quote:
Originally posted by MagiK:
I didnt see the performances either, however I did hear from multiple sources that Kwan and the russian both fell and stumbled in their performances..
Since when has freedom from mistakes meant artistic excellence? If someone skated an easy skate perfectly, and another skated a waaaay more difficult skate with one mistake who would you deem the better skater? I've noticed that's often what lay people use to determine how good a skating performance is.
"Oh but 'so and so' had one error." Never mind sheer artistic brilliance.
The Russian skater did NOT fall. When she landed from a jump she leant too far forward for but an instant, but certainly did not fall.
That said the Gold medallist skated brilliantly. Beautifully. It demeans her own performance to merely put it down to being 'mistake free'.
Then again, I can't imagine the pressure on the judges to heavily punish a mistake now. Even an Italian pair were deemed unworthy for BRONZE by the north American public because of one error.
Imagine if that were the case in live music. No-one would bother attempting anything extraordinary for fear of making an error.
Yes "error free" is impressive. But it is not more impressive than a slightly imperfect artistic display of sheer brilliance.
Give me the latter any day.