Countdown to Sasha's Return | Page 6 | Golden Skate

Countdown to Sasha's Return

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
Zhao is now returning to competition after allowing his injury to completely heal and THEN starting to work on a comeback a couple of years ago. Shen/Zhao had no serious injuries when they decided to compete, and they had been practicing and preparing for years, not seven months before the Olympics.

Sasha hasn't shown much common sense or even self-knowledge through this entire contretemps. I do not expect to see her at Nationals because it's only two months from now, and the only way to heal tendonitis is to stay away from the ice. Sasha is 25, not 18, and injuries are naturally slower to heal now. She won't be able to practice 3Z and 3F or do sufficient complete runthroughs of her FS. Without the big jumps and muscle memory, she has no chance of finishing top two at Nationals, so there's no point in going to Spokane to risk embarrassment and possibly damage her pro skating career. I think the coaching change to Nicks will help to convince her that it's time to face up to the fact that her competitive skating days are over.
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2006
Again with the divine judgment. Now she is foolish and immature. :disagree: Somehow, somewhere, Sasha must have stepped on your toe, and you will never, ever forgive her for it. Be careful, your bias is showing. :rolleye:

BTW, my allusion to Zhao was not clear. I fixed the dates. The reference was to skating at the 2006 Olympics with only a few weeks of preparation, due to injury.
 

Hikaru

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 23, 2004
while I like the comparison with Hongbo, I think these two have different mindsets. No one can deny the effort Hongbo did in 2006 with just a few weeks of real training, and then a few years back, Xue blasting her knee and ankle, and deciding to skate with anesthetics to a world title. While the logical thought is to nurse your injuries (like Sasha is doing), Hongbo and Xue did the opposite: skating through pain and risking a worse injury, but they did it because they wanted to fight til the end, they wanted thos etitles that much. I imagine Sasha's injury must be really painful, and I cannot say anything against her for wanting to keep herself healthy. She and Hongbo decided to comfront their competitions in different ways. I imagine it's also hard on her, not only her fans, she probably is thinking "and all of them will think I'm making excuses!".
 

Tango_D_R

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
sasha hasn't shown much common sense or even self-knowledge through this entire contretemps. I do not expect to see her at nationals because it's only two months from now, and the only way to heal tendonitis is to stay away from the ice. Sasha is 25, not 18, and injuries are naturally slower to heal now. She won't be able to practice 3z and 3f or do sufficient complete runthroughs of her fs. Without the big jumps and muscle memory, she has no chance of finishing top two at nationals, so there's no point in going to spokane to risk embarrassment and possibly damage her pro skating career. I think the coaching change to nicks will help to convince her that it's time to face up to the fact that her competitive skating days are over.



again with the divine judgment. Now she is foolish and immature. :disagree: Somehow, somewhere, sasha must have stepped on your toe, and you will never, ever forgive her for it. Be careful, your bias is showing. :rolleye:



Doesn't look biased to me.. may seem little harsh to big Sasha fans like yourself, but I pretty much agree with most of the bottom lines above. and by that I mean logically. Not everything against Sasha should be categorized as bashing or biased opinions. And *HOW* she handled this whole WD situations are the reason why she's getting all these criticisms.. no more or less.
I know you pretty much follow every Sasha threads trying to shield her from all these heats.. but why do I have a feeling that it's backfiring.. Maybe you're trying too much.

Just to be clear, I have nothing against Sasha.
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2006
Tango DR - maybe. But there's a history here. I wasn't responding to one or two critical comments. Critical comments are fine. A pattern of character attacks is different. But you're free to disagree.
 

PolymerBob

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2007
...if she does well at the Grand Prix finals. The rules do not say anything about just making the finals. Same with last years worlds. Rachael got 5th, but she did not show that she can skate with the top guns. Caroline's performance at last years's Four Continents and team trophy don't count, as I read the rules.

As I see it, Rachael's performance at Worlds earns some brownie points for Nationals - exactly how many, I can's say. Caroline's performances at Four Continents and Junior Worlds earn some points. Ashley's performance at JW earn points as well. I must conclude making it to the Final will earn points to whichever lady makes it. If that lady also makes the Final podium, that, ladies and gents, is a stamped ticket to Vancouver.

Edit : The point is that Sasha does not have any brownie points - zero, zip, nada, nichts, arc cosine of 1. Even if she wins Nats, she may, and may not, make the Olympic team.
 
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Tango_D_R

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
Actually I've been lurking around both GS and FSU forums for almost 3 or 4 years.
I pretty much followed decent amount of threads and posts throughout the years.
But that's not the point.
Sometimes it's hard to stay objective when it comes to one's favorite skaters.
I mean.. aren't we all?
All I'm trying to say is, relax a bit.
I'm not trying to offend you in any ways, hope you don't get it wrong. ;)
 

Tango_D_R

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
As I see it, Rachael's performance at Worlds earns some brownie points for Nationals - exactly how many, I can's say. Caroline's performances at Four Continents and Junior Worlds earn some points. Ashley's performance at JW earn points as well. I must conclude making it to the Final will earn points to whichever lady makes it. If that lady also makes the Final podium, that, ladies and gents, is a stamped ticket to Vancouver.


How about something like this, Rochette 3rd at SC so,
Kim, Ando, Leonova, Wagner, Akiko, Zhang/Flatt/Czisny

and the scores came out like this at the Final.

1. Kim - 210
2. Ando - 180
3. Wagner - 155
4. US - 154.7
5. Akiko - 154.5
6. Leonova - 154

Wagner off the podium at Natls.


This will be very very confusing.. will the scores matter into consideration?.. I dunno :confused:
 

PolymerBob

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2007
How about something like this, Rochette 3rd at SC so,
Kim, Ando, Leonova, Wagner, Akiko, Zhang/Flatt/Czisny

and the scores came out like this at the Final.

