The Sports Gene - a/k/a logical fallacies in the Davis White narrative

Charlie White retweeted the above, which links to this:

Root of Athletic Success - NY Times Review

I haven't read the book that's reviewed, but reading the review Charlie linked, it focuses on athletes who may not be the most naturally talented, but compensate by putting in the work. Or, as Tanith Belbin would say, "puttin in the work." Even after "Everyone else gone home."

If you're not gifted compared to, say, your nearest rivals, but you put in Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours (Gladwell postulates this is the magical number for true mastery of a skill), you may end up the winner.

It appears to me that the usual DW narrative presents them as gosh darn hardworking ice dancers.

But that's kind of like Gilles/Poirier presenting themselves as skaters with "personality". Implicit in that label is other skaters lack personality. Because Gilles/Poirier claim personality as their signature, they must  have the MOST personality. That's simply not true of Gilles/Poirier.

Likewise, in the narrative of Davis/White as hard-working athletes who leave it all on the ice, there's the implication that they work the hardest. Just as because their apparent distinguishing characteristics as skaters is that they're fast and powerful, the implication is that they're the MOST fast and powerful.

But they're not. And they're not the hardest working.

What if the naturally talented athletes/rivals work as hard - or harder - as the less gifted athletes/dancers? What if they also are "puttin in the time."? What if, in fact, they thrive on discipline, on challenge, on setting impossible goals and meeting or exceeding them? What if they're so gifted they do this every season, versus doing the kind of hard work that involves repetition of the same stuff you already know?

It appears to me that the US media narrative, and DW's narrative, is that Davis and White are the hardest working, and, through hard work, they've defeated - who? Beautiful dilettantes? Scott and Tessa who just roll out of bed and float through their practice on the strength of natural ability? Scott and Tessa who, like, say, Jessica Dube, never try new things? A lazy Scott and Tessa who "take a break" in the 4CC's fd and still expect to win (the reaction to that event was a red flag in SO many ways. SO many asses showing.)?

Scott and Tessa put in the hours AND take on riskier programs, elements, choreography. Davis and White put in the hours so that they can maintain their delivery of, essentially, a five year old program. Scott and Tessa have improved their speed and power to where even a casual observer can tell they're faster and more powerful than Davis and White - obviously so, all the while executing programs that are increasingly challenging both choreographically and athletically, with skating skills that any idiot can tell are superior to Davis and White's.

Did Scott and Tessa accomplish this over brunch in London?

Scott showed yet another improvement this season - his topline. How did that happen? At fashion shows? He didn't spend hours on the ice with the posture bar? Not for nothing, his topline looks natural, not like something he's thinking about or reminding himself to maintain. There's nothing stiff in it. His skating is as natural and spontaneous as it's always been. What kind of hours does it take to make something unnatural into something natural? What kind of hours PLUS talent for movement does it take? Is talent a dirty word now? Does it imply short cuts, coasting etc? Is talent supposed to be fair? Are we, as a teacher from Scott's old middle school, in an excess of Olympic zeal, once said, ALL supposed to be capable of Olympic gold if we work hard?

What happens when the less talented, but plucky supposed underdog works their ass off vis a vis a far more talented athlete that is working every bit as hard and, on top of that, working smarter? A lesser product plus hard work is more deserving than a superior product plus hard work? Is that the narrative for Davis White and Sochi gold?

I certainly hope they don't hammer down on that theme this year, because every time they do, the implication is Virtue Moir don't work as hard. And they know better. Virtue Moir submit themselves to types of training that DW shun, for example. Neither Davis nor White really wants to spend the time on ballet, which might at least improve their unison and alignment. Scott Moir doesn't strike me as somebody who would embrace ballet given his druthers, but his figure skating career is more important to him than his personal preferences, and he submits to training in that as well as training in myriad other ways that develop his skating. Is it unfair that when Scott applies himself to something like ballet, that he gets results, whereas when Charlie White tries ballet, it doesn't do much for him? Does that say something about ballet or does it say something about Charlie (and Meryl's) abilities?

This may be a season where the narrative is that talent is an unfair advantage.

