Sadly Gracie skates like Mirai used to whenever she had a lead. You knew she wasn't going to seal the deal and usually gave it up. Until Gracie shows that she can hold a lead i'll keep feeling this way. Bad programs or not if she had skated clean she still would have won. She let a big one slip away.
I still wouldn't give up on her though. Kostner was as big a headache as they come and yet she finally figured out how to compete. It might take Gracie time to learn.I have been saying for a while that she doesn't have the mental fortitude to be a winner. It's something innate in a person. Julia Lipnitskaia has it. Yuna Kim has it. But Gracie doesn't have it. You can see that she doubts herself and overthinks everything while she skates instead of letting her muscle memory take over. She cannot hold it together under pressure. So far this season, she has been in first place after the SP in both of her competitions, and had two hot mess free skates to give the lead away.
I was actually really impressed with Gracie today. Yeah, she had some jumping mishaps. But she was really performing out there through the end of the program. I remembered her being more blank-faced and and non-energetic from previous performances. And even despite the mistakes she looked so happy at the end of the program. Based on purely this program she doesn't seem very in her head to me at all. It's still early in the season and the coaching change is relatively new.
I'm not saying she's destined to be the next Yuna Kim or anything, but I wouldn't put her in the Sasha Cohen / Alissa Czisny head-case catagory yet either. I think she has the potential to be like Ashley and develop some rock-solid confidence and consistency in a season or so. And her foundational skills are much better than Ashley's, so watch out if that does happen. I'm excited to see her grow.
"I'm looking forward to putting out a better performance at NHK and at nationals,"
NHK is a "big competition". SC was a "big competition". Nationals is a HUGE competition.
I am only saying that NHK and SCI are "big competitions". Nationals is a HUGE competition because that's where you have the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics and if you blow it there, you go home.Olympics is what then?
Nationals not a big deal for Gracie. Only Wagner can challenge her. And they have 3 spots. As for the NHK Gracie doesn't feel the pressure now because she don't think she can qualify for the Final. So I think she will skate very good.
Yeah, because Wagner is so old and so worn out.