Five Favorites for Olympic Gold in Women's Figure Skating at Sochi 2014 | Page 8 | Golden Skate

Five Favorites for Olympic Gold in Women's Figure Skating at Sochi 2014

Bartek

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 29, 2009
Mao wins OGM this time because she weras blue dress. Very simple.

I think this will be the best ladies competition ever, even better than in Vancouver. There are so many girls with a potential to score around 200 when clean:
Kim
Asada
Suzuki
Lipnitskaya
Sotnikova
Kostner
Wagner
 

katymay

Medalist
Joined
Mar 7, 2006
Yuna, Julia, Mao, Adelina, Akiko/Gracie. In that order.
I love Akiko, but I don't think she can score in the top group. But I would go with Yuna, Julia, Mao, Adelina, Gracie, and I would add Polina. Polish seems to be less important than jumping ability this year. Not to mention enthusiasm-the judges seem to be eating up youthful exuberance and energy. The 'Tara Lipinski' factor.
As far as the Baby Russians, we have a few junior ladies that stand to do well in the future, not to mention Hicks.
 

koatcue

Medalist
Joined
Aug 31, 2011
Country
Russia
Polina is too inexperienced:( I like her, but I think if she gets in top 7 - that would be a great success for her..
 

Ven

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
If Akiko goes clean she should absolutely be in the top group. She's the star of the season this year.

My ideal podium would be:

1. Yuna
2. Akiko
3. Adelina
 

elif

Medalist
Joined
Jan 28, 2010
Kim, Lipnistkaia, Gold and Sotnikova has good jumps and their TES is higher. Spins are good too and should get very high GOE. This time there is not going to be 10 point PCS advantage for older skaters, so looks like younger ones has a chance for medal. I don't know which jumps Asada and Kostner going to use. Kostner had to do 3F+3T. Her jumps and spins are weaker than others. Asada's triple jumps are looking underrotated and two triple axels is risky.
 

ahy

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 29, 2013
1. Yuna
2. Akiko / Mao
3. Julia / Adelina (home ice advantage...)
4. Gracie
5. Adelina / wagner

Kostner, kanako, li ← dark horses :)
 

SimplyLex

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 22, 2013
Yuna, Julia and Mao are the gold contenders.

Adelina, Carolina, Ashley and Akiko are medal contenders.

Sorry, I don't have any faith in the overhyped Gold or in Murakami. The best they both can place is 5th-7th.
 

nguyenghita

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
... Ashley ... are medal contenders.

Sorry, I don't have any faith in the overhyped Gold ... The best they both can place is 5th-7th
Nothing against, but if both skate clean, I don't know how Ashley can ahead Gold - US Champion this time :confused:

Not fan of both, but at least if you consider Ashley as medal contender, Gold must be the same :laugh:

However in my mind, they both have best hope in top 5 :think:
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
I think that one of these skaters has the possibility of winning the Olympic gold medal:

Asada
Kim
Kostner
Suzuki

I cannot remember that a ladies skater has ever won the OG without having won a Worlds medal first. In figure stating the reputation counts. The silver and bronze medal are open for anyone to grab.
 

ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Implausible: Osmond, Li, Murakami (and everyone not mentioned)

Extreme longshot: Wagner

Darkhorse: Gold, Sotnikova, Suzuki

In the hunt: Kim, Asada, Kostner, Lipnitskaia
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Implausible: Osmond, Li, Murakami (and everyone not mentioned)

Extreme longshot: Wagner

Darkhorse: Gold, Sotnikova, Suzuki

In the hunt: Kim, Asada, Kostner, Lipnitskaia

You overrate Kostner. Kostner is not really in the hunt for the gold medal at this point at all. The women in your darkhorse group all would be more likely to win the gold or even a medal than her right now. I would call Kostner a bit of a dark horse for the bronze medal at this moment.
 

Manitou

Medalist
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
My list has no value as it's purely wishful thinking, but my perfect podium would be Yuna, Yulia and Gracie. Random order.
And every possibility will be equally exciting.
If Yuna wins then her current reputation as "possibly the best female skater in history" will lose the word "possibly".
And if Yulia wins it will melt my heart. Sorry, it comes with age... :)
And if Gracie wins the US media will go supernova.
 

ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
You overrate Kostner. Kostner is not really in the hunt for the gold medal at this point at all. The women in your darkhorse group all would be more likely to win the gold or even a medal than her right now. I would call Kostner a bit of a dark horse for the bronze medal at this moment.

I know. But I know you know me well enough to know that I'm sticking with this prediction even though I'm wrong, so thoroughly have I imagined the moment.
 

Eloise

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
I know. But I know you know me well enough to know that I'm sticking with this prediction even though I'm wrong, so thoroughly have I imagined the moment.

