World 2008 Göteborg

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SkateSand		#21	[-]
Posts: 45407 (03/22/08 9:15 AM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Well, I haven't watched any video of the men's final results yet nor read any of the play-by-plays online (just got up, LOL), but just looking at the scores and results one can come to some conclusions, LOL: http://static.sportresult.com/sports/figureskating/live/results/wc2008/CAT001RS.HTM First of all, it's nice to see Jeff Buttle win his first world title. No one has mastered COP like he has, and it's about time all that hard work paid off, LOL...he's a wonderfully musical skater, his programs are exceptionally choreographed, and he performs them like he believes in them. He can often put a spell on me while he skates - that's my highest praise! Congrats to Brian for silver - it has to have been a very demoralizing season for him with all of his health problems - so it's great that at least he can finish the season on a high note. And good for Johnny for making the Worlds podium. Not only does he now have some Worlds hardware to go with his talent, but he helped get us three men for Worlds next year! Good job! Which I'm attending live in case I haven't mentioned already fifty million times, LOL. So we have three for dance and three for men. The only totally weird anomaly is we have only two ladies for next year. Who ever would have thought that in ladies skating, in which for eons we've had some of the strongest, most talented ladies the world has ever seen, we'd only have two for Worlds in our own country. (sniff) And what the heck happened to Takahashi and Tomas?! For most of the season, I expected to see Takahashi with Worlds gold, and Tomas Verner has been so strong - he must have really crashed in the free skate. Now I'm off to search for video and prepare for an afternoon of Worlds skating on ABC. Laurie (edited for stupid spelling mistake) Last Edited By: SkateSand 03/22/08 9:36 AM. Edited 1 times.
Tallinlanna		#22	[-]
Posts: 5691 (03/22/08 11:16 AM) Maniac Translator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Worlds turned out to be such a great event. Swedish public was amazing, they created such a great atmosphere - I imagine being there in person must have been beyond fantastic! I was happy with all the winners - up until today. Gosh, the men's event was so fabulous, I basically jumped out of my skin for Johnny and Brian today! And then... Jeffrey Buttle comes out and skates a clean program which gains zero emotion from me, and becomes a champion. Here we go, the best skater in the world didn't do a quad jump, not in the SP, not in the FP. I understand the importance of spins, transitions, choreo, etc., but the World Champion without a quad just sounds wrong to me. It makes me feel like Alexei and some other guys who brought the level of men's skating to the highest point and sacrificed their health for it, did it in vain... Blah, I am not happy at all. To me, the champion's skate today came from Brian Joubert. To hell with mathematics, that's how I feel. Tanya
SkateSand		#23	[-]
Posts: 45408 (03/22/08 11:36 AM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I haven't seen any of the men's long programs yet - right now they are only showing the men's short programs on TV here - I'll probably have more to say after I've actually seen them, LOL... Well, my personal favorite of all the men competing at the eligible level these days is Stephane Lambiel, who definitely has a quad albeit it's not always clean lately, but I guess he didn't do so well here. Hopefully, he focuses himself a little bit more next season and can get his triple axel back, too. I agree the men's champion should have a quad and a triple axel, but your own results are often dependent on how the other guys do too, and the scores from the short program. You can lose the gold just by not skating clean in the short. Laurie
figuristka		#24	[-]
Posts: 5366 (03/22/08 1:59 PM) Ice Dancer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Thank goodness for Turkish online tv or else i wouldnt have been able to watch live. Only recently here in Finland they changed over to digital for the tv and now you need to get a box. We had not gotten one. My husband ordered something to enable us to watch tv on the pc but it had not arrived either. -i was thrilled to see Jeffrey buttle win. Ive always loved his skating but i doubted even after the short he would be able to get the gold. I just expected that with no quad and a difficult year it would be next to impossible, though i did think a medal was highly possible. It is a shame both Lambiel and Takahashi, two skaters i also love to watch did not skate their best. Iam glad Weir held on for a medal, though ive seen him skate better, and when Joubert skated i thought he would win. His skating is so exciting, he just skates with so much drive and intensity its amazing. I love his fire. Buttle´s skating is less intense but he skates so seamless over the ice, and his program was beautiful. The program is inspiring. Iam very happy for him.
