If anybody is interested, my thoughts are:
Caroline is beautiful in the SP, but at both events had a litle meltdown in the LP. Are we looking at another Sasha?
QUOTE]
And I thought that you were Sasha's fan.
Thoughts on the season so far
- Thread starter krenseby
- Start date
Well, I know I have been hard on Caroline, but I really don't hate her... And she was really consistent last year as Junior. Way to soon to be comparing her to Sasha!
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2006
thanks for your wise input that bring fans like me back to reality. Skating a senior length program full though in front of thousands of people is a big job. But I just admire her so much that I want the best for her... including a win at nationals!
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2003
But I sure do enjoying watching Kimmie skate a ton more than Sasha Cohen's so called artistry.
I think it's great too and you're right - education is so incredibly important. It seems to be something that's highly valued in the Hughes household & I think that's fantastic. However I'm a little sick of hearing about it if only because some people (not Emily mind you) seem to use it as an excuse; i.e. we must cut her some slack because she started Harvard this year. There are plenty of student athletes out there who balance the two just fine. And no one asked Emily to take on this balancing act. I wish her all the luck in the world & I hope she can pull it off, but if she doesn't her skating shouldn't be spared constructive criticism just b/c she's a student athlete.
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2007
I will just throw my 2 cents in here. I think Kimmie has matured greatly this season. Her benefit show in Baltimore, which I attended, really showed a different Kimmie......very much at ease, poised, and comfortable speaking to a large audience and being the star of the show. Her skating showed a higher level of maturity as well.
I was at Skate America and her SP was fabulous. She received a standing ovation. It was skated so well, and it was a very mature program showing much improvement in her presentation. With a gold at SA and a silver at TEB, I think she is showing how much better she is doing and how much she has grown as a skater.
As far as Emily goes, IMO Emily has never done anything to speak of except to be Sarah's sister, and Sarah never did much of anything either. Sure an Olympic gold medal is a big deal. But it was her one and only great skate, never had it been done before, and never to be repeated hence. She has not left any mark on the sport whatsoever.
I admire both of the Hughes' girls academic achievements, but Emily, as Sarah, will never climb any higher than she already has. She has wonky jumps that land like a thud, and very little grace and finesse. I do have to give her credit for a beautiful exhibition program at Skate America.
Caroline Zhang is adorable and has great potential. For 14 years old, she is very mature, but her skating needs a lot of development to be senior level skating. She is making what looks like nitpicky mistakes, but they need to be corrected in order to be a senior level elite skater. I see her going a long way into the future.
Tanith and Ben finally have a FD that is over the top this year. It is sophisticated, difficult, beautiful, and I think they are really going to shine on the world stage.
As for the men, I seriously doubt if Johnny will defeat Evan at Nationals. Evan could have easily won golds at both Skate America and Cup of China. He did not need to go after the quads, but he knows, come 2010, that he will absolutely need them. So he is training them and putting them out in competition in order to be ready for when it really counts. He is making a wise strategical decision. In the press conference after the competition in China, Johnny said that his strategy is to skate clean programs and to win CoR, GPF, Nationals, and medal at Worlds. He doesn't know when he will try a quad. Evan can already skate clean programs at the level Johnny is skating. That is no challenge to him.
Evan is trying to improve the difficulty of his skating. At this point in time, Johnny could not skate the program Evan has for Tosca. It is loaded with difficulty from beginning to end. IMO Johnny's program looks like an old 6.0 program such as he used to skate. In order for Johnny to win, he has to skate clean and rely on the other men to make mistakes. I don't think that is a very sound strategy. Since last season's Nationals, Evan has landed more quads than he has missed. There are only two that have been complete wipe outs. Even Stephane and Brian have had failures and they have been doing them for a long time. Quads are difficult elements, and a champion skater cannot back off them. Evan is using the right strategy. Johnny has improved his training regimen, but his head is still in the clouds.
I hope Brian is able to fully recover from his illness, as well as Stephane so both are back in good shape for Europeans and Worlds. I also hope Melissa and Denis recover fully for Nationals. It is always sad to hear of illness and injury.
I was at Skate America and her SP was fabulous. She received a standing ovation. It was skated so well, and it was a very mature program showing much improvement in her presentation. With a gold at SA and a silver at TEB, I think she is showing how much better she is doing and how much she has grown as a skater.
