ISU Skating Awards To Debut At 2020 Worlds

[VGThuy]

I think there are some generous readings regarding why that costume was nominated because I truly believe some people with nominating power and some truly bad taste truly liked that costume and the "idea" behind it and agreed to nominate it. I mean there are people like that out there...people who designs these costumes and programs...and probably some defending the choice as we speak.

 

[aftershocks]

^^ Sure, but sensitivity to the subject matter is necessary, or why go there at all to even choose the music? Probably, Eteri and Lipnitskaya are the ones who brought the music to greater visibility and popularity at the 2014 Olympics. It was only the recall of Paul Wylie's performance among the skating community via FSU, that apparently got the ball rolling for the sudden popular use of SL (maybe around the time Cassar selected it). In 2012-2013, Elene Gedevanishvilli used SL for her sp, which may be how Eteri got the inspiration for Lipnitskaya.

SC2012 Elene GEDEVANISHVILI SP

Schindlers List

www.youtube.com

Yulia Lipnitskaya's Phenomenal Free Program - Team Figure Skating | Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics

Relive the amazing free program of Russia's 15 year old Yulia Lipnitskaya from the Team Figure Skating event at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games as she scores an...

www.youtube.com

IMO the Russian fed wants to win as many awards as possible...

Naturally. It's no surprise that's Rusfed's aim and statistically quite often their reward, particularly in certain disciplines over the years.

 

[Tinami Amori]

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

This is not correct. Prison guards wore uniforms, not a civilian jacket with a shirt and a tie.... . (my grandfather's brother survived a nazi prison camp, has a tattoo and 1001 stories).
Oskar Schindler wore that kind of clothes instead.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/P8SS2x_rkuk/maxresdefault.jpg

https://miro.medium.com/max/3832/1*8Re7BfIufNaIpiLobtIVGg.png

The real story takes place at Krakow-Plaszow labor camp in Ploland. The guards wore this (from their museum).

https://i.imgur.com/WxAK02o.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xhrXEpk.png

Or, it is a symbolic transfer from "civilian clothes to prison clothes".

Actually, some concentration camps survivors like to make sure that people remember ALL the details, including prison uniforms and yellow stars of David, and re-create them so that "nobody forgets".

https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Ed-Mosberg-carrying-the-Torah-at-the-2017-March-of-the-Living-between-Auschwitz-and-Birkenau.jpg

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/82256000/jpg/_82256956_survivros.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSWq8Kktwx3WCJw6Ua1R7BMEM0SmVGJdlCI4_lKJaON2U4kz0Zy&s

https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2017/06/Holocaust-Survivor-Fi_Horo-4-e1496974152496.jpg

some even wear it as part of regular clothes sometimes...

https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/newshour/app/uploads/2015/01/RTR4MBYG-1024x682.jpg

My parents and relatives (who had parents and family members die in Baby Yar and camps) actually treasure and re-watch every skating programme about holocaust there is.. Ilinykh/Katzalapov's, "Life is Beautiful" with Navka, they loved Satoko's Star of David dress, Lipnitskaya's "Red Coat"... Not only they are not offended, they welcome it and cry...

I can't tell people "when and how" to be offended...... But! don't you think that "truly offended" can only be those who directly suffered and their families? All the PC-hype "how offensive this is" to the new Peanut Gallery is a bit too much...

 

[Tinami Amori]

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.

Naturally. It's no surprise that's Rusfed's aim and statistically quite often their reward, particularly in certain disciplines over the years.

Russian Feds have nothing to do with this. It's Ari's invention for financial gains and control. Russians Feds would be "loosing some power" to him, and had nothing to do with him, nor have yet taken this seriously.

The "news" are listed so far on are on only two sources. The bloggers' site, and a betting brokers' site...

ISU Skating Awards. Номинанты в категориях фанатского голосования

С 1 декабря 2019 по 10 февраля 2020 пройдет голосование в нововведении этого сезона - премии ISU Skating Awards

www.sports.ru

ISU Skating Awards 2020: номинанты, победители, церемония

ISU Skating Awards 2020 - первая премия в области фигурного катания. Список номинантов ISU Skating Awards 2020, категории, голосование. Победители премии

bonus-betting.ru

It's all been arranged with ISU, so that is where the complaints should go....

