2018 Europeans Ladies FS

[Grin]

I will probably understand if someone from Japan or Korea will write #ItsRussia... but Canadians ROFL

 

[dalenofff]

back in the 6.0 , a clean program was more reward then a difficult one that had fall. So the gold and silver are correct IMO but bronze... maybe not.....

 

[jaylee]

That was one big drama. My wife felt sadness and emptiness when she realized that Evgeniya lost - we had to drink a bottle of wine at home to bring her back to normal.

I skipped through pages of usual pcs discussion: same people with the same mantra.

The main message sent is clear: overall quality of Zagitova's programs and skating is enough for her to win the Olympics if she is clean. Her body of work supports that as well: she won everything this season so far and there is no skater in the world who beat her once. I think this is fair and square. Another message is that Medvedeva also has a chance. But with the current layout she no longer has the privilege for stumbling and unsecure landings. To become dominant again she has to raise the ante: for example, go for 3F-3Lo and fully backload the FS. But this looks very risky with her recovering from injury and just 1 month left before the Games. I would not suggest her increasing the number of lutzes. Her edge tonight was worse than before the injury.

BTW, thank you lavenderblossom for my 4444 thumbs up.

If by chance, you mean that Medvedeva has to rely on Zagitova to make mistakes and be significantly better than what she's shown us in 2017-2018, then yes, she's got a chance still. Zagitova has a significant advantage in both base value and in +GOEs -- the quality of all of her jumps are better than Medvedeva's. Medvedeva's advantage in PCS isn't going to be enough to overcome that unless Zagitova has a serious mistake AND Medvedeva skates BETTER than her very best this season.

 

[bobbob]

If Evgenia and Alina both go clean for the Olympics, Alina would win.

If I were Evgenia, I would be adding in tech ASAP. She had two years to improve herself, and she has not changed her content at all. She is totally capable of doing the exact same content as Alina, she just needed to add it in and train it (she didn't think it was necessary). Now it may be too late.

 

[johnsmith72]

Overscored probably. But let's look at perspective. Carolina was not so inspired and should have lower pcs than Zag and Evgenia. Everyone arguably was overscored. I think the greater outrage is Carolina's inflated scores (forget the outfit).

If by chance, you mean that Medvedeva has to rely on Zagitova to make mistakes and be significantly better than what she's shown us in 2017-2018, then yes, she's got a chance still. Zagitova has a significant advantage in both base value and in +GOEs -- the quality of all of her jumps are better than Medvedeva's. Medvedeva's advantage in PCS isn't going to be enough to overcome that unless Zagitova has a serious mistake AND Medvedeva skates BETTER than her very best this season.

I think Med's PCS advantage will disappear by Olympics whether justified or not. I'm calling 37.5 pcs in the short and above 77 in the long for Alina. Not to bring up Yuna again, but Med is not even close to the PCS skater that Yuna was. And Yuna still lost her entire PCS advantage by the 2014 Olympics.

 

[Blades of Passion]

The inflation for the two Russian girls is unbearable.

Also, Medvedeva's 3S+3T is still cheated and still not called.

 

[chopinskate]

If Evgenia and Alina both go clean for the Olympics, Alina would win.

If I were Evgenia, I would be adding in tech ASAP. She had two years to improve herself, and she has not changed her content at all. She is totally capable of doing the exact same content as Alina, she just needed to add it in and train it (she didn't think it was necessary). Now it may be too late.

I disagree that Evgenia can do the same content as Alina, and even if she could, she just has a month on injury-free time to do so.

Evgenia's jumps are nothing but ugly. Great competitor, ugly skater.

The inflation for the two Russian girls is unbearable.

Also, Medvedeva's 3S+3T is still cheated and still not called.

And I bet you could go more in depth of more stuff she's not called for, if you really wanted to.

I'm not shocked that her Flutz wasn't called. I'm shocked that it was given "!" on Russian ice.

 

[kimganos]

It's not weird. She knows better than anyone the better skater didn't win. I'm extremely upset. I can't imagine how upset Eteri is.

The Olympics might be a different story but today the best Skate was rewarded! Accept it.

 

[beki]

I feel sad for Evgenia too, despite Alina’s stronger jumping. Just as Julia was replaced by Evgenia, Evgenia is replaced by Alina, and Alina will soon enough be replaced as well. It’s painful to watch these shooting stars burn out.

 

[silverfoxes]

My goodness, she wins a silver with a still crazy high score after being injured for 2 months and she's been "replaced" and her star burnt out? Can we dial back the melodrama a bit or is that too much to ask? There is only one gold medal per competition. Nobody is invincible. Good grief. What are all those other girls then who could only dream of a score like that or a silver medal?

I feel far sorrier for Sotskova and I'm not even her fan.

 

[lavoix]

Medvedeva sort of threw this one away in the SP with the double axel. In the long program her landings were very shaky. I think keeping the triple flip+triple toe for the second half is a smart move (I know that here that was a mistake, but they need to reconsider)

FFS Kostner....you should be ashamed!

 

[beki]

I don’t get all the complaining. After a two year phase of knowing who's going to win, before the competition even started, we're finally getting a bit of excitement back. Yay.

But the situation is still the same, only the name of the winner changed.

 

[bobbob]

I disagree that Evgenia can do the same content as Alina, and even if she could, she just has a month on injury-free time to do so.

Evgenia's jumps are nothing but ugly. Great competitor, ugly skater.