As far as Emily goes, IMO Emily has never done anything to speak of except to be Sarah's sister, and Sarah never did much of anything either. Sure an Olympic gold medal is a big deal. But it was her one and only great skate, never had it been done before, and never to be repeated hence. She has not left any mark on the sport whatsoever.
I admire both of the Hughes' girls academic achievements, but Emily, as Sarah, will never climb any higher than she already has. She has wonky jumps that land like a thud, and very little grace and finesse. I do have to give her credit for a beautiful exhibition program at Skate America.
Caroline Zhang is adorable and has great potential. For 14 years old, she is very mature, but her skating needs a lot of development to be senior level skating. She is making what looks like nitpicky mistakes, but they need to be corrected in order to be a senior level elite skater. I see her going a long way into the future.
Tanith and Ben finally have a FD that is over the top this year. It is sophisticated, difficult, beautiful, and I think they are really going to shine on the world stage.
As for the men, I seriously doubt if Johnny will defeat Evan at Nationals. Evan could have easily won golds at both Skate America and Cup of China. He did not need to go after the quads, but he knows, come 2010, that he will absolutely need them. So he is training them and putting them out in competition in order to be ready for when it really counts. He is making a wise strategical decision. In the press conference after the competition in China, Johnny said that his strategy is to skate clean programs and to win CoR, GPF, Nationals, and medal at Worlds. He doesn't know when he will try a quad. Evan can already skate clean programs at the level Johnny is skating. That is no challenge to him.
Evan is trying to improve the difficulty of his skating. At this point in time, Johnny could not skate the program Evan has for Tosca. It is loaded with difficulty from beginning to end. IMO Johnny's program looks like an old 6.0 program such as he used to skate. In order for Johnny to win, he has to skate clean and rely on the other men to make mistakes. I don't think that is a very sound strategy. Since last season's Nationals, Evan has landed more quads than he has missed. There are only two that have been complete wipe outs. Even Stephane and Brian have had failures and they have been doing them for a long time. Quads are difficult elements, and a champion skater cannot back off them. Evan is using the right strategy. Johnny has improved his training regimen, but his head is still in the clouds.
I hope Brian is able to fully recover from his illness, as well as Stephane so both are back in good shape for Europeans and Worlds. I also hope Melissa and Denis recover fully for Nationals. It is always sad to hear of illness and injury.
"Actually, it's Evan who is currently out of favor with US Figure Skating, not Johnny. What goes around, comes around! "
"Why? Because Johnny barely beat Evan at Cup of China by only 2 points? "
I think it has something to do with Evan's "injury" that prevented him from skating for Team USA in Japan but allowed him to skate in Kurt's show two days later.
"Why? Because Johnny barely beat Evan at Cup of China by only 2 points? "
I think it has something to do with Evan's "injury" that prevented him from skating for Team USA in Japan but allowed him to skate in Kurt's show two days later.
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- Joined
- Sep 1, 2007
Men: Surpries by Johnny's win, and Patrick Chan. He'll be a challenger sooner that I thought. Chris Mabee wil need more consistancy as will Buttle to beat him for national title. Buttle and Lambiel will have to step it up. Hope Joubert gets better and back soon. Van Der Perren has enjoyed more sucess that I expected. The SC medal was not fair,IMO. Yes he can jump, but he's nowhere njhear having the full package, so why should he be rewarded with scores over people who do?
Ladies: Not many surpriese here. Asada, Kim,Meissner will be tops this season, possibly with Ando. Nakano is doing well, though I think she should have won bronze at SC. Rochette really needs the 3/3 combo, but seems to have gained some confidence back. Hawker looks much improved.
Pairs: Surprised that Z/Z are doing better that P/T. Not surprised that S/S are on top, although I don't care for their programs this year. Very happy that D/D are finally lining up with the top teams. With a few more difficvult jumps, they'll be hard to beat.
Dance: D/S may really need to step it up to beat V/M at NHK. V/M have improved immensely this season and will be tough to beat with their new programs. Davis/White are not doing as well as I had hoped. BelGosto's FD is better, but nothing to write home about IMO. Very impressed by Capellini/Lanote and Carron\/Jost @ skate canada.
Ladies: Not many surpriese here. Asada, Kim,Meissner will be tops this season, possibly with Ando. Nakano is doing well, though I think she should have won bronze at SC. Rochette really needs the 3/3 combo, but seems to have gained some confidence back. Hawker looks much improved.
