- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
At last, an interesting competition. After the race for silver in bronze in pairs and mens and arcane contradictory incantations of the dance cognoscenti, things have finally heated up and there’s every reason to suspect that the entire podium in the ladies event is up for grabs.
I think the judges have it pretty right around the top since absolute placement here isn’t so crucial (it’ll be easy to move up or down some spaces). The top three skaters in pretty much any order will make me happy (as long as it reflects their LP perfromance).
GREAT JOB LADIES!!!! You’re finally making this competition come alive! Keep up the good work!
Various comments in various skaters. My not mentioning a skater means I didn’t see them yet or they didn’t make enough of an impression or I thought that not writing anything would be a kindness (I do too have heart)
Meissner – First time I’ve seen her and the first word that comes to mind is ‘juniorish’, still not a mature skater, lots of basic quality in jumps and stroking but doesn’t (yet) make choreography seem natural. Spin positions tend toward the uninspired and/or not so good. Still, in a year or two could be really excellent. Does she still have the 3ax or was that a one time thing? Guess we’ll know soon enough.
Maxwell – Get this girl to some world class coaching talent, now! A huge amount of natural musicality and (natural) ability to make choreography come alive. The jumps need ramping up in terms of difficulty and execution though. If she can do that then watch out, she’s a natural star waiting to be discovered.
Liu – I enjoyed this skater tremendously and don’t understand why she’s so low, no rep yet?
Gedevanishvili – I would have put her above Meissner but again, the basic quality is juniorish. I do think she’s a little closer to being soup than Meissner or Hughes but for the time being she’s an engaging junior and not a serious senior threat.
Hughes – Another juniorish skater. Enthusiastic and fights for it, but not so polished and the music/choreography weren’t in sync (that is I think the choreography wasn’t very good). Seemed to get lost in the middle of a footwork sequence but recovered okay.
Slutskaya – I like this a lot more than I was expecting to, Slute looks great in pants and delivered this with a lot of conviction and speed, the spin before the first biellman was as fast as the dickens and a lot better centered than I expect from her. That sort of made up for awkwardness and running out of rotations at the end (she seemed to get the final rotations on sheer willpower alone) If anything I thought she was undermarked a little (just a little).
Arakawa – The diva decided to show up. Not absolutely top flight Arakawa but very, very close. Still does a lip, but judges aren’t dinging for flutz/lip problems, just underrotation to the exclusion of all else and she barely, but I think clearly, makes rotation. IIRC, a solid SP tends to bode well for a good LP from her. I’m so psyched. Like Slute absolutely right to go for the 3/2 rather than 3/3. There’s no reason for a 3/3 in an SP unless you have nothing to lose and the rest of your elements aren’t up to senior world standards.
Suguri – More quality. I haven’t paid much attention to Suguri lately but she delivers the goods here with more attack than I’ve come to expect. Footwork looked sort of slow on tv though.
Cohen – I hate the music, hate it, I even like oche chorniye okay but this version is awful. But delivered with fighting spirit and I think I enjoyed her personality (as opposed to skating) more than ever before. She’s a little lucky to hold onto the axel, it looked like she came within about a millimeter of losing that edge and going splat. Flutzes but judges don’t seem to care. I hope she keeps it up through the lp.
Final thoughts: Some people were suggesting that the SP become like the CD’s exactly the same which brings up the question How would that be different than what we have now? It’s not the skaters fault but there was a kind of sameness throughout of spins, spirals and jumps. If I never see a Biellmann again in my life I won’t mind. Same goes for the leg straight up and put you arm on one side of it and then the other. Yech. Still, I thank all the competitors for the most interesting night of this olympic figure skating competition so far.
I think the judges have it pretty right around the top since absolute placement here isn’t so crucial (it’ll be easy to move up or down some spaces). The top three skaters in pretty much any order will make me happy (as long as it reflects their LP perfromance).
GREAT JOB LADIES!!!! You’re finally making this competition come alive! Keep up the good work!
Various comments in various skaters. My not mentioning a skater means I didn’t see them yet or they didn’t make enough of an impression or I thought that not writing anything would be a kindness (I do too have heart)
Meissner – First time I’ve seen her and the first word that comes to mind is ‘juniorish’, still not a mature skater, lots of basic quality in jumps and stroking but doesn’t (yet) make choreography seem natural. Spin positions tend toward the uninspired and/or not so good. Still, in a year or two could be really excellent. Does she still have the 3ax or was that a one time thing? Guess we’ll know soon enough.
Maxwell – Get this girl to some world class coaching talent, now! A huge amount of natural musicality and (natural) ability to make choreography come alive. The jumps need ramping up in terms of difficulty and execution though. If she can do that then watch out, she’s a natural star waiting to be discovered.
Liu – I enjoyed this skater tremendously and don’t understand why she’s so low, no rep yet?
Gedevanishvili – I would have put her above Meissner but again, the basic quality is juniorish. I do think she’s a little closer to being soup than Meissner or Hughes but for the time being she’s an engaging junior and not a serious senior threat.
Hughes – Another juniorish skater. Enthusiastic and fights for it, but not so polished and the music/choreography weren’t in sync (that is I think the choreography wasn’t very good). Seemed to get lost in the middle of a footwork sequence but recovered okay.
Slutskaya – I like this a lot more than I was expecting to, Slute looks great in pants and delivered this with a lot of conviction and speed, the spin before the first biellman was as fast as the dickens and a lot better centered than I expect from her. That sort of made up for awkwardness and running out of rotations at the end (she seemed to get the final rotations on sheer willpower alone) If anything I thought she was undermarked a little (just a little).
Arakawa – The diva decided to show up. Not absolutely top flight Arakawa but very, very close. Still does a lip, but judges aren’t dinging for flutz/lip problems, just underrotation to the exclusion of all else and she barely, but I think clearly, makes rotation. IIRC, a solid SP tends to bode well for a good LP from her. I’m so psyched. Like Slute absolutely right to go for the 3/2 rather than 3/3. There’s no reason for a 3/3 in an SP unless you have nothing to lose and the rest of your elements aren’t up to senior world standards.
Suguri – More quality. I haven’t paid much attention to Suguri lately but she delivers the goods here with more attack than I’ve come to expect. Footwork looked sort of slow on tv though.
Cohen – I hate the music, hate it, I even like oche chorniye okay but this version is awful. But delivered with fighting spirit and I think I enjoyed her personality (as opposed to skating) more than ever before. She’s a little lucky to hold onto the axel, it looked like she came within about a millimeter of losing that edge and going splat. Flutzes but judges don’t seem to care. I hope she keeps it up through the lp.
Final thoughts: Some people were suggesting that the SP become like the CD’s exactly the same which brings up the question How would that be different than what we have now? It’s not the skaters fault but there was a kind of sameness throughout of spins, spirals and jumps. If I never see a Biellmann again in my life I won’t mind. Same goes for the leg straight up and put you arm on one side of it and then the other. Yech. Still, I thank all the competitors for the most interesting night of this olympic figure skating competition so far.
, otherwise Arakawa was great. I also really enjoyed Kimmie's youthful exhuberance. Fumie was pretty good but it seemed a bit forced, like it wasn't easy and it probably wasn't. Aside from the mistakes I was surprised to enjoy Elena Sokolova's program - wonderful music selection for her and the color of her costume complemented her complexion. I also really admired the swiss girl.
