Gather around, small children, and let me tell you the tale of the ISU Skating Awards.
Once upon a time, around 2019, the ISU--likely concerned with the perpetually-flagging popularity of figure skating relative to the halcyon days of the 1990s--decided that the best way to advance the noble cause of figure skating was to hold an awards show celebrating the sport's athletes, coaches, choreographers. Now, this was not a terrible idea in and of itself--industry award shows ranging from the Academy Awards to the Grammy Awards essentially function as successful glorified public relations vehicles--but given that this was the ISU, of course they had to go about setting up the ISU Skating Awards in the most hilariously ham-fisted way that outraged the maximum amount of people possible. How many ways has this gone wrong so far? From belatedly announcing that the ISU Skating Awards would replace the traditional gala show at 2020 Worlds after thousands of fans had already purchased gala tickets to the fan voting website crashing multiple times, the list is legion . . . but perhaps the biggest controversy was the Anton Shulepov Holocaust costume scandal, which was handled in just about the worst way possible by the ISU and eventually resulted in a totally convincing (*cough*) apology from the ISU in which the ISU pretended to have nominated Mr. Shulepov's black turtleneck + black pants SP costume all along. But then again, the Holocaust costume scandal did lead to the ISU Skating Awards being covered--albeit in a somewhat unflattering light--by multiple major news publications. Perhaps the ISU are merely true believers in the old chestnut that there is no such thing as bad publicity?
Though it was assumed that the ISU Skating Awards suffered an early demise--or at the least, indefinite postponement--given the cancellation of the 2020 World Championships as a result of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, the ISU recently announced that the show must go on indeed and that the ISU Skating Awards will be streamed virtually on July 11, 2020.
In anticipation of the event, the ISU has recently released the shortlist of nominees for the seven awards . . . so of course, here are my prognostications:
Most Valuable Skater
Nominees: Nathan Chen; Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron; Yuzuru Hanyu
This category, which "[h]onors the Single Skater or Pair or Ice Dance Couple who best managed to increase the level of popularity of Figure Skating with their fan base, media attention and sponsor appreciation," should really have had at least one ladies nominee, given the popularity of ladies figure skating. But even if it did, let's be real--anyone who has been to at least a single figure skating competition in person and/or spent a single minute on skating social media knows that Yuzuru Hanyu currently has by far the largest fanbase, most devoted acolytes, and the most overwhelming amount of media attention among all figure skaters of all disciplines by any measure, whether one measures the amount of stuffed toys thrown on the ice, the number of reporters chasing the skater around, or the decibel levels of audience screaming.
Who Will Win: Yuzuru Hanyu
Who Should Win: Yuzuru Hanyu
Best Costume
Nominees: Madison Chock/Evan Bates (FD); Anna Shcherbakova (LP); Yuzuru Hanyu (LP)
I'm all for celebrating figure skating costumes as they are an integral part of the pageantry and fun that is figure skating, but the ISU for some reason fails to acknowledge the costume designers that make these costumes possible. Anyways, Anna Shcherbakova's Firebird costume is entirely pedestrian and would in no way have been nominated if not for the gimmicky costume change (please, in terms of mid-program costume changes, Ms. Shcherbakova's Firebird is a pale shade compared to, say, Laurine Lecavelier's Grease), and who even knows which of Yuzuru Hanyu's long program costumes is being nominated for this category? This leaves Madison Chock/Evan Bates' excellent Egyptian Snake Dance costume, created by Mathieu Caron, as the deserving winner. Mr. Bates' outfit has interesting texture that is appropriately evocative--though thankfully not a literal facsimile--of snakeskin, but it's Ms. Chock's dress that shines: the beautiful, intricate sequin work, A+ illusion mesh, and clever reptilian design choice results in a costume that is entirely hypnotizing. Who's the snake here again?
Who Will Win: Madison Chock/Evan Bates
Who Should Win: Madison Chock/Evan Bates (but really, mostly Madison Chock's dress)
Most Entertaining Program
Nominees: Kevin Aymoz (SP); Evgenia Medvedeva (LP); Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (RD)
As a sign of my extremely pessimistic attitude towards all things ISU, when I first saw the shortlist for this award, my first thought was "oh, at least this isn't an absolutely terrible list filled by three Daniil Gleikhengauz programs!" Keeping standards high is a daily battle indeed.
My totally arbitrary and personal pick for the most entertaining among these three programs is Kevin Aymoz's Prince SP, but unfortunately, his disastrous meltdown at 2020 Europeans--the last time we ever got to see the program being performed-- and relatively smaller fanbase may somewhat hinder any attempt to corral votes in his favor. Evgenia Medvedeva's Memoirs of a Geisha LP is competently put together and is likely the best long program she's ever had, but it lacks "creativity, contemporary implementation, [and] originality." Which leaves Papadakis/Cizeron's Fame RD as the likely judges' pick. It's a solid choice--Fame's campy, 80s-aerobics packaging and theme is fun, campy, and original, Papadakis/Cizeron perform the heck out of the RD, and the Finnstep features some extremely clever choreography and nuances . . . but personally, I don't find the RD that interesting outside the Finnstep. Regardless, it's a justifiable choice for this award (full disclosure: my Papadakis/Cizeron antipathy this season may or may not be caused by their cringeworthy Forest Blakk FD).