Hmf.

Wanted to get that out of my system.

Later on I want to look at the "new" DW twizzles from last season, where they added "stuff" before the twizzles, consisting of leaping, and Charlie pulling and yanking on Meryl. IOW, once more speed-skater-ing themselves into an element because they can't generate rotational momentum from their edges.

Those Giselle twizzles - and Giselle itself - fall apart even more dramatically now that Scott and Tessa's new sd has been unveiled. I invite anyone who has spent time looking at Scott and Tessa's new Finnstep sd to look again now at Giselle. Everything about it.



In the Finnstep, I looked at the exit to Tessa and Scott's sd twizzles, I thought, okay, did they stop dead after the last twizzle in order to hit that dip? No. They actually have a running edge. They drop into that dip from a moving edge. In Giselle, Charlie and Meryl pivot onto their other foot the second the final rotation is completed.

I also read over on fsu a post from a fan who apparently believes VM are executing twizzles in the style of their music every single time out of the goodness of their hearts and simple personal artistic integrity, as this poster doesn't believe you get points for that. Yes, you do get GOE for that. You also get points for sustaining an edge upon your exit.

Of course Charlie and Meryl get points for both - and I'm going to look at Giselle in particular - even though for them "running edge" means leap UP and pivot onto your opposite foot the instant your rotation is complete (always be leaping), and "style of the music" means "not at all in the style of the music." They're pretty half-assed about that level 4 hop into them as well.

I am interested to know if DW fans bragging on how DW have enhanced their twizzles can explain what the almighty pulling, tugging and yanking from Charlie, as well as Meryl's backwards walk (walk, not glide), has to do with the style of the Giselle music or enhanced difficulty. It seems to me that to the degree Meryl and Charlie changing their orientation at any time during a program threatens to topple them over, it is difficult, but a simple upright straightfoward 180 doesn't seem as if it should challenge Olympic level ice dancers, and otherwise they've simply taken the opportunity to grab momentum from swinging their bodies into the air, and from Charlie yanking Meryl a few yards across the ice.

 They do a minor variant of the hauling and leaping in Notre Dame, but it's the same stuff.


Here is Comment 2:56pm's video montage of DW and VM twizzling.



Why VM - or any skaters - bother with styling their twizzles in the character of the dance when one size fits all bombastic twizzles with the arms slung behind the back from either shoulder height or below suffices as "character of the dance" for DW, beats me. ISU doesn't want "innovation", so naturally in the Orwellian language of contemporary ice dance, staying the same, as DW have done season after season, fd to sd, becomes "innovation." They're the leading edge of being static. If ISU recognized that VM raised the bar in Carmen - look what is possible with twizzles in the style of the dance and a sustained edge out of the twizzle, for instance - the standard for level of difficulty and even GOE would be raised, which would mean DW would be getting lower scores.

No other team can manage it

Just look at every piece of this. How blade-centric it is. How blade-RUN centric it is for linking moves and hold changes. Imagine Charlie and Meryl attempting any of it. Transition, transition, transition, flow flow flow. Change hold change hold. Unison unison.  Edges edges edges. Virtuoso multidirectional skating.

Look how close together their feet are in hold and when changing hold. Look at their knees. Look at the length of the blade run. Look at the obvious speed.

Then remember that Mery and Charlie's hop/squat/re-set, pose/scurry/re-set, and skipping/jump, pose/lift, re-set - however Derek Hough has repackaged it - and not this, will get 80 points this season, and beat this in pcs. Beat THIS - the entire season. In pcs. DW's cramped little steps, their twinkling toe picks, the flurry of their legs that somehow carries them only about half an inch no matter how desperately their arms flail or how theatrically they fling their hair and smile at the crowd. They need to tug, jump, slide, leap, hop hop hop to cover any ice at speed. But still.  80 points. Wait for it.

I also suspect that Virtue Moir could cut glass with their blades in footwork all throughout the season and still struggle for Level 4.

They kill me.

Look at Tessa's right skating foot as they come around the turn. Tarasova was right. Her gift for ice dance is from the gods.

