Team Canada

[rockstaryuzu]

13 hours ago, Anni said:

 

That's no rink, that's Lake Ontario! looks like he's at the Toronto Islands... freakin' AWESOME!

I kind of love that so many skaters are taking it outdoors right now.  yes it sucks that they have to but it's also very nice to see figure skating 'in the wild' so to speak. 

[sallycinnamon]

An interview with David Wilson by Jack Gallagher. If you don't want to click on it, here it is:

 

Quote

Legendary Choreographer David Wilson Calls for New Leadership at Skate Canada

 

Outraged by the cancellation of Canada’s national championships by the organization last month, Wilson blasted Skate Canada President Leanna Caron and her board in a recent interview.

 

Legendary skating choreographer David Wilson is fed up with Skate Canada and its handling of the sport during the pandemic, and is calling for new leadership at the federation over what he perceives as a complete failure of management.

 

Outraged by the cancellation of Canada’s skating national championships (scheduled for this week in Vancouver) by the organization last month, Wilson blasted Skate Canada President Leanna Caron and her board in a recent interview with the “Ice Time Podcast.”

 

Wilson, who has worked with numerous Olympic and world champions, like Yuzuru Hanyu and Yuna Kim during his long career, said he is upset with the mismanagement of the federation.

 

Following the cancellation of last year’s world championships in Montreal by then-Quebec health minister Danielle McCann, Skate Canada proceeded to cancel the Junior Grand Prix in British Columbia in August, the Autumn Classic International in Oakville, Ontario, in September, and Skate Canada International in Ottawa in October, before pulling the plug on the nationals.

 

“I’m very frustrated. I feel so terrible for the kids,” Wilson stated. “I was angry with Skate Canada [at the outset of the pandemic] for not being more firm and obliging kids to wear masks when they skate. I have been very judgmental and vocal about my judgmental opinions from the beginning. I have written emails and everything.

“But in Canada over the holidays, we sat and watched on our television sets that in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada hosted the world junior hockey championships,” Wilson continued. “This was between Christmas and New Year’s, during a lockdown.”

 

Wilson, who has a long working relationship with Hanyu’s coach Brian Orser, cited Skate Canada’s justification for calling off the skating nationals as being weak and lacking initiative. It didn’t help that traditional skating powers like Russia, Japan and the United States all held their national championships.

 

“All the rinks are closed in Alberta,” Wilson noted. “This is the excuse of Skate Canada, that certain provinces are more disadvantaged in terms of their training possibilities for the athletes.”

 

When announcing the cancellation of the nationals on January 11, Skate Canada CEO Debra Armstrong said in a statement: “Due to the continuous shift in requirements across the country, the inability of our athletes to train due to the close of ice rinks and the number of participants that would be required to travel, it became clear that it would not be possible to host these events.” 

 

Wilson did not believe this was a legitimate reason for nixing the nationals.

 

“People have ingenuity. If the national championships were happening, they would go train in B.C., or go train in Saskatchewan,” Wilson said. “Coaches would help each other. We would find a way to make it feasible.”

 

Wilson says the fact that the world junior hockey championships, a 10-nation competition lasting 10 days, was allowed to be contested illustrates a disparity in the perception of the sports.

 

“I want to say publicly that I find it disgraceful that hockey is allowed to have their world junior championships, and we are hosting it, but we are not even allowed to have our national figure skating championships,” Wilson commented. “I find that embarrassing and disgraceful. It is such preferential treatment.

 

“The concept of having something like a hockey tournament, and doing it safely, as opposed to a figure skating event where it is an individual sport, it is so much more feasible to do an event for our sport than a hockey event,” added Wilson. “All that comes down to is money. The only difference is money because there is more money behind hockey.”

 

Wilson is deeply disturbed by the appearance that skating and its participants are considered not as important as those in hockey.

 

“I think it is shameful that our kids and our sport have been devalued and disrespected,” Wilson stated. “For it to happen so closely, where [the hockey tournament] it was just a few weeks ago, and for them to turn around and cancel our event it is just shockingly disgraceful.” 

 

When asked if Skate Canada needed new leadership going forward, Wilson’s blunt reply left little doubt about his feelings on the matter.

