Ladies SP - 3:55 am Eastern Time Friday

[life684]

Loved Akiko's program., favorite program of the lot.

Kostner looked better than at france, i wonder whether the problem with her and Ponsero is their speed. Too much speed going into the jump, that they are not able to control the jump itself.

Nagasu's combo looked Ur but that was balanced out by her very low pcs. Pcs will surely get a inflation if she skates clean. Her program looked lot better than the one at west coast competition i believe.

Flatt looked lot faster but looked totally uncomfortable with chero, jumps were off.

 

[sjwh08]

Personally, I think the present 70-30 split is not bad. I think the place where the present scoring system can be tighteded up is in the Skating Skills and Transitions categories. Transitions, especially. It should not be a matter of opinion whether or not a skater includes Ina Bauers, split jumps, unlisted jumps like single Walleys, spread eagles, mini-spirals, plus an assortment of steps and turns between scored elements.
.

Totally. The transitions category is often what makes me scratch my head.

I thought most of the problems regarding subjectivity/bias would be mediated if we had as many judges as possible, but ISU went ahead and reduced the number instead..so..I don't know what to say..hwell:

 

[janetfan]

It was nice to see Caro with a good skate and a smile afterwards. I think she can make a mistake in her LP and still beat a very clean Joannie or Rachael.

She looked more relaxed and confident today.

 

[Mathman]

...The revolutions per a certain time is also measured, as is the amount of centimetres the blade travels during the spin.

For jumps, this would completely resolve the controversy about whether underrotated triples should be downgraded to the base value of doubles. For a flip jump, for instance, you get .0051 per degrees of revolution. So a completely rotated triple would give you 5.508, and a triple flip that is underrotated by 90 degrees would get only 5.049.

Now multiply that by (1+/- x/90), where x is the number of degrees plus or mius from the vertical of the take-off edge.

But seriously, no, I don't think it would be a burden on the judges to be supplied with objective criteria for what counts as a transitional element. The alternative is what we have now. A skater gets 7.75 for Transitions for a program that has none. (Not mentioning any names. )

 

[fairly4]

Okay--to me Mirai deserved the win--even though it should have been ur and her camel spin was wonky--she went down. but she was sharp, better than golden west.

rachel--to me skated a bit worse than the golden west- but she did okay--like all the women

i thought kostner might have been a bit overmarked but otherwise she was okay-because of few of her landings looked wonky.

kiira skated okay
the scores are close so anyone in top 5 can win, joannie is going to need help and win the long.

 

[Spun Silver]

Rachael definitely fought for those landings, poor girl. In fact, she seemed very out of sorts. I wonder if I just think so because her hair is in a simple ponytail and she NEVER has had it in anything but a beautifully coiffed bun-- did she run out of time preparing? Or is this her way of 'letting loose' and going outside of her 'elegant' comfort zone? To be honest, I just don't think Sing Sing Sing is going to be received well by the international audience/judges....though the Golden West audience really dug it. It just seems a bit too 'American' and junior-ish/cutesy/exhibition program-esque. Which may be alright for Nationals but not really the Grand Prix or Olympics...

I think you hit the nail on the head. I've never seen Rachael LOOK better in terms of hair and costume. Both the ponytail and that deep V neck are incredibly becoming. But the program itself doesn't wear well - it's fun and Rachael seems to enjoy it a lot, but it's more suitable for an exhibition number - not so much to compete with. Even though I love the choreography - it's inventive, lively, and maintains interest and energy.

It seems like this season I'm watching a lot of programs - Johnny's and Mao's and Ashley's FPs all come to mind, now Rachael's SP - and saying, Great program, keep the choreography, but change the music. That's almost impossible to do, unfortunately.

 

[Hikaru]

yey carolina
did she fix her dress?

Nope, she did not. I wish someone would tell her, and soon. She skated nicely though.

 

[Spun Silver]

I also have no idea why the Chinese audience was so cold to Akiko, normally Akiko is a big crowd favourite because of her outstanding interpretation and the best footwork in the business.

Historical tensions?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Republic_of_China_–_Japan_relations

I thought her program was fabulous! What style, speed, and confidence!

 

[Medusa]

Historical tensions?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Republic_of_China_–_Japan_relations

I thought her program was fabulous! What style, speed, and confidence!

I thought of that reason too, but didn't want to bring it up, because interasian affairs often poison the tone on figure skating boards. It would be a shame if that was indeed the reason.

 

[cornell08]

Well Mirai is also of Japanese name and heritage and she was received very warmly by the crowd (the only really loud applause anyone got), and also by the commentators who seemed to really hope she'd get scored well enough in the first group to keep up with the likes of Rochette and Kostner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uZ9wDtkfNM
3:25

I also didn't think the crowd was cold towards Fumie. It was just more or less a staid audience overall, and for all the disciplines (except pairs, of course).

