Press on English about Evgeni after LP

Зимние Олимпийские игры 2010 в Ванкувере || Winter Olympic games 2010 in Vancouver

Re: English Press about Evgeni after LP

Postby cekoni » 27 Feb 2010, 09:35

Similiar "debate", as above...

www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/curl...0348/story.html
By Lyndon Little, Canwest Olympic Team; Canwest News ServiceFebruary 20, 2010

Judging system works: official
Fans want to see jumpers, not dancers, Stojko says


Ted Barton had extra reason to smile Thursday as he joined the crowd filing out of the Pacific Coliseum following Evan Lysacek's free skate victory for the gold medal over Russian short-program leader Evgeni Plushenko.

"See, the system works," Barton said.

Barton doesn't have anything particular against Plushenko, a great champion in his own right. But the West Vancouver, B.C., resident was obviously delighted to see a well-rounded skater like Lysacek win the most-coveted prize in men's skating without necessarily needing to land a quad.
(it says to us: "with what is smart ashamed, with the that is foolish pride" :ps_ih: )

The executive director of the B.C./Yukon Section of Skate Canada was one of the key people to whom International Skating Union president Octavio Cinquanta turned in the wake of the 2002 Salt Lake City vote-trading scandal to devise a new scoring system to replace the old 6.0 one. And, like any proud father, he is upset with the rough ride his Code of Points baby has been taking this past week from a variety of sources.

Barton is particularly angered by comments from former Canadian and world champion Elvis Stojko in both print and the electronic media about his dislike of the new system.

Stojko told a radio audience Friday the new scoring system is hurting the sport by alienating audiences.

"If you had two skating competitions going on," he said. "One over here for jumping and another over there for footwork, people would go to the jumping contest."

The first skater to land a quad jump in combination, Stojko contends the new COP encourages skaters to go for the points by maximizing the less dramatic parts of skating, such as spins and transitional footwork at the expense of the crowd-pleasing big jumps.

Barton believes Stojko's comments are ill-informed and suggests the former world champion, who now lives in Mexico, is out of touch with the sport.

"The men's long program lasts four and a half minutes," Barton responded. "It has been shown the maximum time a skater can spend in the air for any one jump is 0.7 seconds. If skating is all about doing the quad, what would the skater do the rest of the time? To me, that would be boring."

"Skaters now work their programs to maximize their points. That's where strategy comes in.

"A good quad-triple combination is about worth 16 points. In the short program that one jump could add up to more than 30 per cent of the total technical mark of the average score. Is that not incentive enough to get people trying the quad?"

----------------------------------------------------

... and more articels about math, artistry and athleticism.....

More texts of same author (from previous post) - GEOFFREY A FOWLER:

16.02 - Men's Figure Skating: Landing the Quad:
http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2010/02/16/m...h-for-the-quad/
17.02 - Athleticism vs. Artistry in Men's Figure Skating:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...0583636252.html
18.02 - Lysacek Wins Figure Skating Gold:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...2669525364.html

----------------

13.02 - DiManno: Nothing simple about how figure skating scored
http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/7...-skating-scored

------------------------------------

... and interesting facts and pic about Quad: :sh_ок: :plush45:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...0625935952.html

Figure Skaters Tee Up the Quad:
.....
Mr. Goff's data, assembled for The Wall Street Journal, show that the average quad requires more time in the air than Mr. Jordan needed for his legendary dunk, which took about 0.84 second.....

Former American figure skater Timothy Goebel helped popularize the quad by performing it prolifically during his 14-year career, including the 2002 Games, when he won the bronze medal. During that event, he says his rotations per minute were clocked as high as 946 ; the average rotations per minute for an NBA player performing a 360-degree dunk is 100....

http://online.wsj.com/media/wsj_QUAD100217.jpg
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Re: English Press about Evgeni after LP

Postby cekoni » 27 Feb 2010, 15:22

Why is now happening almost "hunt" in internet against Plushy? Read this, and all this will be more clearly to you
(the same could apply and to the Canadian TSN)... :plush34:


--------------------------------------

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elise-cra ... 67839.html
Elise Crane Posted: February 18, 2010 04:18 PM

NBC Olympics Coverage: Dramatizing to Drum up Intrigue

On a spectrum of media polarization, NBC is seen as one of the most neutral popular channels. FOX News' and MSNBC's slants are notorious, even celebrated, but NBC emerges as a relatively reliable reflection of major news events. However, the network's recent "human interest" profile on Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko sullies its objectivity and marks a hazardous foray into Cold War-style image manipulation and framing.

