' social media?
"Shouldn't this be something that is - to an extent - spontaneously happening on their behalf? Where is their Tanith (or is sleeping with one half of the team the only way that happens?)"
Spontaneously? What's happening with DW isn't spontaneous, what's happening with VM wouldn't be spontaneous. The bottom line is they're Canadian and DW are American. The difference in sports media is HUGE. American media is disseminated everywhere. Canadian media not.
continued
To sum up:
DeleteThe attitude shift:
Here I am talking about the difference between two golden young people who were so idealistic about the Olympics, and so in love with each other, to the extent that as young as they were they'd had these plans in the works for years, that they wanted and did marry during the most intense competitive year of their lives. Very few people have the kind of relationship where both the relationship AND the skating would be strengthened by those choices. Most would be "let's get the Olympics out of the way before marriage. Skating first, personal life later."
Skate Canada had just about guaranteed they were going to return figure skating to the glory day$$ of the 1990s. All the skaters training up to and hoping to be on the team sent to Vancouver were taught this. Stars = a thriving, financially healthy skate Canada and a renewed public interest in figure skating which would obviously help ALL skaters (the more interest, the more opportunities for everybody, the more events, the more sponsors, etc.)
Scott and Tessa were clearly the best ice dancers, with stunning chemistry and they looked beautiful. They had charisma. They were the sun in Skate Canada's proposed constellation.
Factor in everything else about the marriage and wedding and their ages.
Now look at what happened afterwards. Everything done for Scott and Tessa seemed only to benefit Scott and Tessa. Sponsors left. Revenues shrunk. And still the officials seemed only to care about their stars (look at Skate Canada wrangling Jessica's role at GPF ice dance practice). All of Barb's tweets and media went towards getting sham mentions out there.
I don't think anyone expected Patrick Chan to be the huge star they expected Virtue and Moir to be, the idiotic "P***s for Patrick" promotion notwithstanding. He's a status symbol, he's an important part of the program, but Virtue Moir were the ones expected to attract both media attention and ticket buyers and television ratings.
continued
So think of the past two years as sort of the hangover after the party. The energy Skate Canada put into Scott and Tessa didn't pay off - in large part because the energy was sham-based and because the officials were more interested in promoting themselves. Another problem was that Scott and Tessa had crap for marketing/pr (crap in Debbi, crap in whatever else they did) because they weren't partnered with an IMG in a major way, due to the "unique" challenges of their public/private divide, and due to the role their community and family played in promoting their fake stories. All of that is the purvue of an IMG, not family and friends. Too many cooks.
DeleteSo it could be argued that if Scott and Tessa had dropped the shit after Vancouver, they could have gone with IMG and had better promotion, and then that would have paid off a bit more for the real Skate Canada (which is the skaters and the organization itself, not select personalities and directors). Instead they continued the sham, even after it was obvious that Skate Canada had far more important things to worry about.
THAT is the attitude shift I wonder about - number one.
Number two - if you have put in the work, if you've sacrificed a million and one things, if you're no longer a teen-ager, and your pay off in your skating career is still mostly hope - and over here is this golden pair that have been golden since teen-age years, you might start feeling resentful in an inchoate sort of way. Just a "they have everything, SC only cares about them (which is no longer the case, clearly), they get to do this and that and it doesn't affect them, they don't appreciate it, blah blah blah."
And THAT part of the attitude shift isn't due to choices Tessa and Scott make for their kid but just seeing Tessa and Scott in a less romantic light and it's really all about ME (the skater who has less), and what they have, and what I don't, and what am *I* getting out of this whole thing? It was supposed to be a two-way street and it turned out to be a one way street.
