Ladies Free Program | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Ladies Free Program

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I am sooooooo happy for Angela! I can't wait to see her reaction tomorrow!!!!!!





Is it time for nationals yet???? *bounce*
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
I´d guess that the best ladies performance in freeskate will not be shown on US tv, unless they are flooded by requests to show it... Unfortunately Susanna was only fifth overall... Such a pity that she failed in short programme, apparently she could have won the whole event!!!

I´m happy for Angela that she won the competition, but she still made a few misstakes?

Marjaana
 

Eeyora

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
I am thrilled for Angela. Even if she only landed four triples. At Nats during the long program she only landed one . She landed two a Four Continents. Maybe she will progress.

Keep up the Good Work Angela.
 

cheekers85

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 22, 2004
Hmm I wonder where we write to on espn? it might be too late though.
I kinda wonder myself if US television will just ignore it all together or not.
I have never felt like writing before really. But I would really very much like to see this skate. I keep seeing glimpses of the girl in every few events for years, but no skating. It would be good to see her when she does really well.
I think I am consigned to no Yukina Ota though. Maybe next GP, I guess. I have a feeling about her, that like Suguri she might be a fav japanese lady. (and of course probally one of the underdogs in the japanese team, I guess.)
I am still super psyched for Angela though. Depending on what she put out here (we'll see tommorow in the US) this could finally be her big breakthrough. I think it
could be awesome. Just when it's supposed to be over for her, her careeer just starts. I don't know for sure but this is probally her first major senior win? She seemed to have had two solid days in a row there, even if it wasn't nessicerilly the absolute best. But that is something for her, two solid skates in a row. It will be really interesting to see what she does this year. I so hope she is tougher this year mentally! Also coming back to Poykio. I have to say it was a pleasant suprise to hear about her long result. It's nice to hear she is moving forward in her career (even if i haven't yet seen her skating) . From looking at the standings the past few years, it seems like she has really just hovered below the elite level and under the radar screen of skaters for ahwile. It always nice to see someone do better then they have done before in any case. And the same goes for Cythia while I'm at it. This is good sucess for Canada as someone else mentioned. I have seen her skate once before but I don't remember it at all, so I guess I'll find out.
 

ladybug

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I saw the competition tonight and Susanna did a beautiful job. Her presentation and overall skating was very good. She is cute and her costume was white with a pale yellow skirt with sparkles all over. Color looked good with her dark hair. It is really a shame that she was down so low after the short program. She deserved a medal with that long program.

Angela's presentation was beautiful and the program was good. I think she did three combinations----but two for sure. She doubled her last two jumps which makes me wonder if she will continue in that mode. Of course, this is the beginning of the season, so this win may give her more confidence. Four solid triples won't make it when she competes against Michelle and Sasha. She had a good warm up and nailed all her jumps so we know she is capable.

I am so happy for her and am looking forward to seeing her get her gold tomorrow. Fingers crossed for Angela for the rest of the season.

Ota has beautiful presentation but tonight the jumps just weren't there. She looked very disappointed after her skate.

