SKATING ON THE FLY
Points format a head-scratcher; effect on athletes a concern
It’s an Olympic medal, and an early one at that, so anyone with a chance for a top-three finish in figure skating’s inaugural team event this weekend is going to shoot first and ask questions later. But there will be questions. “Every country is learning at the same time,” Canada’s skating team leader, Mike Slipchuk, said Friday. “The comments I heard in the mixed zone were: If a skater skates well, how will that impact him in the individual event? We don’t know. If they have a rough skate in this, how will that impact them? We don’t know.”
“It’s so strange for all of us — for the athletes, for the coaches. All afternoon I didn’t know how to handle it. You can’t tell them to hold back,” said coach Brian Orser, whose Japanese prodigy Yuzuru Hanyu won the men’s short program for his country Thursday night.
The effect on its athletes is only one of the questions the 10 countries who qualified enough skaters to compete in the team competition — comprising one short and one long program in each of men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dance, with aggregate placements determining the medals — can’t answer.
‘Every country is learning at the same time. If a skater skates well, how will that impact him in the individual event? We don’t know. If they have a rough skate in this, how will that impact them? We don’t know. It’s so strange for all of us — for the athletes, for the coaches.’
MICHAEL SLIPCHUK Canadian skating team leader, on team skating event debut
How the International Skating Union would ever fit a team event into a one-week world championships, if the IOC insisted on it as a condition of keeping the new format in the program for future Games, is also a mystery. It’s hard enough to schedule when there’s an 18-day window to play with.
Canada sits in second place after the two short programs skated Thursday — men’s, where world champion Patrick Chan placed an indifferent third, and pairs, where Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford were second.
On the 10-9-8, etc., points system, that meant Canada got eight points from Chan and nine from Duhamel and Radford, for a total of 17. Russia, with a victory in pairs by Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, and a second place from 31-year-old icon Evgeni Plushenko, leads with 19. China is third at 15.
It’s a bit of a head-scratcher, but there’s nothing wrong with the theory behind it.
“That format has been so successful in other sports, and it gives us a little preview of what we’re going to see in the individual final,” said 2010 Olympic men’s champion Evan Lysacek, who’s here for NBC’s Today show after a hip injury cost him a shot at making it to Sochi.
“If you really look at it, I think it’s closely modelled after the gymnastics team event — and I can only speak as an American, but I know that gives us a sense of national pride and a chance to fall in love with these athletes and their stories as Team USA, then we get to see them do the individual final and you have a little bit better sense of where they’ve come from.”
All to the good. But figure skating’s version is still in the crawlinginfant stage.
“Starting before the opening ceremonies, it’s different,” admitted Slipchuk. “You know, we were watching the TV feed come in (at the village) and seeing the snowboarders and the moguls guys and we’re going, ‘Is this qualifying, or training, or ...?’ You’re just not used to that.
“But I like it, personally. When do you come to an Olympic Games and kind of get a dry run-through? Most times, you go into the short program and if you had some technical glitches, you can’t go ‘Well, I’ll fix those next time.’ There is no next time.
“Whereas, yesterday, if there’s things you want to improve, you’ve got a week.
“I think for Patrick, just the opportunity to get out and get a sense of what this rink feels like in competition, and find out ‘How am I handling it? Am I a little too aggressive, a little too anxious?’ That goes a long way. You have something to build on, rather than someone saying: ‘This is how you might feel tomorrow night.’”
The women’s and dance short programs go Saturday evening, after which the aggregate points will eliminate five countries. Then the pairs from the surviving nations skate their long program. Sunday, the dance, women’s and men’s finals will decide the medals.
Slipchuk, Skate Canada’s high performance director, said he was “not overly” concerned about the state of Chan’s game, despite an off-night Thursday.
“There were a few little things, but technically stuff was good. If anything, the quad was just a bit big, the Axel was a bit big. They weren’t out of control, they were just (over-rotated),” he said.
“You know, the discussion could have been reversed. It could have been: ‘He was amazing yesterday, but how’s he going to do it next week?’ This is part of the process. How I put it to the team yesterday and to Patrick was that it’s no different than the 2010 men’s hockey team: everyone forgets they lost to the U.S. and barely squeaked by the Swiss.
“But if you’re on top, nobody remembers what happened along the way.”