With its monopoly on Olympic coverage, NBC is responsible for broadcasting athlete's life stories. As a microcosm, these stories represent national character itself. The network deploys staff for months or even years in advance of the Olympics to gather human interest fodder on promising athletes around the world. After colossal editing -- which imbues plenty of soft focus footage and soaring, Olympic-worthy music -- select clips are embedded within NBC's nightly coverage. These mini-biopics seek to transcend raw times and scores by depicting a human dimension and to extract an emotional investment from a dispersed audience.

The profiles tend to follow a distinct pattern: difficult life circumstances, dazzling talent discovered, familial sacrifices, injuries overcome, and the staging for brilliant victory or humiliating defeat. In the spirit of the Olympics, athletes' countries tend to be portrayed in their best light, depicting gorgeous scenery, community bonds, and generally rosy accounts of nations brimming with pride for their best athletes.

In contrast, NBC's profile of Plushenko -- and its subsequent broadcast of a fireside chat with Dick Button and his fixation with Plushenko's "glinty eyes" -- perpetuated a gross stereotype of Russia as a shadowy and potentially perilous monolith with Plushenko as its archetypal villain. Such portrayals represent media in its worst form, using its platform to prey on entrenched stereotypes and disseminate outdated assumptions about Russia's sinister character. At a time when Russia's relationship with the United States seems on slightly shaky ground -- and is increasingly framed as a resurgent and power-desperate empire -- this clip carried enormous potential to instill images that only deepen such caricatures.

The 4-5 minute profile featured a passenger's perspective on Plushenko driving his sports car through his hometown of Saint Petersburg. The shooting angle, and editing-induced speed, depicted Plushenko as a reckless driver careening down the gloomy and deserted streets. With an accent deemed sufficiently heavy for NBC to patronizing include captions, Plushenko spoke imploringly of his repeat gold medal lust and his intention to dominate the competition. An ominous soundtrack reminiscent of Jaws echoed B-movie themes about the USSR and its peril to the American way of life.

Visually, the clip alternated between close-up shots of Plushenko and eerie, sepia-tinged footage of Saint Petersburg landmarks, including the iconic Church on Spilled Blood reflected in a turbulent canal. The metaphor of stormy waters was difficult to miss and images of Lenin and Stalinist architecture were thrown in as if for good measure, making this viewer wonder, What decade is it?

Perhaps NBC was merely aiming to stage a dramatic showdown between the American favorite Evan Lysacek and the steely Russian renegade. Drama, after all, is the lifeblood of the Olympics. But NBC overshot. In its desperation to drum up intrigue, it painted Plushenko as a James Bond-worthy villain and Russia as the once and always Evil Empire.

-------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elise-cra ... ostComment
Elise Crane Posted: February 21, 2010 08:19 PM

America Triumphant: The Chilly Showdown

Although NBC refrained from recycling more than a few seconds of Tuesday night's befuddling profile of Evgeni Plushenko, its long program coverage was hardly an improvement.

Sequined snakes pulsating, Evan Lysacek gloriously skated his way to the gold. His fist-pumping victory was deserved -- if a bit theatrical -- but media treatment of the contest again warrants attention.

The message was clear: America wins the Cold War! A bold red "Cold War" banner -- which was parroted through the night and even on local news -- opened the night's foray into human interest territory, which featured a short interview with Evan Lysacek's family. When asked if she thought a new cold war was heating up between the two skaters, Lysacek's mother replied, "I didn't know the old Cold War had ended." We can only hope she was joking.

NBC's coverage of Plushenko remained less than flattering, not least its failure to consistently spell his name correctly throughout the evening (captions alternated between Pleshenko and the proper Plushenko). The abbreviated profile segment featured ridiculously close-up shots of the brooding Russian, interposed with a random yet somehow ominous shot of a dark analog clock, and was overlaid by music worthy of Jason Bourne.

Lysacek's profile segment, conversely, included extensive footage of his all-American background, including a childhood fondness for competing in superhero outfits (though given his Batman-inspired skating costume on Tuesday night, this fondness has not yet expired). Lysacek's "cute" was harshly juxtaposed against Plushenko's gangster.

To reiterate, none of this is intended to detract from Lysacek's talent nor his worthiness of the gold medal. But the media framing of the event, the background, and, apparently, the implications for macro-level U.S.-Russian relations, is worrisome.

