Globe & Mail article: Mira Leung falling off the map | Golden Skate

Globe & Mail article: Mira Leung falling off the map

fiercemao

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 13, 2008
The saga continues...:chorus::bow:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081126.LEUNG26/TPStory/National

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics keep edging closer, but for Mira Leung, they're drifting further away.

At Skate America, Leung blamed McLeod, complaining that the coach kept changing her mind throughout the spring and summer about whether she wanted to continue to coach her. Leung adopted a new coach, Jennifer Jiang, a former Chinese international judge, two weeks before the event in Everett, Wash.

McLeod said Leung did not contact her for three months after the world championship in Gothenburg, Sweden, in March.

...
However, if Leung were to ask McLeod to coach her again, McLeod said she would.
 
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Antilles

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Ouch. Skate Canada isn't pulling too many punches with her. It'll be interesting to see her placement at Nationals.
 

kandidy

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
I see no reason why the media still hype her instead of chasing Joannie. Like in Korea or Japanese media did. She is not in any sight of any medal contender. )One good big improvement I found is her hair and her make up). Opps, sorry to Canadians fan here.
 

Winnipeg

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
Ouch. Skate Canada isn't pulling too many punches with her. It'll be interesting to see her placement at Nationals.



I sure hope she doesn't read these boards about her. It must or would be very difficult to get that out of your mind when you take the ice.

I'm not optimistic about her future skating career. She may want to start considering other options and likely, she has quite a few to consider.
 

passion

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
Wow! That was one nasty article! Talk about hanging your dirty laundry in public. The one thing that really struck me is that after all these years, Mira still thinks she can do it on her own?!!!! I have never known anyone so stubborn, so arrogant to think that they know better than a qualified expert in the area. Does she not have any insight to see that Mama Leung's way is pulling her down? It is really mind blowing that Mira and her mom still think they know better than a pro. Mira has no hesitation to blame her problems on Joanne McCloud. Joanne has got to be a fool to take her back!

Mira and her mom have noone to blame but themselves for Mira's inability to make significant improvements in the standings. They have all the help and support, but they have refused it. They have stubbed their own feet.
 
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Tigger

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Michael Slipchuk has been quoted several times over the last couple of years that he wanted to "remind" the members of our National Team that being on the team, and representing Canada at events, is not a right you're given, but a privledge you earn. W/all of the bridges that Mama and Mira have burned over the years, combined w/her behaviour the last few months, and I think Skate Canada finally had enough!!

The sad thing is, Mira will say she's been misquoted or that the media's being mean to her or something else. She just doesn't seem to get it that to reach her goals, she needs to actually listen to what the professional coaches are telling her to do. Not Mama Dearest.

Mira's got no one else, other than Mama, to blame for this. Frankly, I've thought something was going to happen to try and give Mira a badly needed shake up after her, yet again, lackluster performances this GP Season. If this doesn't give Mira and Mama the badly needed slap upside the head to wake them up, then nothing will.

I sincerely hope the Cynthia I saw at Skate Canada is the one who turns up at Canadians. Cynthia may not be all the way back, but she's come a long way since I last saw her skate two years ago. The jumps are there, she just needs to believe in herself a bit more and that will come. The performance Cynthia gave at SC earlier this month gave me hope that it'll be her and Joannie heading to LA and Worlds in March. At least, I've got my fingers crossed.
 

rain

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Wow, that's a brutal article. I don't believe people so high up in the sport would say such things unless there were some serious issues with the skater.

Leung's career has been very disappointing. She burst onto the scene with a lot of promise, and appeared willing to work hard — plus she was never intimidated by competition. But she's just never improved in the ways she needed to. And I can't believe McLeod is all that hard to work with — she coached Emmanuel Sandhu for goodness sake, a skater who had all the talent in the world, but also a big attitude and sometimes (self-admitted) a total lack of drive and focus.

I don't think it's helped Leung that there's been nobody in Canada to really give her a challenge for that second spot. Had there been, we might have seen more of an effort to actually improve her basics. The closest anyone has been to her over the last few years is Hawker, who was never going to be much more than a middle-of-the-road finisher internationally. Leung has never developed the basics to mount a serious challenge on Rochette. I wish there was somebody who could replace Leung in the Canadian field, but I'm still not seeing a lot of potential. I think Leung will quite probably eek out a berth to the Olympics, but it will not be due to her own skill, it will be the lack of anybody else remotely competitive.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Harsh, but true.

I think a couple unnamed American skaters are headed this way as well, but we'll stay on topic this time. ;)
 

nadster

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
Personally, I am not a Mira or Joanne supporter.

The real sad thing is that it appears that Mira does not like skating anymore. If she really loved her sport she couldn't stand a 3 month break. Yes breaks are needed to recharge the mind and to give those muscles the rest they need. It seems like she is only skating to please Mama right now.

I feel sorry for Mira because her mother blocked her from learning important life lessons. Mira was not even allowed to go into the dressing room with the other skaters. She would show up at the pratice rink fully dressed with skates on. Therefore she never received any of the friendly banter that goes on in the dressing room. So many skating tips are passed in the confines of the dressing room.

Mira really needs to get away from her Mom ( and that means moving out of Vancouver as well). She also has to admit her shortcomings and be willing to listen to her coach and not Mama. That means being in the dressing room with the other skaters as well where she would receive valuable informal feedback as well from those who know something about skating.

That said even if Mira does I don't think that Joanne is the answer for advancing Mira. Joanne's comments about adding a triple-triple to Mira's arsenal is the wrong strategy right now. Right now Mira's technique needs to be fixed so that she rotates the jumps she does now. Mira needs to take a step back to firm up the basics before she can add more tricks. She needs to take a step back to go 2 steps forward. A new choreogrpher would help minimally as it can't hide her lack of basics which IMO is her biggest problem right now.

