Good grief, was something in the air in the rink during the men's competition in France?!
A lot of messy skating and OTT messy judging to boot! Yuk!
Misha Ge was the only one to skate two clean programs! Fortunately, the judges saw fit this time to allow Ge to make the podium third spot for a bronze medal over a poor performance by a Russian skater (this time not Kolyada). Samarin I suppose is Russian in name only. He seems to try hard, but he's not musical, nor does he have any presentation skills; he's very awkward looking the way he moves over the ice (somewhat similar to Maxim Kovtun of Russia). Get Samarin into a ballet studio fast. There must be some of those in Russia!
Denis Ten is clearly suffering from injuries. Despite a technically sloppy fp caused by trying hard for quads, Ten was actually quite good in the sp, with only one mistake on an attempted quad. But the judges didn't fully respect the absolute beauty of his skating and interpretation in the sp. They did give Morris K 39 on PCS in the sp; Samarin 40+; Bychenko 40+; Shoma 46; and Ten 42+. Once again confirming Jackie Wong's recent statistical proof of how the judges manipulate PCS and keep the marks within a tight range. If Shoma is going to receive 46, then Ten deserved at least 48 on PCS in the sp! Seriously! Samarin, Bychenko, and Morris K can crank out the quads here and there, but their overall skating is not very cohesive or interesting to watch. Vincent and Max were caught up in the splat-itis while going for quads. Max redeemed himself somewhat in the fp, but both were well out of podium contention. Kevin Aymoz of France (while not great technically here) is at least a very different looking skater stylistically, with an unusual approach to movement and interpretation. He is fun to watch for his unique movement style.
Javi was at 47+ on PCS in the sp and 13 points ahead, so he should have won this going away, but no, Javi messed up again in the fp and was gifted with 92+ on PCS by the judges! 92+ for that subpar performance?
Obviously, TPTB would really like to see Javi at the GPF, especially with Yuzu and Patrick out (although mathematically Javi may still be unlikely to make GPF, while Sergei Voronov does have the opportunity)! In any case, the winner in France turned out to be no contest with Javi and Shoma both skating like they weren't sure they wanted to be on top of the podium. Shoma made some small mistakes in the sp. And surprisingly, Shoma totally could not hold up and skate clean in the fp skating last after Javi's errors had left an opening. Unbelievable! It seemed as if there were booby traps all over the ice during the men's event. Ladies sp was a bit sloppy too, particularly with the judging.
The judges seem to have no idea what they are looking at, much less any idea of how to judge performance quality, period. Despite some bright spots here and there, so far, it has simply not been a great GP season overall in the lead-up to the Olympics (with Cup of China and the 'Grab bag in Grenoble' being the worst events for the men).
), he has great jumping technique, his spins deserves high GOE. I know that a lot of users here think that he doesn't deserve high PCS but I believe that his basics aren't worse than most of the top skaters (as I said, I may be biased). He has great SS, skates with great speed and flow, shows great edges and if he is really ON he deserves to get high GOE on almost each element
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-- MC Martinez gets his chance. He finished 24th in Helsinki last year, both in SP and in FS.
