2014 Olympics Ladies Free Skate

[slutskayafann]

I think the situation is similar to 2002. If Slutskaya didn't make the one mistake; Gold medal. She was skating in US and she should have known better not to make mistakes cause it will be very costly against top American skaters in their home.
Same with Yuna, she needed a harder program to beat Sotnikova. Especially that she won the Gold before. With a harder program she would given no room for judges.
Yuna is a much better skater, more polished than Sotnikova who needs many MANY work done. We don't know if she will do that or not.
I don't think it is good to bully Sotnikova and send her death threats. At the end it is just a sport.

 

[zamboni step]

Yes, that's exactly what I felt like too. Her LP is a masterpiece beyond medal or score, and I'm just glad she feels that way too (she said in an interview, all things considered, this was her favorite skate of her career and that she continued skating for a moment like this).

On a shallow note, I'm glad she changed back to this beautiful dress for the SOHL too

For me (excuse the sweeping statement) that was my favourite skate of any ladies' career. People say that program was empty but I found it more reserved than conservative and I feel she really painted her soul on the ice with that performance.

Yes this dress is much much nicer and I love the arm....thingies (forgive my lack of design knowledge) it was a great moment where the best of Mao came together.

 

[pangtongfan]

I think the situation is similar to 2002. If Slutskaya didn't make the one mistake; Gold medal. She was skating in US and she should have known better not to make mistakes cause it will be very costly against top American skaters in their home.
Same with Yuna, she needed a harder program to beat Sotnikova. Especially that she won the Gold before. With a harder program she would given no room for judges.
Yuna is a much better skater, more polished than Sotnikova who needs many MANY work done. We don't know if she will do that or not.
I don't think it is good to bully Sotnikova and send her death threats. At the end it is just a sport.

There is also the ridiculous 5.9 Kwan got from the Slovakian judge for technical elements which cost her winning the short program, and if all else remained the same cost her the gold medal. Kwan only won the short on a 5-4 split and this judge actually tied them in presentation but gave Kwan the .1 edge on elements with the outrageous 5.9. This is too comical for words and I am a huge Kwan fan. Irina did every element better except the spiral sequence, and Kwan had a mistake on her triple flip too.

Meanwhile Sasha Cohen who had skated clean shorts programs and still been placed firmly behind all of Butyrskaya, Suguri, and Voltchkova in previous short programs amazingly finished 3rd and nearly 2nd in the Olympic short program despite a flutz and incomplete footwork sequence where she wasnt even close to closing the pattern, which should have been a substantial deduction. Suguri who skated beautifully was 7th, and Maria was 5th. Sarah Hughes who had a mediocre performance in the short, struggling to hold onto half of her elements, and displaying poor posture and round shoulders throughout, took 4th place, close enough to give her a shot at the gold medal. The Olympics were in the U.S and Cohen and Hughes were American skaters, just as Julia and Adelina were Russians on Russian ice this time around (as well as the entire Russian team who were all overscored across all disciplines).

 

[zamboni step]

There is also the ridiculous 5.9 Kwan got from the Slovakian judge for technical elements which cost her winning the short program, and if all else remained the same cost her the gold medal. Kwan only won the short on a 5-4 split and this judge actually tied them in presentation but gave Kwan the .1 edge on elements with the outrageous 5.9. This is too comical for words and I am a huge Kwan fan. Irina did every element better except the spiral sequence, and Kwan had a mistake on her triple flip too.

Meanwhile Sasha Cohen who had skated clean shorts programs and still been placed firmly behind all of Butyrskaya, Suguri, and Voltchkova in previous short programs amazingly finished 3rd and nearly 2nd in the Olympic short program despite a flutz and incomplete footwork sequence where she wasnt even close to closing the pattern, which should have been a substantial deduction. Suguri who skated beautifully was 7th, and Maria was 5th. Sarah Hughes who had a mediocre performance in the short, struggling to hold onto half of her elements, and displaying poor posture and round shoulders throughout, took 4th place, close enough to give her a shot at the gold medal. The Olympics were in the U.S and Cohen and Hughes were American skaters, just as Julia and Adelina were Russians on Russian ice this time around (as well as the entire Russian team who were all overscored across all disciplines).

