2012 GPF Ladies' Free Skate LP | Page 10 | Golden Skate

2012 GPF Ladies' Free Skate LP

I will try to watch it, prettykeys.

Years ago I went to an ice show presented on a theatrical stage. It was iced over, but as you can imagine, the space was not ample. One of the skaters fell and almost slid off the stage into the orchestra pit. She ended up lying on one thigh with her legs dangling off the stage. She reappeared in the second act, with a gauze bandage on her thigh. Skaters are made of strong materials!
 
Thoughts:

- Mao was as beautiful as ever. I am sorry to hear that she may have been more solemn/sad at this skate for the memory of her mother. Deserving victor.
- Ashley - oh, as another poster said, I too am not a huge fan of her as a skater BUT that truly was a terrible fall on the 2A and she is a very brave girl. I hope she is OK. And yes, the reports made her overall skate sound worse than it actually was.
- I wish Kanako Murakami had found some way to squeeze into this competition. I found myself missing her and imagine that her inclusion would have made the event better.
I agree, prettkeys. I'm happy that Mao came back with great skating, very deserving winner! Just hope that she can land more triples...
I was shocked by Ashley's fall, too. Wish her quick recovery.
Disappointed with Akiko's FS, but she's still my fav Japanes lady. Hope she can be on the podium at Worlds.
 
No one was denying her jumping ability though. And even with her big leads, Yuna wasn't alwaysperfect; which was the point of ImaginaryPogue's post. One can argue that Yuna got her mistakes "out of the way" (among other factors) in the 2008-2009 GPF to win at 4CC and Worlds.

ANYWAY, like I said, not a Yuna thread!

Maybe imaginarypogue meant Yuna had a perfect winning streak leading up to Vancouver? :shrug:
 
Maybe imaginarypogue meant Yuna had a perfect winning streak leading up to Vancouver? :shrug:

Nope, it was Reginald who said that Yuna "was perfect" in 2008-2010 (like, not needing to "get anything out of the way").

Actually, I'm not sure what he meant by that.
 
I thought Mao redeemed herself here after NHK. I still think her UR problem is a big issue, but at least she didn't double & pop jumps left and right. And I thought she skated with more energy here.

Ashley...:sigh: I know she's now America's #1 but I never liked her style of skating. And someone earlier got it (sorry I cannot remember the poster's name) -- her arm thrusting is extremely distracting, esp. because her arms appear really stiff when she does it. There's no fluid elegance to her arm gesture at all, and when all you do is just thrust your arms here and there to the music, while keeping them stiff, things get really old fast. I also don't believe that she's a naturally lyrical or musical skater, so she really works on those qualities (tho it doesn't always work...). Her skating feels very attack-y to me, but I think she did well here and really fought for her program.

Akiko is just... I can't even describe how disappointed that she didn't get to skate well here, and that she'll always be Japan's #2...maybe #3.
 
Sorry, I'll articulate it better.

Reginald mentioned that there's no such thing as "getting one's mistakes out of the way" and he's right to a certain point. Goodness knows I've gotten over wishing Verner has an epic skate. He followed that up by saying streaks of perfection are possible, citing Kim's 2008-2010 streak. She was a winner for much of that time, but in no way was she perfect and I cited competition where I remembered that she wasn't. That she had a season with some struggle and managed to be perfect at the most important competition of her career actually suggests that the struggle has some upside.

And it does, imo.
 
I wish Kanako Murakami had found some way to squeeze into this competition. I found myself missing her and imagine that her inclusion would have made the event better.

She still has the best LP I've seen from a woman so far this season. Her performance at Skate Canada was really great, second maybe only to Akiko Suzuki at NHK so far this season, for me. Kind of sad that Christina Gao is using the same FS music this season and manged to wriggle her way into the GPF over Murakami. Oh well.

RE: scoring at this competition - I found all of the placements to be correct. Mao was overscored, but not technically so much. It's her program and lack of interpretation that I find to be lacking right now. Mao is a great skater, but I find this to be such an unimaginative re-hash that doesn't utilize some of her best qualities either. Most of the program really feels like she could be skating to anything out there, especially the first half.
 