Ladybug
 

herios

Medalist
Joined
Jan 25, 2004
Don't get too excited

OK,

I will try to make a few observations. For those who get all excited, about Angela's win....DON'T! I may sound too harsh, but this was not a winning performance IMO, mainly she had a good strategy, that is all. To win without even trying a salchow and a loop it's unheard of at this level!!!!!
Here are all her jumps: 2a, 3toe, 3lutz/2toe, 3 flip, 3 flip/2 toe, 2 axel, 2 toe, 1 axel.
Basically she pulled a Kevin van den Perren, who used to try 2 or 3 double axels last year, when he didn't have a 3 axel and get credit for them.
So, I think she has still a problem with her edge jumps (salchow and loop) like she always had, because that is when she starts doubling in the middle of the LP. Cop helped her put out enough content, skating last, to win the competition.
Cynthia Phaneuf had also 4 triples. She popped the first 2 triples, then she regained composure and landed everything else. Her presentation is well beyond her age and looks to me the judges just "adore her". If this continues, she will be a favourite in years to come.
Miki Ando....well, I can't figure out her second set of marks.....While this was not her best technically, my feeling is she doesn't get enough credit on her technical content (she fell on her 4 salchow for heaven's sake...then she gets marked for a 3 salchow fall -3), but that is the rule...On the second mark though, she gets hammered. She got 48.40 presentation while Alisa Czisny had 50.40 !!!!! Alisa is another one, who got a gift beside Cynthia Phaneuff, her presentation is very much junior like, and to have higher marks than Ando who is not bad at all, it is unfair.
Czisny was not as good as in the SP, but she showed a lot of promise, beside the fact that she got more credit to her presentation than she should've...
Poykio, what a pitty, she had the skate of the night, with 5 clean triples, she only popped the loop, with very fluid skating and she deserved much more than 5th. She skated beautifully.
I think under factored placements, she would've finished higher, despite being 8th after LP.
Liashenko underrotated 2 triples, and of course she didn't try the loop.
Ota was far from her best.

Herios - Joseph
:)
 

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
RealtorGal said:
Susanna must be kicking herself (although I hope she takes her skates off first ;) ) for placing only 8th in the SP. Otherwise, she would surely have medaled.

Remember last year when Elena Liashenko went from 7th in the SP to 1st place overall in one of the GP events? That was so interesting.

This is the kind of thing that is already driving me up the wall about the CoP. Sometimes a 7th place SP and a 1st place long can give you a gold, and sometimes it just moves you up a notch or two. Anyone notice that last year at Cup of China, Jennifer Robinson was 10th in the short and 3rd in the long and it only pulled her up to 9th? Hardly seems worth the trouble; she may as well have just gone out there and done a bunch of figure 8s.... I realize that CoP operates under ENTIRELY different mathematical principles than the previous system, however, some consistency would be nice. Why not just use the CoP for placements and assign the 0.5 and 1.0 to them like they used to do? What would be wrong with that? We are seeing competitions where sometimes the short program seems to be counting more than the long program, and that shouldn't be happening.

But getting beyond that -- I'm thrilled to see Angela finally win something again! No, it wasn't the performance of her life -- but who expects to see THAT this early in the season? I hope this sets her up well for the rest of the season. Congrats also to Susanna for winning the free skate, and to Cynthia for the first Canadian ladies medal at Skate America in 19 years!!
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Thanks for the post, Herios, and especially for listing Angela's jumps. The write-up in this morning's newpaper here said, Nikodinov wins Skate America by doing completing 10 jumps! So I was wondering whether that could possibly be right.

The same article said that Obertas and Slavnov won the pairs.

But I'm not complaining. This is the first time the Detroit News even recognised figure skating as a sport. When donkeys fly...

About the comparison to Kevin van der Perrin's win last year, here is what Kevin has to say about it (from an interview in Spotlight on Skating by Kathleen Bangs):

"I felt so bad when I beat [Brian Joubert]...at Trophy Lalique because he did a quad and a triple Axel, and I only did my triple-triple-triple combination. I got a lot ofpoints for that, but I was embarrassed to evenb say "hi" to him because I was so ashamed. I skated great, but I didn't think it was fair."

Mathman
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
JonnyCoop, I don't know, it could go either way. If you totally cream your opponent in the short and lose by .01 in the long, I think you have a good case that you should win.

MM
 

RealtorGal

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Eeyora said:
I am thrilled for Angela. Even if she only landed four triples.

