Aljona and Bruno doing their first triple twist after a year break
I suppose the road to Daisuke making it to the olympics areI would be very surprised if Gogolev made the Olympic team for Beijing, but I think he'll be around and contending for the following Olympics, if all goes well.
For Japanese ice dance, I expect team Ko/Ko to go to Beijing. If there's a miracle and Japan wins two spots, then Takahashi (and Kana) has a good chance of getting the second one.
Already wonderful. But I wonder why they are even p racticing - olympics. Can't be a show I assume. Our Never Enough girl maybe throwing her hat in the ring. Come Megan if Aliona can do it so can you.Aljona and Bruno doing their first triple twist after a year break
I thought ET was still practicing/competing? As for Weaver and Poje I don't think they are coing back. I believe if Canada had a decent shot at an olympic team medal they would come back but that looks unlikely - USA, Russia and probably China or Japan.I think the one with the biggest chance for the Oly team is Takahashi with his partner. But in order to qualify, Komatsubara/Koleto would have to either be injured which noone wants, or mess up big time, or Kana/Daisuke would need to improve hugely in just one year. Or maybe they'll just be happy with participating in the Team Event?
I don't think Alina wants to compete anymore, and that's fine. She has the most important medals under her belt, and it seems she's quite happy with shows now.
It seems to be an impossible uphill battle for Evgenia, but if for some reason she heals and is pristine clean, while Liza, Trusova and Kostornaia struggle, there's a sliver of a chance. But then, I think Usacheva is going senior next season, and she's been very consistent, so who knows.
It's highly likely Gogolev will stabilize his jumps once he's done growing, but I don't think that will be next season yet. All of Nguyen, Sadovsky and Messing are much stronger than him at this point.
I bet that Mirai, Savchenko and Carolina are done with competing for good.
Fingers crossed for Gracie and Gabrielle, who are both brave in attempting a comeback despite having confidence issues. If a miracle happens for Gabrielle's self-confidence, she could make the team. Gracie faces a much tougher field, and I don't think she has much of a chance to be I on the team, so I just hope she finds joy in competing again. She doesn't seem to have it unfortunately, so I could see her retiring instead.
The ones I have been wondering about are Weaver/Poje, has there been an official statement from them re. retirement? If they came back, I could see them challenging at least Marjorie/Zachary.
I hope Tursynbaeva comes back, BTW...
My 2 cents - besides all that has already been said - is that Evgenia would have had a better shot of making the Russian team if there had been no pandemic and she could have stayed at the Cricket Club. She was improving hugely there and would have continued to do so, I think. I don't know if her trajectory will continue upward having gone back to training in Russia.
She wasn't on an upwards trajectory, she had her worst seasons ever with Orser.In practice Medvedeva looked better but in competition she was less consistent when she was with Orser. I don't think she was necessarily on some "upward" trajectory with Orser.
How did this happen? Was it always the case? I remember thinking when Gogolev was eleven and being touted as a young quad phenom, "My God, don't rush this kid. Don't pile over-expectations on him because he can land quads." SMHI don't see why Gogolev couldn't return, but his issue is that his jump technique is horrible
In practice Medvedeva looked better but in competition she was less consistent when she was with Orser. I don't think she was necessarily on some "upward" trajectory with Orser.
Because Orser was making her rework her technique, just like he did with Jason. And as he told both Evgenia and Jason, it would be a hard 18 months-2 years before they saw results.She wasn't on an upwards trajectory, she had her worst seasons ever with Orser.
Nah, his technique was always pretty bad, people just got blinded by the quads. It has deteriorated since, however.How did this happen? Was it always the case? I remember thinking when Gogolev was eleven and being touted as a young quad phenom, "My God, don't rush this kid. Don't pile over-expectations on him because he can land quads." SMH
I wouldn't blame Orser for your perception. Neither do I blame Evgenia. She was sorely disappointed at the 2018 Olympics. I felt she should have won if it was going to be only between her and Zagitova. In actuality, Kaetlyn Osmond had the best overall talent, but they didn't rep her as battling for gold due to her tendency to have competition nerves. Plus in the past, injuries had hampered her momentum. That Osmond fought hard to top off her career with Olympic bronze and World gold is greatly to her credit.In practice Medvedeva looked better but in competition she was less consistent when she was with Orser. I don't think she was necessarily on some "upward" trajectory with Orser.
Nah, his technique was always pretty bad, people just got blinded by the quads. It has deteriorated since, however.
Meghan Duhamel and Eric Radford are not coming back to compete eligibly. If Aljona is planning to, I wonder what she did to convince Bruno? Nothing can repeat the magic come back from 4th place in the short that they pulled off in 2018.Already wonderful. But I wonder why they are even p racticing - olympics. Can't be a show I assume. Our Never Enough girl maybe throwing her hat in the ring. Come Megan if Aliona can do it so can you.
It is hard to believe that skaters like Alina, Evgenia, Liza are really not even thought of as threats for the Oly team.
Alina was lucky to come back and win 2019 Worlds.
.In this way you never know, maybe she is still lucky.
So you consider that someone was unlucky that season or just Zagitova was lucky?Yes, she was lucky, but luck runs out for certain enterprises, particularly in the figure skating realm.
Figure skating and indeed life always have elements of luck involved, bad or good. Only one person or one team wins Olympic gold in any given year. A lot of factors are involved, some that athletes have control over, others that they do not.So you consider that someone was unlucky that season or just Zagitova was lucky?
Figure skating and indeed life always have elements of luck involved, bad or good. Only one person or one team wins Olympic gold in any given year. A lot of factors are involved, some that athletes have control over, others that they do not.
The fact we were told that Olympic gold was only between Alina or Evgenia is one thing. Looking at it in that respect, most definitely Alina was lucky and Evgenia was unlucky. It could have gone either way down to the wire. We'd need to ask the judges what swayed them toward Alina over Evgenia in the end. Likely the bells and whistles of Alina's programs helped her, which isn't to say she was not talented, determined and competitively consistent. I do think Alina was somewhat over-rated. And she was indeed fortunate, but she also worked hard to be in the position for luck to smile down on her. Evgenia worked equally as hard, but for her it wasn't to be.
As I said, luck is always involved in figure skating. I spoke about this earlier, so my views should be clear regarding 2018-2019 season for Alina. She had problems all season, so definitely yes she was lucky to win Worlds that year, something she failed to do after the 2018 OlympicsYou talked about 2019. So who was the unlucky then/there ? Was it only Zagitova the lucky and everyone else unlucky?