Unpopular Opinions

[emason]

Why, it's not something that's really used outside of Russia I think, is it?

It’s used all over this board by a lot of members who are nowhere near Russia.

 

[muffinplus]

It’s used all over this board by a lot of members who are nowhere near Russia.

Oh really? I've not even noticed TBH. I do see it a lot in Russian but not in English

 

[mjb52]

Ultra C seemed popular with the young social media figure skating fan crowd for awhile, but unless I'm imagining things (possible), it actually does seem to have declined in use lately.

 

[On My Own]

See, I feel fairly confident that if Moir hadn't been competing against golden-retriever-in-human-form, Charlie White, he wouldn't have been so widely disliked. Honestly, the way some fans talk, you'd think he'd broken up a marriage or abused animals or something. But I guess brutal honesty is only cool for only certain skaters.

I don't like White's skating, and didn't keep up with his personality off the ice. Nor Moir's that much. I just disliked Moir's facial expressions, and found V/M's dance quality non-existent, which doesn't mean anything bad for the rest of his (and his team's) skating.

 

[olympic]

Is it an unpopular opinion that I don’t care much for Patrick Chan?

 

[once_upon]

Is it an unpopular opinion that I don’t care much for Patrick Chan?

Only if you are also Canadian

 

[olympic]

I acknowledge Chan's great SS, but his diarrhea of the mouth may be what turned me off probably. Burned into my memory was the whining at 2016 Worlds after his LP

 

[moebius]

I am not a fan of sibling teams. The only one I liked was the Carruthers (back in the day), they were raised as brother and sister but were adopted and not blood relatives. Not sure that is the point but for some reason, they were the only sibling team I have ever liked.

Did not know that. Always that that they were blood related.

 

[AnnM]

I will always be mystified how a team (and I really do mean the team, not the skaters) messed up Cantaloop so badly that Billie Eilish was a better alternative.

 

[WanderlustTO]

1. I've never been a fan of Michelle Kwan. I certainly don't oppose her results, but with the exception of her Salome long program, I didn't really like anything she did.

2. Yuna Kim's 2013/14 programs were really dull and I basically shrugged when Sotnikova won gold at the Olympics.

 

[Japanfan]

I basically shrugged when Sotnikova won gold at the Olympics.

I think this a common rather than unpopular opinion, at least in the West. I am not a Yuna fan at all, but she was clearly superior to Sot.

 

[tony]

I think this a common rather than unpopular opinion, at least in the West. I am not a Yuna fan at all, but she was clearly superior to Sot.

I think the poster you quoted was saying they couldn’t care less about Kim getting silver because she was Sotnikova winning was not a very popular opinion really anywhere besides Russia, I’d imagine.

 

[Frau Muller]

I think the poster you quoted was saying they couldn’t care less about Kim getting silver because she was Sotnikova winning was not a very popular opinion really anywhere besides Russia, I’d imagine.

I was thrilled for Adelina (but I have a Russia connection).

 

[nuge]

Not sure which thread to ask this but do we not do predictions any more ?

 

[orbitz]

I think this a common rather than unpopular opinion, at least in the West. I am not a Yuna fan at all, but she was clearly superior to Sot.

I wish Yuna's choreography, music choice and performance for the LP had more of an attack/aggressiveness to it to show the judges and audience that she really wanted that 2nd gold medal. To me Yuna LP was a bit of a snooze, especially compared to what Adelina put out. Including a 3loop and 2a-3t would've helped Yuna technically. Perhaps it wouldn't have mattered anyway in Sochi since it seemed like a clean Russian lady was pre-determined to win anyway, but a stronger case could've been made that Yuna was robbed if she had delivered a different LP performance at that Games.

 

[Coco]

Base value
Kim: 31.43 + 57.49 = 88.92
Sotnikova: 30.43 + 61.43 = 91.86 (+2.94)

Kim didn't do the 2a3t because that would have meant repeating the 3t, presumably. She wanted to repeat a higher value triple. She ended up repeating the 3sal, but perhaps they were hoping for repeating the 3flip at some stage.

 

[olympic]

Base value
Kim: 31.43 + 57.49 = 88.92
Sotnikova: 30.43 + 61.43 = 91.86 (+2.94)

Kim didn't do the 2a3t because that would have meant repeating the 3t, presumably. She wanted to repeat a higher value triple. She ended up repeating the 3sal, but perhaps they were hoping for repeating the 3flip at some stage.

Yeah. I always wondered why she didn't repeat the 3F which would have given her more BV.

 

[VGThuy]

She was probably hoping to replicate her 2013 Worlds score and bank of having a SP buffer. She had been used to that for most of her career when she was on and used to beating skaters with higher BVs but didn’t garner the same amount of GOEs and PCS across the SP and LP she did. She didn’t expect to have one skater have scores be like
15-25 points higher than she usually scored.

 

[briancoogaert]

Well, this has already been discussed so much. But Sotnikova's victory is not about TES base value. It's more about her inflated PCS !
With or without repeating 3Flip, if judges want to give gold to someone, they can add a little boost in PCS. This is what happened, IMO.

 

[VGThuy]

Well, this has already been discussed so much. But Sotnikova's victory is not about TES base value. It's more about her inflated PCS !
With or without repeating 3Flip, if judges want to give gold to someone, they can add a little boost in PCS. This is what happened, IMO.

