DiManno: Beyond Chan, Canada's Skating Ranks Worryingly Thin

[professordeb]

Yet another reason why I don't want to read that stupid paper.

I simply lurved Shawn and his hat stuff came after his skate when he took his bows and then in the K&C so what's the big flippin deal? Jealous much, Rosie, cause you can't pull it off you sour old witch? Some of us actually find it endearing and the fact that a more "mature" skater has made a comeback and landed his skating nemesis more than once makes this OLD lady estatic and thinking Shawn is worthy of the SO.

If "Rosie" is in McLeod's pocket, why would she rip Kevin so badly?
Kevin, loving that I'm seeing him keep up the performance in spite of the jumps. I'm sure those will come back and should he continue to learn how to "sell" his program, he'll be back on the podium. Yeah, he had an off day - but then so too did others. Kudos to him for working with Shae and working on that part of his skating. Keep it up kiddo, I'm pulling for ya!

[kwanfan1818]

DiManno is just tedious.

[aliceanne]

My goodness. I guess there is no point reading her review. I saw Kevin and Shawn for the first time on the GP circuit this year and enjoyed them both.

Canada has never had a shortage of male singles competitors. No reason to believe they will now. Senior stars are difficult to predict anyway. Often the novice and junior champions flame out at the senior level, and it's the workhorses who turn out to be stars.

Snark sells, but I am tired of supporting it.

[Seerek]

I'm surprised that after 12 years, the Toronto Star still hasn't found another sports reporter to cover for Rosie Dimanno and leave her free to do her editorials. She's never been kind to any Canadian skater who wasn't firm podium potential.

In a way, I'm happy Rosie doesn't cover other individual sports like Track and Field, Swimming or even Alpine Skiing - she'd be moaning about Canadian results till the cows come home.

[skatesindreams]

Why can't they find another reporter?
That's not journalism.

[venja]

For heaven's sake, it's Rosie DiManno. 'Nuff said.

I maintain the same position I've had with her for the past 10+ years: she's an idiot.

Anyway, as someone who has been a victim of reading her previous "articles," this is basically the way she writes for everything. She does it on purpose and the reaction that it has sparked on this board is exactly what she wants.

[Iceman]

[QUOTE=marbri;3037018]
I also think she is way off regarding Kevin Reynolds. When all his jumps escaped him I actually watched thinking "damn that's a well choreographed program".

But Reynolds himself laid some blame on his choreography:

“ The nerves showed at the beginning. It would have been an okay performance, I think, if it wasn’t for that last choreographed sequence. It took the energy out of the program and I lost points as well.”

[ioana]

I think Kevin's talking about his fall/trip on the last ftwk sequence, before the 'camel jump' -which I assume is around 4:45 in this video? Not so much the actual choreography being a problem...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFpFXlt8sL8

[floskate]

Bitch is the word! And yet maybe there's a touch of short term memory loss at work here because despite the vitriol she throws at Shawn in this article, less than 24 hours earlier she wrote:

Sawyer, in particular, had a memorable skate here in the finals with a clever Alice in Wonderland routine that contained gobs of creative movements.

So Rosie, d'ya like the guy or not? Love him Sunday, loathe him Monday?

Woman needs to get a grip and actually learn about the sport she's been trashing for years. Then she might have a shred of credibility. Oh and she could really use a new colourist while she's at it.

[minx]

She has a point, somewhat. Except the article should have been about the Ladies.

[stjeaskategym]

I'm more disturbed that Skate Canada "discouraged" Shawn Sawyer from coming back. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I'm pretty sure every skater, regardless of ability, should be allowed to skate if they would like without any negative backlash coming from SC. Even if SC would like to focus on the younger generation, if Sawyer can beat them all, maybe that younger generation isn't quite ready.

[judgejudy27]

It seems Skate Canda is also wanting their male skaters to be butch and very masculine. That is probably another reason they dont like Shawn so much.

[Jenny]

It seems Skate Canda is also wanting their male skaters to be butch and very masculine. That is probably another reason they dont like Shawn so much.

What's your basis for this comment? Very few Canadian champions and team members over the years have been what one might call "butch and very masculine."

[Dave of the North]

She has a point, somewhat. Except the article should have been about the Ladies.

