Kim to skate at 2011 Worlds: Press release

[burntBREAD]

No, its not too bad but I am from Michigan, so we tend to giggle @ Richmond winters!!!

Yes...it finally snowed today. I live in the town where the Detroit Skating Club (where Alissa and Jeremy train) is, and I had to stand outside from 8 to 9:30 because we were doing a physics test in class...I basically froze to death.

 

[Kwanford Wife]

Yes...it finally snowed today. I live in the town where the Detroit Skating Club (where Alissa and Jeremy train) is, and I had to stand outside from 8 to 9:30 because we were doing a physics test in class...I basically froze to death.

Now, that just sucks. There is something about the wind in Oakland County that is on par with Chicago and I don't envy you but hope you did well on your test. I used to skate at DSC - talk about a walk down memory lane....

 

[Blades of Passion]

It was 32 this morning in San Diego. It was warmer in the rink at 5 am than outside. YIKES!

It probably did get down into the 30's here too, but I haven't been specifically looking at the weather reports. All I know is it's freezing and I do NOT like it. I pretty much always dislike it when the weather drops below 70 degrees, though.

Skating is most fun when it's hot outside TBH. You walk into the rink and it's so refreshing and then after you've been at the cold rink all morning/afternoon you walk outside and you're automatically warm. It's ideal to be able to throw on skate pants and a tank top, go to the rink, and then be able to go right to the beach afterwards with a quick switch into a swimtrunks.

 

[janetfan]

and I could never stand skating inside.......yech......the chemicals always made my nose run.....

I grew up in Pennsylvania - like Johnny and Adam - and before global warming we could skate outdoors for a few months each year. Lately though the thin ice scares the heck out of me - and don't suggest I am fat because I ain't no opera singer

 

[Tonichelle]

No but you did eat moose when you were young. Who knows how much that can screw up a person's brain chemistry.

just enhances stubborness! (and I still love that stuff!)




and yes, it does, taste good. But, I've only had Alaskan moose, from what I hear they're pretty gamey/stringy elsewhere.

 

[seniorita]

Ha I beat you all, everything is covered in snow tonight, i m watching the white roofs from my window
nothing to do with Yuna's music.

 

[Tonichelle]

Ha I beat you all, everything is covered in snow tonight, i m watching the white roofs from my window
nothing to do with Yuna's music.

meh I've had snow since early november...

 

[seniorita]

meh I've had snow since early november...

you are out of competition, the news would have been if you DIDNT have snow in the winter there

 

[pangtongfan]

Great news. Give her the gold medal now. Nobody out there now can beat her at even 70%. A washed up Miki Ando has been the skater to beat so far on the GP, what a joke.

 

[Olympia]

Of course the Pro Era was also my golden era. What inventiveness! Unhampered by rules, singles skaters could do more footwork than spins, and pairs skaters could do enough lifts to build a character rather than a score. And at about the same time, we had the Kwan era, which I plead happily guilty to loving. One of the great things about both the pros and the Kwan-era ladies was that they hung around for awhile. We got to know them a bit, and they got to mature artistically. There's something to be said for perseverance. Kwan and Slutskaya were in the game for a decade. I also have to hand it to Ando for going at it time after time, even after abysmal seasons where everyone wrote her off.

Today the class of the field is Kim and Asada, and I hope they stick around, because there's no one else who matches them right now. If Kim decides not to come back, it's certainly understandable, given the unique pressure she faces as Korea's most famous person and only viable international skater. But I do hope she is able to muster up the moxie to go through this again. Asada has already shown that she knows how to be tougher than tough times, but this year she might not make it to Worlds. Too bad! She's a lot more interesting, even without jumps, than the people who might replace her on the World team. (And don't get me wrong; I love Suzuki.)

 

[pangtongfan]

If Yu-Na skates as well as she did at her first competitions of the 2008, 2009, and 2010 seasons she will easily win Worlds this year.

I pray her programs are as good as they were at 2007 Worlds. It wouldn't surprise me if the podium this year is the same as 2007, just in a different order:

1. Yu-Na
2. Miki
3. Mao

That result would also give each of these Ladies a World medal of every color.

All I will say is if either Yu Na or Mao skate event decently at Worlds there is absolutely no way they will be below Miki Ando. Ando cant even do triple-triples that get ratified anymore, does 5 triples a program on a good day, still has mediocre non jump elements, and her programs are an utter bore. Ando wasnt even good enough at her best to beat a really good Asada or Kim, and she is well past that point now. If she won Worlds again at this point in her career that would be a sad thing for womens skating, so for that reason alone it should be a welcome relief Kim is back.