 

[starrynight]

I think there are some generous readings regarding why that costume was nominated because I truly believe some people with nominating power and some truly bad taste truly liked that costume and the "idea" behind it and agreed to nominate it. I mean there are people like that out there...people who designs these costumes and programs...and probably some defending the choice as we speak.

I just found this article that was written when Tatiana Navka did that routine to Life is Beautiful dressed fully in concentration camp uniforms.

‘Auschwitz on Ice’ is perfectly fine in Russia, where the Holocaust is not about the Jews

Only after the fall of the Iron Curtain were former Soviet Union countries able to access information about a 'Jewish' genocide during the 'Great Patriotic War.' Today, critics claim history is again being rewritten

www.timesofisrael.com

I thought it was an interesting read - although of course I have no first hand knowledge myself on the topic so would be interested in other's opinions.

 

[aftershocks]

Russian Feds have nothing to do with this. It's Ari's invention for financial gains and control. Russians Feds would be "loosing some power" to him, and had nothing to do with him, nor have yet taken this seriously.

So what? Rusfed still likes winning, by any means necessary.

 

[Tinami Amori]

So what? Rusfed still likes winning, by any means necessary.

that is such a dumb logic... Most people like winning, when "winning" has some meaning, value or benefit to them. This dumb show is of no value to most people and federations..

 

[aftershocks]

Ah, I doubt Rusfed et al are exactly put-out about so many Russians nominated in many categories. Playing dumb about how figure skating-related winning is important to Russians doesn't hold water. Of course, the most important and coveted wins are competition-related. But awards of any kind in connection with skating and athletics in general are surely welcomed by the Russian public and by the Russian government, no matter how much of a 'free agent' Ari Zakarian is supposed to be.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Ah, I doubt Rusfed et al are exactly put-out about so many Russians nominated in many categories. Playing dumb about how figure skating-related winning is important to Russians doesn't hold water. Of course, the most important and coveted wins are competition-related. But awards of any kind in connection with skating and athletics in general are surely welcomed by the Russian public and by the Russian government, no matter how much of a 'free agent' Ari Zakarian is supposed to be.

That's your imagination at work, and it brought you to the wrong conclusion..

 

[Japanfan]

That's your imagination at work, and it brought you to the wrong conclusion..

And the right conclusion is?

 

[aftershocks]

That's your imagination at work, and it brought you to the wrong conclusion..

Your imagination and drum-beating gets you the win then in this latest extremely non-important back-and-forth stand-off on FSU.

Tinami Amori FTW

 

[Tinami Amori]

And the right conclusion is?

The right questions are: is this of any benefit to Rus Fed? have the Rus Feds shown any interest in this?
The answers are: no to both.

Ari's idea was discussed earlier in 2019 with a RIA sports journalist, and it was nothing more than a "fantasy idea" to get popularity "like the Kardashians". Ari makes money from this, yes... Has more power with skaters and coaches...... He, Ari..... not the Russian Feds....

Красная дорожка – Вайцеховская об итогах ледового сезона

Турнир World Team Trophy, завершившийся в Фукуоке, подвел черту под сезоном в фигурном катании. Елена Вайцеховская вспоминает наиболее яркие моменты сезона и... РИА Новости Спорт, 13.04.2019

rsport.ria.ru

The others who are "interested" are betting sites and on-line casinos.....

ISU Skating Awards 2020: претенденты и номинации - LoginCasino

Международный союз конькобежцев объявил о специальной премии в фигурном катании, аналоге «Золотого мяча». В числе претендентов – много россиян

logincasino.com

This is not a good turn for competitive skating, when betting sites are more interested than the Federation..
Can't believe ISU agreed to this... starting to wonder what Ari offered them..

 

[misskarne]

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.

Sadovsky's literally has a bloody gash in the side which is also extremely tacky and inappropriate.

 

[aftershocks]

^^ And I didn't notice that either, nor would I especially term a fairly unobstrusive bloody gash depicted on a SL figure skating costume as 'tacky' necessarily. Nor do I believe Shulepov and Sadovsky had the intention or motivation to be offensive in mind when their costumes were designed. Albeit that Shulepov's costume has raised more eyebrows and hairs on the backs of some people's heads.

 

[Vash01]

I can’t find the list of nominees, so I will pull them out of the air.