 

[Phoenix347]

Just saw vids of Joannie and Mirai. It was bit weird to see Joannie skate so tentatively... was it because she felt the pressure from expectation of a victory here? She usually skate with so much gusto but here it was as if she was treading lightly on the ice as possible... therefore depriving her of the power that she usually has on the ice. She needs to go for broke in the LP or she's definitely off the podium. Really surprise to see this... if she can't handle the pressure here how is going to do in front the home audience at Vancouver?

As for Mirai, she skated very well and skated pretty clean. Due to the quality of the video, I won't try to tell if she UR'ed or not so I'll give the judges the benefit of the doubt. However, I do see why people are saying her skate was a bit jgp-ish. I think she needs to step up a bit terms of aggressiveness to be considered a real contender for a medal at the Olympics. Same goes for Ashely Wagner. A bit more of attack and boldness will go a long way... but they're still young. US nationals are going to be really interesting. It just might be Wagner and Nagasu.

 

[Spun Silver]

Well Mirai is also of Japanese name and heritage and she was received very warmly by the crowd (the only really loud applause anyone got), and also by the commentators who seemed to really hope she'd get scored well enough in the first group to keep up with the likes of Rochette and Kostner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uZ9wDtkfNM
3:25

But Mirai is a US skater.

It's hard for me to imagine any but a political reason. Akiko was too beautiful and seductive! How could they resist her? :scratch:

 

[cornell08]

Its all a matter of opinion. What may be alluring to one may not necessarily move a crowd. I found Caroline's SP to be alluring but I'm pretty sure most people were just 'meh' about it. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Akiko, period. I love Mao and loved Shizuka but just don't really like Miki, Yukari or Akiko. Shrug. I think thats going into pretty speculative areas, anyhow.... why don't you guys just wait and see how the audience receives Oda's Chaplin? If they aren't enamored, then you might be onto something...

 

[silverlining]

What a performance by Mirai. :thumbsup:

America, there's your money right there.

It's not going to be Ashley, Caroline, Rachael or Alexe. (Sorry ladies, I love you all, but I just don't see the "kwan" (not Michelle, but that thing Cuba Gooding Jr. was talking about in Jerry Maguire) in you girls.)

Mirai has the athleticism, artistry, personality and charisma needed to create a champion.

I placed my bet a couple of seasons ago when I saw her win silver medal in Junior Worlds in 07, finishing behind Caroline by a narrow margin. It was painful to see her struggle in her first senior circuit last season, but she's matured a lot in a year and looks like a million dollars.

She just needs to refine her jumps and keep doing programs that suit her.

No matter what happens tomorrow at LP, she's going to have a realistic shot at a Worlds title in a couple of years and compete for OGM in Sochi.

 

[nevergonnadance]

Mirai has the athleticism, artistry, personality and charisma needed to create a champion.

Yes. She doesn't skate worried, she doesn't skate like there's a battle in her head, she doesn't skate like she's trying to overcome her demons or nerves. She reminds me of the skating in the early 00's - she's not super self-aware, hasn't analyzed herself to death, hasn't made some master list of the psychological obstacles she needs to surmount.

I love how she uses her hands and head and I love that she seems to enjoy it, and *I* enjoy her confidence. She's not skating as if afraid of failure.

It was Evan Lysacek who said Mirai could be a big spoiler among the US women and I hope it comes true.

 

[sjwh08]

Historical tensions?

This is a plain silly speculation. It seemed that there wasn't a huge crowd anyway, and at least to me Akiko was not someone the crowd would fall in love with at first sight. (I don't follow Japanese skating too closely and to be honest this is the fist time I saw her.)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying she was good or bad. It just makes more sense to assume that Akiko didn't appeal to the crowd than to presume that it's historical thing only because in someone's opinion Akiko certainly deserved a huge applaud.

 

[sktgirl6]

Joannie

Does anyone have video of joannie rochette's program... thank you

 

[R.D.]

It was Evan Lysacek who said Mirai could be a big spoiler among the US women and I hope it comes true.

I said earlier in the Cohen comeback thread that if there's one US skater that could give Cohen a run for her money even at her best, it's Nagasu. But at the time, it was looking bleak for virtually all the American ladies except Flatt.

Anyway, I will wait to see how she (Nagasu) does in the freeskate. One thing's for sure, she's a fighter. Even then, I'd give it another event. So far, Nationals is shaping up to be potentially VERY interesting, that's for sure.

 

[R.D.]

Someone said earlier that the Tech controller was Finnish. What?? How did that happen??? If there were no Finnish ladies in the event, it would be fine but aren't the TPTB aware of the potential conflict of interest here?? And it came across so clear to me after I actually watched Korpi's performance that she definitely was overscored. She wasn't THAT much better than she was in France.

 

[Spun Silver]

Does anyone have video of joannie rochette's program... thank you

It was in post 266.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ltwzc-w0-Q