Of course in Mao's case she is such a disaester now she could easily not even make it to Worlds. However if she is on the podium at all that will probably mean she atleast performed decent and if she performed decent she will be above Ando gauranteed.

 

[Kwanford Wife]

All I will say is if either Yu Na or Mao skate event decently at Worlds there is absolutely no way they will be below Miki Ando. Ando cant even do triple-triples that get ratified anymore, does 5 triples a program on a good day, still has mediocre non jump elements, and her programs are an utter bore. Ando wasnt even good enough at her best to beat a really good Asada or Kim, and she is well past that point now. If she won Worlds again at this point in her career that would be a sad thing for womens skating, so for that reason alone it should be a welcome relief Kim is back.

Of course in Mao's case she is such a disaester now she could easily not even make it to Worlds. However if she is on the podium at all that will probably mean she atleast performed decent and if she performed decent she will be above Ando gauranteed.

While on one hand I can see your point, I'd like to add a different opinion to your arguement... What does it say about Ladies Skating if a competitor, OGM winner or not, simply takes the year off and still wins Worlds. And previous comps also disprove your arguement that Miki can't beat Yuna or Mao - since she's beat both. Plus, there are no guarantees in skating.

We'll see what happens...

 

[pangtongfan]

Ando even at her peak couldnt beat Kim or Asada skating well which is what I said. And previous competitions do no disprove that point. Her 2007 World title was with her skating the performances of her life in both programs and Asada having a huge mistake in the short and a couple mistakes in the long, and a pre prime Kim falling twice in the long. Then she finished above Asada in competitions where Asada was a disaester in later years, never when she skated well. And Ando isnt even close to the skater she was that year anymore either. Her winning a 2nd World title at this point in her career would be an embarassment quite frankly, and I suspect the judges feel that way too and wont let it happen unless Kim and Asada are both terrible at Worlds (or Asada isnt even there) and nobody else steps up.

 

[Blades of Passion]

Asada skated well at 2007 Worlds. She has never done two clean programs back-to-back (at least without dropping tech content or getting downgrades) so I'm not sure how much better can be expected of her. She got a 3Axel and 3Flip-3Loop and two 3Lutzes ratified in that LP...which will NEVER happen ever again for her. In fact, I'd bet a 99.9% chance of that LP at 2007 Worlds being the highest Asada will ever score under CoP.

It's nonsensical to say all Asada has to do is skate decently to place above Ando. No, actually not. She needs to skate great. Miki Ando will likely win both the GPF and Japanese Nationals this year. If she goes to 4CC she will probably win that too. Her momentum going into Worlds will be huge, riding on an undefeated season. If she goes out and skates her boring programs cleanly (and even gets downgraded on the 3Lutz-3Loop in the SP), the judges will reward her kindly. Asada isn't going to have a significant PCS advantage over Miki this season and she almost surely isn't going to out-tech her this season either.

 

[pangtongfan]

Asada made a huge error on her jump combo at the 2007 Worlds which is extremely rare for her as she usually did clean shorts around then. That cost her about 8 points or more. With those she blow Ando away even with her non clean LP. Dont forget Ando only barely won Worlds this year due to her huge lead on Asada after the SP as her LP of a life still scored much lower than Asada with a two foot and another two foot and downgrade. As for likely not duplicating again, Asada did even better LPs than the 2007 Worlds at both the 2008 GP final and 2008 4CCs (the PCS for ladies was a bit tighter in 2008 than 2007 btw even though all 3 were in the 133 change score), possibly even 2010 Worlds, while it is Miki Ando who skated completely out of her skin at the 2007 Worlds and never has and never will duplicate that same level again.

Ando isnt even getting PCS as high as Suzuki right now. If Asada skates half decently she will have no problems easily beating Ando on PCS. And Asada also hardly has to skate perfectly to outtech Ando and her 5 triples a program, probably no triple-triples, and her mediocre non jump elements. The only momentum Ando has now is being the luckiest girl to be doing ok skating while all the big girls are either away or going through a disaesterous timeframe. Her skating now isnt any better than in Vancouver where she got buried in 5th place.

 

[Kwanford Wife]

Pang: three things I've learned on Golden Skate that I will share with you now vs. you learning them the hard way like I did when I first joined this board:

1. making assertions based on fandom vs. waiting for the actual competition to take place is just asking to be mocked. (Kwan @ Worlds '05)
2. not understanding that being clean during a competition means that you were better than your competitors. If the favorite falters, there is always somebody else - for example: Kwan & Slute stumbled in 2002 thus Sarah Hughes was better and won. Period. What you as a fan prefers, simply doesn't count.
3. judges tend NOT to be fans and will judge what skaters actually do on the ice that night - not at the Olympics, a recent Nationals, etc.

