Per her twitter, Tessa's "Finally watching our W network show."*
 |
| Wait til you see the part with your husband's fake girlfriend. |
A later post is going to use canadablue's videos, but for the moment:
 |
Left hand stapled to her chest seeing as the left
side of Tessa's torso has been amputed
I think her photoshopping friend is just trolling at this point.
|
Speaking of puking sounds, guess what got a couple of 10s today in the Grand Prix Final short dance?
 |
| 10! Let's have another one. 10! |
On the video I watched, the fall happened at 3:11 and they just hung around and walked into their final pose at 3:18. Seven seconds of program in the toilet, why even mention the out of synch twizzles, lackluster lift, and lack of ice coverage, and they were immediately placed ahead of this:
It's that fantastic element GOE Chock and Bates deliver.
More later.
__________________________
*First it was a documentary. Then a reality show. Now just a show. Next it'll be: "Our acting debut!"
"First it was a documentary. Then a reality show. Now just a show. Next it'll be: "Our acting debut!" "
ReplyDeleteDespite the semi-acknowledgement that the show included fake narratives, people still believe her when she talks about a month in Vermont to find herself, and her alpine skier boyfriend. How can anything these guys say about themselves be taken at face value? It can't!
I don't think many actually do believe her. They pretend to so they can discuss it publicly with each other and keep the tumblr or whatever going. What they discuss in pms and email is a different story. If someone discovered them for the first time in Sochi, they may start off there but they end up knowing VM are full of it sooner rather than later. Some simply think it's being the better fan to enable VM's b.s., or they think they'll earn status as a good fan.
DeleteThat said, maybe Vermont is where Tessa needs to go find the pieces of herself that keep going missing - her boobs, half of her body, the lower part of her face, her shoulder line, the left side of her silhouette, her now-you see-them, now-you-don't ass, hips and thighs.
DeleteWhoa, Krylova throwing shade at Tessa and boosting Meryl:
ReplyDeleteQ: You said "untouchable". Why was it so? After all, you and other strong coaches had enough time to try to catch up with those teams, and maybe even get ahead of one of them.
A: I have no answer to this question. I always knew that while Tessa and Scott were natural born dancers, Meryl had never mastered such skating skills and never had such natural talent. Behind her achievements in ice dance, there is a tremendous amount of incredibly hard work, iron discipline and determination. No one else had ever executed such complex elements with such ease. And year after year, they kept working even harder. As a coach, I was amazed. The Canadians had relaxed when they won the 2012 World championships. They decided that they were always going to be first. I think, it was mostly Tessa who had relaxed.
Q: Do you mean the season when Virtue had noticeably gained weight and couldn't get back in shape for a while?
A: Of course. What does additional weight mean? It means immediate imbalance of all the elements, loss of ease, loss of levels of difficulty, the lifts. If you want to be first, you have to be impeccable in every way.
http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/index.php?threads/interview-with-angelica-krylova-training-a-russian-team-abroad-is-difficult.94171/
Such bullshit. Tessa added muscle which only helped her skating and their lifts. Krylova knows this. I think she panicked because it appeared WP had less momentum going into the final but that's been disproved after the sd. Though the other teams (minus the Shibutanis) definitely helped with that.
DeleteKrylova has a female ice dancer with a similar shape as Tessa and it doesn't appear she's slimmed down since training at DSC (not that she needs to) so I'm inclined to believe Krylova knows she speaking bullshit. This is another case of hating on VM because they are VM and not because anyone has a legitimate issue with whatever they're doing.
Well I can see how she would make that conclusion. In the 12-13 season Tessa put on muscle and looked bigger because of it and that's when it all started to go downhill for them as a team (BECAUSE OF Marina's lovefest for D/W). But her comments about V/M being natural born dancers and Meryl having to work extra hard. . . yah right. Meryl never learned how to dance on the ice to save her life. It was all just clever camouflage. Also Tessa and Scott had the most difficult entry into a lift possibly ever in Carmen so what is this lady talking about?
Delete"This is another case of hating on VM because they are VM and not because anyone has a legitimate issue with whatever they're doing."
