- Joined
- Mar 11, 2018
What jumps will Alysa Liu do at US nationals?
2019-20 U.S. Ladies Figure Skating
- Thread starter MarinHondas
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2012
Thx for shedding light.
The column heading of "Nation" (full word) is confusing, but in hindsight, identifying the skater's club affiliation otherwise would make sense, given that the Announcement said that clubs are invited.
LOL, even if I had known that "Nation" meant "Club" at this competition, another layer of confusion would have been that Jessica's club affiliation usually is DFSC, so my thanks to you for finding the FB post that got to the bottom of that.
IIRC, Ashley Cain-Gribble is an associate member of Skating Club of New York (and Jimmy Ma is a full member) plus Peter Cain often is an official at SCNY's summer competition, so if (as it would seem) SCNY received an invitation to Kempen, then it also would make sense that Team Cain would have heard about it.
ETA (on Dec 25):
Slight correction: Ashley Cain-Gribble is a full member of SCNY. It is Timothy LeDuc who is an associate member of SCNY.
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2007
Not sure what we know what her current form will be. It will have been what, 2 months since Sectionals? And she improved what, 40 points between Regionals and Sectionals?
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2007
here's the new interview with Gracie:
https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/...ads-to-greensboro-with-a-new-perspective.aspx
if anyone still had their doubts on her comeback, she made her intentions crystal
I never had a doubt. No one goes through all that (starting basically from beginning, taking 2 years to get ready for Regionals, gets through regionals without minimum TES, goes back and works their butt off for Sectionals, qualifies at Sectionals and makes minimum TES, for no reason.
We don't know.
Well, I would guess the short program will be 3A, 3F, 3Lz/3T. She said that her GPF long was too ambitious, so I would guess her LP will be 3A/2t, 4Lz, 3A, 3lp, 3Lz/3t, 3Lz/e/3S, 3F. For Alysa, this is a "less ambitious" layout, lol.
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2014
That is all true. That doesn't make Amber any less capable of challenging for a top 4/5 finish at Nationals or mean that Gracie has "more" of a chance than she does.
I just hope Gracie will have a strong sense of accomplishment when she skates. I don't have any expectations for her of contending.
Mind you, I don't have any expectations for Amber, Starr, Emily, or Hanna skating clean LPs. My best hope for Karen is having a competition she can be proud of after coming back from injury last season, though not really any hope of that second lutz in the LP. And my expectations are fairly tempered for Mariah.
So, given all of that, someone is bound to have a surprisingly successful day in my book. I hope several of these ladies will be able to have their best skates thus far this year. That would be nice.
Mind you, I don't have any expectations for Amber, Starr, Emily, or Hanna skating clean LPs. My best hope for Karen is having a competition she can be proud of after coming back from injury last season, though not really any hope of that second lutz in the LP. And my expectations are fairly tempered for Mariah.
So, given all of that, someone is bound to have a surprisingly successful day in my book. I hope several of these ladies will be able to have their best skates thus far this year. That would be nice.
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2010
Past success doesn't guarantee future results, but Mariah has been exceptionally solid this season. She has topped 200, and medaled, in all three events she skated in. It would be a pretty big upset if she isn't on the podium.
She's growing from experience. I think she still loses focus under big pressure moments, but she has now finished on the podium and gained quite a bit more international experience so that should help with relation to Nationals. Also, Ting had the most technical firepower to challenge so without Ting in the mix, Mariah's odds are better. Plus Mariah has some chasing to do, which is always a good mindset for a competition. (Attacking rather than defending).
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2018
I don‘t know how to start a thread but I feel that we really ought to talk about this:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B6mEay1oA7M/?igshid=as5txlxfbpm3
This raises so many issues in this sport as a whole and it is such a raw and honest interview. Wow.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B6mEay1oA7M/?igshid=as5txlxfbpm3
This raises so many issues in this sport as a whole and it is such a raw and honest interview. Wow.
This was so brave and powerful and honest and although it’s hard to watch and hard to listen to, it’s so necessary and I hope Gracie continues to recover and feel comfortable enough to tell her story.
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
Gracie is so inspiring.
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2018
I would love to see Starr as one of the skaters near the podium this year, but hasn't she been having issues with an injury? I seem to recall that she wasn't doing her lutz due to an ankle issue. Does she have her lutz back?
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2014
It was very interesting to hear Gracie talk about her journey. If I am not mistaken, I believe that Jenny Kirk may have described her disordered eating as starting in the same way: she lost weight, she skated better or at least skated better in the eyes of those who were judging her, and so when things didn’t go so well, the answer was to lose more weight. 
