I really do not understand that why so many people dismissed her last season. She is the woman who is capable of landing 3A not once, not twice but three times in one comp and as all of you know, it is much more difficult than a man landing 3 quads.
Mao is not just a jumper either. She is artistic and her skating are so smooth and beautiful. She is capable to skate such a beautiful program as " Jupiter."
I sometimes sigh, wondering why Mao does not deserve more respect as one of the greatest skaters ever lived on this planet.:
Considering the competition she has at NHK, the chances of her not winning the event with scores above 65 and 120 are quite slim. Unless, Akiko skate cleaner than she has probably ever done.
Even 20 years from now, people will still talk about how great Midori was and how no woman has come close to match her jumping ability and joy for skating. Mao will probably not have the same honor.
Jack Gallagher's articles are not exactly what I call insightful.This story is nonsense. What he called "sight uptick" was a huge triumph for Mao who courageously tackled the difficult work of correcting her jump skills despite of the fact that she was already the two time world champion. Her goal is long term, Sochi in other words, and I am so sure that she will not be discouraged even if she does not win this NHK cup.
I really do not understand that why so many people dismissed her last season. She is the woman who is capable of landing 3A not once, not twice but three times in one comp and as all of you know, it is much more difficult than a man landing 3 quads.
Mao is not just a jumper either. She is artistic and her skating are so smooth and beautiful. She is capable to skate such a beautiful program as " Jupiter."
I sometimes sigh, wondering why Mao does not deserve more respect as one of the greatest skaters ever lived on this planet.:
This was discussed on another forum I frequent a couple months ago...none of us want the "old Mao" back. Not because the old Mao wasn't amazing, but she has clearly made great progress since her days as a 13-year-old. Her discipline, determination, and temperament are well-suited to long-term improvement, so along with improved technical aspects, we are hoping for deeper programs with greater emotional range...something we saw a glimpse of with Mao's Jupiter Ex. As impressive as Mao has already been, I don't think she has peaked at all. She has certainly brought unique and lovely performances, but she just needs to put it all together to be considered one of the greatest skaters ever. I don't think she's far from it at all. I am just waiting.Here's hoping it's the Mao of old, who helped propel skating to incredible heights with her talent and charisma. No matter the sport, people everywhere love a comeback. There is nothing like seeing great athletes do it like they used to. --Jack Gallagher
Because Mao's Triple Axel are almost always mentally noted with an * even if the Technical Panel calls it clean. Suffice to say, Midori's one Triple Axel is more impressive than the totality of all the Triple Axels that Mao has ever done. Quality, not the quantity is the question. Unfortunately, many people, myself included, have this mental image of how Midori does a Triple Axel printed in our heads and when seeing Mao doing it, there is just no comparison, not even close. Even 20 years from now, people will still talk about how great Midori was and how no woman has come close to match her jumping ability and joy for skating. Mao will probably not have the same honor. Mao really doesn't help her own cause with numerous UR and downgrades that she has received on that jump. Like it or not, she has already has a reputation of cheating on that jump so it will take quite a bit of convincing to make the judges believe she has really conquered that jump.
Now, let's be fair here. Midori's triple axel is superior to not only Mao's triple axels, but also the triple axels of most men (including arguably both our reigning men's Olympic and world champions). It's a near-impossible standard for most skaters to live up to.
Who says it's going to be fair? It isn't. That's just the reality. There has only been one woman who ever had a real Triple Axel, everyone else is just 3A-, including Tonya Harding. Mao's 3A needs considerable more height even if she can't match that of Midori's. It would at least make people stop doubting the fullness of the rotations she achieves even if it won't get +2 or +3 across the board. The 3A has never been a very good jump for Mao, not only her success rate is not high but the quality has always been questioned. It's almost underwhelming to see her attempt that jump and often, makes mistakes on it. I rather prefer that ladies don't attempt that jump until they can achieve enough height & distance to do it justice and focus on the other 5 kinds of Triples instead. As for Triple Axels in men, Patrick Chan does have a very good Triple Axel when he lands it. I don't know if it is as good as Midori's, hard to compare but on its own, it's a beautiful jump except he sometimes struggles with it.
Who says it's going to be fair? It isn't. That's just the reality. There has only been one woman who ever had a real Triple Axel, everyone else is just 3A-, including Tonya Harding. Mao's 3A needs considerable more height even if she can't match that of Midori's. It would at least make people stop doubting the fullness of the rotations she achieves even if it won't get +2 or +3 across the board. The 3A has never been a very good jump for Mao, not only her success rate is not high but the quality has always been questioned. It's almost underwhelming to see her attempt that jump and often, makes mistakes on it. I rather prefer that ladies don't attempt that jump until they can achieve enough height & distance to do it justice and focus on the other 5 kinds of Triples instead. As for Triple Axels in men, Patrick Chan does have a very good Triple Axel when he lands it. I don't know if it is as good as Midori's, hard to compare but on its own, it's a beautiful jump except he sometimes struggles with it.
lol...Who says it's going to be fair? It isn't. That's just the reality. There has only been one woman who ever had a real Triple Axel, everyone else is just 3A-, including Tonya Harding.
Apparently it's "hard to compare" Midori's 3A to Patrick's, but it's somehow easy to do when it's Mao's or Tonya's...As for Triple Axels in men, Patrick Chan does have a very good Triple Axel when he lands it. I don't know if it is as good as Midori's, hard to compare but on its own, it's a beautiful jump except he sometimes struggles with it.
Who says it's going to be fair? It isn't. That's just the reality. There has only been one woman who ever had a real Triple Axel, everyone else is just 3A-, including Tonya Harding. Mao's 3A needs considerable more height even if she can't match that of Midori's. It would at least make people stop doubting the fullness of the rotations she achieves even if it won't get +2 or +3 across the board. The 3A has never been a very good jump for Mao, not only her success rate is not high but the quality has always been questioned. It's almost underwhelming to see her attempt that jump and often, makes mistakes on it. I rather prefer that ladies don't attempt that jump until they can achieve enough height & distance to do it justice and focus on the other 5 kinds of Triples instead. As for Triple Axels in men, Patrick Chan does have a very good Triple Axel when he lands it. I don't know if it is as good as Midori's, hard to compare but on its own, it's a beautiful jump except he sometimes struggles with it.
So how many woman were there who landed what you call " fake 3a" there times at one comp except Mao? It may not be as good as Midori's of course. but Mao's 3A was beautiful as it shows down below.
http://youtu.be/jrEZgoPpCAI
You call it fake, but it is a fact that other woman can not even eek out " fake 3A". This is exactly the reason why that I feel the Mao does not get the respect that she deserves. Currently, she is the only woman who can do 3a in this world. That's that.
No, I don't necessarily disagree with you but I'm just wondering why Mao must live up to the very, very high standards of Midori Ito's triple axel when there are a good many others who do the triple axel but fail to meet the criteria of Midori's (and yet they get some nice positive GOE nonetheless). So, when someone like, say, Evan Lysacek or Jeffrey Buttle lands a triple axel, do the judges always look askance at it because it does not stack up to Midori's, Viktor Petrenko's or Ilia Kulik's triple axels in quality?