If Rika does indeed end up winning Worlds, she'll need a similarly memorable and incredible skate. It doesn't help that she's in the second last flight, however.
Rika Kihira
- Thread starter Marin
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If Rika does indeed end up winning Worlds, she'll need a similarly memorable and incredible skate. It doesn't help that she's in the second last flight, however.
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2016
Don't give up so early.. Rika has tes and little pressure. It's not over until over. I learned that at 2017 WC. Honestly, I usaually feel comfortable when my fav skater had not good sp.( not melt down level) for my poor heart and mind. Rika has nothing to lose.
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2014
I am cheering for Rika to skate great in her free program and I admire her courage to continue going for the triple axel when she could so safely land a double axel instead.
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2018
nooooooooooooo
Thinking on it, no matter where Rika scores she's going to be invited to WTT because she's a STAR... it would be so lovely if she can finally do her SP justice there, lol. That level 2 spin from GPF still haunts me, grr!!
Of course I want her to win Worlds too, but she's already had such an extraordinary debut, and I wouldn't want her to feel disappointed if she doesn't get gold. She's only sixteen, and a superb athlete. Her placement tomorrow will never take that away. That said, I have already harboured delusional anime-esque fantasies of her nailing her FS flawlessly tomorrow, then at the very end pulling out a yolo fully-rotated 4S to blow everyone away. A girl can dream, right?
Of course I want her to win Worlds too, but she's already had such an extraordinary debut, and I wouldn't want her to feel disappointed if she doesn't get gold. She's only sixteen, and a superb athlete. Her placement tomorrow will never take that away. That said, I have already harboured delusional anime-esque fantasies of her nailing her FS flawlessly tomorrow, then at the very end pulling out a yolo fully-rotated 4S to blow everyone away. A girl can dream, right?
Thinking on it, no matter where Rika scores she's going to be invited to WTT because she's a STAR... it would be so lovely if she can finally do her SP justice there, lol. That level 2 spin from GPF still haunts me, grr!!
Of course I want her to win Worlds too, but she's already had such an extraordinary debut, and I wouldn't want her to feel disappointed if she doesn't get gold. She's only sixteen, and a superb athlete. Her placement tomorrow will never take that away. That said, I have already harboured delusional anime-esque fantasies of her nailing her FS flawlessly tomorrow, then at the very end pulling out a yolo fully-rotated 4S to blow everyone away. A girl can dream, right?
I actually don't know if Rika will have the physical strength at the end to do a 4S at the very end. However, I've had similar fantasies in which Rika goes for broke with a 4S. If she really wants to gamble (which, if she can do safely, why not, as it'd be her final jump at the end?), she would have to do a 3Lz-Eu-3S and then pray that her final 4S is sufficiently rotated to not be Zaya.
However, we've all seen that her 4S rotation just isn't quite there yet, even in training situations. A fall on a 4S< would be worth more than the 2T-2Lo she'd be replacing, but only just. If she managed to win Worlds with a surprise 4S like this, it'd be a fairytale to rival Yuzuru's 2017 Worlds free skate though.
Short program record holders are cursed this competition, it seems. Three of the four short program record holders (Cipres and James held the SP pairs record this season for a time) would have all messed up their shorts. Cipres/James weren't able to recover.
Japanese skaters seem cursed too. Out of the five singles skaters likely to podium, only Kaori has survived thus far. Rika and Satoko aren't even in the final group while Shoma just got in.
The odds are heavily stacked against Yuzuru and Rika. If any skaters from their respective disciplines were to come back from here, it would be them. Are we going to see some miracles here? The FS records belong to Yuzuru and Rika, in any case.
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2015
Thinking on it, no matter where Rika scores she's going to be invited to WTT because she's a STAR... it would be so lovely if she can finally do her SP justice there, lol. That level 2 spin from GPF still haunts me, grr!!
Of course I want her to win Worlds too, but she's already had such an extraordinary debut, and I wouldn't want her to feel disappointed if she doesn't get gold. She's only sixteen, and a superb athlete. Her placement tomorrow will never take that away. That said, I have already harboured delusional anime-esque fantasies of her nailing her FS flawlessly tomorrow, then at the very end pulling out a yolo fully-rotated 4S to blow everyone away. A girl can dream, right?
