2025 Worlds: Women's thoughts and comments | Page 2 | Golden Skate

2025 Worlds: Women's thoughts and comments

Thanks for the post. In football (11 players on a team) the crowd is called the "twelfth man." The team hires cheer leaders to make sure that the 12th man does its part along with the other 11 to achieve victory.

It makes sense. If you are an official making a call and fifty thousand fans are shouting at you telling you you're wrong, it might make you think twice about what you thought you saw. Plus, in a championship game the officials are generally more hesitant about putting themselves out there as the guy who snatched defeat from the jaws of someone's victory.

In skating, performers that can make the audience stand up and cheer do have an advantage, whether in their home country or not. At Boston, the audience was enthusiastic about quite a number of performances, for instance Sakamoto's gem. Give the audience something to get excited about -- it can't hurt. :)
The Japanese are notoriously bad at home because of the extra pressure.
 
So Alysa Liu can essentially perform an exhibition-style, whimsical program with reasonably clean jumps and still score 148+ points. She doesn’t seem to need complex step sequences, exceptional extension, or difficult movements like those showcased by the Japanese skaters, for example. This suggests that the Japanese girls will either need to increase their intensity and complexity (and risk mistakes) or adopt a simpler style like Alysa’s (though they would likely be significantly underscored in that case).
A charismatic girl that is good under pressure, does not fall often or make major mistakes, but has rotation and edge issues. So you push prerotaion rules to the limit, and hope your Federation can get some friendly tech calls and judging with inflated PCS and GOE, especially at home. Sounds like a good plan. But are we talking about Alyssa or Kaori? Both? I see some irony here. Lol
 
I posted my thoughts in the competition thread...

but i just wanted to say : the camaraderie between Kaori and Alysa was delightful to watch. Kaori is a class act and Alysa was a very "good winner"

It was a breath of fresh air, and I hope this sort of friendship, respect and decency will be seen in Milano... it would be a change from the last three Olympics shenanigans ;)
 
Whiiiiiich, whether true or not, just comes across as whining sour grapes. Not a good look.
Well.. it's not true...
Yes, the top skaters are all doing the same thing... but back then, you didn't need a triple triple just to qualify and you could make it without one of the harder jumps (lutz and flip)

Radio won a bronze medal at 2015 worlds and her career was plagued by injuries until she retired officially... but in any case, she was one of the first examples of disposable skaters from ROC. (the better part of her career was in juniors.. and mind you, back then, you could become senior quite young)
 
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Whiiiiiich, whether true or not, just comes across as whining sour grapes. Not a good look.
I think that Radionova is basically right in a way, though. I was in attendance at Skate America 2002 when Ludmilla Nelidina and Yukari Nakano both did triple Axels in the long program (finishing 5th and 7th). OK, they weren't Midori Ito and Tonya Harding from the 1990s, but still,.. I don't believe that Radionova and her cohort (Sotnikova, Lipnitiskaia,etc.) ever matched Mao Asada in that regard (but Tuktamysheva did from that era.)

Now we are down to Amber Glenn left to carry the torch.

Still, this does not take the gloss off the performances that we just saw from Liu, Sakamoto and Chiba. There is more to ladies' figure skating than revolving in the air.
 
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The Japanese are notoriously bad at home because of the extra pressure.
The discussion, though, was not about whetther the athletes perform better or worse but whether the judges tend to be influenced by crowd noise. The study quoted by Button's Niece found that, at least for Association Football (soccer) referees in 2002, yes, the referees heard the cheers from the audience.

Of course we expect figure skating judges to be made of sterner stuff than mere soccer referees. Still, it can't hurt for a skater to try to project to the audience.
 
I don't know what I hate more, the Russia supporters coming out of the woodwork to proclaim that everyone sucked, or the weird "Murica" vibe from some US fans.

There definitely was some home cooking involved and the only reason I'm not screaming mad at Kaori being second is Alysa and Kaori both being such good sports about it.

But good to see a crowd that really appreciates the skaters.
 
For several years in a row, judges diligently forgave Kaori Sakamoto's mistakes, "not noticing" UR's and incorrectly executed lutzes. If her cascades failed so badly that it was impossible to hide, then the PCS was increased to compensate. In this way, a rather ordinary figure skater was turned into a three-time world champion and an object of mass admiration. I do not remember another example when a figure skater was so loudly praised for one of the easiest elements to perform. Malinin received fewer compliments for 4A than Kaori for 2A.

And now the magical gift, thanks to which judges do not notice UR's, has passed to Alysa Liu. What can be said here? Nothing, perhaps, except to ask a question - was this a local and temporary phenomenon, should we expect a triumphant return of the invincible Sakamoto and her gold at the Olympics next season, or will Alysa take everything now?

