Figure Skating Thread (Olympic Spoilers/Discussion starting at post #16)

[Doug1233]

I don’t think Kamila is the only Eteri athlete to have taken them)

They were all on them. The faux relief at the podium being clean is hilarious.

 

[Seyonne]

Trusova seemed fine sitting in second with Valieva yet to skate. I think seeing Valieva’s disastrous skate made her realize ‘Crap, I could have won this!’

 

[KristyJ]

I can’t help but wonder if her own emotions were compounded by seeing Kamila’s heartbreak. Apparently she also said, “I can’t see this, I won’t see this!” All of the emotions together could lead to what was formerly held in just breaking loose.

 

[makam]

Yes, this! There was a similar disparity in Plushenko (or however it is spelled these days)'s last skate. Like one judge was giving 6s and another was giving 9s. How is that not immediately a red flag on the score?

Just watched Trusova’s LP on NBC and she had 0 ice presence until the jumps were over. Then she actually started emoting a bit and putting some flare into it. In the past, that hyper-focus on jumps would keep you out of the medals, no matter how awesome (and they were awesome) your jumps were.

 

[RedBirdie]

The RUS and AZB judges were ~very mysteriously~ in lockstep on the top skaters. And curiously, the NED judge almost always had scores that swung in the other direction.

I do love the scoring detail we get from FS. Too bad it isn’t ever used by the ISU to actually make judges judge according to the damn rules.

 

[rlayt]

We’re there any happy tears from anyone? All I’ve seen is the Russian drama. Were there people to cheer for the Japanese medalist?

 

[Doug1233]

~very mysteriously~

Such a mystery!!!

 

[Doug1233]

Damn some of those Russian newspaper headlines today are disgusting.

 

[Doug1233]

Apparently Trusova was calling Eteri a *****

 

[cats]

Well, someone had to.

 

[tsarinajen]

I didn’t watch the broadcast. I streamed some of it this morning and caught various clips via Instagram. I feared Kamila would have a meltdown and I didn’t want to see it.

Some things for me stood out.

1. The Media. They’re trashy in this. Apparently Trusova had asked them to leave her be and they didn’t when she was having her nervous breakdown. Frankly, I think that’s the only way to describe that. She needed space and they wouldn’t give her that.
   And Valieva. Regardless of the outcome of her doping case, I feel they were just begging to see her have a breakdown. I hope the media outlets are happy with that.
2. Was there not a backstage area for them to collect themselves? We shouldn’t have had to witness Trusova’s meltdown. I feel like in past Olympics there was somewhere she could have gone to have her ugly cry and scream and come back out. Based on her statements later, she hasn’t won anything as a senior, all her major teammates have, and she really thought if she did her 5 quads, she’d win.
3. The woman hugging Valieva was a Russian journalist. I don’t remember her name though.
4. Valieva said after her scores came up something along the lines of at least now they’ll have a medal ceremony.
5. Reform needed. They are talking of raising the age to 17 for the next Olympics. We’ll see if it helps, but to be clear Scherbakova and Trusova would still have be eligible. It’ll be interesting if they try to balance the Technical and PCS scores. Right now they’re capped at 80 on PCS, Trusova was well over 100 in the technical score today.
6. The doping saga. Not to bring Raducan into this but in her book she said they knew before beam and floor she had tested positive and she still competed, so technically it’s not unheard of to allow Valieva to compete. I’m surprised we’re hearing so many bits and pieces since she’s supposed to be a protected person. I’ll follow the CAS case as it continues to develop, but I’ll say I won’t be surprised if she keeps the team gold.

Edit to add. If she’s suspended a six week suspension clears her for the Olympics.

 

[Doug1233]

[No message]

 

[onodian]

Although i will say, the ned judge giving +1 to both trusovas 4f and 2a+3t, i also don’t understand

 

[alc]

Raising the age limit would be window dressing for the doping problem the way IJS was window dressing for the score politicking problem. It’s hard to imagine that it would motivate Russia to keep skaters around past puberty, as opposed to finding ways to delay puberty further.

It’s also hard to imagine that Shcherbakova and Trusova are “clean.” No, we don’t know, but what we do know about Russia and Sambo 70 certainly doesn’t look good.

Those two looked so miserable during the NBC broadcast.

Experience: I took hormone-blockers to become an ice-skating champion | Life and style | The Guardian

When my body started to change, I was advised to take medication to stop it. The drugs backfired – I gained 36kg in six months

amp.theguardian.com

 

[irichluck21]

Gymtruthteller is a fan of conspiracy theories and has a lot of out there FACTS.

Fixed for you.
They aren’t GTT opinions they are FACT.
Don’t disagree or correct misinformation, you just get blocked.

LMAO.

I corrected misinformation probably 4 times before I was finally blocked from submitting comments.

 

[makam]

Oh dear, I completely forgot about Yulia because she also basically disappeared (eating disorder, right? poor girl.). That was about when I stopped following figure skating (and it wasn’t just the scoring issues, but with the streaming i have, it is difficult to watch NBC and I wasn’t going to pay for the pass they offered).

I liked the comments by the Russian Olympic Committee prez about how they would keep the medals no matter what the outcome of the investigation. Because, like, isn’t the whole point that they haven’t been given out? I think I read somewhere that they were giving the teams relay torches for now. But either way, I’m sold, cancel the investigation, the Russians win, they’re keeping the medals, the end.

(My favorite skating blog was Aunt Joyce’s Ice Cream (?) Stand. And there was one blog where the person was absolutely, completely nuts and was convinced that Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir had like 3 children that they kept locked away in a basement somewhere. I assume that person is now one of the leading lights of the Q-Anon phenomenon because the delusions were grand and unhinged.)

 

[Bob]

Do you think she was told to throw the routine in order to safeguard the other Russian medals and to take her out of the limelight?

 

[MaryClare]

No. Russia wanted her front and centre of a medal-less 1-2-3.

 

[irichluck21]

Do you think she was told to throw the routine in order to safeguard the other Russian medals and to take her out of the limelight?

No. Why do the short program as well as she did to land in first.
Also why risk getting injured by intentionally falling or crashing a quad.
She was under intense pressure and scrutiny and stress all of which effected her focus and concentration. Quads need complete focus and concentration to land.
IMO, after putting her hands down after the first jump she began to panic because she was expected to win gold and now it was likely going to her teammate. Obviously flustered, she continued with her program the best she could to try to medal but by that point it was too late. She only lost the bronze medal by just barely over 9 points. Take away just one of those major errors and she’s back in the medals.

I agree with Mary Clare, Russia wanted the 1-2-3 podium.

 

[irichluck21]

I also see people questioning if she purposefully threw the free skate stating that she always landed the quads before and did so in the team event.

However, what was missing before was the amount of pressure and anxiety surrounding the drug controversy, which was literally what everyone around the world was discussing and debating. I am sure it got back to her.