at
Maybe, but I think that her mistake was that she gave her all out in US Nationals and that kind of performance is extremely hard to repeat a month later. Ilia Kulik was first to skate in the final group and he won. In my opinion it is a very good place to skate really well and scare the rest, LOL.
Brian Boitano also skated first. In many respects, without knowing what anyone else has done, all you can do is lay it out on the ice. Your biggest competition is yourself
As for the subject matter of this thread....
LADIES
2009: I don’t think people realize just how oddly perfect 2009 (and the quad leading up to it) matched the Olympics. The world junior title champions of 2005 and 2006 were the silver and gold medalists in Vancouver. The narrative of the quad was Mao vs Yu-na, and that’s what we saw. Except, not really. 2009 saw Kim climaxing perfectly, setting World records at four competitions in the space of a year. She pulled away from Mao, and we saw that with a remarkable 20+ victory in Vancouver. Considering that the ladies event in Vancouver was freakishly strong, that’s amazing. 2009 also set up Rochette as a plausible medal contender, saw a resurgent Miki on the podium, saw Kostner flop at Worlds (like she would at the Olympics)
2013? A lot more muddled. For all of Kostner’s success in the last season, she feels like a Buttle-esque champion. Everything came together at the right time and quite strongly. But she wasn’t quite dominant: losing to Tuktamisheva and Czisny early in the season and having to come from behind at Worlds. Buttle had a worse 07/08 season, but dominated at worlds more convincingly. I’d be genuinely surprised if she repeated. I think 2013 will be about Wagner, Suzuki, and the Russian ladies duking it out (my brain says that Sotnikova emerges stronger from this season, but it also cautions that Tuktamisheva has Plushenko like nerves and desire to compete). Leonova refuses to be a placeholder, and she’s a wildcard (if SHE were to win in London.... well, whoa)
MEN
2009: After missing the podium (2007) and the event (2008), Lysacek wins a home worlds and is instantly set-up as a plausible OGM (though most of us didn’t think so at the time). Chan becomes a world medalist, also setting himself up as a possible candidate in Vancouver (something we all agreed on). On the other hand, a startling four of the top six Olympic men weren’t even at Worlds 2009 (Takahashi, Lambiel, Plushenko and Wier). Joubert’s World consistency (medalling at four consecutive worlds) falters when it comes to Olympic ice (indeed, he and Kostner end up at the exact same spot: 16th). Lower on the ranks, it set up Abbott and Chipeur quite nicely going into the Olympic season
2013? Chan and the Japanese men are pulling away from the rest. Yeah, we might have one of the young European guns sneaking in here and there (Fernandez, Brezina, Gachinski, Amodio) but it doesn’t seem to happening for them for a sustained period. Time will tell if the WTT represents an actual change in the judging or if it was just a one-off. I wonder if Takahashi will be able to withstand Hanyu’s onslaught. We’ll see how serious Plushenko and Weir are (we already “know” that Lysacek isn’t.)
Recent dramatic events make dance more difficult to talk about, and I have to reanalyze what I wrote for that discipline, so pairs and dance for later.