Recovery from a hip pointer is a slow process. I can't believe Ashely didn't ask the doctor what a "hip pointer" is. I wonder how this is going to affect her preparation for nationals.
 
Last edited:
Mao was lovely, she makes it look so easy. What hard falls for Akiko and Ashley. Good for them for continuing so well. Wished Akiko would end up on top but hopefully at Worlds. Kiira i always enjoy watching. A few mistakes but she had been sick before the competition. For her i would like her to win Europeans :)
 
Wish Ashley recovers soon. What a gutsy skate. She is another i could like to see medal at Worlds, she came so close before.
 
She still has the best LP I've seen from a woman so far this season. Her performance at Skate Canada was really great, second maybe only to Akiko Suzuki at NHK so far this season, for me. Kind of sad that Christina Gao is using the same FS music this season and manged to wriggle her way into the GPF over Murakami. Oh well.

RE: scoring at this competition - I found all of the placements to be correct. Mao was overscored, but not technically so much. It's her program and lack of interpretation that I find to be lacking right now. Mao is a great skater, but I find this to be such an unimaginative re-hash that doesn't utilize some of her best qualities either. Most of the program really feels like she could be skating to anything out there, especially the first half.

Oh I absolutely do not hold with you on that. I think this is a wonderful interpretation of Swan Lake throughout the whole program and Mao is just perfect for this music. As I said, graceful and powerful at the same time. Her elegant arm movements, posture, line and fantastic choreography by TAT does it for me.
 
Just rewatched Mao and Ashley. Ashley actually performed better than I remembered after the fall. I was probably projecting my own distressed feelings when I was watching it on live eurosport.

Looking at the protocols, Mao and Akiko each landed 4 ratified triples and Ashley 5. Because of the fall on the 2A she lost nearly all the points she would have gotten for the clean 3L at the beginning of the SEQ.
Standings are right I think, just weird that Mao got the season's best score of all the Ladies this season with that performance. She was the clear winner on the night, but I think she'll need more triples if she wants to continue to hold off the competition.
Elizaveta landed 7 triples. No underrotations but big step-outs on the biggest elements.
 
[Ashley's] skating feels very attack-y to me...

Perfectly said! :) Attack-y seems to be the the long term trend in women's sports generally. Look at tennis players, for instance. Maybe this trend will overtake figure skating, too.
 
Looking at the protocols, Mao and Akiko each landed 4 ratified triples and Ashley 5

I think there is something you are misunderstanding, and let get it straight, a tripple jump remains as a ratified tripple when it gets one > call, but when it receives two >> calls that's when the jump gets downgraded to a double!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm not sure if this was posted yet but there is a picture posted on Ashley's twitter with her and Christina Gao and Ashley is on crutches:( The pic is really sweet though, they were at a spa that was closed.
 
Perfectly said! :) Attack-y seems to be the the long term trend in women's sports generally. Look at tennis players, for instance. Maybe this trend will overtake figure skating, too.

I prefer it to the timid doe-eyed look myself... I like intensity when the music asks for it - which Ashley's LP does.
 
I think there is something you are misunderstanding, and let get it straight, a tripple jump remains as a ratified tripple when it gets one > call, but when it receives two >> calls that's when the jump gets downgraded to a double!

She didn't get point value of a triple because it was underrotated. The base value is different because it was not a full triple.
 
Last edited:
She didn't get point value of a triple because it was underrotated. The base value is different because it was not a full triple.


well we can both agree that a slightly underrotated jump isn't a perfect triple, but the jump remains a triple in the protocol and gets 70% of the base value!
therefor it's misleading to count triples according to wheter they are perfect, cause that usually doesn't give a clear or accurate picture of the actual performance nor the scores, take for example a 3lz even with a underrotation call, the jumps value remains that of a triple, and namely the same as the base value as a 3f or 3S!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top