Gracie Gold is without coach

Icey said:

It certainly had something to do with the way Evan was behaving. Otherwise, what reason would there be for a slap?

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aftertherain said:

The "problem" (as mentioned in the article) was that Evan wasn't focused right before the competition. I think Frank hit Evan to get him out of whatever mental rut he was in. And did so using a physical stimulusso that Evan would redirect his attention on the task at hand.

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drivingmissdaisy said:

I don't think it's that dire. Even with her bad programs her jumps are good enough to finish at least 3rd.

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Gracie Gold (On the missed jumps) “I sort of got out of my knees and I didn’t take my deep breaths. At competitions, I tend to get very stiff and I make myself nervous. The pressure never comes from anyone else, everyone else is always very supportive. I was really nervous yesterday and today. It’s the first international competition of such a big season and I let that get to my head a little bit.”

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The problem with Oleg and Marina is they are not singles coaches. To have ice dance coaches / choreographers as primary coach for an elite single skater is disaster waiting to happen- even the highly regarded Marina. It would be like Frank coaching Charlie and Meryl in ice dancing. Even if Gracie had the best programs in the world ( which she does not at this point) and the jumps are not delivered - she has nothing. Given that the strength of Gracie's skating is her jumping it would be in her best interest to hire a top notch single coach. If it does not work out with Frank, going back to train and be coached by ice dance coaches only is a dead end.

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phaeljones said:

I am really troubled by this. A slap to the face where the hand mark remains for the skate afterward is mega-weird no matter what the situation of consent, age, sex or legal status of the participants may be.

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Selene said:

Her egomania in regards to thinking she can train in Canton with ice dance coaches reminds me of Patrick Chan and his delusion that he can have a modern dance instructor as his head coach.

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Robeye said:

This is just purely speculation on my part, but I wonder if "once bitten, twice shy" is also at play with Frank. That is, he does not want a repeat of the Mirai situation (a tremendously talented, seemingly can't-miss future of US ladies skating who gets him all invested and excited, and then dashes his hopes when the various differences, of temperament, worldview, even the more mundane issues such as geographical location, ultimately cause the relationship to unravel).

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Robeye said:

This is just purely speculation on my part, but I wonder if "once bitten, twice shy" is also at play with Frank. That is, he does not want a repeat of the Mirai situation (a tremendously talented, seemingly can't-miss future of US ladies skating who gets him all invested and excited, and then dashes his hopes when the various differences, of temperament, worldview, even the more mundane issues such as geographical location, ultimately cause the relationship to unravel).

Frank is no spring chicken; he's only got a certain number of bullets left in the gun, so to speak, and I'm sure he doesn't want to waste them. If I were someone of Frank's eminence and seniority, I would probably want to feel fairly sure about mutual compatibility and congeniality, and that I was not being used (in the tawdry sense of the word) as a convenient short-term band-aid. I might even be suspicious of being the fall-guy if Sochi does not pan out as desired.

That would possibly explain the "try-out".

On a more general note, I've always been of the mind that Gracie should be viewed by American skating fans as a very exciting longer-term prospect, and not as the girl that is expected to medal now. She should be shown, as for all young up and comers, a certain amount of unconditional support for the time being, at least by her fellow nationals who consider themselves boosters of US skating.

Personally, I do not wish, on the basis of one early-season performance, to peremptorily pigeonhole Gracie, to define the limits of what she can or cannot do, or become, as a skater in the future. Not reminding anyone of Yuna or Mao or Caro the first time out this season? Maybe she should quit skating and drive a truck .

This is not to say that we shouldn't call a spade a spade. We can clearly see the areas that need to be improved (e.g. jump consistency, a variety of PCS qualities). But pointing out the current shortcomings is not the same as flat-out declaring that they can never get better, or better enough to matter, and that she should cut her losses, and accept the conventional wisdom of her innate limitations. I do not agree with this. Let her try. Competition, at least at the current stage of Gracie's career, should be first about fulfilling one's potential and the pursuit of personal excellence, from which winning may spring as a by-product.

JMHO, but I think that Frank Carroll's comments about the need for a single voice is exactly right. There needs to be an overall vision for Gracie's career, a strategic arc that is mapped, whose waypoints do not end at Sochi. I fear that Gracie is bombarded with too many cacophonous voices, and that she has been sucked into the hype of her hypothetical position in the skating firmament (hypothetical because she hasn't really accomplished anything yet) and the attendant short-term payoff. Why do I think this? The fact that she refers to her "haters" is a small but clear sign, I think, that she has not shielded herself from the vortex of public expectations.

Naturally, at such an age and under such a mindset, when things do not go swimmingly, a certain amount of panic starts setting in, which is always a dangerous time. Her Free-Skate, in which her jumps began to unravel like a bad zipper after the first mistake, is emblematic in microcosm of potential macro issues in the management of her career that Gracie needs to navigate.

