State of U.S. Ladies' skating 2016-17 | Page 32 | Golden Skate

State of U.S. Ladies' skating 2016-17

Ice Dance said:
The "Baby Ballerinas" included more names. Naomi Nari Nam and Beatrisa Liang were on the list as well.
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Yes they were and rightly so. I never saw NNN live but I saw her on TV and she was spectacular. Beatrissa is from Granada Hills, Ca. Which is right next to Northridge, Ca. where I went to college. I saw her playing piano in an Orchestra on campus at C.S.U.N. and begged our Band Director to let me meet her. Tiny, tiny, tiny. Like, Yamaguchi and Harding tiny.
 
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Ice Dance said:
Sasha was far from under the radar. And Tara was never under the radar either. Both were being watched by the press before exiting juniors. Jennifer Kirk & Deanna Stellato were performing on National TV for the Keri Lotion Classic in January 2001 prior to their first senior nationals. Silverstein & Pekarek were invited to perform an exhibition to a similar event based on their Junior Worlds win. And, of course, Nathan made the National TV coverage before entering juniors.[/QUOTE

I didn't know who Sasha was until she debut as a senior. Same as Tara. And I watched all the figure skating competitions Michelle did if it was nationally broadcast. I just don't recall juniors making it on national TV, esp nowadays because I think the poparity of the sport has gone down a lot in the USA
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Ice Dance said:
Sasha was far from under the radar. And Tara was never under the radar either. Both were being watched by the press before exiting juniors. Jennifer Kirk & Deanna Stellato were performing on National TV for the Keri Lotion Classic in January 2001 prior to their first senior nationals. Silverstein & Pekarek were invited to perform an exhibition to a similar event based on their Junior Worlds win. And, of course, Nathan made the National TV coverage before entering juniors.
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I remember Sasha competing in a cheesefest competition prior to her breakthrough. She skated cleanly and some thought she should have placed above Volchkova. NNN was in a Yamaguchi Christmas show on tv right before her debut at Sr Nationals. Sarah Hughes had a performance at the Goodwill Games before her senior nationals debut. Jenny and Deanna competed in senior nats in Cleveland in 2000. They didn't get televised before seniors.
 
Kori Ade made some very interesting remarks about the cultural differences in the U.S. figure skating system, as opposed to the Russian and Japanese systems, in a discussion about the ladies' discipline in particular.

Kori was Dave's co-host for This and That a couple of days ago. They focused mostly on Nebelhorn, but of course got into broader areas also. This is a fun listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEyaAuQIyAo
 
I think Caroline Zhang might be skating for fun. I found a while ago she is listed as a coach on the website of All Year FSC.
 
hippomoomin said:
I think Caroline Zhang might be skating for fun. I found a while ago she is listed as a coach on the website of All Year FSC.
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Caroline Zhang is competing at Southwest Pacific Regionals this week.
(Go, Caroline :yay:. And go, Vivian Le :yay:.)

Plus Caroline placed third at 2016 Glacier Falls.

I don't know what you mean by "skating for fun."
Grant Hochstein and Caroline both are staff coaches at East West.
Would you say that Grant also is "skating for fun"???

ETA:
In fact, it is quite common for senior elite skaters (who are not competing "for fun," AFAIK) to work as coaches .. it's easy to think of other examples.
They are not mutually exclusive roles.​
 
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Seconding that. Go, Vivian! :cheer: SW Pacifc Sectionals have a nice group of senior ladies this year. Eastern Great Lakes...not so much. And I've only heard of one lady in the senior group at North Atlantics. :slink:
 
It's hard to be a serious elite skater and do side jobs to pay the bills. Before she had the more lucrative (?) skating shows, Ashley Wagner worked part time in retail to pay her own way and I highly respect her for it. It's very common in this sport for mommy and daddy to pay for everything.

Somewhat related, former American skater Melissa Bulhanghi (?) switched feds to the Philippines. They only had one spot and they gave it to another girl. Melissa commented that she wanted the spot for the Olympics, but she didn't have as much practice time as she would have liked, as she had to spend her time coaching to pay the bills.
 
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Ya, it East/West.
I mean she is probably not serious about her competitive goals. On her wiki, "Caroline Zhang" is listed as her coach.

So she is doing a side job, and also does not have coach. I don't think she can very far without a coach.
Her best combined total was from 2007-08 season at GPF. I would like to see some interviews with her

ice coverage said:
Caroline Zhang is competing at Southwest Pacific Regionals this week.
(Go, Caroline :yay:. And go, Vivian Le :yay:.)

Plus Caroline placed third at 2016 Glacier Falls.

I don't know what you mean by "skating for fun."
Grant Hochstein and Caroline both are staff coaches at East West.
Would you say that Grant also is "skating for fun"???