I like your prediction! :)

At the moment I find it is difficult to predict who will be in the top 5, the situation seems to be changing every week! The homeland factor will definitely play favourably to Julia and Adelina, however, perhaps due to my naïveté, I would not go as far as to say that they will be favoured if other skaters produce better performances. I think that over scoring the home champions would really damage both the image of figure skating as a sport and of Russia as a respectful player and I do believe that Russia is trying to contrive that image. In the long run it could even hinder the sport in the numbers of disillusioned people who turn away from it. Having said that, I am sure that if Adelina and Julia skate clean and produce good performances, they will definitely get an edge over similarly talented skaters and equally deserving performances.

I think the main contenders for gold are still Mao and Yuna and I am really curious to see how the “final battle” between these two wonderful skater will pan out. At the moment I prefer Mao’s SP and Yuna’s LP, but I think that nerves will be the key to victory. If both are clean, I think perhaps Mao will outscore Yuna, but it is difficult to judge this scenario now as I am not sure on how Yuna’s PCS will hold up. There are many things that I love in both of them, although none of them is my ultimate favourite, and I do think they have pushed each other to great heights that they may had not reached if they did not feel they had a worthy rival to deal with. I think their so called “rivalry” has been a positive factor in this sport and I hope that the cleanest, most inspired and exciting performer of the two will prevail, but I am reserving judgement of which one may be!

I am not too worried about Julia beating Yuna or Mao as I think that the difference in skating skills and overall presence on ice will be clearer when they skate in the same competition. True that Julia may outspin them both, but her arms movements, speed and jumping technique are still inferior in my opinion. Between her and Adelina I definitely see Julia getting closer to Yuna and Mao in terms of placement as I think she is a better skater overall and she has better programs. Adelina does have bigger jumps and higher PCS, but I feel the PCS situation may change soon. For me the problem with Adelina is that I do not particularly like her programs and I really dislike the music selection/costume and lack of refinement in her upper body movements. Julia is packaged better and she has been more consistent so she seems to be more likely to get on the podium.

Carolina, oh how I wish for her to be on that podium! She may not succeed, but I still hope she will go out there and skate beautifully and cleanly. I have the suspect that she is content where she is now and I am certain she really loves this sport. To see her skate two beautiful and clean performances in Sochi would be marvellous! So I keep on hoping that this will happen!

At the moment I think that the best five (in no particular order) will be:

Carolina, Mao, Yuna, Akiko and Julia, but I can see either Adelina or Gracie jumping on the boat as well.
 

fairly4

Medalist
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
mine are

1) yuna- gold but 1st --5th
2) mao 1st --6th
3)gracie 1st --10th
4)adelina-1st --10th
5) julia 1st --10th
6) carolina 1st--8th
7) akiko 3rd-12th
8) kaetlyn3rd--10th
9) ashley 2nd-11th
10) kanako--4th-12th
11) polina 8th-12th
12) zijun 4th-12th

13) mae bernice 7-14th
14) gabrielle 8th-14th
 

Isabel_O'Reilly

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 30, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BQcJN1e-mw
mine are

1) yuna- gold but 1st --5th
2) mao 1st --6th
3)gracie 1st --10th
4)adelina-1st --10th
5) julia 1st --10th
6) carolina 1st--8th
7) akiko 3rd-12th
8) kaetlyn3rd--10th
9) ashley 2nd-11th
10) kanako--4th-12th
11) polina 8th-12th
12) zijun 4th-12th

13) mae bernice 7-14th
14) gabrielle 8th-14th

I'm sorry, but I just can't agree with what you put for Julia. She has never finished off the podium in any international competition so I think a conservative estimate would be 1-5th. (Can you tell Julia's my favorite?) :)
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
mine are

1) yuna- gold but 1st --5th
2) mao 1st --6th
3)gracie 1st --10th
4)adelina-1st --10th
5) julia 1st --10th
6) carolina 1st--8th
7) akiko 3rd-12th
8) kaetlyn3rd--10th
9) ashley 2nd-11th
10) kanako--4th-12th
11) polina 8th-12th
12) zijun 4th-12th

13) mae bernice 7-14th
14) gabrielle 8th-14th

A tsunami is more likely than a 5th place finish for Kim at the Games.
 

RABID

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
mine are

1) yuna- gold but 1st --5th
2) mao 1st --6th
3)gracie 1st --10th
4)adelina-1st --10th
5) julia 1st --10th
6) carolina 1st--8th
7) akiko 3rd-12th
8) kaetlyn3rd--10th
9) ashley 2nd-11th
10) kanako--4th-12th
11) polina 8th-12th
12) zijun 4th-12th

13) mae bernice 7-14th
14) gabrielle 8th-14th

"Fortune favors the bold!" :laugh:
 
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