2025 World Championships Women's Short Program | Page 63 | Golden Skate

2025 World Championships Women's Short Program

This is why I have never enjoyed watching her compete. I could watch her practice all day long, but I just can't with her in a tense competition. Some people are just wired differently for sport. Amber has been open about seeing a sports psychologist for years, and it just doesn't seem to help when it comes to the BIG game. To me she looked terrified in warm up and when she was taking her position. I decided to go to the kitchen and heat something up instead of watching her, so when I came back and was reading the comments it didn't surprise me how she skated. It must suck for her to be wired to be a nervous skater. Not everyone can be Alysa Liu who just skates without a care in the world. Hopefully Amber won't be feeling any pressure Friday and just skates lights out with nothing to lose. The US will get their 3 spots (barring total disasters from Alysa and Isabeau) so there's really nothing she should feel pressure about. And anything can happen, like last year when that guy went from 17th to 3rd.
I knew Amber was going to bomb when I saw her coming out of backstage looking like she was going to her execution. Absolute terror on her face.
 
What utter nonsense.

In every athletic contest in any sport there are dozens of calls by officials. At every call or non-call, half the stadium erupts with cheers, the other half with groans. What is discouraging is when the audience leaves the venue cursing the referees rather than praising the performances of the athletes.

These are calls made in slow motion with the aid of video. It's very simple stuff.
The abuse of the word "obvious" is especially peculiar. This jump was "obviously" (in modern Internet lingo, "literally" ;) ) 180 degrees under-rotated. No it wasn't. If the under-rotation were "obvious" there would be no need to rush apoplectic to the Internet to rant about how obvious it was or to present arguments about the level of obviousness.
It was more than a quarter, therefore underrotated. I already provided the screen dumps proving it.
 
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Alysa scored 67.09 only 1 month ago at 4CC where her 3toe was rightly called with a < and -GOE and her season average has been 67-69 points, but now her score has magically increased by nearly 7.5 points for the same level of skate.

Isabeau scored 68.43 at Skate America where her 3toe was rightly called with a < and -GOE, but now her score has magically increased by 5 points for the same level of skate after she’s been absent for the majority of the season.
These performance was better than the ones from earlier in the season.
... it’s clear to any honest person that their jumps were cheated.
I am an honest person. This was not clear to me.
Wakaba Higuchi goes clean and has no technical calls on any of her jumps here, but is currently sitting in 4th with a 72.10. The judging panel really did her dirty; not necessarily in her scoring, but definitely in her ranking.
Wait, did you just say that the scores were fair but Wakaba's ranking based on those scores was unfair.?

To me, Higuchi's performance was sterling. In my opinion she has been short-changed on PCS her whole career.
My ranking:
1. Chiba 73.5
2. Higuchi 73
3. Liu 71
4. Schizas 69
5. Levito 68.5
6. Sakamoto 68

... I want to take a fire hose and drench the judging panel in water to wake them up and wash away the disgusting stench of corruption.
Disagreeing with your rankings by a point or two does not equate to "stench of corruption." Maybe in the long program the judges will match your scoring better.
 
These performance was better than the ones from earlier in the season.

I am an honest person. This was not clear to me.

Wait, did you just say that the scores were fair but Wakaba's ranking based on those scores was unfair.?

To me, Higuchi's performance was sterling. In my opinion she has been short-changed on PCS her whole career.

Disagreeing with your rankings by a point or two does not equate to "stench of corruption." Maybe in the long program the judges will match your scoring better.
Medals can be decided by a difference of 1 or 2 points, and less than, which is why biased judging can be so damning.

Earlier you stated that we should move on from discussing the results of the women’s SP, yet you just dissected and responded to my post, so you must want the debate to continue.
 
I already provided the screen dumps proving it.
;)

II wish that one day some skaters, coaches, judges or other experts (skating experts that is, not experts at propoganda) would chime in on our discussions of jump rotations.

I am none of the above, but this is what I have observed over the years. Figure skating is all about turning on the ice. On a jump. especially a toe-loop or Salchow, the skater is turning on the approach, turning at take-off, keeps turning while airborne, and continues to turn during the landing and flow-out. For a triple this adds up to about 2.25 revolutions in the air (somewhat more for loops, flips and especially Lutzes), allowing up to 180 degrees of pre-rotation and up to 90 degrees short on the landing. That's just figure skating.

All our problems would be solved if we simply started calling such a jump a "deuce-and-a-quarter" (like the grand old old Buick 225 car from the 1970s) instead of a "triple." She did a deuce and a quarter Sal. Yes she did. Good for her. No arguments. Give her 4.3 points.

Eteri Tutberidze dominated ladies figure skating by developing a method for training young girls to do a trey-and-a-quarter. Good for her, Good for them.

As for amateurs superimposing rulers and compasses on slow-motion frames, well... let's just say that the results are not convincing.
 
