Ladies' LP | Page 83 | Golden Skate

Ladies' LP

ARipp42014

Medalist
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Cool thing nbc has the entire event online. Gonna see how in the heck Laura performed so well and Caro "Hubert"ing herself off the Top 10.
 

CdnSkateWatcher

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
The coverage we had was great. I appreciated watching YuNa, Mao, Joannie, Mirai, and Laura Lepisto (she did have a very good LP) the most.

:p

I would like to point out that it was quite nice in Canada to see all of the skaters. It gives you a more balanced perspective on what is out there in the world at this level, as well as letting us see the potential "new stars" of the sport. When you see only the top few, or the spectacular "fails", or primarily the country's own skaters, you lack persective and basis for comparisons.
 

Tinymavy15

Sinnerman for the win
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
Yu-na gave one of the best Olympic performances of all time. I am so proud she skated her best. She did not have to be that good, but skated with freedom and this effortless quality that combined Tara's jumps and Michelle' grace at Nagano. Wow. Score well deserved.

I can't believe Mao landed those beautiful triple axels after hearing Yuna's score. She is amazing. My heart broke for her with the triple loop. Sure, she would have been silver anyway even if she had been 100% perfect but her dissapointment in the kiss and cry was tough. Mao should have had her Olympic moment in 2006. ISU messed it all up.

Joannie. So proud of her. To be honest it was not her best skate, she looked tired and at times I think she just wanted to cling onto 3rd place....like the way she did not even try thr second double Axel in her sequence at the end. Overscored, but great skate anyway.

Mirai charmed us again. This girl is magical. As for the sacrfical lamb... and for the mirai/Sasha comaprison. Sasha skated to Carmen, robbed of a medal, placed fourth.

Racheal was also robbed. No way her flip should have been downgragded but it just goes to show how these results are all based on who should win not who deseves it. I am not her biggest fan, but deserved better. She was the only lady other than yu-na to land a 3/3 in both programs. That is is behind miki is a joke.

Miki. Very dissapointing. She played it very safe, somthing i think would have changed if she skated after Mao. Painfully slow. Boring.

Elena G. Looked completly off, such a pity. I can't believe NBC did not show Laura Lipisto who seems to have skated great nor Akkiko nor Caronlina Kostner! Instead we get Tuba and the Aussie girl that nobody ever heard of!
 

Jo1

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 28, 2004
I didn't manage to wake up in the middle of the night, I just finished watching the last group up to Joannie so far, so I'm only going to comment on Mao/Yuna for now.

First of all, my impression from this Olympics is that the COP did a lot of good things but also a lot of bad things for skating. The good thing is that the ladies used to bore me to tears before but anymore, the programs have become so much more interesting, there wasn't one skater in the top 15 (of the short program) whose program I didn't enjoy (didn't see the rest), and the same is true for what I've seen of the long so far.

But on the other hand the scoring is beginning to turn me off figure skating big time, because IMO it has taken dishonest scoring to a whole new level. At least under the 6.0 system, you could only give a skater a relative advantage, now they can be given an absolute advantage so big that noone has any chance to catch up to. I also think with the COP you can almost place the skaters anywhere you want with the component/GOE scores, and sometimes some skaters are very blatantly under/overscored in a way that I've not seen before, and this is a HUGE turnoff for me.

Yuna was absolutey brilliant and she completely deserved her win, but the 20 point advantage is ridiculous.
I really can't imagine how Mao felt when she heard the scores for Yuna, that score was so huge that I think Mao had zero chance to win no matter what. I was really afraid she would collapse under the pressure, so RESPECT to her for landing both triple axels, just wow. Of course, she also made some mistakes, so I don't have any issues with her second place, and actually even if she went clean, I would still be ok with second place, but not with a score difference of 20 points which is just absurd. I feel Mao wasn't given even a theoretical chane to win this and that leaves a very bad taste for me.

I liked both Miki and Rachel, and I have to say I'm very pleasantly surprised by the US ladies because every performance I've seen from them was very enjoyable with good choreo and great musicality, so congrats to them as well.

