I'm really surprised at her standings this year. This is an all time low for her. Surely, she must be disappointed by the results. I think she jinxed herself by saying that she wanted to be on the podium. Hopefully she can get it together before nationals so she can go to Worlds. She has really got to take the scores seriously and not brush them off like they don't matter. Look what Joannie did. She looked at her low PCS scores and worked on them with positive results. I think it will be a tough race between Cynthia and Mira at nationals. What are your thoughts?
Wow! What happened to Mira Leung?
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Mira consistently underrotates jumps, and this season it has gotten far worse. In the CoC SP, she UR'd the lutz in the combo and the 2A. In the FS, she had five URs: solo lutz, solo 2A, 3S, 2A in combo, flip in combo. For the entire competition, she landed only 3 triples, and only one of those was clean.
Mira's new 'coach' seems to be just another stand-in for Mama Leung, so it doesn't appear as if there is going to be any hope of Mira improving. Apparently there is no work being done on either the URs or her presentation. Mira's PCS scores at CoC have hit a new low. Skaters are supposed to improve as they gain experience. Mira's skills are deteriorating rapidly.
Skate Canada cannot possibly be pleased with Mira's performances in the GP. I think there is every possibility that Mira will not be on the 2009 World team.
Mira's new 'coach' seems to be just another stand-in for Mama Leung, so it doesn't appear as if there is going to be any hope of Mira improving. Apparently there is no work being done on either the URs or her presentation. Mira's PCS scores at CoC have hit a new low. Skaters are supposed to improve as they gain experience. Mira's skills are deteriorating rapidly.
Skate Canada cannot possibly be pleased with Mira's performances in the GP. I think there is every possibility that Mira will not be on the 2009 World team.
The PCS is also directly linked to URs. No judge will give her higher PCS after seeing massive downgrades from the technical controller.
Has she lost 3T as well? It's very strange to see her doing two 2As as 2A is her nemesis jump and there's 80% chance it would get downgraded.
Has she lost 3T as well? It's very strange to see her doing two 2As as 2A is her nemesis jump and there's 80% chance it would get downgraded.
I'm also surprised at Mira's standings this year, though maybe not as much as others. Over the years, she seems to have had frequent downgrades, and now they are increased in number, probably because she hasn't had a real coach in a while, and, frankly, when no one's correcting you, even the best technicians could lose some, and, in Mira's case, the "some" is perhaps the difference between full- and under-rotation.
As for Cynthia, she didn't look too great at HomeSense Skate Canada International this year, but last year, her long program was placed above Mira's, so there is hope that, if Cynthia stops popping jumps, especially in the SP, she could become n° 2. I really wish Lesley had stayed for just another year, this year she really could have made the world team! Well, that is, if her heart was in training. If it wasn't, she wouldn't have been happy and her skating might not have had the same joy...
-Kypma
Well what has happened so far has meant a lot of things.
1. Mira will no longer get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to underrotations at nationals. She has never been dinged for them at nationals in the past even though she gets dinged in international competition. With just about every jump being downgraded in China, SC will want to make sure she fully rotates those jumps to the point where there is no doubt.
2. It looks like Phaneuf and Diane Szmiett will compete for the silver and bronze medals. I think Phaneuf has a slight edge at the moment ( I don't know if SC wants to send Diane to both junior and senior worlds). Diane has been the most consistent of our female skaters not named Rochette, making the JGP final.
3. Even if Mira finishes 2nd at nationals, she probably won't get her ticket to worlds without a 4CC skateoff. Last season , Jeremy Ten got the ticket to junior worlds ahead of Ian Martinez even though Ian beat Jeremy at nationals. That was because Jeremy had the far superior results internationally.
4. For 2010 Canadians, Mira could be in even more trouble. Skaters like Rylie M-C and Najarro could trouble her by then as they most likely be competiting senior by then nationally.
1. Mira will no longer get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to underrotations at nationals. She has never been dinged for them at nationals in the past even though she gets dinged in international competition. With just about every jump being downgraded in China, SC will want to make sure she fully rotates those jumps to the point where there is no doubt.
2. It looks like Phaneuf and Diane Szmiett will compete for the silver and bronze medals. I think Phaneuf has a slight edge at the moment ( I don't know if SC wants to send Diane to both junior and senior worlds). Diane has been the most consistent of our female skaters not named Rochette, making the JGP final.
3. Even if Mira finishes 2nd at nationals, she probably won't get her ticket to worlds without a 4CC skateoff. Last season , Jeremy Ten got the ticket to junior worlds ahead of Ian Martinez even though Ian beat Jeremy at nationals. That was because Jeremy had the far superior results internationally.
4. For 2010 Canadians, Mira could be in even more trouble. Skaters like Rylie M-C and Najarro could trouble her by then as they most likely be competiting senior by then nationally.
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nadster,
Excellent post. I'm sitting on the fence about the junior ladies in the point # 4, though. As Canadian fans, we've seen our share of promising junior ladies not materialising their potential, all but disappeared in the past.
