What if Mao had skated? | Page 2 | Golden Skate

What if Mao had skated?

Mafke

Medalist
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Callystarr said:
OK!

I actually enjoyed not having my heart pop out of my chest worrying about an upcoming element from Kwan.

...As You Were..

Kwan's not there .... that's Baaad.
But it makes it much less stressful ... that's Gooood.
But it also makes it less interesting ... that's Baaad.
But it comes with Frogurt ...
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
FreeKatie said:
good point about MK, had she been healthy and had a clean SP she would probably be right in there with the 3 way (almost) tie. No 3/3s (except for Kimmie) as usual. The LP might be a different story, but all the hype about MK not doing 3/3's -- nobody in ladies skating since Tara Lipinski has done consistent clean 3/3's and also had enough components marks to be near the top, which is why the USFSA put MK on the team - they knew she had a better shot at a medal than Emily.

Don't forget Elene gede(can't remember the middle!)shvili, she did a great 3F/3T in the SP too.

Also i'm not sure touting Tara as the model of consistency when she had a consistent triple/triple for around 14 months is very good. Arakawa had at least 14 months when she was nailing her 3/3s, as has ando on the junior circuit. To add to that Michelle had her Salome season where the only competition she missed the 3T/3T was Worlds.

Ant
 

tarotx

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 30, 2005
Mao's problem is that working on the quad has affected the two jumps. But also under cop doing the two weakest triples gives her nothing. I think head to head to head Mao's youthful energy wouldn't have been as rewarded as it had been early in the year. I think she would have been 4th but closer than Fumie is...but we will never.

Michelle would have contended in the short if she didn't reinjure herself in Torino. That is if she really had gotten her levels to 3 and 4 and actually completed the spin revolutions to get the level counted. And held her secondary spiral positions long enough to count. And do all that with out looking like she's counting so as not to lower her pcs's. And if she could land the 2a. See there is a lot of questions for Kwan that we can't guess about because she didn't compete all season. Michelle's talent isn't to be questioned-just rather or not she had had time to actually do enough reps so that she looks smooth. Now if she never got injured that's a whole other ball game. Michelle was doing a much needed reinventing of herself. People wouldn't have been able to compare her to the Kwan of the past because she was a different Kwan. Greats like Michelle have to keep things fresh or people compare you to your past self.
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
alain707 said:
Because she can do a triple axel :laugh: ! Actually I agree it's a shame for such a gifted skater to have trouble with the two easiest triples there are. I sincerely hope she can use this year out of senior world competitions to improve on her flaws. In this way the age rule could be a very good thing for her future.
Nonetheless keep in mind that CoP does not care if all the different triples are done, but only to how many points the seven jump passes add up ... So with 4 different triples and 2 repeats she can still hit a 6 triples program. And such a program with 2 triple axels will weigh as much if not more more than the 7 triples routines only a few of the other top skaters can deliver.

Well she doesn't really have a problem doing a triple toe loop its just that i think she sometimes toe axels it and it gets downgraded to a doube and to avoid the risk of that she avoids the jump altogether. I don't think it would be a difficult jump for her to clean up though. The salchow is teh one that she struggles to land but since no-one seems to complain about Yamaguchi's lack of triple salchow, given that Mao make sup for it with a 3A and she's working on a quad, perhaps we can forgive her?

Ant
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
Mafke said:
Kwan's not there .... that's Baaad.
But it makes it much less stressful ... that's Gooood.
But it also makes it less interesting ... that's Baaad.
But it comes with Frogurt ...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
 

SusanBeth

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
antmanb said:
Well she doesn't really have a problem doing a triple toe loop its just that i think she sometimes toe axels it and it gets downgraded to a doube and to avoid the risk of that she avoids the jump altogether. I don't think it would be a difficult jump for her to clean up though. The salchow is teh one that she struggles to land but since no-one seems to complain about Yamaguchi's lack of triple salchow, given that Mao make sup for it with a 3A and she's working on a quad, perhaps we can forgive her?

Ant

If she toe axels it and keeps getting downgraded, then she has a problem with it.

Right now, she's the "Flavor of the Month" and the 3 axel is a nice thing. However, if she doesn't have the full range of jumps, the judges will start noticing it when her month is up. I am sure they can reflect that in her marks someway. (Skating skills?) Heaven help her if she loses the 3 axel before getting the 3 tl or salchow. She'll drop like a stone. She's promising artistically, but that takes time and experience. Not only is she not quite the powerhouse she's hyped to be, she's horribly vulnerable. I do wish her luck. :)
 

rob43

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 1, 2005
I think whoever singled out Lipinski for having a consistant 3/3s and good componanats has to give Hughes credit as well. Her toe-pick jumps were crappy but her edge jumps where at least as good as Lipinski's and she had a divine 2 ax. She was also a better spinner & had better edges to me.

That said I think this code would favor someone lile a Yebin Mok who may not have chocked every element in the world into a program but could accomplish most of it with stunning ability.

I'm waiting 2 years and 5-15 lbs to see how Asada turns out. She may loose the 3 axel butclean up the rest of her jumps. Another issue is what the callers start to do with flutzes- if they begin calling the flips (and lips lutzes) it could create problems for a number of the women. It would bring her down to 3 true triple jumps at the moment.
 

ladysarahchatto

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Frau Muller said:
I bet that she'd be in first place or pretty darn close to it.

It is impossible to tell. She may have skated great and won-OR she may have totally done-not well. Like Costner. My guess is she would have been top five, but not in the medals.
 

Vash01

Medalist
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
I believe Mao would have felt the Olympic pressure just like Irina and Sasha did (and Kimmie too). Since she had beaten Irina and Sasha (and Shizuka) during the season, there would have been the expectation that she would do it again. I am not sure she would have handled the pressure. She did not handle the pressure of the Japanese nationals either. She finished second there.

Vash
 

guinevere

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
I am guessing that Mao would have finished thrid or fourth, if she had been here. A combination of me thinking nerves would have affected her consistency, and me guessing by the way the judges handed out marks. I definitely think she would not have won.
 

Mafke

Medalist
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
guinevere said:
I am guessing that Mao would have finished thrid or fourth, if she had been here. A combination of me thinking nerves would have affected her consistency, and me guessing by the way the judges handed out marks. I definitely think she would not have won.

My thoughts exactly, especially the composition of this panel (who was on it?) leads me to think that Asada's particular strengths would not be rewarded so handsomely as they wee at GPF.
 

bethissoawesome

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Mao's personal best (from the GPF) would still not have been enough to win; it would have gotten her silver... but you can never really know with Olympic pressure. Maybe she would have rose up to the challenge, maybe not. I hope she is skating in 2010... that way we will know for sure how she does at the Olympics. :)
 
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