Rohene Ward vs Robin Wagner

[berthesghost]

I'm always surprised at the way skaters behave at skating events. I would think that as fellow athletes, they'd be all hush hush and respectful, but ...well I won't go into Paul "chatty kathy" Wylie and his big mouth at events.

Today I went to Mid-Atlantics, and one big reason was to see my new favorite: Rohene Ward. Apparently, almost everyone was there to see Rohene . As he took the ice, Robin Wagner and some Russian guy who looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place, squeezed in next to me to press up agaisnt the glass and watch. I'm not sure how either lasted the entire SP, as neither paused for breath during their non stop running commentary during the entire program. Blab blab blab blab blab. Unlike Paul, they at least seemed to be talking about the skater on the ice, but come'on.

I don't know...do actors talk non stop thru plays and movies? Do musicians gab with friends all thru concerts? What's up with elite level skaters? Is this common?

[AMAubert]

I think it depends on the skater, just off the top of my head I can mention Yuka Sato, Nancy Kerrigan, Todd Eldredge and Caryn Kadavy as skaters I have sat near at Nationals or Worlds and were very polite. They were quiet during the skating applauded for every skater. Oh and I have also seen Michelle watching skating and she was very polite as well. Usually when she watches an event she sits alone so she isn't even tempted to talk. But at Golden West two weeks ago she sat with her mom and niece and not even Olivia chatted during the skating.

On the other hand at 2004 Nationals I sat 3 rows in front of Tom Collins during the Senior Men's event. He did not shut up once. I wanted to hit him with my program.

[aaronts]

BG, you're so lucky.

how did he do? i watched him for the 1st time in ages recently & couldn't believe what he gets himself into on the ice. very interesting choreography.

who knew the men would start to overwhelm the women in that regard. now the men have the jumps & the programs. AND, in Rohene's case, THE layback~

[donnylutz]

I used to skate in MPLS (before I moved 30 miles away), and saw Rohene skate numerous times. He is not only a really nice guy, but SO TALENTED! He can land several triple jumps rotating in BOTH directions....and the stuff he does on the ice is absolutely incredible. He's all ways had a problem with nerves in competitions....if he could deal with that he could go really far.

Donnylutz

[GMAN]

Aww man...Rohene WILL be king of the skating world one day. He's beyond talented...he's brilliant. He is such a nice guy and has been so encouraging of my skating as well.

If you have 2004 Nats on tape, Rohene was shown during the SP. Even though he had a pretty dismal skate, Dick Button was raving on and on about him. His new Tango free skate rocks!

[berthesghost]

"Tango free skate rocks!"

ITA, and it seemed to go better here than at Liberty too.

Aaronts, from my rapidly deteriorating memory:

SP = 4t/3t combo fabulous!; 3x poped to single; 3Z doubled. Hideous costume.

LP= 4t fall; 3x/2Tano-toe; 3f step-out; circular FW; fabu combo spin; 3t; 2x; Kwan spiral and Charlotte; fabulous layback; there must have been 3r and 3S, but I don't remember how they went, sorry; fabu change foot spin at end. Much better costume.

[redvispa]

So Berthe -- what were they saying??

[Skatephile]

Rohene Ward's Mid-Atlantics free skate on Sunday was pretty solid and seemed sharper than his short program performance on Saturday, in which he looked a little sluggish to me (following the superb and effortless-looking quad toe-triple toe combination at the beginning).

His 6-minute warmup before the free skate was quite amazing to watch. He stroked around the rink once with great speed and power, and went right into an easy-looking double axel. He opened up and doubled a loop, fell out of a triple loop, landed a triple flip a little off-balance, did a back catch foot Biellmann spiral into a triple lutz, did a triple loop with ease, singled an axel, landed triple axel(hand down)-double toe loop with 1 arm overhead during the toe, then repeated the combo flawlessly, fell on his first quad toe loop attempt, and landed quad toe-double toe. Then, at the end, he whipped out a triple salchow and then a triple lutz with no virtually no set up. Wow!

In his Piazzola tango free skate, he fell on his opening quad toe, landed a beautiful, BIG triple axel-double toe with arm overhead like in the warmup, butterfly to back sit spin with free leg tucked under the spinning leg, triple flip from mohawk turn, triple toe with slight brush with free foot after landing, gorgeously stretched forward camel-back camel layover catch foot to back semi-layback, back Biellman spiral into triple lutz that turned out on one foot, double axel, reverse (CW) single axel to regular (CCW) triple salchow sequence but fell on the sal. His extended spiral sequence included a nice forward inside to outside change of edge and ended with a back Charlotte. He landed his final jump, triple loop, without much flow but, I found out later, it wasn't counted because his reverse axel-salchow wasn't credited as a sequence by the caller. His final elements were his trademark layback that changed to a sideways lean, straightline footwork that included a back split jump, and a final spin combo of camel-twisted sit-back sit(very low)-illusion-scratch. A decent performance for him, I thought.

Rohene performed his blues guitar short program in the Sunday exhibition (less than an hour after his FS) and landed a beautiful double axel [planned double, not triple] directly from a forward spiral and turns on one foot and his cantilever-turns-triple lutz -- both the jumps he had missed in the SP on Saturday.

Aww man...Rohene WILL be king of the skating world one day. He's beyond talented...he's brilliant. He is such a nice guy and has been so encouraging of my skating as well.

Glad to hear this, G MAN, and I'm not at all surprised. He's a big supporter of up and coming skaters.

--Sylvia