2012 Skate America Ladies LP

[Li'Kitsu]

Lol, so people are back on bashing Adelina now... how creative. So she doesn't have any pressure? What a stupid thing to say. As if the great competition she has with Liza and Julia wouldn't make it worse, instead of taking the pressure off of her straight over to those two.
And she isn't getting 'the benefit of the doubt' when she gets high GOE on well executed elements. It's just that her elements are that good she deserves those GOE when she hits them. And now she's too stupid to do math... blah.

Anyway, her 3Lz-3T was amazing! And the lutz was clean, no edge call there. That's very nice to see
While I'm very happy for Ashley, I'm not really into that program by now. I don't really now why, but since she just got better with time last season, I expect her to do so again and win me over sometime later. Great confidence though, I didn't feel nervous for her at all - in that good, secure kind of way.

Congrats to Christina too, she's lovely to watch. Hopefully her season will go on as well as it started!

A little sad for Alena though... no GPF for her this year

[blackswanphoto]

Watching Christina Gao, I was having flashbacks of Lu Chen

[Jammers]

I am not crowning her Oly Champ. Personally I think now that she said she wants to go for it Yu Na Kim will most likely repeat as Olympic Champion. Even 85% of her 2010 level is unreachable for anyone else today. However I dont think Julia L. will have a major growth spurt, to me she looks like she has the body type she will always be quite petite and tiny like Cohen and Lipinski. Even if she has one she will still be small, and her technique on things is more compact and efficient, not explosive, so it is easier to overcome.

I don't care how good Yuna was in 2010 if she doesn't start competing now she won't repeat as Olympic Champion. Even when great athletes like Michael Jordan took time off they weren't as good as before and it took time and competition to get back to where they were. And i don't see Yuna having the same desire and willingness to work to come back and dominate like MJ had back in 1995.

[gmyers]

Of course but once again remember Adelina's age. Kim for example she didn't compete as an age ineligible at the GP like Adelina did last year. And her first year in the GP she had her issues. (She for example took 3rd at Skate Canada losing to Rochette and Suguri) although (she was great in the short)...

Give Adelina a little time to gell...If she doesn't start hitting cleaner programs by the end of the season then we can talk...I think she's slowly starting to get it together.

She may gell but I doubt before Sochi. There is A lot of work to be done.

She did not have an edge call on her lutz and that reminds me of last season when lutz failure was met with "it's because she is fixing it!" Still lots to do and work on and fix.

[bekalc]

She may gell but I doubt before Sochi. There is A lot of work to be done.

She did not have an edge call on her lutz and that reminds me of last season when lutz failure was met with "it's because she is fixing it!" Still lots to do and work on and fix.

The main thing is landing the jumps (and a better program) And well seems to me that lutz was beautiful here (wasn't it?)

[janetfan]

She may gell but I doubt before Sochi. There is A lot of work to be done.

She did not have an edge call on her lutz and that reminds me of last season when lutz failure was met with "it's because she is fixing it!" Still lots to do and work on and fix.

Most 16 year old skaters would not mind having Adelina's "problems."

She never, ever fails to make the podium. Don't you think there are reasons for that.......

[Blades of Passion]

Sotnikova's Lutz was still off an inside edge. The second part of the combo was underrotated too. Very lucky beneficial call she got there. Of course, the silly CoP rules gave 0 points to her perfectly good 3Loop, so it didn't change where she deserved to be placed.

[Tonichelle]

I am not crowning her Oly Champ. Personally I think now that she said she wants to go for it Yu Na Kim will most likely repeat as Olympic Champion. Even 85% of her 2010 level is unreachable for anyone else today. However I dont think Julia L. will have a major growth spurt, to me she looks like she has the body type she will always be quite petite and tiny like Cohen and Lipinski. Even if she has one she will still be small, and her technique on things is more compact and efficient, not explosive, so it is easier to overcome.

Aw, yes, but the Olympics were not today, and there's still a lot of time left for someone to stake claim.

[gmyers]

The main thing is landing the jumps (and a better program) And well seems to me that lutz was beautiful here (wasn't it?)

It was good

Most 16 year old skaters would not mind having Adelina's "problems."

She never, ever fails to make the podium. Don't you think there are reasons for that.......

