God, I just saw Mirai´s sp on HD and I m tempted to buy her an airticket and send her to Tokyo myself!
Alissa first, Yu-na second, Rachael third.
God, I just saw Mirai´s sp on HD and I m tempted to buy her an airticket and send her to Tokyo myself!
this is the strongest team we sent to worlds in a while. I predict Alissa will skate not a perfect, but almost so set of two programs and Rachael never implodes badly. I can't really predict placement because I don't know a.) who will show and who won't and b.) who will skate well/be scored well. If both american girls skate reasonably clean they should be in the top ten, with Alissa freshly legitimized as GPF champion, maybe her PCS will go up a few points or so.
God, I just saw Mirai´s sp on HD and I m tempted to buy her an airticket and send her to Tokyo myself!
I don't see why Alissa, if she goes clean, would not be able to beat the likes of Miki Ando and Murakami. Artistically, Alissa is better than those two, and the international judges do not seem to favor Miki in particular. Murakami is not there yet in terms of maturity and artistry.
And while Yuna SHOULD win the gold easily, given the circumstances (the championships being held in Tokyo, Yuna taking a year off, etc.) it may not be so easy... although I am certainly praying for two perfect performances by Yuna.
Rachael could definitely do better than that. She was 9th last year with bad programs.
Last years Worlds was one of the worst competitions ever. Many women skated worse than Flatt as far as their mistakes and still finished over her. Lepisto landed fewer triples than Flatt and fell on a double axel in the short and won the bronze medal. Yu Na Kim skated like she was in a coma, even said to her coach she didnt feel conscious to what she was doing out there after one of her programs, so was far more below her best than Flatt, and still won the silver easily and won the free skate.
And what do you consider bad for Flatt. If Flatt at last years Worlds was bad then her free skate that won her 2nd place at Nationals must also be bad, since it wasnt really any better.
And another way to look at things is Vancouver where the women skated more to their usual standard was the best Flatt could possibly skate and she still came only 7th. It is safe to say from her skating this season she isnt going to duplicate that level of performance.
I still think the judging at Nationals was poor in the singles all around, and Nagasu should have gotten 2nd instead of Flatt, and the judges will regret their sending a far less talented skater to Worlds over one who didnt skate that differently at Nationals. We will see though.