World's Ladies Podium

hippomoomin said:

What are you talking about? Mao was the 2013 GPF champion and Caro failed to be qualified---meaning she was at least 6 places after Mao.

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pangtongfan said:

At the Olympics Kostner came out on top easily again (due to Mao bombing the SP yes, but even the skate of her dreams in the LP which was the hardest ever done by a women beat Kostner's much easier program by less than a point).

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jhuynh said:

Dont forget that Mao skated like 12th place? so obviously her scores components will be lower. I'm sure if she had skated in the last group, her PCS will be closer to Yuna, and Carolina. And her technical scores will be higher as well. Since Mao skated really early, I got a feeling that the judges mark her as low as possible to save room for the Russians in case they did a mistake. And after Adelina skated a clean program, they have to give her a eight points lead ahead of Mao in the long program..in case of yuna skating clean. So this will for sure give her the gold over yuna. And after Yuna DID skated clean, they gave yuna the similar scores to Mao LP because that that highest a NON Russian will get because Mao set the stardard for that score for a clean LP. Yuna's LP being less difficult than Adelina (crowd favor) will of course get lower marks, but she skated in the last group..so she ended up with higher mark than Mao.

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jhuynh said:

Dont forget that Mao skated like 12th place? so obviously her scores components will be lower. I'm sure if she had skated in the last group, her PCS will be closer to Yuna, and Carolina. And her technical scores will be higher as well. Since Mao skated really early, I got a feeling that the judges mark her as low as possible to save room for the Russians in case they did a mistake. And after Adelina skated a clean program, they have to give her a eight points lead ahead of Mao in the long program..in case of yuna skating clean. So this will for sure give her the gold over yuna. And after Yuna DID skated clean, they gave yuna the similar scores to Mao LP because that that highest a NON Russian will get because Mao set the stardard for that score for a clean LP. Yuna's LP being less difficult than Adelina (crowd favor) will of course get lower marks, but she skated in the last group..so she ended up with higher mark than Mao.

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andyjo24 said:

I hope Mao does well, but I am not betting ANYTHING on her. Recently, she has always disappointed in the big stages. 2013 Worlds - 3rd (better than usual), 2012 Worlds - 6th, 2011 Worlds - 6th, and 2014 Olympics - 6th again. I hope she can break the curse and prove to me that the amazing FS at the Olympics was not only due to her having a "nothing to lose" mindset after the horrendous short.

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gotoschool said:

Looking carefully at the numbers your can easily see that the scoring was so egregiously corrupt at the last Olympics and Mao was so evidently held down in GOE's and PCs in her passionate and poignant LP and Gold, Sotnikova and Lipnitskaya were so blatantly inflated that her sixth place finish is the single most absurd result of the competition, other than Adelina's hyper-inflated score. It still shocks me that people are committed to the idea that the judging was even remotely accurate. Scored fairly Mao ends up with between a 145- 150 and gets between 201 - 206. Only two skaters had ever scored 200 points or more through the 2013 Grand Prix season- Yuna Kim and Mao Asada and after watching the LPs at Sochi I can understand why, though of course Kostner should place above Asada because of her disastrous SP. Gold, Lipnitskaya and Sotnkikova should not be scoring over 200 points and they wouldn't be without the Russian scheme to inflate them which preceded the Olympic season. Can't anyone see that the rigged judging in the Olympics was but the first chess move in the higher stakes game of rigging the referendum in Crimea? I guess I am old enough to have lived during the subterfuge of Communism.