To come to Sasha's aid, Maria was slow, had no spark that time and her spirals and spins were weak. Sasha should have trounced her in artistic and her jumps were more secure despite the flutz so I would say they were close enough on that for Sasha's superior spins/spirals to make up the ground and then some, enough to make the difference in quality of footwork pattern arguable as to who should have received higher technical merit marks, but I'd have put Sasha ahead anyway.

Suguri is a much more obvious case, she also had a flutz even if it was of better than quality than Cohen's, also her 3F despite being huge had an equally huge break between the steps, huge deduction. Again her spins/spirals weren't as good. I would have put this marginally ahead of Butyrskaya because she really showed life and vitality which Maria did not.

Sarah Hughe's should have been butchered in deductions however and was definitely held up. I'm not even going to start on the rotations in her FS.

One thing is certain in my mind, Slutskaya should have won the 2002 OGM. She only made one mistake throughout the competition unlike the others who made several errors.

 

[Bartek]

To come to Sasha's aid, Maria was slow, had no spark that time and her spirals and spins were weak. Sasha should have trounced her in artistic and her jumps were more secure despite the flutz so I would say they were close enough on that for Sasha's superior spins/spirals to make up the ground and then some, enough to make the difference in quality of footwork pattern arguable as to who should have received higher technical merit marks, but I'd have put Sasha ahead anyway.

Suguri is a much more obvious case, she also had a flutz even if it was of better than quality than Cohen's, also her 3F despite being huge had an equally huge break between the steps, huge deduction. Again her spins/spirals weren't as good. I would have put this marginally ahead of Butyrskaya because she really showed life and vitality which Maria did not.

Sarah Hughe's should have been butchered in deductions however and was definitely held up. I'm not even going to start on the rotations in her FS.

One thing is certain in my mind, Slutskaya should have won the 2002 OGM. She only made one mistake throughout the competition unlike the others who made several errors.

Yes, Irina should have won the gold that night. She was the clear winner of the short program but was robbed of the first place so as to held up American Kwan. Just like Lipnitskaya and Sotnikova were given higher PCS than Asada and Sotnikova higher PCS than Kostner. Ludicrously unfair sport.

 

[yuki90]

http://us.cnn.com/2014/02/23/sport/s...html?hpt=hp_c2

Brian Boitano says YuNa should have won the gold on CNN NEWS.

 

[jenaj]

Yes, Irina should have won the gold that night. She was the clear winner of the short program but was robbed of the first place so as to held up American Kwan. Just like Lipnitskaya and Sotnikova were given higher PCS than Asada and Sotnikova higher PCS than Kostner. Ludicrously unfair sport.

Irina has only herself to blame for losing the gold in SLC. After Michelle fell, the gold was hers to lose and she skated an imperfect and over-wrought program that was less difficult than what Sarah Hughes had done. It had nothing to do with the competition being in the US. And from the perspective of a Kwan fan, I wish Irina had been first in the short. Michelle always skated her best coming from behind.

 

[jenaj]

Sarah Hughe's should have been butchered in deductions however and was definitely held up. I'm not even going to start on the rotations in her FS.
.

Why would the judges "hold up" Sarah Hughes, who was not considered much of a medal threat, and certainly not a gold medal threat? You are looking at the competition through IJS eyes. Under-rotations were rarely penalized under the 6.0 system. I am no fan of Sarah Hughes, but under the system in place in 2002, she skated a technically difficult program--the most difficult of the night. Where was Irina's triple-triple? Irina was the Patrick Chan of SLC.

 

[Ven]

Same with Yuna, she needed a harder program to beat Sotnikova. Especially that she won the Gold before. With a harder program she would given no room for judges.

You're missing the point. The results were rigged. Even if Yuna had done 3Lo and 3A she still would have lost somehow.

 

[capcomeback]

Has anyone commented on Adelina's apparent flutz on her opening combo and the under-rotated triple toe in that same sequence? There is a website with an animated .gif that shows it (since this is my first post and I had just been banned earlier for linking it), it is called "The Fever". (I think the site is a pro Yuna Kim, but it seems to make some compelling points, Adelina's greatly inflated PCS withstanding.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Has anyone commented on Adelina's apparent flutz on her opening combo and the under-rotated triple toe in that same sequence? There is a website with an animated .gif that shows it (since this is my first post and I had just been banned earlier for linking it), it is called "The Fever". (I think the site is a pro Yuna Kim, but it seems to make some compelling points, Adelina's greatly inflated PCS withstanding.

