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catsbythegreatIn keeping with the apparent need to make this competition as dramatic as possible, ice dance (the last discipline) ended with a huge upset that confused literally everyone watching including the skaters. I almost never watch ice dance live because I don't know a thing, but this was at a reasonable time and it is interesting, so I watched.
Long story short, going into the free program two American teams, Hubbell/Donohue and Chock/Bates, were really really close for first and second. In the free skate everyone in their group performed amazingly. Chock/Bates were in first, with Hubbell/Donohue as the last skaters. At the end of H/D's skate the tech box in the upper left hand corner shows that their technical score is about even with C/B, so it could literally go either way and is pretty much down to performance component scores (the more subjective shit.)
But the scores took forever to come out. A really awkwardly long amount of time, and when they did they were low enough to put H/D in fourth. The arena was shocked (you could hear it), the other skaters were shocked, and everyone watching not in the arena was shocked. Their technical score had dropped a full 7 points, which isn't really common in ice dance. It's common in the other three disciplines because jumps, in review, can have a lot of errors, but jumps don't exist in ice dance. Points are usually lost based on level of difficulty. However, H/D lost points for a whole element. A stationary spin done at the beginning of the program was downgraded because they traveled while doing it. RIP.
The gala is later and I hope I can watch it. Everyone needs to have fun after that what-the-fuck of a competition. The weirdest part is, despite all that stress and up-and-down the podiums are pretty much a step above what you'd expect.
Long story short, going into the free program two American teams, Hubbell/Donohue and Chock/Bates, were really really close for first and second. In the free skate everyone in their group performed amazingly. Chock/Bates were in first, with Hubbell/Donohue as the last skaters. At the end of H/D's skate the tech box in the upper left hand corner shows that their technical score is about even with C/B, so it could literally go either way and is pretty much down to performance component scores (the more subjective shit.)
But the scores took forever to come out. A really awkwardly long amount of time, and when they did they were low enough to put H/D in fourth. The arena was shocked (you could hear it), the other skaters were shocked, and everyone watching not in the arena was shocked. Their technical score had dropped a full 7 points, which isn't really common in ice dance. It's common in the other three disciplines because jumps, in review, can have a lot of errors, but jumps don't exist in ice dance. Points are usually lost based on level of difficulty. However, H/D lost points for a whole element. A stationary spin done at the beginning of the program was downgraded because they traveled while doing it. RIP.
The gala is later and I hope I can watch it. Everyone needs to have fun after that what-the-fuck of a competition. The weirdest part is, despite all that stress and up-and-down the podiums are pretty much a step above what you'd expect.