Najarro only has 3S, 3T, although her consistency had so much improved over the last season. Rylie M-C, I believe, has 3S, 3T, 3R. I say skating in the shadow of Yuna Kim, she will obviously learn a lot from Kim. Honestly, I'm not holing my breadth for any of the junior ladies at this point except for Diane.
Myriane Samson, I started to believe that her inconsistency is actually caused by her technical flaws and the forward bend in the entry to jumps, not so much by her lack of competitive nerves. I won't expect her to be consistent and a contender even at Nationals.
I am curious to see how Lacoste would stack up against other ladies. However, chances are Skate Canada will be willing to put Phaneuf above Lacoste, mainly because Phaneuf's international experience and Skate Canada's long-standing preferential treatment of Phaneuf, even if Lacoste skates clean.
Mira Leung had so much fire and promise back in 2004. It shows how some of our junior ladies stop progressing after a certain point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nmcoy7n7Ig
Excellent post. I'm sitting on the fence about the junior ladies in the point # 4, though. As Canadian fans, we've seen our share of promising junior ladies not materialising their potential, all but disappeared in the past.
Najarro only has 3S, 3T, although her consistency had so much improved over the last season. Rylie M-C, I believe, has 3S, 3T, 3R. I say skating in the shadow of Yuna Kim, she will obviously learn a lot from Kim. Honestly, I'm not holing my breadth for any of the junior ladies at this point except for Diane.
Myriane Samson, I started to believe that her inconsistency is actually caused by her technical flaws and the forward bend in the entry to jumps, not so much by her lack of competitive nerves. I won't expect her to be consistent and a contender even at Nationals.
I am curious to see how Lacoste would stack up against other ladies. However, chances are Skate Canada will be willing to put Phaneuf above Lacoste, mainly because Phaneuf's international experience and Skate Canada's long-standing preferential treatment of Phaneuf, even if Lacoste skates clean.
Mira Leung had so much fire and promise back in 2004. It shows how some of our junior ladies stop progressing after a certain point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nmcoy7n7Ig
Najarro has already scored over 130 internationally at a JGP and that is with her limited jump content. She always maxes out her levels and the judges give her a high PCS. Yes she must add to her jump arsenal to get her marks higher, but she has always been consistent from her pre-novice days. She did win pre-novice and novice in back to back years. Apparently she is landing loop and flip in practice now and hopefully she will add them next year. In fact Najarro's highest score this year was higher than Szmiett's ( who made the JGP final).
Rylie looks to be one of those junior ladies who will at least break out of the triple toe and triple salchow only club that so many of our junior ladies get stuck into. I think being alongside Yu-Na and Orser on a regular basis will help.her. Right now she is a little more powerful than Najarro but also a little more inconsistent. She has also landed triple lutzes in practice this summer so hopefully next year that jump would be there.
I really expect these girls to come into their stride after the Olympics but they just might beat Mira at 2010 nationals if current trends continue. That is not that difficult if Mira continues to get UR calls on every jump like she did in China. And SC judges starting now won't give her the benefit of the doubt at nationals.
Lacoste could be a dark horse that has been sadly forgotten as she has had a terrible run with injuries. This seams to be her first injury free season in a while. She really should have been given Nebelhorn to give Samson some serious competition early. If she did beat Samson there, Lacoste might have had Skate Canada and I am sure that she would have done better at Skate Canada than Samson did.
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I do feel a bit bad for Mira. She isn't a great skater, but some of her jumps don't deserve the downgrades and the whole system of grading underrotations simply must be fixed. Her PCS marks tend to be too low as well.
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Lacoste competed in August 17 in Quebec Summer Championship. So, which competition did she pull out of?
I'm afraid it's not going to happen. I think she will skate two seemingly clean programs and place ahead of Phaneuf and everyone else but Joannie. I doubt she would get dinged for ur at nationals. I'm afraid the same thing will continue to happen at US nationals as well. Anyone who skate 'clean' will be rewarded regardless of underrotation and flutzing and be sent to worlds. Of course, everyone will be in surprise when international judges rip them apart.
Lacoste is competing at the Quebec senior ladies section this weekend and is leading after the short. She landed a clean triple loop - double toe combo and landed an underrotated triple lutz for a short program score of 47.10.
Last year was a recovery year from oodles of injuries and she still did not have all her jumps back.
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In my opinion, the only way to fix the whole system is to institute the jumps in slow motion on the Jumbothon. The Tech Panel will be aware that the fans are watching and be super careful.
The problem is that in the past Mira got dinged internationally for a few UR's ( mainly on the double axel). Now she is getting dinged on all the jumps. SC is not going to prefer a skater who won't get credit for any triples come worlds. It is not like Mira has been popping her jumps or even falling. She just isn't completing the rotations on any of her jumps.
What I do see is that Mira will have brand new programs come nationals. She always changes her programs at the last minute when she has bad results on the GP as her camp will say simply that the judges don't like her programs instead of addressing the UR calls. Mira always complains that the UR calls aren't fair. If she were falling or popping jumps, she probably would do more to fix them.