OC - with regards to your point number 2 - I agree that there is this jealousy factor that has creeped in by some other Canadian skaters and their families. The jealousy factor is a combination of the talent they have and that they have continued to improve as skaters to the present day. And let's face it even though they haven't won over D/W this season, V/M have been the most consistent Canadian skaters since 2008 period. They deliver on a more consistent basis than Patrick Chan. Yes Patrick Chan is loved but in 10-15 years time - I think people will still consider Kurt Browning as a more complete skater period. V/M will also be looked at as a team that set standards. In terms of the jealousy factor, I also think that it's a bit hypocritical because others overlook at how hard V/M work on the ice and off the ice. Or to some extent they have copied V/M's work ethic.
DeleteRe: Sinead Kerr's tweet
DeleteV/M were one of the first teams, if not the first, to really not have to wait their turn to make it to the top. The Kerrs were one of the teams that they leapfrogged over in a big way.
I have wondered if there isn't some resentment in general there from the older teams that got passed over by the younger teams. These older teams had started off under a different system and had been biding their time. Then, IJS/CoP came along, which allowed for faster movement up the ranks. I can imagine that some weren't happy with this at all. It's kind of like having a hard teacher in school, said teacher retiring, and feeling a bit of resentment of younger students who didn't have to pay their dues.
Good point anon at 10:35 am. In addition, I wouldn't be surprised that Sinead may have been bitter since weren't the Kerrs coached by Platov and he has been a V/M supporter...and then you get the Torvill/Dean comparisons to V/M...so yeah - if I had to guess...it was a personal dig..to drop them down a notch or two...
DeleteI'm 6:53/10:33, thanks OyCanada for answering my questions, I appreciate it. First of all, I should clarify that I completely agreed with your theory of the "attitude shift", and any ideas I had were "on top" of that, not presenting an alternative theory.
DeleteAll the stuff about Sinead (including the last three posters) and Tanith - got it now, thanks.
"You seem to believe that there's some type of moral center or ethical compass guiding all the other skaters that they apply to their fellow skaters and Virtue Moir have sailed past it and that the other skaters have *strong* opinions as to Virtue and Moir's choices for their own kid. To that I say "Eh". Why should they care? They've got an Olympics to worry about, a future on the line."
I'm not sure why this is entirely silly, are we here all upset about this only because of how V/M have screwed us over as fans? I'm not sure why we have lower expectations of the moral compass of skaters. I do concede that it would the exception and not the norm though, it's true that most people wouldn't stop and think when not confronted with the full evidence like we are, and that they're self-focused on their own careers by necessity. However, again I want to clarify one point, and then I'll drop it because we've hashed this out enough. I never said these skaters would have "strong" opinions. I'm not meaning that skaters spend their days dwelling on it, or feel they need to intercede, or completely write them V/M as terrible human beings. All I'm saying is that if they see some of what's going on, in passing, would it start to influence people to thinking that D/W ARE in fact better people? To realize that pretending a child doesn't exist is wrong doesn't take a sophisticated ethical framework.
That being said, this
"Why would it? Their peers see MORE than we see, and that gives them a different perspective as well. They know Scott and Tessa, the people. Scott and Tessa the parents are a reality to them. "
and this
"A lot of that is internal. VM's crazy is "special" because they've taken it on the road. They've taken it public. Skating generally likes to keep this stuff inside the rink, inside the sport ("This stuff" being the crazy)."
do make sense to me.
"Spontaneously? What's happening with DW isn't spontaneous, what's happening with VM wouldn't be spontaneous. The bottom line is they're Canadian and DW are American. The difference in sports media is HUGE. American media is disseminated everywhere. Canadian media not."
OK, I'm curious about how this works then. Is the whole media push around D/W spontaneous? Of course not. An example of what I mean by "spontaneous" is Kharis tweeting at Skate Canada how awesome V/M are. Did V/M tell her to do that? Where are the orders for Tanith's behaviour coming from, isn't it something she is doing somewhat of her own volition, (even if at this point there's cohesive strategy going into the tone)? I just don't understand how a certain amount of the needed PR defense for V/M isn't naturally happening, but I know very little about this PR stuff, so if you say it doesn't happen that way, I accept that.
So last question - forgetting all the moral stuff you disagree with and just focusing on your definition of the "attitude shift" - to what extent do you think this is affecting V/M's situation in a tangible way at this point in time? (Not with the scoring directly, but with how no one seems to be on their team)?