DeleteI'm disappointed by Krylova's statement, but I also think it more likely it has to do with the political pressures behind the scenes. I don't think V/M have made themselves a lot of friends, but everything negative that's said about them isn't *about them*. More often it seems to be about D/W, and people not stepping out of line with the continuing corruption.
*more likely has to
DeleteThe corruption with DW was about the isu and the feds not Marina. Yeah she knew what was up but she didn't set it in motion or help it along besides still coaching dw (which isn't actively helping anyway). And it isn't like she made programs with VM that were horrible. In general, besides Seasons, I think their past 2 sds and certainly Carmen, are widely regarded by fans. So they didn't go downhill because of their programs or what they were doing on ice. Their programs- which Marina made- were amazing. It still didn't matter when it came to the judging.
Delete^ I never thought about negativity toward VM actually being about DW but it makes so much sense! You're totally right. It's all a way to boost DW and that narrative. Especially the bit about how VM didn't work hard and it was all natural to them. Did the isu hand out a "key phrases" guide to borrow from when discussing these two teams?
Anon 9:00 PM: "Well I can see how she would make that conclusion. In the 12-13 season Tessa put on muscle and looked bigger because of it and that's when it all started to go downhill for them as a team (BECAUSE OF Marina's lovefest for D/W)."
DeleteNo, what happened in the Carmen season had nothing to do with Marina. What happened in the Carmen season is that the ISU freaked out at the brilliance of Carmen (Marina's way of showing love to V/M by giving them a brilliant program that she said could earn 200 points, imagine that), and stripped away points and piled them on D/W's horrific Notre Dame program to set them up for their fake win in Sochi.
^^ make the the ISU stripped points away from all of V/M's programs and piled them on D/W's horrific programs. D/W's entire body of "work" was garbage.
Delete9:37 PM - shame on her then. she is a coward for not rebelling against these poltical pressures. but why would she if it entails w/p winning? now w/p winning gpf title leaves a bad taste in my mouth,
DeleteTo me it looks like Krylova is worried that VM might come back and is putting out a preemptive strike. It's disappointing but not surprising.
DeleteBullshit is right.
DeleteI agree below - statements like this are a product of the political situation behind the scenes. We can see from this entire season so far that politics is driving everything. There is no relationship between the skating and the outcome. P/I got thrown under the bus this season, and before I read Krylova's comments, I put up a new post predicting Weaver & Poje will get dumped a la Cappellini Lanotte next season, and this is a desperation move by Krylova - oh Tessa, was fat - did I never say that before? Also complacent and Meryl is the best!
DeleteIt's all obvious but also so so heartbreaking.
I would like to point out again, for those who endow coaches with political power and prefer that narrative to the directed, institutional corruption the evidence clearly supports, that Krylova herself is now sucking up to DW. Krylova, whom people fantasized would soapbox for VM or at least against DW, or at least not proactively SAY nice things about DW if VM had only gone to her in the last quad. NO. The last quad was not about coaches. It was about concerted, thuggish corruption towards a directed result. Every single person who opened their mouth sang from the same playbook, using the same phrases. Here is Krylova acting as if VM became complacent after 2012 - the season after 2012 they did Carmen! A showcase for the absolute genius of Tessa Virtue's skating. Everybody knows Tessa had compartment syndrome prior to 2010, everybody knows when she was finally able to train for real she put on muscle, and Scott and Tessa's power exploded. If Tessa hadn't put on muscle people like Krylova would be saying her legs took their toll on their skating, you need strength to do the elements and the lifts, and she was too frail and not keeping up with Scott. Whatever bullshit they want to sling to keep themselves in business, they'll do it and say it.
DeleteI don't think it's going to do her any good whatsoever, that's the sad part.
As to VM not making friends, or whatever - I think VM set themselves up so that this narrative became easier to execute - everything they did and said played into the false narrative. I don't want to single them out as especially untrustworthy, two-faced or back-stabbing, because the entire sport appears to be untrustworthy, two-faced and back-stabbing, rife with unspoken resentments that from time to time erupt in bitter fits and spurts until the cork is shoved back in. THAT said, Virtue and Moir on occasion almost make a show of their willingness to throw someone under the bus, such as Marina after Sochi. I mean internationally only. Within Canada, it appears that they remain favored children, although Tessa might make up her mind which earlier generation Canadian ice dancer really is her idol - Shae Lynn or Marie France. It's ironic that a Canadian, David Dore, is most responsible for robbing them of the gold they'd earned in Sochi.
