March 27 - Worlds 99

Women's Long - via CTV & ABC

What great comebacks for Kwan and Malinina after having finished 4th and 5th in the short programme, and finally Butyrskaya has shown that she can put two great programmes together when it counts. Again another disappointing result for our Canadian champion, however I think that because every year we have had a different champion that our Canadian representative seems to get lost in the shuffle as well as not standing up to the pressure they are under and not just the pressure of being at world's but the pressure of validating Canadian Ladies figure skating which has been dumped on by the CFSA, the media, and myself included.

March 26 - Worlds 99

Dance Free - via CTV & ABC

Well obviously the movement in the first three parts of this competition were just for appearance to give the feeling that dance judging has changed. For those of you who can't understand why Fusar-Poli & Margaglio were placed ahead of Drobiazko & Vanagas, you might recall that the ITA team was one of the teams elevated by the block judging at the Olympics, and that the ITA judge was one of the judges involved. I feel that most of the judges kept those skaters who benefited from the block judging in the same position as their elevated position from the Olympics because if they hadn't they would have had to admit that there was block judging and that it affected the outcome of the Olympics. Hence the ITA team was 5th and the LIT team was 6th, and Krylova & Ovsyannikov beat Anissina & Peizerat.

Personally I liked the LIT team's program the best of all the top 10 and the 2nd Russian team L&A next, but I don't pretend to know who are the best skaters, I just know who's programme I like the best and I've been watching skating since 1976. I usually love B&K but I never did really get their new programme. I know it was hard but to me the moves and especially the music, (I have a music degree) were pretty repetitive with no variety from beginning to end, unlike their previous free dances. I also think that the judges are giving Lefevre and Brunet a lower position than they deserve as a back lash for B&K and Canadians in general complaining about the judging at the Olympics. It seems rather strange that a couple who beat the American team at 4 continents is so far behind them in world standings. It would be too obvious if they did it to B&K. I was so excited about the judging at 4 continents competition. It was the most fair and just I ever remember in skating for all the disciplines.

Another reason as to why there is no movement in Dance judging throughout the year is that there is little risk factor in ice dance so if you don't fall or miss a move then obviously the results are predetermined because the judges watch the skaters all year at both the practices and the competitions, and know the difficulty and artistic abilities of the program and therefore have a placement in mind before they skate. If the top 10 men did all their jumps and moves constantly for a whole year the results for most competitions would be the same too, but the jumps are such a risk factor that rarely do you see 10 men give a performance with no mistakes like dance teams are able to do. The new rules seem to be addressing some of this and it has improved this year. But even if the politics could be taken out of the judging of dance, because of the nature of the discipline it would be hard for their to be a lot of movement in the sport. There still should be more movement than there is though.

Women's Short - via CTV & ABC

Well this result and Kwan's fall reminded me of Elvis's short in 96 and Kurt's short at the Olympics in 94. All three behaved admirably in the face of defeat, but the thing that I remember the most was how the coaches acted. Kurt's coach Louis Stong walked back behind the curtain and left Kurt to deal with it by himself. Doug & Ushi treated him almost the same as when he skated well, and did their usual greetings and discussions. Frank kept telling Kwan you're human. So folks where would you like your kid to study skating. I'd give Frank A+ and the Mariposa gang B+, but Mr. Stong still deserves a big fat F. Amazing that this is the guy who is in charge of development for Canada. If you'd like to know where good training facilities are my suggestion is to watch the interaction between a skater and the coaching staff when faced with such disappointment and certain defeat.

March 25 - Worlds 99

Men's Long - via CTV & ABC

Well its rare that I say that the judging was fair and correct but for once I feel it was. What a great evening of skating it was. Elvis should be proud of how he handled himself this year. He is such a good sport in defeat, but one suspects that to not be on the top of his game has been hard for him to take all year. Sandu, although he did not perform at his best, seemed to also get lost in the shuffle at worlds. Hopefully his move to BC will be good for him and he will do well next year. Unfortunately he seemed to peak for Canadians.

For next year it will be hard for Yagudin to come up with something as wonderful artistically, and technically, the only thing missing is a 2nd quad in combination. In Russia there could be five duking it out for three world positions if Kulik comes back and no one retires from eligible skating. No time for any of them to rest as Russian nationals is always in December.

Weiss will only improve, as will Honda and the Chinese skaters now that they are successfully landing quads in their programmes.. For Elvis and Eldridge its a question about if they want to put in the time and commitment to compete against the young guys.

For Elvis I wish a complete recovery from his injury and the ability to be as brave about his choreography as he is about skating. I'd like to see him do something to classical yet macho music just to surprise the judges. This does not mean I'd expect him to do traditional choreography but I think he needs to get out of the rut of movie music and doing jumps in somewhat the same order. I'd also like to see him continue to improve his spins and do as tough a footwork in his long as he does in his short. I would like to see him not do any tours this year, however he will probably at least do his Elvis tour. For his schedule next season I would like to see him do Skate Canada, NHK, Canadian Pro- Am, Canadians, Four Continents, and Worlds.

Original Dance - Via CTV

It has been interesting watching what a difference 4 separate panels of judges has made. I think this has been a change for the good and should be kept as well as maybe adopted by the other three disciplines. It is interesting to note that the first panel of judges favoured B&K, while the second favoured A&P. The 2nd panel had a much more eastern European flavour with a judge from France, while the first had USA, CHN, & CAN judges. As far as the original is concerned my choice would be Lobacheva & Averbukh, Bourne & Kraatz, Anissina & Peizerat, Krylova & Ovsyannikov, Drobiazko, & Vanagas, and Fusar-Poli & Margaglio. In the top four it comes down to mostly a matter of taste and personal choice. I guess the judges see it differently, but I like the softer approaches of B&K and L&A in the original dance.

