Seguin/Bilodeau, Firus out of Worlds

[pinky166]

hi..I watched him at challenge last year and he seemed really tall..when you look at him at the boards it is very noticable. His bio for junior worlds says 180cm....not sure how old infor is but I am sure he is not shrinking yet....so what was the math again for 180cm?

180 cm = 70.87 inches, so just under 5'11"

as a general rule of thumb,
173 = 5'8"
175 = 5'9"
178 = 5'10"
181 = 5'11"
183 = 6'

 

[barbarafan]

180 cm = 70.87 inches, so just under 5'11"

as a general rule of thumb,
173 = 5'8"
175 = 5'9"
178 = 5'10"
181 = 5'11"
183 = 6'

Thank-you Pinky166

 

[Japanfan]

Regardless of what happened, I'm actually relieved that Nam is replacing Firus at worlds. I agree that Firus is a beautiful skater, but he's not got the jumps, and he's not a good competitor. When he finished third at Canadians I groaned inwardly, as I didn't want to have to watch him melt-down at Worlds - or not even make the cut for the FS, which happened at the Olympics (I think there is still a cut after the SP at Worlds?).

I'm not particularly a Nam fan, but it is far more likely that he will do well at Worlds.

 

[VarBar]

And the same day Skate Canada tweeted:
"
Doesn't seem to fit the theory of some that Skate Canada mercilessly dumped him. It would seem something happened to change minds between March 9 and March 11.

IMO once Skate Canada decided to send Kevin to Sportland Trophy, Liam stopped being an option for them. I'm guessing they entered Kevin to ST in the hope he would get the minimum score for Worlds and not because Kevin was dying to win the ST title and they wanted to humor him. lol The closing day for entries to Sportland Trophy was Feb 20, that is one day after the men's short program at the 4CC and one day before the men's free skate at the same competition. Looks like SC trusted Kevin more in spite of his four falls in the short program at 4CC.

Liam did tweet on Feb 23 "New boots! Thanks @JacksonUltima @MisirRaj can't wait to get training for worlds in these!" but I suspect he was not aware yet of their decision. Unless he meant 2017 Worlds. I strongly doubt it though. Yeah, it's just a theory but it's not totally baseless, I think.

Is Slipshit the one I should be hating??? not sure which moron is looking after these kinds of decisions.

The only reason I mentioned Slipchuk was that he is the only one Skate Canada official I know. Never got bad vibes from Slipchuk myself but I live on the other side of the Atlantic and vibes might not be travelling long distances. lol

 

[marbri]

Maybe new boots are the problem. Not really interested in speculating anymore. He isn't going. That is the only fact we can be sure of...

 

[mag]

Maybe new boots are the problem. Not really interested in speculating anymore. He isn't going. That is the only fact we can be sure of...

The boots would be broken in by now and I believe Firus was in Jacksons prior to moving to Edea (which he moved to when he moved his training from Vancouver to Colorado.) There are A LOT of boot issues these days so there could be an issue, but Liam is competing in Europe at the same time as Worlds so I doubt SC would have registered him if he was having boot issues.

 

[chewy]

From what I can find on Skate Canada's website, the nominations for entries are done by a high performance committee which is ratified by the board of directors. If they disagree it goes to three people who decide. With the quick announcement after the nationals it didn't need to go to the three people, and there is nothing in their policy that addresses situations to reopen that decision. Which makes me think that Firus could have held tight to that worlds spot, or basically sued if they reopened that decision. Various other federation have had this happen.

The three people on the final decision committee are president Leanne Caron (she's also an active international judge), Michael Slipchuk as High Performance Director and Patricia Chafe as Chief Sport Officer.

Marbri has it right, he's out of the competition, let's move on, all I can say is federations gonna fed!

 

[Sylvia]

Skate Canada hasn't listed any Senior B assignments (Liam Firus at Golden Spin of Zagreb, Kevin Reynolds at Sportland Trophy, Bennet Toman at Coupe du Printemps, Firus at Triglav Trophy) on their International Assignments page since Coupe de Nice.

Is it correct to assume that these assignments were funded, at least partially, by the skaters' respective sections?

