men's short program results:
1 Evgeni PLUSHENKO RUS 81.25 1
2 Takeshi HONDA JPN 77.54 2
3 Emanuel SANDHU CAN 72.14 3
4 Jeffrey BUTTLE CAN 67.95 4
5 Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN 61.81 5
6 Chengjiang LI CHN 59.70 6
7 Ryan JAHNKE USA 58.29 7
8 Stanislav TIMCHENKO RUS 56.73 8
9 Stanick JEANNETTE FRA 54.47 9
10 Fedor ANDREEV CAN 54.17 10
11 Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 51.32 11
pairs short program:
1 Xue SHEN / Hongbo ZHAO CHN 68.76 1
2 Tatiana TOTMIANINA / Maxim MARININ RUS 67.24 2
3 Anabelle LANGLOIS / Patrice ARCHETTO CAN 64.12 3
4 Dorota ZAGORSKA / Mariusz SIUDEK POL 61.54 4
5 Julia OBERTAS / Sergei SLAVNOV RUS 58.34 5
6 Elizabeth PUTNAM / Sean WIRTZ CAN 56.04 6
7 Kathryn ORSCHER / Garrett LUCASH USA 52.14 7
8 Yang DING / Zongfei REN CHN 51.16 8
9 Valerie MARCOUX / Craig BUNTIN CAN 49.72 9
10 Larisa SPIELBERG / Craig JOERIGHT USA 47.12 10
compulsory dance results:
1 Tatiana NAVKA / Roman KOSTOMAROV RUS 40.04 1
2 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVIYSKI BUL 38.28 2
3 Galit CHAIT / Sergei SAKHNOVSKI ISR 37.70 3
4 Marie-France DUBREUIL / Patrice LAUZON CAN 34.87 4
5 Megan WING / Aaron LOWE CAN 30.30 5
6 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE 29.53 6
7 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 29.24 7
8 Nozomi WATANABE / Akiyuki KIDO JPN 28.44 8
9 Josee PICHE / Pascal DENIS CAN 27.49 9
10 Loren GALLER-RABINOWITZ / David MITCHELL USA 25.98
11 Christina BEIER / William BEIER GER 25.23 11
i wish u.s. tv wouldn't wait until like 2 more weeks to show this! you lucky canadians get to see it live poor fedor poor larisa and craig GO JENNIFER ROBINSON!!!
''I was deep, deep, deep in the rain forest in Spain, and these two old ladies were looking in the souvenir window and they didn't speak a word of English, and they said 'CSI' and pointed at me.''
George Eads
From last night's TSN broadcast...
My impressions of the other pairs shown in last night's TSN broadcast (this is the order they were shown in the TV broadcast, not the order where they finished):
Tatiana TOTMIANINA / Maxim MARININ: Skated to Variations on a Theme of Paganini. Their only major mistake was a unison problem on their SBS spins. A nicely-choreographed program, but somehow these two still appear boring to me.
Elizabeth PUTNAM / Sean WIRTZ: Skated a gorgeous program to Ave Maria. Highlights of the program were their SBS spreadeagles into their jumps and their footwork sequence. Wonderful unison on their spins. They need to improve on a few more things to move to the next level (more height on their twist, a more difficult lift), but overall, a very promising start to their season.
Dorota ZAGORSKA / Mariusz SIUDEK: Skated to a piece of music I've never heard of called Legend of 1900. They've been training with Richard Gauthier in Montreal for about six months and they've improved tremendously since the last time I saw them. They landed their SBS jumps literally on opposite sides of the rink, but other than that, a wonderfully-skated program. This pair has always had awesome lifts, but nothing else about their skating really stood out to me--until now. They've definitely got "the whole package" now and I especially loved their death spiral variation (he lifts his leg as she goes down and she changes hands mid-spiral). This team definitely gets my "most improved" award.
Xue SHEN / Hongbo ZHAO: They've kept their SP from last year, which I think works wonderfully for them. They had a unison problem during their SBS spins and a slight problem in their twist, but the rest of their elements were as good as I've ever seen them do.
Valerie MARCOUX / Craig BUNTIN: I can't remember what they skated to, but it was a very jazzy, very recognizable piece of music. Richard Gauthier is now coaching them, too. He fell out of his SBS jump, but that's the only major mistake they made. It must have been a pretty impressive competition if a performance like this finished second-last.