Pairs: Surprised that Z/Z are doing better that P/T. Not surprised that S/S are on top, although I don't care for their programs this year. Very happy that D/D are finally lining up with the top teams. With a few more difficvult jumps, they'll be hard to beat.
Dance: D/S may really need to step it up to beat V/M at NHK. V/M have improved immensely this season and will be tough to beat with their new programs. Davis/White are not doing as well as I had hoped. BelGosto's FD is better, but nothing to write home about IMO. Very impressed by Capellini/Lanote and Carron\/Jost @ skate canada.
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2007
i think it's been a great dance season
sadly, pairs has been pretty lacklustre, probably following S/Z's retirement
sadly, pairs has been pretty lacklustre, probably following S/Z's retirement
I think V/M still has what to learn until they reach the quality of skating Del/S have...And i don't like the OD/FD of V/M, i think Del/S have much better dances(both OD and FD)
As for D/W i am absolutely sure they ll get better in the season(which is happening already)
Johnny doesn't wear the Russian federaton jacket because he likes to pretend he represents them. One jacket was a good luck gift from TaT before the Olympics. The other jacket was from the 2006 Olympics and like other athletes, Johnny traded his USA jacket with a Russian skater. If you looked, you would see that Johnny has been wearing his offical USA team jacket at competitons this year and in the K&C. The only time I have seen him in the Russian jacket this season is when Johnny did a show in Russia in October.
That is only a partial perspective of that ever-controversial matter.
1. JSF had previously annouced that they would basically nominate the top 3 who gather the most ISU standing points within the latest 2 seasons.
2. They also said that they'll also take the Nationals (Dec. '05) in consideration as well.
3. Miki had much more ISU points over Yukari.
4. Yukari was 5th and Miki in slump was 6th in that Nationals.
IMO which to choose must have been a very difficult decision to make. How soon Miki would recover was sort of a bet. She soon recovered from her slump by the time of Japan Open 2 months after that Olys, but of course that recovery was not soon enough.
To conceive that the "investment" had influence on the choice may be inevitable or even seem natural.
To this the JSF of course says no, while Yukari says out loud "I think it had" and the revenge to that decision has been her main motivation so far.
Come to think of it, that controversy had good effects on both of the two skaters after all.
And the two are friends too.
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Hmm.. Just before the Olympics performance that brought down the fury of skating Gods upon on him and unleashed the wrath of the USFSA as well as various members of the skating community, Johnny received a gift of a Russian jacket for Tatiana Tarasova.... Did this good luck charm from the lovely Tatiana had anything to do with Jonnny's subsequent bad luck? Absolutely not. I am no superstitious fool to harp on coincidences.. But, oh, I feel so so tempted to be silly!
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
The way it was reported here, there was a point system which included both international results and Japanese nationals. The way it worked out, Nakano would have edged Miki if Nakano had gotten fourth at Nationals. The charge was, IIRC, that they deliberately low-balled Nakano to place Onda fourth and Nakano fifth, giving Miki a tiny points advantage.
I don't know if these details are true, but that was the accusation, as I recall.
Oops, made a mistake, Onda was 4th. (Edit my previous post accordingly.)
That game as I recall, Onda's performance was certainly better than Nakano's, IMHO. Yoshie was really ON and her performance there is one of her most memorable!
But it might have been that it was impressive as HER performance. Can't be sure about objective evaluations, LOL.
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2003
This reminds me of the time some other poster said that. So I countered with a recap of the all the GP, GPF, world, jr., national and other medals she'd won over a period of several years.
To which the other poster replied: "Oh, I didn't follow skating before 2002."
:sheesh:
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
So far this season I'm bored with the ladies. All their programs look exactly the same, even their dresses are unimaginative and bland. It looks like they all have the same coach, dress maker, and choreographer. The cheesy wholesome goodness fluff piece on Emily being at Harvard made me want to rip my head clean off. I think all the US ladies are going to get stomped by Yu-Na and Asada. I honestly don't care if it makes me unAmerican or whatever I much prefer the Asian ladies. Caroline needs to go ahead and become the next Kwan or Sasha or whomever she's supposed to be already. At nationals I think they'll hold Kimmie up to gold, give silver to Wagner, and bronze to Hughes.
With the men, who are far more exciting imo, I find nothing interesting or memorable about Lysacek's programs except for the quad, and that's if he even lands the circus trick. You'd have to be blind not to notice the insane inflation of Lysacek's scores. At nationals Johnny will skate perfect beautiful programs with textbook jumps, but no quad. Lysacek will convulse and flail all over the place with wonky jumps while relying on dramatic music to give emotion to his skating because god knows it's not going to be found in the choreography, but he'll land the quad and thus win the event.