In a way, Thursday night's medal ceremony was an uncanny reversal of Nancy Kerrigan versus Oksana Baiul in the 1994 Winter Olympics. The American took few pains to hide her peevishness from the second tier while the radiant Ukrainian beamed from the top. Sixteen years later, the Russian sourly surveyed the crowd while the American practically floated with joy above him.

But drama, it seems, was more readily available in 1994. Kerrigan must have been a human interest profiler's dream (could it get better than Tonya Harding?) and the collective investment in her story seemed genuine, rather than fabricated around a misleading narrative of Cold War on Ice.

In 1994 -- when, it must be noted, the actual Cold War was much less of a distant memory -- network commentators refrained from painting an apocalyptic confrontation between East and West. The difference between gold and silver is not -- and should never be -- equated with cold war. The difference is competition, the soul of the Olympics.

A thin line separates patriotism from jingoism. By attempting to extrapolate geopolitical complexities from athletics, and perpetuating gross stereotypes of Russian barbarism, media is misusing its sacred platform. The American intellectual Walter Lippmann spoke of media's power to influence the "pictures in our heads" by compressing unspeakable complexity into digestible tidbits. Where is the line between media's historic responsibility to report the news and its sanctioning -- or even encouraging -- "pictures" that do not necessarily reflect reality?

If Lysacek's mother truly believes the Cold War never ended, supposedly "neutral" mass media such as NBC are clearly failing to uphold the balance between responsibility and mythology.
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Re: English Press about Evgeni after LP

Postby cekoni » 27 Feb 2010, 15:47

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/vancou ... 63196.html
By STEVE BUFFERY, QMI Agency, February 20, 2010 6:26pm

Stojko blasts back at his critics

VANCOUVER — It was sunny and beautiful on the west coast Saturday, but former world champion Elvis Stojko found himself caught in the middle of a storm.

Stojko is getting hammered from every direction in Vancouver for certain words he used in describing the judging from last week’s men’s singles competition.

Words both written and spoken. Words that were unkind to the judging, the new scoring system, the newly-crowned Olympic champion Evan Lysacek and to Toronto skater Patrick Chan.

“It’s been crazy man,” said Stojko. “I made my point, and everyone’s jumping down my throat.” :hi_hi_hi:

The Richmond Hill native slammed the Olympic judging earlier this week for giving the gold medal in men’s singles to the American skater Lysacek,

Stojko thought the defending Olympic champ, Evgeni Plushenko of Russia, should have been awarded the ultimate prize at the Olympics for landing a quadruple jump. :plush45: It burned Stojko to no end that Lysacek was placed first, even though he didn’t even attempt a quad.

What also had Stojko riled up when interviewed by Sun Media was that he was heavily criticized by Michael Slipchuk, Skate Canada’s high performance director. Slipchuk suggested Stojko had no right to criticize the judging for giving the gold to Lysacek; nor should he have dumped on Chan for not attempting a quad. Stojko said in his blog on Yahoo Sports that skaters such as Lysacek and Chan are taking the sport backwards.

However, despite a constant stream of criticism from Lysacek and Chan supporters the past two days, Stojko was holding his ground. :co_ol:

“I’m standing up for what I believe,” he said. :plush41: “If you take the quad out, what next? Take out the triple Axel? I understand they want to add stuff (between jumps), but Chan’s comments that anyone can do the quad is just ridiculous. That’s just a cop-out. All the guys who have tried the quad at an Olympics know how difficult it is to do that.”

Chan said that skating is going in a rightful new direction, where the judges don’t bend over backwards to reward quads but do reward big scores for elements such as intricate spins and footwork. But Stojko’s answer to that is: Great. Bring the other stuff, but keep the quad. Without the quad, he said, programs such as Chan’s become “a recital.” :-)

“He didn’t (deserve fifth-place) here. Saying footwork is harder than a quad just doesn’t compute. Tell Patrick to add a quad with all that other stuff, then we’ll talk," Stojko said. :-) “Listen, Patrick’s doing great. He does a great job of the in-between stuff, but there’s no risk. I just don’t want the sport to go backwards. If that happens, it will become more about costumes and everyone trying to be more flamboyant and more outrageous to try to get marks.”

Stojko said he is speaking out because he cares about skating and because he believes that the many skaters, coaches and officials who concur with his sentiments are too afraid to make waves.

