2024 U.S. Nationals Senior Pairs Free Skate | Page 15 | Golden Skate

2024 U.S. Nationals Senior Pairs Free Skate

Spiralgraph

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Country
United-States
I wanted Danny and Ellie to win but I wish they had skated better (an understatement I know.) But all of our pair women have trouble on the triples and you just hope that they can improve. In two years the fight for the Olympic spots will be furious. As of today, I thought our Junior team winners,Flores and Wang, outskated practically all our Senior teams.

Sigh Someday I'll wise up and not like pairs the most of all the disciplines.
 

sworddance21

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 18, 2014
Does that mean commentators will stop dragging out that tired old chestnut “you can’t WIN with the short program but you can LOSE with the short program"?

Ellie is 19. They could marry and no one would bat an eyelash (they won't, Danny has a long standing girlfriend, but they could in theory). I don't understand the pearl clutching over this.
I wasn't pearl clutching about that. My thinking is maybe we could give her a break as someone new to pairs who is still quite young. She's learning at an incredible rate and maybe we could be more supportive as a fan base instead of trashing her for struggling to land the throws.
 

Seven Sisters

Medalist
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
I wasn't pearl clutching about that. My thinking is maybe we could give her a break as someone new to pairs who is still quite young. She's learning at an incredible rate and maybe we could be more supportive as a fan base instead of trashing her for struggling to land the throws.
My thought has always been that though we as fans tend to blame the lady when a throw jump landing is missed, that element actually requires perfect coordination of both skaters, and errors on the part of the man can also Impact the ability of the lady to land properly.
 

moonvine

All Hail Queen Gracie
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 14, 2007
Country
United-States
I wasn't pearl clutching about that. My thinking is maybe we could give her a break as someone new to pairs who is still quite young. She's learning at an incredible rate and maybe we could be more supportive as a fan base instead of trashing her for struggling to land the throws.
I hope I am not trashing her. I just think it might be better to do doubles in competition until she is reliably doing them in practice. But they are National Champions so what do I know?
 

slider11

Medalist
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
After a night's sleep, I am more settled with the results of the US Pairs. Danny O'Shea is a rock-solid partner who provides young Ellie the experience, support and skill needed to get her to his level. On the positive side, Ellie did cleanly land her triple jump and her lifts are solid. It is not easy to find a woman who can contort and balance on those extremely complicated lifts. And she exudes a lovely personality on the ice. I know a US champion should not be falling on 2 throws but in the plus and minus columns, I think Kam and O'Shea are our best bets to place well at Worlds.

Efimova and Mitrafanov made a great showing yesterday and are rightly silver medalists. 4CCs and maybe Worlds will be a very good experience for them. Something they need. Same with Plazas and Fernandez. Tons of potential but need to pull together the parts.
 

ramurphy2005

Unabashed Mainer
On the Ice
Joined
Feb 12, 2014
Country
United-States
Efimova and Mitrafanov made a great showing yesterday and are rightly silver medalists. 4CCs and maybe Worlds will be a very good experience for them. Something they need. Same with Plazas and Fernandez. Tons of potential but need to pull together the parts.
They can't compete internationally until next season. For them, and McBeath/Parkman, this Nationals was about competing together in pressure situations (and the blade break was definitely a complication you could never anticipate for McBeath). Yes, they both wanted to do well and get on the podium because they're athletes, but in the grand scheme of things, Nationals was stepping stone for both teams.
 

FlossieH

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 2, 2022
Country
United-Kingdom
My thought has always been that though we as fans tend to blame the lady when a throw jump landing is missed, that element actually requires perfect coordination of both skaters, and errors on the part of the man can also Impact the ability of the lady to land properly.
Yes, and I have the impression that he is putting more force into it than she can cope with.
 

sworddance21

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 18, 2014
I hope I am not trashing her. I just think it might be better to do doubles in competition until she is reliably doing them in practice. But they are National Champions so what do I know?

Oh, NO. I didn't think YOU were at all. These thread conversations are so hard. I don't think you would ever say anything like that. Other folks have been, though. I just was explaining why I was asking how old she was.
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
Just read that people are making noises about the age difference between Elly and Danny. Yes, it is big but we're not talking about a little kid and the bogeyman here. They're both adults. There was also a lot of talk about the age difference between the Italians Lucrezia and Matteo (who himself is happily married, thank you very much). Less so, now they've won Europeans but they themselves tend to make a lot of fun about it, like him being old-fashioned and not on socials while she is and actively, quite openly and jokingly. Maybe Elly and Danny could do something like that too? Nothing to do with falls on throws, or awesome lifts, but still I heard.
 

2sk8

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
My thought has always been that though we as fans tend to blame the lady when a throw jump landing is missed, that element actually requires perfect coordination of both skaters, and errors on the part of the man can also Impact the ability of the lady to land properly.
Thanks for pointing this out on such a diplomatic way. Throw jumps are most assuredly a combination of both partners. And frankly, if the partner being thrown feels the other partner should make adjustments, the guy generally defers to her. All this Danny is sp perfect and Elle needs to catch up really is off base in the context of throw jumps.
 

Skater Boy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Well HOwe and chan were lucky to be picked to worlds but considering the silver medallist were not in the running. it's not there fault exactly but I am not sure a team that is not ready to skate their fs should be going to worlds but that tells you how weak the US is in pairs right now. I thought they might easily outshine the Canadians here but well Deanna and Max are far ahead of the Americans. And the other Canadians are more than competitive. three spots is doable still at worlds but not a sure thing.
 

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
Well HOwe and chan were lucky to be picked to worlds but considering the silver medallist were not in the running. it's not there fault exactly but I am not sure a team that is not ready to skate their fs should be going to worlds but that tells you how weak the US is in pairs right now. I thought they might easily outshine the Canadians here but well Deanna and Max are far ahead of the Americans. And the other Canadians are more than competitive. three spots is doable still at worlds but not a sure thing.
3 spots for the Americans for worlds ? That sounds very tough.
2 (or even, but most likely not, all 3 teams)) Canadians, 2 German teams, 2 Italian teams, 1 Georgian team, 1 Chinese team, 1 Hungarian team 1 Japanese team... All those teams could place ahead of both American teams.

If all these teams indeed place ahead of Americans, the top American pair could end up 11 th.
 

Rebecca Moose

proud Tonia K fan since '95
On the Ice
Joined
Oct 6, 2023
Country
United-States
sadly, it's much more likely usa drops to one pair spot vs. maintaining three spots. but never say never! ✊
 
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