Anabelle LANGLOIS / Patrice ARCHETTO: I must admit I didn't really like their costumes (hers in particular had too much black mesh and too much illusion fabric for my taste), but the program itself (a Spanish flamenco-sounding piece I couldn't identify) was definitely awesome! I know they've got quite a few other fans on this board and you certainly won't be disappointed. I especially loved their SBS Morosov footwork sequence--I must admit I'm getting tired of seeing singles skaters do this same footwork over and over again, but they added a whole new dimension to it. The feel of the program and the way the music built up towards the end kind of reminded me of G&G's 1994 Olympics SP. Anabelle said they "made a stupid mistake" in their SBS spins during their post-skate interview, but I certainly didn't notice it.
Unfortunately, I can't comment on either of the U.S. pairs since TSN chacked them both.
TSN men's SP broadcast
And now last night's men's SP (again, this is the order TSN showed the skaters, not the order they actually placed in):
Jeff Buttle: Skated to Take Five and had a gorgeous costume (yellow shirt, black pinstriped vest and black pants). Fell on his quad attempt (unfortunately), but the rest of the program was fantastic. Fast spins, awesome footwork and an interesting spread-eagle into Besti squat with Jeff placing his hands over his head. Tracy said Jeff needs to upgrade his footwork a bit, but it looked fine to me. This program reminded me a lot of Brian Orser's 1988 Olympics SP and could definitely contend with the best in the world...as soon as Jeff lands that @#$% quad consistently.
Fedor Andreev: Skated to "Dialogue de vent de la mer" and landed a 4-toe/3-toe combination, but fell on his 3-axel. He skated the rest of the program well and Tracy said he had more difficult footwork than Jeff, but I thought there was something missing in the program compared to Jeff's. The quad combination looked great at first, but during the slow-motion replay, Tracy said both the quad and the missed 3-axel were underrotated and the judges would only mark them as a 3-toe and 2-axel. The audience booed his marks. Poor Fedor, indeed.
Takeshi Honda: I love Takeshi, but that costume (dark blue with gloves and a sequinned white frilly neckline--reminds me somewhat of Alexei Urmanov's 1994 Olympics SP costume) has got to go! He skated to Romeo and Juliet, landed his quad combination and 3-axel, but fell on his 3-lutz towards the end. I must admit this is one skater I don't really think suits Morosov's choreography (the programs Morosov's created for him seem kind of empty compared to the programs Takeshi's done with other choreographers). The fact the music to this program sounds a bit too similar to Takeshi's LP music doesn't help, either. I thought the SP Kurt choreographed for Takeshi last year was much better than this and I wish Takeshi had kept that program this year...in my completely unbiased opinion, of course.
Evgeny Plushenko: During the warmup, Rod mentioned his knee injury (meniscus tear) and said Evgeny was going to have surgery this summer, but decided to wait until next year. Evgeny skated to flamenco music and landed his quad-triple combination (barely squeaking out the second jump) but turned his 3-axel into a double. I really don't like the donut-on-a-stick spin at the end of his program, but I thought this was the most exciting, best-choreographed program Evgeny has skated in quite some time.
Chenjiang Li: Blech, looks like he and Takeshi used the same costume designer this year. Skated to some jungle-sounding music called Global Spirit and while it's the most choreographically innovative thing he's ever skated, it's not really my cup of tea. Tracy said he's been training with Brian Orser this summer and Brian choreographed his LP, but not this program. He fell on his quad attempt and had to fight for his other two jump landings.
Emanuel Sandhu: Yay, he lost that swelled-up look in his cheeks from last season (and had a little bit of stubble on his face last night, too). Much more flattering SP costume (black pants and black and red shirt) than last year, too. He skated to something called Carlo Sauras Tango and fell very hard on his quad attempt--it almost looked like he hit his head on the ice from TSN's camera angle. Ouch! Too bad he wasn't able to put it together when it counts (again) because it was one of my favorite programs I've seen him do in quite some time.
Unfortunately, Ryan Jahnke and Kevin van der Perrin were both chacked--I especially would have loved to see Ryan's SP since he apparently skated cleanly (no quad attempt, though) and it sounds like maybe he should have finished ahead of Chengjiang Li.
