Gracie Gold

[drivingmissdaisy]

I think it will be hard for her since Julia is so close and can easily pass her, which means both Adelina and Caro would have to have mini-meltdowns for Gracie to medal.

Overall, I am very excited about tomorrow. There is actually a race for gold, and even silver is attainable for those in the final group given the wide range of scores possible for Caro and Adelina.

 

[Jammers]

Latest update/news:

Gracie Gold is 4th in the SP, 6 points behind 3rd, after a clean skate (albeit rather shaky jumps).

Gold achieved only the 8th best PCS, in spite of incessant predictions that she would get PCS akin to Kim laugh, Kostner laugh and Wagner laugh.

Yet even with shaky jumps she's ahead of Wagner in the standings yet again.

 

[jenaj]

Pretty good, I think. But she will have to skate clean. The rest is out of her control.

 

[amusedstranger]

I'd say her chances aren't terrible, actually. If she skates well and one of the top three falters, she could maybe grab the bronze. It really wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

[Jammers]

She just needs to go for it and not skate slow and cautious like she did today.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Oh, and she should be. However, it's obvious that she isn't the PCS-garnering queen that some people have predicted she would be, and also obvious Wagner hasn't been dumped by the judges when she scores higher PCS than Julia and Gold.

Perhaps they saw Wagner's glare in the KnC, because she didn't really have much of a technical difference between her team and individual SP but her PCS was 30.94 in team (absurdly low compared to Julia) and 33.78 in individual (deservedly higher than Julia). I'm thinking there were a lot of judges on the team panel who marked Wagner down, and the new crop of judges (without a Russian, at that) were much more fair to her.

 

[lavender]

She's still in contention but there's no way these judges will score a clean Grace over a clean Julia so....there's that.

 

[blue_idealist]

I don't think she's going to get gold. That'll be either Yuna or Carolina at this point, and speculating based on past history. I think she could get bronze though. Sotnikova is not known for consistency, although she's been a bit better lately. Julia has shown herself to be beatable too. I think she'll need mistakes from the two Russians, plus a perfect skate herself though.

 

[ucrgirl]

I'd say her chances aren't terrible, actually. If she skates well and one of the top three falters, she could maybe grab the bronze. It really wouldn't surprise me at all.

I'd say that she needs 2 of the top three to falter because Julia will probably get a huge LP score. And of course, she needs to skate lights out herself.

 

[Vicky458]

She's still in contention but there's no way these judges will score a clean Grace over a clean Julia so....there's that.

Not going to happen in Russia with this juding panel and technical specialist and caller.

 

[mwk81]

I think its unpredictable, as today showed, but she does have a fighting chance at a medal

 

[Ven]

Gracie has a podium shot. She needs to go clean, she needs Julia to make one mistake, and she needs one of the top 3 (probably either Caro or Adelina) to bomb.

 

[desertskates]

I doubt she'll medal here. Worlds are another story. Though her off ice personality has put me off at times, she's shown she can deliver and I will wish the best for her along with Ashley and Polina. I need to stand back and not judge personalities, but what is put out there on the ice for us to enjoy

 

[Zamboni]

Gracie is not as arrogant or confident as everyone thinks. She suffers from fears and insecurities as anyone else. She was terrified of not making the Olympics. Frank Carroll has really helped her in so many ways:

For Gold, Perfection Is Overrated - The New York Times

Quote:

It was a teenage figure skater’s fear, impenetrable, overwhelming.

What if she did not make it to the Olympics? The question seemed to paralyze Gracie Gold.

 

[L_Canada]

Gold is almost 10 points off 1st place. I would say she has a shot at bronze. OGM? Not likely unless others really falter.

 

[Juliasochi]

From the horse's mouth. :sarcasm:

She certainly has the potential to be marketable. But she needs consistency and should probably win something other than US Nationals first.

She would be marketable 30 years ago. Sponsors would be suicidal if they bet on her pageant beauty in 2014 even with an OGM. She is so plastic. Her blonde and pale feature may still appeals to rednecks. Unfortunately she is fighting an uphill battle against a shrinking demography. Of course she will always have sky_fly20 on her side, or not?

 

[Juliasochi]

Sheesh, she is a hard working girl and a good role model. She has plenty of sponsors. You are not being nice.

I'm blonde and pale and my husband is certainly no redneck.

Nothing wrong by being blonde, pale and pretty. However being blonde and pale is no longer the gold standard of being pretty. To hear sky_fly20 breathlessly claim Gold's beauty is just bizarre. You have to wonder what his/her true agenda is. Go back to his/her good old days when being blonde and white is the only ticket to clinch Miss USA?

 

[ice coverage]

She would be marketable 30 years ago. Sponsors would be suicidal if they bet on her ... beauty in 2014 even with an OGM.

Quite a number of major sponsors already had placed their bets on Gold long before she won U.S. Nationals in January.

I doubt that any of them are suicidal. Quite the contrary. If anything, her sponsors probably are giving themselves a little pat on the back at this point.

Gold won convincingly in Boston. She has a bronze Olympic team medal. And she is in fourth place after the individual SP.

No matter where she places after the individual FS, my hunch is that her sponsors will consider their bet successful.

 

[noskates]

Have to agree with Golden. There was a spate of commercials with Ashley Wagner in them but not so much anymore. Some of those companys bet on the wrong horse at Nationals. I think Gracie is very marketable, even if she doesn't win an Olympic medal. At her age - she's the future of US women's figure skating. Polina still needs alot of polish and some of the girls coming up the ranks are jumping beans and don't have the finesse yet. And no, I don't think Mirai is going to figure into this even if she keeps skating.

 

[Juliasochi]

Have to agree with Golden. There was a spate of commercials with Ashley Wagner in them but not so much anymore. Some of those companys bet on the wrong horse at Nationals. I think Gracie is very marketable, even if she doesn't win an Olympic medal. At her age - she's the future of US women's figure skating. Polina still needs alot of polish and some of the girls coming up the ranks are jumping beans and don't have the finesse yet. And no, I don't think Mirai is going to figure into this even if she keeps skating.

What makes Golden marketable in 2014? She has no interesting story. Her so called beauty is so yesterday. Getting a few ads during Olys does not make you marketable. Who knows how much they paid her. FS itself is out of favour of the mass.