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Apparently I was wrong yesterday and she can still qualify from the Beijing qualification tournament which will be held early next season.

Doesn’t Georgia have to qualify their 1 spot through an athlete other than Gubanova though? I believe that’s how it works.
 
Eteri Tutberidze dominated ladies figure skating for a decade by developing a method for training young girls to do a trey-and-a-quarter. Good for her, Good for them.
I'm not sure about that. Her skaters always rotate their landings. Probably the best in the business.
 
Gosh I wish we weren't so negative. Amber didn't BOMB. She fell on a 3A. She'll get it together. She's about 6 points off the podium, which is not at all insurmountable. I, for one, am not counting her out.
If she spent two days with a lead going into the free skate she'd be an even bigger nervous wreck than before the short. I think she will throw caution to the wind and have one of her best skates. She spend two days saying to herself I'm no good, what's the point, I give up, heck I may as well go out there and enjoy it it's a world championship who knows when I'll be back. She'll skate perfect.
 
Medals can be decided by a difference of 1 or 2 points, and less than, which is why biased judging can be so damning.

Earlier you stated that we should move on from discussing the results of the women’s SP, yet you just dissected and responded to my post, so you must want the debate to continue.
Yeah, that's true. I find that the one thing I cannot force myself to do on this board is to follow my own advice.

Sorry for the over-reaction. :(
 
I just watched the outright favoritism towards the American skaters and it is unbelievable.
Alyssa and Amber clearly underrotated or quartered on their triple toes and got off scott free. Mone had a solid looking triple toe and ended up with an underrotation? I think Amber's 3A landed forwards which makes it << .
This is very bad and the panel should be reprimanded. I wonder if the coaches should file a complaint. Mone and Wakabe were also undermarked for their Step sequence.
DOnt get me wrong, I loved Alyssa's program but she should be in second or third.
No Americans on the panel. Tech panel Canadian, Latvian and Finnish. Perhaps the program skated was different live. Perhaps your angle isn’t as good as the angle they have?
 
Who said anything s out a beauty pageant?
"Beauty Pageant" is an unfortunate phrase, but I do think that it is interesting to look at the program components, especially choreography and presentation. In the short program everyone does pretty much the same technical content, so that's a wash if the skater goes clean, but kills a skater who makes costly technical mistakes.

In PCSs, the top four were Chiba, 34,10, Levito, 34.00, Liu, 33.78, and Higuchi, 32.39. The top three were within a few tenths of a point of being equally as beautiful as each other. Higuchi was unfortunate in that there were TWO judges who were not so enamored. One judge gave her 6.75 for composition and 7.00 for presentation. These scores were discarded in the trimming process, but they covered the other judge who gave her 7.00 and 7.25.
 
These are calls made in slow motion with the aid of video. It's very simple stuff.

It was more than a quarter, therefore underrotated. I already provided the screen dumps proving it.
I couldn’t tell much by your screenshots. The don’t just look at the shot you see. The judges have access to all the feed. And NONE of the judges are American. You are unhappy with the call. That’s okay.
Someone above thread talked about Liu’s intricacies on the step sequence verses the speed of Wakaba. In figure skating, the judges will give the nod toward speed when the level of difficulty is equivalent. I’ve seen Liu’s skate live. It’s beautifully seamless. These judges seem to prefer that.

My personal opinion is there are two skaters who were gifted in their scores. One is the current World Champion and the other is the current Grand Prix Champion. I like both of them, but any other skater would have had lower scores.
 
I’m aware, but I don’t agree with what the judges see in Isabeau. When I watch Levito, I see a slow skater with laboured, cheated jumps. She’s the quintessential pretty princess type, which honestly, I’m not a fan of. I gravitate more toward the Sakamoto/Glenn/Higuchi powerful warrior skaters. Isabeau should not be beating Wakaba in skating skills or performance; maybe I will give her choreography. I feel Isabeau has always been overscored and Wakaba has always been underscored

We all have our preferences. The judges aren’t supposed to, though. Also, Levito comes across better in person. I gravitate toward her style, but can appreciate the beauty in powerful skating.
 
I couldn’t tell much by your screenshots. The don’t just look at the shot you see. The judges have access to all the feed. And NONE of the judges are American. You are unhappy with the call. That’s okay.

Only one judge is ever American, the technical controller can be from any country, but it seems the decisions always seem to benefit one particular powerful fed :shrug:

Even go back to junior World's we saw the technical panel and judges suddenly fall asleep for one particular skater while burying Wada :shrug:

Just seems to keep happening over and over. Hey, there are coincidences in life I guess.
 
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They pre rotate their jumps. It’s been pointed out many an armchair judge.
180 degrees is allowed and this what they do. I see the 2T on a 3-2 combo get prerotated 270 degrees all the time. No-one really cares. Just people get upset about a 4T being 180 degrees prerotated :shrug:
 
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