An fsu-er already finds the "Muskrat Ramble" section "discordant."

Here's Astaire Rogers:

Astaire Rogers Dance in Follow the Fleet

That sort of transition/tempo and intentionally discordant tonal change worked all right for Fred and Ginger. It was even praised. But I mean - sophistication, shmomistication. Who cares that the music and tempo shift, but Scott and Tessa anticipate and carry the style and the energy through the transitions while dancing in harmony with, and in relation to, all of the selections? And btw, there is a tie-in/transition between Muskrat Ramble and the music section that precedes it - it's the wail of the horn. The two selections are clearly family. Scott and Tessa don't need to change the character of their movement, nor the energy.

I love the program - I think Marina is brilliant and this is skated wonderfully. I always notice when supposed figure skating fans respond with program comments, and not skating comments. It makes one wonder if some fans have any idea of the skating Virtue Moir are pulling off in this program, setting aside that they're dancing with their skating. One would think skating fans would notice what's accomplished with the skating, first and foremost. At this stage, I don't even think "accomplished" is the word for Virtue Moir. They've been this accomplished for a long time. Revealed is more on point.

Observe how they get back in hold after footwork.

If only they weren't so darn heavy-footed.

"Every year they make the twizzles more difficult. It's not just the jumps, but the holds and twists right before they enter them. No other team can manage it."

(Davis White fan, rolling up sleeves and pluckily tackling the technical case for Davis White's wins over Virtue and Moir.)

Set aside that this defender has merely pulled this statement out of their hind end. Let's look at DW's post Vancouver twizzles.
 
Davis White 2011 twizzles:

Look at those twists and holds!

One thing for sure, no other dancers could pull off this hustle.

Virtue Moir 2011:

Now that is certainly different from the twizzles these two performed in Vancouver. If Davis White ever tried a circular twizzle pass followed by a sbs twizzle pass, they'd both end up face-planted in the parking lot and never find their way back to the ice.

Twists and holds - 2012!!!!

How waltz-like. Bear in mind that Meryl and Charlie are pulling in that extra GOE for executing twizzles "in the style of the music". Boy, their twizzles are versatile. 2011 was a tango, and 2012 was a waltz, yet the same twizzles done the same way - no stylistic modifications in the performance of the twizzles themselves - are deemed to be in the character of any music DW are using. Waltz, tango, ballet - doesn't matter. They get the GOE for style of the music doing two straight-on bombs away twizzle passes styled identically season to season, sd to fd.

Here's Funny Face's twizzles (2012). How do VM keep getting way with repeating themselves like this? It makes me so mad they beat Die Fleudermaus in 2012!!

Oh wait.

Here's the Notre Dame (2013 twizzles) - part of the program that outscored Carmen at every meeting. One thing for sure, those twizzles are certainly in the style of music describing a tragic romance of epic dimensions marked by angst and yearning, not to mention they certainly showcase Meryl and Charlie's newly discovered connection.

Hop, drag and leap. A little swervy and uncontrolled in the traveling part.

What kind of music style was Notre Dame, so I can decide if these are in the style of the music?

Here's Carmen's twizzles:

By the way, after two of these twizzles, VM transition into their dance spin. Another element.

So, DW fans have decided to defend their faves on technical merit, but by making it up.

I believe a DW defender also claims that DW are better waltzers than VM. Are they referring to the Golden Waltz pattern dance? Because really - does anyone want a gif stand-off on that one?

Or do they believe because Die Fleudermaus was waltz music, DW must have waltzed in it. They did not. They did no dance of any kind except a weird polka/two step quote in the part of the choreography where they grabbed the kitchen sink, added some limbs and head flails, and started throwing it all at the audience while modeling applause-beseeching gesticulation.

I would like the "twists" part of technique explained to me in skating terms, and also how that impacts the difficulty of a twizzle. That is if DW were twisting and holding. Let's just pretend. Their fans are.

I put this up because DW fans are following the DW playbook. They think SAYING DW do something is exactly the same as DW doing it.