Best Newcomer - Kostornaia
Most valuable skater - Hanyu
Best costume - Medvedeva LP
Best coach - Moskvina
Best choreography - Chock Bates FD
Best music- Singing in the rain (SINITSINA KATSALAPOV)
Most entertaining skater-PAPADAKIS CIZERON

 

[aftershocks]

Can't believe ISU agreed to this... starting to wonder what Ari offered them.

Ari has some sway apparently with the ISU and on the figure skating playing field, and thou doth protest too much methinks regarding Rusfed's utter disinterest in and nonchalance about this latest fs-related project.

Best music- Singing in the rain (SINITSINA KATSALAPOV)

You have to be kidding re this way overused, approaching warhorse category music selection

 

[overedge]

Red streaks running down the entire side length of someone's torso is "fairly unobtrusive"? Alrighty then.

 

[starrynight]

I saw a suggestion on twitter that the award for best costume should go to the designer and I 100% agree.

This tweet was referenced in relation to how the designer of Medvedeva's Geisha costume made that costume. Apparently Medvedeva wanted it to be very very light, and so it was made out of net and each flower petal was made from chiffon and individually cut and the dress came to weigh only 300g.

It's that kind of mastery that should be awarded and the award should be given to the designers and makers of these dresses.

I'd like to see a nominations list including:

Olga Ryabenko: who churns out a million very beautiful and cleverly designed dresses for all of Eteri's girls each season. Very effective use of elastic and stretch I understand so costumes can be pulled on as one piece with no opportunity for malfunctions.

Satomi Ito: who made Medvedeva's and Yuzuru's costumes.

Brad Griffies: who produces a lot of beautiful traditionally stoned dresses.

Lisa McKinnon: who has made Mariah Bell's dresses (and lots of beautiful ones for Wagner). I've always liked her use of airbrushing.

Mathieu Caron who makes costumes for a lot of Montreal skaters including Madison Chock's snake dress.

This season, I would give the award to Ryabenko. A huge part of the Eteri girls' presentation is those impeccable costumes. It would be very nice for her to be publicly rewarded for that. The pressure she would be under to keep delivering would be a lot.

The dress makers and designers who make classy and well designed costumes are such a valuable part of this sport -- as much of the discussion in this thread ought to indicate.

 

[PRlady]

Cross posting from the Russia thread, I got PMs today on Twitter from several people who know I love skating and worked in the Jewish world. I tweeted links to Jason’s and Satoko’s programs as examples of the material being handled sensitively. (I thought Lipniskaya did as well.)

But I’m leery of Holocaust “art” in general, most of it is bad and not just in skating. And the ISU fecked up in a big way today, no surprise.

 

[aftershocks]

Red streaks running down the entire side length of someone's torso is "fairly unobtrusive"? Alrighty then.

I have a short memory for less than memorable skating outfits apparently. I must have been too busy admiring Romsky's lovely, statuesque physique, budding confidence, and smooth, elegant moves across the ice to be over-worried about what reddish streaks down the side of his largely shades of gray costume were supposed to signify.

From the only pic I can find, the red looks rather abstract to me. It could be meant to signify Spielberg's red-coated little girl, in an abstract cine-magic sorta way.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.5370993.1574523301!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/image.jpg

In any case, I guess over-emotional figure skating fans are prone to active imaginations. If a better pic can be found demonstrating the 'offensiveness' of the red streaks, please do share.

 

[Tada]

Why isn’t Sui Han’s free program on the list for entertaining programs? It’s so bizarre that they are shaded this way.

 

[Daena]

Jesus Christ, Gleikhengauz? Гомер, Мильтон и Паниковский.

 

[aftershocks]

Well, let's admire some really lovely costumes, as well as gorgeous skating and choreo!

Jessica CALALANG / Brian JOHNSON USA SP Warsaw Cup 2019

Jessica CALALANG / Brian JOHNSON USA SP Warsaw Cup 2019

www.youtube.com

Jessica CALALANG & Brian JOHNSON USA Free Skate 2019 Warsaw Cup

Jessica CALALANG & Brian JOHNSON USA Free Skate 2019 Warsaw Cup

www.youtube.com

 

[nimi]

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.