The other factor is that unlike past years, there are skaters ( Phaneuf , Szmiett, Lacoste ) who are likely to outskate her at Worlds this year.
Oh, that's really surprising. She told Meagan Duhamel on Sep. 29 that she got really sick on Sep. 18 and pulled out of a competition (I don't know which one), and she thought that it was a good decision to (be) retried...
Maybe she changed her mind? That'd be great if she's decided to continue skating after all.
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I think she would be faced with slim pickings of choreographers, if she wanted to do that. McLeod has been her choreographer and I believe she has done a decent job considering Mira's lack of artistic talent and the tight time line thrust on to her. So, With McLeod not being a coach/choreographer any more, who is going to spend Christmas eve, Christmas and Boxing day with her for a new program?
Even with the help of the best choreographer, if you don't have good skating skills to begin with, it won't make much difference. If anything, Mira will struggle even more to skate more difficult step sequence (which I believe are currently level one) and transitions.
In my mind, I think she has come to this point because the ground work was not layed down properly to begin with. It's like a house that was built super fast and the builder could say, "Ta da! Look how fast that house went up". Then a wind storm comes and the house that was built on sand falls to the ground. If Mama Leung and Mira were not so intent on producing a teeny tiny Tara Lipinski, but spent the time to learn the jumps properly, spend time on doing basic edges and turns, and spent the time going through the compeitive levels then I don't think Mira would be in this scenario. Also, I still think Mira should have stuck to her ballet lessons. It could really help her lines and extension, her musicality, and her understanding of movement.
In my mind, I think she has come to this point because the ground work was not layed down properly to begin with. It's like a house that was built super fast and the builder could say, "Ta da! Look how fast that house went up". Then a wind storm comes and the house that was built on sand falls to the ground. If Mama Leung and Mira were not so intent on producing a teeny tiny Tara Lipinski, but spent the time to learn the jumps properly, spend time on doing basic edges and turns, and spent the time going through the compeitive levels then I don't think Mira would be in this scenario. Also, I still think Mira should have stuck to her ballet lessons. It could really help her lines and extension, her musicality, and her understanding of movement.
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Right there is the hitting of the nail on the head. That's the main problem. Mira's basic skating skills are horrible and w/out those, there's no way you'd be able to get your footwork skills up to where they need to be at this level/for the marks. Add on the UR jumps and...Sigh!!
It's always amazing to me to read someone else's take on things when we were at the same event. I saw a different Cynthia than someone earlier posted. Is she all the way back yet? No, but she's an awfully long way from where she was at the start of the comeback. The Cynthia at SC wasn't the one I saw at a show in North Bay two years ago and it's not the Cynthia I saw from the coverage of Canadians last year either.
And while they weren't there in the LP, in the Practice earlier that morning, Cynthia landed two beauties of triple lutzes in her run through. One in combination and a solo, as she'd be breaking The Zayak rule w/out that combo obviously.
They were completely rotated and were gorgeous!! From what I remember from reports last Canadians, that wasn't happening even in the Practices. Forget the actual program.I was quite pleased w/what I saw from Cynthia last weekend. The only thing now, may just be getting that competitive edge and confidence back. She is improving though.
Mira OTOH seems to be regressing. ITA w/what a few have said around here, w/the CoC results and most of her jumps being downgraded due to UR jumps, she has no benefit of the doubt to play w/the National judges this time around. Combine that w/how many bridges that her Mama's burned w/SC, judges and whomever's tried to help Mira and, really, who in their right mind *would* want to work w/Mira to attempt to fix things? I can't see it happening.
Sigh...All the potential in the world and...It's just sad. Period!!
I don't think Skate Canada can afford to ignore Mira's regression. Remember, these are the SAME programs she was getting much better marks with last season. If she changes programs, you can expect even worse results because she won't be as familiar with them. Anyway, Mira is underrotating nearly all her jumps and she will continue to underrotate no matter what kind of program she skates.
If Skate Canada disregards Mira's results in the GP and continues to support Mira at Nationals (ignoring the blatant URs), Mira could well find herself not making the cut for the FS at Worlds (last year, the minimum score to get through was 44 and change). That would be an extreme embarrassment for Skate Canada.
If Skate Canada is still uncertain about Phaneuf, Lacoste and Szmiett, then it would be in SC's best interest to monitor Mira's training closely, all the way through to Nationals. If no improvement is noted, then perhaps it is time to go with someone else for the #2 slot.
If Skate Canada disregards Mira's results in the GP and continues to support Mira at Nationals (ignoring the blatant URs), Mira could well find herself not making the cut for the FS at Worlds (last year, the minimum score to get through was 44 and change). That would be an extreme embarrassment for Skate Canada.
If Skate Canada is still uncertain about Phaneuf, Lacoste and Szmiett, then it would be in SC's best interest to monitor Mira's training closely, all the way through to Nationals. If no improvement is noted, then perhaps it is time to go with someone else for the #2 slot.
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