Ladies LP Sun Nov. 15th 2:00 PM-4:00 PM

[silverlake22]

I'm not in a panic for Yu-Na . . . I think she will be fine and rebound from Skate America's LP performance, but it does bring alarm that she is having trouble with the 3flip (2 LP performances now) when she already doesn't have the 3loop in her arsenal. With those 2 jumps MIA, it sure does put a lot of pressure to hit everything else in the performance or else risk finishing behind a solid Ando or Rochette.

I feel like Mao ONLY does axel, (f)lutz, and loop. She definitely never does 3sal and I don't think 3toe either. Her lutzs and flips look the same. When Mao skates well, she racks up a ton of points, so I wouldn't worry about Yu Na even if she did abandon the flip and the loop. She does a 3lutz-2toe-2loop in a lot of her long programs, so even though it's not a 3loop, it's still a loop.

Glad to hear she's eating as well! Sometimes I worry that all female figure skaters have eating issues. The funny thing is, most of the female coaches are bigger women, and most of them used to be elite skaters. It seems as though once the skaters stop skating, they begin to look like normal people

[ilunga1965]

I feel bad for Yu Na. I think it was on Friday during practice....there was a camera man right up in her face videotaping her tying her skates. The press around her was unbelievable and the state troopers were called either to escort her out of the building or just to help out....not really sure since they werent there for any other person. Also, for the short program, the Korean ambassador paid for about 6 charter buses for Korean fans to see her short program. This is not a rumor but was told to me by someone from the USFSA. I would say that for the long program on Sunday the arean was half filled with people from Korea. They all left after she skated. I can't imagine that it is easy to have to skate with all that going on around you and with all that pressure. I was talking to someone and we said "god help her if she doesn't win the gold medal at the Olympics."

I think that's true....and that's why ordinary but real Yuna fans in Korea say that the biggest weakness of Yuna is her nationality.
In fact..the people who came there in groupe were not Yuna fans...they were those who live in Canada or in the States now and/or who went to see her performance as a part of sightseeing.

However, you may understand a bit why all these crazy things are possible if you get to know about Korean media and Korean politicians. Sorry for myself as well as for Yuna.

[mightymofan]

The funny thing about it is that on the live television coverage you could see that she was having trouble getting her skates tied properly. She kept fussing with them while she was waiting backstage, then when she was warming up and the judges took such a long time to get Rachael's scores tigether, she retied them again, looking again like something wasn't quite right.

All this talk of Yuna having trouble with her skates reminded me of when Michelle Kwan was able to do a 7 triples program with a 3/3 during the QR at 2001 Worlds with her boot coming apart:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TjRn9pjbOCc&feature=related


What is more amazing is that she repeated her 7 triples program with a 3/3 during the LP:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=37fJ8wTUAA4


Plus, she did include spins in both directions. (Take that, Rachael Flatt!)

[Blades of Passion]

NBC broadcasted it live so they cannot show it on IN.

[color=red]*[/color][color=red]*[/color][color=red]*[/color]. I will smack someone hard.

[Blades of Passion]

That doesn't even make sense to me. Worlds were on TV last year and I'm pretty sure some of it was live since it was held in Los Angeles. That whole competition was on IN after I got back from the event.

[schiele]

That doesn't even make sense to me. Worlds were on TV last year and I'm pretty sure some of it was live since it was held in Los Angeles. That whole competition was on IN after I got back from the event.

Well, that's what I have been told by someone from this forum. It's not gonna be on IN cos NBC has live broadcasting right. Besides I have never seen worlds on IN. I went through the available stuff from video archive but from worlds I got interviews and press conferences and thats all..

[chuckm]

I would say that for the long program on Sunday the arean was half filled with people from Korea. They all left after she skated.

As Yu-Na was the last lady to skate, that is not so unusual. I don't imagine that Koreans are big ice dance fans (there's never been a Korean ice dance team) , so there wasn't much reason to stay.

[demarinis5]

Ladies SP and LP are now up on Icenetwork.

[Mathman]

All this talk of Yuna having trouble with her skates reminded me of when Michelle Kwan was able to do a 7 triples program with a 3/3 during the QR at 2001 Worlds with her boot coming apart:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TjRn9pjbOCc&feature=related

What is more amazing is that she repeated her 7 triples program with a 3/3 during the LP:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=37fJ8wTUAA4

Plus, she did include spins in both directions. (Take that, Rachael Flatt!)

An astonishing tour-de-force. The heel came completely off her boot, and her dad found a six-inch nail and hammered it back on as best he could. She skated with one heel higher than the other.

[Tonichelle]

. I was talking to someone and we said "god help her if she doesn't win the gold medal at the Olympics."

I would hope that her fans, her country, and the fans of skating would be as forgiving and supportive as Kurt's fans were when he didn't achieve the goal in 92 and in 94

[Nadine]

I was curious about how the Ladies did at Skate America, so decided to utilize my paid membership at IN this evening, and must say I'm glad I did!

Emily Hughes & Rachael Flatt are the two that impressed me the most, they brought some of my joy back to skating. As an aside, Alexe Gilles physically reminds me so much of 1940's glamour queen movie star Carole Lombard (she was the love of Clark Gable's life btw).

