Will Mao Asada Make It to the 2018 Games?

[anyanka]

I leave this here. The crown jewel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R3o8ls2zH8&nohtml5=False

One for the ages. If our civilization ends and aliens find video footage of the pinnacle of human artistic and athletic ability thousands of years from now, they would do well to study this clip until the end of time.

 

[anyanka]

So even if she wins without the 3A, I don't think she'd be satisfied with herself. I'd rather see her fail the 3A but be content with what she's delivered than to see her win medals but not satisfied with herself, if that makes sense.

... and that is the mark of a true champion.

 

[iamchrislao]

Why are you quoting me to reply to someone else's post?

 

[iamchrislao]

Brings tears to my eyes! Thanks mary01! :luv17:

Right now I can't figure out if i think you underestimate her or just don't like her or don't want her succes to continue. Mao has everything to keep competing and winning everything too, and when I say everything I mean it in every sense, she has all kinds of jumps in her arsenal and every single kind of jump was done in competition this season cleanly atleast once, she has a staminia only few woman could dream of, to land soo many jumps and combo's during a 4 minutes program takes alot of strength and staminia even for men and she has time and time again pulled it, you would think that after doing so many difficult jumps and combo's her speed would decrease during her performance or that her spins and steps wouldn't receive the levels but that never happens with her, she consistently receives level 4 on all her elements and delivers a thrilling stepsequence, Mao does sooo much that is taken for granted, because we are so used to seeing it from her that we now simply expect it of her, she adds soo much to the sport, it's such a shame that they just ignore all the amazing things she delivers.
ofcourse you can decide to try to downplay her accomplishment by saying "she doesn't have medals" well in fact she has more medals then any other skater currently competing, and in fact even with kims consistency she didn't win as much as Mao has, so please Mao doesn't lack medals lol, she has more medals then any of her current and past competitors. I would also like to add that Mao has showed her longivity and competitiveness in the sport only few could compare too, hers even more impressive because she from the beginning till now didn't water down her content and take the easy route, she instead kept upgrading her technical content, in every sense, kept her 3A, 3f-3lo, brought back the 2a-3t, reworked the 3lz and get it ratified with the right edge AGAIN, kept the biellman and other extremely difficult Spinpositions that are really hard on a skaters body etc. I mean how can a person not appreciate all she has done and keeps doing, and how can a person not get sad when such a hardworking, and extremely talented skater doesn't get fully rewarded for everything she has done, is beyond me!

 

[cinnamon]

She is aiming for 2018
http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASJ4D4K6VJ4DUTQP01T.html

 

[Blades of Passion]

She needs 3Flip+3Toe. It's simply not worth risking the 3Flip+3Loop. Discontinuing her training of the 3Flip+3Toe after 2008 Worlds has been the biggest blunder of career, strategically.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

She needs 3Flip+3Toe. It's simply not worth risking the 3Flip+3Loop. Discontinuing her training of the 3Flip+3Toe after 2008 Worlds has been the biggest blunder of career, strategically.

I think you're right. 3F-3T, 3Lo, 2A in the short. 3F-3T, 2A-3T and 5 more jumping passes in the long (without a 3A) and she will win it all.

 

[Blades of Passion]

She should definitely keep the 3A. It's too big of an advantage to give up and there's no guarantee she would win doing the same tech content as everyone else.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

She should definitely keep the 3A. It's too big of an advantage to give up and there's no guarantee she would win doing the same tech content as everyone else.

It's no advantage if you aren't nailing it consistently. No one else takes the risks Mao does and she doesn't have to. She is more likely to win doing the same content as everyone else than she is to hit two programs with a clean 3A. She buries herself in the SP and then has to skate early in the LP so her PCS suffers. She could never add a 3F-3T AND train the 3A AND continue working on the 3Z at her age. She needs to pick and choose wisely.

 

[Skater Boy]

Why are you bringing up Yuna in this thread? Whether Mao makes it to 2018 or not has nothing to do with the past imo.

Anyways, Mao has always been inconsistent. That is true, but despite that and arguably strict judging that she received throughout her career, she won three Worlds, several GPF, Olympics silver, and delivered what many believed was the best LP at Sochi. Not to mention Mao suffered personal setbacks during this time that took a lot out of her mentally. She has had a career of highs and lows, yet still managed a overall competitive record that only ranks second to Kim in her era.

Chill Mik! Chill. I am only do some comparison and contrasts ie with yuna to show how good Mao is and i believe she can win without the triple axel. But the problem is she doesn't have a consistent triple triple yet it would seem With this crowd even with Kostner if she skates clean with seven triples I thin she can win. She is the best pc skater if she doesn't make too many errors however, she has to get those jumps clean.

 

[Skater Boy]

The 3A is probably very taxing on her energy level, so if she can get as many points on a 2A as she can for a < 3A maybe she will have more energy to complete the easier jumps later in the program. Plus, if she knows that she was close to < on the 3A it may weigh on her psyche and add more pressure for the other jumps later in the performance. I just don't get how, if your goal is to win in 2018, you aren't constructing your jump layout to have good odds of delivering a perfect skate.

