@Yazmeen, I've met Samuel Auxier in person and I think he's a nice guy and apparently a good administrator and a well-liked team player. I didn't get the impression that he understands a great deal about the sport or its history, despite being the current president of USFS. I don't think it was his intention to be negative toward Ross, but I do feel the situation was handled ineptly. A lot of people are feeling many mixed emotions over this situation. It appears to me that USFS need more accomplished p.r. people and some crisis management help as well. Knowing that whatever decision was made would be painful and criticized no matter what, it would have been better for USFS to take some time to try and handle it in a manner that didn't target Ross as 'unworthy,' while still being able to fully explain how they examined the criteria and came to their conclusion. Believe it or not, there is a less brutal way of handling this type of situation.
I've voiced why I would have liked to see the team made up of Nathan, Ross and Adam, under the circumstances of what happened. Initially, like many fans, I had anticipated that Nathan, Adam and Jason would persevere. Since USFS is in the habit of manipulating scores anyway, they may as well have fixed things the way they wanted in the scoring, eh. The problem is that perhaps the judges and US fed officials made too many assumptions. Quite often, the Skate Gods like to up-end things.
This is yet another lesson for everyone to not tempt the Skate Gods, and to never take anything for granted.
If he had delivered better than these other guys at his international assignments, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
That's a hypothetical, because politics are involved in the scoring as well as in the competitive assignment process which impacts skaters' ability to gain momentum and confidence. I agree it would have helped Ross' case to place higher in events he was assigned, but as I said he went into the season handicapped with one GP and the perception by judges that he's a journeyman about to retire who doesn't deserve any respect. This, despite his high quality skills. Skaters like Ross are often not even-handedly judged. They are usually set to a higher standard than top skaters who have more margin for error. Ross has skated very well on some memorable occasions, and has still been judged harshly by international judges. And again, if he makes even a minor error or two, he's been dropped like a rock. Skaters such as Grant and Ross who have quality skills, but fewer major competitive opportunities have to summon more grit because the skate order tends to disadvantage them, along with the judges' perceptions, which ultimately can foster an overwhelming crisis of confidence in big moments. And as I said earlier, the big moments for such skaters are few and often random, which doesn't allow for building momentum or having a substantial breakthrough.
I commend Grant for actually mastering the quad with a relevant level of consistency, even though it's been difficult for him to sustain consistently. But it's difficult for a number of top skaters to go clean all the time (albeit with multiple quads). A big factor in all of this is quad-mania that has consumed men's figure skating. Ross Miner, Adam Rippon, Jason Brown, Grant Hochstein, and even Alexander Johnson are all skaters whose exquisite gifts and superb talents have been hampered by the rush to overweight and anoint quads. Grant had the most success with quads, and Ross was able to land two clean quads in major competitions 5 years apart apparently. But that points out the fact of how difficult it is to be able to develop any momentum in front of international judges when you can't attend major competitions on a regular basis, and are always having to face overwhelming odds of breaking through. I wish it was possible for the sport to actually develop a viable senior B with more competitions spread out over the season during which talented middle tier skaters can gain confidence and momentum, win more medals and build a major reputation that might take them to top senior level prominence. Or if not, perhaps they would have been able to at least experience more satisfying competitive milestones.
I would also like to mention Jeremy Abbott and Richard Dornbush as superb skaters whose careers were also somewhat hampered by the advent of the quad, even though they both were able to land a number of gorgeous quads in competition during their careers. Apparently, Richard made the right decision for himself to leave the quad circus when he did. It's us fans and the sport itself who suffer from his absence in recent years.
The path is different for everyone. I'm so happy for Ross that he made the decision to keep going and to bookend his career with his 2011 U.S. Nationals triumph and now with these final two marvelous and Olympic-worthy performances at 2018 U.S. Nationals. Ross is Boss!!! Enjoy 4CCs Ross!
And he had no answer prepared for Brennan's question about how this selection process affects the viability and legitimacy of U.S. Nationals competition.