Back to Em & Rach, WOW!

Emily is honest to God a joy to watch skate, always has been, though I could see she was quite nervous throughout both phases of the competition, most likely due to her not having competed on the international stage in quite some time due to injuries, school, etc. But what a fighter, to come back from having almost placed last in the SP to 7th in the FS. She honestly exudes a natural charisma that cannot be taught, and it doesn't hurt that she actually does resemble both Vivienne Leigh (from GWTW) & Natalie Dormer (of The Tudors fame). That combined with her gorgeous flexibility, spins, power, line, and ability to land the jumps when it counts makes her a star in my book. If only there were a way for her to combine both school & skating in the future, but alas Harvard calls. Just like her brilliant sister Sarah (& other family members), ivy league is synonymous with the name Hughes. Though I will miss her in the future, I will have to continue to make do with Ashley Wagner, whom reminds me of a more advanced version of Em when it comes to the jumps, but without the natural charm & charisma of Emily, though Ashley is a star in her own right. JMHO.

And what can I say about Rachael Flatt's performance here at Skate America except to say that she has now been added to the skaters that have either made me shake with excitement or cry from sheer joy or both during the GP. The list is short, and only includes Evgeni Plushenko (both SP & LP at Rostelecom Cup), Yukari Nakano (LP at TEB), Caroline Zhang (LP at TEB), Yuna Kim (SP at TEB), Mirai Nagasu (LP at COC), Jeremy Abbott (SP at NHK), and now Rachael Flatt (LP at SA). Honorable mentions to the top 2 Japanese men, especially Daisuke.

[Marine63]

Can someone post a link to Rachael Flatt's LP from Skate America? I watched it live, but didn't tape it. I would love to see it again.

Thanks so much.!

[demarinis5]

Can someone post a link to Rachael Flatt's LP from Skate America? I watched it live, but didn't tape it. I would love to see it again.

Thanks so much.!

Unfortunately it has been taken off You tube for copyright issues.

[kyla2]

Pretty Keys also known as Acerbic Angel (your moniker, not mine and "Acerbic" is oh so appropriate). I didn't "creep out of the woodwork to say something negative." It's comments like this why I rarely post. I am blogging with juveniles.

Kerensby, you are right. Even averaging in the SP, Yu Na should not have won. Yu Na's GOE's should not have been enough to put her into first with a performance like that. It was a mess. The general public should not need an explanation from the judges to figure this out. The scoring system is a disaster and this is a prime example of why. I am not even counting the fact she can't do a flip. She is consistently overscored IMO, and some of the other skaters, underscored. If she skates a program like this at the Olympics and wins, watch the media go beserk a la Salt Lake City. This time they will have a point.

[figurejennah]

Pretty Keys also known as Acerbic Angel (your moniker, not mine and "Acerbic" is oh so appropriate). I didn't "creep out of the woodwork to say something negative." It's comments like this why I rarely post. I am blogging with juveniles.

Kerensby, you are right. Even averaging in the SP, Yu Na should not have won. Yu Na's GOE's should not have been enough to put her into first with a performance like that. It was a mess. The general public should not need an explanation from the judges to figure this out. The scoring system is a disaster and this is a prime example of why. I am not even counting the fact she can't do a flip. She is consistently overscored IMO, and some of the other skaters, underscored. If she skates a program like this at the Olympics and wins, watch the media go beserk a la Salt Lake City. This time they will have a point.

I am sorry, but I have to highly disagree. I was at Skate America last weekend, and no one I met (even Japanese girls!)doubted or had any problem with Yuna's gold medal. (No one went berserk when her rank was announced, as you may say). Yes, her LP was a disaster, especially considering how consistent she's been for the past two years.

However, if you were there and watching the competition, there is ABSOLUTELY no way, that you could even doubt that any of the skaters there could compete against Yuna equally. I talked to many old skating fans during the practice sessions and before the competition began, and everyone was sure of Yuna's victory. "Untouchable," if I may quote an old lady. (I am talking about all non-Asian, non-Korean figure fans. I saw a bunch of Asian people, but I saw more Americans than Asians, and they all loved Yuna...)

Rachael did well, but she has a lot to work on. She had a clean LP, and got a standing ovation, but I don't think anyone questioned why Yuna won. For ex, Rachael needs to improve her speed, spiral, spin, jump height, etc. Yuna's 007 was just that memorable, and also even though she made many mistakes in her LP, it was such a beautiful performance. If you really want to know why Yuna receives these huge scores, I suggest that you go watch her at a competition, and you will realize why. No one could compete with her speed, jump height, artistry and elegance.

PS: You say that she can't do a flip, but Yuna did land a beautiful flip in her 007... Everyone has a bad day sometimes, and Yuna had one bad day.

Here is Yuna's SP I found on youtube that someone shot with his camera. It is much easier to see how fast she is in a fan cam because on TV, the camera chases after the skaters ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S_U1pnLE-M

It I can find Rachael's or Suguri's, I will post them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7MU28EtJnc
(This is Rachael's practice fan cam)