I speak Russian at an upper intermediate level, I have lived in Kazakhstan for 5 years and Azerbaijan for 3 years and you have absolutely no idea how many things are bought and sold, so that bribery and extortion are like exhaling and inhaling air in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union. People bribe to get a position in a government office, to join the police department, officials with salaries of $500 / month drive Mercedes and have lavish downtown apartments, police randomly stop cars on the street and extort money from the drivers. I taught a university student in Baku, Azerbaijan, who said that her teacher required her students as a whole to buy her a car in order for them to pass the class. and diamonds or gold to get an A. A Russian businessman said that only about $20 billion of the $51 billion Putin spent on the games can be accounted for. Besides building himself a lavish palace, where do you think the rest of the stash went- to help the homeless or to insure a winning medal count and to ensure the right judges were in place? Isn't it obvious to everyone that if Kim or Asada fell in either the short or the long they would be placed behind Sotnikova, Lipntiskaya, as long as the youngsters could avoid an utter splat-fest: a perfect example is Lipntiskaya's placement at 5 with multiple falls and PCS higher than Asada skating one of the all time best LPs. I still claim that the focus was on taking down Asada and Kim because Kostner had never gotten a medal at the Olympics and the IOC and ISU are located near Italy. That is as long as she didn't get gold. Finally, give Mao a little do. She hasn't lost even one Grand Prix Event in the last two years and she won the Four Continents by 15 points in 2013. Few in history have been able to dominate the sport in every single event they enter. Yes, she has had problems at worlds, but scoring the aesthetics of skating to me is a little like saying who is a better painter Picasso or Dali. In my opinion, Asada is simply the best because exquisite grace, aesthetic beauty, gutsy emotion and challenging the boundaries of the sport are much more compelling than going for the safe routine that gets a predictable number of points. While the scoring system emphasizes high jumps and speed and many people may prefer these qualities, I find them nice but largely irrelevant to the beauty of the sport and more befitting men's figure skating or speed skating. To each his own. But, Mao has made it clear that she has the spirit of Japanese samurai like Midori Ito. Often at worlds, this leads to figurative harakiri, but the flip side is what I and many others on this site consider to be the most compelling and gutsy performance of all-time: her Sochi LP 2014. And she delivered this on the big stage. I hope the corruption spigot dries up and she wins worlds, but either way too many have already milked her spiritual gifts enough and should grant her a little more respect, especially when she has been treated so abominably by corrupt judges during her greatest moment.

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gotoschool said:

Looking carefully at the numbers, you can easily discern that the scoring was so egregiously corrupt at the last Olympics, and Mao was so evidently held down in GOE's and PCs in her passionate and poignant LP and Gold, Sotnikova and Lipnitskaya were so blatantly inflated, that her sixth place finish is the single most ludicrous legacy of this sham competition, other than Adelina's hyper-inflated score. It still shocks me that people are committed to the idea that the judging was even remotely accurate. Scored fairly Mao ends up with between a 145- 150 and gets between 201 - 206. Only two skaters had ever scored 200 points or more in international competition in the history of COP scoring through the 2013 Grand Prix season- Yuna Kim and Mao Asada; and after watching the LPs at Sochi I can understand why, though of course Kostner should place above Asada because of her disastrous SP. Gold, Lipnitskaya and Sotnkikova should not be scoring over 200 points and they wouldn't be without the Russian scheme to inflate them which preceded the Olympic season. Can't anyone see that the rigged judging in the Olympics was but the first chess move in whipping up patriotic fervor for an imperialistic foray into the higher stakes game of rigging the referendum in Crimea? I guess I am old enough to have lived during the subterfuge of Communism.

