Ladies' LP

[*Sniper*]

Best photo of Plushenko and Mao !

http://i49.tinypic.com/rayrnk.jpg

Cute cute cute
Pucker up, girl!

[sunrock]

Laura and Kiira have both already confirmed they are going to continue so far. Jenni Vähämaa (now 17) was a very promising skater; have once beaten all Finns and even Carolina Kostner in Finland Trophy 2007, but after an injyry she did not find motivation tos skate. But I have read she has started praciticing on the ice again. We will see next year if she is back or not.

Jenni Vähämaa Jenni vs Mirai! Now that's rivalry worth waiting for.

[csunny7]

Finally, Olympic is over. Now I feel relieved and somewhat empty ...
So happy to watch such a great competition with Yuna's absolutely beautiful & perfect performances, Mao's 3 Axels ( They could be downgraded, yet ratified anyway), Joannie's touching & courageous performances and so on.
Thank you, all skaters ... Especially I feel so grateful for Yuna to deliver such gorgeous & glorious SP & LP overcoming all the pressure. She made skating world proud. I believe Yuna's Olympic performances will be remembered in the book of skating history and in the hearts of men for ages. I can't help watching them over and over again Congratulations, Yuna, our new Olympic Champion. Thank God for giving this beautiful Gift to this skaing world.

[aurora100]

Finally, Olympic is over. Now I feel relieved and somewhat empty ...
So happy to watch such a great competition with Yuna's absolutely beautiful & perfect performances, Mao's 3 Axels ( They could be downgraded, yet ratified anyway), Joannie's touching & courageous performances and so on.
Thank you, all skaters ... Especially I feel so grateful for Yuna to deliver such gorgeous & glorious SP & LP overcoming all the pressure. She made skating world proud. I believe Yuna's Olympic performances will be remembered in skating history book and in the heart of men for ages. I can't help watching them over and over again Congratulations, Yuna, our new Olympic Champion. Thank God for giving this beautiful Gift to this skaing world.

ITA I've been watching the final Ladies' flight over. Yuna actually looks more strong and confident on replay than she did when I first watched her. I was so nervous for everyone that my anxiety was projecting onto these skaters I think. LOL

[Tinymavy15]

Well, that's good to know. I still think Mao needs a COP expert to help her. She seems to be going after points in the hardest possible way. When a 3T-3T is worth about the same as a 3-axel or when Akiko Suzuki can figure out a way to do 7 triples without a 3-3, Mao should be able to construct her program in a way that will garner more points with less risk. Until the system changes, 3-axels for ladies remain high risk, low reward.

She and Plushenko suffered the same fate in thinking that landing a big jump or two would save them. Both were wrong. Since both have Russian coaches, I am thinking maybe they are not really learning the CoP right in that country? Mao needs to get away from Tat ASAP. If she wants to do chreo, fine, Tat is capable of loevly chreography for Mao (remember Ladies in Lavender? ). But she needs a technical coach who can really work the system with her. If Mao still has 3 axels consistent next year I don't think she should be giving them up, but she does need to start working on her lutz again.

[key65man]

She and Plushenko suffered the same fate in thinking that landing a big jump or two would save them. Both were wrong. Since both have Russian coaches, I am thinking maybe they are not really learning the CoP right in that country? Mao needs to get away from Tat ASAP. If she wants to do chreo, fine, Tat is capable of loevly chreography for Mao (remember Ladies in Lavender? ). But she needs a technical coach who can really work the system with her. If Mao still has 3 axels consistent next year I don't think she should be giving them up, but she does need to start working on her lutz again.

Mao's problem is that she would screw up other jumps if she corrected Lutz. Many of her triples, let alone triple combinations, are a suspect at best, which is why she needs to hold onto triple axel. As demonstrated in the Olympic, she had to lose a lot of weight to hit the axel. The downside of it is to lose stamina -- she suffered a few lapses into the later part of the program.