She can do a 3Lz-3Lo combo, she can do all of the jumps Alina does...perhaps not with the same Rippon effect. The question is consistency and clearly she lacks practice of late because her jumps were quite shaky here. I think it may be too late, the lesson is: in figure skating, never rest on your laurels. We will see.

 

[kevinVchicago]

The inflation for the two Russian girls is unbearable.

Also, Medvedeva's 3S+3T is still cheated and still not called.

The inflation for Kostner is unbearable.

 

[silverfoxes]

She can do a 3Lz-3Lo combo, she can do all of the jumps Alina does...perhaps not with the same Rippon effect. The question is consistency and clearly she lacks practice of late because her jumps were quite shaky here. I think it may be too late, the lesson is: in figure skating, never rest on your laurels. We will see.

I would hardly say Evgenia Medvedeva, of all people(!), was ever resting on her laurels even before the injury. She practices alongside Alina every single day, she knows exactly what her competitors can do, and now I'm sure she will figure out what she needs to do to get back on top.

 

[chopinskate]

The inflation for Kostner is unbearable.

This competition was unbearable.

She can do a 3Lz-3Lo combo, she can do all of the jumps Alina does...perhaps not with the same Rippon effect. The question is consistency and clearly she lacks practice of late because her jumps were quite shaky here. I think it may be too late, the lesson is: in figure skating, never rest on your laurels. We will see.

Her technique on the Lz is terrible. So, no, she can't do a 3Lz-3Lo. I've never seen her do a 3?-3Lo combo, but if it's anything like 3?-3T (which is far easier), then no, I'd rather not say she can do them.

I will disagree with her "resting on her laurels". I do think she's a good competitor. I'm just not sure why her technique has never been fixed.

 

[Crossover]

Alina Zagitova is about to be a next Tara Lipinski.

Not wishing for Zagitova to disappear in competition soon after winning everything even though she is far from my favorite skating styles. However, the way she enters into the field has quite a striking resemblance to Tara; her age during the Olympics and 3Lo to a jump combo and higher layouts, etc. Though if Zagitova would have a half of sophistication or presentation skills that Tara had (not a fan of both Tara and Kwan), there would've much less outcries over her skyrocketing PCS rising all season long. Though we've seen the same method from Medvedeva.

From gathered responses from my friends, FS fans only during Olympics, Zagitova seems to have higher marketability and star power potential than Medvedeva. Jumps and spins are first noticeable features in figure skating, so casual fans don't discern wrong edge take-offs or posture (unless intolerably hideous) and SS well unlike hard core fans like us. Thus, Zagitova with higher contents and jumps with better flows are more easier to convince casual and Olympic fans than Medvedeva's labored and eyesore jumps. The judges might've finished their calculation long before we ever set our eyes on the so-called new unexciting rivalry. However nothing is set in stone, so I rather root for other skaters to take OGM, but if I have no choice but between the two, I'd also go with my friends. It's apparent that Zagitova's crazily crammed programs rather hinder her chance to show her musicality that I saw from her junior programs until she went to Tutberidze.

 

[yyyskate]

Alina Zagitova is about to be a next Tara Lipinski.

Not wishing for Zagitova to disappear in competition soon after winning everything even though she is far from my favorite skating styles. However, the way she enters into the field has quite a striking resemblance to Tara; her age during the Olympics and 3Lo to a jump combo and higher layouts, etc. Though if Zagitova would have a half of sophistication or presentation skills that Tara had (not a fan of both Tara and Kwan), there would've much less outcries over her skyrocketing PCS rising all season long. Though we've seen the same method from Medvedeva.

From gathered responses from my friends, FS fans only during Olympics, Zagitova seems to have higher marketability and star power potential than Medvedeva. Jumps and spins are first noticeable features in figure skating, so casual fans don't discern wrong edge take-offs or posture (unless intolerably hideous) and SS well unlike hard core fans like us. Thus, Zagitova with higher contents and jumps with better flows are more easier to convince casual and Olympic fans than Medvedeva's labored and eyesore jumps. The judges might've finished their calculation long before we ever set our eyes on the so-called new unexciting rivalry. However nothing is set in stone, so I rather root for other skaters to take OGM, but if I have no choice but between the two, I'd also go with my friends. It's apparent that Zagitova's crazily crammed programs rather hinder her chance to show her musicality that I saw from her junior programs until she went to Tutberidze.

you know everything is about visual:yes:

 

[skate29]

I may be in the minority here, but I really think there is no way to overscore Carolina on PCS. In my opinion, if the performance goes poorly, why should skating skills take a hit? If we live in a world where Evgenia Medvedeva has 9.5 something SS and Alina Zagitova has 9.3 something, Carolina should be getting 10's. I understand the performance score going down, but the others? Look, she is still a far superior dancer than the Russians (unfinished movements, Evgenia's labored movements, Alina's far from perfect posture) on any given day and I think that should be reflected.
Not to say the ISU doesn't have an agenda with Carolina, they certainly do. Keeping her scores competitive is the way to tell all the haters that artistic skating can still be competitive and that it's not entirely about the jumps. I hope future generations in this system look at Carolina and realize they can work on BOTH the technical and the artistic.
Maria's scores just show us what is really wrong with the scoring system: corridor judging. What is really SO egregious about Maria's skating that she's a full point lower than Medvedeva and Zagitova in most PCS categories? In fact, I find her arm movements a lot more graceful at times, even if her programs lack a certain X-factor.
Sigh. IJS.

 

[kevinVchicago]

This competition was unbearable.

In many ways, yes. Thank god Medvedeva, Zagitova, Sotskova, and Hendrickx were there to deliver and raise the level.