State of American Ladies: 2013-14 Season

[cinnamon]

My hope is that someone comes out of the juniors and makes the third spot. Caroline, Rachael, Alissa and Mirai peaked years ago. Even if one of them makes the team, they have no future, really. Who that mysterious junior might be is anyone's guess, but if some magical lady doesn't appear, I'd rather they send Agnes Zawadzki (or rather, hope she comes in third and makes the team).

I think "the magical lady" is Gracie. Anyway I agree with you. I would send Agnes (in case Alissa won't be ready). I respect their endless effort, it's really everyday effort over years to be a figure skater. So it's fine with me any one of them who has worked hard should get a reward. It's very good that America got 3 spots.

 

[Selene]

I think Samantha Cesario could be building a case for that SA spot....

From Sylvia:



57 seems low for a 3Lo-3Lo, so the second jump was probably UR or DG...however, good for her for trying it!

Samantha and Courtney Hicks have both been assigned to the US International Figure Skating Classic Senior B in September. I bet the USFSA is using the event to determine which skater will get the third spot at Skate America. Honestly, I wish they both could get Skate America spots. They deserve it for finishing much higher than Caroline Zhang at Nationals. Giving Caroline the Skate America spot is akin to giving the spot to Rachael Flatt last year. Caroline, like Rachael, is obviously not competitive on the international level anymore, so it's almost like wasting the spot. I wish the USFSA would be more proactive in giving chances to promising young skaters. They need to look to the future and they seem so set on hanging onto the past. The way they hold back promising young skaters in favor of underperforming veteran skaters is baffling to me.

My hope is that someone comes out of the juniors and makes the third spot. Caroline, Rachael, Alissa and Mirai peaked years ago. Even if one of them makes the team, they have no future, really. Who that mysterious junior might be is anyone's guess, but if some magical lady doesn't appear, I'd rather they send Agnes Zawadzki (or rather, hope she comes in third and makes the team).

Agnes is very likely to make the podium at Nationals with the score inflation she gets from US judges. But I'd like to see her have some success on the international stage before I would support her making the Olympic team. Her international PB is only 166, and she has trouble making it through the free skate. If she continues to deliver mediocre performances on the international stage, I'd rather see Christina Gao make the team. She scores better internationally than Agnes (but US judges don't give her the same respect as Agnes, so she will have to skate much cleaner than Agnes at Nationals to beat her. She was pretty clean at this year's Nationals, only messing up a spin, and she was placed behind a messy Agnes with two falls and a popped jump, so it's going to be hard for her.)

 

[Robeye]

Just saw this posted in a tweet on The Skating Lesson: http://t.co/4QUCW3l868

Are there any takeaways from Gracie's latest performance?

(My primary takeaway: skate watchers should be required by law, on pain of felony charges, to carry high quality cameras ).

EDIT: Oops, this video was already posted in the Programs thread. Sorry about that, all. :disapp:

 

[Mrs. P]

Just saw this posted in a tweet on The Skating Lesson: http://t.co/4QUCW3l868

Are there any takeaways from Gracie's latest performance?

(My primary takeaway: skate watchers should be required by law, on pain of felony charges, to carry high quality cameras ).

Yeah, it was hard to see given the poor quality, but a few takeaways.

1.) The beauty of fancam video is that you can see how well she covers the ice. She goes from end to end in not time at all.
2.) Her spin positions look good
3.) I like the music cuts, I think the march/cymbals are great to highlight Gracie's power
4.) It's too blurry to get a full picture, but it seem to me she was skating to the music as opposed to over it.

 

[ice coverage]

In photos from her fellow skaters performing in The Ice shows, Nagasu looks as if she is having a good time with them.
Example:

https://twitter.com/MaiaShibutani/status/360179749441638400
​

Wow, all Japanese girls...

I happened to post the link to the most recent photo from @MaiaShibutani, which happens to be the group shot of the lovely Japanese-American and Japanese young ladies. But Maia and other cast members of The Ice have been tweeting plenty of other photos.
For example, Nagasu appears also in these previous pics from Maia:

https://twitter.com/MaiaShibutani/status/360025584442671104 (entire cast)
http://instagram.com/p/cHAA-oS7rG/ and https://twitter.com/MaiaShibutani/status/359659757994381314 (Nagasu + M. Shibutani + Gold)​

BTW, the ShibSibs have led us to believe that they will be making a video with The Ice cast, so I hope/expect that Nagasu eventually will be seen enjoying the fun of that.
Not that it will indicate anything about her competitive programs, but always nice to see her smiling face.

