Here We Go Again

Just when you thought this was a subject dead and buried long ago ...
Questions are no doubt being raised again today about the quality of women's skating in Canada. Or rather, to be precise, their ability to deliver when it matters the most.
Take a look at the latest evidence we have to consider. The women's short program is in the books at the Tokyo worlds, and here's what we've got to show for it: Three-time Canadian champ Joannie Rochette, 16th, and Mira Leung, 20th.
In other words, not a hope in hell of reaching the podium, assuring that our women's medal drought at worlds will be extended to 19 years.
And counting.
Here's the bigger worry at the moment, though. If either of those placements doesn't improve greatly in Saturday's free skate — like, by about 5-6 spots — we're looking at one solitary women's berth for the 2008 worlds in Sweden. And a flashback to the dark days of the 1990s, when the poor girls at the top had to field constant questions about what was wrong with women's skating in Canada.
Quite frankly, I thought we were beyond all this. Now I wonder.
I've been a Rochette fan for quite a few years now, I'll admit. She's a very bright, engaging young woman with more talent than even she probably knows. So when some of my media colleagues questioned her chances in Tokyo after she'd barely retained her national title in Halifax, I kept thinking back to 2006.
When Rochette was good enough to be fifth at the Olympics, the highest finish by a Canadian woman at the Winter Games since Ottawa's Liz Manley in 1988. And, a few weeks after that, held the lead after women's qualifying — the first Canadian woman ever to do that — before her nerves got the better of her in the short program. But hey, that position was new territory for Rochette, and everyone was willing to cut her some slack even after she slipped to seventh by the end.
Something, however, is very wrong this week. I see the 16th placing beside her name — Rochette's been top-10 material in two of the last three worlds — and it just doesn't look right. It's only one spot better than the 17th she recorded in 2003 as a 17-year-old worlds newbie although, to be fair, this competition isn't over yet.
Leung's currrent standing in 20th also suggests a step back.
But in today's skating world, you only get points for what you do on the ice, and obviously, neither Rochette nor Leung did enough today.
They'd be much better placed if they had.
Meanwhile, a teen like South Korea's Yu-Na Kim — now under the tutelage of Canadian skating legend Brian Orser — is posting a world record short program score (71.95) in her first try at worlds. Hell, American Kimmie Meissner won the whole damn thing last year at 16.
And yet, our women are still looking for answers.
To a question that should have stopped being asked years ago.