DeleteBut anyway, my point is, I think, broadly speaking, everybody in this sport is out for themselves, everybody's two-faced, everybody's looking for the main chance, but Scott and Tessa have been particularly flamboyant about throwing people overboard. I'm not saying that's morally worse than what DW and their affiliations did, because it's not. The very fact that so many people are terrified of NOT actively sucking up to DW is telling. You actually can't keep your mouth shut? You have to go out of your way to not just suck up to DW, but Meryl in particular? That's scary, but it's also behind the scenes. It's not center stage, where Virtue and Moir tend to parade their loyalties, lack of loyalties, about faces, contradictions, inconsistencies and changing narratives.
Hmmm very political endgame by Krylova and the timing is very interesting to say the least...I would have to agree that Krylova is basically saying that she agrees with the ISU giving DW the wins over VM...and reinforcing the narrative that DW are hard workers...blah blah blah...such bullshit...and at the same time I think by putting down VM is a way to say that VM are done and WP are the new real deal...hmmm whatever...I have said this before I prefer Hubbell/Donohue to WeaverPoje and I actually think that Donohue is a better skater than Poje.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 7:03 am - I agree with your statement that the game changer was Carmen and what a shame...if anything VM were innovative with their lifts and kept growing their programs...and edge quality, unison, difficulty of twizzles etc - VM were it. I wonder if Krylova would say that Pechelat was heavy..jesus...
This just shows the ugly side of skating specifically ice dancing where you throw shade...
Look I am not saying that VM were perfect etc and that they don't merit criticism...of course they do but if you are going to there...well then tell me how dragging Meryl Davis all over the place on the ice, in the air and two footing all over the place is skating...and yes getting rid of the compulsory dance was the worst thing that happened to VM...besides the crap judging...
I also have to wonder if Krylova has said to Kaitlyn Weaver - hey if you want to be associated with a Canadian female figure skater - Joannie Rochette is a better choice than Tessa Virtue...political endgames are interesting...
The judging still left a lot to be desired, but I was glad to see WP win today.
ReplyDeleteThe VM fandom-at-large needs to grow up and stop acting like babies that WP won the GPF.
"The VM fandom-at-large needs to grow up and stop acting like babies that WP won the GPF."
DeleteOh, stop it. No one is taking anything away from WP. They deserved to win this particular competition. Good for them.
What happened to VM was robbery. The fans have a right to feel bad about that.
No only the right to feel VM were robbed and to say so. Fans also have the right to analyze the scores and the skating and compare with the CoP rulebook and compare teams to each other in regards to the rulebook and how each is being scored.
DeleteFans and sports journalists in all other sports do this. Why is figure skating a sacred cow? No one allowed to have a dissenting voice? No one allowed to talk about and SHOW with specific examples the corruption that is happening in front of our very eyes?
This "sport" will never grow up as long as the media that writes about it never allows analyzing and investigation. Fans follow the example of the skating media.
I'm not saying that fans don't have a right to feel bad that VM didn't win. They were robbed many times.
DeleteThere are certain fans out there who are unhappy with WP's win. They didn't want WP to win because VM never did. They also seem to think that WP winning the GPF would preclude VM from coming back. These people are being babies and overlap with a group who are using Krylova's comments as a reason to trash talk the DSC ice dance teams. These are the people who need to stop acting like babies.
I have seen multiple comments by V/M fans actively hoping W/P wouldn't win, and now being upset they did. So no, 12:42, these people are not just reminiscing about how unfair V/M's losses were. They're acting like brats that would prefer the wrong team won as some sort of compensation for V/M's not winning this event.
DeleteAnd I don't think 12:30's comment had anything to do at all with resisting analysis of the sport or saying that V/M weren't horribly robbed in the past. The poster outright said they were questioning the judging in other respects, that doesn't sound like someone against analyzing and dissenting. But that isn't what many V/M fans are doing during this competition, they're throwing temper tantrums ABOUT W/P's win. W/P per CoP were overscored today, but the same thing was going on yesterday when they were less so.
no.