“In this sport, people are afraid to talk,” Stojko said. “Here’s the deal: Most champions have a hard time saying anything. But it’s our God-given right to talk.”
:bra_vo:

Stojko vowed to continue his attack against a system that seems to be rewarding skaters who don’t attempt the quad, adding he has more than his share of supporters.

“For everyone who has slammed me, I have three people who support me, people who come up to me on the street and shake my hand,” he said. :plush45: :ko_re:sha: :dr_ink:

:plush39:
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Re: English Press about Evgeni after LP

Postby cekoni » 27 Feb 2010, 16:01

Part from Chan's interview, about Stojko was spoke.... :hi_hi_hi:


http://www.torontosun.com/sports/vancou ... 52306.html
....

“The judges love to see my skating. Anyone can do a quad, but no one else can skate the way I skate. I skate uniquely ;;-))) and I skate with passion and love, so that’s my main focus. It’s just as challenging doing a program without a quad.”

:plush26:
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Re: English Press about Evgeni after LP

Postby cekoni » 27 Feb 2010, 17:03

One translation, what Zhenya spoke on Russian language - post from our topic "Mulitmedia" :-):
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=119&start=70#p9936

cekoni wrote:Zhenya and Yana a visit to the Russian radio in Vancouver - 21.02.2010
VIDEO :-):

Евгений Плющенко и Яна Рудковская в студии Авторадио-Ванкувер- 1 part
- view: http://www.avtoradio.ru/?an=vk2010_vide ... uid=127941
- download: http://www.avtoradio.ru/vardata/modules ... 812779.flv

Евгений Плющенко и Яна Рудковская в студии Авторадио-Ванкувер. Часть 2 (2 part)
- view: http://www.avtoradio.ru/?an=vk2010_vide ... uid=127942
- download: http://www.avtoradio.ru/vardata/modules ... 813035.flv ....

.... translation by Katia Kutyavina :plush39:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php ... 6495379178

For those who don't speak Russian, here's a summary of what Evgeni said in the Radio interview today (my YouTube links):
Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhdQYGX5Y8E
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VypGiJoDzOM

He has big plans for the future. He'll compete at Figure Skating World Championship in March 2010. He'll compete at the Olympics in Sochi 2014.
He says he's going to do a big figure skating show with figure skating stars from all over the world, like Stephane Lambien and others. It will be in March after the World Championships, and they plan to tour Russia and Europe with that show.
He says he still does feel sore about everything that happened, but he's going to move past it by focusing on other things. Continuing to harbor anger and resentment is not of any use. He says that he has a lot to say to two particular people (probably Russian politicians Piseev & Mutko, but he doesn't say the names). He's mostly angry that no one defended him and that no one appealed on his behalf. It shold've been done.
He talks about how three judges scored him so low for "skating skills" in Short Program that their scores placed him in 20-21st place. Afterwards there was some investigation into this matter. After that the judges were instructed to give Evgeni a certain higher score in components next round (Free Skate). He says the judges have been taught the error of their ways.
He said there was a conference of figure skaters after the Short Program, and the athletes split into two camps on the issue of whether men need to do the quad or not: Lysacek and Patrick Chan said that the quad is not the future of mens figure skating, whereas Plushenko, Takahashi, Oda, Lambiel, Kazuka all thought that the quad should be the future, even those among them who can't do it yet.
Yana Rudkovskaya talked a lot about how she and Zhenya are very thankful to all the friends and fans, and ordinary people who have cared about them, who have been concerned about them in this difficult time. She says Evgeni is constantly getting letters, sms, and e-mails of ordinary people who care about him and supporting him and that it matters a lot. Yana says that when Zhenya goes out on the streets of Vancouver people from all countries and all nationalities come up to him, congratulate him, and tell him that he's the real winner.

At the end the radio interview the hosts in the studio sing a song to Evgeni that they wrote themselves about how he's the true winner even though he didn't get the Gold medal. It's very cute! :-):
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Re: English Press about Evgeni after LP

Postby cekoni » 27 Feb 2010, 17:12

Again very short translation for one video from our topic "Multimedia" :-):
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=119&start=80#p10312
Вера wrote:Поставлю и сюда Сихарулидзе.
cekoni , может переведешь для иностранцев? :mi_ga_et:

"Своими глазами": Антон Сихарулидзе про судейство в фигурном катании
(Anton Sikharulidze about judging in figure skating)


http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/video/658555-echo/

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php ... 6495379178
Katia Kutyavina:

I completely agree with the proposals that Anton Sihuralidze suggests. (I really hope he gets appointed to be the President of Russia's Figure Skating Federation or something similar to that 'cause he definitely has personality and political skills to convince people to push changes like this through on an international level.)

