Dissecting Silver
Where the Canadian media picks apart Virture and Moir's Olympic Silver Medal (and I randomly bold sentances and quotes for my own purposes). In a nutshell: 1 judge has had it out for them and Marina can't win. Except she can. And did. Twice.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir settle for silver in ice dance at Sochi Olympics
The gold medal for the American pair of Meryl Davis and Charlie White’s is raising eyebrows, Rosie DiManno writes.
By: Rosie DiManno Columnist, Published on Mon Feb 17 2014
Richard Lautens / Toronto Star
SOCHI, RUSSIA-The numeral 1 appears three times from the same judge on the detailed scoring sheet for Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
One judge and only one - from a panel of nine - gave the Canadian ice dancers a plus-one value on three of their nine free dance elements Monday night.
This is called the Grade of Execution, a discretionary mark that ranges from minus-3 to plus-3 and is either added or deducted from the base value of each element as determined by a technical panel.
So, this one judge hung a plus-one on the Canadians for their twizzles, a rotational lift and a diagonal step sequence. Nobody else on the panel stooped that low. This same judge gave a plus-2 GOE to Virtue and Moir on five other elements. Only for a combination spin did he or she award the maximum plus-three.
It’s not known which judge scored the Canadians so ridiculously low, because they’re afforded anonymity. But I can guess. And it’s not really guesswork because the same pattern emerged in every competition over the past two years - half a dozen head-to-heads now in which the Americans have defeated the Canadians - where a certain judge who will not be identified here has sat on the panel. (Does this fit into the conspiracy earlier in the year re: the Russian's agreeing to give the American's the Gold in Ice Dancing if the American agreed to give the Russians the Team Gold?)
You want to take a stab at unravelling the mystery of the declining scores for Virtue and Moir over the last two seasons - put your finger here.
Components are judged on a scale of one to 10. Davis and White received two perfect 10s. Virtue and Moir got component scores that dipped down to 9.57 and 9.64.
Congratulations are in order for Davis and White, who’ve been skating together since they were 8-year-olds. I do not begrudge these wonderful athletes the first Olympic ice dance gold ever won by the U.S. They are superb skaters with a style all their own and particular strengths. Four years ago in Vancouver, they were silver and the Canadians were golden. In the free dance, their Scheherazade routine was more energetic and, I think, more attractive than the Petit Adagio performed by Virtue and Moir. All the programs were created and choreographed by the teams’ co-coach, Marina Zoueva.
White - like Moir a hockey player, and it’s this other shared passion that infuses their bond of friendship, a camaraderie which seems lacking between the women (LOL, yeah) in this unique quartet of skaters who spent every day for nearly a decade training together in Canton, Mich. - was eager to field the same query at the post-event press conference.
To be clear: There was no bitterness from Virtue and Moir.
“We’re Olympic silver medallists at the end of the day,” Moir told reporters in the mixed zone after stepping up to the second-highest podium for flower presentation, hopping up and down, joyful. He and Virtue had exchanged fond glances and affectionate hugs, then wrapped themselves in the Canadian flag for victory laps.
“That’s a pretty good feat. I made it very clear in the media that we were coming here for gold but no one’s going to steal that moment from us. We went out there and we skated our hearts out and left it all on the ice and we’re extremely proud to have another medal for Canada.”
Virtue: “I don’t think anyone close to us will love us any less because we’re bringing home a silver. We’re sorry for Canada it can’t be gold but we’re proud of our performances.”
Moir and Virtue detest the constant comparisons to Davis and White; having to delineate their relationship and co-existence with the Americans. “Kurt Browning told me once - you don’t have to defeat your opponent,” said Moir. “You can have different moments. That’s kind of what I held on to this year.” (Pappa Kurt -- so wise.)
Long afterwards, when the lights had been dimmed at the Iceberg Palace, Moir reappeared. He lay on the ice atop the Olympic rings. Then he jumped cheerfully over the boards.
Remember that this Olympic ice dance championship was likely lost by the Canadians when they were puzzlingly reduced to a Level 3 score for that Finnstep sequence in the short program. They never bridged the gap of two points gone AWOL.
A reporter up in the media tribune jokingly yelled out a score for Moir’s leap over the boards.
He zinged in return: “Maybe I can get my two Finn points back!”
Dream on.
Full Article/Source: http://www.thestar.com/sports/sochi2014/figureskating/2014/02/17/tessa_virtue_and_scott_moir_win_silver_in_ice_dance_at_sochi_olympics.html
Scott Moir, Tessa Virtue question coach's loyalty
'We were both pretty blunt with her in the fall'
SOCHI, RUSSIA - They’re one of the world’s top ice dance teams, but they also became experts at tap dancing around the question of their coach.