Gracie has talked in interviews about some of these issues before, such as covering the mirrors in the apartment, but I did not know some of the other details such as the misuse of Sudafed or laxatives. :sad21:
I am glad to see that the system worked at least in some small part, is that the medical staff at Champs Camp seized on the clues that Gracie was giving them, and found her immediate treatment.
Wishing for continued healing for Gracie
Gracie has talked in interviews about some of these issues before, such as covering the mirrors in the apartment, but I did not know some of the other details such as the misuse of Sudafed or laxatives. :sad21:
I am glad to see that the system worked at least in some small part, is that the medical staff at Champs Camp seized on the clues that Gracie was giving them, and found her immediate treatment.
Wishing for continued healing for Gracie
Wow, I hope her story helps others.
Looking at that breathtakingly beautiful girl, skating and seeming so happy, while listening to her talking about wanting to kill herself, just boggles the mind.
It's good that she seems to have forgiven herself, for whatever imagined transgressions. We should all be kinder to ourselves, and to others.
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2014
It was very interesting to hear Gracie talk about her journey. If I am not mistaken, I believe that Jenny Kirk may have described her disordered eating as starting in the same way: she lost weight, she skated better or at least skated better in the eyes of those who were judging her, and so when things didn’t go so well, the answer was to lose more weight.
Gracie has talked in interviews about some of these issues before, such as covering the mirrors in the apartment, but I did not know some of the other details such as the misuse of Sudafed or laxatives. :sad21:
I am glad to see that the system worked at least in some small part, is that the medical staff at Champs Camp seized on the clues that Gracie was giving them, and found her immediate treatment.
Wishing for continued healing for Gracie
Well, they seized on the clues Gracie was giving, once Ashley Wagner alerted them to the clues. If I remember correctly, and if I'm thinking of the same Champs Camp. I could be wrong, though, was it a different time?
The detail that I found shocking was that it's documented that officials knew about the laxatives she was taking; she reported them, apparently for the drug testing. Maybe there's a fine line between what's allowed and what's not, but that seems questionable.
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2009
What am I watching? :shocked: Look at 5:50 and 6:20
Gracie just said that she took "an insane amount of laxatives", as well as a weight loss drug, "a lot of" over-the-counter Sudafed, and as much caffeine as she could chug. And officials knew that because she had to report it to the drug testing people, so they knew it would show up on her drug reports. And "everyone knew" she had been taking laxatives, apparently. This was happening in the year of her Firebird program.
People nowadays still believe Frank Carroll can do no wrong, but he had to have known this. Yet he let it continue or turn a blind eye to it. All around failure of her coaching team, monitoring officials, drug testing officials, USFSA.
Now I feel a bit sad when watching this, knowing what was going on behind closed doors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIL_k4VB6mc
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2014
Yeah, I’ve always found the timeline on this confusing. I remember when Gracie first mentioned Ashley, I had assumed that this is what went down at Champs Camp in 2017. But other reports said that the thing with Ashley happened at Champs Camp in 2016, and that Gracie opening up to the team doctors (which set into motion her going to a treatment facility) occurred at Champs Camp in 2017. Nevertheless, it seems like Gracie also acknowledges (or at least implies) that it was a little absurd that no one on team USA stepped in sooner, like when she says that somehow she went to Champs Camp that year. I also remember her getting the Japan Open spot for 2017 when her skating seemed to deteriorate in a very short period of time between nationals and SOI that year (i.e., seemingly able to only do doubles). I’ve always wondered where her agent, or where Marina, was in all of this when it seemed like Gracie was a young woman in serious need of help.
The part where Gracie talks about laxatives is kind of shocking, but at the same time not very shocking. I think that Jenny Kirk talked about how normalized disordered eating is in the skating community amongst the skaters (look at the NYT article about what Adam’s diet was and him starving himself). Champs Camp can talk a good game with their seminars about healthy eating and body image, but it seems like the federation and the coaches will just turn a blind eye when it comes down to it, especially if their skaters are getting results.
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2014
Yes, thanks for helping clarify that; I think it did happen across two different years of Champs Camp. Which means that Ashley had already alerted people in 2016, then Gracie's conversations with the medical people happened in 2017. I don't know ... maybe the approach was not to step in until Gracie herself initiated a conversation. Well, at any rate, Gracie is helping other skaters and fed people be more aware, hopefully in the future.
