Canada takes Team gold

Violet Bliss said:

I'm surprised they didn't say Mirai cinched Gold for the US.

Click to expand...

She clinched the gold of our hearts.

Mathman said:

She clinched the gold of our hearts.

Click to expand...

That would be slim picking, unless she relaxes her standard to accept hearts of the non gold varieties.

Violet Bliss said:

That would be slim picking, unless she relaxes her standard to accept hearts of the non gold varieties.

Click to expand...

Mathman is right that Mirai clinched the Gold of our hearts. Everywhere you looked today, you see Mirai’s name making Olympic history. Social media, news outlets and even CNN lol., it was one of the top stories out of the Olympics....

It's taken me a while, but I've finally seen all the FS (and FD). Dare I admit that Adam's skate moved me the most (despite him being technically less good as the two men ending up before him)? I do. I really enjoyed that skate, whatever people say about technical merit. I'm not even American but that guy does know how to move an audience. While Mirai's skate was just lovely. I agree that it may not have been the artistically best skate of the night, but it sure was lovely to see her get that triple Axel. Another moving moment.

I don't think anyone was 'robbed' even if you might disagree on details (personally I think the 'wasrobbed' thing is pretty idiotic anyway). I just prefer clean skates, without falls. Never could be a judge though, because I would let the feelings win, despite me knowing that the technical part is the basics, and how important SS, Tr, etc. are. But a skater who does a programme that really moves me, that is it. Well, to me.

Violet Bliss said:

Placements are relative, not absolutely tied to the scores or quality of the performance. On a bad morning, the least bad wins. Adam may be clinching hearts, but he didn't bring high BV, good skating skills, transitions, etc. Chan was the one with 2 beautiful quads and sublime skating skills and performance despite some errors, including a fall on a rotated 3A. He didn't receive very high scores, but certainly deservedly higher than the rest....

Click to expand...

I was talking about the short program only. As for Adam Prippon's PCSs in the LP, Chan won the segment handily with his two quads and excellent performance. The buzz was about whether Rippon should have been placed ahead of Kolyada in second. I personally don't have an opinion about that.

Looks like you're including the SP event. Chan was not placed high, just third and skaters generally considered of a lower tier beat him fairly.

Click to expand...

Only Uno and Bychenko beat him. Uno at least is not a lower-tier skater.

But I was looking at it from the perspective of a less knowledgable fan. The Korean skater Cha and the Italian skater Rizzo skated beautifully and the viewer saw them buried behind skaters who fell and flubbed all over the place. This can't be good for skating as a spectator sport. Nathan Chen totally failed on two of his three jumping passes, but still ended up ahead of clean skates by lesser mortals.

To me, the risk-reward ratio is out of whack for men's figure skating. If you get big rewards for attempting a bunch of quads, then there should be correspondingly big penalties for not succeeding with them.

Anyway, go Nathan in the individuals! :yes:

Mathman said:

Only Uno and Bychenko beat him. Uno at least is not a lower-tier skater.

Click to expand...

Oooops, my bad. The lower-tier skaters I was impressed with were still in head.

But I was looking at it from the perspective of a less knowledgable fan. The Korean skater Cha and the Italian skater Rizzo skated beautifully and the viewer saw them buried behind skaters who fell and flubbed all over the place. This can't be good for skating as a spectator sport. Nathan Chen totally failed on two of his three jumping passes, but still ended up ahead of clean skates by lesser mortals.

To me, the risk-reward ratio is out of whack for men's figure skating. If you get big rewards for attempting a bunch of quads, then there should be correspondingly big penalties for not succeeding with them.

Anyway, go Nathan in the individuals! :yes:

Click to expand...

There is much to improve on the scoring system but I'm not for just looking pretty to the occasional viewers clueless about the sport. The public needs to be better educated, by the fed and the commentators, so real interest may be aroused with knowledge, like fans of other sports who spew stats and argue with each other.