SkateSand		#25	[-]
Posts: 45409 (03/22/08 2:17 PM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	White Crow is currently uploading the men's long program videos to youtube - here is what she has up so far (there's more of the earlier skaters, but these are the guys I picked to start with, LOL). And a million thanks to her for uploading each skater's program from Worlds! Men's free skates: Zelenka http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEEjBhmiVcY Abbott http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC1YsY_1B7w Berntsson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_h_LH0zqL0 Davydov http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpIQX2Y50do Van der Perren http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfHIXaZPXKA I'll post more as she gets them done. After watching the ladies' free skates on ABC today, I'm stunned by the ladies' results. Stunned! Yakano was soooo robbed! There should have been a podium finish for her in any fair and correctly judged universe (and I hate the leg wrap, too, but c'mon - 4th?!). Politiks! Here are youtube vids of the top four ladies' final results: Asada http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DCeZ4c9sJ4 Kostner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H4lWSHuhU8 Kim http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaTdrjx4gVQ Nakano http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQDP23YMXxc Laurie
SkateSand		#26	[-]
Posts: 45410 (03/22/08 2:36 PM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Sergei Voronov free skate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEg4jmBTxlo Very, very impressive! So much poise for his first trip to Worlds! So solid and secure out there - he just needs a little bit more sophisticated choreography, and to sell his program a little bit more, and he's well on his way. Or even well on his way without it, LOL... Edited to add - that would be second trip to Worlds, LOL - (I'm losing my mind as well as my typing skills, apparently ) Laurie Last Edited By: SkateSand 03/22/08 2:51 PM. Edited 1 times.
ans01		#27	[-]
Posts: 349 (03/22/08 4:07 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Well, unlike Tanya (hello Tanya!), I am one who is very glad that a true artist won. Congratulations to Jeff Buttle for putting out two outstanding performances back to back and a very-well-deserved gold medal! Brian Joubert's performance certainly was good and solid (much better than last year's LP that brought him a gold medal) but Jeff's skate was brilliant , with many difficult elements that, in my opinion, can make up for any quad! Interestingly, he won both the SP and LP on TES and his gold by a great margin! He proved that there are other ways to be a champion than having a quad: a complete package, a good use of COP with difficult elements performed at top level and great musicality can do it! I truly enjoyed his performance today. Kudos to Johnny for his bronze medal and finishing off a good season with a long-coming world medal. I hope it encourages him to work even harder to enable him to deliver his performances with the emotions and expressiveness he had in the past. To me, his interpretations this season have become 'stiff' and have lost all their sparkles. Is it the price to pay to be clean and land a quad? I am sad for DaisukeTakahashi who, after such a fantastic season, was not able to show his best at worlds and missed the podium and I too feel bad for Tomas Verner , the Euro champion, who completely bombed his LP exactly like he did earlier this season at TEB, a melt-down under the pressure that should bring him back just stronger. Anne (from Paris)
SkateSand		#28	[-]
Posts: 45412 (03/22/08 7:41 PM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Still missing Jeff's, but the rest are up: Chan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAZfCdzplhE Kozuka http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvt_GAsI0-g Verner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boK4IB38N1Y Weir http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHCs1uknhFo Takahashi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFv2SRU8vIc Lambiel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmMFB5ew5Fc Joubert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbUhaV3YuM8 Laurie
SkateSand		#29	[-]
Posts: 45413 (03/22/08 7:50 PM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	...and here's Jeff's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=045HRUUWaXw Laurie
SkateSand		#30	[-]
Posts: 45414 (03/22/08 9:29 PM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Well, I watched the clips of all the top guys. I have my own impressions just from the little clips - looking forward to seeing hopefully most of these tomorrow, TV screen size. I have no quibble with the top placements. I thought Jeff won this going away. He started off with a bang, and just kept getting stronger as the program progressed. See, it's all these hours and hours he has of skating his programs with 100% feeling, regardless of how his jumps are going. So when his jumps are with him and he completes everything he tries for, the program is unbeatable. Glad to see he's knocked off that quad/fall business - he really doesn't need it. He can win just fine without it. I thought Brian was great. I love his power and his lack of nerves and his beautiful, gorgeous jumps. The music is fine and powerful - just his style. I didn't like the choreography. There were too many times when I found myself asking, "What is he doing here? Why that?" You can't have too many moments like that when you've got Takahashi and Lambiel's choreography out there, where