- Joined
- Jun 3, 2009
Aka: It’s a Mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world
Aka: A Tale of Two Cities
Aka: A whimper, not a bang
Okay, enough with the mediocre-to-bad puns, but I think it conveys the sheer level of chaos that we see in the men’s scene. Whatever you feel about the results of the Olympics, the level of skating wasn’t the highest. If we were to take the top performances from ALL these men, I daresay 90% of them would find stronger ones elsewhere in the previous season or two. Hell, three of the top five didn’t actually compete in the season immediately prior to the Olympics! That’s the whimper.
1. The Madness
How many skaters, if they skate their best could be on the podium? Being conservative, I see Chan, Joubert, Takahashi, Brezina, Abbott, Kozuka, and Verner as contenders. Then you have Rippon, Contesti, Oda as possibilities too. Then you have longshots who if they skate their absolute best and others falter (Reynolds, van der Perren, etc).
This field is nuts.
2. The Vs – Verner and Voronov
Don’t you feel bad for Voronov? He’s 19th in 2007, but climbs up to the top ten in 2008 with the 4th ranked long program. He falls out in 2009, but only by three points (plus, his ranking is good enough for two spots, w/ Lutai). He earns his a GP medal with a personal best, comes in second behind Plushenko at his nationals, and seems like a good bet for the Olympics. A bad result at Euros carpet bombs that (and Piseev was pretty open about the reasons too). A fluke at Worlds forces the hopes for two spots onto Voronov after not even being on the team (though realistically, we all knew Plushenko wasn’t going to Turin), and he doesn’t deliver.
Meanwhile, you wonder how many shots Verner has left. He’s now finished behind his countryman Brezina in three consecutive events. While that result hasn’t hurt Oda in comparison to Kozuka (finishing behind Kozuka @ 4CC 2009 and Worlds 2009 and 2010 for that matter, but Oda still seems ranked ahead nationally), Voronov’s inconsistency is near legendary now (he has the dubious distinction of biggest gap between short and long program placements at Worlds: 16). Brezina seems to have a mental toughness Verner lacks and was good enough on his own to keep two spots (as well as match Verner’s best Worlds result his first time at bat). I do hope Verner figures something out, but it does seem like it’d be too late to make the impact someone of his talent should have.
3. The number three spot: Canada, US and Japan... who does it go to?
I’m presuming for Japan it’ll be the same three, but for Canada and the USA? Wide open. Presuming Wier doesn’t compete, of course. The thing is I don’t even think Rippon is locked into the second slot – say Mroz and Carriere fluke into beating him at Nationals – I don’t think USFSA does anything other than go by Nationals and we saw last year that they’re not gonna try and force someone into the slot they didn’t earn due to reputation (pairs)
And Canada? Chipeur’s out otherwise I think it’d be him. Chan and Reynolds are about as locked in as they can be (barring injury). Ten is super inconsistent, Russell is very green, and Sawyer? One good result last season in a bizarre field brought up hopes, didn’t they? But they remain hopes. Maybe one of the younger Canadians will sneak through (I’m thinking Balde in particular). A team of Chan, Reynolds and Sawyer might be the most purely interesting world team Canada could put together.
4. The European “Middle-men” – who breaks through?
Brezina broke through last season, make no mistake. As did Rippon (to a lesser extent). But how about the rest? Borodulin, Amodio and Fernandez are the three I think of, but Paolo Bacchini is rather engaging, Schultheiss dementedly inspired (at times). Right now, of the six, I’d give credit to Fernandez being the one to sneak through next season, but ask me tomorrow and I might say Borodulin. Or Amodio.
Aka: A Tale of Two Cities
Aka: A whimper, not a bang
Okay, enough with the mediocre-to-bad puns, but I think it conveys the sheer level of chaos that we see in the men’s scene. Whatever you feel about the results of the Olympics, the level of skating wasn’t the highest. If we were to take the top performances from ALL these men, I daresay 90% of them would find stronger ones elsewhere in the previous season or two. Hell, three of the top five didn’t actually compete in the season immediately prior to the Olympics! That’s the whimper.
1. The Madness
How many skaters, if they skate their best could be on the podium? Being conservative, I see Chan, Joubert, Takahashi, Brezina, Abbott, Kozuka, and Verner as contenders. Then you have Rippon, Contesti, Oda as possibilities too. Then you have longshots who if they skate their absolute best and others falter (Reynolds, van der Perren, etc).
This field is nuts.
2. The Vs – Verner and Voronov
Don’t you feel bad for Voronov? He’s 19th in 2007, but climbs up to the top ten in 2008 with the 4th ranked long program. He falls out in 2009, but only by three points (plus, his ranking is good enough for two spots, w/ Lutai). He earns his a GP medal with a personal best, comes in second behind Plushenko at his nationals, and seems like a good bet for the Olympics. A bad result at Euros carpet bombs that (and Piseev was pretty open about the reasons too). A fluke at Worlds forces the hopes for two spots onto Voronov after not even being on the team (though realistically, we all knew Plushenko wasn’t going to Turin), and he doesn’t deliver.
Meanwhile, you wonder how many shots Verner has left. He’s now finished behind his countryman Brezina in three consecutive events. While that result hasn’t hurt Oda in comparison to Kozuka (finishing behind Kozuka @ 4CC 2009 and Worlds 2009 and 2010 for that matter, but Oda still seems ranked ahead nationally), Voronov’s inconsistency is near legendary now (he has the dubious distinction of biggest gap between short and long program placements at Worlds: 16). Brezina seems to have a mental toughness Verner lacks and was good enough on his own to keep two spots (as well as match Verner’s best Worlds result his first time at bat). I do hope Verner figures something out, but it does seem like it’d be too late to make the impact someone of his talent should have.
3. The number three spot: Canada, US and Japan... who does it go to?
I’m presuming for Japan it’ll be the same three, but for Canada and the USA? Wide open. Presuming Wier doesn’t compete, of course. The thing is I don’t even think Rippon is locked into the second slot – say Mroz and Carriere fluke into beating him at Nationals – I don’t think USFSA does anything other than go by Nationals and we saw last year that they’re not gonna try and force someone into the slot they didn’t earn due to reputation (pairs)
And Canada? Chipeur’s out otherwise I think it’d be him. Chan and Reynolds are about as locked in as they can be (barring injury). Ten is super inconsistent, Russell is very green, and Sawyer? One good result last season in a bizarre field brought up hopes, didn’t they? But they remain hopes. Maybe one of the younger Canadians will sneak through (I’m thinking Balde in particular). A team of Chan, Reynolds and Sawyer might be the most purely interesting world team Canada could put together.
4. The European “Middle-men” – who breaks through?
Brezina broke through last season, make no mistake. As did Rippon (to a lesser extent). But how about the rest? Borodulin, Amodio and Fernandez are the three I think of, but Paolo Bacchini is rather engaging, Schultheiss dementedly inspired (at times). Right now, of the six, I’d give credit to Fernandez being the one to sneak through next season, but ask me tomorrow and I might say Borodulin. Or Amodio.