2022 Olympics: Women's Free Skate

[siberia82]

I can see your point, but did Buttle fall once and almost fall a second time in the short program? Trusova should have been even further back heading into the long program than she scored. If her plan was to outjump Anna, she didn't even do that right.

Joubert was more or less the "equivalent" of Trusova at the 2008 Worlds, not Buttle, but to answer your question, Buttle skated two clean quadless programs, whereas Joubert fell on the 3Lz in the SP (but had a clean 4T+3T), and he also popped a planned 3A+3T into a 2A+1T in the FS, plus he got two edge calls and didn't maximize his combos (he did 2 instead of 3), but he had a clean 4T.

Buttle beat Joubert by 13.95 points, so it wasn't even close, yet Joubert threw a temper tantrum and insisted that he should've been the world champion simply because he did quads while Buttle didn't (and Joubert conveniently omitted the jump errors that he made in both segments during his rants).

When I said that Trusova's anger reminded me of Joubert's, I was thinking in general terms, not the exact details. What I see in both situations is that the silver medallist (a skater who landed more quads, but made mistakes in both programs) believes that they should've won over the gold medallist (a skater with two clean programs, but had less/no quads). The silver medallist would've been the champion if they had skated more cleanly.

 

[bartlebooth]

Indeed. And is it really surprising Sasha didn't want to go with Eteri? The Russian Olympic Committee people couldn't find another adult in their entourage who could have accompanied Sasha back to the Village?

Can you blame her, Eteri probably bitched at her the whole way home too - which fortunately as I understand it was only a few minutes.

This. I know that, because of COVID, there aren't probably many people, but still... Trusova was extremely angry at her team (rightfully or not), whereas, even in the middle of her breakdown, she was decent enough to that volunteer woman to speak to her abruptly, but without screaming.
Somebody neutral would have been the best option. Of course her coaches could have talked to her later.

 

[Skater Boy]

I think they came up with a plan to take the heat off of their camp. I read their coaching staff were being investigated. Threw Kamila under the bus and decided Anna should be the winner and not caring about what Sasha did. That would explain why Kamila was so upset, not being able to skate her best like normal and why Sasha was so upset, not being apart of or even being aware of the plan.

This all so sad. They threw Kamila under the bus; they threw Sasha on the bus and they gave Anna the bus. But Sasha's desire to land th 3A may have been her undoing for the gold. I am not sure why Sasha is so upset. She WON silver and she had been beaten by Anna several times before. It shouldn't be a surprise she lost. She isn't Nathan Chen.

I kind of want to forget the women's event. They should all go out for ice cream and call it a day. This was not the olympics for masterpieces sorry PC. I was ready to fall over for Wakaba and Kaori an Anna but that didn't happen.

I am not sure though why Trusova is so upset. I hope Liza is practising; I think she will be needed for worlds. This should be called The Night of a Thousand Tears! I really want the medallists to celebrate but it is hard. You can say they earned. THey skated clean. But deep down this whole mess is not forgotten Even if you skated clean (no drugs and no errors) this is not a situation it appears of malicious doping by the skater and those who won probably are going what if...I almost cried for Kamila not for not winning but you could tell she was devastated, broken an under such stress and turmoil. I am not sure why Trusova was so upset and mad at the coaches but I guess she and Anna also were victims too though not to the extent of Kamila.

 

[DancingCactus]

I wonder if this is the time for all three girls to get the hell out of Team Eteri and look for new coaches. In case of Trusova and Shcherbakova why not go abroad? Surely they have done their "duty" to Russia and can now skate for themselves?

 

[Corwin]

Everyone thought there would be nothing more dramatic than Pyeongсhang or Salt Lake, but how wrong we all were.

 

[gravy]

I wonder if this is the time for all three girls to get the hell out of Team Eteri and look for new coaches. In case of Trusova and Shcherbakova why not go abroad? Surely they have done their "duty" to Russia and can now skate for themselves?

And get the same treatment from Eteri and the Russia media who fawn over her like Medvedeva did after 2018? I think they'd rather retire than have to go through that hell.

 

[marienne]

I can't respect Shcherbakova winning by "skating clean" because her jumping technique - excessive on ice prerotation, questionable edges, whole blade " on the ice for pick jumps - is not clean. Not at all. Her PCS scores I think are well deserved, but her technical score leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's a shame that ISU doesn't really care about actual good technique anymore, just the appearance of it.

 

[VickB]

I can't respect Shcherbakova winning by "skating clean" because her jumping technique - excessive on ice prerotation, questionable edges, whole blade " on the ice for pick jumps - is not clean. Not at all. Her PCS scores I think are well deserved, but her technical score leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's a shame that ISU doesn't really care about actual good technique anymore, just the appearance of it.

I noticed the exact thing...
I agree with you 100%

 

[yume]

I wonder if this is the time for all three girls to get the hell out of Team Eteri and look for new coaches. In case of Trusova and Shcherbakova why not go abroad? Surely they have done their "duty" to Russia and can now skate for themselves?

