ISU Skating Awards To Debut At 2020 Worlds

[reut]

Thank you @reut!

I giggled a bit about Daniil in the best choreographer category. Loved Tamara is among the best coach nominees.

Yes, me too, absolutely loved Tamara in the list (and voted for her).
Daniil created a lot of "medalling" programs, so I was not surprised to see him in the list, but I indeed wonder based on what it was created, and why some other choreographers are not there.

 

[Japanfan]

Sorry, I see that now.

 

[starrynight]

Coach:
Brian ORSER
Eteri TUTBERIDZE
Marie-France DUBREUIL & Patrice LAUZON
Rafael ARUTYUNYAN
Tamara MOSKVINA

Would have liked to have seen Mishin on this list, but I guess not everyone could be included.

Seems weird that the nominations are out so soon and the big events of the season - GPF, Euros, 4CC haven't happened yet. The Worlds teams haven't been formed, as most countries haven't had their Nationals yet. I've seen fortunes of skaters change a lot in the second half of seasons.

If the nominations are out this early, they can't really reflect the results on the big stage. It's just a sort of popularity contest, isn't it? After all, there could be results at Worlds that make these nominations look silly.

However, this is one unofficial award ceremony I'm looking forward to 'The Unfair Judging Award ' ha ha ha.

 

[barbarafan]

Thank you @floridaice for reminding me to not take this clusterfcuk seriously.
The whole thing is so absurd, and so badly thought out, and the nominees in all categories are seriously
except I must admit to wanting to vote for Chock's snake dress.

I registered last night but haven't rec'd a confirmation email yet.

 

[quartz]

When it comes to class and sophistication I'm at Level: "has taco drippings in her cleavage and can chug a beer and belch like a guy", but even I find this whole award thing so incredibly tacky and low-brow, like something conceived by a bunch of 12 year old's smoking weed for the first time.
I'm still processing that this is really a thing now.

 

[mollymgr]

I have mixed feelings about these awards. It is definitely like a reality show with the fan voting part. We all know that the intent of reality shows is creating drama for "entertainment".The only positive I am looking forward to is the better production of the final exhibition after Worlds which may attract more viewership.
The ISU is trying. They are popularizing skating by live streaming GP events in several countries. That's a positive step. +5 GOE for that. (Their handling of GOE is another story )
This award thing is pointless to be concerned about. It won't last if it gets too controversial (which is where it might be headed ).

 

[Gris]

It seems that ISU heard the complaint about Shulepov's offensive costume being nominated. Now the nomination goes to his SP costume instead.

ETA: ISU made an apology on Twitter.

Twitter

 

[victorskid]

But have they corrected all the website issues that were happened yesterday??

 

[mollymgr]

It seems that ISU heard the complaint about Shulepov's offensive costume being nominated. Now the nomination goes to his SP costume instead.

ETA: ISU made an apology on Twitter.

Twitter

The twitter responses...

 

[Alilou]

The twitter responses...

Are much deserved.

 

[yuna13fr]

I can't even contemplate that Romain Haguenauer, Benoit Richaud and David Wilson are not listed in the choreographers section. That in itself is a tragedy for this trio who have designed some of the most remarkable programs in recent memory.

I am really tired to see how Romain work as a Coach and Choreographer is underrated.
Vogue and Fame it's him.

 

[Aerobicidal]

I echo the idea that we need an alternative set of nominees and winners for FSU. For coach, I would nominate the following:

Mozer (for iconic fashion and endless quotability)
Platonova (for iconic fashion and hair)
Tamura (for obvious reasons)
Tsareva (for future appearances in the K&C with her daughter, among other things)
Savchenko (for never hesitating to fire students)

 

[Ananas Astra]

The twitter responses...

A shitstorm for the ages!

 

[muffinplus]

A shitstorm for the ages!

While a shitform is definitely appropriate I notice that a lot of ISU hate comments (not on this alone) are from a rather crazy section of fanyus.. seriously why is that section of his fanbase so :

That Fair Skating Union account ...

 

[misskarne]

I registered last night but haven't rec'd a confirmation email yet.

Check your junk/spam folder, mine went there.

 

[mollymgr]

Check your junk/spam folder, mine went there.

Mine went there too. I guess my mail filter is smarter than I thought and is trying to send me a message.

 

[Tinami Amori]

The Russians are dominated in the nominations:

Russia 44
etc..