ETA:

Just saw that Nagasu will compete at Glacier Falls next week.
As will Caroline Zhang and Courtney Hicks.​

 

[chuckm]

Glacier Falls Senior Ladies:
Amanda HOFMANN
Anna MALKOVA
Brittany WARD
Caroline ZHANG
Carolyn-Ann ALBA
Catherine GIESE
Courtney HICKS
Dylan McINTEE
Franchesca CHIERA
Katarina KULGEYKO
Leah KEISER
Lizzie GOETZ
Maria YANG
Mirai NAGASU
Nami INODA (CAN)
Polina EDMUNDS
Rachel MENDELSON
Sophia ADAMS
Summer REYNA
Taylor SIRSET
Valerie BERGERON (CAN)
Victoria MUNIZ (PUR)

 

[cinnamon]

I happened to post the link to the most recent photo from @MaiaShibutani, which happens to be the group shot of the lovely Japanese-American and Japanese young ladies. But Maia and other cast members of The Ice have been tweeting plenty of other photos.
For example, Nagasu appears also in these previous pics from Maia:

https://twitter.com/MaiaShibutani/status/360025584442671104 (entire cast)
http://instagram.com/p/cHAA-oS7rG/ and https://twitter.com/MaiaShibutani/status/359659757994381314 (Nagasu + M. Shibutani + Gold)​

BTW, the ShibSibs have led us to believe that they will be making a video with The Ice cast, so I hope/expect that Nagasu eventually will be seen enjoying the fun of that.
Not that it will indicate anything about her competitive programs, but always nice to see her smiling face.

ETA:

Just saw that Nagasu will compete at Glacier Falls next week.
As will Caroline Zhang and Courtney Hicks.​

Thank you. Great casting!

 

[FSGMT]

Glacier Falls Senior Ladies:
Amanda HOFMANN
Anna MALKOVA
Brittany WARD
Caroline ZHANG
Carolyn-Ann ALBA
Catherine GIESE
Courtney HICKS
Dylan McINTEE
Franchesca CHIERA
Katarina KULGEYKO
Leah KEISER
Lizzie GOETZ
Maria YANG
Mirai NAGASU
Nami INODA (CAN)
Polina EDMUNDS
Rachel MENDELSON
Sophia ADAMS
Summer REYNA
Taylor SIRSET
Valerie BERGERON (CAN)
Victoria MUNIZ (PUR)

Great field! So excited to watch all these new programs! But... Why did you highlight kulgeyko? Who is she?

 

[Skater Boy]

I thought on some tweet she said she was starting new and cut off her hair months ago - doesn't look it.

 

[Mrs. P]

Great field! So excited to watch all these new programs! But... Why did you highlight kulgeyko? Who is she?

Katarina Kulgeyko is the 2011 junior bronze medalist (behind Courtney Hicks and Lauren Dinh). She dropped to 9th in juniors in 2012. She competed in JGP Poland in 2011, finishing 5th. She has yet to compete at the senior level, either nationally or internationally.

So it's good to see her back!

 

[kwanatic]

Yeah, when I saw Katarina K. I was like, "Whoa! Where've you been?" It will be nice to see her again.

As for Gracie's program, I'm on the fence. I thought the opening was really nice but the music really loses energy after that and never gets it back. The word everyone is using over at FSU is anti-climatic and I agree. The choreography looks decent enough (from what I can see...terrible video quality). I'm not feeling the footwork section right now. That was the main part of the program that looked detached from the music...hopefully they'll work on that.

I do have better appreciation for Gracie's speed and coverage from that angle. I get what people mean when they say she covers end-to-end very fast. You can't always get a sense of that from watching from tv angles.

I thought her jumps looked good. She struggled on the landing of the lutz in the 3-3 but managed to square herself up and get the second jump off nicely. She let the jumps go in the second half of the program but whatever...we all know she can jump.

Her first spin was nice but I wish she'd work on her layback spin. I HATE the trend I'm seeing with a lot of the US girls going the lazy route and not learning to do a decent classic position spiral. In the end it's all worth the same points (which it shouldn't be IMO) but it'd be nice to see her get better positions on that. The Biellmann is nice but the haircutter is mediocre and not that pretty...

I liked her spirals but I wish she'd have held them a second longer. I think the whole sequence could be a little more imaginative but I suppose it's decent enough.

I would like to see her continue to work on her arms. They are still very airplane/samurai swordy at times.

I think this program is an improvement for her for the most part but I'm not quite sold on it. She still has plenty of time to make improvements or changes so we'll have to see what the finish product looks like.

