You don't know that. In normal circumstances, she would have made the team this year. If she
finishes in the top three next year, do you think they will leave her off again? I don't.
Mirai Uses Olympic Disappointment for Motivation
- Thread starter samson
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You don't know that. In normal circumstances, she would have made the team this year. If she
finishes in the top three next year, do you think they will leave her off again? I don't.
Not unless she starts skating like a big girl. She still looks like a junior to me.
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2010
Unless one of Wagner, Edmunds, or Gold BOMBS Nationals next year (or Mirai makes drastic improvements to her skating to anything she has shown since 2011 4CCs) she wont finish top 3 so it is moot. And they will have to bomb worse than Wagner did this year. After the reaction to the selections which probably surprised the USFSA, they will be more careful in how they let Nationals be scored in the future.
Mirai finished seventh at her first Worlds (at age 16) and it was considered a failure. Would it have been quite an achievement for Yulia Lip to finish 8th at her first Worlds at age 15?
She needs to hunker down and find a coach with whom she can get along long-term if she is going to become a real champion with true staying power. Carroll pretty much trashed her publicly for her lack of worth ethic, and her coach not being at US nationals IIRC was odd. Perhaps coaches perceive her as someone who no one will work with?
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- Jun 16, 2010
If Edmunds win the short program at next years worlds at 16, then lands only 3 jumps cleanly in the long program while dropping to 7th, and losing the U.S 3 spots in the process, I can comfort you with the fact it will be viewed as a failure too. As for your Julia reference, any 2 Russians who went to the 2013 worlds that failed to get Russia a 3rd spot for the 2014 Games, would have been viewed as a dissapointment back home.
Agree that Gold, Wagner and Edmunds will be favorites in Greensboro, and deservedly so. But Nagasu outskated Wagner in both SP and FS in Boston, not finishing ahead because of scoring riregularities; and finished only three points behind Edmunds. Nagasu won't need to improve all that much above her Boston performances to be competitive with Wagner and Edmunds, unless USFSA decides to fix the results and pre ordain the 2014 world team as the 2015 world team. I do wonder, if Nagasu would happen to be the third best skater in Greensboro, would a fourth best Wagner or Edmunds receive some unwarranted PCS scores to place ahead of Nagasu, or would their body of work in Sochi and Sataima be deemed sufficient to again supplant a third place Nagasu for the world team.
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- Mar 8, 2006
oh.... bless her.... I really wish her best of luck for the next season and her perseverance and determination and classy handling of this pay off in the end!
Polina had never competed as a Senior internationally until at the Olympics so finishing 9th was a heck of an achievement. Lip has been skating as a Senior internationally for the last 2 years and was on the JGP as a 13 year old so of course she's further along then Polina. For that matter Mirai at 16 was much more experience too having been on the GP for 2 years before the Olympics. Polina hadn't even been to Junior Worlds yet while Mirai went twice so even though Mirai was only a year older more was expected of her especially after finishing 4th in Vancouver while Polina was a total newcomer.
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- Jun 11, 2012
Whatever it takes to inspire Mirai is a good thing. But after watching her self-implode for so many years......I'm waiting to see just how motivated she is. If she truly wants to stay in the sport than she needs to find a coach that's willing to take her on and move to wherever that coach is and work! work! work!
I completely agree that the Olympic and World teams were the best possible scenarios. But the US has a lot of work to do in the next quad. But having said that, so do the other countries. There isn't a skater or medal winner out there that can't be beaten.
I completely agree that the Olympic and World teams were the best possible scenarios. But the US has a lot of work to do in the next quad. But having said that, so do the other countries. There isn't a skater or medal winner out there that can't be beaten.
