Latest Information

Last Updated 02 April 2003 23:34

My apologies for not updating this site for over 3 months! Part of the reason is because I'm attempting to make a career out of music, and I haven't had the time.

Sadly, the other reason is that my love affair with this sport has ended for the time being. Seeing the way Sale & Pelletier were blatantly robbed of the gold medal at the Olympics last year was hard to take. This was the most talked about incident, but was it the only one? How about Bourne & Kraatz robbed of even a medal? Was Plushenko really better than Goebel in the Men's Free Programme?

Something had to be done, but what? Bring the respective judges to account for their marks? No! The ISU replace a system where we all knew what marks were being given by which judges, with a system where no-one knows which judge gave which mark! To boot, of the 14 marks displayed, five are dropped, so even the skaters do not even know which nine marks they got. Talk about a lottery!

The whole thing stinks, and until it's sorted out, I'll stick to non-subjective sports!


There have been some good points which I'll take away with me. On the Brit front, Jenna McCorkell is a real talent, and I hope she gets better looked after than Joanne Conway! By that, I mean that she is left to progress at her own pace rather than too much being expected of her.

On the European scene, I shall follow the progress of Carolina Kostner with interest. Her free programme from Europeans was among my favourite programmes of this season. Others include the short programmes of Stephane Lambiel, Brian Joubert and especially Vanessa Giunchi. I love to see creative programmes, so top marks to these skaters.

The need to land the big elements seem to take the shine of the men. Only Yagudin seems to have mastered the big jumps and still retain interesting artistry in his programmes. The others are skating round too much between the quads and triple Axels.

Of all the disciplines, I've enjoyed the Pairs the most. Many of the duos are doing the same elements now, so there is a lot more creativity to try and earn those extra marks. As a result, the programmes were very interesting.

Don't know what's happening in the Women's event. Can't deny the artistry of Michelle Kwan, but she's not doing anything different to several years ago. Not even a triple-triple, or a proper Lutz jump is required in her free programme. Imagine Plushenko winning the Men's event without performing a triple Axel!

Yagudin, and the Chinese duo of Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao are taking the sport forward technically as well as artistically. The women's event needs the same.


At best, I won't be thinking about skating now until at least Europeans next year where I shall keep a watchful eye on my favourites. I wonder how their performances will be marked though?