I'm not mocking the idea of a moral compass, just curious about why the decisions VM have made would alter the feelings of skaters towards them and their treatment of Virtue and Moir more than any of us alter our treatment of people who make decisions we think unwise or wouldn't make in their shoes, and if they're not directly impacting our work or personal or social lives, how much do we think about it and let it be an influence?
DeleteThat's why I think if it comes back at them it's going to be in terms of how things operated at Skate Canada in the years following Vancouver, to the apparent benefit of VM and detriment of the rank and file. That's when people might start talking - when they've reflected, and when there's no downside.
Also, it's not that Virtue Moir are at "that" table in the cafeteria and the "other skaters" are at another table. All of the skaters are each at their own tables. They've got their own coaches, their own training schedule, their own families, friends, backgrounds, financial situation, influences, schools or former schools, home towns and homes, travel and vacation plans separate from each other's. We are talking many individuals with their own separate concerns and perspectives, not some gang.
There's always gossip in skating, and things that are common knowledge in skating but it's hardly a group think situation or a situation where everyone has all the same details and understanding of the specifics. How would these people get together and agree with each other that what VM are doing is morally and ethically wrong? Which ones would be having that conversation and when?
Something that I believe would be snarked about fairly consistently is all of the programs Jessica tanked. In the fandom, she's poor, plucky Jessica who should be proud of herself. In the sports world she's a partner you can't rely on, who doesn't/didn't hold up her end, and would probably have been taken out back and shot by her partner or coach if she skated for Russia. There's no "could YOU do a triple twist?" type defense among skaters. Since what she did is under everyone's noses and Bryce is popular, that's the type of thing that gets eye rolls and dismissive reactions.
I don't know if the "attitude shift" is, if it exists, having any impact whatsoever. Virtue Moir remain personally popular. Where I think this might come into play is more after Sochi, when a bunch of skaters have retired, and reflected upon the past few years, and what went down with Skate Canada, and were Virtue Moir considerate or not or did they take it all as their due with no consideration for its impact on the organization? It's not their responsibility, and there was a lot that was self-dealing in how Skate Canada chose to prioritize, but Virtue Moir would be the natural focus of criticism upon reflection if there are skaters who thought they'd have gotten more support or better opportunities if SC hadn't spent so much time, long after there was no argument for it remaining, carrying water for VM's personal convenience. That VM has now appeared to distance itself from SC suggests they've had a realization or two, and I don't think it's about how stupid Debbi is or how ridiculous the fans find her.
oc
The reason "nobody is on their team" (save Platov, and Pechelat, and Weaver & Poje and others who have articulated support for them) is they have no competent professional management doing for them what IMG and the USFSA and the US media does for DW. Also, Skate Canada has abandoned in everything beyond lip service when it comes to strong pr.
DeleteBack around the 4CC's 2011 Lynn Rutherford wrote a rave about VM's Hip Hip, Chin Chin fd practice in Taipei, and it was published on icenetwork, yet.
That sort of thing gets facilitated by Skate Canada. In the past year plus Skate Canada has pretty much sent the signal that icenetwork and twitter and everyone else can go ahead and make open season on Virtue Moir without challenge, response or counter programming from Skate Canada, and hell, SC may "thoughtfully" join in the discussion.
THAT, IMO, is pretty damn big - and says it all. Skate Canada is a political hornets' nest and also petty pathetic. The officials are out for themselves. As Virtue and Moir are no longer providing a stage for certain officials to strut upon, under the bus they go. Maybe there's more than abandonment - there could be retaliation. Debbi Wilkes is not a nice person.
oc
The reason "nobody is on their team" (save Platov, and Pechelat, and Weaver & Poje and others who have articulated support for them) is they have no competent professional management doing for them what IMG and the USFSA and the US media does for DW. Also, Skate Canada has abandoned them in everything beyond lip service when it comes to strong pr.