Who Will Win: Papadakis/Cizeron (RD)
Who Should Win: Kevin Aymoz (SP)
Best Newcomer
Nominees: Alena Kostornaia; Alexandra Trusova; Young You
The exquisite Alena Kostornaia, undefeated internationally in her senior debut season, is the obvious choice for the Best Newcomer award. As proof of her staggering talent, I offer up three examples of why Ms. Kostornaia deserves to win this award in a landslide: (1) she has the ability to make a Twilight program with trite choreography and three very disjointed music cuts palatable, (2) her ability to unite the skating cognoscenti: throughout the season, I've seen figure skating observers of all stripes--even Cold Warriors and the anti-Tutberidze faction--rave about Ms. Kostornaia, and (3) Ms. Kostornaia's wonderful carriage, extension, and basic skating skills.
Equally interesting with respect to the Best Newcomer Award is Anna Shcherbakova's exclusion from the list of nominees, despite the fact that Ms. Shcherbakova has soundly defeated Ms. Trusova this season on multiple occasions and that Young You's medal haul and scores pale in comparison to Ms. Shcherbakova's. Is the ISU trying to tell us something here, in the same way how Hubbell/Donohue alone of the top 6 ice dance teams were excluded from the Most Valuable Skater nominees?
Who Will Win: Alena Kostornaia
Who Should Win: Alena Kostornaia
Best Choreographer
Nominees: Shae-Lynn Bourne; Marie-France Dubreuil; Lori Nichol
Is this a lifetime achievement award, or an award for best choreography last season/last cycle? The award's description--that this award "[h]onors the choreographic work of a Choreographer who successfully inspired one or several Single Skaters and/or Pairs and/or ice Dance Couples"--is not particularly enlightening.
Anyway, assuming this is a most likely a 'best choreographer last season' kind of award, I found it difficult to pick a winner among the three nominees--I feel that none of them have had a consistently strong or particularly memorable output this year in terms of choreography. Misfires such as Papadakis/Cizeron's pretentious Forest Blakk FD and Hubbell/Donohue's programs this season mar Marie-France Dubreuil's record, Lori Nichol continues to churn out tastefully bland choreography, and none of Shae-Lynn Bourne's programs seem particularly impactful this season (though I do like her Great Spirit SP for Shoma Uno).
Who, then, is left? As much as I admire the choreography of Tom Dickson, I find his work this season middling relative to the usually-stellar quality of his work (Rika Kihira's International Angel of Peace LP, for instance, fails to cohere). David Wilson, meh. Danil Gleikhengauz? Don't even think about it. If I *had* to choose, I'd choose either Shae-Lynn Bourne for Great Spirit or Benoit Richaud--I'm not a huge fan of Mr. Richaud's choreography in general, but I did like his Matrix LP for Kaori Sakamoto as well as his Pale Green Ghosts LP for Daisuke Takahashi.
Who Will Win: Marie-France Dubreuil (as consolation prize for not being nominated as best coach despite coaching the majority of the world's top ice dance teams)
Who Should Win: Shae-Lynn Bourne or Benoit Richaud.
Best Coach
Nominees: Rafael Arutunian; Brian Orser; Eteri Tutberidze
Again, is this a lifetime achievement/overall career award, or one that covers last season or this cycle only? (Let's assume the award just covers last season.) Obviously Eteri Tutberidze is going to win for her singular dominance of ladies skating at both the senior and junior levels as well as her distinctive kiss-and-cry lewks, but if we're looking at actual quality of skating being taught, both Brian Orser or Rafael Arutunian have a clear edge over Ms. Tutberidze (Alena Kostornaia and Kamila Valieva notwithstanding). Then again, neither Mr. Orser or Mr. Arutunian have had Ms. Tutberidze's medal haul last season. If the judges don't care, then why should the ISU Skating Awards?
Who Will Win: Eteri Tutberidze
Who Should Win: Rafael Arutunian
Lifetime Achievement Award
The ISU has not released a shortlist for award, so who knows? It could be anyone. I'm sure this non-controversial award will go to someone who is universally beloved and popular, like Ottavio Cinquanta, Didier Gailhaguet, or Marie-Reine Le Gougne.
Reality is different than the way the bio is written by ISU on their website for the Most Valuable Skater nominees.
ReplyDeleteNathan Bio: Nathan Chen (USA) was the first skater to perform four, and only one year later, five quads, in a Free Skating program. At age twenty, he has an Olympic bronze Team Event medal and is two-times ISU World Figure Skating Champion, ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Champion, ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Champion and four-times National Champion. Chen sets an example by combining high-level studies and skating. He contributes to the popularization of men’s skating in the USA and worldwide.
Yuzu Bio: Yuzuru Hanyu is the first Japanese male skater to win Olympic gold and the first skater to perform a clean quadruple Loop in competition and surpass a total score of 300 points. He is a two-time ISU World Figure Skating Champion, ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Champion, four-time ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final medalist and four-time Japanese national Champion. He even won ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships and ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final titles, making him one of the most decorated skaters in the world.
