2014 Olympics Ladies Free Skate

[capcomeback]

I wrote before that i want to support Adelina, because it seemed that everyone forgot about her and concentrated on Yulia. I'm from Ukraine and here we always a bit more supportive to the Russian athlets than to others. But no this time. I just love figure skating so much, and what happened at the Olympics just kills skating as a sport.

Carolina was robbed of silver. Yuna was robbed of gold. And Adelina was robbed of long and great sport career. Maybe she doesn't understand it now, but i think she will. If she had won bronze it still could have been a great achivement and good base for the further development. I'm sure she is capable of more. Especially what concernes musicality, interpritation, choreography, body lines. But whether she is ready for the next four years of hard and exhausting trainings and a lot of sacrifices when she already has a OGM? Where to find a motivation? She haven't won Europeans or Worlds but is it so important for her after the Olympics?

South Korea needed Yuna, yuna did it come back for her country more than for her personally. But will Russia need Adelina in 2018? Especially with all this wonderbabies ready to come? I doubt.

You raise some great points. Adelina got too much too soon. Where can you go but down from there? If she really wants to prove that she is a worthy champion, she will work hard on her artistry (and avoid yellow flags, lol). As far as PCS, to me, it's her lack of maturity (age appropriate for a 17 year old), that shows she is someone who does not really feel or appreciate the music she skates to. You have to feel passion that is appropriate to the music you skate to (not just because you're pissed off that Julia was getting all the press). If she wants to be great, she has a chance, but she has to grow up first and make that commitment to be more than just about the jumps and spins.

On the technical side, she'll need to improve her 3lz. She was "lucky" (?) not to get an edge call (nor on the UR on the 3T). The scrutiny on the misses by the tech panel will put every eye in the rink on her take off edge from here on out. Her much ballyhooed speed wasn't that fast compared to the others (check out the Youtube video shot from an overhead rink view. When you can see the whole ice, it's much easier to get a true representation of her speed in contrast to Yuna, and Carolina). Personally, I think her lack of speed was what caused the UR problem on the back end of 3FLz/3T.

 

[Mista Ekko]

I wrote before that i want to support Adelina, because it seemed that everyone forgot about her and concentrated on Yulia. I'm from Ukraine and here we always a bit more supportive to the Russian athlets than to others. But no this time. I just love figure skating so much, and what happened at the Olympics just kills skating as a sport.

Carolina was robbed of silver. Yuna was robbed of gold. And Adelina was robbed of long and great sport career. Maybe she doesn't understand it now, but i think she will. If she had won bronze it still could have been a great achivement and good base for the further development. I'm sure she is capable of more. Especially what concernes musicality, interpritation, choreography, body lines. But whether she is ready for the next four years of hard and exhausting trainings and a lot of sacrifices when she already has a OGM? Where to find a motivation? She haven't won Europeans or Worlds but is it so important for her after the Olympics?

South Korea needed Yuna, yuna did it come back for her country more than for her personally. But will Russia need Adelina in 2018? Especially with all this wonderbabies ready to come? I doubt.

Gave me negative Goosebumps that line did

 

[ILoveFigures]

Carolina was robbed of silver. Yuna was robbed of gold. And Adelina was robbed of long and great sport career.

THIS!

 

[Petitefleur]

BUT there were younger female skaters winning gold at the Olympics, who straight away stopped competitions (Lipinsky, Baiul) or never won the following year (Hugues).

 

[capcomeback]

BUT there were younger female skaters winning gold at the Olympics, who straight away stopped competitions (Lipinsky, Baiul) or never won the following year (Hugues).

True, for those skaters, they achieved their crowning moment without further development. Michelle Kwan was the skater of her generation. In her prime, she had it all. Yet, she never won an Olympic Gold. Perhaps, that's why she continued to progress. At any rate, on her best day, she was better than anybody else on theirs. Sadly, she came up short in the Olympics, but she won more Golds in the World's than anybody else.

