Staring with the Trophee Eric Bompard when Nobunari Oda won beating Tomas Verner it was a sign of things to come. For the 2009/2010 season Oda had a program that differed from his previous seasons in that he removed the quads. Why would someone do this for the Olympic season? Because he wanted to win and the world championships the previous March showed that with Lysacek and Chan winning Gold and Silver quads were on the way out. The system as a whole punished them severely. They just weren't worth doing with spins steps and PCS and the inherent risk of doing them in the first place. Tomas Verner started his implosion in the free skate. While Oda with his no quads was able to beat Verner and win the Gold there. In third place was Adam Rippon - an almost total COP skater who never even thinks about doing quads because doing lots of jumps after the halfway point are worth more than quads when you really add everything up.
Trophee Eric Bompard-Winner no quad/-silver medalist quad/-bronze no quad/
Rostelecom Cup- winner with quad/-silver medalist no quad/-bronze no quad
Cup of China-winner no quad/-silver medalist no quad-/bronze-with quad
NHK Trophy- winner with quad/silver with no quad/bronze no quad
Skate America-winner no quad/silver no quad/bronze with quad
Skate Canada- winner with quad/silver no quad/bronze no quad
Grand Prix Final- Winner - no quad/silver no quad/bronze no quad
Olympic Games-Winner no quad/silver quad/bronze no quad
World championships - winner No quad/silver no quad/bronze quad
19 medal performances without quads
8 medal performances with quads
COP is spelling out the death of quads
The following aren't worldwide so I don't tend to count them but I will mention them.
Euros-all medalists did quads
Four Continents-winner no quad
If you look at the breakout star of the season I believe it was obviously Michal Brezina. He is almost a purely COP skater. Everyone says he is the best jumper with a great quad. I have heard it from Paul Wylie, Scott Hamilson, Peter Carruthers and more. He did not even try one once. Why? Because he is smart and knows COP rewards jumps after the haflway point more than quads in many ways. Higher PCS being one way.
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Casey, Brezina can have a great quad in practice but it doesn't mean that he can jump it consistently in a competition. There are sketres who jump 4Lz, 4Lo, 4S in practice but they never put them into their programs because they don't have consistency.
ReplyDeletethat is very true-the scoring system should not punish so harshly the skaters who try those moves and fail
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