Right now, she talks about a quad because it is almost impossible to correct some of the triples at this moment. Quad is an impossibility for her, I think, without some kind of super amazing prerotation which is not subject to downgrade.

[miki88]

Mao's problem is that she would screw up other jumps if she corrected Lutz. Many of her triples, let alone triple combinations, are a suspect at best, which is why she needs to hold onto triple axel. As demonstrated in the Olympic, she had to lose a lot of weight to hit the axel. The downside of it is to lose stamina -- she suffered a few lapses into the later part of the program.

Right now, she talks about a quad because it is almost impossible to correct some of the triples at this moment. Quad is an impossibility for her, I think, without some kind of super amazing prerotation which is not subject to downgrade.

She is not the one talking about quad. It's the media. Mao herself said she will focus on her other triples. Ok I can see you saying her lutz is not great and her flip is not as strong (but I think that's because she changed the entrance to it). But there are no problems with her other triples.

[silverlake22]

Mao's problem is that she would screw up other jumps if she corrected Lutz. Many of her triples, let alone triple combinations, are a suspect at best, which is why she needs to hold onto triple axel. As demonstrated in the Olympic, she had to lose a lot of weight to hit the axel. The downside of it is to lose stamina -- she suffered a few lapses into the later part of the program.

Right now, she talks about a quad because it is almost impossible to correct some of the triples at this moment. Quad is an impossibility for her, I think, without some kind of super amazing prerotation which is not subject to downgrade.

I think you are on to something. Mao lost 5 pounds recently so she could rotate her 3a but as we've seen with Miki Ando, losing weight is not always the answer. Once a power jumper, Miki can now barely rotate her solo triples let alone 3-3 combinations. I know people say Yuna is the frail one but when they were on the podium together Yuna looked much sturdier than Mao and her strength and power allows her to do 3-3s with ease. Mao has been getting downgrades on her double jumps in combination this year so it makes me skeptical about how successful her 3-3s with be, especially if she tries for 3-3loop, which is so hard to get ratified. Losing weight will allow a skater to rotate faster but you won't be able to jump as high and as we've seen over the years, the best jumpers are usually not the skaters that are stick thin. Yuna is the exception but she actually is very muscular and also flies into her jumps with tons of speed which skaters like Mao, Miki, etc can not match.

[newbie]

Did you watch the men's event? Brezina, Kozuka, Ten, Borodulin, etc all got held down because of PCS. Mirai is 16 and they can do that because she's young. I don't like it but it's just what happens.

yes, it happened to yuna when she was 16 too. her sp score at skate canada 2006 to tango where she won bronze was painfully low.

[key65man]

miki88, thanks for pointing out the error about quad. I thought I read it in a newspaper article, but I might be wrong. In fact, I think I am wrong as I might have read it in a forum. A hearsay or someone's opinion. I will let stand other things I said about Mao.

silverlake22, you got some good points there. Mao has tight revolution in the air, but because she slows down before take-off -- her skating does not have much speed to begin with -- she really has to rely on her leg, more specifically her knee, in order to gain the height necessary. That is why she needs power and stamina. It is a dilemma. For this Olympic, she lost weight at the expense of stamina and power. In the long run, she really needs to focus on basic training instead of jumping in order to keep her weight down yet be able to sustain the power. Can she keep it up in the long run? That is the question.

Problem is, due to the fact that she fails to convert speed into jump, Mao loses jumping height/distance. Since she has tight revolution in the air, she can hit triple axel. However, because of the poor entance, the lack of jumping height/distance, etc., she does not gain as many GoE points as Yu-Na does. GoE points are added to each jump, so after 7 jumps in free skating, the difference in GoE bonus can become insurmountable assuming no mistakes on either skater. When you see them skating in person not on TV, the difference between the two in terms of jump is simply tremendous. That is one of the main reasons that hitting triple axel is not an answer unless the scoring system goes back to the old regime. Even if the base score for triple axel goes up, it is highly doubtful that she can beat Yu-Na unless Yu-Na beats herself by making tons of mistakes.