DeleteBack around the 4CC's 2011 Lynn Rutherford wrote a rave about VM's Hip Hip, Chin Chin fd practice in Taipei, and it was published on icenetwork, yet.
That sort of thing gets facilitated by Skate Canada. In the past year plus Skate Canada has pretty much sent the signal that icenetwork and twitter and everyone else can go ahead and make open season on Virtue Moir without challenge, response or counter programming from Skate Canada, and hell, SC may "thoughtfully" join in the discussion.
THAT, IMO, is pretty damn big - and says it all. Skate Canada is a political hornets' nest and also petty pathetic. The officials are out for themselves. As Virtue and Moir are no longer providing a stage for certain officials to strut upon, under the bus they go. Maybe there's more than abandonment - there could be retaliation. Debbi Wilkes is not a nice person.
oc
More good points. Once again, thanks for responding to my questions. I always learn here :)
Delete"Pechelat, and Weaver & Poje and others who have articulated support for them"
What are you referring to with W/P? And I had forgotten that Pechalat was apparently raving about them during 4CCs, but I never did find a translation, does anyone know if one exists?
Good points. I would also like to add another word that seems to resonate with me right now about D/W's pr - entitlement.
ReplyDeleteOff topic - Maurizio recently gave an interview and indicated he would like to see more dancing in ice dance rather than ice technique alone. And let's face it, other coaches and federations will need to echo that sentiment in order to position themselves for bronze and possibly higher if V/M or D/W make a glaring mistake. Stranger things have happened...
Virtue and Moir have the best technique - nearly pristine technique verus others currently in the sport - and are the best dancers.
DeleteDW have HORRIBLE technique. That is the reality of DW. Horrible technique and they can't dance. They fake it.
People think of "technique" as the athletic part. Bam bam bam I did it and didn't fall down. Did it fast, too.
Technique is the skating part. DW are huge fakes, sleight-of-hand, visual trickery, etc. Their technique is a shell game.
The dance part we already know sucks.
I don't think there are other teams that are in a position to legitimately capitalize on a VM "mistake" unless the Shibs just exponentially upped and delivered on difficulty. There are skaters that are pretty dance-y and musical but a little "eeek" as skaters. And vice versa. Nobody has the skating strengths and the dance strengths that combine in VM.
P.S. - Meryl is multi-lingual and she and Charlie have great pr (they are with a great sports management company that creates faultless pr) but as to trying to parse the dynamics of the relationships and the PR and the skating versus the politics - how Machiavellian in a super self-aware way do we think these people are?
DeleteI've tried to dig up this one Meryl tweet because I have never, ever forgotten it. It was after she first started tweeting. Some study had come out naming Detroit as the worst place to live in America. OBVIOUSLY this was due to its high misery index - violent crime, high unemployment, shrinking population, mortgage crisis, fiscal crisis, teetering on bankruptcy, etc. Your basic wasteland.
Meryl mentions the ranking and then says "Have they never been to Ann Arbor?"
Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker, "Let them eat cake" Meryl Davis with the family home on the lake and the furniture shopping for your condo on line while touring.
Gwyneth Paltrow couldn't top that one.
Imagine if New York were gasping its last breath and someone said "What about the Hamptons"?
I don't think that was callous of Meryl - I think it was amazingly stupid and sheltered. Take her outside her IMG framework and there's big gaps in her awareness.
She, too, is spending most of her time training. She's not up at night masterminding her pr plan - and to what extent she and Charlie DO contribute, they're not analyzing it or they'd never ever have started off last season as they did with Charlie saying "Chemistry you can cut with a knife" nor tried that "sweep Meryl off her feet at the end of Notre Dame" which was widely ridiculed. That was someone else's idea. They're like a lot of people who are coached - they're good at taking coaching off the rink as well.
" don't think there are other teams that are in a position to legitimately capitalize on a VM "mistake" unless the Shibs just exponentially upped and delivered on difficulty. There are skaters that are pretty dance-y and musical but a little "eeek" as skaters. And vice versa. Nobody has the skating strengths and the dance strengths that combine in VM."
