Ladies - Short Program - Comments

I had no quarrel with the judging of the SP.

Irina's performance had the most zing. I don't know how many zing points the CoP gives. But the 2+ minutes in between the break on the opening combination and the sloppy last spin, I thought Irina's program was excellent. About the combo, Irina always seems to find the strength to avoid falling, even when she lands off balance. (Todd Eldgredge was another skater like that -- as Dick Button once said, You throw a cat out ugly, it still lands on its feet.)

Sasha did fine, too. Except for the weird and uncharacteristic break in her spiral positions, she delivered the goods.

Michelle skated without error and was back to her usual Kwanderful self. But it was nothing special.

I enjoyed Carolina's skate the most. Nice triple-triple, no major flaws.

I also like Miki's, but it is hard to overlook the weakness in her moves in the field.

Rochette I thought was quite tentative. I was hoping for a repeat of her masterful performance at Canadian Nationals. But this wasn't it.

Overall, I agreed with the placements and did not see anything to cry foul about.

Mathman

The grassy knoll

I'm always up for a good conspiracy theory, but I can't see anything in this contest that waves a red flag.

Some people are saying that the other federations are going along with the Russians this year. But why should they? What do any of the other federations gain by seeing all Russians on the top stair of the podium? Did the Russians make a deal with Switzerland about Lambiel?

About the suggestion that the ISU likes Russia the best because of their support for the CoP, quite the contrary, Piseev fought against the new judging system and did everything he could not to have it used in Moscow this year.

The huge CoP supporter is Canada (the Canadian federation basically wrote it). I don't see the ISU judges favoring Rochette or Phaneuf as a reward (maybe Buttle).

JMO

Mathman

I think it's a shame that now even Sasha has abandoned her gorgeous spiral position to do the Bielman. Why? She had the most beautiful spiral. The Bielman is not nearly as impressive, and definitely not as nice to look at.

I liked Carolina's SP the best. She is stunning to watch. She needs to connect a bit more to the music, but there was a huge improvement in her connection to the audience. Beautiful smile! She might peak just at the right time next year.

nymkfan51 said:

I think it's a shame that now even Sasha has abandoned her gorgeous spiral position to do the Bielman. Why? She had the most beautiful spiral. The Bielman is not nearly as impressive, and definitely not as nice to look at.

Click to expand...

actuallky it doesn't seem a Biellman to me, more like a catch-foot spiral (I think that for it to be a Bielman she has to use both hands). However, I do agree that I prefer her unsoported spiral the best. I rather watch her do the catch-foot when she spins, 'cause she creates beautiful shapes in her spins

Hikaru said:

). However, I do agree that I prefer her unsoported spiral the best. I rather watch her do the catch-foot when she spins, 'cause she creates beautiful shapes in her spins

Click to expand...

I agree with you there.

Am I wrong or in her SP doesn't Sasha start with the "WOWSA" full straight-leg spiral and then on the change-edge go to the catch-foot position? I'm too tired to look through my tape for Sasha's SP right now, but in order to increase the Level for a spiral, you need a change of edge and a change of position and/or change of direction--all done well, natch. It seems to me Sasha started with her straight-leg spiral and went to the catch-foot, change-edge to try to increase the level from a 2 to a 3. She wobbled on the change-edge, so don't know what level she ended up with.

She definitely does the "WOWSA" spiral in her LP.

Rgirl

P.S. ITA, Mathman. No Warren Commission needed for the ladies SP. People are analyzing why Michelle didn't do as well under the COP as they expected her to on various threads, the opinions of which I won't repeat here as folks can read them for themselves. Besides, I thought you put it very clearly and succinctly.

And MY GAD! You're self-described a Kwaniac! Just goofing.

nymkfan51 said:

I think it's a shame that now even Sasha has abandoned her gorgeous spiral position to do the Bielman. Why? She had the most beautiful spiral. The Bielman is not nearly as impressive, and definitely not as nice to look at.

Click to expand...

Sasha did a Bielman?? Did I miss this?

Rgirl said:

Am I wrong or in her SP doesn't Sasha start with the "WOWSA" full straight-leg spiral and then on the change-edge go to the catch-foot position? I'm too tired to look through my tape for Sasha's SP right now, but in order to increase the Level for a spiral, you need a change of edge and a change of position and/or change of direction--all done well, natch. It seems to me Sasha started with her straight-leg spiral and went to the catch-foot, change-edge to try to increase the level from a 2 to a 3. She wobbled on the change-edge, so don't know what level she ended up with.

Click to expand...

You are right. In the SP Sasha starts the spiral sequence with her classical straight-leg split position spiral (aka WOWSA), THEN she does the change of edge while catchin her free leg with one hand to get into the catch-foot spiral, and during that transition she had the wobbled. I think that we are so use to watching Sasha with her spiral, that maybe the change to the catch-foot reminded people of the Biellmann issue. But a catch-foot is not a Biellmann. Maybe if Sasha hadn't got the wobble it would have looked better, and as far as the points goes, you have to do your best to get the most out of the moves, I don't think no one is selling out for trying to improve. To me, it is more pretty when she does her spiral, but as I said, without the wobble I think she could have created a better shape for the spiral.

The scoring sheet does show that she got a level 3 for that element, 2 judges gave her a GoE of +1, one judge a -1, and another judge a +2. In the end she took a GoE of 0.29 for it.

Incidently, her spiral step sequence in the free skate was also level 3 (I don't think she did the catch foot here) and she got +2 from all the judges.

Thanks, Hikaru. I did watch my tape later and everything Sasha did in her SP and LP spiral sequences is as you described. Just to add, she not only wobbled during the catch-foot section of her SP spiral sequence, she also dropped the "caught" foot for a moment to regain her balance, though she stayed on one foot. Then she picked it up and went back to the catch foot position.

Thanks also for the levels she got and GOE. If Sasha can perfect her SP spiral sequence, I think it will be both beautiful and a big point-getter. Anyway, Sasha ain't gonna give up her big money move, the split spiral, unless she can't do it.

I think we've now analyzed the heck out of that one, lol.

Rgirl