Replay Lounge 2026 Olympics | Women

[freedomlover]

She doesn't deserve 80 - even a 75 level skate really should be considered to be something like Mao Asada's SP at 2014 worlds. Or if people want to be even more specific, then at least up until 2010 there used to be that additional spiral sequence, so at least rewarding it to a particularly fantastic women's SP back then made sense.

Compared to Asada's SP, if you were to give her 9 on SS, 8.5 on transitions and 9.5 for the other three components, that adds up to 36.8 PCS. Nobody here deserved more, and she'd decidedly deserve to outscore them on the step sequence GOE as well.

So you think the SP scores were accurate?

 

[Mathman]

Alysa's program was not intricate.

It was not "intricate." But her performance was the kind of whiz-bang take-no-prisoners performance that wins Olympic gold medals.

 

[Karoltyna]

Thank you for sharing chatGPT's analysis ... however, it's hard for me to trust much about it because already, it has a flaw on the rules of judging panels.

The ISU didn't decide not to assign the US judge to the FS panel. It was done by a draw. So it's just not accurate of a statement.
If chatGPT is not aware of basic rules, how can they make such in depth analysis ?

When they are counting deviation and what not, are they aware that the highest and lowest scores are dropped ?

When they are looking at anti-rival biases... I was surprised to see names in there that in theory are not at all contenders. Why would a judge have a national bias against a Korean skater or even Petrokina ? I mean, it was very unlikely from the get go that one of these skaters would be a factor in the rankings.

My analysis here is that chatGPT decided that skaters who were close to one another may have suffered from an anti-rival biases... but the reality is that I doubt that there was an anti-rival bias here because the rival identified by AI are not "direct rivals"

In any case, I am always interested of seeing anyone's analysis, even AI analysis but I doubt that there is much to find here other than some judges did have different tastes and that nobody was harmed in the process. I didn't think the rankings in the SP were wrong at all. I haven't seen the LP yet but from looking at protocols, it looks to me that Kaori sealed her own result by not being able to tag a combo on her second triple flip and she lost her points there... End of story. As much as I love Kaori and as much as I believe that she's a better skater than anyone else on the planet right now, I don't think it would have been justified to rank her first... so I am glad it didn't happen.

Congrats to Alysa, Kaori and Ami.

Open LLMs are exactly as fake as russian home scoring
But some custom AI developed for figure skating analysis - specifically rotations and edges could be helpful and bring some objectivity to judging.

 

[yfan1]

So you think the SP scores were accurate?

I think they were overscored. Also I'd have Ami leading, but Alysa second, and maybe Mone third there, too.

ETA: actually no. Alysa first after SP on the strength of her performance/choreography and also the 3Lz+3Lo attempt. Ami slightly behind in second with her 3A. Mone third. Then Ami wins the LP and the overall gold.

 

[skatedreamer]

I don’t think Alysa is planning on retiring. Her goal wasn’t the gold medal. It’s just bonus.

I sure hope you're right. Alyssa 2.0 is a joy to watch -- crazy hair notwithstanding!

All joking aside, I also think her "medals don't matter" mindset is extraordinary. Most people take years to develop that kind of perspective, if at all, and IMO it's worth more than all the Olympic hardware in the world.

Here's hoping Alyssa's positivity goes viral and spreads to the whole US team.

I mean, when you think about it, doesn't everybody need a little bit of IDGAF in their lives?

 

[Zora]

I feel extremely sorry for Kaori, but she lacked a bit of killer instinct for the Gold medal. Why didn't she have a back-up plan? She could have done a 3Lo-2Lo. Why did she even jump a 3Lz-2T in the beginning and not a 3F-2T to avoid the REP just in case? She could have even tried a 2A-3T-3T if she was feeling brave. Maybe she thought the gold was lost anyway, but seeing it was this close must really hurt.

 

[Tutto]

I finally got to see some of the women's FS performances, as Channel 9 (Australia) replayed them this evening. Here are my thoughts:

-Adeliia: I don't want to sound rude, as she seems like a nice girl, and she was under immense pressure and handled it pretty well, but I honestly don't see what the hype is around her. Other than the fact that she can do a quad (but didn't do it successfully here), the rest of her skating seems mid-level to me. Her jumping technique is not great, she's not an exceptional spinner, she doesn't perform very well, and she seems to skate slowly, with a lack of ice coverage.