How many triples were landed by the ladies who medaled at the recent cheesefest? How many were landed by the medalists at the last two Skate Americas? It would be nice to make a comparison, as these competitions come so early in the season. For some reason, I thought that the last time Michelle won that title, she did so with 4 triples.
 

citrus

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
cheekers85 said:
She recieved good points for it anyway just for the attempt I assume? :sheesh:

Ah, but it opens the door for someone to over-rotate a tripple & keep going
to pretend that it was a quad attempt. In fact, it may be good stragedy for
over rotated tripples to pretend a quad & splat. :laugh:
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
RealtorGal said:
How many triples were landed by the ladies who medaled at the recent cheesefest? How many were landed by the medalists at the last two Skate Americas? It would be nice to make a comparison, as these competitions come so early in the season. For some reason, I thought that the last time Michelle won that title, she did so with 4 triples.
Michelle did 6 triples at Campbell's, 3T/2L 3Z/2T 3F 2A 3S 3Z 3T.

She did 4 at Skate America 2002.

I'm pretty sure Sahsa did at least 5, maybe 6 at Skate America last year. (?)

Well, in another 40 minutes I'll be able to see for myself how this group of ladies stacks up, LOL.
 

RealtorGal

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Mathman said:
Well, in another 40 minutes I'll be able to see for myself how this group of ladies stacks up, LOL.

Oh, my gosh! I had no idea it would be on so early in the morning! Thank heaven you wrote that! I just checked my TV listings and it does, in fact, start at 10 a.m. For sure I would have missed it. Now I won't!

I'm taking that as a good omen for Game #2 for my beloved Red Sox!
 

Vicky458

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 8, 2003
Angela LP

I also read that Angela did 10 jumps. Does the Zayak rule apply in the COP if she repeated the axel three times?
 

herios

Medalist
Joined
Jan 25, 2004
Quad salchow

citrus said:
Ah, but it opens the door for someone to over-rotate a tripple & keep going
to pretend that it was a quad attempt. In fact, it may be good stragedy for
over rotated tripples to pretend a quad & splat. :laugh:

This was not an overrotate 3 sal, it was a very credible attempt to a 4 salchow.

Herios - Joseph
:)
 

show 42

Arm Chair Skate Fan
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Totally not impressed so far with Miki's skating. She needs to lose the quad and clean up the rest of her skating. Actually, the only Japanese lady that I like so far is still Fumie..........42
 

Nadine

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
Ladies Ice Dancing (what a bore zzzz......)

My gosh, 🇳🇴

Missed the first two skaters.......didn't realize it was going to be on so soon.......but was just in time to catch the beginning of Miki Ando's skate (thank goodness). But what followed are my impressions of the entire women's event (not good btw; forewarning):

LADIEZZZ

Miki Ando (JPN; btw only one who was brave & not a coward) -- gorgeous costume, best one of the night in fact, and is really starting to resemble a Japanese version of Audrey Hepburn IMHO. Also, is mature & elegant out on the ice; her body type helps a lot to present such an image, as well as her improved presentation. However, downside was the fact that she didn't seem to be "on" in her jumps, though she gets a :agree: from me for being the only one to attempt difficult jumps, and thereby show the public that it really is a sport. Opening 3Z/2T/2T was real good, but disappointed not to see the 3Z/3R that she usually does. And then the 4S was a credible attempt, nice power & height, but short 1/3 rotation, and thus the fall (btw heard that she was doubled whammied for it; counted as a 3S & then -3 GOE applied as well, which says to the ladiez "play it safe", thus my hat off to her for going for it anyway). Next up was a gorgeous 3F (nice power & height), followed by a nice 3T later on. Then came a 3S/3R (the 3S was totally awesome btw; easy to see why she goes for the 4S, but the 3R was poor, with 3/4 short of rotation; needs to bring back the 3T/3T that she usually does). Finally, her 3Z at the end was short of rotation & thus the fall (unusual for her btw, usually nails this jump, which makes me think she was just off on her jumps today; better luck next time). As for her other elements ~ still needs to work on her spiral & steadiness in them ~ as well as her spins need to be better executed. However, her flow & fluidity & softness over the ice is very very nice, and her interpretation is getting there. Once she performs this program without error, I see it being a winner (no lie). But that wasn't the case today, thus the low marks: 4 triples + 2 falls + points taken off for the gutsy 4S = 6th place in the FS; however 3rd overall counting her 1st place finish in the SP. Good Job. And now she becomes one of the rare women to ever grab a medal there first time out on the Sr. Grand Prix, joining the lkes of Sarah Hughes, Tara Lipinski, Kristi Yamaguchi, Debi Thomas, Elaine Zayak, Jennifer Kirk, and Carolina Kostner. Not bad at all, for a beginning. :)