It's a mixed bag. It means she has so many impressive assets but will make enough mistakes to prevent her from winning but still do enough good things to medal. So far it has worked in gp events and nebelhorn and Russian Nationals where she has won but it's more of a dispiriting stat than a inspirational one lol and probably wouldn't hold at a worlds or even euros

[janetfan]

It's a mixed bag. It means she has so many impressive assets but will make enough mistakes to prevent her from winning but still do enough good things to medal. So far it has worked in gp events and nebelhorn and Russian Nationals where she has won but it's more of a dispiriting stat than a inspirational one lol and probably wouldn't hold at a worlds or even euros

We have to wait and see. I am not sure how much I like Adelina's programs - but I like her enough as a skater it doesn't bother me.

But like you said - the assets are important - and not many skaters have as many as Adelina.

I hope she gets stronger as the season progresses because she is giving away too many points and at bigger events she needs to be cleaner.

But still, I think Adelina is so talented that she will get it together.

[Mao88]

LADIES FREE SKATE - VIDEOS & RESULT

1. Ashley WAGNER (USA) - 188.37 Free Skate
2. Christina GAO (USA) - 174.25 Free Skate
3. Adelina SOTNIKOVA (RUS) - 168.96 Free Skate
4. Valentina MARCHEI (ITA) - 158.79 Free Skate
5. Haruka IMAI (JPN) - 157.72 Free Skate
6. Mae Berenice MEITE (FRA) - 155.95 Free Skate
7. Alena LEONOVA (RUS) - 153.49 Free Skate
8. Viktoria HELGESSON (SWE) - 144.85 Free Skate
9. Rachael FLATT (USA) - 136.09
10. Sarah HECKEN (GER) - 134.09 Free Skate

[Krislite]

I don't care how good Yuna was in 2010 if she doesn't start competing now she won't repeat as Olympic Champion. Even when great athletes like Michael Jordan took time off they weren't as good as before and it took time and competition to get back to where they were. And i don't see Yuna having the same desire and willingness to work to come back and dominate like MJ had back in 1995.

Yuna's first competition is in December. She's got three of them this season, including Worlds.

Anyways, too bad for Sotnikova. I thought she'd have shaken off her funk by now but it seems to be persisting.

Congrats to Ashley but she had some serious advantage skating in AMERICA. She'll still need to up her game for Worlds, I'll say. At this rate, though, she's got a good chance at a medal.

[noskates]

I thought for her first competition of the year, Ashley did a great job. But I swear, that orange dress gave me a headache. Christina Gao looked very good but I don't know that she has the content to compete on the world level successfully. She reminds me alot of Chen Lu with those long legs and graceful moves.

Sotnikova will be a force to be reckoned with in Sochi if she continues her upward path. Her style of skating is most pleasing to me compared to other Russian competitors of the past. And she's young! Scarey young to be so accomplished.

[JPierce]

I think Ashley did great, but 127 is a gigantic score for her performance. I was expecting 124 max - looks like she did really well in the PC department

This.

I don't have any problem with the podium placements, they were right on. Mainly because of the wide gap between the quality of the skates. I do have a problem with the obvious overscoring of Ashley and Christina. I'm not a judge, but I can actually guess pretty close to the final scores, often within one point after watching a skate. In my estimation, both Ashley and Christina got boosted by at least 5 points, probably closer to 10.

ANY scoring fudging going on is criminal and harmful to the sport. Remind me again why we threw out 6.0 in favor of CoP? Now having to sit through boring programs, most of them the same; skaters trudging through the required elements winning points like some kind of skating video game. All in the name of "fairness" -- except we still don't have fairness! So we threw out 6.0 and damaged interest in the sport for... oh yeah, no reason!

Seriously, someone convince me how Ashley wasn't clearly boosted for being the national champ at home. Also convince me why Christina Gao's skate wasn't just a bunch of jumps strung together in a chronological sequence, because that's mostly what I saw out there.

[janetfan]

Congrats to Ashley but she had some serious advantage skating in AMERICA. She'll still need to up her game for Worlds, I'll say. At this rate, though, she's got a good chance at a medal.

Competing on home ice can be a double edged sword. I am sure Yuna remembers her experience quite well since she did not win.

Ashley said she was nervous before the LP (this was her first Skate America) but Mr Nicks calmed her down.

I don't get that so many are calling her "fierce" when she did not put a 3x3 in either program. And no 2A+3T. It's early in the season but this is an indication she can't do they bigger tricks reliably in practice.

I suspect she will have to up her tech to medal at Worlds while still showing consistency.