So, Mao has a big decision to make in terms of what to focus on. Of course, whether or not Yu-Na turns pro would be critical in Mao's decision because Yu-Na's turning pro means that she really does not have to rely on triple axel so heavily.

Again, it is just my opinion.

[miki88]

miki88, thanks for pointing out the error about quad. I thought I read it in a newspaper article, but I might be wrong. In fact, I think I am wrong as I might have read it in a forum. A hearsay or someone's opinion. I will let stand other things I said about Mao.

silverlake22, you got some good points there. Mao has tight revolution in the air, but because she slows down before take-off -- her skating does not have much speed to begin with -- she really has to rely on her leg, more specifically her knee, in order to gain the height necessary. That is why she needs power and stamina. It is a dilemma. For this Olympic, she lost weight at the expense of stamina and power. In the long run, she really needs to focus on basic training instead of jumping in order to keep her weight down yet be able to sustain the power. Can she keep it up in the long run? That is the question.

Problem is, due to the fact that she fails to convert speed into jump, Mao loses jumping height/distance. Since she has tight revolution in the air, she can hit triple axel. However, because of the poor entance, the lack of jumping height/distance, etc., she does not gain as many GoE points as Yu-Na does. GoE points are added to each jump, so after 7 jumps in free skating, the difference in GoE bonus can become insurmountable assuming no mistakes on either skater. When you see them skating in person not on TV, the difference between the two in terms of jump is simply tremendous. That is one of the main reasons that hitting triple axel is not an answer unless the scoring system goes back to the old regime. Even if the base score for triple axel goes up, it is highly doubtful that she can beat Yu-Na unless Yu-Na beats herself by making tons of mistakes.

So, Mao has a big decision to make in terms of what to focus on. Of course, whether or not Yu-Na turns pro would be critical in Mao's decision because Yu-Na's turning pro means that she really does not have to rely on triple axel so heavily.

Again, it is just my opinion.

You make some good points. Actually, I was thinking is it because of Mao's heavy reliance on her triple axels that is causing her to lose stamina and not be as fast as she could? When I watch older performances, I felt she was faster before. Of course Mao was never as fast as Yuna , but her speed was better in the past. I think Mao began experiencing jumping problems after she started loading her programs with 3A. She was fine when she had just one 3A in the LP. However, she began to have stamina problems after she started doing 2 3A's with her 3-3 in 2008. In her recent interview, she said she left out 3-3 because she just couldn't do a program with a 3-3 and two 3A's, so I think she is partly a stamina problem.

[newbie]

People seem to like Mirai's bubbly personality and are saying that Yuna has no fire. While Mirai shows lots of potential, she was just happy to be there. Yuna was there to win.

[woshisunnya]

People seem to like Mirai's bubbly personality and are saying that Yuna has no fire. While Mirai shows lots of potential, she was just happy to be there. Yuna was there to win.

I really like Mirai's performance and enjoy every bit in her programs. For Yuna, I think there was fire in her short program esp with the footwalk but not so much in th long program because I think for the geshiwen's piece, Yuna shows more about the joy, the freedom in her skating other than fire and I really like it as well.

[Nadia01]

I really like Mirai's performance and enjoy every bit in her programs. For Yuna, I think there was fire in her short program esp with the footwalk but not so much in th long program because I think for the geshiwen's piece, Yuna shows more about the joy, the freedom in her skating other than fire and I really like it as well.

I agree. I don't think Yuna's LP was meant to be fiery, but more like calm and quiet joy interlaced with sophistication / elegance. Mirai was skating to CARMEN for pete's sake. She'd better look fiery. LOL.

[Ren]

I think if Yu-Na's Scheherazade was fire, then Yu-Na's Gershwin is more like water, because of how the program flows, especially noticeable to me when she comes out of her jumps. The color of her dresses for both LPs only reinforce this image in my mind.