4 "Unexpected"/"Atypical" World Champions

CanadianSkaterGuy · Mar 29, 2015

Now that Worlds is done, I wanna say, I'm really pleasantly surprised at the winners this year.

Liza Tuktamysheva - people wrote her off at the beginning of the season, and she takes the GPF, Euros, and Worlds, including a surprise 3A in the SP

Duhamel/Radford - it's not often that a "non-classical" pair wins Worlds thanks to sheer difficulty

Papadakis/Cizeron - obviously a jump from 13th to 1st in one season is unheard of in ice dance (let alone most disciplines)... and it's not often that a pair wins Worlds with pure, clean programs... usually it's dramatic, high-octane programs that win

Javier Fernandez - probably the least "unexpected" winner if people made predictions at the beginning of the season, but I think a lot of people wondered if he would ever get it together at Worlds, and a clean SP and just a single fall in his FS (that still had two quads and a 3A) is some of his best skating

Rissa · Mar 29, 2015

People might not have predicted them back before the season started, but to be really surprising/unexpected, they'd have to be so at the end of the season. Only Papadakis/Cizeron, I think, came across so, because despite good season other pairs had better odds in most people's heads.

Better question would be, who had unexpectedly good season. Tuk and Paoadakis/Cizeron certainly.

Mathman · Mar 29, 2015

CanadianSkaterGuy said:
Liza Tuktamysheva - people wrote her off at the beginning of the season, and she takes the GPF, Euros, and Worlds, including a surprise 3A in the SP.

Here is what I think is cool. Four years ago Adelina Sotnikova and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva burst onto the scene as the new Russian wunderkinder who would dominate everything for four years and win the Olympics. By the next year they were both written off as dreadful and here came the even younger crop, led by Julia Lipnitshia, who were going to dominate for three years and win everything. But three years later, -- boom -- our first guess was right after all. Sotnikova won a nail-biter at the Olympics and Tuktamysheva swept all before her at the subsequent worlds.

That's why Lipnitskia is going to regroup and win the next Olympics.

Skater Boy · Mar 29, 2015

I just don't understand why there is so much hate to Duhamel and Radford. They aren't your typical team but they at least had something that stood out - extreme technical difficulty. Other teams have been mediocre - seen some Russian pairs teams which were rather blah win world's in the past. As I have pointed out there have been other power teams whose artistry was appreciated ie Valova and Vasiliev or Rodina and Zaitzev. Remember a Russian lady by the name Maria Butyrskaya - she was written off by the world and a basket case, has been, not able to do it when it counted and over the hill and she won the world's in 1999 against all odds - and She WON world's she clearly beat Michelle Kwan much to everyone's surprise including mine. Dance is rather weak now. Kind of like after 2006 when the Bulgarians got a bit lucky and won 2 world gold (probably Dubreil and Lauzon should have had one. Now we have the Italians and French - neither really all that deserving of a world title when you consider Belbin and Agosto and Dubreil and Lauzon don't have one. I would love to see July Lip come back fiercely as well as Rad - I wonder if she has stopped growing. Add to those coing back with Katelyn Osmond - two years of injury such frustration undoubtedly.

peg · Mar 29, 2015

Skater Boy said:
Dance is rather weak now. Kind of like after 2006 when the Bulgarians got a bit lucky and won 2 world gold (probably Dubreil and Lauzon should have had one. Now we have the Italians and French - neither really all that deserving of a world title when you consider Belbin and Agosto and Dubreil and Lauzon don't have one.

I think part of the Canadian curse is to win silvers, and then go on to coach others to gold. Orser with Olympics... now D/L with Worlds...

Becki · Mar 29, 2015

I was thinking the same! On my way home today, I was thinking the 4 world champions this year had quite a long and winding road to success (yes - even P/C).

noskates · Mar 29, 2015

I think all the winners were great!!! Duhamel and Radford aren't my typical favorites but they absolutely deserved to win and I'm happy for them. Mostly I'm pleased for Javi. I think he is SOOOO much better than Hanyu on so many levels and it's nice to see he finally got it together. He has the entire package - athleticism, charisma, techinical.....

alia jackson · Mar 29, 2015

I don't understand why some people have to bring down skaters that they hate when talking about other skater :disapp:

WeakAnkles · Mar 29, 2015

Well, it was an extremely weak year for Ice Dance. Which is not to say P/C don't deserve their success, but they had a unique opportunity and took full advantage of it.

CanadianSkaterGuy · Mar 30, 2015

Mathman said:
Here is what I think is cool. Four years ago Adelina Sotnikova and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva burst onto the scene as the new Russian wunderkinder who would dominate everything for four years and win the Olympics. By the next year they were both written off as dreadful and here came the even younger crop, led by Julia Lipnitshia, who were going to dominate for three years and win everything. But three years later, -- boom -- our first guess was right after all. Sotnikova won a nail-biter at the Olympics and Tuktamysheva swept all before her at the subsequent worlds.

