Sh!t. Pedrosian will be in 5th. I hope this isn’t a bad omen.
Eh. I think Ami, Kaori, Mone, and Alysa are more likely to have Solid Skates than either the skate of a lifetime than a complete meltdown. I honestly think Petrosian is more likely to move down rather than up. But we'll see
I do wonder if anyone at the ISU has ever thought to do a study to see how many skating fans they lose versus how many they keep with their inconsistencies in judging. I'm sure there are FSUers--probably the ones who lurk rather than the ones typing I'M DONE but still--who will genuinely not watch skating again if Petrosian wins. I'd like to know: 1. how much of a bounce skating gets after the Olympics 2. how many of those Oly fans turn into actual skating fans. which to me would be watching Nationals, Worlds, and at least one other competition so a low baseline here, versus 3. how many long term fans are lost after each cycle.
While some of y'all bringing up the numbers and judging and blah-blah are f-ing annoying, y'all are also the absolute backbone of the sport--those who pay $$$ to go to multiple events, hype up events, talk about it beyond FSU. My perception is that viewership has gone down and it is inexplicable to me why Eteri skaters are so valued as it's bad for the long-term growth of the sport, it's just not good skating, and it's not good judging.
There's no upside to the promotion of skaters like Petrosian and Gumennik. Especially as most of the "outrage" over his scoring is Russian bots botting. I checked out a lot of the profiles of those saying he wuz-robbed on ISU, The Skating Lesson, etc and the vast majority were obviously not real profiles. This is manufactured rage and those who were real people CLEARLY understood less about COP than I do and did not regularly follow skating. They couldn't even spell SATO. Even I can manage Sato.
I'll still watch skating BUT, and this is a big BUT, I stopped fitting my life around skating along time ago. If I miss a Grand Prix, oh well. If I only see one event at Euros, that's how it goes. If I totally miss 4CC, well, I needed the sleep. Hell, I didn't even know who the Canadian entry for men was until the Team Event. Eight years ago, I'd have been snarling and complaining and angry and overjoyed and ecstatic about...something. Now, it's just a fun thing I watch. Like, once upon a time, I'd have lost sleep over Ilia's skate in sympathy AND M/K's in excitement, replaying both in my head for different reasons. Now, I just close the computer and honestly, I'm done. I guess it's more healthy but it's also sad that something that used to bring me a lot of joy and was an emotional outlet is now...not.
