I love watching that video. So cute to see Maia's interview at the end.
The maturity in that interview is amazing!
I love watching that video. So cute to see Maia's interview at the end.
There are 3 judges from former SSRs on the panel, and the Assistant Tech Spec (DURNEV) is Russian. Look at the PCS scores and you can see scores in the 9s from 3 judges for Bobrova/Soloviev. Three judges gave the Shibs PCS scores in the upper 6s and low 7s while the other judges gave the Shibs higher scores than that.
Three judges working together do have the power to affect placements.
You are forgetting that not all the scores are counted. Only 8 scores of the 9 are selected, and then the highest and lowest scores are thrown out. So in the end, only 6 scores count. If 3 of those 6 are UKR, UZB and RUS, then you might expect the huge difference in score between B/S and S/S.
Shibutani's levels were so way down from the norm. I bet they will get that corrected for the FD and maybe a win is still possible. B/S levels were very good on all elements. I was looking at worlds 2010 and they got level 4 on everything in the FD. They are boring but get levels. Their music was different and not as upbeat.
This was discussed before, the Shibs beat Weaver/Poje at last year's 4CC because W/P crashed & burned in the FD. They led the Shibs going into the FD in fact and would have beaten them if they had simply skated clean even if the skate was otherwise, just average.
Please. It is EARLY in the season and a score or placement in early November has little or no bearing on what will happen at Worlds. It is what teams learn from their early outings and how they improve that counts.
You are free to believe whatever you feel like. There are examples of both, a team can do poorly in GP and do well later or another team (e.g. Belbin/Agosto) got their writing on the wall starting from their final year on the GP circuit, leading them to lose in U.S. Nationals against D/W who had an outstanding GP season, and then missed out the Olympic podium.
There was quite a bit of chatter, I recall, that B/A got the short end of the stick because their coaches put more focus on DomShabs. I don't think the Shibs are in the same position, despite the fact that they have a million teammates (or it seems that way, anyway).
I would like to clarify that I don't blindly think the Shibs is a secure No. 3. But I see their true competition being C/L, P/B and W/P, ultimately. I think B/S and I/K can also fall in this group -- if they are not so sloppy. I have been less than impressed by their technique thus far (i.e. watching Russian previews and this competition).
ETA: I know B/S is in first and heck may win this -- but if they don't improve the sloppiness, I'm not sure if their scores will improve much further.
B/S at their best aren't any too good. If you're saying it's OK for them to become Olympic champions because Russia wants it badly, then you can't possibly be a real ice dance fan. In my book, it sucks when a federation manages somehow to stack judging panels with Russian supporters so as to ensure that the Russian #1 becomes World and/or Olympic #1.
Why overhaul a judging system if the end result is the same as what we had under 6.0?
^ Great! What's the point of working hard when the outcome is largely fixed? :disapp:
And what's the point of staying up late and watching figure skating when the outcome is largely fixed?..