P/C Bio: Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are the first Ice Dancers to break 200 points; they hold the highest Rhythm Dance, Free Dance and total score. At only 25, the couple are Olympic silver medalists, four-times ISU World Figure Skating Champions, five-times ISU European Figure Skating Champion and six times National Champions. They push the boundaries of Ice Dance with their innovative, ballet style programs often inspired by modern dance.
Fans are speculating that ISU will give the MVS to Nathan and best costume to Yuzu as a consolation. By the way nominated Yuzu's constume is the purple origin he wore at 2019-2020 season https://redfar.tumblr.com/post/188620817028
DeleteAbsolutely delighted to see you're still alive! Thank you for delivering a highly enjoyable comment with your usual sharp analysis and sophisticated snark on the utter ridiculousness that is the ISU skating awards.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the majority of fans will boycott this event though because it's not unlikely the ISU will continue to pull this scam on us, if this pulls in a decent number of views. Nobody is here for the gala being replaced at every worlds to come with what was likely going to be a cringeworthy show with very few skaters and actual skating involved. The mess that was the gala at GPF 2019 seemed just like a bad foretaste.
You are right though, industry awards are actually not a bad idea to promote the sport and it would be great to highlight the work that goes into the costumes, the choreography, the programmes and so on. But the non-transparent execution, nominating and voting process shows that the ISU seems to be merely interested in pushing the feds’ interests and boosting artificial rivalry narratives.
There is no other explanation for some of the ridiculous choices.
Indeed, why was there no female skater nominated for the MVS award? No one who has paid any attention at all in the past two seasons can seriously claim that P/C or Nathan Chen have significantly advanced the popularity of figure skating. This has nothing to do with their ability, just looking at the cold numbers, i.e. views of their programmes on youtube and attendance at competitions and fanbases, it's clear that neither should have been nominated. I was at IDF and GPF 2019 and while, of course, the overwhelming majority of fans at GPF was comprised of Yuzu fans, the second largest number of fans who turned up at both competitions were those of Team Russia, particularly Alina Zagitova fans. Simply looking at the views on youtube, it's obvious that she, Evgenia as well as Anna, Alexandra and Alena pull in a great deal of views. One of them should have been nominated if the MVS award is to taken somewhat seriously. In the end, it should go to Yuzuru though, that’s a non-brainer.
Other nominations are also somewhat baffling. If Nathan had to be nominated, it should have been for entertaining program, instead of Evgenia’s memoir of a Geisha (Shae-Lynn really phoned it in with this one, it’s generic and uninspired IMO). Looking at the best costume nominee, I agree with you, Anna shouldn’t be nominated because it’s not the costume itself that is stunning but the change mid-program. IMO Yuzuru should take this category as well, since his origin 2.0 costume is a marvellous sparkly piece of art, evocative of a goth-prince, dark wizard or ancient deity. I won’t be too mad if Madison takes this one but it feels also a bit cheated because they didn’t really make any effort for Evan.
Finally, best coach is a vaguely defined category, isn’t it? I agree with you because going by results, there is no question that Eteri should win this but it leaves such a bad taste in my mouth knowing she gets there by cultivating an abusive and harmful environment at Sambo 70. I’m not sure Rafael should get this too since it’s been known for some time that he a) doesn’t care about helping his skaters become well-rounded (saying skating skills and transitions are secondary) and b) is known for insulating his skaters and their looks in training. Brian Orser and the TCC team on the other hand are the foil to the first two, caring about the longevity of their skaters and wanting to turn them into well-rounded athletes.
omg almost all your predictions were right! sorta expected though lol. what do you think of ms. alena kostornaia switching coaches to plushenko? i certainly hope he will not enforce his windmill arms on our beautiful angel.
ReplyDeletealso, what new programs/music choices would you like to see from her? personally, i would love to see her (or any skater) skate to concerto de berlin from le septieme cible soundtrack. and if anyone can pull of a warhorse, it's her. but i get the feeling alena definitely would NOT want to skate to a warhorse (both a pity and a relief tbh)
Concerto de Berlin was Margarita Mamun's 2016 hoop music!
ReplyDeleteI would love to see Kosto skate to: "Time" by Hans Zimmer, "Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone, Polovstian Dances, "The Ludlows", "Shatter Me" by Lindsey Sterling, Hunger Games OST, Gladiator OST, "Across the Stars", and any Spanish/tango music.
Some other music I'd love to see in figure skating: M83 or Two Steps From Hell mashup, Greensleeves, Harry Potter OST (not necessarily translate the story onto ice, just the music), "Time, Forward" by Georgy Sviridov, and Howl's Moving Castle OST.
Here's a great list of wonderful film scores: https://the-controverse.blogspot.com/2019/12/best-film-scores-of-all-time-ultimate.html
Also, I NEED to see these exhibition programs from someone: "I Need A Hero" from Shrek 2, and "How To Be A Heartbreaker" by Marina & the Diamonds.