#igor is corrupt

[skatejoy]

Celebrating consequences for actions.

[skatejoy]

There’s been so much Z/K fanfare this season, what am I missing? Emilea and Vadym are undeniably talented but I don’t personally see the chemistry or star quality that others seem to be praising. What I do see is strong athleticism and a dynamic presence that’s been smartly choreographed to their strengths, but I don’t yet see the deeper level of polish that some other teams have.

It’s genuinely surprising to me that La/La, Cpom, and Gpa, even with recent setbacks have been pushed back behind this team.

I think from what I’ve seen the partnership dynamics also rub me the wrong way & I can see the same pattern play out as all of Igor’s teams have..

I do hope this season lights a fire under the other teams heading into the next quad.

I think Vadym is very talented. I think Emilia is not yet an ice dancer and Igor is doing his usual thing of developing the male partner and telling the female partner to sell it.

He’s been in a politicking campaign this year from the appearance of the video on the Olympic channel last summer. They are where they are because of Shawn Retstatt cooking the books for them and him holding back Carreira & Ponomarenko. He should be banned from sport.

They aren’t as good as any of the top US teams (I’d put them behind Bratti & Somerville).

I do think Emilia has star quality. I think that’s why she was picked as his partner. I also think she was picked because she’s subservient enough to deal with Vadym and always being in his shadow.

I keep waiting for this whole emperor’s new clothes situation to be judged accurately and people turn on them. I also think the four runthrough regime is poor coaching and we’re going to see overtraining injuries next year. I’m not sure why skaters still work with Igor.

We shall see what happens at Olympics and Worlds. LaLa shouldn’t even be in the same sentence as them.

Now awaiting the barrage of hate that always hits my comments/inbox when I don’t praise Z/K

[skatejoy]

If I were Vadym I wouldn’t be making ‘poor me the judges are so biased toward IAM skaters for three reasons:

- He’s heavily benefited from unethical promotion by Shawn Retstatt, the head of the ISU technical committee and the technical controller on at least one of his top events this year. It’s not hard to spot the pattern of preferential treatment and possible sabotage of their rivals. Just ick!

- His coach has been working the judges for decades. It looks like the training environment in his rink sent teams running and many ending up at IAM. It’s his coach’s choices that led to this situation.

- If I had a partner who had polish and performance, but not the technical skill to complete the dance elements I wouldn’t bring too much scrutiny to the judging that’s propping you up.

Other than being crowd pleasers they should really be in 6th or 7th.

I hope judges do take a second look and drop them like a stone.