DeleteI think if the judging were fair (hah!), and V/M had a truly awful, no good, horrible day on the ice for some reason and a healthy, top-of-their game P/B skated to the max of their abilities, they could capitalize on it. No, no other team is like V/M, but they're not all horrible, and some teams are actually very good skaters and dancers. They may not be what V/M are, but they are still a good overall package. They're not hacks. They can dance and they can skate.
"How many skaters are following all that shit? Do you think the other skaters give a damn about Cassandra Hilborn's twitter? Have you seen the maturity level on some of the skaters' social media?"
DeleteExactly. Except for a very small group of fans, no one gives a damn. Which of course begs the question why do they bother, and there's no rational excuse except what has been said here about their reasons for giving Moirville something to do that makes them feel involved and important.
This discussion about the attitude shift is very interesting. So what I'm mostly understanding is if there is one, it's mainly due to the huge accolades heaped on VM that were supposed to benefit all of SC and of course all the skaters. There might eventually be resentment that they not just seemed to easily become golden but that along with that they so easily received all the help they could have wanted to keep their off-ice life as secret as possible, but not specifically that they shammed. If they don't give a damn right now about Cassandra (or before about Jessica) they won't give a damn later on either. (By extension, I don't think any of Cassandra's hopes of something exciting coming her way because of this will happen either - no one cares!!).
The most important story going into this next season, as far as VM and ice-dance, is the corruption going on both in their federation and the ISU that has rewarded DW for crap skating and not given VM the points/rewards their skating deserves. It would be a travesty if this continues all the way through to Sochi.
There's hope that events go forward in such a way as to unravel these narratives that DW are so great and VM so stuck (and so whatever it is the lies are saying at any given moment). I think a lot of fan anger right now is focused on watching to see if this happens.
VM look to be absolutely fixated on their social media stupidity no matter how revolting it is, but IMO the fans more than ever care about the skating and the judging and not about their fake relationship stories they love to dish out at every opportunity.
Bullshit. It's not about the skating anymore. Proven by the
DeleteLast results.It's people like you holding VM's PR back saying they should focus on the skating. They need gaood PR to come out fighting for them. This is whatbthe sport has come to.If not they will get steamrolled again...
I don't think the skaters care about huge accolades heaped on VM - they earned them and it's what every skater would hope for and expect in their place.
DeleteWhat I'm talking about are events that over time seem to be connected.
1) Skate Canada promised a revived Skate Canada, financial health, a reinvigorated organization - prestige, sponsors, $$$, public interest - all of which is obviously of great benefit to the skaters and their families, not just stars.
2) Concurrently, their Director of Business Development (I think back then she was Director of Marketing and Public Relations) set up camp on Skatebuzz and everywhere else there was a camera, and also set herself up as gatekeeper between skaters and fans.
They must know what they're doing, right? Debbi also did a little sham enabling, and was a team leader in Vancouver but again - who knew? Skaters aren't business people - this was probably all working together in some smart and fruitful way.
3) Oh joyous day! Gold for Virtue Moir! Good as gold for Joannie combined with what happened with her mother! We're on our way!
4) Homesense leaves. BOMO leaves. Artistry leaves. Nabisco leaves. No more free make-up. No more BOMO facilities for meetings. No more BMO $$.
5) Whaaa? Well surely there are prospective sponsors in the pipeline. We can't take that kind of hit!
6) Basically instead of the money rolling in after Vancouver, the bottom fell out, and when people waited for SC, SC did nothing. Debbi continued to interview on skatebuzz. She navigated her way into the frame of VM's interviews. SC did help Virtue Moir stage a Semple Production at Skate Canada. They did promote Scott "choreographing" Jessica's sp. They did re-write Jessica's split with Bryce, and fast track positive publicity for Bryce's coaching career. They did facilitate Jessica's autograph trolling walkabout at the GPF. Barb did spend a lot of time telling us that "Jessica Dube, Scott Moir" attended some skater weddings. She didn't do a whole lot else. It was that, and upsell Barb. It was like SC was ignoring that sponsors had left, doing nothing about it, and not caring how it affected non-star skaters. What happened to the guarantees, the promises that happy days would be here again?
