German Skating News 2017/2018

[Jeschke]

Btw has Jennifer Schmidt retired?
I kinda liked her skating in the 2nd half of the last season. I was looking forward to see her this season.

 

[kwanfan1818]

An OGM would be prestigious for the German fed but it wouldn't help them much financially.Just the ransom they had to pay to Didier to release Bruno is higher than anything sponsors would be willing to pay for Aljona.

The Fed is allowed to take 10% of all of Savchenko/Massot's ISU winnings. So far they've earned:

• 2nd and 3rd at Worlds: $67,500
• 2nd and 2nd at Euros: $39,000
• Two 1st and a 2nd at GP: $51,000

for $157,500 in total to date. Which is about 45% of the ransom to Gailhauguet, and the rest is money S/M can use to offset their training costs. They still have SA, where they are at least the co-favorites, they should make GPF, and Euros as chances to earn prize money, to which the Fed would be entitled to 10%.

 

[Xela M]

I work in the medical field and the majority of nurses and caretakers here in Germany are Eastern Europeans who work extremely hard, long hours for very little money. None of them would get German citizenship without passing a language test. And these people are saving lives on a daily basis without getting any recognition. Isn't that more exeptional than winning an Olympic medal? Why should Bruno get better treatment than people who actually contribute to German society? Because in the end Germany wouldn't care if Aljona and Bruno would win a medal. Most people don't even know who Aljona is after all these years and another Olympic medal wouldn't change it.
Bruno already gets so many advantages, more than Aljona and Robin ever did because the German fed actually supports them financially. He only had two jobs : skate and pass the damn language test. He had 2 or 3 years to do so.
There are more deserving and hard working people who should be getting German citizenship than Bruno and, as much as I would like to see Aljona at the Olympics, I hope the German government does the right thing and won't just hand him citizenship.

Anyone can be a caretaker. Only Bruno can win Germany pairs Gold at the upcoming Olympics

 

[Dolore]

Anyone can be a caretaker. Only Bruno can win Germany pairs Gold at the upcoming Olympics

You obviously never worked in a hospital or in a retirement home.

And it doesn't change the fact that it's a medal that no one in Germany wants. Nobody would profit from it and if you gave people the choice they would probably completely cut Support for athletes all together because the country has more pressing matters than supporting a figure skater who can't pass a test. If he wants to compete he has to earn it, he doesn't deserve special treatment.

 

[Xela M]

You obviously never worked in a hospital or in a retirement home.

And it doesn't change the fact that it's a medal that no one in Germany wants. Nobody would profit from it and if you gave people the choice they would probably completely cut Support for athletes all together because the country has more pressing matters than supporting a figure skater who can't pass a test. If he wants to compete he has to earn it, he doesn't deserve special treatment.

Germany doesn't care about sports achievements?!?!?! That's hilarious. Good thing I've grown up in Germany and my family still lives there.

 

[Golden1]

May I jump in? I'm a German who has lived in Germany her whole life and personally I agree with Dolore a 100%. Despite being a huge figure skating fan who hopes S/M will take the gold medal, I still think that Bruno has to earn his citizenship just like every other foreigner has to do.
And Germany does care about sports (mostly football and ski sports like biathlon however) but I agree that most people would be against Bruno just getting his citizenship.

 

[Dolore]

Germany doesn't care about sports achievements?!?!?! That's hilarious. Good thing I've grown up in Germany and my family still lives there.

I am German, still living in Germany, and I can assure you that you will have a hard time finding anybody who a) knows who Aljona and Bruno are and b) cares what kind of medal they'd win.
Skating is barely on TV anymore, even the Eurosport commentators recently said they keep showing skating despite low ratings ( when they don't replace it with an overly long game of snooker or tennis), skaters have an extremely hard time to find sponsorship ( and when they do it's not much).
Germany cares about achievements in sport but Germany does not care one bit about figure skating. Aljona and Robin won countless medals for Germany and still nobody gave a damn about them. If Aljona and Bruno won a medal in Korea they would be invited to sit on the couch of ZDF's Olympia Studio for 5 minutes and that’s it. The general population doesn't view skating as a real sport anymore. Last Olympics they only showed the top 4 free programs of most skating diciplines before they switched to some regional and quite unimportant football game. Even Katarina Witt was annoyed by it.

 

[lizafan]

Side note from Grenoble: Nicole Schott is at #10 after SP with 55.54 pts.
(but really worse is that Liza is still behind her with only 53 pts -- things went really bad for her today)

 

[lizafan]

I am German, still living in Germany, and I can assure you that you will have a hard time finding anybody who a) knows who Aljona and Bruno are and b) cares what kind of medal they'd win.

