Ditch & Switch. When a skater dumps a program mid-season.

[Tak]

2017-2018
Gilles and Poirier started out with this Perry Mason program:

- YouTube

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Before switching to James Bond at Canadian Nationals:

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I liked that Perry Mason program - I wish they kept it.

I also loved Isabeau's snake program - she was skating it so well too. Why did she change it?

 

[just tuned in]

Samantha Cesario ditched Titanic long program for Carmen long program.

 

[canbelto]

Michelle Kwan ditched "Rush" to go back to East of Eden in 2000. Too bad. I liked Rush.

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[sadya]

Ukrainians Irina Romanova & Igor Yaroshenko had a different FD for the 1996-1997 season, but switched back to Zorba the Greek from the previous sesason for Worlds:
Irina Romanova & Igor Yaroshenko UKR - 1997 European Championships FD

Irina Romanova & Igor Yaroshenko UKR - 1997 European Championships FD

CD : 6th, OD : 6th, FD : 6th, 6th placeJan. 21st-25th, POPB, Paris, FRA

www.youtube.com

Irina Romanova & Igor Yaroshenko UKR - 1997 World Figure Skating Championships Free Dance

Irina Romanova & Igor Yaroshenko UKR - 1997 World Figure Skating Championships Free Dance

CD : 8th, OD : 8th, FD : 8th, 8th placeMarch 16th-23rd, Lausanne, SUI

www.youtube.com

For the 1995-1996 season Tanja Szewczenko skated to Crazy for you, but didn't do well so she switched back to her lp from the previous season (Miss Saigon):
Tanja Szewczenko GER - 1996 European Championships LP

Tanja Szewczenko GER - 1996 European Championships LP

SP : 3rd, LP : 5th, 5th placeJan. 22nd-28th, Sofia, BUL

www.youtube.com

Tanja Szewczenko GER - 1996 World Championships LP

Tanja Szewczenko GER - 1996 World Championships LP

QB : 3rd, SP : 5th, LP : 6th, 6th placeMarch 17th-24th, Edmonton, CAN

www.youtube.com

 

[Wyliefan]

Interestingly, Isabeau did better this week with the brand new short program than with the tried and tested long program.

 

[Marco]

Michelle Kwan ditched "Rush" to go back to East of Eden in 2000. Too bad. I liked Rush.

- YouTube

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It would be great if she had stuck with Rush for 2000-1 and only debuted EoE for 2001-2 Olympic season.

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

It would be great if she had stuck with Rush for 2000-1 and only debuted EoE for 2001-2 Olympic season.

Agreed. I always thought returning to her 1997/98 short program for the 2001/02 Olympic season was misguided. It simply didn't have the freshness and spark from four years prior.

Also, Sarah Kawahara's Scheherezade long seemed very safe, and lacking in originality compared to Kwan's previous choices.

Going it alone without a coach was either very brave (or insane). But, only Kwan can answer that question.

 

[caseyedwards]

Khoklova was so great in Firebird that it was hard to believe it was a replacement! In the Grand Prix k/N had something weird and bizarre but Firebird was so perfect and choreo and lifts were so great it’s hard to believe they did it in a month!

Dumped program

Jana KHOKHLOVA & Sergei NOVITSKI Cup of China 2009 FD - YouTube

Changed program

Khokhlova & Novitski - 2010 Olympics FD - Firebird - YouTube

 

[Marco]

Sarah Kawahara's Scheherezade long seemed very safe, and lacking in originality compared to Kwan's previous choices.

I am pretty sure Sarah's original version for Michelle was not at all what we saw at the Olympics.

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

I am pretty sure Sarah's original version for Michelle was not at all what we saw at the Olympics.

Agreed. It looked very watered down and stripped of the complex choreography for which Kwan is known. Very much a sign of Kwan's free skates from that season on.

 

[Private Citizen]

Agreed. I always thought returning to her 1997/98 short program for the 2001/02 Olympic season was misguided. It simply didn't have the freshness and spark from four years prior.

I agree with you that the program lacked freshness and spark, but the strategy worked. It was enough to win the short (controversially*), which ended up giving the gold medal to Sarah Hughes instead of Irina Slutskaya. Given that she hadn't been beating a clean Slutskaya in the short, I have to give the nod to this move. I do believe there was some cheating going on, with some "Eastern bloc" judges, e.g., BLR and possibly SVK, intentionally voting for Kwan in the short program so that they could hand Slutskaya the free skate with a sub-par performance and then claim they weren't biased.

*Under COP standards, I believe Kwan would have gotten 3F< (borderline <<), which may have knocked her out of the top 3. Slutskaya and Butyrskaya would have been 1-2 for sure, unless Cohen miraculously got a 3Lz! rather than an e.

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

I agree with you that the program lacked freshness and spark, but the strategy worked. It was enough to win the short (controversially*), which ended up giving the gold medal to Sarah Hughes instead of Irina Slutskaya. Given that she hadn't been beating a clean Slutskaya in the short, I have to give the nod to this move. I do believe there was some cheating going on, with some "Eastern bloc" judges, e.g., BLR and possibly SVK, intentionally voting for Kwan in the short program so that they could hand Slutskaya the free skate with a sub-par performance and then claim they weren't biased.

*Under COP standards, I believe Kwan would have gotten 3F< (borderline <<), which may have knocked her out of the top 3. Slutskaya and Butyrskaya would have been 1-2 for sure, unless Cohen miraculously got a 3Lz! rather than an e.

I wonder how much this result (on top of the pairs' controversy), influenced the creation and introduction of IJS.

 

[coppertop1]

I wonder how much this result (on top of the pairs' controversy), influenced the creation and introduction of IJS.

I think it was the pairs scandal and the controversy in ice dance at Worlds was the final death nail in the 6.0 coffin

 

[buffyfan02]

I am pretty sure Sarah's original version for Michelle was not at all what we saw at the Olympics.

Don’t forget she premiered the program the summer of 2001 at the goodwill games. The initial choreography and some of the layout was changed so much by the time of nationals.

Michelle Kwan - 2001 Goodwill Games (Scheherazade) TNT

youtu.be

And I always thought EoE was meant for the Olympic year, perhaps even a redone long program.