Thank you for saying this! I have been wondering the same and questioning my judgment. As so many people including commentators seem to able to see something that I can't.
Yes, mediocre everything: SS, spins, ice coverage, pre-rotated jumps and not much elevation on them, not much of personality either. When I saw her SP score I was stunned. But then I remembered who was her coach and things began to make sense. Eteri came to win, ban or no ban, and was determined to pull out all the stops.
I don't envy the girl having to face Eteri backstage and the fallout that undoubtedly awaits her in Russia , but sorry to say I am pleased that after 3 consecutive winners no gold medal (or any medal) goes to Eteri camp.

Heartbroken for Kaori who now joins the exclusive club of truly great skaters who won Worlds and everything but Olympics...sigh...
Amber is like Adam, they just can't skate two clean programs, I prefer when Adam makes mistakes in the short and comes back in the long than other way round. It is like being mad at themselves is their only way to skate clean and to get to that stage they need to bomb first.. Sad. (still heartbroken for Adam!)
Feel a bit sorry for Mone, she skated LP with more expression than ever, skated clean but missed on the medal.
Delighted that Niina P. once again proved what a cool competitor she is. In my book she should have been above Adelia.
All in all it was a fantastic competition. Hope the ISU takes note that FS is not dead yet

 

[Karoltyna]

Thank you for saying this! I have been wondering the same and questioning my judgment. As so many people including commentators seem to able to see something that I can't.
Yes, mediocre everything: SS, spins, ice coverage, pre-rotated jumps and not much elevation on them, not much of personality either. When I saw her SP score I was stunned. But then I remembered who was her coach and things began to make sense. Eteri came to win, ban or no ban, and was determined to pull out all the stops.
I don't envy the girl having to face Eteri backstage and the fallout that undoubtedly awaits her in Russia , but sorry to say I am pleased that after 3 consecutive winners no gold medal (or any medal) goes to Eteri camp.

Heartbroken for Kaori who now joins the exclusive club of truly great skaters who won Worlds and everything but Olympics...sigh...
Amber is like Adam, they just can't skate two clean programs, I prefer when Adam makes mistakes in the short and comes back in the long than other way round. It is like being mad at themselves is their only way to skate clean and to get to that stage they need to bomb first.. Sad. (still heartbroken for Adam!)
Feel a bit sorry for Mone, she skated LP with more expression than ever, skated clean but missed on the medal.
Delighted that Niina P. once again proved what a cool competitor she is. In my book she should have been above Adelia.
All in all it was a fantastic competition. Hope the ISU takes note that FS is not dead yet

Petrosyan over Niina bugs me even more than on OGM for Kaori. Sadly, Kaori did it to herself givin up on third combo. Niina had pristine FS and very good SP and lost to average performance with a fall.

 

[TontoK]

It was not "intricate." But her performance was the kind of whiz-bang take-no-prisoners performance that wins Olympic gold medals.

Yes, she skated as if she didn't have a care in the world. Free and easy. Fun and light. And clean (essentially). It was "beat that if you can" and they couldn't. On this day, anyway.

And as much as I really enjoy Kaori's skating, and I was kinda hoping for a gold medal for her... in the end, it really wasn't as close as the score indicated, IMO.

 

[AlexRus]

Comparing results of this and previous (2022) Olympics (place and score of OWG2022 at the end of string)
FPl. Name Nation Points
1 LIU Alysa USA 226.79 6 208.95
2 SAKAMOTO Kaori JPN 224.90 3 233.13
3 NAKAI Ami JPN 219.16 New
4 CHIBA Mone JPN 217.88 New
5 GLENN Amber USA 214.91 New
6 PETROSIAN Adeliia AIN 214.53 New
7 PETROKINA Niina EST 210.82 New
8 LEE Haein KOR 210.56 New
9 GUBANOVA Anastasiia GEO 209.99 10 200.98
10 SAMODELKINA Sofia KAZ 207.46 New
11 SHIN Jia KOR 206.68 New
12 LEVITO Isabeau USA 202.80 New
13 PINZARRONE Nina BEL 200.30 New
14 HENDRICKX Loena BEL 199.65 7 206.79
15 GUTMANN Lara Naki ITA 195.75 New
16 KARHUNEN Iida FIN 192.79 New
17 SAUTER Julia ROU 190.93 New
18 MIKUTINA Olga AUT 185.59 13 182.20
19 ZHANG Ruiyang CHN 178.03 New
20 KURAKOVA Ekaterina POL 173.37 11 185.84
21 KAISER Livia SUI 171.52 23 New
22 SCHILD Lorine FRA 167.08 New
23 REPOND Kimmy SUI 159.54 New
24 SENIUK Mariia ISR 152.61 New
****
25 SCHIZAS Madeline CAN 55.38 18 175.56
26 SAFONOVA Viktoriia AIN 54.57 12 184.83
27 VARIAKOJYTE Meda LTU 53.86 New
28 FEIGIN Alexandra BUL 53.42 23 159.31
29 SPOURS Kristen GBR 45.54 New