Cynthia Phaneuf (CAN; lots of cowardly pops, resembles Amber Corwin btw) -- nice costume, but trying too hard in her presentation; in fact, whole time I kept imagining Sasha Cohen skating to this (no lie). Unsteady jumps ~ 4 in total, no combos. ~ but what saved her was the generous marks for presentation, and no deductions for all the pops she did. Finished 2nd overall, and also joins the likes of those I mentioned above whom also captured a medal there first time out on the Sr. Grand Prix. For this, my hat goes off to her.

Angela Nikodinov (USA; looks extremely wore out, but good of her to be there) -- nice costume, raggy hairdo, overdone make-up; makes her look older than what she is IMHO; wish she would bring back the look that she had when she skated to "Sleeping Beauty" several yrs. ago. Other than that, vintage Angela, complete with 4 triples, no combos., usual pops at end of program. And overall good enough to capture gold. Good for her, I mean that. Just disappointed in the overall lackluster skating today, wherein pretty cowardly skating gets rewarded over elegant & mature skating with guts (ala Miki Ando, though I didn't think she deserved to win, no way, but IMHO should not have been deducted points for trying more difficult elements; pops should be deducted if anything). JMHO.

Yukina Ota (JPN; pretty skating, but massive pops all over the place) -- best presentation of the whole bunch IMHO, but this is not ice dancing (though one wouldn't know it by watching today's ladiez event), and only landed two clean triple jumps. Thus, placing her 7th in the FS, right behind Miki Ando, which is a complete joke IMHO (Ando should've been placed higher).

Today's ladiez skating told me that someone like Sasha Cohen can win the whole she-bang by landing 2 triple jumps & popping all over the place, kinda like what she did last year. Btw, I AM a Sasha Cohen Fan, just don't like the direction the sport is going in, doesn't challenge the skaters. Pretty skating is all that is being rewarded (aka pretty spirals & spins & dancing on ice). Ladiez skating has now become ice dancing. :disapp:

Sincerely, Nadine
 

RealtorGal

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Angela was just beautiful to watch. I think she needs to increase her speed, but overall, it was a lovely program. It looks like she had 3 2A planned--I didn't realize that this did not violate the Zayak rule, since 2 of them were not in combination, right? Who is her current coach? Lack of endurance still seems to be a major problem for her; hopefully, she and her new coach will address that issue. :love:

What is the big deal about Ando? She's a good jumper, but she has about zero personality on the ice and just as much in presentation skills. She just looks so clunky and unhappy out there. It looks like she's saying to herself, "Okay, what's my next jump?" rather than intent on presenting a beautiful and well-balanced program. She needs someone to work on her presentation so that she is more than a refrigerator break.

On the other end of the spectrum is Ota--such beautiful presentation. I fear that she will never be more than this if she doesn't focus more on her jumps, which are way too inconsistent.

I think Cynthia Phaneuf is going to be a major figure skating force. She has terrific musicality, a lot of maturity already, good basic technical skills. She just needs more experience on the senior level.

I was pleased with Alissa Czisny--that took guts coming to this competition on such short notice. Good for her!

I would have loved to have seen Pyokio's program! Oh, well...
 

RealtorGal

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Nadine said:
Yukina Ota (JPN; pretty skating, but massive pops all over the place) -- best presentation of the whole bunch IMHO, but this is not ice dancing ...

You know, that's really not a bad idea! She just doesn't have the consistency required to be a top tier ladies' skater, but she does have incredibly beautiful artistry and presentation, which would be a plus in ice dancing!
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
<I take back my uncharitable first impressions. All the ladies were lovely. 👍 >
 
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