Hopefully at nationals, the caller will honestly call any URs that Mira does. It hasn't helped Mira that she has never been dinged for URs at nationals like she has been at international events. Getting erroneous feedback at nationals has only added to Mira's delusion.

Also Skate Canada let Mira get away with pushing herself to the senior GP too soon in the first place. SC wanted to send Mira on the JGP circuit in the season where Mira got her first GP assignments. However Mira refused to do the JGP , knowing that she was one injury away from securing a senior GP spot. Mira was then ranked 5th in Canada. When Annie Bellemare got injured that opened up the GP door. If Skate Canada said no right then and there, perhaps the Mira camp would know right away they can't toy with Skate Canada's original plan. If she did the JGP that season, then she would have probably have worked harder on her loop jump which she never had ( since the loop was the jump out of steps that season).
 

PolymerBob

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2007
All you Canadian fans, help me out a little. If Mira is so hopeless, why have you sent her to 3 World Championships? .............. and the Olympics?

.............. and why will you continue to do so? :scratch:

EDIT : .......................... Eh ?
 

mskater93

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 22, 2005
All you Canadian fans, help me out a little. If Mira is so hopeless, why have you sent her to 3 World Championships? .............. and the Olympics?

.............. and why will you continue to do so? :scratch:

EDIT : .......................... Eh ?

I am neither a Canadian fan nor a Canadian, but I think the answer is is that she is the best of the rest after Rochette.
 

siberia82

Addicted to Canadian men's singles skating
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 18, 2008
Country
Canada
Red Dog, we have Americans competing at Canadians? Who? What level?

I think what Red Dog meant to say that there are a couple of American skaters who are heading down Mira's path, not that there are Americans competing at the Canadian Nationals. ;)

I think the answer is is that she is the best of the rest after Rochette.

Yup, I couldn't have said it better.
 

siberia82

Addicted to Canadian men's singles skating
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 18, 2008
Country
Canada
All of the criticisms directed at Mira are valid, and I agree with them, but as a person who grew up in a traditional Asian family in Canada, I do have sympathy for her situation. I was brought up to believe that I was merely an extension of the family unit, not an individual person. Since my actions reflected on everyone else, it was my duty to conform to WHATEVER my elders expected or demanded of me, otherwise I would suffer greatly for my disobedience and for making the family look "bad". I was always forced to put their wishes above mine (actually, I wasn't even allowed to have any).

It was only after I almost completely self-destructed a couple of years ago that I realized that having others control every aspect of my life was no longer acceptable. No one should be ashamed of their heritage, but for the sake of my survival, I've rejected my parents' culture and I've fully re-embraced my Canadian identity. (I used to be very Canadian as a tween, but it was "beaten" out of me. :frown:) I'm slowly trying to cut the threads, but I don't deny that there are times when I still feel like my family's property instead of a human being.

So as much as it hurts me to see Mira's skating career sinking down the drain, I can totally understand why letting go of her mother is extremely difficult. I suspect deep down she probably wants to, but she simply doesn't know how. It's very easy for a Westerner to say that Mira should take matters in to her own hands because most Westerners are raised to be independent. From an Asian mindset, she's not a separate entity from her mother. If you take away the person who defines your entire existence, what is there left? As painful and frustrating as it is to have someone else dictate your life, the fear of not knowing if there even is a "self" without that omnipresent figure can be VERY paralyzing.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
^ Thank you for that insightful and heartfelt post, Siberia. It definitely gives us a different way to look at things. :clap:
 

gocaroline

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
All of the criticisms directed at Mira are valid, and I agree with them, but as a person who grew up in a traditional Asian family in Canada, I do have sympathy for her situation. I was brought up to believe that I was merely an extension of the family unit, not an individual person. Since my actions reflected on everyone else, it was my duty to conform to WHATEVER my elders expected or demanded of me, otherwise I would suffer greatly for my disobedience and for making the family look "bad". I was always forced to put their wishes above mine (actually, I wasn't even allowed to have any).

It was only after I almost completely self-destructed a couple of years ago that I realized that having others control every aspect of my life was no longer acceptable. No one should be ashamed of their heritage, but for the sake of my survival, I've rejected my parents' culture and I've fully re-embraced my Canadian identity. (I used to be very Canadian as a tween, but it was "beaten" out of me. :frown:) I'm slowly trying to cut the threads, but I don't deny that there are times when I still feel like my family's property instead of a human being.

So as much as it hurts me to see Mira's skating career sinking down the drain, I can totally understand why letting go of her mother is extremely difficult. I suspect deep down she probably wants to, but she simply doesn't know how. It's very easy for a Westerner to say that Mira should take matters in to her own hands because most Westerners are raised to be independent. From an Asian mindset, she's not a separate entity from her mother. If you take away the person who defines your entire existence, what is there left? As painful and frustrating as it is to have someone else dictate your life, the fear of not knowing if there even is a "self" without that omnipresent figure can be VERY paralyzing.

That is very hard on a child. Glad you came out of it. Sadly, there are cases like this in every culture.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I think what Red Dog meant to say that there are a couple of American skaters who are heading down Mira's path, not that there are Americans competing at the Canadian Nationals. ;)

You're right. And great post below.
 

TRAxel

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
Canada
I think it's about time she realize she's not as good as she thinks she is... the judges are obviously telling her that she needs to step up, or skate out the door.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I don't think the judges are telling her anything (that's our job ;) ). I think the judges are judging her performances.
 
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