every moment counts and is wonderfully interesting. In this case, he didn't have to worry about them, but he did have to worry about Jeff, where every moment counts times ten. I thought Johnny did very well. It was a conservative skate, but with many of the other top guys imploding, it was a very smart skate, and beautiful. He stayed on his feet, he stuck to his game plan, and I think he has a lot to be proud of. I'd like to see him perform with a little more freedom, not quite so tight, but, hey, this is Worlds, and he had many, many American hopes riding on his back. His short program was exquisite. Lambiel - oh, my gosh. Disaster. And did he look grim afterwards. And this time he didn't pour his heart into the program after his jumps went asunder. I think he let the way his skate was going affect his presentation too much, and he couldn't save it. I think he needs work harder. He's brilliantly talented - I think the most naturally talented of the lot - but he's got to train consistently and stay focused. Takahashi - man, this was a surprise! I really expected him to walk away with a World title. I guess the pressure got to him a little bit, or maybe he just peaked too soon. I always worry when they are too good too early in the season. Burned himself out a little bit, maybe. Laurie
AKYfan		#31	[-]
Posts: 2213 (03/23/08 12:36 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Did they ever explain why Brian got a music deduction in the short program? Jane
Blue Bead		#32	[-]
Posts: 739 (03/23/08 7:45 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	While I haven't seen any of the broadcast coverage, I have seen Brian's SP on YouTube; I'm assuming his LP is there as well. I think the reason his LP seemed so lackluster to most people is that he and his coach re-tooled it for World's. According to posts at BJDG his coach lightened Brian's skating difficulty to compensate for health problems Brian has been dealing with since Europeans. The choreography was changed but the jumps are, largely the same, just placed differently in the program. The vocal deduction was for supposedly recognizable foreign language words in the music selection. Why on earth this would be a major problem now is beyond me. It is my understanding that Brian and his coach asked the ISU if this particular piece of music was within accepted boundaries for the competitions, and it was cleared before the start of the 2007-2008 season. He's used that music all year...at Skate America, etc, and at Europeans. Now the technical caller decides it's a problem because "someone" (judge or otherwise recognized the foreign wording) and, then, when a protest was entered by Brian's coach against the decision, the judge arbitrator denied the protest, claiming that nothing could be done about the one point deduction. Since when is it okay to allow such music to stand for earlier competitions judged under the same ISU rules, but when it's World's it's all suddenly different, even though it's still the judged under those same ISU rules? Grrrrr. And the ISU wonders why the fans get upset with CoP and the ISU in general. This is the perfect example. Mary C.
AKYfan		#33	[-]
Posts: 2214 (03/23/08 8:45 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Thank you for the explanation, Mary. Jane
SkateSand		#34	[-]
Posts: 45417 (03/23/08 8:51 AM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	As I recall, Michelle got a time deduction once when she had been over the time all season, but nobody decided to call it until Worlds. I guess it goes to show that you can't assume anything - just like the levels, where the exact same thing you've been doing all season can range from Level 2 to Level 4 from competition to competition, just entirely being decided by the technical caller. This is one of my pet peeves about CoP, LOL. However, the margin of difference in the scores between first and second means to me that someone would have had to have the skate of their life to beat Jeff. Jeff's not only a brilliant skater, he and his team truly understand CoP and what you can do to maximize points - and what you can't do which will waste moves that will not be counted due to some stupid rule, LOL. He never makes a dumb CoP mistake - he never loses his head during the competition to throw in unnecessary moves, thinking it will help with points when it actually hurts. Of course, one can never know how the short program results, if changed, would have changed the long program performances. We'll never know that if Brian hadn't been sixth in the short would he have done anything differently in the long the next day. That's why all fan speculation on "what ifs" are pretty much useless, LOL... Mary, I posted the long program youtube videos yesterday on the previous page, including Brian's. (Many thanks to White Crow!) I think Brian's biggest mistake was to simply underestimate Jeff, who followed him in program order. Brian dumbed down his own program deliberately, thinking he didn't need everything in his arsenal because his competitors were imploding right and left, and forgot about Jeff. He probably won't make that mistake again. Every competition is a learning experience, LOL. Laurie
SkateSand		#35	[-]
Posts: 45422 (03/23/08 12:53 PM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Is there anything more pathetic than a figure skating fan, watching the waning minutes of basketball/golf/football, knowing that every additional second they are showing this event is one less additional second we are going to get to see of the skating, LOL? Laurie (sadly wondering which men's free skate performance is getting chacked because of the basketball still on - sigh!)