 

[Jammers]

Samantha and Courtney Hicks have both been assigned to the US International Figure Skating Classic Senior B in September. I bet the USFSA is using the event to determine which skater will get the third spot at Skate America. Honestly, I wish they both could get Skate America spots. They deserve it for finishing much higher than Caroline Zhang at Nationals. Giving Caroline the Skate America spot is akin to giving the spot to Rachael Flatt last year. Caroline, like Rachael, is obviously not competitive on the international level anymore, so it's almost like wasting the spot. I wish the USFSA would be more proactive in giving chances to promising young skaters. They need to look to the future and they seem so set on hanging onto the past. The way they hold back promising young skaters in favor of underperforming veteran skaters is baffling to me.



Agnes is very likely to make the podium at Nationals with the score inflation she gets from US judges. But I'd like to see her have some success on the international stage before I would support her making the Olympic team. Her international PB is only 166, and she has trouble making it through the free skate. If she continues to deliver mediocre performances on the international stage, I'd rather see Christina Gao make the team. She scores better internationally than Agnes (but US judges don't give her the same respect as Agnes, so she will have to skate much cleaner than Agnes at Nationals to beat her. She was pretty clean at this year's Nationals, only messing up a spin, and she was placed behind a messy Agnes with two falls and a popped jump, so it's going to be hard for her.)

I agree about Caroline and Rachael. Rachael last year at SA was not even in decent shape and didn't look like she belonged with the other skaters and this is the second time Caroline has gotten SA after a terrible season. It just seems like they are wasting those spots.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Courtney had a darn good season last year and IMO is fully deserving of a Skate America spot.

 

[FlattFan]

I hope Hicks gets SA. She's my favorite jr. girl.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

As for Gracie's program, I'm on the fence. I thought the opening was really nice but the music really loses energy after that and never gets it back. The word everyone is using over at FSU is anti-climatic and I agree. The choreography looks decent enough (from what I can see...terrible video quality). I'm not feeling the footwork section right now. That was the main part of the program that looked detached from the music...hopefully they'll work on that.

I do have better appreciation for Gracie's speed and coverage from that angle. I get what people mean when they say she covers end-to-end very fast. You can't always get a sense of that from watching from tv angles.

I thought her jumps looked good. She struggled on the landing of the lutz in the 3-3 but managed to square herself up and get the second jump off nicely. She let the jumps go in the second half of the program but whatever...we all know she can jump.

Her first spin was nice but I wish she'd work on her layback spin. I HATE the trend I'm seeing with a lot of the US girls going the lazy route and not learning to do a decent classic position spiral. In the end it's all worth the same points (which it shouldn't be IMO) but it'd be nice to see her get better positions on that. The Biellmann is nice but the haircutter is mediocre and not that pretty...

I liked her spirals but I wish she'd have held them a second longer. I think the whole sequence could be a little more imaginative but I suppose it's decent enough.

I would like to see her continue to work on her arms. They are still very airplane/samurai swordy at times.

I think this program is an improvement for her for the most part but I'm not quite sold on it. She still has plenty of time to make improvements or changes so we'll have to see what the finish product looks like.

I completely agree with everything you said, particularly about the music going nowhere after the beginning. I don't think this program is going to be her 1996-Kwan-transformation program. She will still do well by hitting her jumps and will probably get a bit better PCS this season, but I was hoping she would take a bit more of a risk with her LP music to stand out from the pack.

 

[R.D.]

I don't get why people are expecting MK out of her. Nobody will ever be MK, so can all this end?

Anyway, given that it's only July, I'll reserve judgment for a few months at least.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

I don't get why people are expecting MK out of her. Nobody will ever be MK, so can all this end?

No one thinks she will be MK. Some of us are just hoping she does something to get her choreography substantially better than it has been.

 

[Mrs. P]

No one thinks she will be MK. Some of us are just hoping she does something to get her choreography substantially better than it has been.

Still, I think it's a bit early to say whether she's improved or not. The program is still pretty new and raw.....I think it is more challenging than she's had in the past, so it's going to be an adjustment.

 

[dorispulaski]

I agree about Caroline and Rachael. Rachael last year at SA was not even in decent shape and didn't look like she belonged with the other skaters and this is the second time Caroline has gotten SA after a terrible season. It just seems like they are wasting those spots.

No, they are using that spot to protect Ashley Wagner from being beaten by an American girl, and giving the person they give the spot to a bye through either Regionals or Sectionals, whichever SkAm conflicts enough with. So the spot is not wasted

 

[icellist]

Mirai is going to compete at Glaciers Fall Classic the week she comes back from the ICE tour in Japan. I think she won't do her best because she's jet-lagged, but I think I'm one of her biggest supporters on this board. Hopefully she'll do better than expected!