Birth date of Women at OWG 2026
Julia SAUTER ROU 18.06.1997
Amber GLENN USA 28.10.1999
Loena HENDRICKX BEL 05.11.1999 OWG2022
Kaori SAKAMOTO JPN 09.04.2000 OWG2022
Kristen SPOURS GBR 11.04.2000
Ekaterina KURAKOVA POL 24.06.2002 OWG2022
Lara Naki GUTMANN ITA 06.11.2002
Anastasiia GUBANOVA GEO 02.12.2002 OWG2022
Alexandra FEIGIN BUL 22.12.2002 OWG2022
Madeline SCHIZAS CAN 14.02.2003 OWG2022
Viktoriia SAFONOVA AIN 08.05.2003 OWG2022
Olga MIKUTINA AUT 06.10.2003 OWG2022
Niina PETROKINA EST 14.08.2004
Livia KAISER SUI 02.10.2004
Lorine SCHILD FRA 06.01.2005
Haein LEE KOR 16.04.2005
Mone CHIBA JPN 01.05.2005
Mariia SENIUK ISR 07.05.2005
Alysa LIU USA 08.08.2005 OWG2022
Kimmy REPOND SUI 18.10.2006
Nina PINZARRONE BEL 24.11.2006
Sofia SAMODELKINA KAZ 18.02.2007
Isabeau LEVITO USA 03.03.2007
Meda VARIAKOJYTE LTU 03.05.2007
Adeliia PETROSIAN AIN 05.06.2007
Ruiyang ZHANG CHN 21.12.2007
Jia SHIN KOR 19.03.2008
Iida KARHUNEN FIN 05.04.2008
Ami NAKAI JPN 27.04.2008
All 10 who are younger than Alysa LIU were not eligible for OWG 2022 by age.
Of others - 10 did not get spots (NOC did not get spot or in National Team were stronger girls) , 9 were at OWG 2022.

 

[Mathman]

But some custom AI developed for figure skating analysis - specifically rotations and edges could be helpful and bring some objectivity to judging.

The analysis posted by Joe Mendoza is actually a pretty good example of what AI can do. First, note that it has nothing to do with figure skating, but rather it parallels scholarly articles on statistical bias. That's the job of AI. To mimic what humans do so accurately that you can't tell the difference.

Yes, the report is quite formulaic (would one say "robotic"?) -- but so are similar reports prepared by human scholars and professional statisticians.

What's cool about it is that users who are AI literate have instant access to analysis of this kind, and do not have to wait for some graduate student in statistics to publish a Master's Thesis on the subject.

 

[TontoK]

Yes, @Mathman I think some people believe AI can magically "create" information and knowledge. Of course it can't.

But it can condense hours of research and data analysis to minutes.

And I think many people discount the everyday utility. Last week, my wife and I visited an unfamiliar city for some medical appointments. We needed two nights of hotel reservations.

I asked my favorite AI for a list of accommodations reasonably close to the clinic, with a moderate price range, with good restaurants nearby, in a safe area, etc etc. In less than a minute I had a list with details on everything I input. Plus the AI recommended hotel.

Now could I have done all that on my own? Sure. Would I have spent hours doing all that? You bet.

 

[Minz]

I think I'm figure skated out, at least for the next few weeks.

I did the math and I did 105 play-by-plays for 16 and a half hours' worth of events...

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

So if we sum it up, after Men being very conservative, Women have done the same. Most Men have been menning, and most Women have been Womenning. It must be said though, that forward-thinking and rejecting gender-conformity rewards much more with Men (Mikhail Shaydorov) than with Women (I won't list). Can it be considered a sad gender inequality in Figure Skating, that Men are rewarded when not menning, whereas Women are punished when not womenning?
As to Pairing, as suggested by 4everchan, we may guess they have kept this for after the competitive skate?

 

[Skater Boy]

I feel extremely sorry for Kaori, but she lacked a bit of killer instinct for the Gold medal. Why didn't she have a back-up plan? She could have done a 3Lo-2Lo. Why did she even jump a 3Lz-2T in the beginning and not a 3F-2T to avoid the REP just in case? She could have even tried a 2A-3T-3T if she was feeling brave. Maybe she thought the gold was lost anyway, but seeing it was this close must really hurt.