1. Kim - 210
2. Ando - 180
3. Wagner - 155
4. US - 154.7
5. Akiko - 154.5
6. Leonova - 154

Wagner off the podium at Natls.

This will be very very confusing.. will the scores matter into consideration?.. I dunno :confused:

Well, it may not be that confusing. The math of the Grand Prix Final seems to indicate that if one more American makes the Final, Ashley gets bumped. So Alissa or Caroline ( not both ) can make the Final by winning Skate Canada over Joannie. And Rachael can make it by winning Skate America over Yu-Na. Accomplishments like that will certainly turn heads at the USFSA.
 

Tango_D_R

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
Well, it may not be that confusing. The math of the Grand Prix Final seems to indicate that if one more American makes the Final, Ashley gets bumped. So Alissa or Caroline ( not both ) can make the Final by winning Skate Canada over Joannie. And Rachael can make it by winning Skate America over Yu-Na. Accomplishments like that will certainly turn heads at the USFSA.

Oh I meant, scores comes out something like that, so Wagner will be in the podium at the Final.. in a rather depressing scores.
and at Natls the scores are something like,

1. Zhang - 179
2. Flatt - 178
3. Nagasu - 157
4. Czisny - 156
5. Wagner - 155


Would Wagner will be likely to earn one of the Oly spots?


ETA : Joannie below 3rd place in SC, there can be two US ladies in the Finals.. right?
 
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Joined
Jun 21, 2003
It is an interesting debate as to whether the USFSA might take into account other factors than placement at U.S. Nationals, or whether it will be business as usual.

Unfortunately for us, I think the probability is close to zero that we will find out this year what the intentions of the USFSA might have been. The chances seem remote that any U.S. lady will accomplish anything this year that will make anyone sit up and take notice, before Nationals.
 

PolymerBob

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2007
Oh I meant, scores comes out something like that, so Wagner will be in the podium at the Final.. in a rather depressing scores.
and at Natls the scores are something like,

1. Zhang - 179
2. Flatt - 178
3. Nagasu - 157
4. Czisny - 156
5. Wagner - 155

Would Wagner will be likely to earn one of the Oly spots?

ETA : Joannie below 3rd place in SC, there can be two US ladies in the Finals.. right?

My guess is that if Ashley had a fantastic skate and made the Final podium, then had a bad skate at Nationals, she just may make the Olympic team. If Alissa and Rachael made the Final podium, after beating Yu-Na and Joannie to get there, then they would likely be our team.

Realistically, I think there will be one U.S. lady at the Final. Either Ashley, Alissa or Caroline.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Oh, Mathman, I very much fear that you're right. We're not shining very brightly this year.

And no rescuer waiting in the wings to leap in (on inflamed tendon) and save us.
 

Tango_D_R

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
My guess is that if Ashley had a fantastic skate and made the Final podium, then had a bad skate at Nationals, she just may make the Olympic team. If Alissa and Rachael made the Final podium, after beating Yu-Na and Joannie to get there, then they would likely be our team.

Realistically, I think there will be one U.S. lady at the Final. Either Ashley, Alissa or Caroline.


Yes, I was just wondering what it would be like if Ashley made the Final podium with relatively poor skating(in order to do so, I had to hypothetically remove Joannie out of the Final) and then had bad skate at Natls. :)

Anyways it looks most likely that the entries to the GPF will be something like this,
Kim, Ando, Rochette, Akiko, Leonova, Ashley
 

Tinymavy15

Sinnerman for the win
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
I think that USFSA will just go with the top two at nationals unless there was a clear leader during the GP who made the GPF and then either was injured at nationals or otherwise did not skate up to par. As all the ladies are, more or less equal, they will pick the top two to avoid the HUGE outburst that will follow if they don't.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Oh, Mathman, I very much fear that you're right. We're not shining very brightly this year.

And no rescuer waiting in the wings to leap in (on inflamed tendon) and save us.

But you know what? I am looking forward to Nationals just as eagerly as ever, Maybe more so. We have a half dozen or so evenly match ladies going for the national championship. It will be a great competition with a berth on the Olympic team at stake.
 

i love to skate

Medalist
Joined
Dec 13, 2005
I think that USFSA will just go with the top two at nationals unless there was a clear leader during the GP who made the GPF and then either was injured at nationals or otherwise did not skate up to par. As all the ladies are, more or less equal, they will pick the top two to avoid the HUGE outburst that will follow if they don't.

I have no idea what the USFSA will do but I find it unlikely that they would send Cohen when she will have had no international experience this year and hasn't skated competitively in four years. Don't know about the interest in the States but is Cohen really that big of a name? I wouldn't think so. Is she really bringing attention back to the ladies division? I find it hard to believe that people would turn in just to watch her skate...
 

Tango_D_R

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
I have no idea what the USFSA will do but I find it unlikely that they would send Cohen when she will have had no international experience this year and hasn't skated competitively in four years. Don't know about the interest in the States but is Cohen really that big of a name? I wouldn't think so. Is she really bringing attention back to the ladies division? I find it hard to believe that people would turn in just to watch her skate...

I bet in US she does.. to certain amount :)

My girlfriend big-time Sasha fan -> Not watching a thing about skating after 2006 -> Heard the news Cohen's competing in this years TEB -> Bought ticket -> Heard the news Sasha WD -> Trying to sell the ticket back -> Got almost dragged by me -> Depressed through whole competition

At least you can add one up :laugh:
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I have no idea what the USFSA will do but I find it unlikely that they would send Cohen when she will have had no international experience this year and hasn't skated competitively in four years.

If Sasha skates at nationals and gets gets first or second they will send her. If she doesn't, they won't.
 
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