BTW, I thought TSN did a great job at explaining the new COP system last night: they gave a few examples of how much certain elements were worth (a 3-flip has a 5.6 base value, a 3-axel has a 7.5 value, a quad is worth 8 points, etc.) They also said a 4-toe/3-toe (8 pts + 4.5 pts) has a 12-point base value. If a skater falls on a quad attempt, he loses three points but still gets the five remaining points for trying the jump. They even gave a breakdown of how many points each element in the men's SP is worth (from 12.5 to a combination jump to 2.0 for each footwork sequence). It also helped they showed both the skaters' marks in the kiss-and-cry (one score for technical elements, another for program components) as opposed to showing only one total score at Skate America last week. I must admit parts of the new system still have me very confused, though!
ladies sp results
thanks for the review type thing jcspkbfan!
ladies sp results just in...
1 Sasha COHEN USA
2 Yukina OTA JPN
3 Shizuka ARAKAWA JPN
4 Julia SEBESTYEN HUN
5 Elena SOKOLOVA RUS
6 Tatiana BASOVA RUS
7 Joannie ROCHETTE CAN
8 Annie BELLEMARE CAN
9 Alisa DREI FIN
10 Jennifer ROBINSON CAN
11 Candice DIDIER FRA
poor jen it seems like everyone i was pulling for is having a bad competition, so i'll stop hoping they'll do well.
original dance results...
1 Tatiana NAVKA / Roman KOSTOMAROV RUS
2 Albena DENKOVA / Maxim STAVIYSKI BUL
3 Galit CHAIT / Sergei SAKHNOVSKI ISR
4 Marie-France DUBREUIL / Patrice LAUZON CAN
5 Megan WING / Aaron LOWE CAN
6 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS
7 Kristin FRASER / Igor LUKANIN AZE
8 Nozomi WATANABE / Akiyuki KIDO JPN
9 Loren GALLER-RABINOWITZ / David MITCHELL USA
10 Josee PICHE / Pascal DENIS CAN
11 Christina BEIER / William BEIER GER
TSN women's SP broadcast
Glad you enjoyed it, brenlynn! Here's what TSN showed last night:
First they showed the ODs and it was nice to see the skaters use other "swing" songs besides "In The Mood," "Big Spender" and "Sing, Sing, Sing." I don't really have a lot of comments since I don't really know a lot about ice dance, but I was at Tatiana Navka's costume:
Let's just say she'd probably be arrested for indecent exposure if she walked down the street wearing that outfit.
Now on to the ladies' SPs:
Sasha Cohen: One of the cleanest SPs I've seen her skate so far. She's got a new costume and, um, sorry, I don't really like it. The color was a little too bright and yellow and the skirt was a little too frilly for my taste:
Her skating was definitely the class of the field, though!
Yukina Ota: I've heard plenty of rave reviews about her when she competed as a junior last year and she definitely lived up to those reviews last night! She didn't skate like someone competing in her first senior event; she skated like someone already contending for a World medal. Unfortunately, I couldn't identify her music, but she nailed all her jumps and definitely deserved to be in second place.
Jennifer Robinson: Sigh, she went back to her old habit of two-footing and landing her jumps too close to the boards and she really got nailed for it under COP (both her triple jump attempts were marked as doubles). I also thought the program itself was a step backward from last year's SP (which was one of my favorite programs of hers ever). I didn't really like her costume, either, I'm afraid. Hopefully she'll pull up (and stop two-footing her jumps) in the LP.
Joannie Rochette: Wow, love her costume and her program (Middle Eastern-themed). She fell on her 3-lutz, but otherwise, not a bad skate at all for her first senior GP competition. Again, hopefully she'll pull up a few spots in the LP.
Annie Bellemare: Another Middle Eastern-themed program to a piece of music called Orientation, but sorry, another costume I didn't like. I certainly enjoyed the program itself, though, and this was the best (and most relaxed) I've seen Annie skate in a very long time! She nailed both of her triple jump attempts, but unfortunately, she fell on her 2-axel towards the very end. Tracy said she needs more flexibility in her spirals (especially compared to Sasha!) and that's probably one of the main reasons why she finished behind Joannie. Again, here's hoping she can move up a bit in the LP.