I so totally agree with you!!! She was very good but that score IS RIDICULOUS!!!!
 

silverlake22

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Mirai is awesome and blah blah Sasha Cohen, Mirai is not like Sasha Cohen, Mirai is UNIQUE and that's what I love about her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiXBCHq2f4Q

That was Mirai four months ago, yes 4 months ago, she has improved SO much, Frank really turned out to be a great coach for her, she is skyrocketing! And she seemed so happy, she mentioned that Evan was 4th at his first olympics and then won this year, so cute that they are friends :) . So proud of her and all the ladies last night! That was some competition!
 

fairly4

Medalist
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
great skate from all--yu-na wow-terrific
mao--great skate
joannie good skate
mirai--great skate-
laura great skate
miki--good skate--great job-best this year
akiko--great skate--greatjob
rachel--steady as usual--personally i don't think rachel was robbed-lacked speedof of the women skaters, low jumps--to me at first glance looked ur --i had look reallyclose-also mulekicked for me in triple triple,but otherwise steady as usualy--but great job in olympics.
the rest--for decent job from all.
 

ARipp42014

Medalist
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Finally watched Lovely Laura's LP and now I kinda understand why she finished higher than Rachael. I really loved it! It reminded me of Joannie back in 2006 when she was around 10th and came back to finish 5th overall.

Caro, OTOH.... :cry:

Gonna watch Mirai (aka Mini Kristi/Sasha). Best Carmen I've seen in a while!
 
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Phoenix347

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
I have to agree that Flatt's downgrades were puzzling. It was close but I thought they were suppose to give the benefit of the doubt if it was close. I'm not even a fan of her skating. Otherwise the technical judging was fine.

I feel very sad for Kostner. I cannot believe that she bombed as badly as she did. It might be the worst bombing I've ever seen her do and that's saying quite a lot. I wonder if this will cause her to quit figure skating. It was interesting because initially she buried her face in her hands after the skate than she was laughing (it looked that way anyway.) Maybe that's the only way for her to handle the situation. I wonder if she'll be at the worlds. Since it's in Italy, I'm assuming that she'll be there but who know. Maybe she'll let Marchei take a shot at it.

Anyway, it was a fantastic night of skating and perhaps the most compelling figure skating competition of the games. What a performance by the final flight. The best competition I've seen in a long time. It had everything. Fierce competition, emotional drama, etc.
 

Layfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
She really needs to work on straightening her knee and pointing the toe in the spiral. She and Brian should look at Sasha pictures. That is the only thing that spoils her perfection.

Can one of the skaters around here please answer the pointed toe question? It's always bugged me about Yuna not just that she doesn't point her toes in her spiral but EVER in her program. And I noticed the other day that Ekaterina Gordeeva didn't either in 1988. both of these women are incredible skaters and their perfection only makes this one small flaw all the more noticeable.

Now, I know how hard it is to point your feet in pointe shoes. It is actually very hard. The first time you put out a pointe shoe you basically can't arch you foot inside it at all. I can only imagine how difficult it must be in wearing skates! On the other hand, maybe arch isn't even as imortant wearing skates... simply pointing your foot, if not your toes would do, I'd imagine... correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, when I studied ballet there were some girls who were way better than I could ever have hoped to be but for some reason they just couldn't really point their feet well. Their feet just wouldn't do it. So my question: Maybe Yuna just has those kind of feet? Or is it really that she neglects to point her toes?
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
RE: Yuna's lead was too high

To look at things technically, strictly on base score: Mao did two 3A, but she only completed four clean non-downgraded triple jumps. The rest of the top 10 did at least five and two (Alena and Joannie) did 7. And most of the top 10 (Ksenia was the only other one, I think) did at least one triple lutz, if not two. With a lutz being worth 6 points, Mao lost 12 points just by not doing two triple lutz jumps (and more since Yuna did one of those Lutz jumps in combination and the other in the second half of the program). Without the 3A, she would only have one triple flip (in combo) and one triple loop in her LP. Those 3As, in both the SP and the LP, is what helped Mao have a secure hold on the silver, so Mao still needs to be proud that she did what she needed to do to stay in the hunt.
 
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ARipp42014

Medalist
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Watched Yuna's LP again (3rd time) and more and more I'm loving the little things about it. I actually was watching Brian in the background and wow he was jumping along with her. :) I love that K&C moment after the marks... they knew she won yet Brian just let her have her moment. So sweet!