Good point about the energy level and how it might affect the rest of Mao's jumps. You know i think if skaters could be really honest we would learn more about their fragilities and insecurities. i think she is trying ot construct a jump layout that maximizes her points and strengths - theproblem is she has weaknesses and liabilities she has to hide or try to use the axel to make up. She obviously has problems for whatever reason taking a triple to to the flip or loop. She has huge issues with the lutz edge. And for a long time the salchow was non existent. I mean her combo in thesp of triple flip double loop says a lot. ideally her short would be a triple axel, triple loop triple loop though i fear urs and triple flip. Iam sure she would tack on a triple toe somewhere and use her loop as the solo triple jump if she had more confidence to land the toe at the end of a triple loop or flip.

 

[Skater Boy]

I think you're right. 3F-3T, 3Lo, 2A in the short. 3F-3T, 2A-3T and 5 more jumping passes in the long (without a 3A) and she will win it all.

i think the problem is she has issues with the 3T added to a combo. Not so easy.

 

[topaz emerald]

Yeah...interesting how Satoko has what at least LOOK to be less impressive jumps compared to Mao whereas Mao receives penalties...and Mao might benefit from doing a Satoko layout in the LP (in addition to a 3A, repeating the 3F with a 3F-2Lp.) But I admire her ambition to do otherwise.

This is a question from someone who only watched in Olympic years between 2007-2009 and 2011-2013 (busy with high school and college and things, and while I've watched lots of great stuff, missed some of the nitty gritty). At what point did Mao's 3-3s get so unreliable? Was it because of greater attention to URs or because she lost technique over time?

I always thought her 3flip 3loop combo was solid, but judges started penalizing her for under-rotations when she faced yuna in her prime, maybe second year seniors. But I never thought those calls for under-rotations were justified. In my mind, judges already made up their mind who to crown in Vancouver. It was Yuna's gold to lose, in my opinion, because the stage was set for her to win. I know a lot disagree, but I've followed Mao's career in her prime for a long time and judging from the judge's scoring of Mao's technical marks vs yuna's, I always thought they held her back intentionally. Does anyone remmeber her 3flip 3toe combo she did in her lp program to fantasie impromptu? She didn't have any problem putting that in at worlds against yuna and correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think she got penalized for under-rotating that either. So why did she stop doing that 3flip 3toe combo? It's a mystery to me, because in later years she added the 3toe jump to her double axel. If she wasn't comfortable doing the 3toe, then why did she keep practing the 3sal, because that was not Mao's jump either.

 

[Skater Boy]

Right now I can't figure out if i think you underestimate her or just don't like her or don't want her succes to continue. Mao has everything to keep competing and winning everything too, and when I say everything I mean it in every sense, she has all kinds of jumps in her arsenal and every single kind of jump was done in competition this season cleanly atleast once, she has a staminia only few woman could dream of, to land soo many jumps and combo's during a 4 minutes program takes alot of strength and staminia even for men and she has time and time again pulled it, you would think that after doing so many difficult jumps and combo's her speed would decrease during her performance or that her spins and steps wouldn't receive the levels but that never happens with her, she consistently receives level 4 on all her elements and delivers a thrilling stepsequence, Mao does sooo much that is taken for granted, because we are so used to seeing it from her that we now simply expect it of her, she adds soo much to the sport, it's such a shame that they just ignore all the amazing things she delivers.
ofcourse you can decide to try to downplay her accomplishment by saying "she doesn't have medals" well in fact she has more medals then any other skater currently competing, and in fact even with kims consistency she didn't win as much as Mao has, so please Mao doesn't lack medals lol, she has more medals then any of her current and past competitors. I would also like to add that Mao has showed her longivity and competitiveness in the sport only few could compare too, hers even more impressive because she from the beginning till now didn't water down her content and take the easy route, she instead kept upgrading her technical content, in every sense, kept her 3A, 3f-3lo, brought back the 2a-3t, reworked the 3lz and get it ratified with the right edge AGAIN, kept the biellman and other extremely difficult Spinpositions that are really hard on a skaters body etc. I mean how can a person not appreciate all she has done and keeps doing, and how can a person not get sad when such a hardworking, and extremely talented skater doesn't get fully rewarded for everything she has done, is beyond me!

Oh Mary quite contrary. I think Mao can beat everyone - baby Russians, American princesses, Carolina and her Japanese counterparts. She can do it with the 3A and if she can skate cleanly and consistently and not UR or mess up edges. She has the programs and pcs - skating abilities.She is the class of a second class of good skaters. She is no Oksana Baiul musically, no consistent clean skating like Kwan, nor the consistent quality of Yuna but she has everything or enough to win if she can put it together. To the poster who said she has udnergone great personal struggles well so has every other skater she isn't that different. I mean she lost her mom but she has not had the funding issues of some, substance abuse, broken homes, lack of funding or federation support. She has not had the major injuries of some skaters. She does have a nice, pretty elegant package though. But I think part of the challenge is that she has some wakenesses which she tries to mask and it is nt easy sometimes.

