2013 US Nationals Senior Ladies LP

[Mrs. P]

^ That's what I was sort of getting at when I started the "instant gratification thread." I fell like there's so much emphasis on getting all the triples quickly rather than developing the skater as a whole. That's why I like Hannah Miller's team. Though she has small jumps, she has done well because they worked on all aspects of her skating. Same with Ross Miner's team in Boston.

Really in a way Gracie Gold not making Nationals in 2011 was actually a blessing as it allowed her to develop her technique much more. When you look at her 2A-3T at Skate Detroit before the 2010-2011 qualifying season, you can see while she could actually do the jump, it wasn't as crisp as it is now and was quite forced. I think the textbook quality of her jumps came because she had more time to develop them rather than rushing to get it ASAP.

[wallylutz]

I miscounted. I need some morning coffee. I don't think it's generous to say she did 4 triples, the 3S wasn't her best but she still did it.

Honest mistake. But it doesn't change the fact that I don't have a problem with who won.

O.K., mistakes happen, no worry about that. The reason I said "generous" is because traditionally, a two footed Triple doesn't count either. Michael Weiss famously had his Quad Lutz invalidated because his free foot touched down even so slightly whereas Wagner's two footed landing was blatantly obvious last night. She didn't get punished very much for it last night, that's part of the outrage of the event however. She only had two clean Triples, the rest of her Triples (which she only attempted six in total) all had negative GOE, two of them resulted in bad falls. Not surprisingly, her TES is only ranked 8th overall on your compilation list but she managed to finish 2nd for the night. When we see a spade, we need to call it a spade.

[sillylionlove]

Here is my take on last night....the judges did what they thought they needed to do in order to get 3 spots at the Olympics. Ill leave the rest of the thoughts to myself.

[dorispulaski]

Folks, please don't give skaters disparaging nicknames. If you do, your post will be unapproved. Please post constructively?

[Sasha'sSpins]

Here is my take on last night....the judges did what they thought they needed to do in order to get 3 spots at the Olympics. Ill leave the rest of the thoughts to myself.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

[Mrs. P]

O.K., mistakes happen, no worry about that. The reason I said "generous" is because traditionally, a two footed Triple doesn't count either. Michael Weiss famously had his Quad Lutz invalidated because his free foot touched down even so slightly whereas Wagner's two footed landing was blatantly obvious last night. She didn't get punished very much for it last night, that's part of the outrage of the event however. She only had two clean Triples, the rest of her Triples (which she only attempted six in total) all had negative GOE, two of them resulted in bad falls. Not surprisingly, her TES is only ranked 8th overall on your compilation list but she managed to finish 2nd for the night. When we see a spade, we need to call it a spade.

Well, she did two clean triples -- but she still rotated four. But as I said, she did well in non-jump elements -- she was third in that area.

For me, I'm not sure who else could have won, honestly. You have a situation where skaters 4-10 performed lights out and the top three didn't rise to the occasion. Courtney Hicks doesn't have the PCS, Christina Gao lost major points on non-jump elements. And Gracie messed up big time in the SP -- she was 13 points behind. That's much worse than Akiko, when she "just" 9 points behind Mao at NHK a few months back.

[Reginald]

This has got to be one of the most bizarre sporting events that I have ever seen.

Ashley Wagner gets food poisoned.

Mirai Nagasu has the flu.

Ashley Wagner smirks while Mirai bursts into tears because of her score.

You could make an argument for any one of the top ELEVEN skaters to win.

Christina Gao finishes 5th for the fourth straight year.

[jenaj]

I was at the arena.

I would also add that for all the gnashing of teeth about Gracie's placement...in the ordinal system, she would not have been able to pull up from ninth to second at all. There is no way around it that 9+1=10 no matter how good your free skate is.

I was wondering about that. The short program was more critical under the old system than it is under COP--execute or be executed. Gracie would have been out of the running under 6.0.

[Reginald]

I was wondering about that. The short program was more critical under the old system than it is under COP--execute or be executed. Gracie would have been out of the running under 6.0.

And Caroline would have won overall under 6.0.

Not that it matters.

[ImaginaryPogue]

And Caroline would have won overall under 6.0.

Not that it matters.

Well, if I wasn't sold before, I am now. No way should Caroline win this competition with those skates. Attack + enthusiasm do not equal brilliance.

[aftertherain]

So in the midst of Gracie Gold doing a 3Lz+3T, Angela Wang did a 3Lz+3T+2T in her free skate. That is pretty impressive, no?

And I admittedly did tear up for Caroline and Mirai. :(

[Reginald]

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[Mrs. P]

So in the midst of Gracie Gold doing a 3Lz+3T, Angela Wang did a 3Lz+3T+2T in her free skate. That is pretty impressive, no?

And I admittedly did tear up for Caroline and Mirai. :(

Angela Wang did great! Not as lights out as her performance last year, but still very awesome. I'd be really interested to see who will end up going to Jr. Worlds.

If you go strictly by National ranking: It should be Courtney Hicks, Yasmin Siraj and Samantha Cesario. But Hannah and Angela have done well on the JGP. I feel bad for Polina Edmunds because in any other year she would get to go to Jr. Worlds, but likely all the Jr. Worlds folks will be from the senior pool.

[Jammers]

I thing Wang should go before Siraj. She's had a good year and to honest i see her going further in her career then Yasmin.

[ImaginaryPogue]

Then what does. Being named Wagner or Gold?

Are you asking me who I felt had two great skates at Nationals? If so, the answer is no one.

If you're asking me what equals brilliance, I'd argue attack, technical strength, strong choreography and performance skills together can make brilliance.