DeleteOn the other hand there have been some fans, Canadian I guess, who have been rooting for WP to win to avenge VM, which I don't get at all....
DeleteI think the anger is better placed at the clusterfuck of corruption that is ice dance, that comes from the top. It's not how it was imagined in past eras, individual judges or blocs of judges deal-making. This is the ISU, the organization itself.
DeleteAs to who has what title, I think Michelle Kwan is one of the best ever female singles skaters, and I don't particularly struggle with Sarah Hughes and Arakawa having won the Olympics when Kwan was never able to. The scoring for ice dance at the GPF was ridiculous, but scoring has been ridiculous the entire past quad. Torvill & Dean are still supposedly synonymous with ice dance, and they won gold in 1984 and only bronze in 1994.
These competitions aren't defining events. The skating is the defining event, in the end.
"These competitions aren't defining events. The skating is the defining event, in the end."
DeleteDefinitely agree. I do not get all the handwringing about W/P's victory. It doesn't affect V/M's skating AT ALL. If there are people on the boards who interpret it as W/P being as good - an opinion which I personally have not seen expressed yet - those people almost certainly already thought V/M weren't incredible.
Reading the skating discussion forums is unbearable. Oh what can the Shibs do to get the levels! The spin, the footwork, the paso! Oh that Marina.
ReplyDeleteNothing to do with Marina, everything to do with corruption that withholds levels from this team (and why - still for daring to have come close to D/W one season?) and throws levels and GOE at other teams. It has nothing to do with how they skated. The GPF scoring was a travesty.
Right? Another day of inherent top-down corruption in the sport, another instance of misplaced blame.
ReplyDeleteSo many of the posts on those forums are ridiculous. Krylova's comments (or more specifically, the reactions to them) are typical of a sport hindered by an obsession with aesthetics and plagued by frequent misunderstandings regarding what makes a skater a good athlete or healthy.
A skater's weight in and of itself has very little to do with proper execution of lifts. Weight distribution and proper technique are what matter, neither of which is being discussed in those debates. I actually find FSU hilarious because I've never seen a board full of people so TOTALLY MISS THE POINT in discussions and frequently run off on meaningless tangents. But I guess that's sort of par for the course with figure skating culture, and while it's easy to laugh at, it's also really sad.
The Shibs were robbed, absolutely without question.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside though, I'm a bit unsettled about the major changes made to their FD. Why on earth did they need to rework the step sequences to the extent of changing the direction of both of them? That was really a necessary use of their time? What kind of feedback could have sent them off on such a wild goose chase? I feel like they lost a bit of intricacy in the process as well.
And the whole program just felt a tiny bit more... D/W to me. Now, don't get me wrong. The Shibs aren't capable of looking like D/W if they tried, and their skating was still class of the field. I just mean the aesthetic of the program was a bit more rushed, a bit less elegant than the previous version. The choreographic spin and ending was changed to something messier, she wore her hair down. Maybe I'm just seeing things, but I honestly wonder if they got advice that it was a snoozefest the way it was. That breaks my heart. And they certainly weren't awarded for playing along if there's any truth to that. Well, of course they wouldn't be, they still actually skated great.
Anyways, it doesn't really matter, I just feel there was a minor change in the tone of the program that I'm not thrilled about. They were still fabulous today, still miles ahead of most of their competitors, still skating a program that leaves DF in the dust.
nothing against WP, I'm happy they won and everything but… it is so odd to think that lots of skaters to come will probably win a title that Virtue Moir never got… Disgusting and sad...
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:42 pm: Sounds like the ISU is jerking their chains, a la V/M style, while a crap team like Chock/Bates get a pass.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, over on FSU, the paragon of "skating" knowledge, everybody is wailing that the Shibs need to bolt from Marina, Marina is lousy picking out her technical team, Marina recycles choreo, blah, blah, blah.
very happy for weaver poje, but the shibs? WTF!!!! does marina not do politiking for the shibs? weaver poje's coach i really dislike right now. but considering what her teams had been thru in the past, she must be doing everything in her power to join the corrupt in-circle.
ReplyDeletewhy isnt marena or whomever doing all this for the shibs!? such a tragedy.
7:03 - at this point, don't you think you have to work much too hard to think Marina is responsible for any of this?
