I’ll even go so far as to say this adoration of G&G hurt the chances of B&S winning 2001 Worlds as there was a lot of talk at the time saying if B&S won, they would tie the record of G&G and were they worthy of that.
Yes I do remember that. I remember a lot of Nicky quotes
I respected the basic skating skills of V/M but I never enjoyed their programs after their beautiful FD skated to Mahler.
Virtue/Moir had the worst Olympic programs, especially the Mahler program.
One day, we will all admit what our decades-long observations of every major federation's fanbases have taught us.
I love that Yamagata FD. Still rewatching.Quite some of the opinions in this thread are not unpopular at all but this seems to be the fate of every "unpopular opinions" thread.
I think so too. I consider this & their Yamagata FD in 2018-19 their two weakest senior FDs. I find it funny that people on figure skating Twitter (who don't like P/C's programs often) seem to like the latter a lot and consider it their best work, ha.
Forced retirement for all skaters at age 17.
That's not my take on it, but you do you, SG. I like that Elizaveta Tuktamysheva is still in the game, doing her thing and maintaining competitive skills, for instance. If someone is competitive, great. If they are just old, and that's their strong/selling point, well, no.
I loved their Oly OD/SDs in 2010 and 2014, but Mahler was sooooo dull and Seasons was even worse. (I have no strong opinions on Moulin Rouge.) In fact, V/M were at their worst when they tried to do romantic programs. They were boring and unconvincing.
I agree. There's a difference between someone like Elizaveta who's 'ancient' at 24 but not only maintains her previous skills, but has also been working on including new ones and is right there in the mix; compared to someone like Gabby Daleman, who yes, has had a LOT of unfortunate incidents in the last 3.5 years, but has not increased her tech in competition since even before her Worlds medal, and will never be on the World podium again (if she even qualifies).
My biggest issue with Eteri's group is that while their technical content is great, they get overly inflated PCS. I mean, Valieva is decent in that regard, but should NOT be getting averages of over 9 for most of her components.
I suppose I've gotten used to the "code-whoring" if it means gaining enough points to win. To be honest, an intelligent person would be a "code-whore". You figure out how to maximize your points and you go out there and do it. I remember Jeffrey Buttle was quite the code-whore back in the day. He knew numerically it was more beneficial to go for a 4toe that he never intended to land but just rotate. That's taking it to another level, afaic.
I think it’s ok for girls to be ambitious. That glint in Kosternaia’s eye in 2019 was not “oh I’ll be happy if I just skate well.”
Another example of "code whoring" was Evan Lysacek in 2010. If it was ok for Frank Caroll it should be ok for Eteri Tutberidze.
I completely agree. I skip a lot of men’s skating because unless they are landing their jumps I find it boring to watch one after another pop, touch down or fall - unless they are giving their all artistically. So many of them don’t give a rats about the PCS or the choreography.
Who said it was okay for Frank Carroll? Lysacek's programs weren't to the same level that we see today when it comes to squeezing every last point out even when it distracts from the overall quality of the program, performance, and skating, but the scoring system was different back then, and there was no school of singles skating that was training young skaters to the level of technical difficulty we see from Eteri. The better example of that type of thing was the skate blade to head era of ice dance that led every female ice dancer to perform the same finishing position on every lift because it was a simple way to get a level. I think that this type of thing becomes frustrating because while it gives a bonus to the element in one way it detracts from the overall program in another way, but the scoring never reflects this.
And earlier in Chen's career some people thought his programs were nothing but jumps and it was boring.