With all the different rules and limits it is hard to change things on the fly. She really needed to figure out if she was doing a 3F 3T or 3F2 loop in advance due to the take off of the loop. And she had to avoid doing too many 2T. NOthing will change Kaori is amazing gold or silver and ditto for Alyssa - love her joy and freedom. Loved Ami's reaction to bronze but heart broken for Kaori. Still she won silver. And to be honest this was not the most iconic skating at the olympics we have seen. The Japanese pairs are not Gordeeva and Grinkov or even /shen and Zhou. Ilia didn't pan out and Mikhail is not even the artist like his coach or the athleticism of say Stoiko or artistry of Chan and Brown. Ice dance was exceptionally good for the top 3 but they don't have the cachet of Torvill and Dean or Virtue and Moir. The ladies though in general were all very good - you had to be over 200pts to be in top ten. Just amazing. Ami was ninth in the FS to get bronze. So impressed with the AIN skater Petrossian. Injured as she was she fought for it. A little disappointed for Isabeau, Leona et al but solid showing by the Koreans.

 

[FlyingFeather]

I must say, the surprise of the event for me was Haein Lee. I did not expect two incredible programs and an 8th place finish. Good for her!

 

[Janice4th]

BTW am I completely off-base that this has been happening for a while now, for both men and women. I clearly seem to remember both Jin and Hanyu getting "<" calls on jumps that looked perfectly fine on the landing in terms of rotation, rotated less on take-off before getting up than others, got more height than others, but judges only looked at them landing too low in the knee or a bit too flat on the edge, clearly decided they were 'saving' the landing, and gave the < call. I think it was 4T and 4S for them respectively.

The (!) calls on flips that take off on slight inside edges but ignoring blatant flutzes also has been happening for a while. Even though a Flip is fine on shallow inside edge, whereas a flat or inside edge for a Lutz is a major error when textbook Lutzes go off deep outside edges...

I think it would be better to look at how close those scores are to each other. For instance, if there is a 10 point spread between 3rd and 9th, that would be significant. If the difference is 2 points (as it seems to be, it’s not that meaningful.) I would have had in 4th in the free, but I’m not a judge. Her program component scores are equal to or higher than the other 5, what put her at 9th was the difficulty score. The triple axel was great, but she lost points on three other jump passes.

 

[Mathman]

I must say, the surprise of the event for me was Haein Lee. I did not expect two incredible programs and an 8th place finish. Good for her!

especially the long program.

 

[Janice4th]

I think they were overscored. Also I'd have Ami leading, but Alysa second, and maybe Mone third there, too.

ETA: actually no. Alysa first after SP on the strength of her performance/choreography and also the 3Lz+3Lo attempt. Ami slightly behind in second with her 3A. Mone third. Then Ami wins the LP and the overall gold.

Despite three flawed jumping passes? That’s where she lost the points. As much as we might love a skater, we have to look at what they skated. If you have those flaws it will affect the component scores.
I love Isabeau’s skating, but I’m not going post that she should be top 5 because of how exquisite her skating is. She made mistakes and it reflected on her total score, just as it did with Ami. She had a 72.83 on her elements.

 

[amc987]

I was traveling yesterday, so I'm a little late watching/reflecting.

I think Alysa Liu was the deserving winner on the night. She skated with joy and without mistakes. MacArthur Park is not my taste: to me, it's campy and ridiculous and lacks sophistication artistically. But all of the other medal contenders made mistakes, while Alysa was clean. Congrats to her.

I'm sorry for Kaori. I prefer the Edith Piaf program. Her speed and power and skating quality are unmatched, and this program is, imo, a much better vehicle for her than the Sarah Brightman piece. I don't understand for the life of me why she would backload her 3-3 combo without some insurance (i.e., do the loop in the first half and do both flips in the second half if you're going to backload. Otherwise, do the 3F-3T in the first half and take the hit on points.). You could tell that the judges wanted her to win the gold, and were ready to give it to her if she'd made that result look plausible. Unfortunately, without the 3T, she shouldn't have gone ahead of Alysa.

Ami skated okay. I think she might've won with the 3Z-3T combo. Some of those edge and UR calls on the other jumps seemed awfully harsh to me. I don't think this program is as good as La Strada, but she has great potential artistically. Can't wait to see how she does at Worlds.

My highlight of the night was Amber getting her redemptive skate. I wish it had been 100% perfect (no hand down on the loop and higher level on the steps). As it is, imo, her score was 2 points too low in PCS, which was predictable given how early she skated, but still unfair. I remember the judges doing a similar thing to Mao Asada in Sochi. Without the errors, Amber might've gotten the bronze even coming from 13th. Most important, she got her Olympic moment and made herself proud.