I speak Russian at an upper intermediate level, I have lived in Kazakhstan for 5 years and Azerbaijan for 3 years and you have absolutely no idea how many things are bought and sold, so that bribery and extortion are like exhaling and inhaling air in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union. People bribe to get a position in a government office, to join the police department, officials with salaries of $500 / month drive Mercedes and have lavish downtown apartments, police randomly stop cars on the street and extort money from the drivers. I taught a university student in Baku, Azerbaijan, who said that her teacher required her students as a whole to buy her a car in order for them to pass the class. and diamonds or gold to get an A. A Russian businessman said that only about $20 billion of the $51 billion Putin spent on the games can be accounted for. Besides building himself a lavish palace, where do you think the rest of the stash went- to help the homeless or to insure a winning medal count and to ensure the right judges were in place? I still claim that the focus was on taking down Asada and Kim because Kostner had never gotten a medal at the Olympics and the IOC and ISU are located near Italy. I believe the president of the ISU is from Italy as well. Nonetheless, she did deserve a silver. That is as long as she didn't get gold. Finally, give Mao a little do. She hasn't lost even one Grand Prix Event (6 wins in a row!!!) in the last two years, in addition to winning the Four Continents by 15 points in 2013. Few in history have been able to dominate the sport in every single event they enter. I think this is why Yuna Kim has only entered Worlds since 2011, though I have major respect for her battling Putin's deep pockets with a broken foot.

Yes, Mao has had problems at worlds, but she is still tied with Kim with 2 titles. Besides, scoring the aesthetics of skating to me is a little like saying who is a better painter Picasso or Dali, and she lost in 2007 by less than one point, with a world record score in the free skate. In my opinion, Asada is simply the best when she's on because exquisite grace, aesthetic beauty, gutsy emotion and challenging the boundaries of the sport are much more compelling than going for the safe routine that gets a predictable number of points. While the scoring system emphasizes high jumps and speed and many people may prefer these qualities, I find them nice but largely irrelevant to the beauty of Mao's consummate ballet on skates and more befitting men's figure skating or speed skating. To each his own. But, Mao has made it clear that she has the spirit of the Japanese samurai like Midori Ito. She will either fall on the sword of her triple axel, or pierce our souls with it: or the double edged equivalent at Sochi. Often at worlds, this leads to figurative harakiri. But, the flip side is what I and many others on this site consider to be the most compelling and gutsy performance of all-time: her Sochi LP 2014. And she delivered this on the big stage when her pride was at an all time ebb tide. I hope the corruption spigot dries up and she wins worlds, but either way too many have already milked her spiritual gifts enough and should grant her a little more respect, especially when she has been treated so abominably by corrupt judges in the wake of her greatest achievement.

Click to expand...

gotoschool said:

Looking carefully at the numbers, you can easily discern that the scoring was so egregiously corrupt at the last Olympics, and Mao was so evidently held down in GOE's and PCs in her passionate and poignant LP and Gold, Sotnikova and Lipnitskaya were so blatantly inflated, that her sixth place finish is the single most ludicrous legacy of this sham competition, other than Adelina's hyper-inflated score. It still shocks me that people are committed to the idea that the judging was even remotely accurate. Scored fairly Mao ends up with between a 145- 150 and gets between 201 - 206. Only two skaters had ever scored 200 points or more in international competition in the history of COP scoring through the 2013 Grand Prix season- Yuna Kim and Mao Asada; and after watching the LPs at Sochi I can understand why, though of course Kostner should place above Asada because of her disastrous SP. Gold, Lipnitskaya and Sotnkikova should not be scoring over 200 points and they wouldn't be without the Russian scheme to inflate them which preceded the Olympic season. Can't anyone see that the rigged judging in the Olympics was but the first chess move in whipping up patriotic fervor for an imperialistic foray into the higher stakes game of rigging the referendum in Crimea? I guess I am old enough to have lived during the subterfuge of Communism.