Sihuralidze suggests two things: there should be more points assigned to quads because quads are the most difficult, so a skater doing a quad cannot do as many other elements that score points in a limited time frame. Also, he suggests that judging should not be anonymous. That way, if a judge gives a score that's obviously way to high or too low, everyone will see that and "boo" at the judge. Judges will be more accountable for how they score, if it's not anonymous.
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Re: English Press about Evgeni after LP

Postby cekoni » 27 Feb 2010, 18:47

http://savefigureskating.blogspot.com/
A blog by Monica Friedlande, Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Was Plushenko Defeated by an Email Controversy?

"The judges used to have one mark to monkey around with. Now they have five,” columnist E.M. Swift recently wrote in Sports Illustrated.

Truer words have never been spoken about figure skating and its mystifying component marks. Just consider the men's competition in Vancouver and the newfound obsession with one of the elements that make up these intangible marks: transitions.

As everyone knows by now, shortly before the Olympics got underway U.S. judge Joe Inman created a maelstrom when he sent out an email to some 60 skating insiders raising questions about how Evgeni Plushenko is being judged on transitions, a key element under the new judging system and arguably Plushenko's weakest point. The email and the ensuing controversy accomplished two things:

1. It went a long way towards helping defeat the 2006 Olympic champion, and may have made the difference between gold and silver.
2. It proved once again that you can monkey around with the International Judging System every bit as much as with its predecessor. The hypocritical claim that there’s anything "absolute" about the scoring now, or that the system is somehow less prone to political shenanigans is hogwash.


None of this is to dispute the outcome of the men’s competition. Evan Lysacek of the United States defeated Plushenko fair and square. Not only were Plushenko’s transitions weak (or non-existent), but his program was poorly constructed and front loaded with jumps. But all that’s besides the point.

Given the razor-thin margin of victory and the way Plushenko used to be marked in previous events, it is highly unlikely that the reigning Olympic champion would have been upset under normal circumstances. But Inman threw a monkey wrench into this competition.

Once the news was out, the controversy spread like wildfire, fueled by a media that smelled blood. Within days it became a scandal of Olympic proportions, even before the opening ceremonies got underway. What happened behind the scenes from that point on is anybody's guess. But here are some facts to ponder.


In the two previous international events in which he competed this season, Plushenko skated the exact same programs as in Vancouver, yet he received higher transition scores than most or all his competitors — generally in the 7 to 7.5 range, slightly but not much lower than his other component marks. At Europeans only Stephan Lambiel had a higher transition score. And at the last Olympics in 2006, Plushenko won with a 7.75 for transitions — the highest score of the competition.

Fast forward to the 2010 Games. Plushenko's transition mark in the short program was 6.8, a mark Plushenko had never seen in his life. And in the long program, ten men had higher transition scores than the reigning Olympic champion! This sort of thing just doesn't happen every day in figure skating, particularly on an element that hardly anyone ever paid any attention to before. Jumps are different. You can’t hide a botched triple axel. But a component mark?

Are we to believe that this major change of heart among international judges is entirely accidental and unrelated to the controversy involving Inman's email? Were the judges simply swept away by the glow of the Olympic spirit and decided to mark Plushenko down for his poor transitions? If so, you must also believe that Sale & Pelletier were awarded a gold medal in 2002 out of the goodness of the IOC's heart.

The math is simple, although the speculation will go on forever. Plushenko lost 1.85 points to Lysacek in transition scores, while the final point difference between them was less than that: 1.31 points. The scores were just. But would they have come out the same way without the Inman controversy? We’ll never know.

But this incident demonstrates that politics continue to rule skating every bit as much as ever. Either Plushenko was marked correctly in Vancouver, in which case he was held up in previous competitions, with utter disregard to the poor quality of his transitions. Or else, if he was marked fairly before, the scandal sunk Plushenko at these Games and helped put Evan Lysacek over the top.