Unfortunately, TSN chacked Arakawa and Sokolova, both of whom I really would have loved to see, but according to someone who saw the event live, Arakawa stepped out of her 3-lutz (and might have gotten nailed for "lipping") and Sokolova two-footed her 3-lutz combination.
Now on to the pairs LP:
Marcoux and Buntin: Spanish-themed program. I thought they skated much better last night than during their SP and this is a great program for them. They fell on a second SBS triple jump attempt towards the end of the program, but otherwise, not a bad job at all.
Putnam and Wirtz: Skated to the same Paganini music I&Z used at the 2002 Olympics and what a wonderful skate indeed! There were a few bobbles and they still need a bit of work before they can contend for the top position, but still very promising for the future.
Langlois and Archetto: Ugh, I'm afraid last night was not their night--they basically had the same kind of "meltdown" performance they had at 2003 Canadians. But I thought the program itself (to Lawrence Of Arabia) was very well-choreographed (complete with another impressive Morosov-style SBS footwork sequence) and it will be awesome to see once it's skated cleanly--which hopefully we won't have to wait too long to see!
Shen and Zhao: They debuted their new Nutcracker LP (they used the same slow section G&G performed to during the early 90s), but unfortunately, they weren't quite "on" last night, either, and they had a scary-looking fall towards the end of the program during a crossover. But again, this program will be awesome when it's skated cleanly!
Totmianina and Marinin: I don't know if they plan on unveiling a new LP later in the season or keeping last year's LP all year, but either way, I still find these two very boring to watch. This would actually be an exciting LP if it was performed by two skaters who actually knew how to sell a program, but sadly, these two do not. But I have to admit they skated the cleanest program of the night and deserved the gold.
Zagorska and Siudek: They skated to Warsaw Concerto (the same music Takeshi's using for his LP) and although they're not quite up to the level of the two pairs who beat them, they've certainly improved tremendously (especially presentation-wise) since last year!
Final pairs results:
1. Tatiana TOTMIANINA / Maxim MARININ RUS 194,02211
2. Xue SHEN / Hongbo ZHAO CHN 191,80122
3. Dorota ZAGORSKA / Mariusz SIUDEK POL 171,7543
3 Anabelle LANGLOIS / Patrice ARCHETTO CAN 168,9034
4 Elizabeth PUTNAM / Sean WIRTZ CAN 160,4665
5 Julia OBERTAS / Sergei SLAVNOV RUS 155,8457
6 Valerie MARCOUX / Craig BUNTIN CAN 150,2696
7 Yang DING / Zongfei REN CHN 147,0888
8 Kathryn ORSCHER / Garrett LUCASH USA 138,7879
9 Larisa SPIELBERG / Craig JOERIGHT USA 132,2610
Too bad TSN chacked Julia and her new partner and the second Chinese team (who reportely attempted a quad throw during their LP). And too bad the two American teams weren't able to place higher (anyone south of the border want to trade a few of their ladies skaters for a couple of our pairs teams--LOL!)
Re: TSN women's SP broadcast
it was really too bad about the US pairs teams pairs in the states just plain suck. at least we've gotten up there with dance now, so that's cool. but we got spoiled for a while with meno & sand and ina & dunjen/zimmerman... those 3 pairs really kept US pairs on the map. but once meno & sand left no one really stepped up to the plate and challenged kyoko and john - which you think they would have, and if they did i think our pairs program would be in a good state now! but yeah it sucks.
Re: TSN women's SP broadcast Poor Bella and Patch...
still they stayed in the top 4... definately not like last year... but they're gonna rock the rest of the season... they've had their melt down EARLY this year
''I was deep, deep, deep in the rain forest in Spain, and these two old ladies were looking in the souvenir window and they didn't speak a word of English, and they said 'CSI' and pointed at me.''
George Eads
Re: TSN women's SP broadcast
That's an awesome way to look at it Toni!!! It's hopefully out of their systems and now they can rock out at Trophee Lalique and NHK!
Those long program costumes though are absolutely GORGEOUS!!!
9/27/03 ~ Dreams On Ice
10/18/03 ~ THE WEEKEND...Gotta Skate www.meno-sand.net
Saturday night's CTV broadcast...
