2021-2022 US Women's Figure Skating

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Be nice to Karen, please, I don't want to have to wade through a bloodbath in this thread to get to some news or positive comments.

 

[readernick]

Be nice to Karen, please, I don't want to have to wade through a bloodbath in this thread to get to some news or positive comments.

I'm sure Karen did her best. It wasn't an easy situation for her. The ones at fault are the USFS who selected the team and followed criteria in every selection but one. I get irritated by the preference that the US gives to certain coaches ( namely Tammy) because it hurts US results and hurts Tammy's skaters who never improve their UR issues. I hope Clare SEO leaves Tammy. Then, she will actually have a chance to be properly judged domestically and improve her weaknesses. Anyway, hopefully Karen does better in the LP. The US getting silver is fine, but it would be a disappointment if another bad skate led to a bronze instead.

 

[MrMC18]

I’m so excited to see Karen’s Butterfly Lovers make its Beijing debut

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

I'm sure Karen did her best. It wasn't an easy situation for her. The ones at fault are the USFS who selected the team and followed criteria in every selection but one. I get irritated by the preference that the US gives to certain coaches ( namely Tammy) because it hurts US results and hurts Tammy's skaters who never improve their UR issues. I hope Clare SEO leaves Tammy. Then, she will actually have a chance to be properly judged domestically and improve her weaknesses. Anyway, hopefully Karen does better in the LP. The US getting silver is fine, but it would be a disappointment if another bad skate led to a bronze instead.

Are we assuming they just snubbed Alysa for no reason in favor of Karen? It’s almost too hard to believe. There had to be more to the story regarding her.

At the same time if isn’t isn’t in form then how is she competing here at all? Does she just need the extra couple of weeks until the ladies individual event?

It’s all so confusing.

 

[readernick]

I’m so excited to see Karen’s Butterfly Lovers make its Beijing debut

I guess it could have been a good choice if there was a large crowd but it isn't going to have any particular fan base with the tiny crowds allowed in the arena. It doesn't have the impact of a program like Wakaba's FS. But, at least it's better than the terrible program Kaori has or the mediocre Daniil programs this year.

I actually prefer Karen's new SP and I'm a bit sad she didn't perform it to potential. Hopefully, she will in the individual event.

 

[saturdaysun]

Be nice to Karen, please, I don't want to have to wade through a bloodbath in this thread to get to some news or positive comments.

Don't worry, no matter what haters say, she's going home an Olympic medalist, the cherry on top of a wonderful career (not saying she's done, of course, but still).

 

[readernick]

Are we assuming they just snubbed Alysa for no reason in favor of Karen? It’s almost too hard to believe. There had to be more to the story regarding her.

At the same time if isn’t isn’t in form then how is she competing here at all? Does she just need the extra couple of weeks until the ladies individual event?

It’s all so confusing.

Karen just said in her interview that she was told she was skating the team event right after Nationals. This means that the USFS decided to completely disregard it's criteria and go with the skater with by far the lowest SBs score for , yes, basically no reason. As I said, Karen's coach has power and that power only hurts her skater's long-term development.

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

Karen just said in her interview that she was told she was skating the team event right after Nationals. This means that the USFS decided to completely disregard it's criteria and go with the skater with by far the lowest SBs score for , yes, basically no reason. As I said, Karen's coach has power and that power only hurts her skater's long-term development.

Can I ask where you are seeing the interviews?

Also one thing I’m wondering about. If USFSA had favor her coach so much why didn’t they ignore her < at nationals and give her the win over Bell? I thought she had the absolute performance of the night and was way better than Mariah if you don’t count the <. Even Johnny and Tara said it was Karen’s night and only realized it would be Mariah when the score was dropping. I know some of the < were obvious but If there were truly some grand master plan to give her TE because they favor her coach then you’d think it would be the perfect opportunity to give her the win so no one could question it.

 

[readernick]

Can I ask where you are seeing the interviews?

Also one thing I’m wondering about. If USFSA had favor her coach so much why didn’t they ignore her < at nationals and give her the win over Bell? I thought she had the absolute performance of the night and was way better than Mariah if you don’t count the <. Even Johnny and Tara said it was Karen’s night and only realized it would be Mariah when the score was dropping. I know some of the < were obvious but If there were truly some grand master plan to give her TE because they favor her coach then you’d think it would be the perfect opportunity to give her the win so no one could question it.