 

“Yes, yes and yes, across the board,” Wilson remarked. “Our president lives in Europe! Our president doesn’t even live within our own country! These people, who are in charge at this point, have shown zero ingenuity, zero leadership. It’s disgraceful.

 

“We are a proud skating country. Canada is a world leader. It’s in our heritage,” Wilson added. “Almost every other important skating country in the world, but a few, had their national championships and we didn’t do it.

 

“You could interpret that as an overabundance of caution, but I don’t interpret as that,” Wilson commented. “I interpret it as a lack of ingenuity, a lack of commitment, and a lack of stick-to-itiveness, a lack of gumption, a lack of moxie. They have no spine.”

 

[rockstaryuzu]

Asher and Dylan do their best provide an analysis of the potential Canadian team for Worlds. 

 

 

As for David Wilson, I think he's got no right to criticize Skate Canada on this issue as he's not the one who'll be held liable if someone gets sick, but I do agree with him about the hockey vs figure skating thing. 

[rockstaryuzu]

So you ALL need to see this. Toronto is so beautiful from this angle. I'm so lucky to have been born there 💓 

 

[Faithyu]

14 hours ago, rockstaryuzu said:

So you ALL need to see this. Toronto is so beautiful from this angle. I'm so lucky to have been born there 💓 

 

 

Wow, this is so pretty. And to skate before such an amazing view....Please Nam, I want more of this, pretty please

[rockstaryuzu]

...and he did it again. This time jumping the CN Tower: 

 

 

 

 

[SitTwizzle]

Skate Canada have issued the list of Canadian Worlds entries.

For Men it's Keegan Messing, I'm sorry for Roman Sadovsky (and Nam Nguyen).

https://skatecanada.ca/2021/02/skate-canada-names-team-for-2021-isu-world-figure-skating-championships/

(I don't see a list of alternates.)

 

[NEWS]

[TallyT]

4 hours ago, SitTwizzle said:

Skate Canada have issued the list of Canadian Worlds entries.

For Men it's Keegan Messing, I'm sorry for Roman Sadovsky (and Nam Nguyen).

https://skatecanada.ca/2021/02/skate-canada-names-team-for-2021-isu-world-figure-skating-championships/

(I don't see a list of alternates.)

 

[NEWS]

 

It was a hell of a tough decision between the three of them, wasn't it? There's a good case for any of them... Canada may be the only major country where the number 1 man wasn't pretty clear, and who didn't run a Nationals to make it a little clearer.

 

I am happy for Keegan, and so sad for Nam and Roman.

[rockstaryuzu]

On 2/25/2021 at 5:24 PM, SitTwizzle said:

Skate Canada have issued the list of Canadian Worlds entries.

For Men it's Keegan Messing, I'm sorry for Roman Sadovsky (and Nam Nguyen).

https://skatecanada.ca/2021/02/skate-canada-names-team-for-2021-isu-world-figure-skating-championships/

(I don't see a list of alternates.)

 

[NEWS]

Tbh, there was no way this situation was ever going to be anything more than crappy for all of them.  Keegan ( if he goes to Worlds and doesn't decline out of a sense of COVID caution) needs a top ten finish to get Canada's second men's spot back. And Nam and Roman are forced to sit on the sidelines again. 

[Umebachi]

23 hours ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Tbh, there was no way this situation was ever going to more than crappy for all of them.  Keegan ( if he goes to Worlds and doesn't decline out of a sense of COVID caution) needs a top ten finish to get Canada's second men's spot back. And Nam and Roman are forced to sit on the sidelines again. 

 

I am so sad for Roman. I think he is the future of Canadian skating, and they are not giving him the opportunity to grow and experience being exposed to the challenges of international competition.   I think he has the potential to become truly an iconic skater, but this is a very delicate moment in his career.  I hope this disappointment will not sour him or slow down the tremendous progress he has been making this past year!  

[rockstaryuzu]

10 hours ago, Umebachi said:

 

I am so sad for Roman. I think he is the future of Canadian skating, and they are not giving him the opportunity to grow and experience being exposed to the challenges of international competition.   I think he has the potential to become truly an iconic skater, but this is a very delicate moment in his career.  I hope this disappointment will not sour him or slow down the tremendous progress he has been making this past year!  