Highlight's of last night's CTV broadcast:
Annie Bellemare: skated to music called "Un homme et son peche." Tracy said her 3-lutz in the SP received the highest amount of points of any woman in the competition. Even with a couple of mistakes (stumbled on a 3-loop, doubled her second 3-lutz), this was still the best LP I've seen Annie skate in quite some time. She nailed her most difficult jumps (first 3-lutz and 3-flip), did not give up the rest of her program after her first mistake and looked more relaxed than I've seen her on the ice for a very long time. I was a little skeptical about how the move to Joanne McLeod would work for her (mainly because of Joanne's less-than-impressive track record with Sandhu so far), but so far, it seems to work very well for her. It was also nice to see Josée Chouinard give Annie a big hug and sit in the kiss and cry with her and Joanne. I wonder if Josée choreographed this program for Annie (like she did with last year's LP) or was just there to offer Annie some moral support. Either way, it was good to see her!
Joannie Rochette: skated to the same LP last year with a different costume (bright orange dress). I actually mistook her for Jennifer Robinson when CTV first showed her on the ice. Unfortunately, she made more mistakes in this performance than I've seen her do in quite some time. I just hope she won't become yet another Canadian woman who constantly falls apart under pressure because of this one bad skate.
Jennifer Robinson: skated to Prelude to an Afternoon of a Fawn in a light blue, very sparkly dress and this performance was like night and day compared to her SP. A few stumbles, but much better skated than her SP--no two-footed jumps (that I could see, anyway) and no jumping too close to the boards. Good for her!
Sasha Cohen: Swan Lake in the same costume she wore at Skate America and the Campbell's thingy. Stumbled on one jump in the middle of her program, but otherwise very well-skated. She changed her final spin position to a Bielman-type spin instead of the "pull her skate in front of her head" (sorry, I don't know how else to describe it!) spin she usually does at the end of her program and I think the new spin is much better suited to the music. BTW, it's hard to tell who Sasha's biggest fan is: Dick Button or Rod Black!
Yukina Ota: Skated to classical music I couldn't identify. Unfortunately, this wasn't quite as flawless as her SP (stumbled and fell on a few jumps), but still one of the most impressive senior debuts I've seen in a very long time!
Elena Sokolova: Gave basically the same performance as during last month's Campbell's thingy. Sigh, I honestly don't think it's a good idea for her to be back on the ice so soon after knee surgery, but hoping she'll get back to the level we saw at 2003 Worlds soon!
Shizuka Arakawa: Same Turandot program as last year with a new costume (black with a shorter skirt). Landed a 3-lutz 3-toe combination, but stumbled on a few other jumps. Not quite as strong a performance as Skate America (IMO), but deserving of second place nonetheless.
Final ladies results:
1. Sasha COHEN USA 197,6011
2. Shizuka ARAKAWA JPN 182,193
3. Julia SEBESTYEN HUN 165,224
4. Yukina OTA JPN 162,592
5. Jennifer ROBINSON CAN 144,891
6. Annie BELLEMARE CAN 144,0386
7. Alisa DREI FIN 139,1597
8. Tatiana BASOVA RUS 137,656
9. Elena SOKOLOVA RUS 132,6159
10. Joannie ROCHETTE CAN 127,3271
11. Candice DIDIER FRA 116,3711
I would have liked to see the LP that put Julia Sebastyen into third place, but...on to the men's LP.
Fedor Andreev: Skated to Allegro Aolto Moderato and unfortunately, last night was not his night--he finished dead last overall. I thought the program itself was well-choreographed, though, and I can't wait to see it skated cleanly!
Chengjiang Li: I don't know the music, but Brian Orser choreographed the program. Landed a 4-sal early in the program, but missed a lot of easier jumps. I thought this program was better artistically than his SP (but then again, I'm biased towards the choreographer!), but there were a couple of LPs (I'll explain more about those later) I would have rather seen instead.
Takeshi Honda: I love Takeshi, but sorry, I do not think this program works well for him. He tried a quad three times, missed all three attempts (one was turned into a triple, the other two were big falls) and the rest of the program suffered as a result. Takeshi needs to stop taking fashion tips from Alexei Urmanov, too.
