..you'd see that these are all crap

They are so amateurish compared to the world class olympians

I bet Robin must be thinking 'at last, some real skating for a change'

You do realize that the people competing in this show have had far less time practicing on ice than these "real skaters" in the Olympics? Anyone competing at Sochi will have spent the majority of their life perfecting their skating.

Unfair to compare the doi celebs - or even the pros - with the Olympic skaters of today; likewise it is unfair to compare the Strictly celebs to their pro partners, let alone today's worldclass competitors.

Jason was quite right to backchat Nicky for his daft remark about what he has judged previously - Europeans etc..... compared to what he had just seen on doi.

Jason misinterpreted Nicky's intent IMO. Nicky was saying he was using the same sort of benchmarking to mark up or down for errors or lack thereof. Not that he was judging anyone per se as if they were Olympians.

Exactly. If Nicky was marking according to Olympic standards, the scores would have been much lower.

Obviously, it's unrealistic to expect the celebs to be any where close to Olympic standard, but it does give a reality check when some fans get a bit carried away, or people get too po-faced about the fun celebs "stealing" the place of someone a bit more polished.

Yeah, but I am just saying that the dancing on doi is boring compared to Sochi.

I totally agree that DOI and the Olympics can't be compared. They're two totally different shows and the only thing they have in common is people moving about on ice. Olympic skating is an elite sport. DOI is a light entertainment programme which is much more about watching people learning something new as adults and being out of their comfort zones.

What really struck me about the difference between the Olympics and DOI was the costumes (especially the ladies'). They were gorgeous. Why couldn't the DOI costuming department take some tips from the Olympics and realise a skating outfit is not a bikini and a bit of netting?

Amateur surgeons tend to be rubbish compared with professional surgeons too.

If Nicky can say Hayley's routine was so beautiful that the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, then I think we can compare to Olympic skating that's much better, perhaps to bring out how excessive some of the DOI praise is.

You have to remember that all the skaters performing in Sochi have been training their socks off for years - its like comparing a beginners ballet class to a full blown prima ballerine/ danseur noble, or even compare them to the likes of T&D!

For people who have not actually done much skating this lot ( as they are now all past champions) are actually pretty good given the fact that their training has been months long rather than years. That said they are still relative beginners - and have in most cases learned their routines rather than the technicalities of skating - it takes a long time to master figures, technique etc and these guys had a crash course during their series.

Basically because doi is nothing more than a light entertainment show; "real" ice dance, whether Olympics, Europeans, Worlds, etc., is a Sport, where they dress accordingly.

The same is with Strictly, while some of the outfits are nice, very few could ever be used in "real" competition. And not just the females! Some of the men's get-ups,even the ones that are meant to be serious, are just as bad. For example: tail suits worn with ordinary ties which, just to make them even more stupid, they tuck inside the cummerbund!

Maybe they seem amateurish because the ARE amateurs in an entertainment show, NOT Olympians. I don't understand why anyone is trying to compare the two.

Yes the way I understood Nick too!

Yes veri, way over the top comments & scoring!

I watched the Olympic skaters today and they are absolutely amazing. Then I watched Dancing on Ice. No comparison but as others have said, two very different types of skating. Enjoyed both.

I don't think like has to be compared with like in order to garner a similar reaction. For example, I used to watch two sports teams in the same sport, several leagues apart. I still got emotional over the "little" team as much as if not more the "big" one.

And both get similar controversy about marking as well...

plus ca change...

http://www.thestar.com/sports/sochi2...t_program.html

And if you want to see the guys who invented the controversially marked moves actually doing them...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m0xMDwr9HU

One of the celebs has Olympic potential!

Sort-of.

The American ice-dance pair, Chock and Bates, skated their routine to "One Day More" from Les Miserables, and they used the cast recording for the 25th anniversary that stars Gareth Gates!

This is the routine from last year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eDICrfERsU

I remember Vanilla Ice using his song, but have any of the other celebs (I almost said singers) skated to one of their own songs?

The judging may have been dodgy at the Ice Dance: http://www.thestar.com/sports/sochi2...t_program.html

I'm no expert on ice dancing (apart from I seem to have constantly been a moment ahead of Robin in declaring that twizzles were out of sync!) but from what I saw there seemed to be several other couples who ought to have been deducted a point for extended lifts as I thought quite a few of them lasted more than 6 seconds. So to me there was some odd judging going on. Though I also find the new judging system a bit off - to get more credit for doing a harder move less cleanly than an easier move done excellently does seem a bit back to front.

When it came down to the final yesterday I wouldn't have been able to call the difference between Virtue and Moir/Davies and White and I'm not sure between those couples it is quite the fix the newspaper article implies.

I thought most of the ice dancing looked kind of samey too. None of the top three couples stood out for me the way Grishuk & Platov did when they beat T&D in 1994.

The trouble with the new judging system is you can't see if an individual judge's scoring seems inconsistent with the rest. I am sure this has also been of benefit to someone being criticised for a genuine expression of opinion but it would of course also serve to conceal anything untoward.

Nothing much between the two couples overall IMO and I suspect one alleged relic of the old days about who has and hasn't yet had their time at the top is possibly lurking in there somewhere as an ultimate deciding factor.

I preferred the Russians who came 3rd to be honest. I thought their routine was superb. The Canadians did same old, same old, surely champions should be able to do different styles as Torvill and Dean did. The Americans were fast and their routine was extremely difficult.

I think some of the DOI contenders were better than some of the Olympic performers. Different routines, more lifts (not saying lifts make a routine) but the difficulty and originality they show was a lot more creative.

That was my favourite too.

To be fair, I really don't know that much about skating, except what I like, and I liked that. Lots.