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- Mar 8, 2006
I think the USFSA won't let her near a world's team again, unless she gets a coach that can really politick for her. She's got a reputation as inconsistent and not the hardest worker (those Hersh articles about her split with Frank Carroll were particularly damaging) and I don't see her being able to overcome the reputation without 1. skating cleanly and consistently and 2. having a coach who can really try to change the image the USFSA (and by extension, the ISU) has of her. The USFSA are probably really happy with the fact that all 3 women on the team finished in the top 10 and skated well in all every event. A few falls here and there but no splatfests. It will be hard to overcome them within the next few years, especially without a savvy coach. I also question the wisdom of using Adam as a choreographer. Love him as a skater and love that he is trying to expand into choreography but does he know the COP well enough to help Mirai get every single point possible? Maybe she should have gone to a more established choreographer.
Mirai probably can't afford a more established choreographer, or a well-established coach, for that matter. She has also, unfortunately, established a reputation as a not particularly compliant student, so some coaches might not be so anxious to take her on.
As for Polina, her only international experience going into Olympics/Worlds was two JGP events and the JGPF. Considering that, her 9th place in Sochi and her 8th place at Worlds are truly astonishing. Both Sotnikova and Tuktamysheva had had a full year of Senior competition before their first appearances at Worlds in 2013, and they didn't finish as high as Polina did with no prior Senior experience.
As for Polina, her only international experience going into Olympics/Worlds was two JGP events and the JGPF. Considering that, her 9th place in Sochi and her 8th place at Worlds are truly astonishing. Both Sotnikova and Tuktamysheva had had a full year of Senior competition before their first appearances at Worlds in 2013, and they didn't finish as high as Polina did with no prior Senior experience.
Mirai won the US Championship before she was even on the senior level. She hadn't competed on the Grand Prix that year, either. She was too young to go to Worlds that year. And Polina was not unknown. She had competed on the Junior Grand Prix as I recall.
I hope you are wrong. The practice of passing over the medalists at Nationals should not become the usual practice unless the USFSA wants to further alienate fans (yes, Mirai has a lot of fans). With three spots, there is less pressure on the number three. And if a skater can't show enough consistency to do well at Nationals, she probably shouldn't go. Ashley was an unusual case. But if she fails at Nationals again, she should not be given another break, in my opinion. And what Hersh articles are you talking about? Mirai's split with Frank came about because he moved to Palm Springs. Frank offered to help her find a housing situation there so she could continue to train with him, but she decided not to (or her parents decided).
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- Jun 16, 2010
I highly doubt an exception will be made for Ashley again. I however also suspect after Nationals last year the USFSA will be more careful in how they let Nationals be scored. Last year they seemed to just let them do their thing which is unusual for them. I even found Wagner underscored compared to Nagasu (and Edmunds) despite her mistakes, and this despite that she is clearly the one they prefered to make the team, so obviously there was no input given to judges how to score the event beforehand. I dont think that will be the case in the future.
As things stand now Edmunds, Wagner, and Gold are by far the team they want again next year, and someone else, Nagasu or anyone, will have to make a real impact before Nationals to change that perspective. Otherwise they will have to skate the roof off come Nationals, and have one of those three skate like Wagner did at Nationals this year or worse, to make it.
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2010
I agree Nagasu outskated Wagner at Nationals, especialy in the LP. However a U.S Nationals judged so to the book of the performances on the day is very unusual, and I am not sure it will be that way again, as it hasnt been in the past. The USFSA may have figured with their new policy they could just let Nationals be judged fairly, and if one of their `must haves` missed the team they could just put her on after, but were probably stunned by the reaction.
Wagner also very rarely skates as poorly as she did at Nationals this past year. At Olympics and Worlds for instance she was far from perfect, yet still much better than she had been at Nationals, scoring much more highly by international judges than by inflated Nationals scoring.
To be honest in 2008 there wasn't much depth in the Ladies event at all. The top 4 finishers were all 16 or younger. The veterans were not very good Meissner was in freefall and Hughes was hurt which left someone like Bebe Liang who was the highest finisher of the older girls.
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- Jan 1, 2013
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The issue at Nationals came about because the tech panel was extremely lenient. Had they not been so lenient, Mirai's under-rotations would have done the job, she and Wagner would have finished in a different order, and there wouldn't have been any fuss.