Emanuel Sandhu: Sigh, another typical "Emanuel Hyde" performance from him. This is the same LP he skated last year with a new (hideous) bright pink and white shirt. I really wish he'd gotten a new LP this year since I don't think this one highlights the best parts of his skating at all.
Evgeny Plushenko: A new LP to violin music I couldn't identify. While I'm glad he's gotten a new LP, I thought this was basically the same choreography as his old LP set to different music. I can't remember the last time I saw Evgeny make so many mistakes in one program, but it was still good enough to win (which makes me wonder how exciting the men's event is going to be this year if Evgeny can win so easily with a performance like this). Emanuel could have beaten this easily if he'd skated a clean LP--sigh...
Daisuke Takahashi (second Japanese man): His music had to be restarted at the beginning of his program. Fell on his quad and 3-axel attempts, but overall, not too bad for a 17-year-old competing at the senior level for the first time. But again, there were a couple of other programs I would have rather seen instead.
And last, but certainly not least, Jeff Buttle: Wow! This was definitely the performance of the night for me! He fell on his quad again, but nailed absolutely everything else and deservedly won the silver. He got 81 points for his "program components" score--the highest score I think I've seen from any skater so far this season! Jeff was also one of the few skaters (in any discipline) at the event who skated two entirely different programs (this one was a dramatic program to Samson and Delilah--very different from his SP!) I think COP will benefit Jeff very, very much--especially since Tracy said Jeff probably wouldn't even need to land the quad in order to do well (a triple-triple combination would earn him as many points as a quad landing). I wonder if this means Jeff will leave the quad at home for a few competitions--I know he eventually needs to land it in order to be in World contention, but it's hard to watch all these quad falls in his otherwise-awesome programs. Hopefully, one way or the other, we won't have to see too many more of those!
Final men's results:
1. Evgeni PLUSHENKO RUS 233,6511
2. Jeffrey BUTTLECAN 209,6342
3. Takeshi HONDA JPN 207,782
4. Emanuel SANDHU CAN 195,7635
5. Kevin VAN DER PERREN BEL 183,5111
6. Ryan JAHNKE USA 178,9376
7. Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN 178,805
8. Chengjiang LI CHN 173,1368
9. Stanick JEANNETTE FRA 162,4699
10. Stanislav TIMCHENKO RUS 156,4981
11. Fedor ANDREEV CAN 156,001
Grr, I am not impressed CTV chacked Kevin Van Der Perren's and Ryan Jahnke's LPs last night (what did either of these two guys do to TSN/CTV anyway?) Apparently they both skated flawlessly (Kevin placed third in the LP to move up from 10th after the SP to fifth overall). As for Ryan, the only mistake he supposedly made was a hand down on his 3-axel. It definitely sounded like they both skated much better than most of the other guys in last night's competition and I'm crossing my fingers they'll both be included in the ABC broadcast.
"it was really too bad about the US pairs teams pairs in the states just plain suck. at least we've gotten up there with dance now, so that's cool. but we got spoiled for a while with meno & sand and ina & dunjen/zimmerman... those 3 pairs really kept US pairs on the map. but once meno & sand left no one really stepped up to the plate and challenged kyoko and john - which you think they would have, and if they did i think our pairs program would be in a good state now! but yeah it sucks."
All you have to do is change a few names, brenlynn, and you just wrote a perfect description of the state of Canadian ladies skating over the past 10 years! Tracy and Rod actually talked a bit about this during last night's Skate Canada ladies event--they said one of the reasons our ladies don't have the success of say, the Americans or the Russians, is because our ladies don't challenge each other very often in our own backyard and don't compete against each other enough. But hopefully that will change with the performances Annie and Jennifer gave last night. Combine that with Joannie Rochette and a few other young skaters coming up the ranks and hopefully the state of ladies skating in this country will finally improve this year!
They also said our ladies could learn something from Sasha Cohen's competitiveness--um, nothing against Sasha; she's a wonderful skater and she definitely deserved to win last night, but she's certainly made enough mistakes of her own in competition over the past few years that I wouldn't consider her the best example to follow in that respect.
As for US pairs, I've heard plenty of good things about Don and Hunt over the past few months, but unfortunately, they had to pull out of their GP events...hopefully we will get to see them soon, though!
