Makaraova's career if she had medalled at the 2011 Worlds

pangtongfan said:

None of the Russian girls are a powerhouse. They are just hyped as if they are. Makarova actually helped Russian keep 3 spots, which the current crop apparently are unable to even do that.

Leonova of all people still has the best World results of any Russian lady by far (in the post Slutskaya years). For all we know the best of Sotnikova, Tuktamysheva, Lipnitskaia might only match her top World results, a silver and a 4th as the best two of whoever ends up the best of those. Or maybe none of them will even reach that. Of course it is possible atleast one of them does better than that, but none of them looks like the next Slutskaya right now. I wont judge Radionova until she atleast makes her Senior debut.

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Well that hype is DEAD! It's 2006-2007 all over again.

pangtongfan said:

Well bronze would still be lower than the 1st and 2nd place she was regularly getting, and wouldnt have even gone to the last 2 Worlds. So you are essentialy admitting even at her best she would no longer be where she was, and so in that sense she was still a placeholder until something better came along.

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Well there's a lot of "what ifs". If she was healthy we might have never lost 3 spots when she had her poor finish a few years ago. Nonetheless, I don't see how "placeholder" applies. Everyone gets booted when something better comes along, so Rachel wasn't unique in that sense.

drivingmissdaisy said:

Well there's a lot of "what ifs". If she was healthy we might have never lost 3 spots when she had her poor finish a few years ago. Nonetheless, I don't see how "placeholder" applies. Everyone gets booted when something better comes along, so Rachel wasn't unique in that sense.

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The point of the previous posters I believe was she was never going to be a medal contender at the World level. The USFSA were also never comfortable with the idea of her as their #1. She only won Nationals once and placed 2nd 3 times, despite that 2 of those 3 times she arguably should have won, but even they werent comfortable with her as their #1 skater and were always on the search for anyone better, be that a talented shaky veteran like Czisny who can barely jump, an enigmatic frequent URing Nagasu, or so on.

Wagner might never medal at Worlds, but she is atleast a contender, and has already had more success than Flatt has had in her career. Flatt's biggest international win is the Nelberhorn or something like that. She couldnt even win a regular grand prix in her career. She never won a major senior ISU medal, not even at an event like Four Continents which Wagner has won. Gold's career is likely to be the best of any U.S women since Kwan before too long. Czisny has also had a much more successful career than Flatt on the whole, despite her incredibly erratic and injury prone career.

Rachael with 3 triples in the SP, 7 triples in the LP will not lose to either Ashley or Gold in 2012. Gold had about 10 points to make up. Ashley was a hot mess in the LP.
Rachael would have won last year.

In 2011, Ashley was not good in the SP, made 2 mistakes in the LP, would not have won over a clean Rachael.

Don't be ridiculous, she was better than most of them, and was more consistent than they are.