- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
Those are just my notes and observations, nothing more.
It was an odd competition. The first group was so boring it was painful, yet the second group reminded us all why we love this sport. Kimmie and Ando really rocked the house giving the performances of their lives. Wow!
An observation about coaches. From my seat, I could see K&C well through binoculars. I was sad to see that Arutunian seemed to have very little interaction with the Asadas. They were both upset after their performances, but he was certainly not doing anything to comfort them. In both cases, he was seating quite a bit far from his student, and only exchanged a few sentences with them. OTOH, Morozov and Ando seemed to be communicating very well. I know that one GP event is certainly not enough to tell, but this seems to correlate to how well the whole partnership is going.
Korpi
Pleasant, smooth.
Telegraphs jumps.
Fell on her butt, other mistakes.
Weak transitions.
Beaver cleaver rather unattractive.
Leung
Program very well matched to her.
Tasteful costume.
Strong start.
A few errors, 1 major fall on sequence – she struggled with triple lutz, saved it, but instead of quitting the jump there while she was ahead, went for the triple loop and feel on it.
Second jump sequence looked nice – surprised 2 of the judges gave it negative GoE.
At the beginning, her in-betweens were nice, but toward the end she was just concentrating on elements.
Cantu
1st “Personal Best” of the night
Great reception, screams “go Michelle”.
Fell on her butt. Not too impressed.
Taylor
What happened there?! I know Katy is a better skater than this!!!!
Bubby personality totally not translating on the ice.
2 falls on her butt, the 2nd one just before the end as if to make sure the judges remember it.
I was literally falling asleep on this one.
Marchei
I actually liked her a lot.
Dramatic, mature.
She actually skates to the music!
Sloppy though. Errors on most jumps – you can tell it won’t be good at the take off.
First lady to stay on her feet tonight!
2nd mark could certainly be higher.
Warm-up observations: Kimmie went on the ice very aggressive (toward skating, not toward others on the ice), whereas Emily seemed more complacent.
Mao Assada
Lori Nichols is a genius. What do you do when you have a skater whose presentation skills still need improvement, but who absolutely must give at least a somewhat emotional performances? You use Czardas! Very tasteful, and you can’t help but want to dance to it..
She still doesn’t know what to do with her arms between elements.
Missed a lot of jumps.
Still, performance was engaging.
Hughes
Sorry, but I found her exceedingly boring.
A nit pick – the part of the leotard that covers the crotch should not be of lighter pink than the skirt – otherwise, there is an impression of underwear.
Nice falling leaf.
Meissner
Audience went so crazy when Kimmie was announced, I felt a little bad for Emily who was still in K&C.
More mature than Mao.
Light skating, not at all forced.
Standing ovation.
A “Wow!” performance. Not sure why, but it carried that kind of “wow” energy.
This performance proves that last year’s Worlds medal was not a fluke.
Ando
2nd “Personal Best” of the night
Good costume.
Improved presentation without compromising the technical (opened with a perfect triple lutz/ triple loop combo).
Mature, determined skating.
Good footwork. Kept energy throughout whole program.
I think that it can be either good or bad to follow a real class act. In Miki’s case, she used the positive energy in the arena following Kimmie’s skate to help herself to an incredible skate.
Standing ovation.
Meier
3d “Personal Best” of the night
Elegant. Ladylike. Reminds me of Volchkova at her best.
Really uses her harms.
Lacks the energy of previous two, but still very pleasant to watch.
Mai Asada
4th “Personal Best” of the night
A couple of falls.
Didn’t seem comfortable with her program.
Looked almost scared in K&C.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just for fun, I made a list of which teams I liked best. This does not mean I think the ones on the top of my list should have placed higher, it’s just whom I liked.
It was an odd competition. The first group was so boring it was painful, yet the second group reminded us all why we love this sport. Kimmie and Ando really rocked the house giving the performances of their lives. Wow!
An observation about coaches. From my seat, I could see K&C well through binoculars. I was sad to see that Arutunian seemed to have very little interaction with the Asadas. They were both upset after their performances, but he was certainly not doing anything to comfort them. In both cases, he was seating quite a bit far from his student, and only exchanged a few sentences with them. OTOH, Morozov and Ando seemed to be communicating very well. I know that one GP event is certainly not enough to tell, but this seems to correlate to how well the whole partnership is going.
Korpi
Pleasant, smooth.
Telegraphs jumps.
Fell on her butt, other mistakes.
Weak transitions.
Beaver cleaver rather unattractive.
Leung
Program very well matched to her.
Tasteful costume.
Strong start.
A few errors, 1 major fall on sequence – she struggled with triple lutz, saved it, but instead of quitting the jump there while she was ahead, went for the triple loop and feel on it.
Second jump sequence looked nice – surprised 2 of the judges gave it negative GoE.
At the beginning, her in-betweens were nice, but toward the end she was just concentrating on elements.
Cantu
1st “Personal Best” of the night
Great reception, screams “go Michelle”.
Fell on her butt. Not too impressed.
Taylor
What happened there?! I know Katy is a better skater than this!!!!
Bubby personality totally not translating on the ice.
2 falls on her butt, the 2nd one just before the end as if to make sure the judges remember it.
I was literally falling asleep on this one.
Marchei
I actually liked her a lot.
Dramatic, mature.
She actually skates to the music!
Sloppy though. Errors on most jumps – you can tell it won’t be good at the take off.
First lady to stay on her feet tonight!
2nd mark could certainly be higher.
Warm-up observations: Kimmie went on the ice very aggressive (toward skating, not toward others on the ice), whereas Emily seemed more complacent.
Mao Assada
Lori Nichols is a genius. What do you do when you have a skater whose presentation skills still need improvement, but who absolutely must give at least a somewhat emotional performances? You use Czardas! Very tasteful, and you can’t help but want to dance to it..
She still doesn’t know what to do with her arms between elements.
Missed a lot of jumps.
Still, performance was engaging.
Hughes
Sorry, but I found her exceedingly boring.
A nit pick – the part of the leotard that covers the crotch should not be of lighter pink than the skirt – otherwise, there is an impression of underwear.
Nice falling leaf.
Meissner
Audience went so crazy when Kimmie was announced, I felt a little bad for Emily who was still in K&C.
More mature than Mao.
Light skating, not at all forced.
Standing ovation.
A “Wow!” performance. Not sure why, but it carried that kind of “wow” energy.
This performance proves that last year’s Worlds medal was not a fluke.
Ando
2nd “Personal Best” of the night
Good costume.
Improved presentation without compromising the technical (opened with a perfect triple lutz/ triple loop combo).
Mature, determined skating.
Good footwork. Kept energy throughout whole program.
I think that it can be either good or bad to follow a real class act. In Miki’s case, she used the positive energy in the arena following Kimmie’s skate to help herself to an incredible skate.
Standing ovation.
Meier
3d “Personal Best” of the night
Elegant. Ladylike. Reminds me of Volchkova at her best.
Really uses her harms.
Lacks the energy of previous two, but still very pleasant to watch.
Mai Asada
4th “Personal Best” of the night
A couple of falls.
Didn’t seem comfortable with her program.
Looked almost scared in K&C.
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Just for fun, I made a list of which teams I liked best. This does not mean I think the ones on the top of my list should have placed higher, it’s just whom I liked.
- Meissner
- Ando
- Mao Assada
- Meier
- Mai Asada
- Hughes
- Marchei
- Leung
- Korpi
- Cantu
- Taylor