I wholeheartedly agree. 

[Faithyu]

15 hours ago, Umebachi said:

 

I am so sad for Roman. I think he is the future of Canadian skating, and they are not giving him the opportunity to grow and experience being exposed to the challenges of international competition.   I think he has the potential to become truly an iconic skater, but this is a very delicate moment in his career.  I hope this disappointment will not sour him or slow down the tremendous progress he has been making this past year!  

 

Same. I like all three, but my heart beats a little bit more for Roman, because I see the most potential in his skating. He has the mix of elegance, art and athleticism I really like. Do we know what criteria were used to decide the spot? Roaman is still the reigning Canadian Champion, right?

[Umebachi]

3 hours ago, Faithyu said:

 

Same. I like all three, but my heart beats a little bit more for Roman, because I see the most potential in his skating. He has the mix of elegance, art and athleticism I really like. Do we know what criteria were used to decide the spot? Roaman is still the reigning Canadian Champion, right?

 

Perhaps @rockstaryuzu will have more details, but it seems Skate Canada received additional recent videos, and the deciding factor was a successful landing of 4 Lz by Keegan?  He does have great jumps when he is on, but not consistently so.  Also, he is not what we would consider the "complete package"...  All three are great competitors and very respectful towards each other, which is a good thing.  But the Skate Canada judges seem to have fallen into some group think view of "Roman is not consistent" mentality.  Which is a subjective perception not necessarily supported by data - I mean Keegan is not necessarily more consistent than Roman, they all have their ups and downs. 

 

PS  This made me think about some of the recent developments in cognitive sciences and behavioral economics - which is what I am studying at the moment.  We now have a much better understanding of the subjectivity of human mind, and how our perception of "reality" is greatly influenced by our social environment.  You may have seen videos demonstrating how "blind" we are to criminal acts being conducted right under our nose when we are distracted by "magician's slight of hand", or alternatively, how we are made to "see" and become convinced of certain trends because of social hyping when they don't actually exist in reality.  We should be able to demonstrate using rigorous scientific methods to reveal how the judges' scores move up when the skaters skates later in the competition, or when all the other judges start to jack up the scores in the course of the season because of this "group think" phenomenon.  That is why we need AI intervention and data analysis to reveal these human subjective scoring and judging in figure skating.  It's quite blatant and we don't require much more than the traditional statistical data analysis, but with AI and Machine Learning we can speed up the process and do it in real time, and we won't require the efforts of some poor skating fan with extra time and data crunching capabilities to do the analysis after the competition.  These subjective score inflation can be caught in real time with AI and mitigated relatively easily.  If only we can get these old technically outdated judges to move on and retire, and allow more technically competent judges to move in!! 

 

OK, sorry for the long rant.

 

[rockstaryuzu]

15 minutes ago, Umebachi said:

 

Perhaps @rockstaryuzu will have more details, but it seems Skate Canada received additional recent videos, and the deciding factor was a successful landing of 4 Lz by Keegan?  He does have great jumps when he is on, but not consistently so.  Also, he is not what we would consider the "complete package"...  All three are great competitors and very respectful towards each other...

No, in fact this is more detail than I knew. 4Lz...I can see why that would tempt the selection committee.  There's no question that having some firepower in the jumps department is important at the top levels. And if we're talking about consistency...to be honest, none of them are rock solid in that regard. They all have good days and bad days. I don't think you could use that as a basis for comparison. My guess  - and it's only a guess -  is that they went for firepower plus experience and ended up with Keegan. 

 

Too bad though. It was really shaping up to be Roman's year. I'm dying to see that free skate of his live. 

[Umebachi]

3 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

No, in fact this is more detail than I knew. 4Lz...I can see why that would tempt the selection committee.  There's no question that having some firepower in the jumps department is important at the top levels. And if we're talking about consistency...to be honest, none of them are rock solid in that regard. They all have good days and bad days. 

I'm trying to find the source of that info about Keegan's 4Lz, but I saw it too many tweets ago and can't find it.