Btw, nice article on Yahoo about how her mom couldn't bare to watch!
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/figure_skating/news;_ylt=AgRS.aOr3XU14A0FiJZrPlaGsbV_?slug=dw-kimyuna022510&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
 
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Tinymavy15

Sinnerman for the win
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
Yu-na's spiral as improved a lot since 2007, in her credit she has worked on the extension and her toe point. True she will never have a great spiral, but it is good enough. Personally the straight line step was a bit of a downner, it was at the end of the program, she had done all her jumps perfectly, the music was building, but she just didn't sell it like I wanted her to. I kept thinking of Evan skating his straight line step to that music at worlds last year performing it all the way...I just wanted her to let lose and go for it, but I got the feeling she was being very careful at that point in the program. That final spin with the kettle drums remdeemed the program though.
 

Jo1

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 28, 2004
:thumbsup: Yuna deserves to win but the score was just too much. They really did not give a chance for Mao or Joannie (even if they skate clean) to catch up to her and that makes it not really like a competition.

More like a coronation wouldn't you say!!!!
 

demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Thanks Morning Glory for reposting Pokky_oc translation of Mao's interview.
 

viv

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
As I was not on here since the competition and had no time to go through all the posts I only want to share the Eurosports comments on Mirai Nagasu. Sigi Heinrich said that she "is the next Michelle Kwan", and Hendryk Schamberger added that she is the one who is the ultimate hope for American Ladies Figure Skating. I agree - she was great.

Regarding the competition, I think it was the best Ladies event I have ever seen since I am watching figure skating. Congratulations to all three on the podium.

I loved Lauras program. :rock:
 

millie

Medalist
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
She really needs to work on straightening her knee and pointing the toe in the spiral. She and Brian should look at Sasha pictures. That is the only thing that spoils her perfection.

In all the talk about straightening her knee and pointing her toe, she still won the GOLD. I don't think I heard of a skater winning the Gold because she she pointed her toe more than any other girl. Stop nickpicling, PLEASE
 

Layfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
Yu-na's spiral as improved a lot since 2007, in her credit she has worked on the extension and her toe point. True she will never have a great spiral, but it is good enough. Personally the straight line step was a bit of a downner, it was at the end of the program, she had done all her jumps perfectly, the music was building, but she just didn't sell it like I wanted her to. I kept thinking of Evan skating his straight line step to that music at worlds last year performing it all the way...I just wanted her to let lose and go for it, but I got the feeling she was being very careful at that point in the program. That final spin with the kettle drums remdeemed the program though.


I recently watched Yuna's programs from 2007 because some posters were claiming that she is not as good as she was then. The first thing I thought was, wow, Yuna's spirals have really improved! I understand she had a back injury that year so that probably has a lot to do with it. I didn't mean to diss her spiral sequence or anything. I'm just very curious to hear from skaters what the deal is with pointed toes. Is it something coaches nag you about? Is a complete after thought? Is almost impossible for some people to point their feet in skates?
 

Fan123

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Oh my ...
((((MAO))))

what she did was amazing, skating after the 150 of Yuna. She knew there was no way to surpass this and the five points from short.
I hope she can be happy with silver, it is amazing accomplishment after her bad season :(

translation is down there in youtube

Yeah, I feel sad for her too...I hate to see any lady cry like that. I could understand where she's coming from...and you're right, as soon as the 150 pt score came up for Kim, I think Asad knew there was no chance to catch up...but boy, what a gutsy performance. Everyone including the Japanese should be proud of her!
 

Layfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
Watched Yuna's LP again (3rd time) and more and more I'm loving the little things about it. I actually was watching Brian in the background and wow he was jumping along with her. :) I love that K&C moment after the marks... they knew she won yet Brian just let her have her moment. So sweet!

Btw, nice article on Yahoo about how her mom couldn't bare to watch!
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/figure_skating/news;_ylt=AgRS.aOr3XU14A0FiJZrPlaGsbV_?slug=dw-kimyuna022510&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

that's exactly what's so wonderful about Yuna's programs... there these small moments of wonderfulness that make it worth watching over again like a good movie or book. My favorite is still Dance Macabre but her programs these seasons were awesome, too.
 
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