As the losses to American arch-rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White began to build this season, Canadian skaters Tessa Virtaue and Scott Moir started questioning whether they had the right coach in Marina Zoueva, and whether the coach was favouring her other high-profile team - Davis and White.
It finally reached the point that Virtue and Moir confronted Zoueva to discus her commitment to them and whether she was doing enough to help them defend in Sochi their 2010 Olympic gold medal.
“We went to Marina on countless occasions and told her that we weren’t happy and in no way were we going to be happy with a silver medal (in Sochi),” said Moir. “We tried everything. It felt a little bit like we were in quicksand because (the American pair) were getting away from us. I think Marina listened to us and we kind of reshaped some of our program. But she’s an artist as well, so she wanted to stay true to her vision.
“We were both pretty blunt with her in the fall - and even leading up to the Olympics - that we weren’t happy and we felt sometimes that she wasn’t in our corner,” Moir added. “(But) she handled that tremendously well. She just, she’s been with us now for 10 years and I really think that she loves us and she pours her heart into our choreography.”
Still, despite their frustrations leading up to the Games and the fact that the international judges seemed to prefer the programs of Davis and White, not enough was done obviously to give Virtue and Moir the winning program for the Sochi Olympics.
The disenchantment began to build for Virtue and Scott as the Olympic approached.
“We had some odd things happen this year that hasn’t happened before, we expected that Marina would march with us (in the opening ceremony) and be with our team like she was in Vancouver,” said Moir. “It was a tough pill to swallow and also not being at our national championships for the first time in our whole career was odd. But as Tessa said, we’re mature enough to handle that.”
At the end of the day, Virtue and Moir said they don’t want to sound like they’re blaming Zoueva for their loss here in Sochi.
“She’s given us a lot of great things in our career,” said Moir. “This wasn’t a failure; this was a successful Games for us. We don’t look back on this and think we made a mistake by not switching coaches, for sure.
“She’s not in an easy position,” he added. “My mum’s a coach and she always says to me, ‘She can’t win no matter’ . . . well she does win no matter, kind of, but there’s always an angry set of parents and an angry set of skaters after every competition.”
There were whispers all through the Olympic ice dancing competition that the judges were favouring the Americans, including a media report that there was a deal in place between the Americans and Russians to prop up Davis and White - nothing that’s been proven.
“I think at end of the day we had a great forum for us to go out there and perform and it didn’t go our way,” added Moir. “But I don’t think the judging was pre-determined. It’s just the way the cookie crumbled I guess.”
Source: http://www.torontosun.com/2014/02/18/scott-moir-tessa-virtue-question-head-coachs-loyalty
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir settle for silver in ice dance at Sochi Olympics
The gold medal for the American pair of Meryl Davis and Charlie White’s is raising eyebrows, Rosie DiManno writes.
By: Rosie DiManno Columnist, Published on Mon Feb 17 2014
Richard Lautens / Toronto Star
SOCHI, RUSSIA-The numeral 1 appears three times from the same judge on the detailed scoring sheet for Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
One judge and only one - from a panel of nine - gave the Canadian ice dancers a plus-one value on three of their nine free dance elements Monday night.
This is called the Grade of Execution, a discretionary mark that ranges from minus-3 to plus-3 and is either added or deducted from the base value of each element as determined by a technical panel.
So, this one judge hung a plus-one on the Canadians for their twizzles, a rotational lift and a diagonal step sequence. Nobody else on the panel stooped that low. This same judge gave a plus-2 GOE to Virtue and Moir on five other elements. Only for a combination spin did he or she award the maximum plus-three.
It’s not known which judge scored the Canadians so ridiculously low, because they’re afforded anonymity. But I can guess. And it’s not really guesswork because the same pattern emerged in every competition over the past two years - half a dozen head-to-heads now in which the Americans have defeated the Canadians - where a certain judge who will not be identified here has sat on the panel. (Does this fit into the conspiracy earlier in the year re: the Russian's agreeing to give the American's the Gold in Ice Dancing if the American agreed to give the Russians the Team Gold?)
You want to take a stab at unravelling the mystery of the declining scores for Virtue and Moir over the last two seasons - put your finger here.
Components are judged on a scale of one to 10. Davis and White received two perfect 10s. Virtue and Moir got component scores that dipped down to 9.57 and 9.64.
Congratulations are in order for Davis and White, who’ve been skating together since they were 8-year-olds. I do not begrudge these wonderful athletes the first Olympic ice dance gold ever won by the U.S. They are superb skaters with a style all their own and particular strengths. Four years ago in Vancouver, they were silver and the Canadians were golden. In the free dance, their Scheherazade routine was more energetic and, I think, more attractive than the Petit Adagio performed by Virtue and Moir. All the programs were created and choreographed by the teams’ co-coach, Marina Zoueva.