Re: US pairs vs. Canadian ladies
Thanks for all the reviews/commentary, jcspkbfan!! You mentioned on another board that you have a journalism background ... ever tried to submit skating articles/commentary to one of the magazines/webzines? Methinks it would be right up your alley!!
I'm so glad that U.S. skating fans will get to see Jeff's performance. To me, he's the only one of the men who presented a real program, interpreting (joyously, at times) his music. All the other men we saw, including Plushy, looked like they were just trying to get through it!!
So true about the Canadian Ladies. I recall someone (may have been Louis Stong) mentioned in a feature a while back that part of the success of the ladies programs in the States lies in the way triples are taught at many clubs. Girls learn a jump, then learn to double and triple it ... then on to learning the next jump. In Canada, we have traditionally taught all the jumps at once, then go on to teach how to double, and then eventually triple them. Now I saw this feature some time ago, so I don't know if this holds true anymore. I no longer have a club affiliation, so I don't know much about Skate Canada programs anymore.
Re: US pairs vs. Canadian ladies
don and hunt are a wonderful pair. i'd definetly say they are the future of us pairs skating! i saw them on tv at nationals last year, and they were just wonderful! i was really looking forward to seeing them at skate canada as well, but looks like we'll have to wait a few weeks until lalique, where they will be up against our national champions, so hopefully that'll be a look of things to come.
i feel horrible for fedor hopefully he can get his stuff together before nationals, and improve his standing at lalique. although i was really happy to see jen pull up so much, wonderful for her!
indeed many thanks to you, jcspkbfan, for all of the reviews and stuff! since i won't get to see most of those performances on tv!
Re: US pairs vs. Canadian ladies
can I just say that I love Bella and Patch's new short program???? OMG! The footwork section ROCKS!
''I was deep, deep, deep in the rain forest in Spain, and these two old ladies were looking in the souvenir window and they didn't speak a word of English, and they said 'CSI' and pointed at me.''
George Eads
Re: US pairs vs. Canadian ladies
You're welcome! I just wish I could do the same for all the other GP events Canadian TV isn't broadcasting this season.
Jeanine, I'd love to write skating articles/commentary professionally someday, but unfortunately, there's not a lot of skating-related stuff to write about in my area. Hopefully someday, though...
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch all of the dance event because I was switching back and forth between it and ABC's Skate America coverage (I hate it when networks broadcast two separate skating events at the same time!) I was able to see Dubreil and Lauzon's entire FD, though, and I was really glad I did! I haven't been too crazy about any of this team's FDs (most of them had too many lifts/dramatics and not enough footwork, IMO) since "Life Is Beautiful," but I'm thrilled to say that's changed with this year's FD--a hip-hop/tango with lots of footwork while still keeping all their difficult lifts and dramatic style. They fell on one SBS footwork section, but otherwise, a very promising program. I can't wait to see what it will look like without the fall!
I didn't see Galit Chait and her partner's (sorry, I can't even attempt to spell his last name--LOL!) FD, but I've seen photos of their FD costumes and all I can say is :
They definitely win my "worst costume of the year" award so far!
BTW, CTV is showing the Skate Canada gala tonight--and that's it for CTV/TSN skating coverage until 2004 Canadians. Edited by: jcspkbfan at: 11/8/03 4:04 pm
Thoughts from US fans?
I'm just curious about how U.S. fans thought of Skate Canada now that it's finally been shown on both sides of the border.
First of all, I'd like to thank ABC for showing the men's and ladies' bronze medallists CTV chacked. Kevin Van Der Perren's performance certainly lived up to all the hype I've heard for the past one year or so! I don't know what impressed me more: his three triple jump combination or the fact he was able to move up so far without a quad or a 3-axel. I don't think his performance was quite up to the level of Jeff's (as some people on other boards/lists have said) and I noticed he did most of his triples in the first half of his program, but I definitely hope we'll get to see much more of him in the future!
As for Julia Sebastyen, am I the only one who thinks she's a dead ringer for Irina Slutskaya? Same high jumps, same Biellman spins, even the same haircut (well, before Irina grew hers out last year, anyway!)
poor fedor 
I loved it!!!
at Tatiana Navka's costume:
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