Turin 2006 | Matthew Savoie (USA) Free Skate | Personal best; Savoie takes 7th

Turin 2006 | Matthew Savoie (USA) Free Skate | Personal best; Savoie takes 7th

– British coverage (commentators: Chris Howarth, Simon Reed)
– Matthew Savoie’s (USA) superb free skate from the 2006 Torino Winter Games. 5th in the free and 7th overall with a combined total of 206.67 points. Music: The Mission by Ennio Morricone.
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[article by K. Wessler from the Journal Star]
2006: Personal best — Savoie takes seventh
TURIN, ITALY — Matt Savoie was in seventh heaven.
Midway through his program Thursday, the Peoria figure skater turned at the far end of the ice and his eye caught the row of photographers with their long lenses. Twenty, 30, maybe 40 of them.
He heard their shutters clicking, and it hit him:
I’m at the [Games].
“It told me how big a moment this is,” Savoie said, “and what it would mean to skate well. That gave me a little extra push to continue and finish out the program.”
It wasn’t perfect, but it was a gutsy effort on a night when most of the top men faltered badly, and it was enough to bump up Savoie one spot after the short program to seventh overall.
“I’m really happy,” Savoie said. “If this was the last event I ever got to skate — even though it’s not — I would be perfectly happy. I’m very excited with the way I skated.”
Russia’s Evgeni Plushenko won gold easily. That was expected. Much else was not, with one medal contender after another falling or, in American champion Johnny Weir’s case, falling apart.
That included Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland and Jeff Buttle of Canada, who respectively won the silver and bronze — basically because those medals had to be awarded to somebody.
American Evan Lysacek skated well, atoning for his dismal short program, and jumped from 10th place to fourth. Weir bombed and went the opposite direction, dropping from second to fifth.
But amid all that, Savoie delivered his personal best free skate in international competition, with 137.52 points, fifth best for the night.
“He was excited when he came and sat with me,” in the Kiss and Cry cubicle to await his scores, coach Linda Branan said. “Usually, if he doesn’t like the way he skated, he just sits there and thinks about what he did wrong.
“This time, he was talking. He was smiling. When Matt smiles like that, you know he’s happy.”
Skating to “The Mission” soundtrack, Savoie nailed a triple Axel—triple toe loop combination at the beginning of his program and another triple Axel about halfway through the 41/2-minute routine. The second was the highest—scoring triple Axel in the competition, with only Plushenko’s 8.93 coming close to Savoie’s 9.16.
Savoie struggled slightly after that, simplifying one planned combination and turning a triple Lutz into a double. But he maintained the presence of mind to add a solid triple toe loop near the end, to assure he attempted the required eight triples. Moreover, his spins were superb and his choreography and edge quality were as good as any of his rivals’.
There was mild controversy over Savoie’s simplified combination, which had been planned as a triple Lutz—double toe—double toe. He got too close to the boards and had to single the first double and skip the second, but the judges scored the Lutz as a double, rather than a triple, though it was not clear why.
Savoie and Branan were surprised when told of the scoring, which likely shorted the skater at least four points.
“Wow, that must be a mistake,” Savoie said. “That has to be incorrect. I know it wasn’t under—rotated. My choreographer (Tom Dickson) said my technical score looked low. I guess that explains why.”
Branan briefly considered filing a protest, but determined the difference would not have been enough for Savoie to move past Brian Joubert into sixth place and decided against it.
Savoie said he doubled the next Lutz, with a base value of 4.1 points less than his planned triple, because of fatigue. But he got those points back with the improvised triple toe loop.
“That’s the way I’ve been training,” he said. “I count the triples, and I understand what scenarios I can add another triple if I have to.”
And one more thing: Savoie is going to do a little historical sightseeing before departing Italy on Feb. 28.
The powerful Savoy family ruled the Piedmont region here for centuries, and Savoie said he wants to take pictures of himself next to every sign with “my name.”
“I know I have some family history here,” he joked.
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#figureskating #フィギュアスケート #eiskunstlauf #фигурноекатание #피겨스케이팅 #pattinaggioartistico #patinageartistique
special thanks to Kim!