P.S. - Today Nick McCarvale of NBC claims Virtue Moir merely "squeaked" by DW in the 2010 Olympics, although the victory margin was, I believe, in the neighborhood of five points (Lysacek beat Plushenko by something like four tenths of a point). But of course, when DW are awarded Worlds gold in 2013 by a margin of about 4.5, they SMITE their rivals. "Smite" means "firm blow" or "defeat or conquer". It doesn't mean squeak by.

This is typical.

Here We go

Virtue and Moir debut their short program this weekend (and have revealed both their sd and their fd program music).

Many fans are excited; some are wrecks. It's a given they're going to skate better than Meryl and Charlie, because they're far better skaters than Meryl and Charlie, so these nerves aren't really about skating.

Once Virtue and Moir skate, the season is launched. Are we in for yet another season where no matter how they skate, (or, more importantly, no matter how Meryl and Charlie skate) Scott and Tessa won't be scored better than Meryl and Charlie? Will Meryl and Charlie get away with murder yet AGAIN for an entire season and in every encounter with Virtue and Moir?

Following a summer where the ISU implied Scott and Tessa "misused" the interruption rule at the 4CCs (as the only reason Virtue Moir would wish to interrupt a fd in a competition they were leading would be if they couldn't win otherwise, this is the implication left by the ISU inquiry) - fans' apprehensions are justified.

Meryl and Charlie will get 9s, 10s and +3's, and defeat VM in pcs, no matter what's going on with their blades, or whether what they do actually matches the criteria for maximum scores in the ISU's own rulebook, just as they did in 2009 (where, it was recently pointed out, Charlie bellyflopped on an element in Lake Placid. Instead of the team receiving the required -2, the team received a "0", which is the baseline GOE for a successfully executed element. So even back then, +GOEs were their baseline). They will execute the same two-set twizzle pass and the same assisted dance spin rotationals and be declared the best in the world at both.

I've noticed something about the image that's been built for Davis and White. Meryl and Charlie are such wonderful people, their skating is never called out. Even people who privately believe Davis White are blatantly inferior to Virtue and Moir refrain from saying so publicly. That "nice' meme we're getting about Meryl and Charlie is so aggressive that, paradoxically, it's deployed as an intimidation tactic. They're so nice, that if you criticize them, you're not.

The sd pattern is the Finn Step.



This is the last time Scott and Tessa competed the Finn Step, Tessa skating like Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid - legs on fire.

Here's Meryl and Charlie:



Scott and Tessa are so much better it's ridiculous.

Charlie has said that the Finn Step is good for him and Meryl because they have "quick feet."

The ISU likes to score Meryl and Charlie for imitating something rather than their execution of the thing itself (scoring what they do prior to and after an element as components of the element itself, which is how they get "character of the dance/music" twizzle points for the same set of bombastic twizzles in every single program). With that in mind,

this article:

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080730&content_id=49784&vkey=ice_news

with this quote:

"But the Finnstep is problematic. With all those toe pick steps, can you imagine in the world championships? The ice would be pitted with holes. I don't think that's practical"

Toe pick steps! Additionally, the FinnStep starts off beat/off time, which is fabulous for skaters who simply let the music accompany them instead of actually skating ON time.

DW are ice dance innovators. You can actually do it without a partner.
And without doing much dancing. Or skating.

I wanted to get these Finn Step youtubes embedded before the weekend, but later on and prior to the competition, this post is going to be built out with more about the Finn Step, as well as with some comments on Tessa and Scott's using their bridal shoot photos for a new round of fan shaming.

Good news, Skate Canada, Alexandra Paul is ALREADY Canadian

Piper has to jump the line. She just has to!

I just thought the amazing full color photo, above-the-fold article in the Toronto Star showcasing the utter urgency that American Piper Gilles get her citizenship ahead of other petitioners waiting YEARS and years, because Skate Canada really really needs the 18th in the world ice dance team to go to Sochi, was worthy of its own post.

Front page "news" with huge color photos.

What is wrong with Alexandra Paul, Skate Canada? She is already Canadian. Can't she make a valuable contribution to Canada as she is, a genuine, home-grown Canadian citizen? She's all warmed up and ready to go! No @CanFund emails "clearing this up" necessary (but thanks for sharing on twitter, @CanFund!).

