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Sombreuil

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Everything posted by Sombreuil

  1. Sombreuil
    @gladi Thank you very much for the translations and especially for your attention to the nuance of what is being said, given the ' lost in translation ' aspect of these articles - we're all very grateful.
  2. Sombreuil
    My point wasn't really emphasising the artistic bit but what happens to the 'smaller contest' medals - you remember Uchimura was world champion AA in 2015 - you don't necessarily remember that he won the HB as well. (Perhaps artistic is the wrong word - compare Uchimura and Leyva at that HB World final - not much in it components wise but though a lot of american commentators talked up Ls 'energy' his legs were all over the place, his arms were bent, he just didn't have the lines, the neatness, the elegance of Uchimura, which is why U won.) i completely agree that the athletic and artistic shouldn't be split. There is no comparable division in figure skating to the apparatus finals.
  3. Sombreuil
    I know I keep referring to gymnastics but as another judged sport with artistic elements the parallels keep cropping up. The apparatus medals are fun to watch and give the specialists a day in the limelight but it's the all around winner that is remembered as the olympic/world champion- people remember Verniaev as the silver medalist and Whitlock as the bronze- at home they get hype for their golds on PB and F/PH but the majority of people remember who won the all around.
  4. Sombreuil
    I don't understand the maths but I do think if the back loading becomes too much so that the programme is unbalanced it should somehow be penalised. One of the things I enjoy most is the skaters who are musical and use the elements to accentuate the music - we all know who they are. If backloading reaches a zayak style tipping point I would be in favour of that.
  5. Sombreuil
    I love PotO as well but there would have been an outcry if he'd used a warhorse, especially when Mura is reusing his Phantom from that same season. Pages ago, before the FP music was announced every time the members got nervy there was an outburst of several pages of agonised "hope he's not going to reuse Phantom" posts which became quite comical after a while!
  6. Sombreuil
    "Let's be optimistic and trust the new ISU leadership"
  7. Sombreuil
    Ah, but was all this percolating before they came through? Is that why there's this idea of a tech champ ( N/V) and an artistic one (J)- or at least a chance at it
  8. Sombreuil
    He makes them uncomfortable. He's a phenomenal skater who is very grounded in his own culture and whose reaction to his terrible experiences as a teenager have garnered almost universal respect from commentators and media. I think they're happy with westernised Asians but not someone who is comfortable being very rooted in Japan and it's hard to criticise him as a person or a skater. When I was looking back at the Sochi era I read a distasteful comment somewhere that was very telling, along the lines of the commenter being tired of seeing tsunami footage in sports reports ( though of course they sympathised with the victims) the inference being that Hanyu was milking the disaster for publicity etc. This was an uber fan of a western skater, who is unlikely to ever read about all the charity stuff that he did then and continues to do, and I suspect that mindset exists in the corridors of power too.
  9. Sombreuil
    They know that he's a phenomenon - an outlier, the sort that only crops up every 30 years or so.
  10. Sombreuil
    @meoima So Patrick c 2012? They want to turn the clock back? I don't see this proposal achieving that.
  11. Sombreuil
    I wonder what their 'ideal skater' looks like
  12. Sombreuil
    When the big audience for the sport ( and a high proportion of its stars) is in Eastern Europe and the Far East it seems crazy that NA and Western Europe should have such a disproportionate influence on it. I find the bleating of certain nationalities about the decline of their skaters very irritating, especially when coupled with criticism of the methods of others. It reminds me a bit of gymnastics- the US owns WAG, and can't understand why it doesn't own MAG as well, when any male kid with the fast twitch reflexes needed to be successful is going to head for other more lucrative sports, which also happen to have a more macho profile. Here in the UK sports like gymnastics,swimming and cycling that have had money thrown at them through things like the lottery have become successful and therefore popular. I wonder sometimes what uk skating would look like if the lottery had existed in the 70s.
