Meissner/Lysaceck - The comeback kids.

I am taking delivery this Monday of my first big-screen TV and I look forward to seeing the 4CC telecast, the Nationals Exhibition, and the World Championships on a 55-inch widescreen instead of the 27-inch I've had

Red Dog said:

yes it sure can. It came for her at an ideal time last year. Who knows, maybe this extra (4CC) competition before Worlds was just what she needed. Last year that "extra" comp happened to be the almighty O's.

She's not a strong SP skater so that might hurt her if she botches the short in Japan. She can make up plenty of ground in the FS, the key for her is just not to get too far behind (< 5 pts behind the leader).

Click to expand...

With Worlds being in Japan if Asada and Ando skate clean they will be untouchable, well Asada probably would have been anywhere for that matter. A clean long program from one of them in Japan I definitely see topping 130 for either, a clean short from either in Japan will flirt with a 70. Meissner and Kim, and any of the dark horse contenders after them will have to hope Asada and Ando are not in peak form, since with the home ice advantage they wont be touched if they are.

I do think Meissner will skate quite well at Worlds though. She is a great competitor who knows how to peak at the right times.

Red Dog said:

True...but some skaters need more improvement than others.

Click to expand...

RD - I dare you to name those skaters. Emily? Bebe? Alissa? Who?

Joe

After yesterday's win by Meissner I have to say she is one fierce competitor.
She is the reigning World Champion, National Champion and now 4'C Champion. She must be feeling very confident now and that is a good thing. Kimmie is going to Worlds to defend her title and I think she has a very good chance of repeating. There are a lot of reasons out there why people are counting her out. (like another skater who will remain nameless) but if I was a betting woman my money would be on Kimmie. She has proven that she is very good at handling pressure and when she is on she can win. For me it will be very interesting to see how the other top ladies handle the pressure.

Meissner/Lysaceck - The comeback kids

Joesitz,

"Do you not think 'others' need Kimmie to make mistake if they want to win?"

I could be wrong, of course, but my gut feeling is that if Kim, Asada and Meissner all skated their best, Meissner would not win gold. Maybe I'm just dreaming because I prefer Kim and Asada's style of skating to Kimmie's.

However, I don't dislike Kimmie. I think she is a lovely young lady, terrific role model and a very talented skater, who has improved over last year. We are very lucky to have her skating for the US. She is also a determined champion and I don't think she will let her World title go without a fight. The patriotic part of me hopes she does win the World Championship.

Dizzy

You see, when you explain a negative point of view, it just softens your whole feelings for others to understand what you mean. Bravo! or Brava!.

Jo

dizzydi7 said:

Joesitz,

"Do you not think 'others' need Kimmie to make mistake if they want to win?"

I could be wrong, of course, but my gut feeling is that if Kim, Asada and Meissner all skated their best, Meissner would not win gold. Maybe I'm just dreaming because I prefer Kim and Asada's style of skating to Kimmie's.

Click to expand...

With Worlds being in Japan it becomes apparent that Asada and Ando are 1-2 if they deliver to their capacity. Asada would likely be the favorite with Worlds in any venue this year, it being in Japan just makes it that much more clear she completely controls her own destiny.

What Meissner or Kim do is certainly of no relevance to Asada winning gold at Worlds this year, if Asada does something approaching her potential the victory is assuredly hers. Ando would likely not have been the silver medal favorite had Worlds been in another location, a contender for a medal, possably gold, but not the silver medal favorite as she becomes. However with Worlds being in Japan a top 2 medal is also likely under her own destiny, and she becomes Asada's biggest rival for gold.

Kim is a prettier skater then Meissner, but Meissner has more difficulty, the bronze medal will depend on who makes fewer mistakes.

Here are the judges for the Ladies event at Worlds:

Former SSRs: Estonia, Russia
Europe: Croatia, Finland, Hungary, Romania, Slovak Republic, Turkey, Austria, France, Italy, Sweden,
N. America: Canada, USA
Asia: Japan, Korea

The countries in italics will judge the FS only. The other 12 will judge the SPs, and 8 of those 12 will be drawn at random to judge the FS.

It's quite apparent that the majority of the judges will be from Europe, so I'm not convinced that the fact that the competition is in Tokyo will guarantee a podium lock for Asada, Ando and/or Kim.

I agree with Mao Asada as the front runner, but I'm not so sure about Ando. Is she completely healed from her shoulder injury?

Am I the only one who thinks the Japanese media may play a role in putting pressure on the Japanese ladies to their possible detriment?

merrywidow said:

Am I the only one who thinks the Japanese media may play a role in putting pressure on the Japanese ladies to their possible detriment?

Click to expand...

I do think pressure will come into play, and I think it will either fire them up to perform the skate of their lives, or it will make them shake in their boots to where they just struggle to stay upright. I don't think there's an in-between.

I predict the pressure will work for Asada and against Ando. Then internationally Yu-na and Kimmie are the two to look out for.

Joesitz said:

RD - I dare you to name those skaters. Emily? Bebe? Alissa? Who?

Click to expand...

Well, I designed the phrase so those skaters would go unnamed

Of course, now that you mention it, sticking to the topic of the thread I think Meissner is fine. We can all say that she needs personality out there on the ice but the lack of one doesn't seem to be hurting her. To paraphrase what another poster said (in this thread?) she is talented in the tech department and her only mistakes seem to come on the 3-3 combos. She seems pretty solid on the individual jumps from what I can see. So all she needs to do is land the jumps to be in contention.

