Should Gracie or Caroline or Agnes or Mirai replace Alissa for Worlds?

[R.D.]

I would just like to point out that Zawadski's season's best is about 157 (4CC), a mere 5 points higher than Czisny's season's worst (International Challenge). In fact, the IC event where Czisny "bombed" is the ONLY event all season where she earned a score lower than ANY score by Zawadski.

Welp...

 

[skateflower]

Interesting that Philip Hersh has been very quiet on this topic so far. His last tweet was on March 7th:

Jeremy Abbott to try quad in short at Challenge Cup; Alissa Czisny looks to repeat early-season form:

http://twitter.com/#!/olyphil

 

[Pepe Nero]

Another consideration is that replacing Czisny for any reason other than injury would represent a de facto policy change for the USFSA. They would be saying, "We'll determine the World team based on Nationals, but if you perform badly at a competition between Nationals and Worlds, we'll drop you."

What would the effect of such a de facto policy change be? It would mean than no one who qualifies for Worlds at Nationals would compete between Nationals and Worlds. No one would risk it. But the lack of competition and in-competition-practice between Nationals and Worlds would hurt U.S. skaters' prospects at Worlds. It would be short-sighted and irrational, therefore, for the USFSA to replace Czisny at Worlds this year, unless she is injured.

 

[heyang]

I think so, too.

Like emma, I can't bring myself to watch the video. But I have never seen or heard tell of a skater at that level who missed every single one of her seven jumps in an LP.

Lu Chen 1997??? She barely made it out of qualifying - I think she was #24 in QR? I know she didn't finish anywhere near the podium that year....then rebounded in 1998 to win bronze at the Olympics. A lot of the blame was put on her bad training shen she moved to the US unsupervised.

 

[heyang]

I haven't watched non-US skating this season, yet.

While Carolina is a favorite, she also has nerve issues IMHO. So who knows which Carolina will show at World's?

If Alyssa is nursing an injury, she should probably withdraw. I will hurt her confidence if she were to have a disaster at World's, even if she knew that it was injury related....it also would hurt her credibility to international judges, etc.

As someone mentioned, it doesn't seem likely that the US will get 3 spots; so, it won't hurt the US one way or another if Agnes goes instead of Alyssa.

 

[Jammers]

czisny has only had one bad skate? then why the long post about her GPF skate a while ago--which was czisny's 'first' bad skate--that one? or ice challenge?

if skates were fairly scored, czisny's abysmal jump content, ugly-even-when-landed jumps that are crooked in the air, cheated on landings would receive appropriately abysmal scores. apparently the judges think they are at a beauty pageant and have been unable or unwilling to see.

for all the czisny fans lying in wait, at least kostner's jumps are HIGH, and not tilted in the air. kostner's skating skills (outside of spins) are light-years ahead of czisny.

People seem to have forgot that Carolina had two of the worst performances from a former World medalist ever in less then a year first at Worlds 2009 then that awful skate at the Olympics 11 months later. Yet she has gotten it together since then. So it's not impossible for Alissa to get it back on track. Though i have to say that look on Alissa's face like she's totally terrified before she skates is not inspiring.

 

[Spun Silver]

It reminds me of Carolina at Worlds 2009 and other of her meltdowns. I felt so sorry for her - it's hard to believe she's a contender for the title now. Her inner strength is beyond formidable. Alissa's seems to have come and gone, sad to say. If she's injured, it would have been better to withdraw than cripple her self-confidence with a series of poor skates.

 

[skfan]

People seem to have forgot that Carolina had two of the worst performances from a former World medalist ever in less then a year first at Worlds 2009 then that awful skate at the Olympics 11 months later. Yet she has gotten it together since then. So it's not impossible for Alissa to get it back on track. Though i have to say that look on Alissa's face like she's totally terrified before she skates is not inspiring.

when i say czisny fans lying in wait i meant those who will whine about kostner not having a 3z. for me, better a high, straight in the air, well landed 3f then a cheated, crooked in the air 3z that may be two-footed as well. that's the czisny jump content i'm familiar with.

caro has had her dark days. i'm pretty sure czisny has also had them, since someone on FSU pointed at 9 years of inconsistent czisny to answer the question, what is wrong with alyssa now.

 

[b-man]

Totally agree that Czisny was gifted with the silver medal at Nationals. At best, she should have been in fourth place behind Zawadzki and Zhang. USFS has had a bad habit of predeciding Nationals based on GP results and gifting the anointed ones with ridiculous PCS scores.

National medals should be given out for performance at Nationals, not what skaters did in the early season.

Also, I don't understand why Alissa would be revamping her programs to do jumps that she is not comfortable with. She just isn't a reliable jumper and should stick with the jumps she can do with some confidence.

She was probably upgrading her jumps so she could compete for a world medal. She was only one jump away last year, and wants it really bad. I don't think she had any idea this performance would turn out so poorly.

 

[emma]

There's a part of me that hopes it is an injury - the kind that heels of course, because that would somehow explain 'everything.' But, what I can't quite figure out is that if it is an injury, why go to this even so close to worlds.... i think that whole choice is something that still confuses me (although I think MM said somewhere else - maybe to try out the 3/3 for Alissa and quad for Jeremy; and Doris said something about maybe wracking up points...so, there are surely many good reasons; I just feel so badly for Alissa right now). anyway, I guess time will quickly tell what is going to happen.