For Adelina, the thing is that it is more likely that she'll either quit, get hurt or will take a big step backwards, as people start to put her under the microscope and determine that she's been overrscored on her jumps and PCS. That is a heck of a lot of pressure to put on a 17 year old girl. For her to move forward, she's going to need to step up and improve. I hope she can do it (Oh yeah, and learn to do a 3Lz without flutzing or she'll never get the benefit of a doubt an edge call again).

 

[Spinerette]

BUT there were younger female skaters winning gold at the Olympics, who straight away stopped competitions (Lipinsky, Baiul) or never won the following year (Hugues).

It would have good to see Oksana, Tara and Sarah mature.

 

[Anastasi14]

Gave me negative Goosebumps that line did

Yeah...that was my point. I always liked Adelina a bit more among all the Russian girls, i believed that she has a potential to became, maybe a new Carolina Kostner. And now i have a bad feeling that we will never see it happening. And that is why i feel robbed too, as a fans of figure skating we're robbed of possibility to see how great Adelina can be after she grows up. Because judges already showed with their marks, that she is almost perfect and there is nothing she needs to work on. And from her interviews i don't have an impression that she understands that she still has a lot of work to be done.

She was great in Sochi, she had two impressive performances! As impressive as the skating of 17-year old girl can be. She just not mature enough to interprete the music and the character during the whole programme instead of showing happiness just after every successfull element. She deserved to be on that podium. Olympic Bronze could have been a huge success and she still would have had the goal to achieve, so the reason to impruve.

But for Russians it wasn't enough. And the worst thing is that they wasn't support just Adelina, those marks would have received any Russian girl, who skated almost clean. So, that was marks not personally for Adelina and her skating, that was marks for the flag.

I don't think that for Yuna this silver was a loss. No way. She already won everything and proved everything. She starts a new chapter of her life, she has a lot of plans and goals. No one will love her less just because she doesn't have two OGMs. She did so much for sport in her country! She is a great example of true champion for young people to follow. All of this is not measured by medals.

And for Karolina the bronze is not a loss. Past three years she has been on that stage of her career when it is no longer about medals and placement. It's something more. It's about real feminine figure skating, about joy that her skating gives to all the viewers. And this bronze worth more than a gold.

I'm so grateful for Yuna, Mao, Karolina for their contribution to the sport, for showing us how the ladies figure skating should be! I'm sure a lot of people will rewatch a lot of their programms many times!

And as for Adelina i don't feel so optimistic. Now the eyes of the whole world will watch her, just waiting for her mistakes. And with the tough competition in Russian team she can't afford to relax or miss the season. There are a lot of Russian wonder babies, who will be only 17-18 in 2018. With all those jumps, less quantity of injures and with hunger for medals. So Russia won't wait for Adelina, if she fails they will just pick another star. I afraid she won't want to go thru it one more time, especially when OGM is already around her neck. And that is why i'm so dissapointed that we possible will never know how a brilliant skater Adelina could became.

Sorry for so many words and my poor English but i just feel too bad about what is happening to my favorite sport.

 

[capcomeback]

Yeah...that was my point. I always liked Adelina a bit more among all the Russian girls, i believed that she has a potential to became, maybe a new Carolina Kostner. And now i have a bad feeling that we will never see it happening. And that is why i feel robbed too, as a fans of figure skating we're robbed of possibility to see how great Adelina can be after she grows up. Because judges already showed with their marks, that she is almost perfect and there is nothing she needs to work on. And from her interviews i don't have an impression that she understands that she still has a lot of work to be done.

She was great in Sochi, she had two impressive performances! As impressive as the skating of 17-year old girl can be. She just not mature enough to interprete the music and the character during the whole programme instead of showing happiness just after every successfull element. She deserved to be on that podium. Olympic Bronze could have been a huge success and she still would have had the goal to achieve, so the reason to impruve.

