Figure Skating

[cassiesmom]

From what Scott and Sandra were saying, sounds like Johnny Weir needs a new choreographer. They said his program did not have enough transitions and difficult steps going into the jumps. I thought he should've got at least a slightly higher score.

This might be a stupid question because I don't know anything about figure skating. But, for each jump, the skater seems to take a few beats of the music to set up the jump. He turns his body, changes his weight to one foot and bends his knee. What I don't understand is, how can the choreographer layer more difficult steps onto that, and still arrange it so the skater can prepare to jump? Do the judges allow for those few beats of preparation when they are evaluating the program?

Thanks,
elyse

Edited to add: I thought it was inappropriate for Plushenko to step up to the gold medal platform as if he wanted to show that he felt he should have won. Scott Hamilton referred to grade of execution and I don't know exactly what that means, but I could tell on a couple of the jumps that he was at a wonky angle.