Has Mira reached her full potential in skating already or is she still able to significantly climb the ladder in standings internationally? I was very pleased to see the great improvements in her new long program and she should be very proud of herself for achieving personal best score on her long program AND two 5th place finishes in both her Grand Prix events this year, her best ever placements. However, I felt dismayed when I saw her name all the way down the list of Grand Prix placements overall. My initial reaction was, okay, let's be realistic. It made me wonder whether she really has what it takes to even make the top ten not to mention medalling even if we assume she skates for the next eight years. Wht do you think?
Mira Leung's Potential
- Thread starter passion
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2005
I think she has the potential maybe attain a top 10 at World someday if she keeps working hard, and maybe win a Canadian title if Rochette keeps stagnating/even regressing and no other young stars emerge. No chance she is a future world medal winner IMO. I would be happy for her if she proved me wrong but I just dont see it.
Top 10 is a very vague term because there's a heck a lot of a difference between placing 9th and 4th. Where do you see Mira's best within the top 10: 8th, 7th or more like 6th,5th?
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2006
she has improved this season, her posture looks better and her jump landing are not so wierd. If she makes any higher than 10th at worlds ever i will be shocked.
(but the again i thought that about emily hughes. I had doubts she would even make the world team, yet she did, twice. )
(but the again i thought that about emily hughes. I had doubts she would even make the world team, yet she did, twice. )
I am not a Mira fan since I find nothing pretty about her. Having said that, I do think she could improve with a different coach. Joanne McLeod has a bad habit of making her skaters skate to bizzare music 
and putting them in the strangest outfits :scratch:which doesn't help matters. Mira is simply too manly of a skater and although I see they have tried to soften her up this year, it is no where near enough of an improvement IMO for her to go anywhere. Unless she switches coaches, I think Mira has gone as far as she ever will.
and putting them in the strangest outfits :scratch:which doesn't help matters. Mira is simply too manly of a skater and although I see they have tried to soften her up this year, it is no where near enough of an improvement IMO for her to go anywhere. Unless she switches coaches, I think Mira has gone as far as she ever will.
I think if Mira made a significant effort to work on (a) fully rotating her jumps, and (b) developing presentation skills, she might be able to finish in the bottom third of the top 10 at Worlds. Higher than that? Not likely. She is almost 19, bad habits get harder and harder to break, and time is rapidly slipping away.
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2005
I see the best she could ever possibly manage at Worlds being 7th or 8th.
Well, I think that is what she worked very hard on this year and I do actually see improvements in both areas. Her PC marks were much better for her in the long program and I don't think she got dinged as much as she has been in the past for underrotations.
I am not a Mira fan since I find nothing pretty about her. Having said that, I do think she could improve with a different coach. Joanne McLeod has a bad habit of making her skaters skate to bizzare music
Just curious, if Mira is "too manly of a skater", I'm wondering what kind of music would best suit her natural style. I mean, is softening her up the right approach?
Not sure. She looks better with her 'softer' LP this year, but she hasn't been scoring that much higher. If this approach doesn't bring her enough results after this season, she might consider Emily Hughes' approach -- Carmina Burana brings out the power and athleticism in her without any pretense to her being a pretty ballerina on ice. I'm not saying that skating to more powerful music will definitely improve Mira's fortunes, but it's something else to try. With her current programs I think she's quite unlikely to get any higher than 10th at WC.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2003
Maybe she's just joining anotehr skater in trying to masculinize the sport
and stereotypes will forever live on, so long as skating fans have their say!
She gets dinged in both SP and FS for underrotating her 2A. That has been a consistent problem for her, and not being able to land such a basic jumps negatively affects her SS marks. She is still underrotating some of her triples as well.
I haven't seen a major improvement in her PCS marks since last year.
5.30 4.90 5.05 5.10 5.10 2006 SA SP
5.45 5.20 5.00 5.20 5.00 2006 SA FS
6.00 5.55 5.55 5.70 5.50 2006 SC SP
6.20 5.70 5.85 5.85 5.65 2006 SC FS
5.39 4.96 5.29 5.21 5.25 2007 Worlds SP
5.11 4.64 4.71 4.93 4.86 2007 Worlds FS
5.25 4.90 5.15 5.05 5.30 2007 SA SP
5.75 5.40 5.55 5.75 5.50 2007 SA FS
5.20 4.85 5.35 5.30 5.20 2007 TEB SP
5.85 5.35 5.60 5.55 5.60 2007 TEB FS
As you can see, the best scores she has received in the past two years were gotten at Skate Canada 2006, where she may have benefitted from skating on home ice.
Her scores are still not getting much out of the mid 5s.
Actually those numbers show that there is an improvement overall in her component scores in the free skate. However that improvement has not occurred in her short program.
She is now averaging mid 5's in the PCS where she used to hover around 5 before. Not great scores but still an improvement in the FS at least. Of course her problems in the SP are probably due to the double axel having more weight in the short than in the long and the fact that judges tend to use that jump as an overall technique barometer.
I take out the Skate Canada 2006 numbers since that was so obviously inflated due to home ice. In fact in that competition YuNa's PCS marks were closer to Mira's than they were to the likes of Suguri and Rochette ( who also competed at that competition). YuNa was seriously lowballed on the PCS in this competition.
Yes YuNa won the short there, but she deserved much better in the PCS department.
