2014 Olympics: Asada vs. Kim

**Mao88** · 12-09-2012, 03:00 AM

Great performance by Mao Asada in the Grand Prix final. Superb return to form. Some technical frailties remain, but at least she is moving in the right direction. Her score of 196.80 from the 2012 GPF is, as far as I can recall, the highest ISU recognised score since MiKi Ando's winning 2011 4CC score of 201.34 (correct me if I am wrong)?

Good comeback by Kim Yu-Na too as well at the NRW Trophy. She is the Serena Williams of the figure skating world. Does't matter how much time she has off, like Serena, she just seems to be able to return and perform as though she had never been away.

What is clear is that if Mao and Kim are able to return to the kind of form they were in at the 2010 Olympics, nobody else currently competing would be able to beat them. At best, Kostner, Wagner, Suzuki, etc would be competing for the bronze.

Until recently, I thought we were heading for a sub-standard Olympics ladies competition with Kostner and Wagner as the main competitors. However, the performances of Mao and Kim have shown that that may not be the case. Hence, can Mao & Kim return to their 2010 form and produce another epic battle for the Olympic title?

**sky_fly20** · 12-09-2012, 03:06 AM

a more appropriate title would be battle of the veterans
the ladies will have veterans vying for the podium
Carolina, Yuna, Mao, Akiko etc.

a bit sad for me none of the new girls have that much chance more likely 2018 is for them
Julia, Gracie, Liza they don't have much reputation so highest could be a top 5 finish

**Mao88** · 12-09-2012, 03:11 AM

Originally Posted by sky_fly20

a more appropriate title would be battle of the veterans
the ladies will have veterans vying for the podium
Carolina, Yuna, Mao, Akiko etc.

a bit sad for me none of the new girls have that much chance more likely 2018 is for them
Julia, Gracie, Liza they don't have much reputation so highest could be a top 5 finish

One of the newbies could do a Sarah Hughes, but I doubt it. 2014 will most likely be too soon for them (not enough time left to get their PCS up, and they all seem to be battling growth/confidence issues). 2018 is more realistic. Nevertheless, should that be the case, then at least we get to see them compete for an extra quad, as should one of them win the Olympics, then they may do a Baiul/Lipinski and simply retire from competition

**Skater Boy** · 12-09-2012, 03:18 AM

It could be Yuna and Mao but Mao still has jump problems. You have to factor in Wagner, Suzuki, Kostner and perhaps a Russian baby ballerina. should everyone tumble watch Korpi take a bronze. But I hope not her marks for pcs are astronomically generous imho. she's good but she is not that good and her jump content is significantly weaker than the other contenders. or pretenders.

**pangtongfan** · 12-09-2012, 03:20 AM

Originally Posted by sky_fly20

a more appropriate title would be battle of the veterans
the ladies will have veterans vying for the podium
Carolina, Yuna, Mao, Akiko etc.

Lets be real. If Yu Na is in the kind of shape she seemed to be in, in only her season debut someone like Suzuki is NO threat to her whatsoever. For that matter neither is Carolina if she is only doing the jumps she was at Worlds last year. Mao meanwhile is managing huge scores without even impressive jump content, which is bad news for the others, especialy the likes of Suzuki and lutzless Kostner. So OP is right, if Kims first return back and Maos progress or any indication, those will be the only two battling for gold, unless Wagner continues her improvement spike and the super consistency she was starting to show. Wagner is more of a threat for Sochi tan either Suzuki or Kostner I think too, although we have to see how Kostner comes back to know for sure, but with Kim coming back and Mao standing up her programs enough to get huge scores again, she had better plan on putting the triple lutz back in her programs.

**cosmos** · 12-09-2012, 03:25 AM

I doubt it. I don't think it was Mao's great performance except the last minute. She is being held up by judges. We will see who are going to be main contenders of YuNa at at the beginning of next season.

