Jessica Dube Loves Scott Moir

I'm encountering a few glitches downloading/playing waltzflower's videos, so in the meanwhile, I wanted to highlight the blog with this link to its current article:

Davis White hijacked to gold

it features this quote from fsu:

"D&W OTOH can do some fast tricks and have quite a lot of stamina. They never hold an edge long enough and she has never straightened her free leg in her career, so they cannot show any lines. Therefore they need programs in which they run around the ice like headless chickens, too fast for us to notice all that toe-pushing, free-foot dragging and the rest of the mess. At the end of the program we are completely breathless, don't know what has hit us and decide that it must have been quite something. JMHO of course."

 and the figure skating analysis itself notices this:

it seems the judges are marking them with a different set of starting base with their GOEs. As long as they did them they start with +2s. As an example, for their straight line lift this year I still fail to see how it is better than P/B and V/M (from Carmen). Yet they have received better marks and GOEs even with Meryl's leg oscillating and Charlie's skates wobbling to maintain balance just because it's Davis and White doing it.

 and this

Meryl and Charlie have a solid PCS cushion regardless of what they do on the ice even when they were not the best in any of the PCS criteria listed above. Not to mention, they always receive credits even with poorly executed technical elements like those un-synced twizzles.

 and a great quote from a friend of that blog's, requoted in part here:

Incorrect skating technique is not a style choice. Ignoring clear technical errors is not a style choice; it's ignoring the damned rules! Coming down on a flat instead of an edge when you're supposed to be on an edge isn't a style choice. It's a mistake. Doing 5 revolutions when the rulebook says 6 are required for a feature to count for levels is not a style choice. Side-stepping, toe-picking and hopping is not a style choice when it comes to properly getting yourself down the ice. Rocking on your blades in a lift is not a style choice! Bad skating is not a style choice, it's bad skating."

If the wrong edge is a style choice, why do the judges mark down other skaters for a wrong edge? It's just their style of the day!

Of course this ignores the times judges have marked down skaters when they were on the correct edge.

Again, the media is as invested in the corruption of figure skating as the ISU. The only corruption the media will pretend exists is if a perceived "friend of N.A." loses to a Russian. If you're Russian, you are always suspect. Suddenly there are leaks everywhere. If you're N.A. and dirty deals are happening, everybody, including the figure skating media, conspires to shut down discussion.

BTW, I don't know the big deal about Shawn Rettstatt, and why he's he who must not be named, or people speculate the problem is he'd sue. The guy grossly lowballed Tessa and Scott at every competition where he was on the panel or he did not. That would have to come out in any lawsuit, no? Seems he'd be the one in the hot seat in a libel suit.

I don't think lawsuits are the problem. I think he's connected and powerful inside the ISU/USFSA and any mere member of the media or commentariat who runs afoul of him would find themselves in Siberia, so would any coach training elite level skaters in the USA. THAT's the problem. It's not legal. It's political.

The figure skating analysis blog is very funny and VERY specific. With that blog, and with discussions that have sprung up elsewhere on major skating boards, there is absolutely NO excuse for anyone in the media to carry on with the pretense that they don't really understand technique. Right, Steve Milton, Christine Brennan, E.M. Swift, Rosie DiManno, Phil Hersch, Lynn Rutherford, Dave Leese (I think DL pretends he does understand skating, but based on everything he's ever said, he doesn't.)?

Of course, it's uncomfortable to know technique because then you have to report how people are skating instead of reporting spin. You end up in that squirm-making position Tracy Wilson has occupied all season. It becomes reporter/subject and not cozy buddies elbowing up to the bar and gossiping their faces off until it's time to file whatever you've pulled out your hind end. You're all friends! Groupies don't rock the boat with the famous.

Technique is observable. You can read the figure skating analysis blog, go to the video and see immediately that what the blog says is true. You can go to the rulebook and see that based on what DW do on the ice, they don't deserve the scores they received, let alone Olympic gold.

The information is there. The media refuses to acknowledge it. It's too good a gig - money for nothing.