DR MattH, I remember Surya Bonelay and I find no comparison between her and the new Russian champion. She truly had great jumps that were so physical, with very little artistry in between. And while Plushenko might not be the most artistic figure skater ever, I personally found him to have some substance between his jumps.
The judges have apparently agreed with you, DR Jennifer. Although, I think Dick Button's and Scott Hamilton's comments last night about his long program being a series of jumps interrupted by arm movements (in lieu of actual skating techniques) to be quite accurate. When a skater is of the calibre of Plushenko, however, that seldom impacts the scoring.
That has been the case for many Russian champions over the years...although they continue to be champions. Slutskaya is all jumps and arm flailings...she has no artisitc grace, although she possesses athletic grace.
Plushenko does it with style and conviction. His jumps seal the deal...plus he has the perfect phsyique for his sport...he "looks" better on ice than most other skaters.
I think that was part of Michelle Kwan's staying power....she had the perfect form and possessed unusual artistic grace. Her downfall, over the years, has been her reluctance to beef up her jumps. Her last coach, Rafael Artunian, was hired specifically to help her with her jumps, as that is his coaching specialty. I understand she did a triple-triple combination for the U.S. Olympic Committee members who evaluted her before extending an invitation to join the Torino contingent.
My least favorite skater over the years has been Alexei Yagudin...his flailings and ice-chipping staccato footwork were great audience pleasers but offered nothing rewarding for the memory of his performances, IMO. Sadly, Brian Joubert has taken some coaching advice from Yagudin and his programs' footwork sequences bear a copycat look without much originality or value as a result.
Viktor Petrenko (Gold Medal, 1992) was a much better "total package" skater, as was Alexei Urmanov (Gold Medal, 1994), although neither possessed Yagudin's athletic power as a jumper. Yagudin's jumps always had a stronger edge to them than Plushenko's although each did them beautifully....but it was always Plushenko's who seemed to be part of a greater whole, to me.
Kulik (Gold Medal, 1998) had a quad, but was pretty much just a jumper without content in his program. Both Elvis Stojko and Todd Eldridge could easily have beaten him with clean programs that had no quads as their artistic and technical content was far more substantial than Kulik's. Both made mistakes...Eldridge just crumbled in each Olympics.
And that's part of what the commentators were remarking on about most of the skaters last night...that they were suffering Olympics-itis....they were tight, not given to risk-taking or simply joyful skating.
Plushenko, for my money, outskated Yagudin in the last Olympics' long program, but his error in the short program cost him the gold.
There wasn't a skater on ice last night who deserved the Gold more than Plushenko, IMO.
