2025 Skate Canada Womens FS PBP - I Screamed a Scream

[viennese]

It was great skating but wish it was lyric free R&J.

I think she would do better - even better! - with any of the classical Romeo and Juliet music.

 

[PRlady]

I thought Mone’s skating was lovely and the costume a beautiful stylized version of classic Juliet.

That said, she didn’t hold my attention like Isabeau, Lara and even Ami skating to that saccharine music did. There’s something Generic Japanese Skater about Mone. Aoki may have small jumps but she’s 100 times more interesting.

 

[Wyliefan]

I think Mone has potential in the personality department, but she's not quite there yet.

 

[AYS]

I hate when the technical panel becomes the story of the competition. I’m in the minority around here, but I’m not a fan of extremely stringent calling in general, but especially when there are inconsistencies.

 

[SkateFanBerlin]

I hate when the technical panel becomes the story of the competition. I’m in the minority around here, but I’m not a fan of extremely stringent calling in general, but especially when there are inconsistencies.

Hmmmm....I agree. What if the tech panel gave an opinion which the judge could use as an input. I`ve seen a beautiful jump, position, height, flow out only to have all that ignored in an automatic lowering of GOE. (I`m not pretending to know the rules. Just a dedicated fan)

 

[clairecloutier]

Inconsistent calling in the women’s SP was unfair.

Very stringent calling in the women’s FS revealed problems with pretty much everyone’s jumps. A night that actually had a lot of great performances turned into Chris saying, “Well this is a Q … and this is a Q … another Q … edge call … underrotation … 10 points off the tech score,” etc. etc.

Just feels like, overall, there must be some better way.

 

[Karen-W]

Inconsistent calling in the women’s SP was unfair.

Very stringent calling in the women’s FS revealed problems with pretty much everyone’s jumps. A night that actually had a lot of great performances turned into Chris saying, “Well this is a Q … and this is a Q … another Q … edge call … underrotation … 10 points off the tech score,” etc. etc.

Just feels like, overall, there must be some better way.

Yes, it's a drag, whether it's in the pbp thread or from the commentator, to hear the constant harping on the jump rotations.

And while it was nice to have the tech panel at least looking at the jumps during the FS, the damage had already been done in the SP. If Mone's jumps had been called properly, she probably still would have won but she wouldn't have won by as much as she did. The non-calls in the SP were egregious enough to have pissed off the entire fandom - FSTW was LIT about the inconsistencies on Friday night - and rightly so.

The ISU needs to spend their precious money not on marketing "geniuses" who are pushing for viral moments but rather on the technology (video, AI, whatever) that will make the tech panel obsolete with accurately calling the jump & twist rotations, properly identifying lift entrances, and skater positions in death spirals & spins.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I don’t find it a drag at all:either the element meets the requirements, or it doesn’t. This isn’t Stars on Ice. It’s disappointing when a skater looks superficially wonderful, but doesn’t meet the requirements.

Craig Buntin worked on the technology over a decade ago. And that was using sensors, not more robust AI, which Sportlogiq’s current products are built around. One of the markets is Youth Leagues, so not just major sports leagues with multi-billion dollar TV contracts. The technology is there. The ISU has chosen not to go there.

Inconsistent and unpredictable officiating always sucks, and it’s always there. You see inconsistency it with stars not being called for fouls, but non-stars who cover the stars being called for them, as one example. You see unpredictability when it isn’t just “hands off” at the end of a tight game, but consistency before that.

 

[her grace]

The ISU needs to spend their precious money not on marketing "geniuses" who are pushing for viral moments but rather on the technology (video, AI, whatever) that will make the tech panel obsolete with accurately calling the jump & twist rotations, properly identifying lift entrances, and skater positions in death spirals & spins.

But then how would they prop up the favorites? Seriously, calling is one way they make sure the “right” people win. Of course, if TES became more scientific and unbiased, they’d still use PCS to counteract the objective marks.

 

[PRlady]

True. I was explaining PCS to DH again last night and he asked who decides if X presentation is better than Y. He thought Aoki was the best “presenter” but also liked Sarah’s Poor Things.

I did point out that there are some quasi-objective components not so readily visible on TV (depth of edge, glide) and some really visible (posture, pumping crossovers, missed connections in dance and pairs) but it’s not an easy argument to win.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Some of you really hit the nail on the head, I did not come to the play-by-play threads last night because after the women’s program, it was depressing. All u hear at the end of someone’s program is a Q here a Q there an under rotation here another Q here, and an edge call here, we didn’t hear this intensity in China last week or in Angers.

Also, the same commentator is getting on my nerves because I feel like I know everything he’s gonna say he has the same five phrases and puts them on repeat I don’t know I didn’t find skate Canada that enjoyable. I should just switch over to KTM.

 

[Coco]

I don't mind stringent grading so long as it's fair, consistent and feasible.

It's just odd to me that the technical panel is required to measure rotation to a literal degree, but without the proper technology to truly do so.

There is a political history to the obsession with rotation that is seemingly baked into IJS. Maybe that is clouding my view, but it's no longer driving the sport forward. Even with nothing but good intentions it is called so inconsistently that it is off putting to casual fans.

Rotation is an extremely important aspect of a jump. But so are the speed carried in, the takeoff and both the speed and trajectory carried out of the landing.

Either measure all those things to the same standard, or don't. Right now, one is measured by the technical panel and the others by the judges.

 

[kwanfan1818]

If I’m watching gymnastics as a casual fan, I have no idea whether the judging is fair/consistently applied. But I know there are things that the panel is looking for, and that I wouldn’t necessarily recognize them. I rely on commentators onscreen or here to tell me when things are rotten in Denmark.

I don’t know why casual skating fans are any different, ie, if they wouldn’t just think that there’s more to it than they know and listen to at least some of the commentators who explain it and pass on what the technical panel is doing and how the scores are changing, or not. It hasn’t been that many years that the announcers admitted that they were given access, not that they were spying on the screens, and that they’ve been willing to pass on the info.

 

[MacMadame]

If I’m watching gymnastics as a casual fan, I have no idea whether the judging is fair/consistently applied. But I know there are things that the panel is looking for, and that I wouldn’t necessarily recognize them. I rely on commentators onscreen or here to tell me when things are rotten in Denmark.

I don’t know why casual skating fans are any different, ie, if they wouldn’t just think that there’s more to it than they know and listen to at least some of the commentators who explain it and pass on what the technical panel is doing and how the scores are changing, or not. It hasn’t been that many years that the announcers admitted that they were given access, not that they were spying on the screens, and that they’ve been willing to pass on the info.

I loved it when Chris talked about how many points a skater lost by messing up a move. It be even better if there was someone behind the scenes doing the math to put it in context and feed it to him. (I don't think this is easy to do while a program is going on and you are commenting so it needs a behind-the-scenes person, too.)

ETA or explain it during the replay when there is more time to see how it all played out.