Hiya to all ya skating lovers...


Wouldn't hold your breath tbh - in 1996 when the Worlds were in Brum (yes, I was there) I realised that the BBC had a huge number of cameras and obviously commentators etc there for 6 whole days and we got an amazing 1hr 15 mins on TV. When I got home from the event - first thing I said to him indoors, having been chatting to various audience folk, was, and I quote, "We're getting Eurosport... and we're getting it now!!!"


Ditto ditto and more ditto


They nearly gave up a few years ago but someone came forward. Do they get any Lottery money - would love them to benefit

Of course, with all the cuts the next we'll hear in about five years or so is that there are no youngsters of the correct standard coming up in the sport. Jeeez

Then there was the terrible time a few years ago when the Kerrs were the only ones taking part (may have been Winter Olympics before last) as the UK skating ruling knobs ( apologies for causing offence) thought it wasn't worth sending someone who was only likely to come in the bottom of the top 20. WHAT? FFS How are they going to get the correct exposure to the international judges (all important to get increasing scores etc, previous form DOES count - not just the 'performance on the night') if they don't take part.

I get Sooo cross about all this. It's winter. Skating is a winter sport FFS. Fek the tennis (although I DO wish Murray well in his endeavours). It's OUR TURN (yes I AM SHOUTING ). 4 or 5 days two times a year (3 for an Olympics year) is NOT too much to ask for.... I've paid fee now show me what I want...

And breathe...

So gonna go watch Ladies Free in Eurosport now. Sooo sorry for those who'll have to wait for the Beebs bits tomorrow.

For those who Do have Eurosport and will be tuning in for the Gala tomorrow... I have heard that (Swiss) Lambiel will be making a special appeareance. Soooo love him...

I too went to the worlds in Birmingham to watch the Men's. Struggling to remember but I think that was the only event that had reasonable coverage on BBC, probably due to Steven Cousins who was competing then. Surely the BBC should at least show stuff on the Red Button & given that many areas have now gone digital I'm sure most people at least have Freeview access now. Still I intend to watch some of the action live in sheffield - will probably go for the pairs & Ice Dance.

The Kerrs did get lottery money after the 2006 Olympics but as I mention that was axed last year. I think Winter Sports are suffering due to all the money being channelled into Summer sports ahead of London 2012 (the skiers & snowboarders had their funding completely axed too). Even if they don't think the current crop of top level skaters is worthy of funding (and if I'm brutally honest I am not sure it would be a good use of money to fund the likes of Jenna McCorkell and Stacey Kemp/David King) then why not channel money lower down the ladder to any promising juniors or invest in coaching to help bring the next generation through.

Will be great to see Lambiel in the Gala tomorrow - have decided to watch that live & then watch DOI on catch up.

I'm looking forward to watching the highlights on BBC tomorrow. I grab any opportunity to watch skating on tv. Unfortunately I don't even have digital in my area (local transmitter not upgraded from analogue yet) so no red button coverage either. I quite agree that skating should be given proper real-time coverage like other sports, not purely edited highlights. I think even indoor bowls was being shown on daytime tv the other day (). I would have thought that bowls was more of a niche audience sport than ice skating yet it gets given real time coverage

Men's Free tonight was really good. So pleased that Amodio won & equally pleased that Joubert won the Free Skate to finish 2nd overall after a disappointing short programme. I did enjoy watching Verner but thought he was a bit overmarked and was gutted for Kevin Van Der Perrin.

The Ladies Free was disappointing but wonderful to see Sarah Maier take an emotional win on home soil - this couldn't mask the overall standard though & I don't think the Asians or Americans will be losing any sleep about the Europeans ahead of the worlds.

Have to say was very surprised by the standards this year don't think I've seen so many falls in all category's and certainly not from as many of the skaters at one point I think it was almost every routine had a fall or something go wrong.

Looking forward to the worlds next month and hopefully seeing a bit more sure footedness from some of the competitors we have seen over the last few days.

Yeah watching the ladies it did make me wonder if the rink conditions were affecting the skaters or something. I think Sarah was virtually the only person to skate clean out out the last 3 or so groups. I know the Euros has been a bit like that before, dunno if it's ever been that bad though. Consistency seems to be a problem for a lot of skaters lately, even the very best ones. People either redeeming themselves after bad short programs or failing under pressure in the long.

Gosh I love Florent Amodio though, I agree with Nicky his component scores should've been through the roof. His reaction when he won was so cute too.

I just hope the BBC show the highlights this afternoon and don't show tennis instead!

I'm really missing Stephane Lambiel, so it'll be wonderful if he does appear in the gala.

I've not been impressed by the Swiss camerawork. Admittedly everyone seems to find it difficult to keep two skaters in the picture at once, but in the Individuals there seems to have been a deliberate decision to film the shoulders at the beginning of the step sequences and the feet during the spins. As if only the jumps mattered. As Lambiel, who is Swiss, is probably the greatest spinner ever, this seems particularly bizarre. I hope his exhibition routine is filmed properly.

Watching the highlights and see that they've hired the cameraman from SCD, so half the time we can't see the feet.
Didn't use to be that years ago when the film equipment wasn't half as sophiscated as it nowadays.

Not another 'Man in the iron mask. :yawn:

Can't forget Anissina and Peizerat in 1999 and then Yagudin.

LOL!!

That's exactly what I said! The same cameraman for DOI and SCD must be at the Championships today !

I suspect that the main problem from a British media point of view is that the only significant British presence in Figure Skating is the Kerrs, and (a) they're Scottish, and -- more important -- (b) everyone knows they aren't going to get gold.

It's interesting that the BBC seems to have adopted Carolina Kostner as someone viewers might be interested in.

Just watching the highlights after the footy has finished and saw the Pink Panther routine, almost expected Kieran Richardson to appear

Great viewing, no headbanger in sight though - I rest my case about it being about sensationalism for celebrities and thats it. Brilliant viewing, when I turn over for DOI in a bit will feel a bit cheated after seeing this

Pleased I wasn't only one!

Won't feel cheated, but hope people will watch this then understand why the marks in DOI are as they are..

I've watched it, and I don't see what you're getting at.

How does it explain the DOI marks?

Not forgetting probably the first skating performance to an MJ song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpGOA3l57TY

Still superb.

EDIT: Let's see Jason complain about any of those lines!

I loved Amodio, he was the performance of the championships for me, Joubert was good but he was boring imo and I though Kevin should have been 3rd, he was robbed.
As for the ladies, there is only one for me and that is Carolina, all the rest look the same to me, although Sarah did deserve the win overall and it was quite emotional her winning on home ground. I wish that the ladies would do something different instead of picking a slow piece of music and doing the same, over and over again.
I also agree about the Americans ladies etc, they will not be losing any sleep at all. Roll on The Worlds in March.

I think the problem is that the scoring system rewards difficulty so it can be beneficial to go for the difficulty even if your execution scores are lower. That aside though the ladies was still of a disappointing standard.

Really enjoyed the gala tonight - watched that on Eurosport before watching DOI on catch up & happy with that decision.

For anyone interested I have posted the link to the website for next year's Europeans below. Not much info on there at the moment & no idea when tickets go on sale but you may want to bookmark it for future reference. I definitely want to go - think I will go for the Pairs & Ice Dance.

http://europeans2012.co.uk/