DeleteNo, that's the thing. Blaming coaches takes all of the actual thinking and understanding right out of it. It's so easy.
DeleteI love how these fans who think Zoueva had all of this power last year (the ability to transcend time and space, even!) now believe she's lost all that power. They'd rather come up with that farcical explanation than look at reality, which is that the coaches don't actually have the power fans think they have. The ISU is directing who wins from the top-down and it doesn't matter what the coaches say or do. It's why D/W would have won the gold medal in Sochi with or without Zoueva, and it's why G/P and C/P will keep being undeservedly elevated in the marks no matter who is coaching them.
It's cute that people think coaches can actually "politick" skaters to wins. They can't. If the ISU doesn't want a team to win, even if it's the best team in the field and outperforms everyone else on the ice, that team isn't going to win no matter what a coach says or does.
"A skater's weight in and of itself has very little to do with proper execution of lifts. Weight distribution and proper technique are what matter, neither of which is being discussed in those debates. I actually find FSU hilarious because I've never seen a board full of people so TOTALLY MISS THE POINT in discussions and frequently run off on meaningless tangents. But I guess that's sort of par for the course with figure skating culture, and while it's easy to laugh at, it's also really sad."
ReplyDeleteThese are sport fans who think lifts are about weight. There are youtube videos showing same sized athletes and dancers lifting each other, normal sized women lifting normal sized men. It's technique, it's carrying your weight.
Everybody on the skating forums thought Margaret Purdy was "too big" for Michael Marinaro to lift. Really? Is that why he could lift her in the first lift perfectly, but not the second, and then in a different competition not get her off the ice in the first, but execute the second without a problem? Her weight changed from lift to lift, from competition to competition? It's technique - HIS. Not her weight, not her size.
The Shibs ARE getting their chains jerked, with the exact same tactics used on VM. They're in the way.
This is not a snark, but an honest question to the blogger.
ReplyDeleteYou speak of corruption in ice dance, and how the ISU is presently hoisting the French team, and Chock and Bates, to undeserved heights. Corruptions generally means either money or favors are paid to those with the ability to grant outcomes. What, specifically, is the corruption -- payments to the ISU in Switzerland from USFS and the French Federation? How is the message given to technical callers to hold down the Shibs' levels? Do payments flow to the judges, and are they instructed to boost certain teams' GOE's?
Well, how were the messages given to Virtue and Moir to change their lifts at the last possible moment? They reported having heard (or being told) through the grapevine.
DeleteFocusing on outright payments or visible favors can be problematic. Not necessarily because those things don't happen, but because corruption that runs to the very depths of a system - corruption which accounts for a good deal of, if not the entirety of the foundation upon which that system is constructed - can take many forms that range from blatant favor-granting to the subtle building of relationships that pay off in terms of patronage down the line.
The comparison can come across as over the top, but I actually think calling figure skating the Cosa Nostra of sports is pretty apt given how much power the ISU exerts over the narratives in its sport and - more importantly - how it facilitates figure skating results being DECIDED based on narratives, only giving lip service to a rulebook when doing so is in its best interests (this lip service issue is most on display in ice dance as opposed to the other disciplines, though none of them are untainted). The ISU's control over everything in the sport is reinforced through the sport's culture and facilitated by a complicit media that serves as its mouthpiece giving "credibility," visibility, and power to that culture.
Running with the narratives spread by the media is FSU, Golden Skate's, etc's job. Those communities are a perfect microcosm of the fucked up culture of figure skating that heaps praises on political maneuvering, gleefully incites and celebrates cultural clashes, and ties "insider status" to the notion of credibility. I'd never thought it possible a community of sports fans so lacking of even the most basic understanding of basic technique or how it translates to levels of difficulty (not to mention what it means to be an elite athlete) could exist until I stumbled upon FSU and GS. The willful ignorance of people in those places is so laughable it's absurd. Unfortunately though, FSU and GS aren't outliers. They're the kind of communities facilitated by the sport to cheerlead for it and declare the narratives being spread by the media are legitimate.
