The Skating Lesson Podcast Transcript TSL: 2013 World Championships Men’s Preview with PJ Kwong Jenny Kirk: Hello, and welcome to The Skating Lesson podcast! I’m Jennifer Kirk, a former US ladies competitor and a three-time world team member. Dave Lease: I’m David Lease, and I’m a figure skating blogger and a current adult skater. Jenny: Today, we are thrilled to have Canadian journalist PJ Kwong as our guest on the show. Dave: Yes, and one thing about our podcast is that Jenny and I are both American, so there’s always the perception that we’re going to have an American slant. So we really wanted to have PJ Kwong on to give us the Canadian point of view. One thing that we really admire about PJ is that the spirit of the great TV personality, Wendy Williams, PJ says it like she means it in all of her blog entries. So we’re thrilled to have her on today to discuss men’s event at the 2013 World Figure Skating Championships in London, Ontario. [PJ Kwong enters] Dave: All right, so let’s start. Last year, the world championships ended with booing. There was such passion over the result whether you were a Patrick Chan fan or a Daisuke Takahashi fan. And it seems like this season is just picking up where last year left off, and this year is almost a rematch of sorts that’s going to be held in London, Ontario. We’re very excited for it. So, how do you see Patrick Chan shaping up in this year’s world championships? How do you see his chances this year? PJ: Well, I think that, as far as I’m concerned, I think he’s got a hill to climb. I really do. I think that I’ve been going back and forth with who I think my pick for world champion is, and I always go in my coaches room, and we have discussions about – I say, “who do you think is going to win worlds? Who do you think is going to win worlds?” And with the exception of the Russians taking the pair title, nobody agrees on anything. So I think, at this point, I’m leaning toward Javier Fernández taking the world title, to be honest. I think Patrick Chan will also be on the podium, but I think that based on results and based on overall strength in competition, Patrick has slid a little bit this year. And as far as last year is concerned, I don’t like it when anybody boos. I don’t think booing is right because it happened at Japanese nationals, as well. Those same rascals that booed last year were booing Yuzuru Hanyu for taking the national title. I don’t think it’s appropriate, and I don’t think it’s fair. Jenny: Do you think, PJ, that it’s appropriate in any sport? Because part of the fun, I think, of going to a basketball game or a football game is hearing the booing. So how do you think it fits in in terms of the figure skating world? PJ: Well, I think the difference is that when you’re talking about basketball, you’re talking about a sports team. You’re talking about people that make millions of dollars. So they really are – it’s kind of a bit of a gladiator mentality. They’re there for our enjoyment, you know, those kinds of sportsman. But in general, when you’re booing at a sports event at a team, it’s a team, so they’re not really absorbing it the same way as a lone twenty year old is. So I just don’t think given the amount of work it takes to get to be an elite skater, and you could certainly speak to that Jenny, that I just – it’s not the right thing. I think people can debate and have ideas exchanged. I think that’s perfectly fine. But I think that – I just don’t like it. And as I said, when I heard from Japan after nationals, Japanese nationals that there was some kind of incident – again, I don’t think it’s cool. Jenny: What do you think about it, Dave? What’s your opinion? Dave: Well, I think it’s interesting, because ideally, if they’re booing anyone it should be the judges. But I think that it gets confused. I think that sports fans are always passionate, and I think sometimes it gets taken out on the skater when it really should be taken out on the judges. And I think it gets confused, and I think that the skaters are probably confused. I think that last year at worlds, the judges were being booed for better or worse, and I think that’s something about fans understanding the new system, and we can get into that. One thing last year is that there was a lot of – it felt like the world championships were a culmination of all season what was happening. Patrick won a lot of events, and he wasn’t always clean. And I think a lot of fan [audio cuts out] program is being what should win. And it’s not necessarily – the judging system doesn’t necessarily reflect that. And we wanted to know, PJ, do you think that the clean program should still be important? Do you prefer a clean program over to someone superior skating having mistakes, or how important do you think that the clean program should be in skating? PJ: Do you know, I think skaters always strive for a clean program, and I think it was Debbi Wilkes that said to me once, “the number of times that an elite athlete actually has a truly clean program in competition in their career can be counted on the fingers of one hand because even though it may look clean to us on the outside because there’s no falls or whatever, the skaters actually know the standard to which they are supposed to be skating.” So to have that magical sort of moment where everything all comes together – those moments are rare, but they’re rare in real life, too, when you think about it in any job that you do. So I think that last year during worlds, when I was doing commentary on worlds, one of the things that I wrote for CBC Sports was kind of a dumbed down version, I’ll say it that way, of the new judging system because I kept coming up against people who were saying how complicated it was. And, you know, all of us sort of intrinsically know what a 5.9 is, what a 6.0 is, what a 5.8 is because that’s what skating was when we, you know, when we first started out in the sport. But what I was trying to explain is that it really isn’t that complicated. What gets complicated at times are the GOEs and certainly the program component scores. But what I did was – I created a sort of base value version of the judging system, and I had people tweet scores to me. I don’t know, Dave, if you did that – you might have been one of the ones that was doing that. And it was interesting how close fans were to the actual score once they realized that they could go from zero and count up. So, okay, back to your question. Sorry about that – I got sidetracked, like I always do! I love a clean program, but more than that, I love a good program. So I wanna see quality choreography. I wanna see – the three Cs as I call them, the concept, choreography, costuming all working in harmony. That’s what really counts [audio cuts out]. Jenny: Well, when we go back to Patrick Chan, looking at this season compared to last season, it seems like consistency has been a bit of an issue. He had that coaching change after the world championships last year. So, as we head into this event, what do you guys think it’s going to take for him to win another world title? Let’s start with you, PJ. PJ: Well, I think he’s gonna have to skate the lights out of that building. Now, he’s apparently been in Detroit for the past two weeks, hasn’t been in Colorado Springs, so maybe the change of venue and the fact that there are, you know, a lot of people sort of gunning for the worlds in that location – that that probably has helped. He also spent some time out in Calgary with his trainer and with Scott Davis. So I think maybe he just needed a change of pace, but there’s no doubt in my mind. There are about, you know, eight guys that could take the world title, really, when you think about it. So he’s gonna have to skate his absolute best. So his pattern lots of times before has been a weaker early part of the season and stronger in the latter part of the season. So we’ll just have to see if that bears out. Jenny: Dave? Dave: Well, I think last year, Patrick really peaked for Canadian nationals and Four Continents. It’s where he had his strongest performances. And I think this year, he eschewed competing at Four Continents as competing at the worlds. I think everything is going to determine on what Patrick Chan does.