Agree on the interview especially. I don't find Russians to be as mean-spirited as others seem to feel. I think they just tell it like it is because their audience at home is likely less sensitive to what we find in the west. Their interviews are consequently not a series of cliches and crafted narratives.
S/P would have held at silver if this was world's. But as I recall reading, the skating scandal/admission of cheating embarassed the Olympic movement on this very public stage. If memory serves, the IOC then and there challenged the ISU to fix this problem or risk having future participation in the Olympics be formally questioned (which in truth would likely never happen as one of the biggest audience drivers, but I digress). The dual golds and IJS were the result.
My takeaway here is that those who would have kept S/P at silver represent a material portion of the overall figure skating universe that has accepted that cheating, collusion and subjective marking are all generally accepted with the sport -- values that are not shared by the broader sporting community.
This DNA in skating is a part of what limits the audience for an otherwise appealing sport; generalized sports fans cannot respect a sport for which results are only partially driven by what happens on the playing field and more by backroom deals and/or the lattitude among a judging panel to just pick who you want. From an outsiders' perspective, eligible skating is pure entertainment fluff with a number of miles to go to earn the credibility of a real sport, in their eyes.
If that problem could ever be fixed, the opportunities for skating would be almost limitless.
The biggest limitation on Figure Skating/Speed Skating/Hockey/Curling being truly participated in on a global scale is the lack of access to rinks and the exorbitant cost. Plus the reason in the quote, why would countries want to invest in rinks that are expensive to maintain if the competitions are allegedly fixed and judged subjectively and there are no local experts to assist? There's a reason why there are only 29 skating federations globally, yet FS/speed skating (with global hockey fans growing tremendously) merit their own seperate TV negotiation contracts because of viewership. In comparison, Gymnastics has 148 with 1 Federation on suspension. Reason for this anomaly, a child can at least start learning cartwheels and handstands on dirt to show appropriate interest to the head of household to maybe enter the child in a $50 8 week tumble class. That child could also 'practice' in their front yard, per say. A child can't learn to skate without ice. A child can't learn to skate without skates. They also can't truly practice without ice, nor compete without sharp tight blades or ungodly extensively created costumes.
Poor ol' Irina can't even maintain first place ordinals in her own thread. Displaced by pair skaters - where women who can't jump go.
(I personally don't believe pairs women have lesser skill sets than singles but apparently lots of others do. )
It's quotes like these that make me wish I could love/laugh/like emoji 100x
This. And those who don't like it would say the North American pairs skaters have no style.
But wouldn't it get rather boring if all pairs skaters had the classical Russian style?
I appreciate the classical Russian style and the view that 'if it works, don't fix it', but some Russian pairs have just been cookie-cutter and not brought anything uniquely distinctive to their programs. IMO. Though of course, some western pairs have been lacking in terms of a distinct style, also.
Totally agree, except Russian figure skaters single and pairs/dance have for decades had two schools of different styles with in Russia itself. Moscow is typically, as you said, very traditional and classical like that current Russian pair I refuse to name and their atrocities in music selection (Candy Man for an OG FS?...Really!? Barf) and Pogo and Yags as example. St Petersburg school has a much more out of the box avant garde style like that handsome Kolyada and Plush. It's always fun to see them asian carp fight over style every year.
LOL. Wasn't Sarah the reigning World bronze medalist going into Salt Lake? And also as
@Coco said, she had rather famously beaten both Slutskaya and Kwan at Skate Canada earlier that season. I'm sure she had beaten Butyrskaya at various points too. She was not exactly some "no-name" going into Salt Lake.
I also want to quickly say this....of the three US ladies, Hughes would have been the last Gold Medal pick the US would lobby for. She would have been, and eventually did, become the only ever US American skater of any discipline Gold Medalist not to ever be a World or National champion. As a matter of fact she finished a distant 3rd at Nationals. She was basically like the anti marketable christ. Not super pretty, kind of goofy and awkward, not super eloquent, or trendy, not much of a feel good back story, father went to Cornell upper middle class so other than having a less successful younger sister Emily who eventually went to the 06 OG not much to draw from. She just happens to have a Gold medal fall in her lap by default. Unlike Lipinski, she was too young and tomboyish to invest in, especially back then when 60% of everything was packaging. Lipinski had at least a firecracker personality and uber talented girly girl who people immediately liked, Sasha had style and personal drama, and Kwan was truly a full packaged ice princess and skating and style icon.
Yeah, because Todd's mythical 4T was going to magically appear and make it obvious he should win over guys with 2 or 3 quads
Ummmm...what current US mens skater does that currently remind us of? A mythical single 4T now a mythical single 4S are going to magically appear clean and think PCS will make up for the guys doing 4L+3T combos in the short and long? Oh yeah Jason Brown
He was excoriated when he said he had boot issues, which turned out to be due to misaligned blades. He was clearly struggling, but was told to suck it up and to stop blaming it on his equipment and making excuses. That this was verified by a doctor only stopped some of the vitriol.
And these 2 years of 'whiny' boot issues and 'get over it' to a 18/19 year old kid destroyed his hips and knee, effectively ruining his career at 21. I remember this going down and it was so cruel and unethical it upsets me to type about it now. Most of the time practicing with no hip guards to prove he could fall 'right'. He"d then wait to take ice baths and compressions at a separate PT or at home to avoid The Costa. It's a sad story not told enough.
...I'd need to rewatch properly but I don't think I'd have even had Hughes in the final group for the LP.
Evan won with tech marks 