**sky_fly20** · 12-09-2012, 03:28 AM

Originally Posted by pangtongfan

Lets be real. If Yu Na is in the kind of shape she seemed to be in, in only her season debut someone like Suzuki is NO threat to her whatsoever. For that matter neither is Carolina if she is only doing the jumps she was at Worlds last year. Mao meanwhile is managing huge scores without even impressive jump content, which is bad news for the others, especialy the likes of Suzuki and lutzless Kostner. So OP is right, if Kims first return back and Maos progress or any indication, those will be the only two battling for gold, unless Wagner continues her improvement spike and the super consistency she was starting to show. Wagner is more of a threat for Sochi tan either Suzuki or Kostner I think too, although we have to see how Kostner comes back to know for sure, but with Kim coming back and Mao standing up her programs enough to get huge scores again, she had better plan on putting the triple lutz back in her programs.

well Mao hasn't had that much progress on her jumps she is still reworking it, but she gets huge scores but I wonder how it will impact Mao's score once Yuna competes at Worlds who looks in great shape, Lutzless Kostner we can see how teh scores are comparable now with a 3 Triple/4 Triple jump Mao can outscore her best. Yuna is still miles ahead of the rest

I badly want any of the new girls to be a contender at least by bronze
Julia has been hampered by injuries and delayed her momentum, Grace has a bit of consistency issues and Tuk suffers from very low PCS scores

**aftertherain** · 12-09-2012, 04:05 AM

Everyone seems to like to forget that Kostner only watered down her jumps last year because of an injury. They also like to forget that she has landed 3/3 and 3/3/2 in the past and very well could have regained them.

**jiggs** · 12-09-2012, 04:11 AM

Originally Posted by aftertherain

Everyone seems to like to forget that Kostner only watered down her jumps last year because of an injury. They also like to forget that she has landed 3/3 and 3/3/2 in the past and very well could have regained them.

Thank you!

I saw her land perfect 3f3t and several 3lz in practice at Europeans in Sheffield in January. Of course, pulling them off in competition is a different thing, but she is definitely still able to land those jumps.

**Laughing Man** · 01-16-2013, 03:41 AM

Originally Posted by korean_rose

See this (http://www.gasengi.com/main/board.ph...u&wr_id=199096) where Asada Mai (Mao's elder sister) made comments on Yuna's NRW score. Now, I don't speak Japanese so I don't understand what the girl was saying exactly but judging by the subtitles (which is in Korean) and the following angry Koreans' comments, I can see that she is saying something like "I don't understand the high score when she made mistakes in Jump and fell during the program....Maybe the judges like her?...".

What a stupid thing to say, especially as Mao's sister. I think she, as Mao's sister, should be the last person to make this kind of comments on live TV show since her comments won't help her own sister...eventually. Let me quote a Korean proverb. If you spat while you are lying down it only falls on your face!

Well I'm Jpnse so I'll give you a full translation of the whole conversation the host of that show, guests and Mai were saying.

(After a video of Yuna on the podium at NRW)
Host: Um well...about Yuna-san...why is it that her scores are so good (all the time)?
Mai: Um...honestly, I don't know...why she gets such high scores, I do not know.
(laughter amongst the guests)
Mai: As a skater, I mean I used to compete before, but I don't know...I'd like to be the one asking why? Why is it?
Host: (That's kind of) mysterious...?
Mai: Maybe the judges are fond of her (skating)...
Host: That's what this (scores) are all about?
(laughter amongst the guests again)
Mai: I don't know...I think it's better not to comment on this matter.
Host: Ah!

