Can Gracie win the gold in Sochi? | Page 4 | Golden Skate

Can Gracie win the gold in Sochi?

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
Their TES will be comparable, but Gold will never be able to touch Suzuki in PCS if both skate clean.

Suzuki is not some sort PCS queen, her PCS isn't that high compared to the Top 3 more like comparable to Wagner's
Gold can definitely pass Suzuki in PCS too, plus Suzuki is " 29 years old " inconsistent skater, so time is not her side either, judges might be willing reward a fresh talented skater like Gracie
 

amc987

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 12, 2012
No. I think with perfect skates and mistakes from one of the top contenders (Kim, Asada, or Kostner) and from the Russians (Lipnitskaia and Sotnikova) she can win a bronze medal. Her jumps are impressive and her spins almost always get level 4. But her PCS understandably lags behind her TES. The other skaters I've mentioned can equal her in TES and surpass her PCS (the Russians will be able to because the Olympics are in Russia). There's also Suzuki, who probably can't match a clean Gracie's TES, but should always beat Gracie handily in PCS.

I think Scott Hamilton is trying to pump up Gracie as the next great American hope. Unfortunately that means much less than it did in the Kwan/Lipinski and Kwan/Cohen/Hughes years.
 

yuki90

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
I remember Gracie said her idol is Mao and Yuna in an interview with Japanese TV.

Actually Mao's fans in Japan dont like Gracie after Twitter thing. :rolleye:
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
I remember Gracie said her idol is Mao and Yuna in an interview with Japanese TV.

Actually Mao's fans in Japan dont like Gracie after Twitter thing. :(

That isn't quite true. Many of her fans (from what I could see on Twitter) were quite forgiving and gracious about the whole incident. I'm sure some were offended, but definitely not all.
 

cooper

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
From where did you hear that Gracie idolizes Yuna Kim? To me, this seems puzzling because Gracie is actually competing with Yuna for an Olympic medal. Why would you idolize someone who is your rival for a podium finish? Besides, I know Gracie has said in the past interviews that she admires Michelle Kwan and as far as I know, Yuna is nowhere close to Michelle. Also, Gracie seems to be rather close to Mao as she had been invited to participate in "The Ice" show last year. She does always look happy to have her pictures taken with Mao at the banquets. IMHO, Yuna is a good rival to Gracie, not necessarily someone she idolizes.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...130314_1_yuna-kim-gracie-gold-kanako-murakami
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport.../gracie-gold-clean-program-kim-yu-na/1988053/

:)
 

Icey

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 28, 2012
Well, Gracie it made it no secret that she idolizes Yuna, and now, she will get to compete head-to-head against her idol.

I think as of now, Gracie is better skater than Julia, although Julia will get home bonus points.

According to her website her favorite male skaters are Ryan Bradley and Scott Hamilton ; female: Michelle and Yu na
 

Krislite

Medalist
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
The answer is "not likely". But she can probably win in PyeongChang in 2018. By then she'll a world title or two.

Gold winning in Sochi is even more improbable than Hughes beating Kwan and Slutskaya in 2002. She has no world medal at all, and she's skating in Russia, not America so she won't have Hughes's home ice advantage. And honestly I would not want to see her drop out of the sport like Lipinski and Hughes, and be like Hughes with an Olympic gold medal as her only major title. She deserves a bigger career and I'd like to see her develop into a mature skater.
 

YunaBliss

On the Ice
Joined
May 11, 2010
I don't think Gracie has yet gotten that picture taken with Yuna, but maybe that won't be necessary if they can share the same podium at the Olympics :)

I see a lot of potential in Gracie and I think she can be a superstar in the next quad. The ideal Sochi podium for me is Yuna-Mao-Gracie.
 

ahy

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 29, 2013
What determines the standing of ladies is who goes clean. Of course, a clean yuna can beat everyone, except a clean mao, but the possibility of mao going clean is around 5%, she definitely should think about the possibility of going for 2 clean 3axels in the fs with no under rotation(unlikely though...) Also, is all about how the ladies deal with the pressure... if u handle the pressure more wisely, your possibility of doing a clean program is higher... Anyway, i hope all the ladies will be satisfy with their work in olympics :)
 

ClockwiseSpinner

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
Gracie is not talented enough to win an olympic medal, in my opinion she doesn't have even enough talent to win a world medal.
She has some good jumps, that's it. She lacks any sparkle, her artistry is totally missing.
I think the US will have to wait for another skater of the caliber of Sasha Cohen to start talking about olympic medals again.
 

RABID

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
The answer is "not likely". But she can probably win in PyeongChang in 2018. By then she'll a world title or two.

Gold winning in Sochi is even more improbable than Hughes beating Kwan and Slutskaya in 2002. She has no world medal at all, and she's skating in Russia, not America so she won't have Hughes's home ice advantage. And honestly I would not want to see her drop out of the sport like Lipinski and Hughes, and be like Hughes with an Olympic gold medal as her only major title. She deserves a bigger career and I'd like to see her develop into a mature skater.

I personaly have loved the fact that a lot of the ladies from the mid aughts have persevered and stuck around these many years. But some people think it is actually healthier for the sport to have a constant turnover of talent. Hard to get attached to any skater that way, if you ask me. But if your interests are more nationalistic perhaps that is the way to go and conveniently gets rid of the talent standing in your country's way.
 

Nadia01

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
except Mao can't go clean with her two 3A in her FS

But a clean Mao w/o 3A or 3/3 can't beat a clean Yuna.

Mao and Yuna can score about the same w/ PCS. Yuna has GOE advantage. So Mao needs higher BV to tip things in her favor.
 

Nadia01

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 10, 2009
Suzuki is not some sort PCS queen, her PCS isn't that high compared to the Top 3 more like comparable to Wagner's
Gold can definitely pass Suzuki in PCS too, plus Suzuki is " 29 years old " inconsistent skater, so time is not her side either, judges might be willing reward a fresh talented skater like Gracie

Doubtful.

Akiko's going in as Japan's #1, who beat Kanako & Mao. (And do you have any idea how difficult it is to beat Mao at JP Nats? Seriously?) That counts for something, given the depth of Japanese ladies.
 

JayW

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
This is my first post. I love Gracie, she has the whole package as the next US figure skating golden girl. However, she is far behind the Yuna in almost every perspectives. Even her gigantic 3Lz-3T is not pretty to my eyes, her upper body almost too vertical, it doesn't look stable.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
Akiko is a wonderful skater and I love her, but she doesn't always skate as well in one competition as she did in her last. You never know which Akiko is going to show up at a competition: the pleasant one who makes mistakes, or the unbeatable one.

Last season, she had a good GP series and won GPF bronze, but finished 4th at Nationals and then 12th at Worlds. But she bounced back to finish first at the World Team Trophy.

This season so far she medaled in two GPs but didn't make the GPF, then won Japanese Nationals. She has two competitions left in her career, and I'm sure she wants to give her best effort, but she can do only as much as her body will allow her to do. We can only guess as to which Akiko we will see at Sochi and Worlds.
 
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