That's why Lipnitskia is going to regroup and win the next Olympics.

Haha, really good point.

Yeah, it's weird when people "write off" skaters... figure skating fans can be so darn fickle. Kostner, Wagner, Tuktamysheva, Sotnikova... there have been a lot of skaters who proved the haters wrong. LOL at the people saying Julia's done just because she had a bad post-Olympics season (you know, because no skater has ever had that!).

I hope a lot of skaters draw inspiration from Liza... Tuktamysheva has proven that a comeback doesn't have to be about getting back to the level you were, but actually surpassing that and pushing yourself further.

Sandpiper · Mar 30, 2015

It's interesting how Liza and Javi were both unexpected, but in opposite ways.

Coming into this season, Liza looked like she'd struggle to medal at GPs/make it out of Russian Nationals. By the time Worlds rolled around, she was a favourite for the title and no one was surprised by her win.

Javi, at the start of the year, would've been considered the strongest WC contender of the four (compared to Liza, D/R, and P/C). But after losing Skate Canada to Mura, winning CoR but not with clean performances, a bad SP and "just okay" LP at GPF, then a borderline meltdown at Europeans (still won by a big margin)... people started wondering if he'd ever have the focus to win Worlds. Surprisingly, he saved his best for last and gave the cleanest performances among the men, leading to his win. Can we say he out-Denis-Ten'ed Denis Ten?

peg · Mar 31, 2015

Sandpiper said:
Ian we say he out-Denis-Ten'ed Denis Ten?

drivingmissdaisy · Mar 31, 2015

CanadianSkaterGuy said:
Haha, really good point. Yeah, it's weird when people "write off" skaters... figure skating fans can be so darn fickle. Kostner, Wagner, Tuktamysheva, Sotnikova... there have been a lot of skaters who proved the haters wrong. LOL at the people saying Julia's done just because she had a bad post-Olympics season (you know, because no skater has ever had that!).

I hope a lot of skaters draw inspiration from Liza... Tuktamysheva has proven that a comeback doesn't have to be about getting back to the level you were, but actually surpassing that and pushing yourself further.

With Julia, I feel it's a bit different than the others because her technique on the jumps is going to have to be altered very drastically. She gets the rotation but she is rotating until her toe hits the ice, so with any sort of growth she will rotate slower and not make it around.

drivingmissdaisy · Mar 31, 2015

Skater Boy said:
I just don't understand why there is so much hate to Duhamel and Radford. They aren't your typical team but they at least had something that stood out - extreme technical difficulty.

Technical difficulty alone doesn't do it for me in pairs. For me, it's quite different; I like to see the chemistry and two skaters moving in a way that complements the partner. With singles I like to see the technicians versus the artists but in pairs I much prefer to focus on the performance.

wallylutz · Mar 31, 2015

D/R certainly qualifies as atypical World Champions, same can be said about Javier Fernandez for being the first Spaniard ever.

And we know for sure they are atypical when there is so much negativity about their undisputed win especially coming from a guy by the name of Trankov: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/figureskat...rd-get-final-laugh-on-their-critics-1.3017166

"And they're like…she has no flexibility and she's so stiff and they don't show any emotion at all," Duhamel told CBC News in a sit-down interview.

"[Russian] Maxim Trankov, who is the 2014 pairs Olympic champion, publicly in interviews has done nothing but criticize Eric and I and as a fellow competitor and sportsman I think that's very disrespectful. We have nothing but positive things to say about their skating so why one of our competitors has to open his mouth and publicly put us down is very disrespectful."

If I didn't know better, it almost sounds as though Trankov is jealous of Meghan Duhamel because she gets to skate with Eric Radford.

BlackPack · Mar 31, 2015

wallylutz said:
D/R certainly qualifies as atypical World Champions, same can be said about Javier Fernandez for being the first Spaniard ever.

And we know for sure they are atypical when there is so much negativity about their undisputed win especially coming from a guy by the name of Trankov: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/figureskat...rd-get-final-laugh-on-their-critics-1.3017166

If I didn't know better, it almost sounds as though Trankov is jealous of Meghan Duhamel because she gets to skate with Eric Radford.

