Grand Prix Final: Ladies LP

[R.D.]

Hmmm. If Rochette and Leonova had skated merely mediocre performances, Ashley would have been last, because her SP score was so low. She finished 4th only because those two skaters utterly and unexpectedly bombed.

True, but it's not like Ashley pulled the rug from under them or something

(IOW, it's not her fault they bombed...it's about who's the best on THAT NIGHT- you either bring it or you don't. Also, that's exactly how she got to the GPF in the first place- she benefited from skaters bombing- e.g. Asada)

 

[Iscariot]

akiko's program its a beauty, love the last moves in her step sequence such a shame that even with 7 triples she is still having pcs of a junior
glad to see miki dealing with the pressure at home, its a shame she ur her salchow she could have won even without the 3-3 or 2-3
contrats to yuna for winning again, its seems that her pcs dependes of her combinations, she got the same at skate america
i really liked this podium , altthoug i miss mao

 

[Trewyn]

Hmmm. If Rochette and Leonova had skated merely mediocre performances, Ashley would have been last, because her SP score was so low. She finished 4th only because those two skaters utterly and unexpectedly bombed.

What tells the story is that Ashley was 12 points out of the medals. Why? Because in the SP, she got gigged on all 3 jumps: She two-footed the flip in combination and the flutz (which got "e") and URd the 2A. In the FS, she URd the flip in the 2A sequence and again got a 2-point deduction for her flutz.

Ashley needs to do the 3Lo in the SP in place of the lutz, and in the FS replace the lutz with a 3T. A clean 3T with +GOE will score higher than a lutz with an "e".

I don't think Ashley's SP was a disaster as people make it out to be; the flip was fully rotated (but two footed) and the axel wasn't badly underrotated (very strict tech caller). But Ashley has got to stop two-footing jumps! She didn't two-foot any jumps in Russia and I was so hopeful she had done away with that bad habit and it pains me to see it re-emerging. But her LP was very convincingly skated so she 'earned' that placement; 107+ is a very respectable score.

I also feel that as long as Ashley's not capable to get the lutz on the correct edge she should leave it out of the SP because it's killing her score! Her technique on the lutz looked totally weird in the SP so I do believe she's working on it, but it's far from competition ready. And where's that triple-triple you say you're working on, Ashley? It's reported that she landed it multiple times in the GPF practices but we've yet to see it...

But all in all I think Ashley pretty much made the best of her GPF outing. She also tweeted that she had the flu (she did look pale in the SP) so I still believe she can very well peak in January .

 

[inside edge]

Joannie becoming a lot like Alissa in that she can't be counted on to land more than 3-4 clean triples in the long. Also, I like how her LP here was comparable to the one she put down at SC and she got a 95 here and a 112 there ....hmm Canada:scratch:. Plus if her scores were 2/10 of a point lower she would have been last.

I agree
Joannie is one of my fav , but
PCS boost for Joannie at SC was just ridiculous.
:frown2:

 

[chloepoco]

After watching the ladies short and long programs, these are the words I would use to describe the skaters:

Yuna - Ethereal (What more is there to say? Such a beautiful and talented skater!)
Miki - Gorgeous (Another beautiful skater!)
Akiko - Effervescent (Love her cheeriness! And her long program!!!)
Ashley - Spunky (Full of energy)
Joannie - Mature (Calm and passionate)
Alena - Spirited (Carefree)

Love them all!

 

[Trewyn]

^^Great post! Yes they're all very different skaters and they all bring a different quality to the ice! Luckily there seems to be at least *some* room for personality under COP.

 

[chuckm]

There was nothing spirited about Leonova's FS. She was slow and lumbering instead of blithe and carefree. Her legs seemed to be too heavy for her to lift. The program fell completely flat because her usual bouncy personality was missing as she struggled to land her jumps.

I think Leonova crumpled under the pressure of trying to clinch her spot on the Russian Olympic team. If Makarova makes the podium in the JGPF, the pressure will be worse than ever, and Russian Nationals are in less than three weeks.

 

[chloepoco]

There was nothing spirited about Leonova's FS. She was slow and lumbering instead of blithe and carefree. Her legs seemed to be too heavy for her to lift. The program fell completely flat because her usual bouncy personality was missing as she struggled to land her jumps.

I think Leonova crumpled under the pressure of trying to clinch her spot on the Russian Olympic team. If Makarova makes the podium in the JGPF, the pressure will be worse than ever, and Russian Nationals are in less than three weeks.

Well actually, although I didn't say it, I meant those are MY impressions of the skaters in general--not of their short or long program, but rather, of the skaters themselves.

 

[YN fan]

After watching the ladies short and long programs, these are the words I would use to describe the skaters:

Yuna - Ethereal (What more is there to say? Such a beautiful and talented skater!)
Miki - Gorgeous (Another beautiful skater!)
Akiko - Effervescent (Love her cheeriness! And her long program!!!)
Ashley - Spunky (Full of energy)
Joannie - Mature (Calm and passionate)
Alena - Spirited (Carefree)

Love them all!

I had feelings and emotions inside after watching each lady skated, yet I couldn't put them into words. but you described exactly how I felt so well. Thank you.

 

[camion]

Yuna didn't make excuses for her skating. There was an incident & she just explained that. I wonder if Yuna still gets her skates from the same Japanese guy as Mao & Miki. I'm extremely particular about getting my blades sharpened, but Miki does the whole nine & goes all the way back to Japan & uses a freakin ruby to sharpen her blades.