Again, purely my personal opinion, but I believe that Gracie should be focusing on improving and competing hard and having fun, knowing that she's executing a five-year game plan, not just a few months. If something unexpectedly great unfolds, that's icing. By lifting the burden of internal expectations, it might even improve her results.

I am not, I trust, underestimating or patronizing Gracie. Timing is everything. If she had more years of senior skating under her belt, and it was clear that she is at or near her performance plateau, then it is a different story. Then, one's time is now, and the skater has to accept the proposition that she must go big or go home.

Gracie, however, does not need to take up that particular burden quite yet, in my view. And we shouldn't be pushing it on her.

Take a deep breath, girl, and get a good sniff of perspective. I certainly hope things work with Frank Carroll.

(Then get back to your run-throughs )

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aftertherain said:

The "problem" (as mentioned in the article) was that Evan wasn't focused right before the competition. I think Frank hit Evan to get him out of whatever mental rut he was in. And did so using a physical stimulusso that Evan would redirect his attention on the task at hand.

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Selene said:

If she can land her jumps in competition, which rarely happens. She usually leaves her jumps on practice ice, because she doesn't have the temperament or mental strength to be a good competitor.


If she cannot perform in SLC in front of 50 people at an obscure B event, how is she going to hold it together at Nationals when the Olympics are on the line? Some people cannot compete, and she is one of them.

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heyang said:

After reading the nY times link, I somewhat envision the scenario as Evan getting really histrionic and panicing and the intention of the slap as being 'Snap out of it'. The shock of being slapped as jolting him back into reality - vs a pat on the cheek that might not have caught his attention. I really doubt that Frank slaps any of this past or present students on a regular basis. There were never any reports of his abusing his least disciplined students and, by all reports, Evan was one of the most dedicated and self-motivated students that Frank has ever had.

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louisa05 said:

That is basically what I thought, too. And I have to wonder how exaggerated the "left a mark" part was. Video on youtube, albeit not high quality, didn't show me a bruise or even a slight mark. Interview video was in a bad place in the arena and is very shadowy, so you can't tell anything there. Podium video was good quality. It looks like he might have a zit coming out but any other mark was well gone by then.

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Selene said:

If she can land her jumps in competition, which rarely happens. She usually leaves her jumps on practice ice, because she doesn't have the temperament or mental strength to be a good competitor.

From the Competitions Form:


If she cannot perform in SLC in front of 50 people at an obscure B event, how is she going to hold it together at Nationals when the Olympics are on the line? Some people cannot compete, and she is one of them.



Her egomania in regards to thinking she can train in Canton with ice dance coaches reminds me of Patrick Chan and his delusion that he can have a modern dance instructor as his head coach.

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mskater93 said:

She's stressed from the coaching change and she is NOT planning on Marina and Oleg as her primary coaches. What ego mania? She wants them to remain part of her coaching team since they designed the programs...

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mskater93 said:

I doubt she will regret this later. She's more on a 5 year plan, not a 5 month plan, although she does need to make the Olympic and follow on World team to realize that 5 year plan. There's more to this story which no one is relaying, but the gist of it is that the relationship with AlexO wasn't working, it was ADDING to her stress and making her unhappy. That = time to change and sooner rather than later. It's not a PC situation at all - she wants to maintain working with Marina and Oleg (she didn't say how often she would do this, I doubt it would be weekly or every other week from a logistics standpoint, but ALMOST EVERYONE who has a choreographer typically goes back to them for tune ups throughout the season, so WHY would this be surprising? Did she SAY Marina and Oleg would be her primary coaching team? I didn't read this in any article, please point me to a link). Also, if this week tryout works with FrankC, she will be working with him as her coach. Period. If it does not, I am sure she has a backup plan in motion. How is this a Patrick Chan situation of working with a modern dancer and no technical coach?

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So the full image she sees of herself competing at the Sochi Olympics now isn't as clear.

It could include Frank Carroll as her coach. Or Oleg Epstein. Or both.

She could be training exclusively with Carroll in Los Angeles. Or with Epstein in Canton, Mich., where her choreographer, Marina Zoueva, also works. That is where she has trained the last 21/2 weeks after leaving Ouriashev, her primary coach the last two seasons.

Or she could try both.

"I don't think we would be completely shifting myself to Los Angeles," Gold said Sunday from Canton, where she returned after a disappointing second-place performance at the U.S. International Classic in Salt Lake City. "I will definitely travel between Los Angeles and Canton. Only time will tell if I will be based in Canton or LA."

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Carroll also was leery of the idea that Gold might split her time between two coaching teams.

"She needs to listen to a voice, not many voices," Carroll said. "I think having many coaches is a mistake. I think she does have to be settled, and it doesn't necessarily have to be with me."

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