I can just imagine her trying that
It would be great! But, despite her incredible athletism and slighty chaotic energy she seems like quite a thinker. My favorite moment of the season was when she stepped out of her lutz and turned it into an eur 2S. That was wonderful! I am not sure she will improvise a 4S though 
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2014
Great comeback and so gutsy for Rika to go for the second triple axel after landing the incredible triple axel / triple toe combo. Her artistic expression and fluidity of movement are stunning and so lovely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ8Fo4ylCMw
Rika won the tech score in the freeskate by about 1.5 points and should have won the freeskate, yet she received a lot lower PCS scores than Evgenia or Alina. Even though they skated very well, I believe Rika should have received considerably higher PCS scores relatively, especially with all the refinements she made to her program. However, the idea of underscoring Japanese women at home is well established as 2014 Worlds showed. In addition, both Rika and Satoko were likely lowballed relative to Kaori for being in the second group because Rika, for example, received a full 3 points lower in PCS than her despite the fact that she received a much higher tech score, which completely contradicts the scoring trend earlier in the season when Rika had a much higher PCS with a slightly lower tech score at the Grand Prix Final LP, so this is a retrospective way of throwing things back to discriminatory skating order and place holders under 6.0 that continue to be perpetrated in another guise today.
The thing is sometimes skaters are scored higher in PCS with lower tech scores, and others like Rika are held down to distant 4th place PCS with the highest tech score, irrelevant of the quality of the PCS criteria, which undermines the value of trying harder elements and to me adds a high degree of contradiction and illegitimacy to the scoring. It is easier for a skater not to make a mistake with lower tech content and lower tech scores, and it discourages skaters from trying and often executing more challenging and exciting elements like the triple axel / triple toe because they may be selectively deflated for mistakes.
I admit Rika made mistakes, but for 2/3 of the competition she delivered the highest technical score finishing 3rd with a 4 point cushion in tech overall,and only 2 points in tech away from 2nd place, with Rika in my opinion having noticeably superior artistry and skating skills over Elizavetta as scores have shown in every competition but this one. Therefore, I really think Rika should have had a similar PCS score to Kaori and finished in 2nd place, especially considering Rika's far superior technical performance in the long program. However, the fact is despite Rika's outstanding skating skills and artistry she had the greatest deflation in scores in her LP between her Tech (almost 83) and her PCS (under 71) of any competitor at Worlds except 16th place Alexandra Feigin, and it is consistent with the trend in underscoring her PCS that began in the Japanese nationals LP (for the last two years) and stepped up with more extreme deflationary urgency in the Challenge Cup. I believe Rika may be the first skater ever to actually receive chronic deflationary scoring for consistently giving the best tech performances in her LP when select others have recently received chronic PCS inflation with consistently lower technical scores than Rika. This scoring inversion is kind of an inverted psychological operation against Rika, especially since it was begun by her own federation in the Nationals LP. The fact that the relative PCS deflation was again done in Worlds at home makes the inverted PCS underscoring even more conspicuous, especially since other skaters are receiving far higher PCS away from home without a lot lower tech score. It seems to me too that doing a triple lutz and flip on the correct edge has also lost its true value and suddenly ur calls are more lenient when certain other skaters were scored so harshly in the past by contrast.
My view is that everyone should decide for themselves who is best like listening to music, viewing art or reading literature and for me Rika is my favorite skater currently competing, no matter whether she wins or not and regardless of the system's scores. I am impressed that she chased her ideal of landing three triple axels just like the skater who seems to have inspired her the most, Mao. But put simply, Rika's relative scoring here at Worlds, was unjust just as it was at Nationals and the Challenge Cup. There is a clear trend of purposely deflating her to take away her tech advantage by having her excellence in artistry and skating skills shortchanged. Her magic moments in time like her incredible NHK freeskate are just as special to me whether I see them in a Grand Prix event, Worlds, the Olympics or 4CC's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ8Fo4ylCMw
Rika won the tech score in the freeskate by about 1.5 points and should have won the freeskate, yet she received a lot lower PCS scores than Evgenia or Alina. Even though they skated very well, I believe Rika should have received considerably higher PCS scores relatively, especially with all the refinements she made to her program. However, the idea of underscoring Japanese women at home is well established as 2014 Worlds showed. In addition, both Rika and Satoko were likely lowballed relative to Kaori for being in the second group because Rika, for example, received a full 3 points lower in PCS than her despite the fact that she received a much higher tech score, which completely contradicts the scoring trend earlier in the season when Rika had a much higher PCS with a slightly lower tech score at the Grand Prix Final LP, so this is a retrospective way of throwing things back to discriminatory skating order and place holders under 6.0 that continue to be perpetrated in another guise today.