Did VM accept the continued attention of SC officials to their very specific, very weird personal business as their due or what?
Did they notice that as handy as it was to have high level flunkies help wrangle their sham business, nobody was minding the (SC) store?
Did they not notice because they themselves had no money worries, they themselves had no dearth of opportunities, they themselves could finance all the resources, training, consultants, etc. etc. they desired and were making money with various gigs along the way?
Was all this so "normal" to them they never questioned having Skate Canada officials as part of their off-ice retinue at a time when the organization and the rank and file needed these people - or better people in these jobs - to attend to real business? They never noticed the impact on other skaters not as fortunate as they were?
Until last year, maybe. Maybe it dawned on them then.
THAT is the sort of shit that prompts an attitude shift, but I think it comes to the surface after careers are over and people look back and process everything.
Any good PR specialist will tell you to get ahead of the stories not behind them. V/M need to follow this rule. They can't keep on living in their bubble and expect the results to be different in Sochi. D/W creamec them last year in the PR department and we all know how that ended. After SOI I would advise them to do every interview and public engagement possible, not taking away from their training of course ( release photos of training ). Plus any slf respecting journalist/commentator should see and speak the truth about the quality of skating between the two. If not the V/M camp should call them out on it...Get them to explain why M/C deserve to win, replay the programs...ISU should also be called out...Come out Fighting Virtue/Moir. No more sitting back in your bubble...
ReplyDeleteP.S. Scott said after 2013 worlds that He and Tessa had to work on their connection ( I don't really know why, they have the best connection of any team. M/C attempt at connection was just awkward ) But, put it out there that you and Tessa are connected. Take photos together on the stars on ice tour. Atleast get in some of the off-ice photos with the rest of the cast from the tour.Jeez Louise. People that don't get to see the show live wouldn't even know they were on the tour by looking at the photos on twitter for example coming from the rest of the cast. Don't start to get camera shy now. You never have in the past. Speaking of which. Join Social Media. Don't think it is a plus to be " the only kids not on social media ". The rest ofnthe competition are taking full advantage of this benefit...
DeletePart of the issue is that Scott and Tessa just aren't with the rest of the Stars on Ice cast when these photos are being taken. Sometimes it's for the reason that they have other business obligations and others times, they are just living their own lives. They certainly weren't hat shopping with the others in Victoria today.
DeleteI agree with you, though. They need to change their ways but as always, I doubt they ever will. Even if they were to join the world of social media again, why would they bother using it for anything but sham, if they used their accounts at all? Scott's FB fanpage was such a rousing success.
I totally agree...they must change but they never will.
DeleteAre you sure that they weren't with the others in Victoria ?
Yes, I'm sure they weren't. Unless they can be in two places at once.
DeleteI'm anon 8.01
DeleteWho Knows ? They are "special" and "unique" ! Sorry but i did not realize that you had seen them...lucky you :)
Scott and Tessa are married and parents. Although I know nothing of their activities today, "living their lives" on the road is a whole lot different than it is for a bunch of single, childless figure skaters, not to mention that as 11:19 says, they do have more obligations than most tour skaters. Even harkening back to the days of G&G, they generally had different accomodations to the other skaters when they were on the road, and they weren't hiding Daria from lurkers.
DeleteScott's facebook fan page had about as much thought put into it as most everything they execute on social media. Scott needed an exit strategy for his so-called "personal page" and that's the only intention there ever was behind the fan facebook. To get past a transition. His exit crashed into the wall before it ever left the driveway.
