Saturday, February 19, 2011
Four Continents Videos
There has been sucky coverage all around for Four Continents, but here are some of the videos available. My commentary will come after I've been able to watch the coverage the becomes available. The time difference has made it difficult. It was too hard to stay awake through all of the craptacular ladies short programs last night. I fell asleep when girls were still performing 1 1/3 revolution jumps.
While we can usually count on Japanese TV for Grand Prix coverage, they only broadcast the men's and ladies' events (what they're good at.)
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anyone know who the chinese/american/superqueeny sounding commentator is? why's he talking about tessa and scott in the middle of the program?! (ps. i'm all for superqueeny, but quiet down during the program xie xie!!)
ReplyDeleteI think it's Jason Wong...he talks about Miki's SP music and said that he used to skate with it?
ReplyDeleteIt's not Jason... that's not his voice.
ReplyDeleteIs the audio and video out of sync in the first one?
ReplyDeleteHis name is David Liu (the commentator), he competed for Taiwan in 3 Olympics.
ReplyDeleteI wish Michelle has skated to that music Mao is using for her SP, she would have knocked it out of the park.
ReplyDeletehmmm, usually Morozov slobbers all over Miki in the Kiss and Cry. Not this time.
ReplyDeleteDavid Liu was also the last skater to perform school figures at Worlds the year they were discontinued in 1990.
ReplyDeleteSo why are Japanese singles skaters so good? Is it cultural to achieve alone rather than with a partner?
ReplyDeleteNot everything is endogenous to culture. They don't have a history of inspiring pairs or ice dance teams, they don't really have any pairs or ice dance coaches, so there isn't much happening to inspire younger kids to pursue either disciplines. They want to be like Midori Ito and Takeshi Honda. If they had one good pairs team or ice dance team, I'm sure you'd see more going on. Think about Yuna Kim in South Korea - suddenly all of the little girls want to be figure skaters.
ReplyDeleteAlso, relatively speaking, Japan has only recently become dominant in singles. They only have four Olympic medals: one gold (Shizuka), two silvers (Mao & Midori), and a bronze (Daisuke). To put that in perspective, the United States and Russia/Soviet Union have earned around 45 each. They haven't even won very many World medals - something 15 or 16. And, they've never earned a World medal in pairs or ice dance.
If they ever have a successful team, I wouldn't be surprised to see more teams emerge a few years later.
Takahashi/Tran are well on their way.
ReplyDelete>>Takahashi/Tran are well on their way.
ReplyDeleteBut they'll never be able to compete as a Japanese pair in the Olympics due to Mervin's citizenship(Canada) which he's reluctant to change. (Also, Japan's strict regulations make it near impossible anyway)
I think more than in a lot of countries, Japanese men are relatively not that much bigger than women - making lifts and throws a problem.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to ice dancing - it may be more of a cultural shyness for asians in general with that kind of public physical intimacy - as even pairs skating powerhouse China has not yet had a major ice dancing team.
Here's a vid of Mirai Nagasu's bronze medal winning skate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBmzq9aGBR0 Gotta love Moir's reaction at the start.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Japanese men are significantly smaller than men elsewhere in the world. I also don't think that cultural shyness is the reason for a lack of ice dance/pairs teams. For a long time, pairs & ice dance events were suuuuper political. Wasn't the pairs event in Vancouver, like, the first time in half a century Russia didn't win gold? And for ice dance, the United States - historically a powerful federation - has only recently had success in ice dance because (in part) of IJS. The Japanese Fed has only recently become a powerhouse. There was just no reason for Japan to pursue a discipline dominated by Russia and European teams. IJS has changed things in both disciplines and Japan has a ton of international clout now. Maybe they'll start encouraging young people to pursue ice dance and pairs. With so much success in singles, though, there's really no reason to. Plus, it's a nice way to make deals with other feds. We'll give you pairs if you give us singles. There really aren't many (any?) countries that dominate in every discipline.
ReplyDeleteNot saying culture isn't a factor. I just think it's overly simplistic and kinda Orientalist to attribute everything to culture, given the political nature of the sport.
That's a bunch of BS.
ReplyDeleteHow tall are Japanese men, anyway? Because their male singles are really short.
ReplyDeleteIn Northern Europe the average height for men is about 180 cm. I'm guessing it's about the same in NA, no?
What 180?i think more like 175-177.
ReplyDeleteI think average for women is 165 and for men about 10 cm more.
And you can't judge skaters height with the general population,skaters tend to be shorter
Thanks to the person who posted the link of Mirai's skate - that made me really happy - she really gave the impression of having mentally matured - I feel really encouraged she's found a good headspace to compete in and will do well next year.
ReplyDelete"Relatively speaking, Japan has only recently become dominant in singles."
ReplyDeleteThank, god.