As for Miki being the luckiest girl - please don't dismiss the awesome talent that is Miki. Regardless of your opinion, she is one of the big girls - one of the big girls who's actually getting the job done and I'm sure her competitors don't forget that either... Espcially Mao - who is smart enough to know that "decent" isn't going to get her very far...

But to each their own.

 

[miki88]

I wonder if Miki is even going to attempt her difficult 3-3's at Worlds. It seems at big competitions, when she needed them, she opts for the conservative approach as if she or her coach is hoping to take advantage of the mistakes from others, which is what happened when she won her first world title. I'd rather see her give it her all out there than hope for that type of miracle to happen again.
Mao's 2007 LP was not perfect. She also lost points on non-jump elements, which she has improved since then. During the 2007-2008 season, the PCS range was extremely stingy. 60 seemed the maximum for that season. Since the scoring system has changed so much, I feel reaching 130 would seen as a great achievement now. Certainly no one has achieved even close to that this season. I don't think anyone, including Kim herself, will ever get in the 150 range again under this revised system.

 

[Nadine]

Geeze, imho anybody thinking Mao Asada will win Worlds if she even makes the team (& this coming from one of her biggest fans, me, lol) is drinking kool-aid. She's definitely a *non-factor* as she is working on her jump technique for all her jumps, which will take about 2 yrs. imho.

Yuna Kim, OTOH, will deservedly win Worlds again if she just skates clean with 3 or 4 of her monster jumps, especially the gorgeous 3/3 combo. she does. She has it all. And I honestly think she will do it, just as she showed up at her first GP last year and blew the field away. And I'd rather have her win than somebody like Lepisto or her countrywomen with the same amount of jumps. Jmho, of course.

So 1st place is already taken imho, whereas the real battle will be for 2nd & 3rd. I'm crossing my fingers against the impossible improbable odds that an American lady can alas land on the Worlds podium once again, and I honestly don't care if it's 2nd or 3rd.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YUNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! arty:

 

[pangtongfan]

1. making assertions based on fandom vs. waiting for the actual competition to take place is just asking to be mocked. (Kwan @ Worlds '05)

I dont know whom you are referring to. I always predicted Kwan to finish somewhere from 3rd to 5th at the 2005 Worlds and most likely 4th. I knew she had absolutely zero chance to win even if she skated her best since Irina was on fire around then, was skating on home ice, had experience under COP, and since Kwan's Bolero was her worst program ever and she hadnt even landed 7 triples in years by then. Yes if anyone was predicting Kwan to win 2005 Worlds I would agree that was blind fandom indeed. Since I am not a fan of either Asada or Ando I thankfully have no such problem in this case.

2. not understanding that being clean during a competition means that you were better than your competitors. If the favorite falters, there is always somebody else - for example: Kwan & Slute stumbled in 2002 thus Sarah Hughes was better and won. Period. What you as a fan prefers, simply doesn't count.

Who said otherwise. I never said Ando didnt deserve to win the 2007 Worlds did I. I just pointed out what obviously has to happen for her to beat Mao and Kim is for her to skate two lights out programs the likes of which she never duplicated again, and Mao and Kim to both make major mistakes. And all this in Miki's peak point of her own skating which she is far beyond now, and while Kim wasnt even in her prime yet either. So the likelihood of just a scenario repeating is unlikely, and near impossible considering Miki isnt even as good a skater as she was in 2007 or capable of producing the same level of perforamance to even take advantage of an off Kim for instance. Just like Butyrskaya deserved to win the 1999 Worlds, but she was never likely to win a second one, granted Maria could have won a 2nd a year later if she had skated a cleaner LP, but that is only one year later and a far cry from a full 4 years later for these second tierish already weaker 1 time winners.

As for Miki being the luckiest girl - please don't dismiss the awesome talent that is Miki.

Awesome talent for doing jumps and nothing else really. And she isnt even doing great jumping anymore which 5 triples a program and the downgraded cheated triple-triple does not qualify as.

Regardless of your opinion, she is one of the big girls - one of the big girls who's actually getting the job done

When others are actually on the ice and performing decently she is no longer one of the big girls. Vancouver showed that. It is sad the womens field has fallen apart so far this year with absences and injuries allowing a past her prime skater to be winning events with just ok skating. If the big girls show up in decent form though Miki's fun is over, there is nothing she is doing so far this season anyway that would suggest otherwise.

 

[Tonichelle]

So 1st place is already taken imho, whereas the real battle will be for 2nd & 3rd.

sounds an awful lot like the Men's Event in Vancouver... and that didn't turn out like everyone thought either.


ETA: KW if you need something for that headache that is sure to come, I have a pharmacy all packed up for my move, what's your poison?