They did ignore half of her URs. In the FS, every jump that was shown in slowmo was UR, some close to downgraded. The ones that were close to downgrades got q calls. That's favoritism. Vincent's coach gets similar favors but, at least, in that case he sometimes scores very highly internationally.

Here's the interview: https://fs-gossips.com/i-hope-i-gav...valieva-and-karen-chen-comments-after-skates/

 

[Remilia]

Karen just said in her interview that she was told she was skating the team event right after Nationals. This means that the USFS decided to completely disregard it's criteria and go with the skater with by far the lowest SBs score for , yes, basically no reason. As I said, Karen's coach has power and that power only hurts her skater's long-term development.

Wow, so they really snubbed both Alysa and Mariah for no reason, despite both of them being more consistent than Karen this season and Alysa obviously having a higher scoring ceiling...I guess now we know why Alysa hadn't bothered to fly out in time for the team event.

Honestly, ridiculous. And after everyone was trying so hard to justify USFS picking her for the team event. It is obviously not her fault, but it certainly leaves a bad taste in my mouth and is incredibly unfair to both Alysa and Mariah

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

This ENTIRE time I have been saying there had to be something regarding Alysa’s condition for it to make sense.

There was ZERO reason that decision should have been made at nationals a full month before with 3 skaters that are so close in overall ability especially when one couldn’t even compete there. You fly Alysa out with the rest of the team, get everyone on practice ice, and then decide.

They completely dumped their top skater because she doesn’t have ultra C anymore and ignored her consistency and ability to backload, which are VITAL to the success of the Russian ladies. Like even when they don’t land their ultra C they still win for those reasons. Alysa is the ONLY non-Russian woman in the world that can backload like that. Not even the Japanese women can.

I am beside myself.

 

[saturdaysun]

Can I ask where you are seeing the interviews?

Also one thing I’m wondering about. If USFSA had favor her coach so much why didn’t they ignore her < at nationals and give her the win over Bell? I thought she had the absolute performance of the night and was way better than Mariah if you don’t count the <. Even Johnny and Tara said it was Karen’s night and only realized it would be Mariah when the score was dropping. I know some of the < were obvious but If there were truly some grand master plan to give her TE because they favor her coach then you’d think it would be the perfect opportunity to give her the win so no one could question it.

Because one person's imagination is not the truth...

 

[saturdaysun]

Wow, so they really snubbed both Alysa and Mariah for no reason, despite both of them being more consistent than Karen this season and Alysa obviously having a higher scoring ceiling...I guess now we know why Alysa hadn't bothered to fly out in time for the team event.

Honestly, ridiculous. And after everyone was trying so hard to justify USFS picking her for the team event. It is obviously not her fault, but it certainly leaves a bad taste in my mouth and is incredibly unfair to both Alysa and Mariah

Mariah more consistent than Karen? When Karen beat her at their international head-to-head and should have won Nationals but for selective calling of jumps and gifting of medals for sentimental reasons. lol people really need to calm down. Maybe the surprise first place got people's hopes up, but US was never going to win gold. The ladies event was always going to be the weak link. Everyone said it didn't really matter who skated in the ladies and Mariah and Karen would probably place around the same, but all of a sudden everyone has crystal balls and can call USFS' huge mistake... after the fact. Karen falling on a jump is hardly a disaster and wasn't some death knell that will affect anything in the final standing.

 

[Remilia]

Mariah more consistent than Karen? When Karen beat her at their international head-to-head and should have won Nationals but for selective calling of jumps and gifting of medals for sentimental reasons. lol people really need to calm down. Maybe the surprise first place got people's hopes up, but US was never going to win gold. The ladies event was always going to be the weak link. Everyone said it didn't really matter who skated in the ladies and Mariah and Karen would probably place around the same, but all of a sudden everyone has crystal balls and can call USFS' huge mistake... after the fact. Karen falling on a jump is hardly a disaster and wasn't some death knell that will affect anything in the final standing.

I don't know who everyone is, but I was certainly not one of them. And anyway, my post was about how ridiculous and unfair it was for the USFS to decide on Karen for the TE right after nats despite Mariah beating her there and Alysa not even getting the chance to skate the free.

 

[saturdaysun]

I don't know who everyone is, but I was certainly not one of them. And anyway, my post was about how ridiculous and unfair it was for the USFS to decide on Karen for the TE right after nats despite Mariah beating her there and Alysa not even getting the chance to skate the free.