SkateSand		#36	[-]
Posts: 45423 (03/23/08 3:14 PM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Well, that was a blast! I'm sure sorry they didn't show us Carriere or Voronov, but surprised they showed as much of the men as they did. It's so much better to see this "large," LOL. You can really feel the intensity of the performances so much better. I ended up being even more impressed with Weir and Joubert's performances. Johnny - I felt myself parroting Dick Button's "Good boy!" when he hit the triple axel combination.... (of course, I find myself echoing Dick's comments a lot, LOL - force of habit, LOL) You could see how nervous Johnny was before he skated. I'm just still so proud of how he hung in there and fought for everything, knowing he had to be clean. Yeah, he was cautious and missed some jump opportunities to add extra points, but so what, LOL. He's getting there. Brian - whoa! What power, what intensity, it just never dropped. Just skated all out all the way. Really, his only mistake was not thinking he needed another quad. You knew when he was finished he thought he'd won, the crowd thought he'd won, and the commentators thought he had won, LOL...I laughed out loud when Jeffrey was finished, and Dick said "Well, he's not going to beat Joubert" or something like that. Wrong, Dick! Jeff - I went over to the TV and turned up the volume and just sat back to thoroughly enjoy what I already knew would be a masterful, seamless, beautiful performance. And it was. So sorry about Tomas. So sad to see him so down. Daisuke was better than I remembered from the youtube video. Not totally clean, but some dumb CoP mistakes made in his excitement, and lost it that way. Stephane was better than I remembered from the youtube video. The beauty of his dance came through so much better on the large screen. Aiiii - but the jumps! So not there. He still fought all the way, though. On a different day with different competitors' performances, he might have finished higher just on his mesmerizing moves alone. Can't take my eyes off of him. I've been amused by all the friends I've seen on TV - both today and in youtube videos, LOL. Next year I'll be there! Laurie
SkateSand		#37	[-]
Posts: 45425 (03/23/08 10:41 PM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	You tube videos of some of the exhibition performances are up now: Exhibitions Opening http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtQVgAe1evM Yu-Na Kim http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee8hZNCwGkc Joannie Rochette http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-IChB17gyI Brian Joubert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j42XmPwwF-k Stephane Lambiel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYRUbXFh60Y Dube & Davison http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtriX1IRCe4 Virtue & Moir http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ua3NKsdtUs Khokhlova & Novitski http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeBojsFn6d0 Exhibitions Finale http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kr59kNoSqk Laurie
SkateSand		#38	[-]
Posts: 45426 (03/23/08 10:56 PM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	...and here are a few more exhibition performances: Johnny Weir http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=camrjQf9xUc Jeff Buttle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMoh7W7Xj-g Mao Asada http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwM-TQlqihI Daisuke Takahashi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwJdrkcqp1I Laurie
SkateSand		#39	[-]
Posts: 45427 (03/24/08 6:13 AM) Fearless Leader Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	...and yet more... Nakano http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiftnyrXmVQ Belbin & Agosto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdz8q0YLcpw Faiella & Scali http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAQ0E4js5U Kawaguchi & Smirnov http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tinqg9tEUDM Pang & Tong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4JVccwWQXI Laurie
jenny daly		#40	[-]
Posts: 518 (03/24/08 10:07 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I for one loved the fact that Worlds were on at a reasonable time this year. Can't be doing with these different time zones! As far as the men go, I loved Brian's LP, especially after the terrible season he's had, but head had to rule the heart because Jeffrey was fantastic - and I wouldn't be the biggest Buttle fan there is so that is very gracious of me! Even though ice dance would probably be my favourite discipline this was the first Worlds in ages that I actually found it to be the most entertaining of all the events. Pretty much the entire top 10 impressed me - even couples that I've traditionally not had much time for. I absolutely loved Pechalat and Bourzat's FD. The music was a bit weird but it worked so well with what they did.

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