But Alexandra Paul's not what they want. How come?

Where's the fire @CanFund? How does Piper QUALIFY
for an Exemption? Share with the class.

I found the Toronto Star article incredibly disturbing. How was it arranged? Who pulled the strings?  How is the plight of a back-of-the-pack ice dance team worthy of the front page?

Who has Gilles & Poirier so sure they, and not another team, will be in Sochi if Piper gets to be Canadian ahead of everybody else? I don't think they're deluded at all - I think they're going to Sochi and Paul will have to break his leg again directly on the ice for them to finish off the podium at Canadians, and even then I'm not so sure there isn't some five second broadcast delay in place that would trigger a blackout if that happens followed by the announcement they did a fabulous job but alas the digital record has been erased.

How does Piper Gilles qualify for an exemption? The incredible hardship created by her wealthy family pumping tens of thousands of dollars out of their own pockets into her undistinguised skating career, but if she gets to be Canadian she can siphon off some tax dollars? That hardship?

Is it the amazing prestige she'll bring to Canada by skating at Sochi with Paul? Who the HELL is going to notice Gilles & Poirier in Sochi with Virtue Moir there, not to mention Weaver & Poje  - besides what Barb, Debbi and P.J. can stuff down our maws on twitter and online newsletters?

Why did this article skirt over the existence of Virtue Moir and Weaver Poje? They made no case for Piper whatsoever. They mentioned the exemption she hopes to get, but completely failed to make the case that she qualifies for this exemption.

What contribution does Piper stand to make to Canada that Alexandra Paul cannot?

I think contributions are being made, all right, but I don't think it's to Canada. That's a lot of money siphoned into Piper's skating- I wonder if any is being diverted to other pockets.

BTW I have it on good authority the revamped Skatebuzz will be called Piper's Pipeline.

Because Virtue/Moir and Weaver/Poje exist, this obsession with railroading Piper through the waiting period reeks to high heaven. ESPECIALLY since by any objective measurement, Paul Islam, actual Canadians, are at least as good as Gilles Poirier, and in the eyes of people who actually care about actual skating, they're better. What's the worst that could happen? Weaver & Poje and Virtue & Moir finish the season earning another 3 spots for Canada, and Paul Islam are further back in the pack. What do Gilles Poirier contribute that would improve that scenario? Five places?

This is nonsense.

We'\re speaking here of a THIRD slot. For Sochi, Canada already has two incredibly strong teams and has no need of Gilles Poirier to keep Canada on the ice dance map.

So what the fuck.

Nowhere in the Toronto Star do either Poirier nor Gilles even pay lip service to the notion that the Canadian Championships are still to be held and that third slot is up for grabs.

Now why is that, unless it's NOT up for grabs and the championship is a mere formality?

I'm curious about a bunch of stuff, actually.  Such as, what the fuck, P.J. Kwong. She didn't think it important to share that Paul Poirier had broken his leg earlier this year, for example. Even though it was announced over a public address system. Why? Would it be inconvenient to have the Ministry know about his leg?

And what the hell is the urgency about getting THIS girl eligible for Sochi? Why is Skate Canada turning its back on an ice dance team that is already Canadian, in favor of leaning on the powers that be to make an American into a Canadian? Not a number one American, not a top ten American, a freaking eighteenth place American!

Why are they rending their garments over Paul Poirier's situation? Did somebody rip Vanessa Crone - an actual Canadian - out of his arms unfairly and force him into a partnership with Piper? Is that what happened?

Because, as I understand it, he chose to dump her ass, and hook up with Piper. Good for him, but why should the Canadian government give a shit about the problems Mr. 18th Place brought upon himself when he dumped a capable partner for a non-citizen publicity whore? He can do what he wants. But the Toronto Star, and Gilles & Poirier, and Skate Canada on twitter, through surrogates, through his Zoueva-wannabe coach, Carol Lane, through Bonnie Gilles, with money, with promotion, with media opportunities, have completely failed to tell us why we or Canadian immigration should care.