Same with Mao Asada. A Meissner/Asada rivalry could be kicking up and I believe the one time they met at SA Meissner got the better of it...?

As for other skaters...well...Alyssa is consistent at being inconsistent...brilliant performance here and 3-fall performance there...but everything else is spot on. I also think Emily needs more jumps (what happened to the loop?) to really bring her up to the top level. (but who knows...maybe the strategy might pay off?) She seems to be hanging in there on the second tier and was on the podium only because she benefited from a weak field at Cup of China and the absence of the Asian armada at 4CC's.

Red Dog said:

Well, I designed the phrase so those skaters would go unnamed

Click to expand...

But not Kimmie. She gets the negative. The others get silence. Basically there is no real opinion here at all.

and the point is...?

I was delighted to watch to watch the 4ccs competition - it meant getting to see some of the none european's programs before worlds!

I was impressed with Meissner - i think she has definitely improved in the the performance side of things. She seems to feel her choreogrpahy more than last year. the only real complaint is those high arms in the spirals but other than that it would not surprise me in the slightest to see her put down two back to back clean performances and shake up the supposed japanese and korean lock on the podium.

Its seems i'm in a minority but i really enjoyed Hughes's skate as well. She's the only one who looks like a woman (as a opposed to a girl) skating. She has great power in her skating and her jumps are fabulous. I love her double axel and i'm pleased for her that she managed to cling on to both lutzes and both flips. It looks to me like she really stuggles to get combinations on her triple jumps - only managing one on the back of the triple toe and that did not look easy for her. One thing i really liked was her Biellman spin - i thought teh transition into it was pretty amazing and looked gorgeous. I was surprised not to have heard more positive comments about it.

Csizney (is that how you spell it?) left me somewhat cold. While the spins seemed fast and well centered for the most part i did not really understand why people have really raved about her. It might be better appreciated live but she just looks really tiny and she skates in a way that makes her look really fragile.

I was somewhat turned around by Lysacek. I've never really liked his skating but i did like his carmen alot at 4CC's. Extra props for going for the quad combination and hitting those jumps. He really does have a bad triple axel technique skidding that forward edge righ round to backwards before taking off. He also has distracting arms when he pulls in for the jumps. At any rate i actually enjoyed that performance of his.

Ant

While Kimmie certainly deserves congrats for winning, I hardly find her "comeback" all that remarkable. As others have said, she was down just about 4 points ... but more importantly, those above her all had a history of mistake-ridden freeskates. In fact, even with Kimmie's major mistake on the flip combo, she was still able to overtake the others fairly easily. I just can't get into her skating ... it leaves me a bit cold. She does seem to be a good competitor, which should help her along the way.
To answer your question Joe ... no, skaters like Mao, Yu-Na and Miki, IMO, can win even if Kimmie makes no mistakes.

Also, will we ever see the 3A from her again, or was that a one time thing.

nymkfan51 said:

While Kimmie certainly deserves congrats for winning, I hardly find her "comeback" all that remarkable. As others have said, she was down just about 4 points ... but more importantly, those above her all had a history of mistake-ridden freeskates. In fact, even with Kimmie's major mistake on the flip combo, she was still able to overtake the others fairly easily. I just can't get into her skating ... it leaves me a bit cold. She does seem to be a good competitor, which should help her along the way.
To answer your question Joe ... no, skaters like Mao, Yu-Na and Miki, IMO, can win even if Kimmie makes no mistakes.

Also, will we ever see the 3A from her again, or was that a one time thing.

Click to expand...

I think the "comeback" for Kimmie was mostly just a turn of phrase from benig in 6th place after the short. It is also a hark back to 6.0 days where you think of people being out of the running for gold if they were not in the top 3 after the SP without mistakes from others. With factored placements the results for the ladies would have been

1. Emily (3.0)
2. Joannie (3.5)
3. Kimmie (4.0)

Kimmie would have needed other skaters to place above Emily and Joannie but not above her.

It really doesn't matter what your position is after the SP these days its just the point spread.

As for the challengers for worlds. I don't think that a single one of the ladies has shown themselves to be nerves of steel competitors for the entire season. Ando is very hit and miss. Asada has shown that she is very consistent in the SP but can miss elements in the LP. Yu Na has probably been the most consistent skater in terms of reliably getting the triples down in the programs, however, she is injured and we don't know how well her recovery is going.

I think its a real toss up for the podium and certainly for gold. I doubt we will see too many clean programs from teh ladies at worlds and the last one standing will win.

Ant

antmanb said:

Csizny...left me somewhat cold. While the spins seemed fast and well centered for the most part i did not really understand why people have really raved about her. It might be better appreciated live but she just looks really tiny and she skates in a way that makes her look really fragile.

Click to expand...

Yes, about seeing her live. (It also helps to see her in a performance where she doesn't fall three times, LOL.)

There is something about Alissa's personality that, when you meet her, you just want to adopt her as your sister or daughter or something. Sasha has glamour, Michelle has class, Allisa has a warmth and a plucky smile that puts the audience in her corner.

When other skaters fall, that's life, that's sport. When Alissa falls the whole arena says "ouch" together.

Alissa has a winning smile.

Kimmie has a shy smile

Emily has a joyous smile.

Am I correct?

Joe