Ari has a lot of clients in Russia and from former USSR republics. He wants more, all of them.... This is a power-grab on his part. He wants to play a major role in popularity of skaters so that they and their coaches work through him. It's a tactic and a manipulation.

I don't care if he held this event for retired/professional skaters, but not for amateur/competing skaters. While competing skaters have to have sponsors and skate in shows, to finance their training and to sustain themselves, this type of "commercially laced" influence is taking the sport, that is already accused of subjective judging, in a very wrong direction.

 

[GarrAargHrumph]

The twitter responses...

Are much deserved.

Boy, are they. That "apology" reads like BS.

 

[anonymoose_au]

It seems that ISU heard the complaint about Shulepov's offensive costume being nominated. Now the nomination goes to his SP costume instead.

ETA: ISU made an apology on Twitter.

Twitter

Well, that should get the gong for greatest asspull.

Beyond that who even remembers Anton S's SP costume? The ISU would have been better off admitting the mistake and putting an actual best costume entry.

Also further to the most unfair judging award, I nominate the Finnish judge who gave Liza T's stunning 3 Lutz from a transition a ZERO.

Also anyone who's ever judged Nastya Tarakanova's PCS.

 

[VGThuy]

This is a sh*t show.

 

[aftershocks]

Registration is required before anyone can vote:

Ah, they want us to register, do they? Smacks to me of trying to keep track of and monitor figure skating fandom. That's not necessarily bad on their part, depending on how they use the information they compile. Frankly, I wish TPTB would spend more time and attention on figuring out how to bring the sport fully into the 21st century in ways that benefit the athletes and the sport's growth! This awards show is honestly not one of those ways. It's a fun diversion.

ETA:
Re choreographer category, I'd have to go with either Raf or Moskvina, tilting more toward Moskvina simply because of her age, her legendary status, and her badass coaching career, as well as her over-sized personality contained in such a small package! She's a small package of delightful dynamite!

In the choreographer category, all nominees are great, except for Danny G who belongs nowhere near this category. There's simply NO excuse. Benoit Richaud, Pasquale Camerlengo, Christopher Dean, Julie Marcotte, Jeff Buttle, Rohene Ward, David Wilson, Massimo Scali, Stephane Lambiel and even Cindy Stuart, Renee Roca, Yuka Sato, and Sarah Kawahara belong in the category before someone like wannabe Danny G. Even Charlie White, AdaRipp, Jeremy Abbott, Alexander Johnson, and Guillaume Cizeron are more skilled and creative in their current budding great choreographer status.

 

[starrynight]

What is Shulepov's costume even meant to be? I see the concentration camp prisoner uniform part, but what is the other overlay meant to represent?

It's a bit much from the ISU to pretend they meant to nominate the short program costume when it's actually just plain training clothes.

I sort of also wonder if they actually meant to nominate Papadakis/Cizeron's rhythm dance costumes and listed the free dance ones by mistake. I'm still so confused about that. The RD costumes are really fun and interesting and the FD costume is literally black training clothes.

 

[VGThuy]

A friend of mine messaged me with The Guardian's story on this:

ISU apologises after nominating 'offensive' Auschwitz uniform for costume of year

The International Skating Union has reversed its decision to nominate an ‘irresponsible and offensive’ costume made up of Auschwitz uniforms for its end of year awards

www.theguardian.com

I hope the ISU feels these awards are worth the publicity they're getting now.

 

[starrynight]

I have no objection to skaters choosing Schindler's List music, but I kind of feel like the skaters and coaches ought to be capable of explaining exactly why the music and the history of it personally means something to them and exactly what message they genuinely want to portray.

If a thought process like that went into the choosing and creation of a Schindler's List program, then maybe we wouldn't get so many of these tacky halloween style costumes. I think that it's just become War Horse music and some costume designer thought this would be edgy and different and no one stopped to think and then this all happens.

I think that tragedy and horror can be dealt with very effectively through art -- Ghost Dances by Christopher Bruce immediately comes to mind - but it has to be done really thoughtfully.

And to be honest, a very very small number of skaters have the talent to not only pull off a competitive program, but to artistically send a profound message as well.

Honesty, if skaters want to be dark and skate around in grey, there's plenty of Ludovico Einaudi or Max Richter music they could choose. I say Schindler's List shouldn't be used unless a skater really really has a message they want to portray.

 

[Orm Irian]

Boy, are they. That "apology" reads like BS.