They can't be on social media. There would be no point unless they allowed all followers, like other skaters. He'd have to tweet back and forth with @casshillborn. If he didn't, it would look weird. And fans would quickly lose their inhibitations and do things like link the blog and ask him to comment, or pester him about DW's pr, or tell him how they liked his taste in girlfriends. They're not NOT on social media because they're better than social media. They're not on social media because they lie and at this point it's pretty impossible for them to be on social media conducting a sham thing on the one hand simultaneously with fan outreach.
From the new Stars on ice Q/A
DeleteScott
Do you use social media to keep in touch with your fans? What is your favorite app?
I don’t use social media at all. My favourite app would be BBM. Keeping in touch on the road with my family and friends is important.
Tessa
How do you like to spend your free time while you are on tour with Stars on Ice?
My favourite things while on the road are to sleep in and order room service. Touring provides a wonderful opportunity to see the beauty of Canada, so I do my best to see the sights of each city. By now, the cast members have their favourite things to-do at each stop (for example, golf in Victoria is a must!). Also, it’s fun to catch up with friends in various cities.
Thanks anon at 5:34 am - it was interesting to see that Patrick Chan doesn't have a Q and A on the website and per Jeff Buttle - if he had to choose a partner for the amazing race - it would be Scott (since he is competitive and can make you laugh)...and that they isn't too many people he can tolerate after being tired...hahaha...in terms of the Scott and Tessa Q and A's - nothing really new...
DeleteWe should really start a campaign to hold journalists/commentators responsible for their views and calls of the programs. Grass Roots people. We'll call it the hold their feetbto the fire campaign.Make them explain, force them to really examine each program according to ice dance, and really stick it to them through various ways whether it be email, twitter, facebook, etc... It's about time we hold them accountable
ReplyDeleteI think making noise is a good idea, pushback on twitter is a good idea. Don't accept how something is framed by some skater or media person. It's perfectly okay to use 40 characters to challenge the assumptions behind some "expert's" statement.
DeleteThings that bug me about various twitter types is: - most of the media doesn't know skating at all. If they know a bit about skating, they're not familiar with CoP. They say a lot that's beside the point - like PJ saying she's read the protocols. Fine, but did you watch the skating? Do you agree with what the protocols said about the skating?
If we all just go "Well, there's the explanation! The protocols gave them 5 tens on this and all Level 4s and there you go!" then you're looking for proof in the stats and not the skating. How can we evaluate the validity of the scores unless we see if they actually reflect what was done on the ice? PJ just hides behind the protocols.
@ 10:30
DeleteA lot of the spin for DW has been based on their high scores - They got 9 or 10!! Therefore they're great! And yeah - not much said about the skating itself since it's indefensible.
Please, please -- I hope to see lots of pushback to these ridiculous assumptions.
They need to be called out on their supposed "strengths": their "speed", which is not speed, because they're picking over the ice and not edging; their twizzles, with that bullshit cheated hop into them, lack of ice coverage, and two vs V/M's three twizzles that cover the full length of the ice with almost no set-up; their spin, again with that bullshit hop into it and ugly positions; and their lifts, which are simple, sloppy, and just ugly.
DeleteThat hop they use to get into the twizzles - is actually the feature that allows their same old same old two twizzle pass to reach Level 4. A HOP. A Davis White HOP, the same freaking HOP they use to get across the ice, to achieve every transition (if they're going to stay upright they hop to transition, if one of them is going to two-foot or hit the ice then it's spread eagle and knee slides or just put the other foot down, why the hell not), the ISU has decided is a feature that raises two fucking twizzles to Level 4. Basically the same feature that such exemplars of fine figure skating as G&P and Andreev/Khokhlova used to grind out their twizzles. It's the hop that creates speed and momentum. And once in these twizzles they do them with the exact same sloppy body line, tendency to swerve and bombastic attack no matter what the program or music and are awarded "character of the music" because of some flourish they do before they start the twizzles or some non-skating pose they hit afterwards.
DeleteTheir speed is not speed. They do not have deep, powerful stroking. When the hell do they stroke? They hop, skip, jump, slide and leap. Every time. They cannot STROKE. Every time they change direction or make a transition they have to break it up and get off their edges.