2020 Europeans: Free Dance Recap | Golden Skate

2020 Europeans: Free Dance Recap

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States
Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov edged out Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron by a mere 0.14 points after the Free Dance in Graz, Austria, to win their first European title on Saturday. Teammates Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin also rose one spot to capture their third bronze medal at this event.

Katsalapov: "Today we were watching their performance and maybe it was not as clean as they could have done it," he added. "They still have a huge potential, but so do we and the others. Perhaps one time things will not work for one or the other and the judges will mark that way."

Cizeron: "Victoria and Nikita had a really great performance and so it's just the way the sport goes."

More...

Surprised? Disappointed? Shocked? Happy? What are your overall thoughts on the Ice Dance results in Graz?
 
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esteticlove

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 20, 2017
Not surprised at all. The judges (or the Federation or both?) have been pushing S/K for some seasons now, as if they had the same level of skating as P/C :rolleye: S/B also suffering from that by being Russia No.2 team, even though they have some better qualities. I understand that after Tessa and Scott left, there's been no one who could challenge the French and the judges try to find them a fitting competitor..but still...
 

StephenGfan

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 10, 2018
S/K deserved it. P/C were sloppy here. Glad to see them humbled a little. Though judging by gabi "accidently" stepping onto first place on the podium maybe not humbled enough.
 

Step Sequence4

JULLLIEEEEETTTT!
Final Flight
Joined
Jan 12, 2018
I don't really understand dance, could someone tell me why S/K beat P/C (if they deserved to?)
 

icybear

Medalist
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
And this is why I dont bother with dance. Champions stuffed down your throat based on who is politically stronger.
 

Fluture

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
And this is why I dont bother with dance. Champions stuffed down your throat based on who is politically stronger.

Yes, I thought I could give Ice Dance another chance at Euros, watching live and all. The performances were lovely. The judging... no words.
 

heartyxo

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 27, 2019
P/C had mistakes, yes. They weren't at their best. But S/K didn't deserve those scores.
I hope this doesn't lead to a forced "rivalry" and P/C being overthrown. P/C don't need a rival if they're better than everyone.
 

klena

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
I don't really understand dance, could someone tell me why S/K beat P/C (if they deserved to?)

Vika and Nikita really deserved to win. They were perfect in RD and FD while P/C made some visible mistakes, the biggest one in their one foot steps, this element was firstly estimated 0, when corrected, but the level was low
 

Lana05

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Haha P/C didn't deserve even silver. Their real score was shown on the table before it was turned down and should be somewhere 64. Last element was invalid. She has mistaken.
 

Bluediamonds09

Medalist
Joined
Sep 8, 2016
S/K deserved it. P/C were sloppy here. Glad to see them humbled a little. Though judging by gabi "accidently" stepping onto first place on the podium maybe not humbled enough.

OMG, that really happened?? Gabi stepped on the first place box instead of the second, a la plushenko 2010 Olympics? Please someone post a link to this video!!!
 

Fluture

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
P/C had mistakes, yes. They weren't at their best. But S/K didn't deserve those scores.
I hope this doesn't lead to a forced "rivalry" and P/C being overthrown. P/C don't need a rival if they're better than everyone.

I didn‘t watch GPF but... weren’t S/K just fifth or so there? What happened? Did they make too many mistakes?

S/K, watching live, were lovely. But nowhere near P/C‘s level, especially not in the Rhythm Dance.
 

lavender

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I knew they were working up to this. Now I'm done with ice dance.

I just don't get why they think this helps skating as a whole...these forced rivalries. This is why I have a love hate relationship with this "sport".
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
As soon as I saw the changes to the scoring system last year, I knew the fix was in. Now it's just a matter of watching it unfold.
 

heartyxo

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 27, 2019
I didn‘t watch GPF but... weren’t S/K just fifth or so there? What happened? Did they make too many mistakes?

S/K, watching live, were lovely. But nowhere near P/C‘s level, especially not in the Rhythm Dance.

They lost multiple levels and their slide was called as a fall.
 

Tolstoj

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Here's what i will say:

This was about to happen anyway, it was unlikely that P/C would have kept winning forever, and they made some mistake between the RD and the Free so it's not some completely made up result.

However they way it came up felt odd: with the huge wait in the KnC, 5 judges re-scoring everything, 3 giving P/C the music violation, and Alla Shekhovtseva clearly pushing S/K they don't even hide it anymore.
 

glacial87

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
I'm not surprised that much.
P/C were quite tense and didn't fly across the ice with their usual smoothness. Some little stumbles were noticeable here and there, so the pairs harmony didn't give a perfect impression, whereas S/K really nailed it today. I even enjoyed S/B more.
S/K are improving and the judges clearly like what they are doing. They seem to be more versatile in the SD - last years tango was spot on, constructed very well with ballroom dancers, this years dance still needs some polish, but is perfectly what it should be - one can call it "classical", but it's not old fashioned, it comes across fresh and lively (they finally changed the costume!). On the contrary P/C tend to opt for programs out of the box especially when the prescribed style isn't theirs. The result works most of the time, although I don't like that idea, I would prefer a program more "true" to the given theme. This years SD - I have to say, downright atrocius in my eyes, and not even "modern" or "unique", but copy paste of a gymnastic session from the 80?! With something like that, P/C quite literally offer the judges to let S/K close the gap. If they could sell "Singin' in the rain"???
Regarding the free program, we get to see the same P/C - theme year after year after year. It was a breath of fresh air in 2015, a great program in 2018, I also liked the modernized version of 2015 in 2016. But now it's not astonishing that judges seem to be fed up with it, and adding a philosophical element to it with this poem doesn't help either.
S/B present something different every year and immerse themselves in the SD. S/K themselves should be careful not to repeat the FD a third year in a row in a slightly different package. They already struggled to sell this FD, above all in der GP final opposite C/B came up again with something new. For now, they made enough changes and skated well enough to make up for the resemblances between this season and last year and became much more comfortable overall; so P/C can't afford to make little mistakes at this point and expect to receive the highest components - there were some problems today and the judges jumped to the opportunity to present someone else with the top prize. :think: :clap:
 

icybear

Medalist
Joined
Mar 18, 2017
The scoring was just so obviously dodgy. That 7 minutes wait to announce P/C scores. ISU you couldnt have made it more obvious you were tweaking the scores to ensure you got your pre designated champion
 
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