I translated everything they said as directly as I could, so some of it may sound strange. As I native Jpnse speaker, I could sense some words being left out, though they were definitely meant to be in their words, so I added them in ( )s. Now, first of all, from the flow of the conversation, the host was obviously trying to make Mai say something negative about Yuna. That you can sense also from the other guests and commentators as they seemed to find something funny about all this (which I did not find amusing at all). Most Jpnse tv shows suck so I'm not defending them in any way. However, I will defend Mai, as the only thing she did here is to reply to a question concerning Yuna's scores, saying 'I don't know why'. And when she said 'maybe the judges like her', Mai was talking about Yuna's skating styles. She did not say anything like 'Yuna is being favored by the judges'. And she was the one who did not want to comment on about Yuna's scores, although it seems that the host wanted her to say more. Mai is a wise and considerate person. She has never said anything bad about other skaters in or out of Jpn, before and after she became a sport commentator who specializes mostly in figure skating (because of her background as a former competing skater...no need to have explained that, I guess!). Anyway, I do feel that this program itself was raising questions on Yuna's scores at NRW from the start. But Mai did not want to say much about Yuna so she was the one who stopped the conversation saying she'd rather not comment further. So, Yuna fans go on bashing this show as much as you want if that'll make your frustration go away, but Mai has done nothing wrong. Even these types of talk shows always have scripts on when and who are supposed to say whatever. The video they edited on Yuna winning NRW spotlighting mostly her mistakes was not a nice approach in introducing the news IMO. Still, not everyone knows that figure skating is not only about jumps. This program was not a show for a cable sport channel, but one which would be seen by many who probably only bother to watch figure skating in Olys. When a show has to deal with such viewers, they're going to ask questions which those viewers will be asking as well. How does a skater get the best score of the season (and they don't know it's unofficial, too), while he/she (in this case Yuna) has made obvious mistakes? That's what the viewers would want to know, so of course they'll call Mai or some other figure skating commentator as a guest and ask them the question. It's simply what tv is all about folks; mere show-biz, that's all! Oh, and do note that Mai does not appear in shows which discusses or casts figure skating news just because she's Mao's sister; Mai has been a professional commentator over the years now, so she was just doing her job. She could've said alot more on Yuna's scores just like the host was trying to make her do so, but she just said a few words, admitted she 'doesn't know' revealing how unprofessional she can be as a commentator, but did you ever imagine why she did that? She did that because she most likely felt that even as a commentator, since she is Mao's sister, she would not be the right person to be saying anything negative about the way the judges scored Yuna. She sacrificed a certain amount of her career as a commentator in order to step out of a discussion which concerns her sister's long time rival. So korean_rose honey, save your precious Korean proverbs for things more serious happening in the world. Don't take everything you hear from someone close to Mao, or someone who just happens to be Jpnse in the wrong way you want to. Plus, if what Mai said made you so angry, you should go listen to what some other figure skating commentators were saying about Yuna's scores in NRW; Chika Suguri (Fumie's baby sister) said that Yuna's scores are too high way out louder than this show did. But did the Korean media give a *** about her words?

This was just a case of a news show trying to attract attention by attempting to make Mai say something bad about the judges who scored Yuna. If there's anyone who did wrong, it was the director of this show and not Mai. What the hell is the big deal about what Mai said!? Those who can't see what was going on in this show even after reading my translation must be either suffering persecution complex or hallucinating. Mai did not spit on anyone, she refused to do so and avoided it from happening by appealing to the viewers that she's too stupid to understand why Yuna's scores are high even though she was a competing skater once. Satisfied?

FYI, I'm no Yuna basher. I'm no fan, but I respected how well she did in NRW after a long break, and am happy that she's decided to return to competing. The sport is more fun to watch with Yuna in it. Now that she's back more of the other top girls will start challenging combos other than 3-2s or 3T-3Ts. I know that alot of my people would prefer not to think the same, but I believe Yuna is going to be one tough skater to beat at Worlds; although I'm not saying it's not possible.

**dorispulaski** · 01-16-2013, 07:05 AM

Welcome to Golden Skate, Laughing Man, and thanks for the translation.

**let`s talk** · 01-16-2013, 09:54 AM

Oh my god....

In that context Mai's words "maybe the judges like her (style)" meant that the judges appreciated Yuna and scored her accordingly. There is nothing derogatory in this remark.

Btw, I am not Japanese.

**Mrs. P** · 01-16-2013, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by let`s talk

Oh my god....

In that context Mai's words "maybe the judges like her (style)" meant that the judges appreciated Yuna and scored her accordingly. There is nothing derogatory in this remark.

Btw, I am not Japanese.

Thank you let's talk (also thanks to Laughing Man for the translation).

I figured there was a context matter here. I found it hard to believe that Mai Asada, given what I know of her, would just blurt out that Yuna is overscored or hint at some sort of blatant favoritism by the judges.