Alena had an extremely nervous skate, but I didn't realize this competition was an Olympic qualifier for her. No wonder she was so hard on herself in the Kiss & Cry. I hope she gets that Olympic berth. Last time I watched Makarova's skating she seemed to underrotate a lot of jumps, so I'm still vying for Leonova. I'm forgeting her name, but did the blonde Russian skater who didn't tie her hair retire?

 

[luvsasha]

After watching the ladies short and long programs, these are the words I would use to describe the skaters:

Yuna - Ethereal (What more is there to say? Such a beautiful and talented skater!)
Miki - Gorgeous (Another beautiful skater!)
Akiko - Effervescent (Love her cheeriness! And her long program!!!)
Ashley - Spunky (Full of energy)
Joannie - Mature (Calm and passionate)
Alena - Spirited (Carefree)

Love them all!

Thank you for that positive and encouraging post in a time of great tension and un-levelheadedness

 

[MNP-30]

It is very interesting...

It is very interesting that, I guess, for some people, talking or bashing other skaters as long as saying "don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of 'blah blah'" or "I don't hate "blah blah'"....

Anyway, viv, skaters are trained to be excellent skaters, not excellent interviewees. You may have not in the situation they are in, but if there are several people in front of you asking questions, the immediate thought is to answer the questions with truthfulness, not to lie or avoid talking about things that happened. IMO, I think she is very smart at what she is saying but it's the media that changes and presents only things that will cause big issues; also nobody knows whether she emphasized on her lack of ability rather than her boots and the media made it bigger deal. (And that's why people buy newspaper, watch TV, etc because it makes the story more interesting than it actually is)

Anyway, congratulations, Yuna, Miki,and Akiko!

I am looking forward to Vancouver 2010! (or just 2010 for my graduation!)

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

About Akiko

I picked her out two seasons ago for her potential, but she still skates like a little girl. I hope to see a young lady next year.

 

[silverlake22]

I think Leonova crumpled under the pressure of trying to clinch her spot on the Russian Olympic team. If Makarova makes the podium in the JGPF, the pressure will be worse than ever, and Russian Nationals are in less than three weeks.

I assumed she would automatically make the Russian Olympic team. Russia doesn't really have any good senior ladies besides Leonova, who would they send instead? Those other Russian girls at COR were not that great.

And whoever asked about the blonde woman with no hair tie, do you mean Sokolova? She retired a few years ago I believe

 

[Daniel5555]

Just some of my impressions.
The queen of the event was Akiko. She got a deserved standing ovation, she is a very lovely skater, I think she will be only better in the future.

The worst thing in the event: Leonova's reaction on last place. I'm sorry, but I really hate when they cry like that. Seriously, just being there is an accomplishment. She was the worst in the event, but really it would be better if she could be more positive. She said previously that she hoped to place there or something, but that can't happen sometimes.

The best thing in the event: probably is that Yuna showed that her condition is better than some people thought. She had problems, but she proved to be able to overcome them. She finished this part, the start of the season, better than she did in the previous season. And that's really good.

I liked a lot Miki's performance and I think she was really close to Yuna. Her program and costume have to be remembered. It was great.

Yuna's performance was not the best one (from her), but still it was the best we could see. Everyone makes errors, but if one is great, overall it's still good, and that's what happened. Yuna won everything this year, she should be really happy now. And her errors, well you probably know already, she always works on them. She knows what to improve even after nearly perfect performances.

So that's it...
On the side note: don't know if it's just me, but I thought that everyone was skating like in slow motion. I mean, everyone was slow. The slowest was Alena Leonova, but even Miki and Yuna were slow. I think Miki was a bit faster than Yuna, actually. I don't know what happened. Maybe it was just my stream, or my eyes, but if it's true, probably watching everyone going so slow, they psychologically became kind of tired.
I hope that they will be faster on next competition.

Well, thanks to the prettyskates and french_quarter for defending Yuna a bit, although I see you guys here are kind to her.
Hope you enjoyed this event and well, it's wasn't so predictable at the end.

 

[Mathman]

I picked her out two seasons ago for her potential, but she still skates like a little girl. I hope to see a young lady next year.

She's 24.

 

[CARA]

GPF lady's medal ceremony

Just finished watching the GPF lady's medal ceremony at IN. So happy for all the medal recipients! Congrats to Yuna for overcoming her SA long program mini-break down.

Congrat for Miki to be qualified for the Olys spot without having to skate on the Japanese Nationals.
Finally congrat for Akiko to have medalled in the GPF for the first time in her career! She had tears of joy on her cheeks while she did a victory rap after the medal ceremony.

I'm a sucker for a happy ending. :yes:

 

[ImaginaryPogue]

Finally congrat for Akiko to have medalled in the GPF for the first time in her career! She had tears of joy on her cheeks while she did a victory rap after the medal ceremony.

I'm a sucker for a happy ending. :yes:

Heh.

 

[sleepyjl]

Finally congrat for Akiko to have medalled in the GPF for the first time in her career! She had tears of joy on her cheeks while she did a victory rap after the medal ceremony.

I'm a sucker for a happy ending. :yes:

I'm so happy for Akiko too. She's not considered traditionally beautiful by Japanese standards, which must have made it very difficult for her coming up the ranks. I think her bout with anorexia must have been a result of such pressure to be beautiful.

It brings a tear to my eye when the underdog does well. Go Akiko!!!

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

She's 24.

Ach! I thought she was a little Tara. In that case, ok for being the youngest member of the Sharks.