But for Russians it wasn't enough. And the worst thing is that they wasn't support just Adelina, those marks would have received any Russian girl, who skated almost clean. So, that was marks not personally for Adelina and her skating, that was marks for the flag.

I don't think that for Yuna this silver was a loss. No way. She already won everything and proved everything. She starts a new chapter of her life, she has a lot of plans and goals. No one will love her less just because she doesn't have two OGMs. She did so much for sport in her country! She is a great example of true champion for young people to follow. All of this is not measured by medals.

And for Karolina the bronze is not a loss. Past three years she has been on that stage of her career when it is no longer about medals and placement. It's something more. It's about real feminine figure skating, about joy that her skating gives to all the viewers. And this bronze worth more than a gold.

I'm so grateful for Yuna, Mao, Karolina for their contribution to the sport, for showing us how the ladies figure skating should be! I'm sure a lot of people will rewatch a lot of their programms many times!

And as for Adelina i don't feel so optimistic. Now the eyes of the whole world will watch her, just waiting for her mistakes. And with the tough competition in Russian team she can't afford to relax or miss the season. There are a lot of Russian wonder babies, who will be only 17-18 in 2018. With all those jumps, less quantity of injures and with hunger for medals. So Russia won't wait for Adelina, if she fails they will just pick another star. I afraid she won't want to go thru it one more time, especially when OGM is already around her neck. And that is why i'm so dissapointed that we possible will never know how a brilliant skater Adelina could became.

Sorry for so many words and my poor English but i just feel too bad about what is happening to my favorite sport.

Anastasi14-

Your English is fine and your points are exceptional. Adelina got too much too soon. Still, she will be a heroine in her country and for what it's worth I wish her well. I'm just frustrated by the possibility that we are looking at a serious scandal. Not Adelina's fault, but if the sport does not clean itself up, many of us will tune out. A lot did back in 2002. More will soon follow.

 

[Olympia]

Anastasi14, thank you for your insights!

I agree that Adelina might stagnate after this relatively easy early win. I don't think the judges did her any favors by giving her such high marks, as if she were some sort of Nadia Comaneci of the ice. She has a lot of work ahead of her, but she is gold medalist. What a paradox.

One way I recovered from my distress about Michelle Kwan in Nagano was to realize, some years later, that she grew so much as a skater because she stayed in the game. Maybe she would have left and gone to college in 1998 if she had met her goal of winning. Instead, she won in a different way, by building an unparalleled career. I hope that Adelina is able to look coldly and objectively at her skating (and that her coach will also evaluate it carefully) and will figure out ways to grow and improve. I wish the same for Julia.

 

[anyanka]

Yeah...that was my point. I always liked Adelina a bit more among all the Russian girls, i believed that she has a potential to became, maybe a new Carolina Kostner. And now i have a bad feeling that we will never see it happening. And that is why i feel robbed too, as a fans of figure skating we're robbed of possibility to see how great Adelina can be after she grows up. Because judges already showed with their marks, that she is almost perfect and there is nothing she needs to work on. And from her interviews i don't have an impression that she understands that she still has a lot of work to be done.

She was great in Sochi, she had two impressive performances! As impressive as the skating of 17-year old girl can be. She just not mature enough to interprete the music and the character during the whole programme instead of showing happiness just after every successfull element. She deserved to be on that podium. Olympic Bronze could have been a huge success and she still would have had the goal to achieve, so the reason to impruve.

But for Russians it wasn't enough. And the worst thing is that they wasn't support just Adelina, those marks would have received any Russian girl, who skated almost clean. So, that was marks not personally for Adelina and her skating, that was marks for the flag.

I don't think that for Yuna this silver was a loss. No way. She already won everything and proved everything. She starts a new chapter of her life, she has a lot of plans and goals. No one will love her less just because she doesn't have two OGMs. She did so much for sport in her country! She is a great example of true champion for young people to follow. All of this is not measured by medals.