 

[topaz emerald]

Standards of judging always make subtle changes to promote a certain skater over another, and the skating world will usually promote a new skater most likely to bring in new fans, new viewers and new money. The skating world knows that Mao doesn't need to be awarded a medal to be beloved by the public---her esteem is so beyond the level of whether she gets a medal or not---that they prefer to promote a skater who needs that medal to have a chance at being popular thus bringing in new money.

So, ironic as it is, it is Mao's utter and overwhelming popularity that impedes her from being treated fairly by the judges.

What this phenomenon creates is a league of fans of Mao, but not fans of skating as a spectator sport. In other words, they will pay money to watch Mao, but they will not pay money to watch skating as a judged sport and will leave the sport as soon as Mao leaves, because they know judging is basically bogus.

This makes sense. I always thought she couldn't beat Yuna because of politics. I loved watching her. She was doing the hardest ladies jump, 3axel, and no one I can think of was doing it and landing it except for Mao, yet I always felt the judging system never rewarded her for that jump early on against Yuna.

 

[Skater Boy]

Right now I can't figure out if i think you underestimate her or just don't like her or don't want her succes to continue. Mao has everything to keep competing and winning everything too, and when I say everything I mean it in every sense, she has all kinds of jumps in her arsenal and every single kind of jump was done in competition this season cleanly atleast once, she has a staminia only few woman could dream of, to land soo many jumps and combo's during a 4 minutes program takes alot of strength and staminia even for men and she has time and time again pulled it, you would think that after doing so many difficult jumps and combo's her speed would decrease during her performance or that her spins and steps wouldn't receive the levels but that never happens with her, she consistently receives level 4 on all her elements and delivers a thrilling stepsequence, Mao does sooo much that is taken for granted, because we are so used to seeing it from her that we now simply expect it of her, she adds soo much to the sport, it's such a shame that they just ignore all the amazing things she delivers.
ofcourse you can decide to try to downplay her accomplishment by saying "she doesn't have medals" well in fact she has more medals then any other skater currently competing, and in fact even with kims consistency she didn't win as much as Mao has, so please Mao doesn't lack medals lol, she has more medals then any of her current and past competitors. I would also like to add that Mao has showed her longivity and competitiveness in the sport only few could compare too, hers even more impressive because she from the beginning till now didn't water down her content and take the easy route, she instead kept upgrading her technical content, in every sense, kept her 3A, 3f-3lo, brought back the 2a-3t, reworked the 3lz and get it ratified with the right edge AGAIN, kept the biellman and other extremely difficult Spinpositions that are really hard on a skaters body etc. I mean how can a person not appreciate all she has done and keeps doing, and how can a person not get sad when such a hardworking, and extremely talented skater doesn't get fully rewarded for everything she has done, is beyond me!

Oh Mary quite contrary. I think Mao can beat everyone - baby Russians, American princesses, Carolina and her Japanese counterparts. She can do it with the 3A and if she can skate cleanly and consistently and not UR or mess up edges without the 3A. She has the programs and pcs - skating abilities.She is the class of a second class of good skaters. She is no Oksana Baiul musically, no consistent clean skating like Kwan, nor the consistent quality of Yuna but she has everything or enough to win if she can put it together. To the poster who said she has udnergone great personal struggles well so has every other skater she isn't that different. I mean she lost her mom but she has not had the funding issues of some, substance abuse, broken homes, lack of funding or federation support. She has not had the major injuries of some skaters. She does have a nice, pretty elegant package though. But I think part of the challenge is that she has some wakenesses which she tries to mask and it is nt easy sometimes.

 

[MiRé]

This makes sense. I always thought she couldn't beat Yuna because of politics. I loved watching her. She was doing the hardest ladies jump, 3axel, and no one I can think of was doing it and landing it except for Mao, yet I always felt the judging system never rewarded her for that jump early on against Yuna.

I'm sorry, what politics? You think Korea has more politicking power than Japan?

 

[topaz emerald]

Plus I have doubt in her technique, her jumps look so much stronger than before. Her 3F+3Lo and 2A+3T combo look really strong at Boston, and her 3F+2Lo+2Lo is so solid now. She can really do it.

The only problem now is actually the judging. Will the judges be unreasonably harsh on her and overlook the others and lowball her PCS? That is the question.

The judges have ALWAYS been harsh with Mao in scoring ever since she started competing against Yuna in Seniors.

 

[MiRé]

The judges have ALWAYS been harsh with Mao in scoring ever since she started competing against Yuna in Seniors.

That's because Mao UR and and Yuna does not. Simple

 

[topaz emerald]

I'm sorry, what politics? You think Korea has more politicking power than Japan?

I understand Japan and Korea hate each other. I'm American ok? I'm not going to get into an argument with you regarding country politics. I was responding to a comment regarding bringing popularity of the sport to a new country and bringing in new fans such as Korea.

- - - Updated - - -

That's because Mao UR and and Yuna does not. Simple

or maybe the judges have the discretion to call who gets under-rotated jumps and who doesnt? Simple.