It doesn't even achieve the status of a notpology. I thought at least they'd manage to get out a coherent 'we apologise if anyone's feelings were hurt', but nope...

 

[GarrAargHrumph]

What is Shulepov's costume even meant to be? I see the concentration camp prisoner uniform part, but what is the other overlay meant to represent?

From reports, the other half is supposed to be a guard at the camp. A guard. At. the. concentration. camp. :blinks:

Per The Guardian:

This year, Russia’s Anton Shulepov has competed in the free skate program to the theme from Schindler’s List, wearing a costume that uses elements of prisoner and guard uniforms from Auschwitz, where more than one million Jews, Poles, Roma and prisoners of war were killed by the Nazi regime during the second world war.

 

[Khaleesi]

No Hubbell/Donahue.

Lol that sucks. We all already know Yuzuru is going to win all categories he’s entered in.

 

[overedge]

The fact that the ISU tried to pretend it meant to nominate Shulepov's other costume (dark turtleneck and pants) instead of the "genocide cosplay" outfit (as one Tweet described it) just blew any credibility these awards might have ever had.

IMO the Russian fed wants to win as many awards as possible, and strong-armed the ISU into switching the nomination from one outfit to the other, instead of canceling the nomination. That's the only explanation I can think of for this trainwreck.

 

[starrynight]

The fact that the ISU tried to pretend it meant to nominate Shulepov's other costume (dark turtleneck and pants) instead of the "genocide cosplay" outfit (as one Tweet described it) just blew any credibility these awards might have ever had.

IMO the Russian fed wants to win as many awards as possible, and strong-armed the ISU into switching the nomination from one outfit to the other, instead of canceling the nomination. That's the only explanation I can think of for this trainwreck.

I think the easy way out was taken. Say it was an administrative error and no explanation has to be given.

If it was just Russian nominees required, there are many Russian ladies with beautiful costumes who could have been subbed in on their merit alone.

I expect the ISU was trying to add some men to the quota and then found a costume in Shulepov's that wasn't just plain pants and plain top and added him blindly - and then subbed in the plain pants and plain top. But honestly, if the ladies are going to the huge expense and trouble of elaborate costumes then they should be rewarded for it -- and not have others with cheap training outfits getting nominations instead.

There are men who make a lot of effort with costumes each year - Hanyu, Uno come to mind immediately.

 

[aftershocks]

From reports, the other half is supposed to be a guard at the camp. A guard. At. the. concentration. camp. :blinks:

Per The Guardian:

My word, I never examined Shulepov's costume that closely, and I didn't even much remember that he skated to Schindler's List either, until Jeschke recently reminded me in a Trash Can thread. He's a cute, young up-and-coming skater, without any huge buzz surrounding his skating abilities thus far. That's really a poor choice of costume, and it's a fairly awful design choice to make. What were Shulepov and his designer thinking??? Double that for the ISU!!!

At this stage of Shulepov's career, skating to SL, and trying to express anything about the music and the meaning behind it are way beyond his arsenal and wheelhouse. How sad it is for him to get this kind of attention for such a poor choice. Again, I really didn't even really notice what he was wearing or skating to because however cute he is, I only saw the effort he was making to get through the performance, moving from jump to jump without him paying any attention to the music.

Contrast that with Roman Sadovsky's at least understated costume and elegant skating. Tackling SL is even beyond Romsky's talents at this point, but his program is a bit more memorable due to his superior talent. Jason Brown does a good job with his version of SL. But if we truly want to see a skating program that does justice to this music and its meaning, we need to revisit the original, please. The ISU needs to posthaste create and promote a category honoring Greatest Iconic Programs of the Past (Eligible and Professional). Thank you Paul Wylie and Mary Scotvold: This is the performance to SL that inspired the music's current popularity in skating

Paul Wylie, Schindler's List, World Pro Landover Artistic 1994-1995 (USTV)

And he called it a flop? Paul Wylie's artistic interpretation of the music from "Schindler's List" composed by John Williams at the 1994 World Professional C...

www.youtube.com

I'd forgotten that Jonathan Cassar (a good choreographer and a memorable skater), also performed to SL in 2010; and Joshua Farris won a silver medal at 4CCs with his SL fp in 2015:

Jonathan Cassar - 2010 National FS - Schindler's List

www.youtube.com

2015 4CC - Joshua Farris FS B.ESP2

www.youtube.com