Dima for sure deserved silver, the competition was a joke, I agree, but I'm so glad he held it together despite the mistakes so yea Dima!
I hope not the Russian fed favors Samarin, so far Dima has done way better than him.
It has always been hard to understand Dima's scoring - already in the juniors he was pretty good with finish, skating skills etc. and in the internal battle of the Russians, Samarin was getting usually similar or even better scores even though he is all about the jumps and little else. I have been told now it is the result of the internal Russian fed politics - Dima trains in St. Petersburg with an unpopular coach and not in Moscow with someone else. But then Kolyada is also from St Petersburg but he has never had to work very hard to get the top scores. I guess his coach is better connected then?! It will be interesting to see how the season develops, if Dima will remain the top Russian man.
This was sort of on a par with the Nepela FS and below LT performance. The SP seems to work fine most of the time, so hopefully the FS will follow with a bit of time. I was also pleased to see him look so energetic in the latter part of the FS - he has had serious conditioning issues before but now that does not seem to be the problem. Now a couple of weeks of training and then to Rostelecom with new energy!
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Well, in my book there is no such thing as a "perfect skater." And potential hardly matters if you can't put everything together.
Dima isn't perfect either, but in terms of performance he is on another level. He puts his heart and soul into his skating, he's not serving up cheesy character programs. Everything he does feels authentic and honest. These qualities are worth much more to me than any point-grabbing mathematical equation. His Coldplay ex program was beautiful...can't find it on Youtube, unfortunately, maybe due to copyright.
Grrr. Still kicking myself. As I was walking from the arena to the hotel, there was Dmitri walking towards me (most likely going to gala practice). He had his ear buds in, but I tapped him on the shoulder and said "Congratulations and thank you for your beautiful skating." He smiled the cutest smile and said "thank you, thank you." We wished him good luck this season and he thanked us. I had my camera in my hand and was so star struck and mesmerized I didn't take his picture. I'll probably never have another opportunity like that! :sad4:
I think Dima skated better at SA. He felt a little tense. I still love him though.
The Swedish commentators are irritating! I wish I could turn them off. Too many stupid remarks...
I wonder what Dima thinks about his skate , any interviews or comments from PC anyone?