Last season Christina's struggles were due to being injured almost the entire summer. I remember she just started jumping right before Champs Camp and did watered down programs there. CoC wasn't bad considering she was just getting off an injury, but then she got a virus and that was likely why she bombed so terribly at COR. Nationals she seemed better and skated quite well, then I think by the time JW rolled around she was maybe a bit discouraged/frustrated by having placed 5th at Nationals and getting sent to JW for the 3rd year in a row, plus she had been accepted to Harvard by then and was likely very caught up in the whole graduation/college/deciding her future process so skating might not have been as much of a priority by that time, thus explaining her solid but uninspiring performances there. Christina did go through puberty late, but last season I do not think that was really the issue.
Wow, you have a seemingly logical explanation to justify every one of Christina's poor placements.
I can accept the injury explanation, but then you justify her poor performance at 2012 JW as having gotten "accepted to Harvard...likely caught up in the whole graduation/college/deciding her future process."
Just a wee. bit. overboard. Maybe Christina just hasn't brought her best to the biggest competitions, to Nationals and Junior Worlds? That would explain why she's frequently faltered at each, and never been higher than 5th at Nationals, and why she's never even been the top ranked American at Junior Worlds.
Many other ladies skaters have gone through puberty, injuries, and other external factors, and still managed to make international podiums, which Christina didn't in the previous two seasons, aside from two JGP events with very weak fields. It's not like Adelina didn't have her own struggles with puberty and injuries and pressure last season, but she pulled it together and managed to podium at 2012 Junior Worlds. Given the amount of hype and publicity Christina received in the summer of 2010, it was expected that she would have accomplished more by now. But she really didn't make her mark. The silver at Skate America is the first major accomplishment that she's had since her bronze medal at the 2009 JGPF. It's a great accomplishment, but you can't just discount how lackluster her previous record was; you still have to wonder if her previous record is more indicative of Christina's potential or if this one event is. I agree that we should wait and see with TEB, and obviously Nationals.
Her record aside, my problem with Christina is her artistry, which just hasn't progressed enough. Her SP is fine, though not groundbreaking, but her FS is really unsuited for her, she can't express the tango music at all. After Skate America, I wondered if I had been too hard on her in the past. But compare her FS to Kanako Murakami's, and Kanako's just blows Christina out of the water in terms of interpretation. And I watched Akiko Suzuki's Libertango from years ago, and the first 30 seconds of her program she expresses more of the music than Christina does in her entire FS.
#Midwesterns2013