No, I would not agree with that. Ice shows where Aliona & Bruno appear are sold out weeks ahead, and if 3000 people are ready to pay these ticket prices to see them skate you cannot say the nation does not care.
Also, see the ticket prices for the German nationals: they compare with first league soccer matches, and if people are ready to pay this to see Germany's best skaters, it means, they care.

Skating is perhaps not (yet) as commercialized as other sports (and this might be the fault of the federation, or the clubs, or the skaters, or noone's fault) but the money is not necessarily linked to public interest. Look at the ridiculous prize money professional golfers receive -- does anyone in Germany care about golf? (apart from golfers)

 

[text_skate]

Aljona and Robin won countless medals for Germany and still nobody gave a damn about them.

Well, the newspaper Bild did some pieces. In general you're right. A lot of newspapers took Sav/Sol's medals as a chance to do a piece and remind us, how wonderful the times with Kilius/Bäumler were ...

 

[text_skate]

Ice shows where Aliona & Bruno appear are sold out weeks ahead, and if 3000 people are ready to pay these ticket prices to see them skate you cannot say the nation does not care.

I think the general public is not very much interested. We figure skating fans are.

 

[text_skate]

Warsaw: Hocke/Blommaert (58.84) and Haase/Seegert (59.92) are sitting in 3rd resp. 2nd place.

No falls . Close race there . I definitely will watch their programs tomorrow,

Edit: ähm on Sunday

 

[lizafan]

Yes, but each sport has its fan base. The general public is not much interested either in handball, volleyball, swimming, cycling, rugby, judo, .. But all these sports exists in Germany.

 

[Dolore]

No, I would not agree with that. Ice shows where Aliona & Bruno appear are sold out weeks ahead, and if 3000 people are ready to pay these ticket prices to see them skate you cannot say the nation does not care.
Also, see the ticket prices for the German nationals: they compare with first league soccer matches, and if people are ready to pay this to see Germany's best skaters, it means, they care.

Skating is perhaps not (yet) as commercialized as other sports (and this might be the fault of the federation, or the clubs, or the skaters, or noone's fault) but the money is not necessarily linked to public interest. Look at the ridiculous prize money professional golfers receive -- does anyone in Germany care about golf? (apart from golfers)

But nobody watches skating on television and there isn't an active fanbase for skating either. Unfortunately the interest in show skating does not help the amateur side of the sport. Without ratings and big sponsors the sport won't be mainstream.
The success of golf is a mystery to me but it is a huge market apparently and they somehow can afford these outrages amounts of prize money.

 

[Seerek]

Without ratings and big sponsors the sport won't be mainstream.

The key is title sponsors more so than ratings (which in many ways is an overrated metric in the era of streaming live coverage).

BMW has been very helpful with the title sponsorship of the bobsleigh, skeleton and luge World Cups for years, disciplines where Germany is among the top performing countries.

 

[Quadjump]

Warsaw: Hocke/Blommaert (58.84) and Haase/Seegert (59.92) are sitting in 3rd resp. 2nd place.

No falls . Close race there . I definitely will watch their programs tomorrow,

Edit: ähm on Sunday

These are good news.

Looks like we really have a cometition on our hands tomorrow!

Impressive level 3 twist by H/S.

 

[Jeschke]

I am happy for Hase/Seegert and hope they can meet the criteria at least.
H/B had a big boost for confidence with the very generous score at Nebelhorn, which put a lot of pressure on H/S.

The fight seems to be lost though for H/S. But as I said, I think they developed, especially in this short! Great outing!

 

[Jeschke]

and if 3000 people are ready to pay these ticket prices to see them skate you cannot say the nation does not care.

I am no fan of this discussion but have to jump in:
3k outta 82millions, now that's something

 

[Xela M]

Yes, but each sport has its fan base. The general public is not much interested either in handball, volleyball, swimming, cycling, rugby, judo, .. But all these sports exists in Germany.

Ok, this one I know for sure... Handball is absolutely LOVED in Germany. It's almost more loved than football

 

[Jeschke]

Rough outing for Fentz in Warsaw
Fall on the quad, messy axel and 2lz3t
60,18pts.

Fight boy, fight! I like he does not try to play safe. Fentz for Korea!

 

[ice crystal]

May I jump in? I'm a German who has lived in Germany her whole life and personally I agree with Dolore a 100%. Despite being a huge figure skating fan who hopes S/M will take the gold medal, I still think that Bruno has to earn his citizenship just like every other foreigner has to do.
And Germany does care about sports (mostly football and ski sports like biathlon however) but I agree that most people would be against Bruno just getting his citizenship.

The 'likes' on these posts indicate that as well; people want them to miss out, if he hasn't passed. Is it so hard to adopt a more generous mindset? Is there a feel good effect in seeing someone's aspirations shattered, when achieving them doesn't harm anyone? My homeland of choice has a term for it, 'Tall Poppy Syndrome'. Happy to leave the topic on this note.