Just because a girl has a dream is no reason she shouldn't cover her bases.

Eta: Whoa.

In the comments below, a participant linked to this blog:

Olympian Piper Gilles

Which is a timelined chronicle of the publicity drive for Paul and Piper. Piper Gilles is not an Olympian.

Over on some of the message boards there's an attempt to equate Piper's situation with Kaitlyn Weaver's.  Kaitlyn didn't go to the Vancouver Olympics because she and Andrew came in third to Gilles & Poirier.

I think the Piper partisans are overlooking that Skate Canada has clearly guaranteed the third slot to Gilles & Poirier and any other ice dancer below the level of Virtue & Moir and Weaver & Poje will just be going through the motions at Canadians next season.

The brutality towards their own non-favored skaters is something else, although not surprising considering the big mouths some officials have in full earshot when at actual events.

If that were true, Charlie and Meryl would be in trouble

The relevant quote from this feature from Meryl is:

"It's a power shift from Russia, to skating being rewarded for good skating."

OY!

and from Charlie:

"If you don't do your job, you're not going to be rewarded, and you don't deserve to be. We want it to be a real sport like that."

Charlie also says "In the olden days, the American teams just weren't what the judges were looking for."

In the olden days the judges were looking for the best ice dancers. Thank God those days are gone.

Says Meryl "This new judging system is what got us out of that funk."

For sure. Only under this new system could a team that fake-skates dominate against what may be the best ice dance team of all time.

The "new judging system" means that people only look at the protocols, instead of looking at the skating to see if the protocols are honest.** And that's how DW are getting away with it.

The "new judging system" produces fans like Peter Murray's favorite expert, Patrick Ryan. Ryan looks at protocols, not skating, to justify DW's win count, but he'll complain about protocols if he thinks they should be lower for Virtue and Moir, without getting specific about what they did on the ice that was overscored (he and P.J. Kwong would probably get along.).

He just believed they should have been punished more at the 4CCs 2013 for interrupting the program, and he also flat out declared (in his claim that they didn't receive ANY deduction) that Virtue Moir are a default second to Davis White, so deductions start from them with silver medal scores, not contending scores.

(When people started bitching about Virtue Moir and the 4CCs 2013, I thought it was just ridiculous at first. Virtue Moir won the short dance. What on earth could they gain by faking an interruption (a withdrawal, such as in 2011, is a different thing)? Then I was like "Ohhhhhh - we're supposed to believe Virtue and Moir can't beat Davis White in the free - Carmen can't get it done. We have to pretend they withdrew to save face!"

But the slings and arrows were so weirdly alike and so insistent.

Without the rationale that Virtue Moir were trying somehow to avoid being beaten, there is no reason for them to fake an interruption. That this bullshit idea got any traction at all shows how the politics are aligned against Virtue and Moir in the media and in much of the higher profile North American skating world (and some overseas). Why would the best in the world interrupt their program?

Oohhhhh - they're NOT the best. Davis White are.

When the ISU published that letter of inquiry claiming some skaters "misused" the interruption rule, they acted like puppets. I thought a lot of the reaction to Virtue Moir at the 4CCs came off rote as hell, and suspect as hell, and the silence from Skate Canada was fascinating. IMO, the ISU is making a political statement about Virtue/Moir and Davis/White - otherwise what on earth would motivate Virtue/Moir to interrupt their program and then finish the competition?

That letter isn't about interruptions or rule abuse. It's throwing in another piece of propoganda that DW are better. That's what "misuse" implies.

The gall here has no ceiling. We are meant to believe Virtue and Moir are a default second to Davis White. By claiming "misuse" in the letter of inquiry, the ISU is validating the claims that Davis White are better than Virtue Moir.

Davis White partisans, and they apparently include the ISU, want to establish that Davis and White are empirically better every time they take the ice. Ergo, without an obvious mistake (IOW, detectable to the casual viewer) by Davis and White, Virtue and Moir are skating to earn a SILVER model.  Gold isn't even on the table when they compete with Davis White.  The 4CC score differential at the end of the free in the 4CC's 2013 is the set score differential between VM and DW with both skating through their programs. That's Virtue and Moir's max. Got that?)

