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http://www.examiner.com/figure-skating- ... at-kostnerOpining on Skate America: How did Czisny beat Kostner?Skate America took place this past weekend, and the first Grand Prix of the season is now in the books. A lot happened, for sure – some incredible, some perplexing, some unfortunate. I must say, it was more interesting of a competition than I had expected for whatever reason. Some parting thoughts below.
So how did Czisny beat Kostner? Breaking it down.
In a world of base values and grades of execution, there were plenty who were scratching their heads wondering how a relatively clean Kostner could have scored only a few points over a fairly messy Czisny in the free skate. Surely, had that been a 6.0 competition, Kostner would’ve won, ordinal-system notwithstanding, and probably convincingly so. You could imagine something like a 5.6/5.9 for Kostner and a 5.4/5.8 for Czisny. The free skate scores looked more like a 5.6/5.8 (Kostner) vs. 5.5/5.9 (Czisny).
But it’s necessary to look beyond the surface of errors. And fair warning, lots of numbers coming up.
The technical side of the free skates was vastly different, both in difficulty and in execution. Kostner and Czisny both hit a solo loop, and you can argue that Kostner’s flip equated Czisny’s first lutz. But while Kostner hit two more clean triples, Czisny hit only one more. But in the end, Kostner started with a more conservative set of jumps, while Czisny started with a greatly more ambitious set of jumps that eventually got underrotated and downgraded down to be more in line with Kostner’s base value. 35.92 for Kostner vs. 34.33 for Czisny (which dropped from an originally-planned 45.8).
The difference, really, came in the spins, where Kostner had one Level 4 and two Level 1s, Czisny had two Level 4s and one Level 3, which gave Czisny a 2.2 advantage in spins. Kostner actually got a Level 4 for her step sequence to Czisny’s Level 3, which was a 0.6 advantage. The spiral sequences cancel each other out base-value-wise.
When it was all said and done, Czisny’s free skate was still worth more in base value than Kostner’s by 0.01. Now, execution-wise, Kostner had the advantage for being cleaner, but the base value already took the cheated jumps into account and Czisny’s spins were much better executed than those of Kostner, so the GOEs weren’t that disparate. Add the fact that the judges gave Czisny slightly higher PCSs, and you’ve got a pretty close set of scores from the two.
Combine that with Czisny’s four-point advantage from the short, and the gold was decided by less than a quarter-point.
Now, for skating observers, Kostner being in a scoring quandary is nothing new, but she’s generally regarded as being on the overscored side of the equation (see: 2011 Worlds). Interesting to see it flip-flop in this occasion.
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http://www.examiner.com/figure-skating- ... innovativeOpining on Skate America: Quirky meets innovativeSkate America took place this past weekend. So I've crunched some numbers and channeled my inner Joan Rivers (good thing?), now it's time for some final thoughts - for real. And then we move on to Skate Canada!
Savchenko/Szolkowy go for broke.Ok, throw triple axel in just a minute. I just want to RAVE about Savchenko/Szolkowy’s free skate, which moved them from fifth to the gold. In a field of continually reused music (I counted The Feeling Begins three times on the first day, twice in the men’s short program!), they have been pushing themselves to be more experimental in music, and this season, more experimental in movement. The result was an innovative modern-dance influence on their free skate this season, and it’s just incredible.
And then there’s the throw triple axel that they attempted in the short. It was a creditable attempt, for sure, nothing overtly negligent about how it looked. It wasn’t like he just tossed her in the air and crossed his fingers. The throw looked pretty decent, and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if they actually landed by the season’s end. Great that they are pushing the technical side of their skating too, this pair is already one of the all-time greats, and these improvements might just push them over the top in Sochi.
Stamina issues or quick turnaround?There was one common thread amongst the free skates in the singles disciplines – the utter messiness that was everywhere. In both cases, the winner skated lights out in the short and were able to hang on by a thread after subpar free skates. The silver medalists both had the best skates of the day, but not without their mistakes.
But the free skates overall were just all over the place. In the ladies’ event, there were six downgrades, 20 underrotations, and nine falls. Seven underrotations and eight falls in the men’s event, which wasn’t as egregious, but it was the fact that almost all ten of the men looked winded by the three-minute mark that was cause for concern. Maybe it’s the early-season factor, or maybe, in the men’s case, it was the quick turnaround from the short to the free in only about half a day. But the men’s and ladies’ free skates were certainly not all that exciting to watch with all the errors. Let’s see how they fare at Skate Canada this week.
Amodio at a crossroads?At Worlds last season, Florent Amodio blatantly violating the rules and skating to music with vocals for his free skate was ok, with the caveat that he did it for the audience. Hmm. And the ridiculous thing is that the panel didn’t give him a deduction for it! Huh?!
But that episode rustled more than one person’s feathers. There was something Surya-Bonaly-Nagano about that, except Bonaly had resigned to being off the podium and wanted to retire with a bang, and Amodio is just establishing his reputation on his way to Sochi. And of course, there had already been a feeling that he was taking his free skate too much toward the exhibition route – and not because it was playing to the crowd, but because actual *skating* was being replaced by lots of standing around posing and pointing.
You wonder if that was still fresh in the judges’ minds at Skate America. Yes, he was lackluster in the short, but the free skate wasn’t that bad with six triples. But no slack from the judges at all, he still placed eighth in the free skate and ninth overall, with PCSs clumped with the likes Van Der Perren and Dornbush, which was certainly not the case last season. His free skate was once again filled with stationary segments. You just wonder if he’s dug a hole he wasn’t intending to dig. Let’s see what happens when he’s at home at Trophee Eric Bompard.
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Opining on Skate America: Costumes and empty seats: http://www.examiner.com/figure-skating- ... mpty-seats