March 24 - via CTV

Pairs Long

Just when you think that judging may be improving we get to watch the judges play wink, nod, and footsey with each other. Maybe we should institute replays, or split screens on judging. This year I have not been happy with the judging in Pairs and I've felt that Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze were held up at the Grand Prix final. Even with all the talk about how much better their choreography and skating finesse is than Shen & Zhao, I again think they were held up. B&S's throw was an error and S&Z's skate was error free, so they gave the technical mark to S&Z, but B&S were held up in the artistic mark and I feel unfairly so. Berezhnaya still does not look well. There is no spark in her eyes and there was no magic, it factor, or big performance this evening either. S&Z had the magic, the it factor, and the performance, and for that they deserved equal artistic marks, plus I do not feel that their programme is as artistically behind B&S as some would have us believe. S&Z have come a long way artistically this year and although it is not balletic it does have its artistic merits.

Zagorska & Siudek also were somewhat held up. The goof on the death spiral plus the touch down on the throw, to me, put them behind Petrova & Tikhonov, and Abitbol & Bernadis. Both Z&S and Sargeant & Wirtz seemed rushed, as did Ina & Zimmerman another couple that I have felt were marked up this year because of their potential and Ina's rep with her former partner. Having not seen the 8th, and 10th - 12th skaters I cannot say for sure that their performance deserved to be lower, but the lift, throw, and jump mistakes make me think that maybe they didn't deserve to be in the top ten. My final results for this event would have been CHN, RUS, RUS, FRA, POL, & CAN.

Ladies Qualifying

Jennifer qualified. It is also interesting to note that Butyrskaya beat Malinina in one section. Kwan not surprisingly was first in her qualifying section.

March 23 - via CTV

Men's Short

..."It's not about victory or defeat. It's about the challenge to one's self."

If there was ever any doubt about how serious Elvis is about this philosophy of life that he has chosen, there should be none now. Skating last and knowing what everyone else had done and not done, it would have been easy to play it safe and just do the triple axle triple toe combo, the triple lutze, and the double axle, and possibly be 1st or 2nd, but as usual Elvis went for it all, and with two errors still sits third. There should be no question in anyone's mind that he will be going for it all again in the long.

One has to be disappointed with Sandu's results, but since they didn't show the whole short programme and none of his qualifying, it is hard to say whether he just didn't produce the performances he is capable of, or just got lost in the shuffle, or both.

Although Weiss' programme wasn't as technically or artistically as difficult as Yagudin's, it was still a clean performance, and I would have placed Weiss 2nd, Yagudin fourth, and Elvis 3rd. However, there are so many variables in all of the performances from 2nd to 5th, plus their qualifying standings, that it is all very close, as the ordinals showed, and strictly a matter of opinion and personal choice, which is what judging comes down to in the end. Any judge could justify having any of these four skaters in any positions from 2nd to 5th, if they needed to.

Dance Compulsories

One has to be pleasantly surprised with Bourne and Kraatz coming in 2nd and 3rd in the compulsories. I felt that any result above 4th would be great considering the state of judging in dance, and Bourne's injury. We will see what happens tomorrow.

One has to feel for the disappointment Lefebvere & Brunet (15th) are feeling about their placement having apparently skated well and with their recent defeat of Lang & Tchernyshev (10th) at Four Continent's. True they were 3rd to L&T's 2nd in the compulsories at Four Continents, but it is still disappointing to be that far behind them, having just defeated them. Part of this may be due to the weight in judging, fair or not, that being the national champion gives teams, in the judges eyes. The other thing that both L&B and our third Canadian dance couple Wing & Lowe should consider is that they should look seriously at their compulsory dances and improve in this area since they always improve their positions during the OD and free dances of international competitions. Both of these dance teams' coaches should be asking the judges what exactly is holding them back in the compulsory portions of the competitions, and making that next years priority.

March 22- via CTV

Pairs Short - In my opinion Wirtz and Sarjeant should be 3rd ahead of the Polish team because of artistic impression. What an excellent effort from Saurette and Fecteau. It seems to me that they should be placed somewhat higher since they did a completely clean program, while others ahead of them did not. True their program may not have been as technically or artistically as difficult as some of the teams ahead of them however one must consider that since they are ranked 3rd in Canada that the judges were not expecting them to do as great a performance as they did, and so still hesitated to give them the position they deserved. With no coverage of the 6th to 9th teams it is hard to say, however I felt that they were very close to the performance of the 5th ranked team Petrova and Tikhonov. Still 10th is an excellent result for their first world's and if doing your program to the best of your ability is its own reward, then both Canadian Pairs teams should be extremely proud of their performances. Having not seen the Americans performances, one can only assume that there were some serious problems with both of their short programmes. Hopefully the American coverage will shed some light on this.

Men's Qualifying - If it is true that all Elvis completed successfully is 1 quad and 3 triples then we are indeed lucky that he is in 5th place when others completed 1 quad and 7 triples. One would have hoped that Emanuel Sandhu would have qualified higher with his strong package. Weiss having finally landed his first clean quad in competition should be extremely relieved. With this monkey off his back he should be able to relax and consentrate on his skating.

March 21

I've been asked what my qualifications are for judging skating, so here it is. I have a music degree, and have been specskating seriously since 1976. I would say that the music is what drew me to the sport, but I truely enjoy the drama of a years work coming down to 2.5 and 4 min., and the mental preparation that is required to perform on the day.

I do know that I have some advantages, disadvantages, and a different point of view because I am watching from the TV, and I only see what CTV shows me and later ABC. Oh and by the way, I'm Canadian, just in case you need to know where my biase is coming from. I will try to write my thoughts regarding worlds on this page throughout the competition. Hopefully I won't fall behind like I did last year.

Go Ahead, Contact me!