I feel like something that hasn't really been brought up was Adelina's enthusiasm and Yuna's seeming lack thereof and how that affected the judging. But should it have? I don't think so.
That could be considered under the "Physical, emotional, and intellectual involvement" criterion for Performance/Execution
"...each skater must be physically committed, sincere in emotion, and equal in comprehension of the music and in execution of all movement"
That's a pretty subjective criterion, though. We can decide how sincere or comprehending of the music the skater looks to us, but we can't know what's really going on inside their heads and hearts.
Another relevant criterion would be "Projection": "The skater radiates energy resulting in an invisible connection with the audience"
Again, whether we feel such a connection as audience members (or judges) will probably have as much to do with our own preexisting mindset toward specific skaters as with what the skaters themselves do on the ice.
These are the most subjective criteria in the rules, perhaps the least sport-oriented, as written. Whether they should be there at all, or should be rewritten to focus more on what the skater does than on how it makes the judge feel, is certainly debatable.
But they are there. If these qualities happen to stand out to a judge either positively or negatively they can certainly make a big difference in the P/E mark that judge chooses to award.
I don't think they refer primarily to visible reactions to successful elements but at least as much to how the skater goes into the elements and the whole performance.
At one point she waved to the judges (I'm not sure if that was part of her choreography because I had not seen her skate this season, but I am sure that is true for many of you as well.
I did rewatch her Europeans LP, and she did the wave there as well, so I believe it was choreographed.
With the rise of Yuna/Mao, we finally have (or had) programs that actually interpret music and "theme," where jumps and other difficult elements are part of the stories they sell, not a job skaters are afraid of performing.
This is hardly new to the current era, though. There have been exceptional skaters in all eras who have had programs that actually interpret music and theme, etc.
Among Olympic medalists in the TV era, Janet Lynn, Oksana Baiul, and Michelle Kwan stand out in my mind as examples in the ladies' event.
Among men, John Curry, Alexei Yagudin, Jeffrey Buttle, Daisuke Takahashi.
And quite a few others to varying extents.
They took the skating under COP to a different level - a story telling, art, music - not a circus where you get applause for performing tricks.
I'd say it's more a continuum than an either/or.
But
here's someone who won a world medal by telling a story about performing circus tricks -- and later went on to call the tricks in Sochi.
Oh, let's not forget
this circus story either.
As it was I thought they were held up to even beat Pang & Tong, but it was also unfair they didnt have a flying fig of a chance to win even had they gone clean with a clean throw 3 axel at the end, and that probably affects you mentally.