And GOE. Don't forget that.

 

[bardtoob]

Base value
Kim: 31.43 + 57.49 = 88.92
Sotnikova: 30.43 + 61.43 = 91.86 (+2.94)

Kim didn't do the 2a3t because that would have meant repeating the 3t, presumably. She wanted to repeat a higher value triple. She ended up repeating the 3sal, but perhaps they were hoping for repeating the 3flip at some stage.

Yeah. I always wondered why she didn't repeat the 3F which would have given her more BV.

Kim certainly wasn't creating a program to beat Sotnikova ... WhoTF was Sotnikova. Sotnikova was the 2nd string Russian lady not included in the team event. How the heck did Sotnikova beat Kim, Kostner, and Mao in the LP? A known cheating judge favoring her would have had to claim his English wasn't good enough to read the rule book for Sotnikova to win the LP

 

[Coco]

LOL, Sotnikova beat Kostner like 2 or 3 times that season before Sochi.

 

[VGThuy]

LOL, Sotnikova beat Kostner like 2 or 3 times that season before Sochi.

But not a clean, 7-triple Kostner. Nobody really foresaw Sotinkova's 149+ LP score as that seriously was unprecedented for her. as it was almost 20 points higher than her best ever score. But to be fair, Kostner's LP score was also unprecedented for her as well as she never scored in the 140s before (or consistently in the 130s) and Sotnikova probably never skated as well as she had in Sochi. With Kostner, I guess we were used to seeing her score well with like 5 triples so with 7 triples we were just waiting for a score in the high 130s - bordering on 140 with Olympic inflation. Kim was the one who scored a bit lower than we were used to for a clean-ish 6-triple skate.

 

[Coco]

I can't recall too many times that Adelina successfully landed and rotated 7 triples in an international competition prior to the Sochi freeskate, either.

It was a really well skated event, which always gets lost in the

 

[Pink Cats]

Except Sotnikova was not clean, she botched the end of her 3F+2T+2Lo. And there is no way on God's green earth that her component scores should be within 0.09 of Kim and they should not be higher than Asada or Kostner. Asada, Kim and Kostner are the best female skates of their era. Sotnikova never won another senior competition. Considering the level of Russian cheating at Sotchi, I think the fix was in.

 

[bardtoob]

I can't recall too many times that Adelina successfully landed and rotated 7 triples in an international competition prior to the Sochi freeskate, either.

It was a really well skated event, which always gets lost in the

I don't think so. From the beginning, she looks like she is twitching throughout the program. On the upside, she had unusually high jumps for her.

It was sort of good for her, not particularly good in general

My favorite part was when she landed the three jump combo underrotated with her toe pick dug into the ice along with the unattractive camel spin. Otherwise, there was a lot of two footed skating and her footwork is rushed, which hides that it is very sloppy and more quick shuffling than actual steps and turns

 

[Coco]

I didn't say she was clean, I just said she rotated 7 triples. She received -.9 in GOE for that element.

Honestly, while I can't quite remember the standard for URs back then, lol, I think Kim was lucky to not get hit with a < for her 2nd 3z, and the 1.0 in +GOE on that element was excessive.

It didn't seem fair when Kim's components jumped up suddenly in 2009, and it didn't seem fair when her competitors were suddenly 'recalibrated' to her level, either. It bothered me a lot more at the time, but now I think it's that so many feel that Kim should have won Sochi despite only having 6 triples in the FS and an L3 spin in each program.

 

[hanca]

I think this a common rather than unpopular opinion, at least in the West. I am not a Yuna fan at all, but she was clearly superior to Sot.

You don’t get olympic medal for being superior. You get olympic medal for delivering on the day of the olympic competition. I don’t think Yuna delivered. She had been overmarked for a while, so it must have been a shock to be marked only for what she did on the ice when it counted.

 

[On My Own]

You don’t get olympic medal for being superior.

Clearly superior on the day is how I interpreted their remark.

I don’t think Yuna delivered.

If you're being that nitpicky with someone's comment, then surely you also have to think about whether Sotnikova delivered on the day or not, lol. I don't think anyone trying to chop their way across the ice during their step sequences should be considered as having "delivered". Ever in their lives, not just on the day. But at least Kamila Valieva will never have to be "shocked" to be marked only for what she did - she's probably going to retire right after she wins. Or any Russian ever, at all, either, never actually marked for only what they did, fortunately for them.

 

[hanca]

Clearly superior on the day is how I interpreted their remark.

If you're being that nitpicky with someone's comment, then surely you also have to think about whether Sotnikova delivered on the day or not, lol. I don't think anyone trying to chop their way across the ice during their step sequences should be considered as having "delivered". Ever in their lives, not just on the day. But at least Kamila Valieva will never have to be "shocked" to be marked only for what she did - she's probably going to retire right after she wins. Or any Russian ever, at all, either, never actually marked for only what they did, fortunately for them.

I am not being nitpicky. Yuna have been marked for her 2A very close to what others have been getting for triple jumps, which meant that she could get away not having seven triples in her FS for quite a while. And suddenly, during the competition which was the most important for her, it would actually be handy to have seven triples…