I don't know... D&R are like a team from the futuristic dystopia and cloned humans. Just physically, they aren't your typical pair. Meghan's very pronounced musculature differentiates her from the typical pairs female skater. Trankov makes valid points. He's not criticizing them as individuals. He is expressing his opinion about their "style" of skating and emphasis on upping the technical ante. Obviously, Meghan is taking it personally. As for not having bad things to say about V&T's skating, their skating quality/ability is nearly flawless, so there's not much to criticize. D&R do things to win.... but that's it. They're not artists. They're not interested in creating something of beauty and emotion.

wallylutz · Mar 31, 2015

BlackPack said:
As for not having bad things to say about V&T's skating, their skating quality/ability is nearly flawless, so there's not much to criticize.

Nobody is perfect or even near it. If one wants to split a hair into three, trust me, it's a piece of cake. I have a lot of reservation about Mr. Perfect's skating but this thread is not the right place for it. And I think few people would agree: "This is the maximum they can do." being a valid constructive point, it is anything but. Naturally, Trankov had to eat his own words because they have since bettered their SP scores twice in international competitions.

BlackPack · Mar 31, 2015

wallylutz said:
Nobody is perfect or even near it. If one wants to split a hair into three, trust me, it's a piece of cake. I have a lot of reservation about Mr. Perfect's skating but this thread is not the right place for it. And I think few people would agree: "This is the maximum they can do." being a valid constructive point, it is anything but. Naturally, Trankov had to eat his own words because they have since bettered their SP scores twice in international competitions.

This is what D&R represent - attempt at technical difficulty. They're winning because of it, not because of artistry or any of the ideals of pairs skating. If you're talking about the quality and ability of V&M's skating - nearly every element they do is excellent. Whether they skate clean is another story. We're talking about baseline ability, not literal number of programs skated cleanly.

4everchan · Apr 1, 2015

a few thoughts.

1) it's not fair to say that D/R are not artists… they are creative in their own genre. Radford even composes music which they have used in one of their SP. There are different kinds of artistry in this world…. the Russians are amazing in their search for beautiful positions and aesthetic skating. It's however not necessarily what everyone wants to see… it's been the tradition for years however… so how following tradition is more creative than breaking it? For me, an artist is someone who seeks to further themselves and reach for new heights… which is exactly what D/R are doing, in their own way.

Regarding criticism from other athletes: I agree with Duhamel here. Being good sports requires some diplomacy… If Trankov really thinks his points are valid, he doesn't need to put them in the public eye…. it's disrespectful. Often athletes do this because they feel pressure… perhaps with all their hard work D/R have managed to create a bit of fear among other pairs…. fear usually is the motive for such disrespectful comments…. and to your point about "there's nothing to criticize in V/T 's skating.. well… I just did saying that in my very humble opinion, they are simply following a tradition and do not bring anything new to the sport…. Duhamel could have said that herself if she thought that (I do not know whether she would agree or not with my opinion)…… but chose to be classy.

and your last line…. how do you know who they are and what they are interested in creating? I actually felt very emotional watching their SP…. if one understands (and maybe you do but I won't assume that you do or don't) the lyrics of their SP song, the program fits the words perfectly well and brings a unique intertextuality to their skating.

BlackPack said:
I don't know... D&R are like a team from the futuristic dystopia and cloned humans. Just physically, they aren't your typical pair. Meghan's very pronounced musculature differentiates her from the typical pairs female skater. Trankov makes valid points. He's not criticizing them as individuals. He is expressing his opinion about their "style" of skating and emphasis on upping the technical ante. Obviously, Meghan is taking it personally. As for not having bad things to say about V&T's skating, their skating quality/ability is nearly flawless, so there's not much to criticize. D&R do things to win.... but that's it. They're not artists. They're not interested in creating something of beauty and emotion.

cl2 · Apr 1, 2015

wallylutz said:
D/R certainly qualifies as atypical World Champions, same can be said about Javier Fernandez for being the first Spaniard ever.

And we know for sure they are atypical when there is so much negativity about their undisputed win especially coming from a guy by the name of Trankov: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/figureskat...rd-get-final-laugh-on-their-critics-1.3017166

If I didn't know better, it almost sounds as though Trankov is jealous of Meghan Duhamel because she gets to skate with Eric Radford.

Hmm... if Trankov really did make those comments, it really goes beyond disrespect and poor sportsmanship. It doesn't matter what he thinks constitutes artistry, it only matter what the judges think. But his comments can potentially be manipulative, and if it was his intention to manipulate what the judges think, it would be a very nasty low-handed tactic.

BTW, I brought this up in the V/T thread.

4 "Unexpected"/"Atypical" World Champions

CanadianSkaterGuy

Rissa

Mathman

Skater Boy

peg

Becki

noskates

alia jackson

WeakAnkles

CanadianSkaterGuy

Sandpiper

peg

drivingmissdaisy

drivingmissdaisy

wallylutz

BlackPack

wallylutz

BlackPack

4everchan

cl2

Similar threads

Connect with us