Going abroad is a good idea.
Aside of St-Petersburg ice rinks, i don't see where in Russia they can go and chill.
If Eteri's camp is dislocated, i guess that most of students will etheir go to CSKA or Plushenko's club, where factories of quadsters are being built and where the competition/pressure will finally be the same.

 

[elysium]

For a second Olympics the only true happy medalist is the bronze medalist. It’s just to toxic to train at the same camp. Not even mature skaters like Virtue/Moir can cope with that, let alone teenagers. Sasha probably experienced a loss of faith in the coaching team.

There are arguments for both Anna and Sasha to win. Both would have been as controversial/or non-controversial depending on the viewer. It’s just sad that none of them got to really enjoy their Olympics moment.

 

[Stephine]

Hugh congratulations to Anna! She has been the most consistent and complete skater over the last three years and her victory was well deserved. She really has nerves of steel and she has always been friendly, fair and reserved, never playing the center of attention. It broke my heart to see her standing alone.
No one rejoiced with her and the well-wishers came far too late.

Someone should have congratulated Sascha too. She had won silver! This is not defeat! For the first time she had managed to do all 5 quads as she had always planned. This is also a kind of victory to be congratulated for. Even if I understand that she was disappointed not to win with this performance, her behavior towards Anna did not seem to be very fair. But I was only a superficial spectator in this regard and can't really judge what was said behind the scenes.

I was very happy about the bronze medal for Kaori Sakamoto. Beautiful edges and a stylisch und modern program. You could feel the joy of ice skating with her.
Great program from Wakaba too. I like the choreo and she showed the best triple axel of the competition.

All in all, a high-class competition with many wonderful programmes. I'm happy for everyone who was satisfied with their performance that day and can fly home happy.

Poor Kamila. I hope all parties who were involved to put her in this situation know what they did to a 15 year old girl.
Hopefully we never have to see such scenes again in this actually so beautiful sport.

 

[gravy]

Once again the Olympic bronze medalist is the real highlight for the 3rd Olympics in a row. So happy for Kaori!! I hate this program so much but I love her commitment, speed, power, enormous jumps, and sheer joy. Bright spot for sure and happy she's aiming for Milan!

Top 2 ROC skaters were technically proficient and mechanical. Understandable--hard not to dissociate with the current ROC drama being from the same camp as Kami...

Thrilled Wakaba landed her triple axel well but those errors later on... girl, no. Get your ish together, you can medal next month. And 4th woman to land a clean 3A at the Olympics? Japanese women have that record on lock!

 

[flakyy]

Tantrums have nothing to do with age per se. Think about all the tennis players f.e. who completely loose it - Mcnroe, S. Williams (this US Open final, oh dear) ... ... I could go on and on. Medvedevs "conversation" with the Umpire at AO - he was right but should have managed it otherwise.

 

[decafjava]

Once again the Olympic bronze medalist is the real highlight for the 3rd Olympics in a row. So happy for Kaori!! I hate this program so much but I love her commitment, speed, power, enormous jumps, and sheer joy. Bright spot for sure and happy she's aiming for Milan!

Top 2 ROC skaters were technically proficient and mechanical. Understandable--hard not to dissociate with the current ROC drama being from the same camp as Kami...

Thrilled Wakaba landed her triple axel well but those errors later on... girl, no. Get your ish together, you can medal next month. And 4th woman to land a clean 3A at the Olympics? Japanese women have that record on lock!

I am a fan of Kaori now too, disagree I didn't find Anna mechanical at all and Sasha deserves credit for landing those quads.

 

[Mista Ekko]

I can't respect Shcherbakova winning by "skating clean" because her jumping technique - excessive on ice prerotation, questionable edges, whole blade " on the ice for pick jumps - is not clean. Not at all. Her PCS scores I think are well deserved, but her technical score leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's a shame that ISU doesn't really care about actual good technique anymore, just the appearance of it.

So Kaori should have won?

 

[Fanof]

Trusova is about to pull a Bonaly.

She has a lot in common with Bonaly:
- Bonaly's programs were all about jumps and lacked artistry, so are Trusova's;
- Bonaly was very shy and uncomfortable during interviews, so is Trusova
- and now this tantrum (which is a non-issue).
And both are wonderful champions who have made the history of figure skating.

 

[lupojohn]

Does anyone have the names of the music that the top 4 skated to? I need it for my article.

 

[fallingsk8er]

Worst Olympics I've ever seen. All that drama made what should be the world's greatest display of competition and sportsmanship into a reality show joke. What a shame!

 

[macy]

Why is there no sports psychologist on Eteri’s team, especially given increased media? They shoul’ve brought one in. Also, there is something called good sportmanship, Trusova failed at that.

Finally, i don’t get why Russian press and people like Zhulin are saying that IOC and Wada “broke” or “killed” Valieva. They simply tried to sort out the matter, and they are the ones who wanted her not to compete. In that case, she wouldn’t have had to endure this mess in front of entire world. It’s sad the Russians don’t actually look at facts, but blame others…

yep. gaslighting at its finest.

 

[iceskater10]

Does anyone have the names of the music that the top 4 skated to? I need it for my article.

Go to the first post in this thread... Dorispulaski always put up music selections and skating orders.