Best and Worst of 2012/2013, Part 4
Wonder-children are not rare in figure skating, as Russian ladies have been proving this season, but being one of them is a great challenge that most often than not skaters can't cope with. Both Denis Ten and Artur Gachinski know this a little too well, but while the Kazakh seems to have outgrown his problems, those of the Russian are in full bloom.
For most of the season, and when I say most, I mean 90% of it, Denis Ten was nothing more than a skating disaster. He seemed to be going nowhere but down, and that bright future everyone predicted for him just a few years ago, was slowly, but surely dying out. And then suddenly he came in second in the World Championships, and not only that, but the truth is he should have won it.
His choice of skating both the SP and the LP on the soundtrack of The Artist instead of going for two different themes was mature, original and very classy. The difference between the two programs is a bit blurry, especially if you haven't seen the movie, but there is definitely a difference in costumes, in attitude, in music tempo and in the story he told on ice. The LP was the better of the two, both technically (I have no idea how he gathered the energy to do that mesmerizing step sequence after a long session of jumps) and artistically (Denis looked like a true artist of the 1920s). No wonder he impressed the judges and made a huge leap in just a couple of months from a skater on the brink of extinction to figure skating's new golden boy. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next year!
The absence of a healthy Artur Gachinski from both the Europeans and Worlds would have seemed daft a year ago. In fact, it seemed so impossible that some of us didn't realize how much we liked his skating until he went missing from the major competitions, and something just didn't feel right. Yes...I'm guilty as charged.
What makes this season even worse for him is that his programs, had they been executed flawlessly, would have surely earned a medal or two.
His SP was on the music of Highlander, a story full of that drama he can express so well. He had a few problems with the LP, first choosing music by Beethoven, then when he kept making mistakes, going back to last year's Interview with a Vampire program, which is a gorgeous routine with a difficult, even balletic at times choreography.
He did have a few problems that weren't entirely his fault (after the Russian Nationals he told the press his feet would constantly become numb while skating), but you can't ignore his problem with consistency, that could be caused by lack of trust. If that's the case, he's out of his mind because no skater that came so close to defeating Evgeni Plushenko last year at the Europeans should ever have trust issues.
For most of the season, and when I say most, I mean 90% of it, Denis Ten was nothing more than a skating disaster. He seemed to be going nowhere but down, and that bright future everyone predicted for him just a few years ago, was slowly, but surely dying out. And then suddenly he came in second in the World Championships, and not only that, but the truth is he should have won it.
His choice of skating both the SP and the LP on the soundtrack of The Artist instead of going for two different themes was mature, original and very classy. The difference between the two programs is a bit blurry, especially if you haven't seen the movie, but there is definitely a difference in costumes, in attitude, in music tempo and in the story he told on ice. The LP was the better of the two, both technically (I have no idea how he gathered the energy to do that mesmerizing step sequence after a long session of jumps) and artistically (Denis looked like a true artist of the 1920s). No wonder he impressed the judges and made a huge leap in just a couple of months from a skater on the brink of extinction to figure skating's new golden boy. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next year!
The absence of a healthy Artur Gachinski from both the Europeans and Worlds would have seemed daft a year ago. In fact, it seemed so impossible that some of us didn't realize how much we liked his skating until he went missing from the major competitions, and something just didn't feel right. Yes...I'm guilty as charged.What makes this season even worse for him is that his programs, had they been executed flawlessly, would have surely earned a medal or two.
His SP was on the music of Highlander, a story full of that drama he can express so well. He had a few problems with the LP, first choosing music by Beethoven, then when he kept making mistakes, going back to last year's Interview with a Vampire program, which is a gorgeous routine with a difficult, even balletic at times choreography.
He did have a few problems that weren't entirely his fault (after the Russian Nationals he told the press his feet would constantly become numb while skating), but you can't ignore his problem with consistency, that could be caused by lack of trust. If that's the case, he's out of his mind because no skater that came so close to defeating Evgeni Plushenko last year at the Europeans should ever have trust issues.
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