 

[mackiecat]

Coupe de Printemps was funded by Skate Ontario

 

[Sylvia]

Coupe de Printemps was funded by Skate Ontario

Skate Ontario subsidized the participation of 10 Novice skaters at Coupe du Printemps, according to this FB post: https://www.facebook.com/SkateOntario/posts/10153283880987121

The other Canadians who competed in Luxembourg were Toman (4th in Sr. Men, 3rd in FS) and 2 junior men Antony Cheng (gold) and Conrad Orzel (bronze).

 

[Rock2]

Ya, it's not all Slipchuk's doing although he can influence. It's a committee.
Having said that I have general agreement with Mike's vision for high performance.

Skate Canada has been changing in the way Tennis Canada changed almost a decade ago, becoming more about results and achievement. Instead of a model where everyone gets a little, it's now about how the best get more.

There are risks and downsides but it in the end breeds better top skaters. Tennis Canada changed the mindset about 7-8 years ago; it's no coincky-dink we now have Raonic, Bouchard, Pospisil and a raft of promising juniors who are finally winning slams.

 

[MacMadame]

If Firus was having boot problems, wouldn't he just say so?

 

[marbri]

Omg ..I guess I should have used the icon after the boot comment instead of assuming the rest of my post showed I didn't really care anymore why he wasn't going. And to answer a question that might come next, I posted because I was quoted.

I get bored quickly. This was announced on Friday and it's Monday now. Firus doesn't have enough of a resume yet for me to care enough to carry it over into a new week.

 

[barbarafan]

IMO once Skate Canada decided to send Kevin to Sportland Trophy, Liam stopped being an option for them. I'm guessing they entered Kevin to ST in the hope he would get the minimum score for Worlds and not because Kevin was dying to win the ST title and they wanted to humor him. lol The closing day for entries to Sportland Trophy was Feb 20, that is one day after the men's short program at the 4CC and one day before the men's free skate at the same competition. Looks like SC trusted Kevin more in spite of his four falls in the short program at 4CC.

Liam did tweet on Feb 23 "New boots! Thanks @JacksonUltima @MisirRaj can't wait to get training for worlds in these!" but I suspect he was not aware yet of their decision. Unless he meant 2017 Worlds. I strongly doubt it though. Yeah, it's just a theory but it's not totally baseless, I think.





The only reason I mentioned Slipchuk was that he is the only one Skate Canada official I know. Never got bad vibes from Slipchuk myself but I live on the other side of the Atlantic and vibes might not be travelling long distances. lol

I do not know anyone there but SC has their little pets and that is not right. They snubbed Nam Nuyen at skate Canada int'l and did not invite him to the gala even though he was the current canadian men's champion. At 16 he went off to world's last year and finished 5th giving us 2 spots for this year. At other grand prix's all the host's skaters skate in the gala. That was such a lack of respect.

 

[DE93]

Skate Ontario subsidized the participation of 10 Novice skaters at Coupe du Printemps, according to this FB post: https://www.facebook.com/SkateOntario/posts/10153283880987121

The other Canadians who competed in Luxembourg were Toman (4th in Sr. Men, 3rd in FS) and 2 junior men Antony Cheng (gold) and Conrad Orzel (bronze).

Also Matthew Markell (who skated Junior at Coup de Printemps but was a Novice at Nationals)!!! PS - I've just realized that he was probably in the FB post you linked to, so I apologize if I sound redundant.

 

[Seerek]

I'm very curious to see how Nadeau scores at Jr. Worlds vs. Nam at SR. Worlds. I think nicolas' fs at nationals could have won him a medal but he sadly blew the SP jumps and was kinda far down. Hoping he goes Senior this fall and shows what he can do!

Nguyen's benchmark next week will be Nadeau's 224.76 (silver medal).

Total technical Score from both segments = 38.68+76.80 = 115.48

 

[aftershocks]

^^ I suppose there is a good chance that Nadeau will decide to compete seniors next season, since he's 18, and he has achieved notable recognition and success as a junior this season. Not all that much left to prove on the junior circuit, plus Nadeau with his skills, elegant moves and height, already looks like a senior man.

 

[Rock2]

Yeah he skates very senior. His placement and score in Hungary will get him senior GP assignments for sure...which may not even require SC to burn a host pick. I'm losing count of how many guys we'll have on the GP next fall.