And for Karolina the bronze is not a loss. Past three years she has been on that stage of her career when it is no longer about medals and placement. It's something more. It's about real feminine figure skating, about joy that her skating gives to all the viewers. And this bronze worth more than a gold.

I'm so grateful for Yuna, Mao, Karolina for their contribution to the sport, for showing us how the ladies figure skating should be! I'm sure a lot of people will rewatch a lot of their programms many times!

And as for Adelina i don't feel so optimistic. Now the eyes of the whole world will watch her, just waiting for her mistakes. And with the tough competition in Russian team she can't afford to relax or miss the season. There are a lot of Russian wonder babies, who will be only 17-18 in 2018. With all those jumps, less quantity of injures and with hunger for medals. So Russia won't wait for Adelina, if she fails they will just pick another star. I afraid she won't want to go thru it one more time, especially when OGM is already around her neck. And that is why i'm so dissapointed that we possible will never know how a brilliant skater Adelina could became.

Sorry for so many words and my poor English but i just feel too bad about what is happening to my favorite sport.

These are great insights. Your English is excellent, far better than my Russian!

I do hope that Adelina continues to challenge herself and improve, the girl has a LOT of potential.

Also, I hope that you and your family in Ukraine are safe and sound at this difficult time.

Spasibo for your thoughts!

 

[Anastasi14]

Also, I hope that you and your family in Ukraine are safe and sound at this difficult time.
Spasibo for your thoughts!

Thank you very much!

 

[ahy]

ita with you that Adelina got too much too soon, now she is remembered as a shame of the sport (although she wasn't the one to give the marks - -)but not 2014 sochi gold medalist(at least in my point of view), i hope she found that she needs to improve in some areas. She needs a lot more to prove that she deserved that gold medal (but until now i still don't get why kim didn't get 1st and carolina didn't get 2nd other than because of home ice advantage @@, luckily that kim is such a classy person...) Now she thought that "oh, i beat kim and i want to win all the gold medals in the competitions I'm going to participate" i mean is she still living in the fantasy world - -, that's a bit cocky to me as well... She needs to work on her Lutz technique and please... height is not everything, you need the flow, artistry etc.
P.S. I think that if Julia and Adelina skated "clean", they would've gotten 1st and 2nd... Also, I'm so interested to see how they will be in worlds 2014 considering it is in Japan and after all those hypes, i really hope mao can have a skate of her life...

 

[MaiKatze]

I think Bronze would have been such an amazing success for Adelina. I agree with that, she could've been so proud of a bronze medal at the Olympics and look forward to the next competitions and even 2018 for another chance for gold. I also think she would've been happy with that, I don't think she expected the gold medal. A bronze medal is really great. Look at how Carolina, how happy she was. Even a week later it still feels unreal and unfair what happened at the Ladies event in Sochi.

 

[TryMeLater]

Honestly, I don't think Yuna was robbed.
I think she should have been 2nd.
Carolina was robbed of gold IMO.
Her's and Yuna's TES should be the same (given Carolina's 7 triples vs Yuna's 6), but Carolina PCS should be a point higher than Yuna's.
Adelina should have won the bronze.

Having said my opinion, I can see why Adelina was 1st-She skated a good program with lots of passion and emotion.
The margin of the win should have been a lot closer...

 

[Chamazing]

In a perfect world, the final result would have been:
1st-Yuna
2nd-Carolina
3rd-Adelina
4th-Mao

Adelina did belong on the podium based on her two strong skates. If she were the bronze medalist, no one (well, actually, only a tiny minority) would be complaining.

:no::no::no:


it Should be

Gold- Adelina
Silver- Julia
Bronze- no one is worthy for this medal

the rest keep on complaining..... Mr. P told me he will keep the medal which is for R only....

 

[rollerblade]

^ Plushenko for bronze, of course! Yes, in Ladies individual. How could you forget?