The thing is sometimes skaters are scored higher in PCS with lower tech scores, and others like Rika are held down to distant 4th place PCS with the highest tech score, irrelevant of the quality of the PCS criteria, which undermines the value of trying harder elements and to me adds a high degree of contradiction and illegitimacy to the scoring. It is easier for a skater not to make a mistake with lower tech content and lower tech scores, and it discourages skaters from trying and often executing more challenging and exciting elements like the triple axel / triple toe because they may be selectively deflated for mistakes.
I admit Rika made mistakes, but for 2/3 of the competition she delivered the highest technical score finishing 3rd with a 4 point cushion in tech overall,and only 2 points in tech away from 2nd place, with Rika in my opinion having noticeably superior artistry and skating skills over Elizavetta as scores have shown in every competition but this one. Therefore, I really think Rika should have had a similar PCS score to Kaori and finished in 2nd place, especially considering Rika's far superior technical performance in the long program. However, the fact is despite Rika's outstanding skating skills and artistry she had the greatest deflation in scores in her LP between her Tech (almost 83) and her PCS (under 71) of any competitor at Worlds except 16th place Alexandra Feigin, and it is consistent with the trend in underscoring her PCS that began in the Japanese nationals LP (for the last two years) and stepped up with more extreme deflationary urgency in the Challenge Cup. I believe Rika may be the first skater ever to actually receive chronic deflationary scoring for consistently giving the best tech performances in her LP when select others have recently received chronic PCS inflation with consistently lower technical scores than Rika. This scoring inversion is kind of an inverted psychological operation against Rika, especially since it was begun by her own federation in the Nationals LP. The fact that the relative PCS deflation was again done in Worlds at home makes the inverted PCS underscoring even more conspicuous, especially since other skaters are receiving far higher PCS away from home without a lot lower tech score. It seems to me too that doing a triple lutz and flip on the correct edge has also lost its true value and suddenly ur calls are more lenient when certain other skaters were scored so harshly in the past by contrast.
My view is that everyone should decide for themselves who is best like listening to music, viewing art or reading literature and for me Rika is my favorite skater currently competing, no matter whether she wins or not and regardless of the system's scores. I am impressed that she chased her ideal of landing three triple axels just like the skater who seems to have inspired her the most, Mao. But put simply, Rika's relative scoring here at Worlds, was unjust just as it was at Nationals and the Challenge Cup. There is a clear trend of purposely deflating her to take away her tech advantage by having her excellence in artistry and skating skills shortchanged. Her magic moments in time like her incredible NHK freeskate are just as special to me whether I see them in a Grand Prix event, Worlds, the Olympics or 4CC's.
It's a pity Rika didn't podium. I am of course biased as heck, but I don't think Zhenya should have gotten a higher FS score than her - .51 points, darn it! But then Rika could have also gone for a safer solo 2A, and she didn't. Grumbling won't change the past. Plus, Rika still has SIX gold international medals this season, and the highest TES score of the night!
Now the season is not quite over yet, but with Elizabet getting her 4S in, the 3A moving up, and Rika training her own quads I think the next season will be even more dramatic and unpredictable. Who knows if her 3A in the SP will still haunt her or not, especially since people are also training it? I kinda want to blame the snoozefest that is her program - it's so uninspiring compared to Beautiful Storm. But who knows. If she can get her SP in check then she won't need to stress so hard about being the comeback queen. And if she starts doing quads in competition, maybe her 3A won't be the biggest thing to give her trouble anymore
Maybe not a fairytale ending to her fairytale season, but like my other darling fave Nathan
, I think she will only take this experience in stride and keep working to improve and flourish. The 3A used to be Nathan's Achilles heel too. Oh, and this is not her last chance to win Worlds by a long shot.
Go Rika! Enjoy WTT, have fun over the summer, and come back to us happy and thriving in fall!!