I speak Russian at an upper intermediate level, I have lived in Kazakhstan for 5 years and Azerbaijan for 3 years and you have absolutely no idea how many things are bought and sold, so that bribery and extortion are like exhaling and inhaling air in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union. People bribe to get a position in a government office, to join the police department, officials with salaries of $500 / month drive Mercedes and have lavish downtown apartments, police randomly stop cars on the street and extort money from the drivers. I taught a university student in Baku, Azerbaijan, who said that her teacher required her students as a whole to buy her a car in order for them to pass the class. and diamonds or gold to get an A. A Russian businessman said that only about $20 billion of the $51 billion Putin spent on the games can be accounted for. Besides building himself a lavish palace, where do you think the rest of the stash went- to help the homeless or to insure a winning medal count and to ensure the right judges were in place? I still claim that the focus was on taking down Asada and Kim because Kostner had never gotten a medal at the Olympics and the IOC and ISU are located near Italy. I believe the president of the ISU is from Italy as well. Nonetheless, she did deserve a silver. That is as long as she didn't get gold. Finally, give Mao a little do. She hasn't lost even one Grand Prix Event (6 wins in a row!!!) in the last two years, in addition to winning the Four Continents by 15 points in 2013. Few in history have been able to dominate the sport in every single event they enter. I think this is why Yuna Kim has only entered Worlds since 2011, though I have major respect for her battling Putin's deep pockets with a broken foot.

Yes, Mao has had problems at worlds, but she is still tied with Kim with 2 titles. Besides, scoring the aesthetics of skating to me is a little like saying who is a better painter Picasso or Dali, and she lost in 2007 by less than one point, with a world record score in the free skate. In my opinion, Asada is simply the best when she's on because exquisite grace, aesthetic beauty, gutsy emotion and challenging the boundaries of the sport are much more compelling than going for the safe routine that gets a predictable number of points. While the scoring system emphasizes high jumps and speed and many people may prefer these qualities, I find them nice but largely irrelevant to the beauty of Mao's consummate ballet on skates and more befitting men's figure skating or speed skating. To each his own. But, Mao has made it clear that she has the spirit of the Japanese samurai like Midori Ito. She will either fall on the sword of her triple axel, or pierce our souls with it: or the double edged equivalent at Sochi. Often at worlds, this leads to figurative harakiri. But, the flip side is what I and many others on this site consider to be the most compelling and gutsy performance of all-time: her Sochi LP 2014. And she delivered this on the big stage when her pride was at an all time ebb tide. I hope the corruption spigot dries up and she wins worlds, but either way too many have already milked her spiritual gifts enough and should grant her a little more respect, especially when she has been treated so abominably by corrupt judges in the wake of her greatest achievement.

Click to expand...

gotoschool said:

Looking carefully at the numbers, you can easily discern that the scoring was so egregiously corrupt at the last Olympics, and Mao was so evidently held down in GOE's and PCs in her passionate and poignant LP and Gold, Sotnikova and Lipnitskaya were so blatantly inflated, that her sixth place finish is the single most ludicrous legacy of this sham competition, other than Adelina's hyper-inflated score. It still shocks me that people are committed to the idea that the judging was even remotely accurate. Scored fairly Mao ends up with between a 145- 150 and gets between 201 - 206. Only two skaters had ever scored 200 points or more in international competition in the history of COP scoring through the 2013 Grand Prix season- Yuna Kim and Mao Asada; and after watching the LPs at Sochi I can understand why, though of course Kostner should place above Asada because of her disastrous SP. Gold, Lipnitskaya and Sotnkikova should not be scoring over 200 points and they wouldn't be without the Russian scheme to inflate them which preceded the Olympic season. Can't anyone see that the rigged judging in the Olympics was but the first chess move in whipping up patriotic fervor for an imperialistic foray into the higher stakes game of rigging the referendum in Crimea? I guess I am old enough to have lived during the subterfuge of Communism.