SkatingScores has another theory that appeals to people like me, who feel that Hanlon's razor ("Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity") explains quite a few things about organizations like ISU...

My head canon: they had to leave him on the nomination list & make up the whole “whoopsie wrong program” story because they don’t know how to do the minor database migration to remove him and his existing votes from the database. But swapping a pic+caption is easy.

 

[Andrey aka Pushkin]

Some award suggestions:

• most entertaining K&C antics
• most horrific stare by a coach
• most horrific stare by a teammate
• best disguise of mistake
• best acting of good job after a flawed performance
• best indifference to music
• most outrageous call by a technical specialist
• most outrageous GOE given by a judge
• most outrageous PCS given by a judge
• most telegraphed set up to a jump
• least aesthetically pleasing spin position
• best non-element field move

Interestingly enough, all won by Tutberidze.

 

[taz'smum]

My votes, as if anyone cares:

Newcomer: Kostornaia
Most valuable skater: Nathan Chen
Best costume: Popova/Mozgov RD
Most entertaining program: Sakamoto LP

I've gone with PM and Kostornaia too, she is the complete package and how can you not vote for PM, those costumes are so epic!

 

[Tinami Amori]

Ari has some sway apparently with the ISU and on the figure skating playing field, and thou doth protest too much methinks regarding Rusfed's utter disinterest in and nonchalance about this latest fs-related project.

I protest stupidity, but don't need to protest RusFed's "secret interest", as they have not uttered a word, about this stupid popularity contest, on their website in the last 2 months, or now when it is "the news". Not a word or a mention....

Федерация фигурного катания на коньках России

Официальный сайт Федерации фигурного катания на коньках России. Новости, интервью, календарь и результаты соревнований, состав сборной команды.

fsrussia.ru

Fortunately i have not found any mentions on US Fed's site either (maybe it's there but i did not find it).

Home | U.S. Figure Skating

U.S. Figure Skating is the national governing body for the sport of figure skating in the United States. Founded in 1921, the association has more than 750-member, school-affiliated and collegiate clubs.

www.usfsa.org

This "award event" has a lot of "disaster" potentials, from the fact that there is not place for "popularity contest" in a competitive sport, all sorts of issues that can come up with "on-line voting manipulations", and negativity of fans wars that may follow, and etc... The people who maybe interested in this event are ALREADY fans of figure skating. It will not add much to "popularity", but could add to negativity and actually to the already existing perception that FS is not a sport.

 

[PRlady]

I protest stupidity, but don't need to protest RusFed's "secret interest", as they have not uttered a word, about this stupid popularity contest, on their website in the last 2 months, or now when it is "the news". No a word or a mention....

Федерация фигурного катания на коньках России

Официальный сайт Федерации фигурного катания на коньках России. Новости, интервью, календарь и результаты соревнований, состав сборной команды.

fsrussia.ru

Fortunately i have not found any mentions on US Fed's site either (maybe it's there but i did not find it).

Home | U.S. Figure Skating

U.S. Figure Skating is the national governing body for the sport of figure skating in the United States. Founded in 1921, the association has more than 750-member, school-affiliated and collegiate clubs.

www.usfsa.org

This "award event" has a lot of "disaster" potentials, from the fact that there is not place for "popularity contest" in a competitive sport, all sorts of issues that can come up with "on-line voting manipulations", and negativity of fans wars that may follow, and etc... The people who maybe interested in this event are ALREADY fans of figure skating. It will not add much to "popularity", but could add to negativity and actually to the already existing perception that FS is not a sport.

Well, fans vote for the All-Star players in baseball, which is certainly a sport. Getting to play in the ASG is a BFD. Not that I think this is a good idea, it isn’t.

 

[misskarne]

SkatingScores has another theory that appeals to people like me, who feel that Hanlon's razor ("Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity") explains quite a few things about organizations like ISU...

I suscribe to a similar theory: they got a bot (or b-grade social media analyst) to search for costumes people were talking about, and of course Shulepov showed up as generating a lot of discussion, so they gave him a nom without checking why there was so much discussion.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Well, fans vote for the All-Star players in baseball, which is certainly a sport. Getting to play in the ASG is a BFD. Not that I think this is a good idea, it isn’t.

Baseball is pretty straight forward, except for some referee calls. The All-Star is local vote, inside one country.