White - like Moir a hockey player, and it’s this other shared passion that infuses their bond of friendship, a camaraderie which seems lacking between the women (LOL, yeah) in this unique quartet of skaters who spent every day for nearly a decade training together in Canton, Mich. - was eager to field the same query at the post-event press conference.
To be clear: There was no bitterness from Virtue and Moir.
“We’re Olympic silver medallists at the end of the day,” Moir told reporters in the mixed zone after stepping up to the second-highest podium for flower presentation, hopping up and down, joyful. He and Virtue had exchanged fond glances and affectionate hugs, then wrapped themselves in the Canadian flag for victory laps.
“That’s a pretty good feat. I made it very clear in the media that we were coming here for gold but no one’s going to steal that moment from us. We went out there and we skated our hearts out and left it all on the ice and we’re extremely proud to have another medal for Canada.”
Virtue: “I don’t think anyone close to us will love us any less because we’re bringing home a silver. We’re sorry for Canada it can’t be gold but we’re proud of our performances.”
Moir and Virtue detest the constant comparisons to Davis and White; having to delineate their relationship and co-existence with the Americans. “Kurt Browning told me once - you don’t have to defeat your opponent,” said Moir. “You can have different moments. That’s kind of what I held on to this year.” (Pappa Kurt -- so wise.)
Long afterwards, when the lights had been dimmed at the Iceberg Palace, Moir reappeared. He lay on the ice atop the Olympic rings. Then he jumped cheerfully over the boards.
Remember that this Olympic ice dance championship was likely lost by the Canadians when they were puzzlingly reduced to a Level 3 score for that Finnstep sequence in the short program. They never bridged the gap of two points gone AWOL.
A reporter up in the media tribune jokingly yelled out a score for Moir’s leap over the boards.
He zinged in return: “Maybe I can get my two Finn points back!”
Dream on.
Full Article/Source: http://www.thestar.com/sports/sochi2014/figureskating/2014/02/17/tessa_virtue_and_scott_moir_win_silver_in_ice_dance_at_sochi_olympics.html
Scott Moir, Tessa Virtue question coach's loyalty
'We were both pretty blunt with her in the fall'
SOCHI, RUSSIA - They’re one of the world’s top ice dance teams, but they also became experts at tap dancing around the question of their coach.
As the losses to American arch-rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White began to build this season, Canadian skaters Tessa Virtaue and Scott Moir started questioning whether they had the right coach in Marina Zoueva, and whether the coach was favouring her other high-profile team - Davis and White.
It finally reached the point that Virtue and Moir confronted Zoueva to discus her commitment to them and whether she was doing enough to help them defend in Sochi their 2010 Olympic gold medal.
“We went to Marina on countless occasions and told her that we weren’t happy and in no way were we going to be happy with a silver medal (in Sochi),” said Moir. “We tried everything. It felt a little bit like we were in quicksand because (the American pair) were getting away from us. I think Marina listened to us and we kind of reshaped some of our program. But she’s an artist as well, so she wanted to stay true to her vision.
“We were both pretty blunt with her in the fall - and even leading up to the Olympics - that we weren’t happy and we felt sometimes that she wasn’t in our corner,” Moir added. “(But) she handled that tremendously well. She just, she’s been with us now for 10 years and I really think that she loves us and she pours her heart into our choreography.”
Still, despite their frustrations leading up to the Games and the fact that the international judges seemed to prefer the programs of Davis and White, not enough was done obviously to give Virtue and Moir the winning program for the Sochi Olympics.
The disenchantment began to build for Virtue and Scott as the Olympic approached.
“We had some odd things happen this year that hasn’t happened before, we expected that Marina would march with us (in the opening ceremony) and be with our team like she was in Vancouver,” said Moir. “It was a tough pill to swallow and also not being at our national championships for the first time in our whole career was odd. But as Tessa said, we’re mature enough to handle that.”
At the end of the day, Virtue and Moir said they don’t want to sound like they’re blaming Zoueva for their loss here in Sochi.
“She’s given us a lot of great things in our career,” said Moir. “This wasn’t a failure; this was a successful Games for us. We don’t look back on this and think we made a mistake by not switching coaches, for sure.
“She’s not in an easy position,” he added. “My mum’s a coach and she always says to me, ‘She can’t win no matter’ . . . well she does win no matter, kind of, but there’s always an angry set of parents and an angry set of skaters after every competition.”
There were whispers all through the Olympic ice dancing competition that the judges were favouring the Americans, including a media report that there was a deal in place between the Americans and Russians to prop up Davis and White - nothing that’s been proven.
“I think at end of the day we had a great forum for us to go out there and perform and it didn’t go our way,” added Moir. “But I don’t think the judging was pre-determined. It’s just the way the cookie crumbled I guess.”
Source: http://www.torontosun.com/2014/02/18/scott-moir-tessa-virtue-question-head-coachs-loyalty