Violet Bliss said:

... The public needs to be better educated, by the fed and the commentators, so real interest may be aroused with knowledge, like fans of other sports who spew stats and argue with each other.

Click to expand...

I don't know, I don't know. I always feel uneasy about telling the public what they need to do, or what they need to have done to them by the experts. I don't see anything wrong with meeting the paying customer half way.

About commentators, Johnny Weir for one never misses a chance to say, "in the IJS it is better to rotate the jump and fall than to pop or not complete the rotations." This is certainly true in the IJS. That fact, however, should initiate debate, not close it out.

Isn't "I am for the spoken moments, so yay!" the most Meagan quote ever? I love it.

TerpsichoreFS said:

OMG Stop everything! French tv was recapping the team event and they were speaking about Virtue and Moir "skating together for 20 years, husband and wife in real life..." secret Voir shippers?

Click to expand...

Amazing

ancientpeas said:

The person I am most happy for this morning is Mr. Patrick Chan. Not because I'm a huge Chan fan but because I'm hoping this helps him to skate well in the men's event. He has stated that all he wants is to have clean LP at the Olympics. He's not trying to win medal in the men's event, he just hopes he gets that clean long he wants and I hope he gets it. I hope this medal lifts the burden from his shoulders. Now he can skate with no pressure in the men's event. He's a 4 time Olympic medalist now. Fly high Patrick. Give us the most beautiful skate you have in you and walk away feeling happy with your career in competitive skating.

Click to expand...

I fear for Patrick; I really want him to skate well for himself, for his fans and for skating - forget the quads or the more difficult one - we just need to see the magic. The world has passed him; he might not make top ten. Canada is going to have a rough olympics in skating. Yes, they won team gold but they are the only team who really went for it. They are going to lose a lot of close and questionable battles. First, Duhamel and RAdford may find themselves off the podium as well as Chan and WeaPoo and Daleman andOsmond. Then much to my chagrin the judges will give P/C oly gold over V and M. So many good skaters. I would love to see Patrick win a bronze for the last time but that is a fantasy. The quads are where it is at.

Canada comments:

Aww, I'm so happy for all of them. Such a strong team and they all had good skates and genuinely contributed and can feel like they earned that gold. And it must be so special to have that moment together since they've all known each other for so long. Gabby was the only one who didn't have an Olympic medal before this, but Tessa and Scott were the only ones who'd won gold before and now they all get to say that. I love how they all keep saying, "We won the Olympics!!!" :hap36:. Their reactions when the final team placements came up, even thought they must have already known they had it, were so cute. This photo is amazing: the look on Tessa's face, the way Patrick is grabbing Kirsten, and Scott lifting Meagan up on the air. And especially since most of them are retiring after this - what a wonderful thing to do together before they all move on. I cried watching the medal ceremony - they just all seemed so thrilled. And especially Patrick - I'm really glad he has this. Go Canada!

:dance: :hap57: :hap93: arty:

Non-Canada related comments:

I really enjoyed plenty of performances during this - some really great moments. Like Mirai landing the 3A and having that skate, and her teammates reactions. Adam was crying - it was so sweet. And Team Canada's reaction to the 3A was great - Meagan jumping up in the air. And for Alexa and Chris to be there and get a medal after everything they've both been through was really awesome. Even more so because they did very well, especially in the SP, where they stepped up after Nathan had a rough skate. It's great that they aren't just getting it because of their teammates skates - that must make it feel even sweeter. And then Adam. I've loved that program all season and I think just focusing on going clean was the right choice. I'm really happy to see him get a medal. Eric shared a photo of the two of them together with their medals with the caption: "So proud to be wearing these medals and showing the world what we can do! #Represent #Olympics #pyeongchang2018 #Medalist #figureskating #figureskater #fabulous #proud #outathletes #TeamNorthAmerica". It's great to see.

Also on team Italy, Matteo did so great in both programs. He's quickly becoming one of my favourite young guys. And Valentina and Ondrej had such a wonderful skate. I'm very happy for them.