So if they chose someone else it wouldn't have been ridiculous and unfair? Maybe since they gave Mariah the gold at Nats when Karen was clearly better, giving Karen the TE was the only fair thing to do. As for Alysa, IDK. Maybe they think she has four more years in her so she'll have another shot at it.

 

[*~RussianBleux~*]

Mariah more consistent than Karen? When Karen beat her at their international head-to-head and should have won Nationals but for selective calling of jumps and gifting of medals for sentimental reasons. lol people really need to calm down. Maybe the surprise first place got people's hopes up, but US was never going to win gold. The ladies event was always going to be the weak link. Everyone said it didn't really matter who skated in the ladies and Mariah and Karen would probably place around the same, but all of a sudden everyone has crystal balls and can call USFS' huge mistake... after the fact. Karen falling on a jump is hardly a disaster and wasn't some death knell that will affect anything in the final standing.

We were not winning gold but I think the competition so far has shown we have a strong enough team to win silver if the correct strategic decisions are made.

When Alysa could have beaten Georgia and Canada easily it looks pretty suspicious when the decision to dump her was made a month ago at nationals.

 

[saturdaysun]

We were not winning gold but I think the competition so far has shown we have a strong enough team to win silver if the correct strategic decisions are made.

When Alysa could have beaten Georgia and Canada easily it looks pretty suspicious when the decision to dump her was made a month ago at nationals.

You can say "Alysa could have beaten Georgia and Canada easily" all you want but at her last competition Karen beat her in the SP. So you don't actually know that, just like no one knew Karen was going to fall tonight. All this Monday morning quarterbacking is pointless and not based in reality.

The US is winning silver regardless.

 

[Remilia]

So if they chose someone else it wouldn't have been ridiculous and unfair? Maybe since they gave Mariah the gold at Nats when Karen was clearly better, giving Karen the TE was the only fair thing to do. As for Alysa, IDK. Maybe they think she has four more years in her so she'll have another shot at it.

What wouldn't have been ridiculous and unfair is waiting until all 3 of them were in Beijing and seeing how they were looking in practice, and using that along with an examination of how all 3 have performed this season to determine who to use in the TE. The fact that you yourself have no justification for them not picking Alysa just goes to show it was a poorly thought out decision on their part.

And I hate that argument people love to use with young skaters about how they have so many more years ahead of them...no one knows what will happen in the future. There is no guarantee that any skater will still be able to compete 4 years from now.

 

[saturdaysun]

What wouldn't have been ridiculous and unfair is waiting until all 3 of them were in Beijing and seeing how they were looking in practice, and using that along with an examination of how all 3 have performed this season to determine who to use in the TE. The fact that you yourself have no justification for them not picking Alysa just goes to show it was a poorly thought out decision on their part.

And I hate that argument people love to use with young skaters about how they have so many more years ahead of them...no one knows what will happen in the future. There is no guarantee that any skater will still be able to compete 4 years from now.

I'm not happy about Alysa being left out of the TE. I thought it was hers, honestly. But I also don't know why people think making athletes go all the way to Beijing not being certain of whether they would have to skate in the TE is a good idea. So all their practices are basically mini-competitions and they can't actually focus on preparing for the event, and none of them know what their schedule is ahead of time. That is so much extra unnecessary stress when they're already jetlagged and trying to prepare for what they have to do.

I'm not sure if that's how they used to decided Team Event selections, but it seems wrong, and I think people are still trying to go back in time and change things based on tonight's outcome, which is pointless. If Karen didn't fall there would be no "poorly thought out decision" conversation.

 

[lunastartron]

Mariah more consistent than Karen? When Karen beat her at their international head-to-head and should have won Nationals but for selective calling of jumps and gifting of medals for sentimental reasons. lol people really need to calm down. Maybe the surprise first place got people's hopes up, but US was never going to win gold. The ladies event was always going to be the weak link. Everyone said it didn't really matter who skated in the ladies and Mariah and Karen would probably place around the same, but all of a sudden everyone has crystal balls and can call USFS' huge mistake... after the fact. Karen falling on a jump is hardly a disaster and wasn't some death knell that will affect anything in the final standing.

More like when Mariah tied with Bradie for most GP medals over the quad versus Karen winning 0; Mariah having a 3 - 1 lead in their domestic matchups over the quad; and Mariah having the best GP score over the course of the season among all Americans.