ETA:
In fact, it is quite common for senior elite skaters (who are not competing "for fun," AFAIK) to work as coaches .. it's easy to think of other examples.
They are not mutually exclusive roles.​
Click to expand...
 
brightphoton said:
It's hard to be a serious elite skater and do side jobs to pay the bills. Before she had the more lucrative (?) skating shows, Ashley Wagner worked part time in retail to pay her own way and I highly respect her for it. ...
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I hope that no one ever suggested that Ashley were skating "for fun" during her years of selling Lucky jeans to fund her training and competing.

And yes, of course, I too highly respect the likes of Caroline, Grant, Ashley, Jeremy Ten, Colin McManus, John Coughlin, etc., who have earned paychecks during their competitive careers.

Seems to me that skaters who are earning money on their own to sustain their training and competing are exactly the ones who clearly are not skating "for fun."

hippomoomin said:
... I don't think she can very far without a coach ....
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Never say never. Mirai -- without a coach -- came super-close to making the 2014 Sochi team.

(I am not trying to stir up another debate about the 2014 Sochi selection process. I love both Mirai and Ashley, and I understand why Ashley was selected.)

ETA:
I don't claim to know whether Caroline does or does not have a coach at this point. But I do not consider Wikipedia to be a foolproof source for anything.
FWIW, this Apr 2016 article says that both Caroline and Grant train with Peter and Karen.
 
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I remember a year or two before Caroline took a hiatus for hip issues, Peter Oppengard refused to sit with Caroline during the kiss and cry, even though he was there and he sat with his other skaters. This was sectionals, I believe, and Caroline made it through. At Nationals, Caroline also sat alone in the kiss and cry. At least at the time of sectionals, Karen and Peter were officially listed as Caroline's coaches, even though they clearly had a falling out, so I wouldn't put too much stock into official sources.
 
Mariah Bell just won a Bronze at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial. I think the rest of the US Ladies need to keep an eye on Mariah this year as she looks to be in great shape and her programs and clearly having an impact on the judges.
 
mrrice said:
Mariah Bell just won a Bronze at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial. I think the rest of the US Ladies need to keep an eye on Mariah this year as she looks to be in great shape and her programs and clearly having an impact on the judges.
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Not sure any of the other ladies should be quaking in their boots just yet. Mariah scored only 105.14 in the FS (4th in the FS) and landed it looks like 3 triples in an otherwise shaky program. She was also beaten by Da Bin Choi and Nicola Rajicova in the FS. She eeked out a medal here.
 
mrrice said:
Mariah Bell just won a Bronze at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial. I think the rest of the US Ladies need to keep an eye on Mariah this year as she looks to be in great shape and her programs and clearly having an impact on the judges.
Click to expand...

Mariah did not medal because she skated well here. She made a ton of mistakes but the field was weak.
 
Da Bin Choi may have beaten Mariah in the FS, but Da Bin bombed the SP and was 10th entering the FS. Likewise, Rajicova was 6th after the SP, behiind Mariah by nearly 4 points, and she beat Mariah in the FS by 1.06---oh, and Nicole was skating on home ice. BTW, Mariah beat Lipnitskaia in the FS. And Leonova was ahead of Mariah by less than a point in the SP, and Mariah beat her by 8 points in the FS.

At least Mariah skated consistently, which can't be said for many of the others there. It's the early season, folks. We don't want our skaters to peak in September......
 
chuckm said:
Da Bin Choi may have beaten Mariah in the FS, but Da Bin bombed the SP and was 10th entering the FS. Likewise, Rajicova was 6th after the SP, behiind Mariah by nearly 4 points, and she beat Mariah in the FS by 1.06---oh, and Nicole was skating on home ice. BTW, Mariah beat Lipnitskaia in the FS. And Leonova was ahead of Mariah by less than a point in the SP, and Mariah beat her by 8 points in the FS.

At least Mariah skated consistently, which can't be said for many of the others there. It's the early season, folks. We don't want our skaters to peak in September......
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I love Mariah and her skating, but she scored like 15 points less than at SLC just two weeks ago; that's not really consistent.

And why do I feel like your peaking comment is directed at a certain skater? :think:
 
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Tavi... said:
Mariah did not medal because she skated well here. She made a ton of mistakes but the field was weak.
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Really, when I read comments like it tempts me to pay for a stream but, when I read the forums, I hear nothing but complaints. I haven't seen video's of the event but I did see the final outcome and thought it was a big deal for Mariah to win a medal. It sounds like Alena Leonova had a bad Free Program and fell out of the medals which is too bad. I always pull for the "Veterans" from every country.
 
Agree. I won't call this performance her "breakthrough." But I am glad she got all those opportunities to compete internationally.
Tavi... said:
Mariah did not medal because she skated well here. She made a ton of mistakes but the field was weak.
Click to expand...
 
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