You are saying Dimanno should have written about washed-up Sansom taking away Najarro's spot????

[ks777]

I agree with the writer. Besides Chan, there isn't anyone that impressed me in Canada right now. Kevin's jumps aren't impressive even when he lands quads. Joey's jumps are small.. almost smaller than ladies. The only thing I like about Joey is that he is from Labrador, newfoundland.. I have a yellow labrador.. so I like that.

[Rock2]

yeah I don't get too in a knot about articles like this. Sometimes they provide good insight into what skating looks like to those unfamiliar with the sport...which is actually most of the world and a good chunk of the audience at big comps.

The two interesting nuggets were Sawyer revealing the reception he got to a comeback attempt and Reynolds saying "I don't know what my future is in skating"

But we have to realize that DiManno is assessing the 'talent' based on this one competition. So from a scoring perspective that's what it looks like, especially when you look at Chan's score as some freakish standard.

She doesn't know Russell's axel is much improved and he's landing quads in practice. Rogozine is a rapidly improving talent who hasn't bombed a competition in a couple of years. Martinez and Balde are ripe to break out if they can contain injuries and get on the national team to gain some more needed funding. Ten is out this year and will be a force next year.

So much she doesn't know...or comment on...because it wasn't right in front of her face in Victoria, and she didn't take the time to research.

Let her go work on her camel jumps. I'll invest more energy analyzing articles from sources that are actually credible.

[Iceman]

y
She doesn't know Russell's axel is much improved and he's landing quads in practice. Rogozine is a rapidly improving talent who hasn't bombed a competition in a couple of years. Martinez and Balde are ripe to break out if they can contain injuries and get on the national team to gain some more needed funding. Ten is out this year and will be a force next year.

So much she doesn't know...or comment on...because it wasn't right in front of her face in Victoria, and she didn't take the time to research.

Let her go work on her camel jumps. I'll invest more energy analyzing articles from sources that are actually credible.

What is your source for knowing that she doesn't know the things you mention?
She could know them and still come to the same conclusions she has.

[marbri]

[QUOTE=Iceman;3037398]

I also think she is way off regarding Kevin Reynolds. When all his jumps escaped him I actually watched thinking "damn that's a well choreographed program".

But Reynolds himself laid some blame on his choreography:

“ The nerves showed at the beginning. It would have been an okay performance, I think, if it wasn’t for that last choreographed sequence. It took the energy out of the program and I lost points as well.”

I read that the same way Ioana did.

[Japanfan]

It seems obvious to me she didn't watch anything but the last group and most likely only watched the programs (or highlights) of the podium finishers plus Reynolds. I don't know how anyone watched that event and failed to take notice of some very interesting skaters and future potentials.

Heck, I wonder if she even watched the last group. Shawn's program "loud and crude, and the hat didn't help?

She failed to notice that it was a competitive program, not a performance piece, and a masterpiece at that. And both Shawn and Kevin are capable of messing up or doing well at Worlds.

She also failed to notice that Ellajd Balde made the national team. He's a dynamic and very promising skater, junior champ in 2008, out to injury last season. As a team member he's only going to get better.

Plus, she also didn't pay attention to the juniors aside from Nam. I just watched Garrett Gosselin's SP on skatebuzz and he is truly a sublime skater.

[dramagrrl]

It's not Sawyer, it's skating. For some reason, they keep assigning her to a sport she doesn't like and doesn't understand, which is a complete mystery to me. I know that controversy sells, but a real journalist knows how to do that properly - Rosie DiManno is not a journalist, and the fact that she even has a job is another reason why I don't read the Star. It's annoying that media gives people with zero qualification a platform to spew their nonsense and meanness. Shame on the Star.

I know people at the Star who have known (and disliked) Rosie for years, and apparently she continuously gets assigned to skating events because she secretly likes skating and asks to be sent. (And it is well-known in Star circles that Rosie is basically given free reign to cover whatever the hell she feels like covering, in any area of the paper, so if she asks to cover skating, she'll get the assignment over someone like Randy Starkman, who actually knows quite a bit about the sport and writes about it objectively.) The thing is, in her (much) younger days, Rosie was solid writer and had a knack for investigative journalism, and those glory days have given her a cushion at the paper that she's basically been taking advantage of ever since.