Lights and Shadows at the Scandinavium by Sonia Bianchetti Garbato
Men's FinalThe Men's final went from tragic to sublime, all in the last group to skate. This just proves once more that there is no consistency in the performances of the competitors and that their success depends on the luck of the day.
The first skater to take the ice in the top group was Tomas Verner, the European Champion. The high point of his performance was an opening quad toe- loop on which he put his hand down -- the first of seven elements with errors. In addition to the quad he landed two triple jumps, a triple Axel and a triple flip. He fell on an attempt at a second quad toe-loop, was downgraded on a triple Axel, and singled three triple jumps. A miserable performance! Still, despite all these errors which completely disrupted the program, he received for Program Components 69.92 points , the sixth highest of the Free Skate. How is it possible that he got marks in the seven in what we can call the “artistic” part of a program -- Performance/Execution, Choreography/Composition and Interpretation? With all these mistakes there was nothing left in that program. How could the judges give him 2.50 points more than Patrick Chan, from Canada, who, although with a couple of errors, skated beautifully and performed one of the most artistic programs of the night? One can only wonder what the panel of judges was watching during that performance. His free skate at the Europeans on their computer’s screen, perhaps? An even bigger Easter gift to the European Champion!
Next to skate was Johnny Weir, from the US. He opened with a quad toe-loop attempt. The landing was two footed, and the jump downgraded. This was the only element in the program with a major error. He had a couple of poor landings on a triple loop and on triple Lutz, and a solo triple flip had an edge call. Johnny started slowly and looked cautious, very tense. It was only after his second triple Axel that he started to look secure and skated the second half of the program confidently. Weir has an excellent technique, he skates on deep edges and has good running edges also in landing jumps as well as between jumps in combinations. He is one of the most elegant and artistic skaters. His component marks, though were in the mid sevens, and he was ranked only fifth best .
Weir was followed by Daisuke Takahashi, from Japan, who was third in the short, and one of the favourites for the gold. Takahashi landed an outstanding high, clean opening quad toe- loop. He then fell apart and made major errors on three jump elements. He fell on his second quad toe- loop attempt and had a near fall on one of two triple Axels. He also had a major brain seizure near the end of his program by improvising a triple Lutz / double toe- loop combination which counted as a fourth combination/sequence and was given zero points. This probably cost him the bronze medal. Despite the technical errors he skated with speed, and managed to keep the overall flow of the program. He was scored third best in Program Components. He ended up in fourth place, 1.73 points behind Weir.
Next to skate was Stephane Lambiel, from Switzerland, the 2005 and 2006 World Champion. He also made a mess of his program. Five jump elements received negative GoEs . He missed two quad toe- loop attempts, one of which was downgraded. Triple Axel, loop and flip also had major errors. This was another program where the errors disrupted the performance and yet the component marks remained in the mid to upper sevens for a total score of 75.72, the fourth best, ahead of Weir! Unbelievable.
Lambiel was then followed by Brian Joubert. Three quads were planned in the program but after landing the first one correctly, he left out the next two. On his second element he executed triple Salchow instead of a quad and he replaced a second quad toe- loop with a triple flip / triple toe- loop combination, and his final combination, planned as triple Salchow / double toe- loop/ double loop, was replaced by double Axel / single toe- loop. Both the triple flips had edge calls. Brian, probably thinking that Buttle could not win without a quad, dumbed down his program to a dangerous level. His program was well skated and he was given 79.36 points in Program Components, the highest of the event. Joubert was the leader in the overall score with only Buttle left to skate, and he surely must have thought the gold medal was his as he kissed the ice at the end of his performance. But it was not going to be so.
Jeffrey Buttle, from Canada, took the ice and skated a clean program with eight triple jumps, including two triple Axels and a triple flip/ triple toe- loop combination. The quality of all his elements was superb as well as that of his skating. His total element score was an extraordinary 84.29 points more than 10 points more than Joubert, especially considering that it was achieved without a quad. Quality won over simple difficulty !!! His free program was very beautiful and appealing as well. At last a free skating that one would like to watch again and again. However in Program Components he was scored only second best, 0.58 points behind Joubert, and this is just ludicrous if not outrageous.
During the press conference following the event, Joubert expressed his disappointment at the result “because Jeffrey did the perfect combination but he didn’t try a quadruple jump. The scoring system has changed so much. It is better now to do simple and clean to try something difficult.”
Reprinted With Permission - soniabianchetti.com
March 30, 2008
