One of her sponsors, Sumitomo Life Insurance, celebrated her birthday.
Mao looks so happy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ejLfB4oJ8
Happy Birthday, Mao
One of her sponsors, Sumitomo Life Insurance, celebrated her birthday.
Mao looks so happy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ejLfB4oJ8
Happy Birthday, Mao
One of her sponsors, Sumitomo Life Insurance, celebrated her birthday.
Mao looks so happy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ejLfB4oJ8
Mao does not pre-rotate. A small (up to 1/4) skid is considered normal and most of the male skaters do it as well. Some (like Javier or Stephane) had/have even bigger "skids". From Wikipedia:
Pre-rotating happens when the skater's body starts to rotate before the blade leaves the ice (the blade 'skids' for more than 1/4 revolution, or the toepick is used as a 'pivot'). This often happens when the skater is swinging the free leg and right arm around (i.e. they stick out to the sides) while pivoting around the left foot (for a CCW skater). Visually, it looks as if the skater was jumping butt-first, tucking in before the blade leaves the ice. In a correctly executed Axel, the first half rotation should take place while the skater is in an open position, with a bit 'delayed' rotation.
I watched an old-ish (back from 2006 or so) ISU training video which showed (digitally drawn) ice tracings from "ideal" Axel, a common 3A, and a 3A with a big skid. The commentary was similar to the Wikipedia entry.
Here's Javi's 3A: http://imgur.com/SUHlGos
His skid is significantly bigger than Mao's - almost half a revolution.
Here's Plushy's 3A: http://imgur.com/BzbAqv9
His skid is 1/4 - the same as Mao (there was even a video comparison somewhere on YT, but I can't find it). Because he skated with great speed and power, the cloud of ice shavings and the ice tracing of the skid is very visible.
Here's 2A by Matthew Kessinger: http://www.dit.upm.es/~jantonio/personal/patinaje/images/dax3.avi
This was listed on a coach's website as "an excellent example of how you're supposed to step up into the jump". 1/4 skid. Amazing height. (Ironically enough, with the recent rules, I can actually see more 2As with no or minimal skid, because the speed out of jump is more valued than the height (as it's easier to tack on a 3T this way)).
Here's a comparison between Mao's 3A and one that was actually pre-rotated (pivoting on the blade + jump butt-first): http://imgur.com/c9wznzD
(In Evan's defense, he did fix his 3A somewhat for the 2010 Olympics, but even then it had a skid that was over 1/4 revolution).
It's not impossible to do a 3A with less tha 1/4 skid - but it's quite rare. Ilia Klimkin and Nobunari Oda (later in his career) had great ones. Sadly, they never got properly appreciated by the judges.
I think it's kind of unfair to expect Mao to jump better than men in order to have her 3A ratified.
ETA: I agree that her jumps in the recent clips aren't at her 100% yet, but they are in better form than at the same point in the pre-season in her recent competitive years. In 2013-14 season Sochi was the first time she even attempted 3-3 in her program, and 3A was somewhat unstable in the mid-season due to back pain.
None of the veteran ladies seem to be in 100% form yet, as is expected. They'll probably aim to peak towards the end of the season.
Maybe it's kind of like with Volosozhar/Trankov where their coach(es) are kind of in just an "advisory" role/supervision. The coach can help technically and comment on that but really, at this point, she [they] know how to train. Plus she's talented and driven so she can push herself.