- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
.I find it hard to believe her PCS are similar to Mirai and Sasha's.
And yet, they are.
Evidently the judges are using different criteria than you are as to what the program components measure.
.I find it hard to believe her PCS are similar to Mirai and Sasha's.
Okay, the thing is, not all elite female figure skaters today are "ice ballerinas". I mean, you have the thin white ladies (Cohen, Lepisto, Czisny) and the wiry asian ladies (Yuna, Mao, Miki, Mirai), the muscular ladies (Rochette, Wagner, Meissner), the tall ladies (Kostner, Korpi) and the normally built ladies (Flatt, Hughes, Leonova). All the skaters are built differently, and therefore, I don't think people's problems with Rachael's skating are due to how LOOKS but how she SKATES. Rachael looks like she's in great shape, and I don't think some aspects of her skating look sloppy because of the way she's built, but because she probably spends most of her time working on jumps and doesn't have the time to work as much on spins and spirals. She clearly has to be in great shape to land all those triples...
Flatt is a hard working person. She fixed the Lutz, for that alone she should be praised.
She also did a wonderful interpratation in her SP. She should add humor in her programs as she did in her SP. She should play with that bad posture by choosing appropriate programs. I can see her doing a Charlie Chaplin routine.
If she fixed the Lutz, she could fix also spins and spirals.
Sustained a back injury in September 2006 ...
All skaters have flaws people!!!
So it really annoys me when people think it's an achievement to beat Yuna.
I see Mirai as clearly the most athletic of the USA skaters.
It seems like there are three ways to go about being a successful skater. Either you do harder jumps than most (HJ), you are usually clean (UC) or you have beautiful artistry (BA).
YuNa has all 3, making her the front runner. But that is fairly rare. Miki Ando has 2 of the three (she isn't much of an artist, IIRC), and Mao hasn't been consistent lately. Rachael has 2 of the three, which should put her in the medal hunt. Yeah, one of her betters would have to falter, but I can't remember the last time I saw an Olympics with three clean long programs.
Nobody is unbeatable. Irina was supposed to complete the Russian sweep last time--it was almost a sure thing. She fell. Michelle was the favorite in 2002--she fell. A clean Yu Na will beat Rachael and everyone else--and maybe a clean Joannie or one or more of the Japanese girls are better than Rachael if they skate clean. But first they have to do it.
And there's a great challenge in having both the technical and artistry down. There's been quite the comment about skaters who worked on their artistry to only lose the technical content. Meissner and Brandon Mroz are two examples of this. So I think it's smart for Rachael to do what works for the time being then think about some easy way to bring out her artistry.
Dick Button and other commentators have said that Nationals is always the biggest pressure cooker because succeeding at Nationals is the key to success internationally. If you can't make the team, you don't get to compete on the World stage. Ashley Wagner and Sasha Cohen illustrate this point perfectly. Rachael not only has consistency, but she doesn't let pressure get to her. Her Junior World title (her first ISU Championship), fifth place finish at Worlds 2009 (her first Worlds) and 2-2-1 Nationals placements 3 years in a row show that she deals very effectively with pressure.
On the international scene, Mao, Joannie, and Miki have let their nerves get to them to the point that they have faltered badly. Even Yu-Na has shown she isn't immune to pressure. I'm sure all these ladies would love to be as unflappable a Rachael.