What is a flutz

 

[capcomeback]

It's when the skater takes off on a deep inside edge instead of the outside edge as they are supposed to be doing when executing the jump (in essence, turning the jump into sort of a "flip" instead of a "lutz' = "flutz"). She's basically executing the wrong jump based upon the edges. it's a no-no and can deduct points and GOE. The under-rotation of the second jump should have been a 30% reduction too.

 

[Mishaminion]

You're missing the point. The results were rigged. Even if Yuna had done 3Lo and 3A she still would have lost somehow.

You are joking, right?

Well Yuna's LP scored higher than Mao's, who did have 3Lo and 3A.

Oh noes... rigged yeh?

 

[cptnhastings]

Well Yuna's LP scored higher than Mao's, who did have 3Lo and 3A.

Mao wasn't given credit for two of her triples though and got an edge call. Yuna didn't get an underrotations. So that argument doesn't hold water.

But I do think Yuna would've definitely won if she had completed a clean triple loop in addition to the other jumps she did land. Probably would've been a new world record too. Too bad.

 

[Ven]

Mao wasn't given credit for two of her triples though and got an edge call. Yuna didn't get an underrotations. So that argument doesn't hold water.

But I do think Yuna would've definitely won if she had completed a clean triple loop in addition to the other jumps she did land. Probably would've been a new world record too. Too bad.

Even without the rigging that's not true. She wouldn't have gained almost 6 points. Second, it was rigged. She was going to lose no matter what unless Sotnikova made obvious mistakes. If Sotnikova had fallen twice, they wouldn't be able to get away with giving her gold, as the public would not have accepted it. By her going nearly clean (she did botch a jump after all), they are able to come out with the misleading TES vs. artistic lies they've been spreading in the media. And still the backlash is on the point of unacceptable. People do not accept the results.

 

[CarneAsada]

Even without the rigging that's not true. She wouldn't have gained almost 6 points. Second, it was rigged. She was going to lose no matter what unless Sotnikova made obvious mistakes. If Sotnikova had fallen twice, they wouldn't be able to get away with giving her gold, as the public would not have accepted it. By her going nearly clean (she did botch a jump after all), they are able to come out with the misleading TES vs. artistic lies they've been spreading in the media. And still the backlash is on the point of unacceptable. People do not accept the results.

She would have won with a 3A and a 3Lo, at least. There's that. And she would've been 5 points ahead of both Kostner and Sotnikova if she did a 3A in the short.

 

[cptnhastings]

Even without the rigging that's not true. She wouldn't have gained almost 6 points. Second, it was rigged. She was going to lose no matter what unless Sotnikova made obvious mistakes. If Sotnikova had fallen twice, they wouldn't be able to get away with giving her gold, as the public would not have accepted it. By her going nearly clean (she did botch a jump after all), they are able to come out with the misleading TES vs. artistic lies they've been spreading in the media. And still the backlash is on the point of unacceptable. People do not accept the results.

Can't I disagree with the results without agreeing that it was rigged? I'd've had Sotnikova 3rd, but those judges were swept away by the "Russ-i-a" cheers and overmarked her subconsciously. Bad judging isn't always a conspiracy.

A triple loop's 5.1 in the first half of the program. Yuna got no 0s in GOE. She could've netted the 5.5ish she needed right there with minimal GOE. Second half, she wouldn't even need a positive GOE.

 

[Flaya]

I fell in love with Adelina's performance during the Olympics. Her pirouettes and jumps were simply amazing!

I am looking forward to see her progress, I believe she COULD be the second woman after Sonja Henie to win three Olympic Golds and she has the nerves of steel.

 

[enotic]

I fell in love with Adelina's performance during the Olympics. Her pirouettes and jumps were simply amazing!

I am looking forward to see her progress, I believe she COULD be the second woman after Sonja Henie to win three Olympic Golds and she has the nerves of steel.

Next Olympic is in Korea. No way they will allow her second win.

 

[sms2000]

Sonja won her golds (1st barely legally, at age 12) in the times there was almost no concurrency. It's just impossible now.