Where can Kimmie Rank?

I got this idea from the thread about how graceful Caroline Zhang is.

Okay, we all know that kimmie has not been herself this season. She has not has a clean LP all season, forget about two clean programs. Let's say for the sake of things that she skates really well at Worlds. Maybe Richard C. works magic... whatever. She is back to landing at least one 3/3.... everything else landed.... maybe even rumors of that 3 axel again? So here is the question. If she lands everything, 3/3's inculded, can she even make the top 4? top 5? is she is perfect can she medal?

Kimmie does not have the spirals, spins and footwork that kostner, mao and yu-na have. She is reliying almost soley on her jumps and chreography (that actully looked pretty decent at nationals). With this package, what is she aiming for?

To be fair, Kimmie has a very solid, steady spiral, descent spins (certainly better than Kostner's), and her footwork has improved. But Mao and Yu-na have also improved their non-jumping elements. In fact, Kostner is the only top ranked skater who hasn't improved a bit since last year. She had better spiral and spins last year, and her footwork is about the same. If all four aforementioned skaters and Miki and Joannie skate clean, I think Kimmie can medal. Aside from Mao and Yu-na, Kimmie is the only one with lp score close to 130.

Wrlmy said:

If all four aforementioned skaters and Miki and Joannie skate clean, I think Kimmie can medal. Aside from Mao and Yu-na, Kimmie is the only one with lp score close to 130.

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I also think that if Kimmie can land both a clean 3Lz-3T and 2A-3T, then she can beat Joannie & Yukari, and vie Carolina Kostner for bronze; she has high PCS (she really improved her speed and smoothness this season, and judges seem to like that) and she has fast spins & spirals (thus high GOE's) if not always high levels.

The trouble is, she's much less consistent this season than Joannie & Yukari, and even Carolina, plus many other skaters that come after. I think Kimmie has serious jump technique issues (her jumps are very low now, even when she doesn't fall the landings are tight and prone to downgrades), which I am not sure that Richard C can address in a few weeks. Plus she has a lip that she's obviously been struggling with. I think barring magic from RC, it's highly unlikely that Kimmie can beat Mao, Yu-na, Joannie, and Yukari. Ashley will probably outskate her again, as will one of the Finnish ladies, plus Carolina Kostner certainly has the ability (just depends on which Carolina she brings to the ice). So all in all, depends on what RC manages to do for her, I see her placing anywhere between 5th and 12th. Wow, will this be one of the steepest falling sequence (1-4-?) for a world champion, mirroring her fall in the National's rankings?

feraina said:

Wow, will this be one of the steepest falling sequence (1-4-?) for a world champion, mirroring her fall in the National's rankings?

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That's not a cheerful thought, but I believe Shizuka Arakawa had the steepest falling from the win in 2004 to 9th place finish in 2005. But we know how she ended her career