Well, more so than others, she has the reputation to put her in medal contention even in her worst days.
Actually, she has a reliable 3/3 combination even on her worst days which puts her in medal contention, in addition to being strong in program components.
And :disapp: at "more so than others," which isn't even close to being true. First of all, Yu-Na hasn't bombed that often in her entire career, so there is less of a need to rely on reputation at all.
Your implication is that others can't rely or rely less on reputation to put them in medal contention on their worst days. Well, this season there were quite a few skaters with a "reputation," both male and female, who got top PCS marks when their performances were less than stellar and got a boost in placement, but their name wasn't Yu-Na Kim.
Try isolating a skater's TES marks from the SP/LP and seeing where it ranks versus their overall placement/PCS. For Yu-Na, where her TES would place her overall has
never been lower than her actual overall placement, even with her worst days, which indicates that independently of an argument about her artistry/component scores, what she accomplished technically was enough to justify at least that minimum placement (if not more). This cannot be said of all other skaters with a reputation who have had a bad day, which means PCS (the mark more prone to subjectivity and being influenced by reputation) played a larger part in determining their placement. That does not
necessarily mean that that overall placement is wrong, but there is more subjectivity at play and that certainly opens their placement up more for debate.
Many skaters have benefited from reputation on a bad day and it's not exclusive to any single skater, but Yu-Na has not been the biggest beneficiary of reputation by a long shot. I can name a half dozen skaters from this season alone who benefited in placement more from the subjective side of the scoring system than Yu-Na ever did.
My point is that (especially given what has occurred) anything can happen. I'm not ready to crown anyone in particular. Yes, Yuna and the Japanese ladies have an advantage right from the start and will likely make up the podium. But stranger things have happened.
I agree with this, of course. Nobody's crowned until the competition's over, and I could very well see a dark horse candidate in the ladies breaking through to the podium (Alissa or Kostner being the most likely ones, IMO). That said, I think people are talking about a skater's chances of success based on past history, which seems reasonable.
This Worlds still feels weird to me and I'm not sure what to expect from the ladies in...Russia.
She's got another major headcase chasing her tail though: Alissa Czisny. Those two are the most logical choices to pick for "new medalists" on the Worlds podium.
