Skate America Men's Medallists review

Whoa !

So many things have been in my mind since my last blog , but finally, I got to write about my impression of Skate America.

This season I may not be able to spend much time for my hobby though I will try to take a time for it.

I thought it won’t be shown in the US broadcast for all the GPS competitions anymore except for ladies LP, but somehow, Ray happened to turn on the TV on Sunday afternoon, and found a Japanese skater Kozuka had just finished his FP. And we were able to see Johnny’s FP in NBC broadcast.

They often change the schedule, so we may need to constantly check the info about it to watch it.

During the live competitions, I was at my computer with nerve , and after seeing the result of Johnny and placed in behind Kozuka , I had a bad feeling ,
… really bad feeling..

But after seeing Lysacek’s result, suddenly my feeling became much better.

Yes !

1. Takahiko Kozuka - Gold
2. Johnny Weir - Silver3. Evan Lysacek - Bronze

Takahiko Kozuka

I only watched both of his programs on you tube because we missed his on the broadcast. So seeing on the big screen and you tube may get different impression.

And seeing his performances on YouTube, I thought he is great in technical maybe based on text book. And for artistry, I was unable to find his personality and originality in it.

I was predicting Kozuka will be on a podium but never expected he would win, so this result was big surprise. But he is still young and new to senior COP, so he may improve in the future.

Johnny Weir

His SP looked still work in process, besides he looked very nervous. Some of his movements look slightly stiff and less grace compared with usual. Not sure for the choreography is fit with the music. But need to watch more.

I thought his FP was great, there are some same parts of choreography as past seasons, ( last season and also king of chess ) but there are also interesting choreography, especially I like the part in the middle of his program. His expression was great as usual.

His smooth, graceful quality skating is always beautiful to watch. Love both of his costumes. Only for his FP, back side of the design is not sure..though, they are very creative and fit him. FP costume looks similar design to his love is war costume.

Evan Lysacek

For his SP, I only watched it on YouTube, and I thought his jumps looked great with smooth landing except for his 3A.

Techinically, his spins are always the same as before, and artistically, I was more expected his improvements since hearing he took a ballet class in Russia but his body position, line of movements were not changed.

For his FP, I found only one small part, his arm movement had grace, and natural but for other parts, especially straight line step sequence were just wild arm flailing , nothing artistic same as ever.

He received highest PCS with that performance in this event. And I heard that Tarasova was praising him and the score was what she expected in Russian TV.

Really ?????

And his costumes… which were selected by Tarasova. His SP costume ’s shape design is good, that can make his body look slim and good , but the big cross design is not my taste.

His FP costume….. Someone called it as “ Christmas penguin “ .

Hmm, it may fit with the image. And the theme of the program is lyrics style, so it was difficult to make image seeing the costume.

Ray was constantly saying about his costume “ looks ridiculously stupid, what’s a joke ! “ during his FP.

The shape of sleeves , and back side of design may be causing that look like comedy costume.

I was disappointed for comments for the NBC commentators Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic.

After men’s FP, they were talking about how unfair for this result, praising Evan Lysacek’s performance and saying Evan should have won.

And they showed Kozuka and Lysacek’s both 3A , showing the difference between their jumps. And it showed clearly Lysacek’s 3A was under rotated and Kozuka was full rotated.

And Scott Hamilton says “ so what ? With laugh “ .

This their biased to Lysacek comments were really disrespectful to the Japanese skater as a commentators.

Besides, I wonder they have never noticed that Lysacek’s 3A were often under rotated ?

Seems like he received the biggest ovation and crowds were starting to booed the result, they seems seriously thought Lysacek was the winner in this event.

What about Johnny who placed 2nd, received silver medal ?

They completely ignore about him, and talking about Lysacek.

Evan Lysacek is Scott Hamilton’s employee in SOI, so I'm sure he has biased in favor of Lysacek but when he works as a commentator, it's a basic requirement to not be biased.

Even Kurt Browning was more fairly commenting in US Nationals 2007 when he was working with Evan as his choreographer.

It’s always stressful to see those biased to their favorites.

I hope NBC will hire someone who has no bias as a commentator like Paul Wylie by next US Nationals.

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