4CC Ladies Free Skate

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

But are they? I'd say that Kaetlyn is under more pressure as the only one who can bring back Canada's two spots, but who other than Gracie would the US send? I don't think she's the biggest risk, but she can definitely bring the greatest reward.

Yup... I don't see why people are getting all panicky about Gracie. After US Nationals she was the new golden child and people loved her, but after 4CC she's already being thrown to the dogs. Frankly, I don't think Gao would do much better than Gold at Worlds. Maybe a safer bet, but Gold certainly has the potential to place higher than Gao. It's unfortunate though, since I enjoy watching Gao skate more... but when Gold has all those jumps it's astounding -- it's like, wait, you're executing all that difficulty and you're not from Russia or Asia?!

[MarkusNJ]

Anyone know why Ashley doesn't try a 3toe/3toe in the short?

[Skater Boy]

I am not sure \ijun has the pcs to do all that well yet. I think the judges will reward Gold or Osmond if they skate clean. This will be exciting. No one is all that clear cut. Kim hasn't been seen agains the big guns. kostner is always a wild card. Ashley could steal gold or end up out of top 10. Gold could be a surprise gold our out of top ten. Osmond is most likely best top 8 but you never know. Adeline and Liza are absolute crap shoots and rarely skate two clean eprformances. Mao is on the edge - will she rotate her jumps and can she land the 3A. Suzuki has shown singns of brilliance and diasaster. judes will reward her or dump her. Kanako is lovely but I doubt she will medal despite 4ccs. In the end Russia and the US could destroy each other so they both end up with two ladies and they could take down Canada as well If Ashley ends up say 5th, Liza 6th, Adeline in 8th and Gold in 9th. throw in Kanako in 7th and the Chinese in 10th assuming Suzuki gets 4th well you have Canada and the US and Russia all ending up missing their goals

[drivingmissdaisy]

Anyone know why Ashley doesn't try a 3toe/3toe in the short?

I don't think she has ever tried that combo in competition. If she's a little off and ends up doing a 3T-2T, with a 3R, she could find herself far back in the standings after the SP.

[Blades of Passion]

Can we talk about Kanako Murakami some more?

She deserved Silver at this competition and she has now outskated Suzuki in all 3 competitions this season where they've been up against each other, IMO. It's really just these phantom < calls that are holding her back and I greatly dislike how she keeps being held down as the "3rd Japanese lady". Aside from the flutz, her skating is excellent across the board. Her transitions and spins are better than Suzuki's and her consistency is better at this point too.

[ImaginaryPogue]

Murakami and Suzuki have four of my five favourite ladies programs this season.

[Blades of Passion]

[Mirunna]

Murakami has one of the best LP of the season. Her LP is like a SP to me, I don't know when it started and when it finished, she is lovely! Some of the "<" she and Mao got(especially on her 2A-3T!) were unfair IMO and probably based on bad reputation since they both have chronic issues with jumps. I'd love to see Kanako's 3T-3T back in the LP in the second half, it was gutsy but I can understand why she doesn't do it anymore. People tend to overlook her but she is getting better slowly. I love how the 3Loop was a nemesis jump for her last season and she didn't have it as a junior if I recall correctly and now it's one of her most solid jumps. Her spiral is amazingly choreographed. Her SP last season was my favorite, I loved the movement she does after the 2A, I watched that program over and over again. If she'd stop getting the "<" on her usually rotated jumps maybe we would see from her 3F-3T again Seeing Mao's 3F-3L back was awesome but sad in the same time because I don't think she'll ever get credit for it and she'll probably score lower for it than a skater who performs a 3T-3T cleanly...

[Blades of Passion]

I'd love to see Kanako's 3T-3T back in the LP in the second half, it was gutsy but I can understand why she doesn't do it anymore. People tend to overlook her but she is getting better slowly. I love how the 3Loop was a nemesis jump for her last season and she didn't have it as a junior if I recall correctly and now it's one of her most solid jumps. Her spiral is amazingly choreographed. Her SP last season was my favorite, I loved the movement she does after the 2A, I watched that program over and over again. If she'd stop getting the "<" on her usually rotated jumps maybe we would see from her 3F-3T again Seeing Mao's 3F-3L back was awesome but sad in the same time because I don't think she'll ever get credit for it and she'll probably score lower for it than a skater who performs a 3T-3T cleanly...

Yep, all of this is spot-on.

It really is awesome how much Murakami has improved her Loop and she soooo should be putting that 3T-3T in the second half of her LP, like she used to. She never underrotated it and yet it always got the < call. Insane. I've always found her to be a natural performer too and this season she really reached a new level of maturity with her programs. It's beautiful to see.

[FSGMT]

I think that Kanako's UR calls were really strange: watching the jumps in slow-motion I think that the first 3Lo was UR, but the first 3F was clean: the technical panel said the opposite!

[Li'Kitsu]

I've always found her to be a natural performer too and this season she really reached a new level of maturity with her programs. It's beautiful to see.

I'd say she already reached that level with last season's SP - it was already the most beautiful program on the ladies side, and you could really see her grow into it as the season progressed.

And her new SP starts with the step sequence, that's just
A very gutsy move. I want her 3T-3T back in the second half of her LP too.

She's developed so much since her junior days but I'm not sure I'd put her in front of Akiko at this point. Besides the UR calls, Kanako is more consistent with her jumps, but Akikos steps are to die for and she just has something special about her, the musicality and interpretation (not saying that Kanako isn't good in that regard too) that still puts her slightly ahead. Kanako will however be the first japanese lady after Sochi, and I'll think she'll do a good job

[Ambivalent]

Murakami should also get a beauty bonus because I love her and she has the best smile in all of figure skating

[shine]

Can we talk about Kanako Murakami some more?

She deserved Silver at this competition and she has now outskated Suzuki in all 3 competitions this season where they've been up against each other, IMO. It's really just these phantom < calls that are holding her back and I greatly dislike how she keeps being held down as the "3rd Japanese lady". Aside from the flutz, her skating is excellent across the board. Her transitions and spins are better than Suzuki's and her consistency is better at this point too.

I really like her LP and her musicality and expressiveness, but her posture is quite unpleasant as she sacrifices form for speed and power. She always looks like she has to work so hard to get across the ice. She really needs to work on her upper body, until then skaters with both good skating skills and good carriage will always appear more impressive than her.

[mskater93]

You're basically saying that, if a skater isn't slated to win, then should they happen to perform well, and their competitors makes mistakes, then they're lucky to have won. Yes, skaters benefit from higher placements if other skaters falter -- but that's what's supposed to happen.

Because the skater who is considered to be the contender is the one who's going to get a higher PCS mark - it's self-fullfilling prophesy with judging, especially if you read all the negatives people talk about with Patrick Chan having a 3 (or 6 or 9...) fall advantage - so when they DON'T skate well and they DON'T win and someone surpasses them because they were a little stronger technically and get a small bump in PCS for the best skate of the event to push them over the hump (instead being *just* second or third), then it IS a little lucky. I am not detracting from their wins at all; sometimes a little bit of luck in addition to the hard work is what gets someone over the hump and into the mix. Looking back at history: Sarah Hughes was lucky - they left room for the favorites in SLC and they didn't deliver that night and Sarah Hughes ended up with a gold medal and Tara Lipinski got the advantage of skating later than Michelle Kwan. I am not saying it's a BAD thing at all.

[chloepoco]

Murakami should also get a beauty bonus because I love her and she has the best smile in all of figure skating

Oh, I agree! Her smile just lights up the arena, and is just so contagious!!