Plus, if you want to position yourself to be selected for Korea, you best get out to seniors and show you can compete. If the quad is truly there, he'll do just fine.

Our big problem now is to lather up enough boys to fill 14ish JGP slots next fall. We're a little thin in juniors.

 

[aftershocks]

^^ Hmmm, maybe that's another indicator that the competition set-up in figure skating needs restructuring. Assignments should be individually talent-based and less country/ federation-based.

In addition, our comments seem to belong more-so in the Canadian men's thread which is languishing in Skip, albeit currently in a high interest position there.

 

[Sylvia]

The Nicolas Nadeau Jr. Worlds-related discussion (includes video links) starts in the Canadian Men's thread in the Trash Can here: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/ind...ason-threads-merged.96255/page-6#post-4738923

 

[el henry]

IMHO, related to this thread, SC were jerks, fools and cretins if they in any way influenced Liam to give up his Worlds' spot....

But if they feel the need, Nam is not the answer. Based on this JW FS, I would 300% rather watch Nadeau. (I know, he's a junior). Forget the scores, I just like his skating better. Oh well.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Im no expert but wouldnt Liam have at least qualified for the free skate?

Im not sure if I understand him not going...????..????

That sp result was not reflective of this

 

[danafan]

Im no expert but wouldnt Liam have at least qualified for the free skate?

No, Firus' season's best score was 64.10 from Finlandia. That wouldn't have qualified for the free either.

 

[WanderlustTO]

What a disaster.

 

[allezfred]

No, Firus' season's best score was 64.10 from Finlandia. That wouldn't have qualified for the free either.

64.10 is still higher than 61.61 if my maths isn't wrong. And Skate Canada expected three spots?

 

[screech]

What kind of annoyed me was in his interview before his skate, Nam said that he felt less pressure because he initially didn't earn the spot. Umm, shouldn't that give him more pressure, because someone else 'gave up' his spot to him?

Really feeling for Liam right now. Even though he struggles with the axel and quad, he at least performs, is not a snail, and is more entertaining to watch.

 

[marbri]

Only if Liam gave up his spot specifically for Nam.

But if Liam bailed for reasons known to him and SC then SC needed to find a replacement. And they didn't have a lot of options. Maybe Nam's response indicates he knew he wasn't given a favour but rather he was the only option left (since Kevin didn't have the qualifying scores to go to Worlds).

 

[Rock2]

It's just poopy timing. Nic didn't open our eyes wide enough until a few weeks ago. And for different reasons, Liam, Kevin and Nam just weren't able to cobble their bodies and skills together in time to make an impact for Canada in Boston. We were never qualifying 3 and with Patrick we weren't losing two. I was over this whole issue before the event started. We can just hit the reset button and come back better as a country in the fall.

When the dust settles, we'll likely have the same # of slots as the American men in Finland, so I'm keeping this disaster in perspective.

 

[wickedwitch]

It's just poopy timing. Nic didn't open our eyes wide enough until a few weeks ago.

Speak for yourself. Plenty of people were fans prior to junior worlds.

 

[The Accordion]

It seems obvious that Canada at this point doesn't NEED (or - sorry to say - deserve) 3 spots - so I don't see what the big deal is. And I say this as a Canadian and a longtime fan of Men's skating in Canada.

I also think if you were a betting person - there was a better chance of Nam qualifying than Liam. And when the decisions needed to be made, it would have been a huge gamble taking a chance on Nic - but of course hindsight is 20/20. If that was even a possibility in the first place.

I also know that none of us know what happened behind the scenes. Perhaps the EVILLE Skate Canada orchestrated the whole thing and Liam was but a pawn tied to the railway track and not being freed for his future unless he agreed. And sarcasm aside, that might be unfair, but after seeing Liam come up short repeatedly I would understand.

Perhaps his coach made the recommendation. Perhaps Liam himself knew he was struggling and didn't want to attend Worlds feeling completely unready.

I just think it's ridiculous for any of us to claim we KNOW unless we really do. And if that is the case - let us know your source - or if you aren't allowed - then you shouldn't even be taking part in the discussion.