This is a placeholder so I can look back and see how it played out. It's speculation.
But - I wonder if the tbd spot at Skate Canada is already earmarked by Skate Canada for Jessica and Sebastien - part of the quid pro quo for her role in the game of "Scott and Jessica are dating."
Jessica and Annie have declared Dube/Wolfe's goals for the season -- same as Jessica with D&D. A podium finish at Nationals, an international assignment and the available berth at Skate Canada. Meantime Skate Canada reported - apparently erroneously - that Bryce had retired for good.
True, she and Bryce had the Olympic podium as a goal and didn't get it, and there was a rumor that unlike the defending champs in the other disciplines, she and Bryce were not guaranteed a trip to the Olympics no matter how they finished at Nationals 2010. There's nothing wrong with setting your goals high. But I'm curious. This is a somewhat resurgent time in pairs, and Sebastien/Jessica are by no means leading the charge.
Fans could always count on seeing D&D at Skate Canada along with Virtue/Moir. But now that Moore-Towers/Moscovitch are the champions, the champions don't get Skate Canada. Maybe Dylan needs to fake-date Tessa.
In the outing at Liberty, winning the long, Sebastien doubled his sbs triple flip (so the team got credit just for the double), Jessica fell out of a death spiral and they both splatted on the second half of the double axels. These aren't "new team" mistakes. They beat Americans Donlan/Speroff by just five points. They did just a split double twist. Girls new to pairs as well as other girls in brand new teams are doing the triple - girls with no world medal who have never been to the Olympics. What the hell with Jessica?
In a good showing in their Quebec short, Jessica and Sebastien both splatted the triple flip. In the long Jessica aborted two lifts.
Sebastian also again doubled the flip, and singled the first axel. And again with a split two twist.
Jessica's pairs combination spins have been sloppy the past few years but here she even had to hop a few times to get aligned for the same combinations she's done for years with Bryce. They were slower than at Liberty and had a heavy descent from the one lift they accomplished.
Jessica did not appear to have any intention of doing either press lift and while hanging off Sebastien's back aborting the second she seemed to glance over at Annie. She did not seem chagrined or disappointed at any point.
(Perhaps Sebastien needed to be made to feel insecure so she can reassure him and have the upper hand.)
Going by her performance in the ladies short, the Dube/Wolfe long program performance did not suffer from Jessica's focus on those singles skills she's claimed restored her "spark" for figure skating.
This is a lot of equanimity combined with some pretty desultory skating for a girl we're supposed to believe hopes to earn her way to Skate Canada. Unless it was earned before she and Sebastien ever competed this summer.
This team has been together over six months; she's a World medalist, he's a junior nationals medalist and the long program has degraded since we saw it at Liberty.
Not to mention that while skating to an explicitly non-romantic Phillip Glass score, at Quebec Jessica randomly seemed to believe she was skating The Way We Were. The eyes would close and the head would swoon, the shoulders lifted and sighs were heaved. She zoned out. This was not her performance mode at Liberty. It was the weirdest.
But - I wonder if the tbd spot at Skate Canada is already earmarked by Skate Canada for Jessica and Sebastien - part of the quid pro quo for her role in the game of "Scott and Jessica are dating."
True, she and Bryce had the Olympic podium as a goal and didn't get it, and there was a rumor that unlike the defending champs in the other disciplines, she and Bryce were not guaranteed a trip to the Olympics no matter how they finished at Nationals 2010. There's nothing wrong with setting your goals high. But I'm curious. This is a somewhat resurgent time in pairs, and Sebastien/Jessica are by no means leading the charge.
Fans could always count on seeing D&D at Skate Canada along with Virtue/Moir. But now that Moore-Towers/Moscovitch are the champions, the champions don't get Skate Canada. Maybe Dylan needs to fake-date Tessa.
In the outing at Liberty, winning the long, Sebastien doubled his sbs triple flip (so the team got credit just for the double), Jessica fell out of a death spiral and they both splatted on the second half of the double axels. These aren't "new team" mistakes. They beat Americans Donlan/Speroff by just five points. They did just a split double twist. Girls new to pairs as well as other girls in brand new teams are doing the triple - girls with no world medal who have never been to the Olympics. What the hell with Jessica?
In a good showing in their Quebec short, Jessica and Sebastien both splatted the triple flip. In the long Jessica aborted two lifts.
Sebastian also again doubled the flip, and singled the first axel. And again with a split two twist.
Jessica's pairs combination spins have been sloppy the past few years but here she even had to hop a few times to get aligned for the same combinations she's done for years with Bryce. They were slower than at Liberty and had a heavy descent from the one lift they accomplished.
 |
| Jessica making like a Christmas ornament. |
(Perhaps Sebastien needed to be made to feel insecure so she can reassure him and have the upper hand.)
Going by her performance in the ladies short, the Dube/Wolfe long program performance did not suffer from Jessica's focus on those singles skills she's claimed restored her "spark" for figure skating.
This is a lot of equanimity combined with some pretty desultory skating for a girl we're supposed to believe hopes to earn her way to Skate Canada. Unless it was earned before she and Sebastien ever competed this summer.
This team has been together over six months; she's a World medalist, he's a junior nationals medalist and the long program has degraded since we saw it at Liberty.
Not to mention that while skating to an explicitly non-romantic Phillip Glass score, at Quebec Jessica randomly seemed to believe she was skating The Way We Were. The eyes would close and the head would swoon, the shoulders lifted and sighs were heaved. She zoned out. This was not her performance mode at Liberty. It was the weirdest.
 |
| Way We Were-ing it |