Frankly, I expected Amber Glenn to win this championship. And if the judges had forgiven her a few mistakes - well, that would have been understandable, at least. The desire to increase tech level require
encouragement. But what happened surprised me. I hope, at least, that now all the talk about Sotnikova winning in 2014 will cease.
 
I was a bit disappointed how the judges kept Kaori's score down to leave room for the US skaters. During the competition I thought they had accidentally made room for Mone Chiba to win, but of course she also got underrotations marked. Still, someone had to deliver, and Alysa did that fantastically. While I feel she was a bit overscored and especially in the SP had an underrotation ignored, Kaori cheering for Alysa erased almost all negative feelings from me.

Overall I really enjoyed that competition, many great performances.

One of my favorite free skate's is Pinzarrone's. I love every part about it, including the costume which shows classic lines and moves well. Simple yet stunning! It's just a routine that stands out for me for some reason.
I love Pinzarrone's skating. It's like watching an art film instead of a blockbuster. Both are great, but Nina's skating has a different quality.
 
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Mao Asada, Kim Yuna, Russians and Kaori vs who? If Mirai would have gotten her mind focused when she was young would have been their best chance.
But that proves that it was the skaters, not the federation.
 
Overall, the 33 competitors performed mediocrely. The judges suffered temporary blindness when it was the local skaters' turn, and we know Liu is the queen of underrotations.
The commentators are complicit in and responsible for fostering this mediocrity. The guy who narrated said during a skater's performance that started with a 3+3 combination: "the SUPER combination 3Lz+3T." What? Why do only one or two of the 33 skaters perform a 3+3 combination in the bonus zone? Is it time to define the 4+2 and 4+3 Ultra Combinations?
Elena Radionova declared yesterday: "The girls are showing the same set of elements that we showed 9 years ago at the World Cup in the same city". No Lena, the ISU made the competition easier for these girls. Nine years ago sequences didn't have the same base value as combinations and the sub-rotations were marked as sub-rotations not as q.

Alysa Liu is world champion in the absence of elite skaters because she was the least bad of 33 skaters and with the help of the judges.
We haven't seen how the so-called "elite" skaters perform at age 19.
 
How about "there is more to figure skating than revolving in the air"? Not limited to ladies, I believe? :)
Unfortunately with the ladies there is far too much revolving on the ground, during their jumps. Lol
 
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For several years in a row, judges diligently forgave Kaori Sakamoto's mistakes, "not noticing" UR's and incorrectly executed lutzes. If her cascades failed so badly that it was impossible to hide, then the PCS was increased to compensate. In this way, a rather ordinary figure skater was turned into a three-time world champion and an object of mass admiration. I do not remember another example when a figure skater was so loudly praised for one of the easiest elements to perform. Malinin received fewer compliments for 4A than Kaori for 2A.

And now the magical gift, thanks to which judges do not notice UR's, has passed to Alysa Liu. What can be said here? Nothing, perhaps, except to ask a question - was this a local and temporary phenomenon, should we expect a triumphant return of the invincible Sakamoto and her gold at the Olympics next season, or will Alysa take everything now?

Frankly, I expected Amber Glenn to win this championship. And if the judges had forgiven her a few mistakes - well, that would have been understandable, at least. The desire to increase tech level require
encouragement. But what happened surprised me. I hope, at least, that now all the talk about Sotnikova winning in 2014 will cease.
I truly do feel sorry for you.
 
But that proves that it was the skaters, not the federation.
I should not have listed Kaori. That was a mistake, thanks for catching that. I will fix that. The others were too far above the American competition to matter. Kaori has benefitted from the same favoritism and gross score inflation as well. She became the new chosen one after the Russian debacle.
 
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Unfortunately with the ladies there is far too much revolving on the ground. Lol
That is kind of ironic, in a way. To criticsise FIGURE SKATERS for turning too much on the ice. Shame on them, what do they think this is, figure skating? :)

But seriously, the reason that I put the emphasis on women's skating is that in men's, the ship has already sailed. Nothing counts except how many total revolutions in the air you do. What you do on the ice -- not so much. (Literally, not so much, as the ISU scale of values make abundantly clear. I am not offering this observation as an adverse criticism , necessarily -- just reality.)
 
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I don't know what I hate more, the Russia supporters coming out of the woodwork to proclaim that everyone sucked, or the weird "Murica" vibe from some US fans.

There definitely was some home cooking involved and the only reason I'm not screaming mad at Kaori being second is Alysa and Kaori both being such good sports about it.

But good to see a crowd that really appreciates the skaters.
It really is such a darkness where they do live- darkness of their own mind.

Yes, crowd stood above these petty human mind games! The audience was not overcame by the darkness of its mind, they were free, in freedom! they were there to watch figure skating, they were not plugged in darkness of post soviet ideological luggage in their minds (= we, Russians are the best and all world hates us because of this ).
No wonder those who suffer from this luggage use forums as psychotherapy sessions (in the best scenario) to free their own mind from that darkness they do live in.
 
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