 

[b-man]

Totally agree that Czisny was gifted with the silver medal at Nationals. At best, she should have been in fourth place behind Zawadzki and Zhang. USFS has had a bad habit of predeciding Nationals based on GP results and gifting the anointed ones with ridiculous PCS scores.

National medals should be given out for performance at Nationals, not what skaters did in the early season.

.

Last year Ryan Bradley won Nationals with the best performance of the competition, and the boards were full of comments that it was clear that Bradley would bomb at Worlds. Everyone complainted then that USFSA should have prejudged the competition. Now, with Allissa, most are now against prejudging.

 

[ImaginaryPogue]

Last year Ryan Bradley won Nationals with the best performance of the competition, and the boards were full of comments that it was clear that Bradley would bomb at Worlds. Everyone complainted then that USFSA should have prejudged the competition. Now, with Allissa, most are now against prejudging.

I think Bradley's victory was because they DID prejudge the competition, actually.

 

[b-man]

You are basically trading in one headcase for another. Nagasu seemed totally uninspired, unprepared and unmotivated in her FS at Nationals. I guess if she did respectably, as you point out, she might be ok, but honestly- same goes for Czisny. The two are alike in that you don't really know what to expect from them, and at their best they are definitely among the elite. But "their best" doesn't happen often, if at all.

I think it is a myth that Nagasu is uninspired, unprepared, and unmotivated. But I fully agree with the headcase attribute. I think her failings are entirely due to the deer in the headlight syndrome, and not to a lack of preparation or motivation.

 

[macy]

^her season this year was rough. there was no love, no passion, no energy in her skating. in past years you could tell she loved to skate. this year it looked like she was just going through the motions to get it over with. there wasn't one performance this season that she looked like she was enjoying. maybe there are some nerves involved, but IMO i think she lost her love for it. and when that happens, you become unprepared, uninspired, and unmotivated.

 

[seniorita]

Everytime there is a new competition and someone wins or has a meltdown a thread like this pops!
Unless she is injured and withdraws, I think she has earnt her spot from Nationals regardless of the B event she competed now.

 

[skateflower]

Phil Hersh tweets, wow, just wow. Of course, he blames USFS for Alissa's disasterous outing.

http://twitter.com/#!/olyphil

Maybe if the USFS had let Czisny go to 4CC instead of dragging over to Europe she would hit worlds with more confidence...

Let's see what happens at worlds. This was meaningless

USFS picked Czisny for world team…no ifs, and, buts. Love to see the lawsuit if they try to replace her now…unless she is injured

USFS bungles neverending, so, no, you can't get over it…

Back to Czisny: this may have been worse performance than her disaster at 2010 nats: 0 clean triple jumps, 2 DBL axels turned into singles

If Czisny and Abbott have a bad worlds and keep US from gaining back 3d men's/women's place, this Dutch jaunt must be questioned….

Why did USFS send Abbott & Czisny? Why did they go? 2 trips to Europe in 3 weeks (France for worlds) is no picnic even for 20 somethings

 

[skateluvr]

Exactly Phil..why were they sent so close to Worlds? Idiots making decisions. Alissa is going, she "earned" it with her placement at nationals (not so hot skating-2nd was a gift, indeed)

 

[feraina]

Phil Hersh tweets, wow, just wow. Of course, he blames USFS for Alissa's disasterous outing.[/url]

If Alissa/Jeremy weren't ready or didn't want to go, they could always have turned it down, right? If their programs are not ready by now, why would they have been ready back when 4CC was held? :think:

 

[pangtongfan]

Last year Ryan Bradley won Nationals with the best performance of the competition, and the boards were full of comments that it was clear that Bradley would bomb at Worlds. Everyone complainted then that USFSA should have prejudged the competition. Now, with Allissa, most are now against prejudging.

Actually last year it appeared Bradley was almost prejudged the winner at Nationals. Abbott seemed out of favor, even when he skated fairly well his marks were quite low, same with Rippon, and it seemed for some reason there was alot of hype around Bradley to win Nationals. He did not deserve to beat Abbott in the SP, that was ridiculous. Then in the LP Dornbush should have beaten him by much more than he did, probably enough to beat him overall. Worlds judges were not nearly as generous with his smallish jumps, terrible skating skills, and mediocre spins, as U.S judges were.

 

[R.D.]

I fail to see how this is USFS' fault. Alyssa had her chance at 4CC last year but didn't do very well. Quick turnaround from Natls? So USFS decided to give her some rest and send Zhang instead. You know, there is only one person in control of Czisny's skating and that is...you guessed it, Czisny! Sometimes I wish she'd take greater responsibility for her skating, and thus her poor performances.

But perhaps it's not time to hang her out to dry yet- this is only a fluff comp, and the alternates really aren't an upgrade as I pointed out earlier. Looking at the alternates list, apparently Zawadzki is next in line to go if Czisny has to pull out...that almost is making me say, I don't care man- just go to worlds Czisny, even if you must hop around on one leg! We're doomed regardless.