- Joined
- Nov 22, 2009
Truer words were never spoken.TThe 3toe, 3sal European Champion days are coming to end very soon if the Russian Wonder babies have their say.
Truer words were never spoken.TThe 3toe, 3sal European Champion days are coming to end very soon if the Russian Wonder babies have their say.
Thats all the more reason to encourage all the jumps. However, I must say its rather unfair to compare Kostner 3lutz and 3flip to Asada and Kim's 3sal and 3loop woes. Kostner is injured and is probably past her prime. But for a lot of years Kostner did do 3lutzs and 3flips, and she's even landing numerous gorgeous 3flip/3toes in her prime. And most people don't find Kostners current success with Katerina Witt like content programs to be a great thing. The 3toe, 3sal European Champion days are coming to end very soon if the Russian Wonder babies have their say.
As for Yu-na, she managed to win a Junior World Silver medal and a Junior Grand Prix Silver medal, in the year the loop was the required jump. Although she messed it up in the short at Junior worlds and didn't attempt it in the long, Kim landed quite a few 3loops as a Junior. If your missing a jump you need other things to make up for it.
Same jump. It's a difficult variation made famous by Brian Boitano - hence its name. What Liza did would be a 2 Axel 'Tano.
Even Nagasu didn't rise to a lot of people's expectations. Remember the Russian babies from 1996, not really seen or heard from shortly after.
Thanks Oleada, just saw your post. I agree, Canadian ladies seem to have a lower standard than other countries like the US, Japan, Russia -- maybe because of a lower population to begin with, but then there are lots of successful Canadian men with good technical. I don't understand what you mean by lack of final rounds. But you're right, watching the Canadians you're struck by few difficult jumps and lots of falls when they do try them. Joannie was an exception, not the rule. I do think Alexandra has much nicer presentation than many of the ladies. I thought she has a grace, flow and elegance, and hit some nice positions, but still needs to reach full maturity.
I'm not sure how those girls can be compared to Caroline Zhang. Both are better skaters just in general. The thing about Zhang is she was much tinier than both girls and her jumps when she was little were barely rotated and eeked out. Jenny Kirk was another one tiny itty bitty jumps.
If you have someone who is just eeking out their jumps pre puberty, its hard to imagine that they are going to have great jumps when they grow hips. In contrast take Yu-na Kim as a young jumper and Yu-na had these big huge jumps. Is it so surprising that Yu-na had an easier time handling puberty when Kim was use to jumping big from the very beginning? Same goes with Ando, and while Asada's jumps aren't perfect they are big too.
That's one thing about Adelina (who i don't think is that little) her jumps are seriously huge. Its hard to know for sure how puberty will affect her but that's a good sign.
And as for Mirai, Mirai's had issues cheating her jumps for a long time. But I think the other issue with Nagasu is the rumors about her work ethic that keep on coming up. That's frankly the it factor not only does the skater have to withstand injury, make it through puberty but they also have to have the drive to really work had and improve daily.
Yes Nagasu was injured this summer. But lots of skaters deal with these kinds of things. Its telling that Carroll felt she wasn't training properly until a few weeks before Nationals. Its not a good sign that an athlete would stagnant after just missing an Olympic and World podium. Athletes with hearts of champions are always driven to improve.