I really enjoyed being at worlds in Helsinki this year. The atmosphere inspired me so much and had not thought of that Ice Dance would caught my imagination that deep. Ice Dance has always been my least favourit discipline. It is not because I miss the throws or the jumps. I am just not able to see the levels of the elements and I feel a bit helplessness in the audience and in front of the TV. I want to analyze the performance and love to be upset before and after elements. It is really hard if you are not able to the difficulty immediately. I have always watched figure skating because it is still sport after all. Exhibition are usually kind of boring.
In Helsinki Gabi and Guillaume skated so flawless in the FD. I was in tears. Their WR was highly deserved in my opinion and I was kind of sad they did not win. Although I have admired Tessa and Scott over all the years over Davis/Whitie I really think that their FD this season was not worth the points they got. At this saturday evening some other pairs like Capellini/Lanotte, Shibuts and Weaver/Poje created more power and emotions. In the end Tessa and Scott won with their massive lead after SD. And this is what I want to read your opinion about.
The lead was nearly 6 points. I have never seen such a big advanve in Ice Dance after the SD at world´s level. Their Prince SD was definitly the best. But their lead was given by the levels. They received level 4 for everything and so their BV was the 4 points higher than Gabi´s and Guillaume´s and still 1,5 point higher than Hubbel/Donohue´s. If all pairs would have got the same levels their lead would have been around 2 points which much more fits to the skating I watched.
My Question is: Is it really fair to decide the Ice Dance competition by the levels in the SD? I am sure that almost noone is able to see the levels. Maybe just some experts in the audience and the three technical specialists. Do we want make us totally dependent by the three specialsts (maybe it is better to say two technical specialists because it only needs two to define the levels) instead of the nine judges? I think the spirit of Ice Dance is made of something different than the little differences in levels in the SD. It is like to decide a game by criteria the crowd ist not able to watch.
Some people my say that working on the technical stuff is something really difficult and the skaters should be rewarded for the little differences. This is totally understandable. But then we have to trust the specialists in any case and remove ourselves from judging on our own.
In Helsinki Gabi and Guillaume skated so flawless in the FD. I was in tears. Their WR was highly deserved in my opinion and I was kind of sad they did not win. Although I have admired Tessa and Scott over all the years over Davis/Whitie I really think that their FD this season was not worth the points they got. At this saturday evening some other pairs like Capellini/Lanotte, Shibuts and Weaver/Poje created more power and emotions. In the end Tessa and Scott won with their massive lead after SD. And this is what I want to read your opinion about.
The lead was nearly 6 points. I have never seen such a big advanve in Ice Dance after the SD at world´s level. Their Prince SD was definitly the best. But their lead was given by the levels. They received level 4 for everything and so their BV was the 4 points higher than Gabi´s and Guillaume´s and still 1,5 point higher than Hubbel/Donohue´s. If all pairs would have got the same levels their lead would have been around 2 points which much more fits to the skating I watched.
My Question is: Is it really fair to decide the Ice Dance competition by the levels in the SD? I am sure that almost noone is able to see the levels. Maybe just some experts in the audience and the three technical specialists. Do we want make us totally dependent by the three specialsts (maybe it is better to say two technical specialists because it only needs two to define the levels) instead of the nine judges? I think the spirit of Ice Dance is made of something different than the little differences in levels in the SD. It is like to decide a game by criteria the crowd ist not able to watch.
Some people my say that working on the technical stuff is something really difficult and the skaters should be rewarded for the little differences. This is totally understandable. But then we have to trust the specialists in any case and remove ourselves from judging on our own.