It's always important to remember the world of figure skating is small and dominated by several groups of people - working down from its highest levels - who believe the ends justify the means. They aren't isolated to one federation or bloc, and they don't need to always do something brash and outwardly egregious to get to the job done. They just have to work to maintain a culture that excuses away power grabs and the meting out of patronage as normal, expected, and acceptable. Those who fall outside the realm of the protected or elevated know to keep their mouths shut or to play along with the prevailing narratives, lest they be left out in the cold for good. I don't know if there are direct messages sent to judges to hold down levels. My guess is the situation is more "through the grapevine" in nature. There's whispering or conversation spread down through the grapevine about certain teams breaking out or declining, and regardless of whether those assessments are true or not, those are the narratives that are expected to drive scoring. Aberrant scores (those that don't adhere to the party line) are noticeable and defined by the complicit media as problematic for the sport. As a judge or technical panel member, you likely follow the herd or find yourself on the outside looking in at some point. Same probably goes for coaches.
I've posted here before and my comments have been mocked. I'm not busy, and I'm a sucker for punishment, so here I am again.
ReplyDeleteThe ISU simply is not influenced by FSU, Goldenskate, Bev Smith, this blog, etc. Of course, it is impossible for me to prove that negative and I won't try.
Now, 7:28's sentences about word-of-mouth politicking amongst ISU officials has grains of truth. If a coach and/or federation, by means of its judges and callers, "talks up" how much so-and-so has improved and what wonderful programs they have, it can have an impact.
As I tried to explain here once before, many ice dance judges are new to the game and come from countries (Korea, Khazakhstan, perhaps Turkey, etc.) with no ice dance history. They are easily influenced by, say, Didier talking about how Papadakis is maturing so much with Dubreuil guiding her, and oh how lovely their music is!
Judges are also human beings. A difficult-to-digest, boring, obscure program -- or one with arty pretensions -- will not go over as well as, say, I & K's Swan Lake. Now, none of this is written in IJS rules, and the answer the blogger always gives is, "Where in PCS does it say it has to be entertaining?" Yet, it is a part of the sport: different judges like different things, and some judges are better educated in ice dance than others.
None of this equates to corruption. Corruption is, so-and-so is paying technical caller A to hold down levels, or coach Jane Doe is trading favors with asst. technical caller B to overlook edge calls. Does anyone here have knowledge of that?
I've talked to some Olympic figure skaters from different disciplines. All say the corruption is there but ice dance is THE absolute worst. Their emphasis not mine
DeleteA word about messages being passed to Virtue and Moir to change their lifts. Virtue and Moir were adults in Sochi. Michael Slipchuk was there, as were Canadian officials. If Virtue and Moir believed in their lift, if they were confident it was the correct element, if they liked it, they could have said to whoever it was in the ISU, "Thank you, we like our lift as is." If a member of the technical panel for the event approached them (or Marina) and told them to change a lift, then that was a severe violation of rules and Skate Canada should have reported it.
ReplyDeleteAs if anybody in figure skating would report rule violations. And to whom should they report it anyway ? The ISU ? The same ISU that teaches judges like that Australian one from FSU to ignore skating skills and to focus on ' ticking off boxes ' instead ? The same ISU that desperately clings to anonymous judging and the same ISU that refuses to acknowledge each and every sign of corruption and cheating ? Good luck with that !
DeleteSkate Canada isn't an innocent party in it either. They play the game just as well.
If Tessa and Scott had refused to change their lift they would have been deducted and most likely punished at other competitions as well. Not obeying to the tech panel would have probably thrown them off the podium all together.
Well, I can see it's useless to try to have an intelligent conversation. By the way, the Australian judge posting on FSU is not an ISU judge.
ReplyDeleteWhat does that mean, 12:13, that the FSU Australian judge is not an ISU judge? What are they then?
ReplyDelete7:06 -- There are different grades of judges: local, national, international, ISU. ISU judges are qualified via various tests, promotions, etc. The woman posting on FSU is an Australian national judge. She may judge local events; I'm not even certain she ever judged the Australian championships. She is not a judge who would sit on a panel at Four Continents or worlds, or a Grand Prix event. And quite frankly, the fact that there are different grades of judges is very basic figure skating knowledge.
ReplyDeleteyou have a great blog here! would you like to make some invite posts on my blog? Visit My site: Kitchen Game online
ReplyDelete