Whichever scenario you prefer, this controversy shows that the new judging system is as open to bias and prejudice as the one it replaced under the pretense of cleaning house. The only thing that's changed is that under the 6.0 system we knew exactly who awarded offensive marks. Now politics as usual thrives just as much, but under the veil of secrecy and anonymity.
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Re: English Press about Evgeni after LP

Postby cekoni » 01 Mar 2010, 02:58

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports ... 77507.html
The Canadian Press - By: Stephen Wilson, The Associated Press 28/02/2010 4:06 PM

Rogge calls Plushenko a great champion, but says no reason to criticize men's Olympics results

VANCOUVER - Judging of the figure skating competitions at the Vancouver Olympics was "absolutely impeccable," International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Sunday.

Evgeni Plushenko has complained bitterly ( :plush43: they always must add something ) about the results of the men's competition, where the Russian finished second to American Evan Lysacek despite being the only top contender to land a clean quadruple jump. But there is nothing to criticize, Rogge said.

"Let me say this very clearly: The IOC has discussed this with the International Skating Union, the judging has been absolutely impeccable, there is nothing to criticize the judges," Rogge said. "They have applied the system that has been approved."

Figure skating adopted its current judging system after the pairs scandal at the Salt Lake City Olympics, which led the IOC to award a duplicate set of gold medals. While the new system is designed to reduce the possibility of cheating, it has also required skaters to become more versatile.

Plushenko may have done the quad, but the overall quality of Lysacek's program was better. (say judges... :za_da_va_la: )The reigning world champion also got bonus points for doing five of his eight jumping passes in the second half of the program.

Plushenko wants the value of the quad to be increased so more skaters will be encouraged to try it. Lysacek is the first man to win the Olympic title without doing a quad since 1994. But any changes to figure skating's judging system would have to come from the ISU, Rogge said.

"The fact is that the ISU has another view and prefers the versatility of the athlete, and gives a greater value on spins, on transitions, on small steps," said Rogge, who was at the men's final and who called Plushenko a "great champion."

"This is something to be decided by the sports authorities," Rogge added. "If Plushenko wants things to be changed, he has to ask his own Russian federation to work at the level of the ISU to adapt the rules."
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Re: English Press about Evgeni after LP

Postby cekoni » 01 Mar 2010, 04:57

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp...8&vkey=ice_news
By Lynn Rutherford, special to icenetwork.com

An upbeat Plushenko vows to wow in Torino
After that, more surgery may be in the cards

(02/28/2010) - Evgeni Plushenko seems to have recovered his good humor.

The 27-year-old Russian, who won Olympic gold in 2006 and silver in 2002, was none too happy after his loss to Evan Lysacek here, saying -- among other things - that the quad-triple combination in his free skate was undervalued.
"Without the quad, I am sorry, but it is not men," he said.
Lysacek did not try a quad.

The intervening week seems to have lifted his spirits; he came off the ice after his Olympic exhibition on Saturday singing and granting interviews.

"I would like to go to the worlds; I would like to skate there and finish this season," Plushenko said after his performance Johnny Halladay's melancholy "Je Suis Malade."

"It doesn't matter to me which place I'm going to have. I would like to skate clean, like I can. After that, I am going to do the touring in Europe and Russia."

Halladay's song, roughly translated, tells the tale of a sick man, and according to Plushenko, it's not too far off the mark. The difference is the man in the song is lovesick, while it's Plushenko's body that is sore.

"After the shows, I am going to go to Munich and see my doctors," the three-time world champion said.

"Maybe I need to make two surgeries, [to my] knee and ankle [heel]. And then I'm going to decide, if I skate [competitively] or not. I will make this pause and then continue."


Further inquiry revealed that there is a cyst on his right ankle. Plushenko claimed this injury, as well as lingering problems with his knee, affected his performances in Vancouver.

"Yes, they did bother me; not only knee, but also my foot," he said, before adding tongue-in-cheek, "You see, I am Robocop, I am the Terminator. Without this problem, what I could have done." :lol:

There was some buzz in the Japanese press corps about silver medalist Mao Asada -- who made history as the first woman to land three triple Axels at a competition -- approaching Plushenko at the exhibition practice, asking for pointers with her jumps.

"I can help her; I know a few things," Plushenko said. "If she wants to train with me, we can do that.

"She has problem with her landing, but she is very strong. She has fast rotations and big jumps, and that's important."


Asada has trained, at times, in Moscow under Tatiana Tarasova.

Plushenko had earlier hinted he might compete at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, but now sounded less certain.

"I will definitely be at Sochi, but whether as a competitor, a volunteer or a coach, I do not know," he said.