  13. Sombreuil
    I don't know about the rest of Europe, but in the UK apart from Worlds and Olympics you need to pay for Eurosport to see the GP series euros and 4CC, and wait for uploads to YouTube for anything else.
  14. Sombreuil
    Have any of them looked at the way tickets for the men's competitions are going as soon as the internet sales open ? The viewing figures on YouTube etc? ( it wouldn't astonish me if they only took into a/c terrestrial TV figures). In the men's competition they have a winning formula and they want to throw it out because they are incapable/ unwilling/ not interested in fixing the problems caused by their own judges?
  15. Sombreuil
    Couldn't agree more - it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
  16. Sombreuil
    I don't want to watch a jump fest. Did it in the 80s pretty much and it was tedious. And as I don't follow ice dance much I think I'd probably not be particularly interested in a no jump ' artistic' skate - and I'm sure the judging of that part would send my blood pressure sky high. So they're going to lose me and people like me- if they go through with it. How are they going to replace us? Because the perception in NA and Western Europe that it's a girly sport isn't going to go away because of a new rule book.
  17. Sombreuil
    I don't really see what an athletic programme will look like- skate from one end to the other,jump, rinse and repeat? Are spins athletic or artistic? Ina Bauer, hydroblade, lunge? Will an 'artistic' programme be purely skating skills? Where will ice dance fit in? This sounds like change for the sake of it. Pity the skaters and coaches don't have representatives on the governing body. Pity they don't educate their judges properly and deploy the full range of tech support that's available to them. Pity they don't make the free longer - if I recall it used to be 5 mins- that would give some time for artistic freedom. I could go on but I'm sure you can fill the rest in yourselves. at this rate I'll be retiring as a spectator when YH retires
  18. Sombreuil
    At least I'm having to do it in my native language- if I had to mingle and chit chat and remember names and faces and business/family/friendship networks in a foreign language I'd probably have a nervous breakdown - I think that's what he was getting at in the Fernandez documentary - he finds it hard in Canada because he's used to speaking Japanese with his family and friends.
  19. Sombreuil
    The vocals -- I didn't like the film but often actors singing is ok in the context of the film but is glaringly sub standard when you listen to the soundtrack in isolation. I never understand why they often use film soundtracks of things that were originally stage shows with actual singers who sound much better.
  20. Sombreuil
    At least the LaLa land deluge didn't happen- and classical warhorses with vocals are likely to be well sung.
  21. Sombreuil
    Back after a weekend away and no hope of catching up. @gladi thank you so much for the translation. I really agree with the point that Seimei and Chopin are the quintessential, non warhorse, YH programmes and the Olympics is the place to use them. In 20 years time no one will be wittering on about repeats - they'll just remember two astonishing programmes. On various people's concern about YHs social life, or lack thereof, speaking as a confirmed introvert who is looking at an autumn full of 'social' engagements, most of them work related and (for me) bloody hard work, I say leave him in peace and let him concentrate on the things that interest him. If the social stuff doesn't come naturally to you it wears you out.
  22. Sombreuil
    Thought about this when I watched the UK and Irish boys in the JGP today- there's no funding and very few rinks - once in a blue moon an outlier appears who is so talented he/she/ they make progress, usually by going abroad, and things look good for a while and then it's back to apathy as normal.
  23. Sombreuil
    Off topic but last night I had an evening free to hog the TV and watch my new video- it was great - thanks to @Geo1 whose recommendation in a thread somewhere weeks ago ( I made a cursory attempt to find it but you know what this place is like) prompted me to get a copy. It was well worth it even with HMRCs cut on top. Nice to see the programmes without commentary - I hope the results at PC prompt them to make another for this quad.
  24. Sombreuil
    Just imagine the outcry from the antis if he didn't bend over backwards to be humble?
  25. Sombreuil
    I love the fact that he always says 'If I'm selected' and doesn't take it for granted.
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