While Davis White pretend they're all about "reward what's on the ice!" they don't mind if their supporters veer away from skating into saying things like "I don't know much about skating, but Tessa and Scott are so sterile and Meryl and Charlie are so passionate, I am much more affected by them!"

They are trying to claim every inch of turf there is - the "it's a sport!" turf, AND the "best performance" turf, and at the same time, throw shade at Virtue and Moir.

There are two obvious things that stick out. One, Davis White don't do the job under CoP, and they're rewarded beyond anything they put on the ice, per the standards and criteria in the ISU's own rulebook.

That's not taking into account some of the things they do (or half-ass) under the rules that shouldn't be IN the ISU rulebook (a hop or knee-jerk into two sets of twizzles = Level 4, their spins getting Level 4's and called the best despite Charlie flinging Meryl around as a rotational aid. WHEN do they generate rotational speed off an edge?).

So this yammering on about how it's fair finally is just obnoxious. I guess it's the American way - throw shade at anyone better than you.

The other thing is the implication in this youtube feature embedded above is that Russians in the past were rewarded despite not doing their job on the ice.  Russians won because of  political "power", and not because they were the best skaters.*

When Americans win, it's truth and justice.

I don't blame DW for this but it's always, always been obnoxious on the part of North America. Always. American women, for a long time, kicked ass in women's singles because the USA had the best women. Canada and the US shared the best men with Russia (usually), on the world stage.  Russia won in pairs and dance because they had the best pairs and the best ice dancers.

This is just another case where everybody pretends nobody understands ice dance, so "the best" can be whatever the skating world's politics find it convenient to say is the best, and then the ISU gets busy enabling.

Here's the message(s) DW are trying to get out.

• They're the best in the whole wide world. They're dominant. They "roll into" enemy territory and take what's theirs.
• They're underdogs against corrupt forces conspiring to put Virtue Moir on top. How do we know when a competition is corrupt? When Virtue Moir win.
• Virtue Moir know they're not as good as Davis White and "misuse" ISU rules to save face at competitions where they've won the short dance and are leading in GOE at the time the rule is invoked.

________________
*I love how Punsalen & Swallow's remarks are framed almost to make their observations sinister. How - when champion Russian teams retired, they'd turn into coaches, and another would take their place. They had a system! It was a legacy. We saw decades of dominance.

That, of course, describes a country that prioritizes pairs and ice dance. They valued it. North America always prioritized singles. It makes sense. But this piece goes ahead and pretends that creating superior skating teams is some kind of iron curtain/Eastern bloc conspiracy that needed a complete overhaul and some good old North American honesty and fresh air. It's also incredibly ironic that the same system that functioned quasi honestly ONCE, when it made Virtue Moir Olympic champions, has now been corrupted to suppress Virtue Moir and throw monster scores at Davis and White that they didn't earn. This system has also clearly institutionalized a double standard in the scoring criteria between Davis White and Virtue Moir. And it's knocked the concept of "pcs" on its ass.

**And I want to know how that became the norm. How come so many supposed "skating knowledgeable" fans only look at the protocols and not at the skating to see if the protocols are applied with integrity? When did not looking at the skating itself become a thing?

P.S. - Scott and Tessa have made similar points about CoP, or used to make them, but that was back in the days when nobody was sure if the judging was going to make Domnina/Shabalin Olympic champions no matter what was on the ice, and Worlds 2009 justified any apprehension the skaters had about that. But the reality is, CoP no longer rewards what you put on the ice. If it did, Davis White wouldn't get the scores they get. CoP is just a tool for obfuscation. It's another excuse not to become informed about actual skating.

P.P.S. when I look at the posing sections, the stop and slides, the hopping in place, and all the other non-skating two footed bullshit in a typical Davis White program, I think those on Jacquie White's facebook who smirked about "didn't take a rest stop in the middle" have some nerve. IMO, the ones abusing the interruption rule are Davis White - they just call it choreography.