-------------------------------------------------

Plushenko speaks about Mao's triple Axles
Plushenko went on Japanese TV and spoke about Mao's performance:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw2HfpLCR68



... translation from:
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/44526064.html

If I were a judge I would have given more points to Mao because she landed two clean triple axles. For the ladies this is what gets you the most points (lol I think I hear him saying "it's like the Superbowl"). Mao did it for the first time ever on this planet (lol so dramatic), she did two. The judges did not give her enough extra points for accomplishing that. It's all about the extra points. For a jump with such great difficulty they have to give more extra points.
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Re: English Press about Evgeni after LP

Postby Serg » 02 Mar 2010, 09:47

March 1, 2010 Rosie DiManno

DiManno: Lysacek too chicken to put title on line

VANCOUVER— Turns out, not only is Evan Lysacek orange, he’s also yellow. Orange for that weird over-tanning-bed-fried face and yellow for the stripe down his back.

The American has now just about settled any debate over who’s the best figure skater in the world – him or Russian Evgeni Plushenko.

Lysacek has one Olympic gold and one world championship; Plushenko has one Olympic gold, two Olympic silvers and three world championships.

Plushenko says he’s going to the worlds in Turin later this month. Lysacek, the reigning world title-holder, has announced he won’t.

That’s lame.

It’s also cowardly,
Lysacek clearly not wanting to risk his zenith sheen at another event – the competition jewel of his sport, for all the glory attached to Olympianism – by laying the title on the line.

It’s not that uncommon for Winter Games medallists to pass on worlds, which come up so quickly afterward in an Olympic year. Fellow Yank Tara Lipinski, also Olympic and defending champion, withdrew from worlds in 1998, loath to damage her cha-ching endorsement cachet post-Nagano. Last we heard, she’d disappeared into oblivion as a Hollywood wannabe and, over-taxing her pubescent body as a triple-triple jumping phenom, underwent double hip replacement surgery in her 20s.

Still, Lysacek has a title to defend in Turin and, given the controversy over whether he deserved gold here without gambling on a quad – which Plushenko rattled off cleanly in both his short and long programs, in combination – surely he had a sporting obligation to prove the mettle of his medal.

“I’m not afraid to lose,” Lysacek insisted, via a statement from the U.S. Figure Skating Association. “Regardless of medals, I still have so much to thrive on in the sport. I’m not ready to say good-bye.”

He is, however, ready to say ciao to the 2010 worlds in Italy – and won’t all those fans who’ve already bought tickets to the event appreciate that?

On a single night in Vancouver, the judging panel awarded Lysacek 1.86 points more than Plushenko in the free skate, which vaulted the American over the short-program winner Russian, 257.67 to 256.36 overall. Aesthetes note Lysacek had prettier triples, all landed majestically, while Plushenko – recently unretired – was wonky in the air on several of his three-rotation jumps and wobbled his triple Axel. He also dropped the back end of his signature quad-triple-double toeloop. Plushenko may be imperious but silver was hard to swallow and he genuinely believed his 11-jump effort was good enough for gold. That’s why he tossed off a couple of zingers. “I was positive that I’d won. But I saw Evan needs a medal more than I do, maybe because I already have one.”

You know, that’s not cranky; it’s ego-soothing under the circumstances, everyone eyeball the man-who-would-be-twice Olympic king at the after-skate press conference. Plushenko later added: “If the Olympic champion doesn’t know how to do a quad, I don’t know ... it’s not men’s figure skating, it’s dancing.”

Lysacek, who said nothing at the time, responded days later, expressing his “hurt” feelings over the jibe
. “I’m disappointed that someone who was a role model for me would take a hit at me at the greatest moment of my life.”

Personally, we liked the double-diss provided earlier by American Johnny Weir, sizing up the two rivals: “I have been around for too long to be intimidated by a quad, a flying mane of blond hair or a tanned face.”

Lysacek’s absence in Turin bodes extra-well for Canadian champion Patrick Chan, defending silver world medallist and fifth in Vancouver. From the post-Games party Sunday night, Chan defended Lysacek’s decision to the Star. “I don’t think he’s scared of going to worlds. He was slightly injured to start the season and there just isn’t enough time to really recover after the Olympics. It’s better for Evan to go out on top of the world.”

Which is where Chan hopes to be, come Turin.

“It’s in my mind and in my sights.”

Source: Toronto Star
http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/articl ... le-on-line
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