I hate hate hate his style of skating, but I am human, therefore I am concerned for Joubert. Whatever he's sick with sounds bad, which makes me think he might not be 100% by worlds and by 100% I mean he won't be able to practice the noble sport of ice jumping. I love both of Lambiel's programs to death, but his 3A is a mess and he doesn't seem to be able to control his quad anymore, but I honestly think he'll have his junk together by worlds and will podium. I also think Takahashi will make the podium at worlds (easily). I think Johnny will easily make top 5 at worlds this year as will Lysacek.
I'm also hoping KVDP doesn't make GPF over someone more deserving.
I'm surprised by Chan's success. I'm not over the moon about his programs, but because he's my age and I'm biased like that I hope he keeps it up. I really liked what I saw from Maybee as well.
The thing that really makes me happy this season is dance. I love so many of the FD's. The Kerrs, Dom/Shab, K/N, and Capellini/LaNotte all have great ones. I think my fave is K/N's Night on Bald Mountain. It really does remind me of a demon and a witch, lol
With the men, who are far more exciting imo, I find nothing interesting or memorable about Lysacek's programs except for the quad, and that's if he even lands the circus trick. You'd have to be blind not to notice the insane inflation of Lysacek's scores. At nationals Johnny will skate perfect beautiful programs with textbook jumps, but no quad. Lysacek will convulse and flail all over the place with wonky jumps while relying on dramatic music to give emotion to his skating because god knows it's not going to be found in the choreography, but he'll land the quad and thus win the event.
I hate hate hate his style of skating, but I am human, therefore I am concerned for Joubert. Whatever he's sick with sounds bad, which makes me think he might not be 100% by worlds and by 100% I mean he won't be able to practice the noble sport of ice jumping. I love both of Lambiel's programs to death, but his 3A is a mess and he doesn't seem to be able to control his quad anymore, but I honestly think he'll have his junk together by worlds and will podium. I also think Takahashi will make the podium at worlds (easily). I think Johnny will easily make top 5 at worlds this year as will Lysacek.
I'm also hoping KVDP doesn't make GPF over someone more deserving.
I'm surprised by Chan's success. I'm not over the moon about his programs, but because he's my age and I'm biased like that I hope he keeps it up. I really liked what I saw from Maybee as well.
The thing that really makes me happy this season is dance.
I love so many of the FD's. The Kerrs, Dom/Shab, K/N, and Capellini/LaNotte all have great ones. I think my fave is K/N's Night on Bald Mountain. It really does remind me of a demon and a witch, lol
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
- Country
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Vodka wrote:
With the men, who are far more exciting imo, I find nothing interesting or memorable about Lysacek's programs except for the quad, and that's if he even lands the circus trick. You'd have to be blind not to notice the insane inflation of Lysacek's scores. At nationals Johnny will skate perfect beautiful programs with textbook jumps, but no quad. Lysacek will convulse and flail all over the place with wonky jumps while relying on dramatic music to give emotion to his skating because god knows it's not going to be found in the choreography
ITA.
Vodka again:
I hate hate hate his style of skating, but I am human, therefore I am concerned for Joubert. Whatever he's sick with sounds bad, which makes me think he might not be 100% by worlds and by 100% I mean he won't be able to practice the noble sport of ice jumping.
I, too, don't like Joubert's style of skating but am worried about his health, don't like to see anyone laid low by physical probs. Love the "noble sport of ice jumping" comment ~
With the men, who are far more exciting imo, I find nothing interesting or memorable about Lysacek's programs except for the quad, and that's if he even lands the circus trick. You'd have to be blind not to notice the insane inflation of Lysacek's scores. At nationals Johnny will skate perfect beautiful programs with textbook jumps, but no quad. Lysacek will convulse and flail all over the place with wonky jumps while relying on dramatic music to give emotion to his skating because god knows it's not going to be found in the choreography
ITA.Vodka again:
I hate hate hate his style of skating, but I am human, therefore I am concerned for Joubert. Whatever he's sick with sounds bad, which makes me think he might not be 100% by worlds and by 100% I mean he won't be able to practice the noble sport of ice jumping.
I, too, don't like Joubert's style of skating but am worried about his health, don't like to see anyone laid low by physical probs. Love the "noble sport of ice jumping" comment ~