 

[Jeschke]

Schott slayed big time
7th at French GP with 172,39pts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EAjIH3a8D0

PB for her, getting GP world ranking points (so important to taking advantage of that chance) and above all: big boost on the #olympicrace
(update here tomorrow after CS POL)

I always feared her spot might be still endangered, but hell yeah, this was a big step!

Great Nicole, well done!

 

[Jeschke]

M/D spiced up the #olympicrace in dance: 150,14pts, 5th, new ISU PB

 

[Dolore]

The 'likes' on these posts indicate that as well; people want them to miss out, if he hasn't passed. Is it so hard to adopt a more generous mindset? Is there a feel good effect in seeing someone's aspirations shattered, when achieving them doesn't harm anyone? My homeland of choice has a term for it, 'Tall Poppy Syndrome'. Happy to leave the topic on this note.

No need to jump to conclusions about anybody's intentions...
I have always been a fan of Aljona and I would be extremely sad for her if her Olympic dreams are crushed because of something as simple as a language test. But the question in this thread was if Bruno should get citizenship for exceptional services to Germany and in my opinion his services aren't as exceptional as those of many other immigrants who would be more deserving but would never ever get any of the benefits Bruno has already gotten. In my opinion no person is above the law and the same rules should apply to everybody.
That has nothing to do with wanting to see anybody fail.

 

[Sabine-Yuna]

No need to jump to conclusions about anybody's intentions...
I have always been a fan of Aljona and I would be extremely sad for her if her Olympic dreams are crushed because of something as simple as a language test. But the question in this thread was if Bruno should get citizenship for exceptional services to Germany and in my opinion his services aren't as exceptional as those of many other immigrants who would be more deserving but would never ever get any of the benefits Bruno has already gotten. In my opinion no person is above the law and the same rules should apply to everybody.
That has nothing to do with wanting to see anybody fail.

The difference is that Bruno is not an immigrant. As an EU citizen he has all the rights to work in Germany and whatever anyway. He doesn't need German citizenship for anything except winning an olympic medal for Germany.

 

[Dolore]

The difference is that Bruno is not an immigrant. As an EU citizen he has all the rights to work in Germany and whatever anyway. He doesn't need German citizenship for anything except winning an olympic medal for Germany.

EU citizens are still classified as immigrants tho. Their right to work and move to other countries doesn't change that. And Bruno doesn't want to get a regular job here, he's an athlete and has to obey to IOC rules that have nothing to do with the EU or Germany.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Anyone can be a caretaker. Only Bruno can win Germany pairs Gold at the upcoming Olympics

Gegen Dummheit gibt es keine Pillen...

 

[Jeschke]

Hase/Seegert showed big balls in Warsaw, going all in. Pretty good skate with 3Tw, and 3t-3t-sequence, he only fell on the 3s and seems to run outta speed in the end. he looked not good in the knc, maybe a bit sick.

most important news: they met the criteria in the last chance (167,72pts) and came in 3rd. Their only CS medal was at the same place last year too. Seems like Warsaw is good for them.

H/B had problems with the 3t and came in 4th overall (161,95pts). This will most likely be their delete-result towards the race.

But it's great that H/S met the criteria at leats and had at least one victory against H/B.
Well done folks!

Good job by Blommaert promoting german nationals on the live stream and giving congrats to Schott for her GP outing in the knc

 

[Quadjump]

Hase/Seegert (167.72) won against Hocke/Blommaert (161,95) today. The Olympic race seems to be totally open again?!? I have never expected that.

Both pairs had a main error at the SBS jumps. Hocke looked very disappointed in the Kiss and Cry. Their PCS were definitly low.

Hase/Seegert performed a really stong 3T+3T+Seq but he fell on the 3S. Their weak lifts at the end are something to talk about. His physical skills are too weak! Please, send Nolan to a hill in Berlin and let him run up 1000 times!

 

[Quadjump]

Hase/Seegert showed big balls in Warsaw, going all in. Pretty good skate with 3Tw, and 3t-3t-sequence, he only fell on the 3s and seems to run outta speed in the end. he looked not good in the knc, maybe a bit sick.

most important news: they met the criteria in the last chance (167,72pts) and came in 3rd. Their only CS medal was at the same place last year too. Seems like Warsaw is good for them.

H/B had problems with the 3t and came in 4th overall (161,95pts). This will most likely be their delete-result towards the race.

But it's great that H/S met the criteria at leats and had at least one victory against H/B.
Well done folks!

Good job by Blommaert promoting german nationals on the live stream and giving congrats to Schott for her GP outing in the knc

How is it possible to post as fast as you?