Now the season is not quite over yet, but with Elizabet getting her 4S in, the 3A moving up, and Rika training her own quads I think the next season will be even more dramatic and unpredictable. Who knows if her 3A in the SP will still haunt her or not, especially since people are also training it? I kinda want to blame the snoozefest that is her program - it's so uninspiring compared to Beautiful Storm. But who knows. If she can get her SP in check then she won't need to stress so hard about being the comeback queen. And if she starts doing quads in competition, maybe her 3A won't be the biggest thing to give her trouble anymore
Maybe not a fairytale ending to her fairytale season, but like my other darling fave Nathan
, I think she will only take this experience in stride and keep working to improve and flourish. The 3A used to be Nathan's Achilles heel too. Oh, and this is not her last chance to win Worlds by a long shot. Go Rika! Enjoy WTT, have fun over the summer, and come back to us happy and thriving in fall!!
Such a Shame
Yes going for that triple axle rather than a double axle cost her a World Medal. The short program jumps are so important. It is only three and that is a lot of pressure to put on a triple axle. Like a commentator said that you cant win a championship in the short but you can lose it. All those wins internationally and no World medal. May be now her coach will evaluate whether 3 axle in short is worth it.
It's a pity Rika didn't podium. I am of course biased as heck, but I don't think Zhenya should have gotten a higher FS score than her - .51 points, darn it! But then Rika could have also gone for a safer solo 2A, and she didn't. Grumbling won't change the past. Plus, Rika still has SIX gold international medals this season, and the highest TES score of the night!
Now the season is not quite over yet, but with Elizabet getting her 4S in, the 3A moving up, and Rika training her own quads I think the next season will be even more dramatic and unpredictable. Who knows if her 3A in the SP will still haunt her or not, especially since people are also training it? I kinda want to blame the snoozefest that is her program - it's so uninspiring compared to Beautiful Storm. But who knows. If she can get her SP in check then she won't need to stress so hard about being the comeback queen. And if she starts doing quads in competition, maybe her 3A won't be the biggest thing to give her trouble anymore
Maybe not a fairytale ending to her fairytale season, but like my other darling fave Nathan
Go Rika! Enjoy WTT, have fun over the summer, and come back to us happy and thriving in fall!!
Yes going for that triple axle rather than a double axle cost her a World Medal. The short program jumps are so important. It is only three and that is a lot of pressure to put on a triple axle. Like a commentator said that you cant win a championship in the short but you can lose it. All those wins internationally and no World medal. May be now her coach will evaluate whether 3 axle in short is worth it.
The 3A is always worth it in the short. She has to actually jump it, however. Had she attempted a 3A and fallen, silver would have been hers. To win, she really needed the SP 3A and to land the last axel without falling (2 or 3A). That would have put her above Alina.
Last season's FS failings taught her a lot about how to keep her composure in the free. Hopefully this season's failure (yes, I'm using that word because by rights, a medal should have been hers) will lead to better nerves in the short next season. If she works on one section every year, she'll be unstoppable next season. Plus, she'll have even more time to forget about the fears of the SP 3A.
I disagree. She did not need triple axle in the short to be competitive. A great double axle with a triple lutz and triple toe combo would had her in the final group. Rika triple lutz toe combo was more stable than flip combo in practice. Commentators have always said the short is about staying close. It is not the knock out punch that is the long. This has been said all the way back to Dick Button.
To get a medal all she needed was a double axle in the short and do lutz toe combo in short that combo is steadier than the triple flip combo now. No one remembers fourt place in worlds but a gold or a silver or bronze will always be infront of a skaters name.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2018
I can't say who deserved the podium and who didn't. But I can say Rika is among the best ladies of the world being just 16 and she is big promise to the world of figure skating. This was not her last championship, she will have much more opportunities to show the world what she is capable of.
Rika was here to win Worlds. She went all or nothing in the free. In the short, unfortunately she's still scared of the 3A. I'm still counting on it next season; on the fence about how she'll go at WTT.
You're probably right that the lutz combo is more stable, and ironically that itself would have won her silver, although I think the shock of popping the 3A at frigging Worlds got to her. There's a lot of what ifs here and I've played out too many possibilities. Land 2A in short and 3As in free -> win Worlds. Land 3A in short and 2A in free -> win Worlds. Land 3A in free -> silver. Surprise 4S in free -> silver. Make it to last group -> bronze at least. Land 3A in short, don't butcher the flip combo -> set new SP record by 2 points. Land everything cleanly -> set new SP record by 2 points, FS record by 3 points and combined record by 6 points. Alas, it was not to be.
I really need Yuzuru to skate cleanly, or else this Worlds is going to emotionally scar me for a few weeks.
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