I speak Russian at an upper intermediate level, I have lived in Kazakhstan for 5 years and Azerbaijan for 3 years and you have absolutely no idea how many things are bought and sold, so that bribery and extortion are like exhaling and inhaling air in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union. People bribe to get a position in a government office, to join the police department, officials with salaries of $500 / month drive Mercedes and have lavish downtown apartments, police randomly stop cars on the street and extort money from the drivers. I taught a university student in Baku, Azerbaijan, who said that her teacher required her students as a whole to buy her a car in order for them to pass the class. and diamonds or gold to get an A. A Russian businessman said that only about $20 billion of the $51 billion Putin spent on the games can be accounted for. Besides building himself a lavish palace, where do you think the rest of the stash went- to help the homeless or to insure a winning medal count and to ensure the right judges were in place? I still claim that the focus was on taking down Asada and Kim because Kostner had never gotten a medal at the Olympics and the IOC and ISU are located near Italy. I believe the president of the ISU is from Italy as well. Nonetheless, she did deserve a silver. That is as long as she didn't get gold. Finally, give Mao a little do. She hasn't lost even one Grand Prix Event (6 wins in a row!!!) in the last two years, in addition to winning the Four Continents by 15 points in 2013. Few in history have been able to dominate the sport in every single event they enter. I think this is why Yuna Kim has only entered Worlds since 2011, though I have major respect for her battling Putin's deep pockets with a broken foot.

Yes, Mao has had problems at worlds, but she is still tied with Kim with 2 titles. Besides, scoring the aesthetics of skating to me is a little like saying who is a better painter Picasso or Dali, and she lost in 2007 by less than one point, with a world record score in the free skate. In my opinion, Asada is simply the best when she's on because exquisite grace, aesthetic beauty, gutsy emotion and challenging the boundaries of the sport are much more compelling than going for the safe routine that gets a predictable number of points. While the scoring system emphasizes high jumps and speed and many people may prefer these qualities, I find them nice but largely irrelevant to the beauty of Mao's consummate ballet on skates and more befitting men's figure skating or speed skating. To each his own. But, Mao has made it clear that she has the spirit of the Japanese samurai like Midori Ito. She will either fall on the sword of her triple axel, or pierce our souls with it: or the double edged equivalent at Sochi. Often at worlds, this leads to figurative harakiri. But, the flip side is what I and many others on this site consider to be the most compelling and gutsy performance of all-time: her Sochi LP 2014. And she delivered this on the big stage when her pride was at an all time ebb tide. I hope the corruption spigot dries up and she wins worlds, but either way too many have already milked her spiritual gifts enough and should grant her a little more respect, especially when she has been treated so abominably by corrupt judges in the wake of her greatest achievement.

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hippomoomin said:

What does Gold's "inflated" score have to do with Russian corruption and bribery?

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pangtongfan said:

I guarantee that you will see no Russflation at this event (in fact it might be the opposite, many in the skating community are p1ssed bigtime at the Russians for the Sochi debacles, especialy the ladies). Whatever medal Julia wins she will have 100% earned, it certainly wont be by "inflation" this time around.

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gotoschool said:

The French newspaper Le Figaro published an article about the Americans going in with the Russians to rig the Team competition for the Russians and the Ice Dancing Competition for the Americans at the expense of the Canadians. Some on this forum have also indicated that Franck Carrol's comments about Russian score inflation in the team's competition led to Gold receiving an inflated score in order to cover the Russians inflated score in the singles. I am not saying and do not believe that Frank Carrol was bribed. But, Gracie's score of 136 in the singles LP with a fall was over 7 points higher than she received clean in the team's competition and 24 points higher than her Grand Prix average. She finished 8th in the Grand Prix season, yet in the Olympics her score was even higher than Mao Asada's previous best without falls, even though Asada won the Grand Prix Final, and only Yuna Kim had had a higher LP score in international competition. I do think Gold is a very good skater, but I do not believe her PCS score should not be anywhere near equal to Asada's as it virtually was in the LP; and during the Grand Prix season, it was about 8-9 points lower than Asada's for the LP.

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hippomoomin said:

What does Gold's "inflated" score have to do with Russian corruption and bribery?

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sirota said:

Usethis2, I have never seen anything nastier ! It doesn't require powerful brain to create this dirty text, but to define as a witch a girl who is working very hard for being able to earn money for treatment her sister, this is a shame. This is a shame also to reprint this filthy fiction.

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