What if Elvis wasn't injured in Nagano? What if Brian Orser had gotten the judges' split in Calgary? What if Kurt Browning hadn't singled his Axel? What if Yuzuru wasn't injured in Boston in 2016? What if Shoma Uno hadn't fallen in the SP at GPF17?

We can live in the hypothetical or we can live in the reality.

And the reality is, Canada took this event seriously and won gold.

Russia also took this event seriously as best they could, and won silver.

The US took this event seriously and got bronze.

Italy also did their best and came 4th.

Japan did what they could with their situation and came 5th.

The end.

Congrats to the team Canada!

Ladskater said:

Team Canada worked extremely hard for this honour and really showed team work and comradery. I'm happy for Patrick Chan. Also Kudos to Katelyn Osmond and Gabby Daleman for her awesome free skate and Eric and Meagan. Thanks Scott and Tessa for putting the icing on the cake. I also want to say, that I think it's fabulous that this team won the Gold as most of these skaters are hanging up their competitive skates after the Olympics and passing the torch to our next generation. They're all mostly veterans of Figure Skating and have earned this through years of dedication and hard work along with many highs and lows along the way. Enjoy the moment kids, you deserve it!!

Click to expand...

Lol Patrick probably doesn't fit your definition of working hard in his preparation for PyeongChang.

considering we don't really know what Patrick was doing when he wasn't competing this year, I don't think it's really fair to say that he didn't work hard. Not competing doesn't mean you aren't working hard to improve.

If If’s and and’s were pots and pans, what would we do for thinkers.....Canada won the Gold and all the complaints and bickering won’t change a thing, I wonder if OAR won the Gold medal, or another country, it would be the same. Canada was smart enough to put their best skaters on the Team and won. I thought that was the way competitions went, you put you best players out to win, you don’t put your weakest out. If the other countries weren’t smart enough to know this, that’s their problem. Complain to your Federation or whoever was responsible for picking the Team. Probably in 4 years time, they will catch on. In the meantime let the Canadian Team enjoy their win...

lyndichee said:

I get high blood pressure from reading this forum it's no wonder I don't check here daily anymore.

People complaining about Canada's gold here are probably the same who are going to complain about whichever Russian Lady takes the gold medal in ladies. They knew the system, they knew how to maximize points and did just that. Complain about the system and what they chose to include/exclude, gold is gold. If the sport a person loves so much is causing them to spend a lot of time fighting strangers online and typing long walls of text back and forth, then maybe for their own mental health everyone needs to take a step back.

Click to expand...

You are so right! Come to think of it, why am I trying to explain to people how to win a Gold medal. Congratulations to Canada for having the number 1 figure skating team in the world. Just look at the faces of those proud Canadians Figure Skaters, pure pride and joy....

lyndichee said:

I get high blood pressure from reading this forum it's no wonder I don't check here daily anymore.

People complaining about Canada's gold here are probably the same who are going to complain about whichever Russian Lady takes the gold medal in ladies. They knew the system, they knew how to maximize points and did just that. Complain about the system and what they chose to include/exclude, gold is gold. If the sport a person loves so much is causing them to spend a lot of time fighting strangers online and typing long walls of text back and forth, then maybe for their own mental health everyone needs to take a step back.

Click to expand...

For the record, I miss your common sense and your insights on this forum, lyndichee!

RemyRose said:

Especially happy for Chan !!!

Click to expand...

So happy for Patrick!!!!

I'm really looking forward to when Tessa and Scott win gold and finally reveal they've been dating for four years. Give the people what they want.

My last post on this thread: I like discussions about favourite skaters, judging conundrums, respectful disagreements. What I don't like is one person (and I won't mention names - I think you all will know who I am referring to) pushing his/her views, assuming people don't read their posts because they're not agreeing, and, worse, trying to make other people feel they're total nitwits because they don't agree. Well, not successfully on that score, but with such people on a forum, it is rather daunting to join in. Thank you very much, and good bye.