 

[Li'Kitsu]

Honestly, I don't think Yuna was robbed.
I think she should have been 2nd.
Carolina was robbed of gold IMO.
Her's and Yuna's TES should be the same (given Carolina's 7 triples vs Yuna's 6), but Carolina PCS should be a point higher than Yuna's.
Adelina should have won the bronze.

Having said my opinion, I can see why Adelina was 1st-She skated a good program with lots of passion and emotion.
The margin of the win should have been a lot closer...

Exactly what I think too. That's the main reason why I just can't get behind this huge outcry.

 

[figurejennah]

omg, the person recording this... lolololololol

Wow... Yuna waited pretty long on the ice before she had to go... Why did Ashley's score take so long to come out?
At least 2:20 minutes before they announced Ashley's score.

 

[capcomeback]

Honestly, I don't think Yuna was robbed.
I think she should have been 2nd.
Carolina was robbed of gold IMO.
Her's and Yuna's TES should be the same (given Carolina's 7 triples vs Yuna's 6), but Carolina PCS should be a point higher than Yuna's.
Adelina should have won the bronze.

Having said my opinion, I can see why Adelina was 1st-She skated a good program with lots of passion and emotion.
The margin of the win should have been a lot closer...

But the passion and emotion weren't directed at her program. There was little or no thought to her interpretation. Adelina skated "pissed off" because she was tired over being snubbed for Julia. She "broke character" to wave at the audience/judges too. I know people will say that I'm too critical, but at no moment was I blown away by what I was seeing from her. The beauty and majesty of skating sets it apart from other sports and that was not on display here. Her technical elements while at times impressive, were not perfect (and overscored in the case of three jumps). Some of her spins were interesting and unique, some of her positions were not that impressive (as Dick Button would say "second rate" Dick also described her as "not a complete skater"). Her choreography and interpretation were at best, mediocre and pedestrian (which sometimes happens with skaters her age), but she scored off the charts. When she outscored Kostner on PCS it was ridiculous. the fact that she almost beat Kim's 2010 Olympic record is an insult to that performance.

The sad thing is that in their need for a particular result, they took a talented, young skater and potentially ruined her development. What will happen when you starts to get lower marks on PCS? What will happen the next time she falls in competition? What will happen when tech panels start to make edge calls against her on her 3Lz again? People will start to even more question the marks she received in Sochi. That is what happens when you inflate the scores for someone. You put them on a path where the only way to go is down.

 

[TryMeLater]

But the passion and emotion weren't directed at her program. There was little or no thought to her interpretation. Adelina skated "pissed off" because she was tired over being snubbed for Julia. She "broke character" to wave at the audience/judges too. I know people will say that I'm too critical, but at no moment was I blown away by what I was seeing from her. The beauty and majesty of skating sets it apart from other sports and that was not on display here. Her technical elements while at times impressive, were not perfect (and overscored in the case of three jumps). Some of her spins were interesting and unique, some of her positions were not that impressive (as Dick Button would say "second rate" Dick also described her as "not a complete skater"). Her choreography and interpretation were at best, mediocre and pedestrian (which sometimes happens with skaters her age), but she scored off the charts. When she outscored Kostner on PCS it was ridiculous. the fact that she almost beat Kim's 2010 Olympic record is an insult to that performance.

The sad thing is that in their need for a particular result, they took a talented, young skater and potentially ruined her development. What will happen when you starts to get lower marks on PCS? What will happen the next time she falls in competition? What will happen when tech panels start to make edge calls against her on her 3Lz again? People will start to even more question the marks she received in Sochi. That is what happens when you inflate the scores for someone. You put them on a path where the only way to go is down.

I think that the passion and emotion were directed at the performance. I felt her emotion through my TV set.
I agree that receiving the same score as Yuna in 2010 is ridiculous, but so was Yuna's score in 2010.
Breaking character in order to wave to the audience is quite common by all skaters...
As for edge calls-I'm no tech specialist, so i'll leave that to them...
That's why I said I think she should have won the bronze...
I do see the argument for her wining gold...