There's not really a comparison between Evgenia and Polina Edmunds - Evgenia knows that if she doesn't perform well there are about a dozen skaters to take her place and the Russian ladies have really been a once you are out, you are out situation - Edmunds, not so much.
2017-18 State of U.S. Ladies Skating
- Thread starter R.D.
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There's not really a comparison between Evgenia and Polina Edmunds - Evgenia knows that if she doesn't perform well there are about a dozen skaters to take her place and the Russian ladies have really been a once you are out, you are out situation - Edmunds, not so much.
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2014
She does!!!
What a lovely video!
Like you said, very beautifully shot and Mirai is absolutely going to break my heart this season because I do really want her to win especially after that video. (The music in the background's a bit weird though.)
How many loops are alowed in a routine?
While I would like Mirai and Bradie to be on the team there are no guarantees. Ashley too. But practice ice isn't competition. Polina Edmunds was never my favorite skater but she always had nerves of steel, and what happens in practice isn't competition. Polina may surprise, this year or next Olympic cycle. I wouldn't rule out any skater from practice sessions or national ice nerves. Competition is what they are judged on. I hope USFS sends top 3 to Olympics as body of work is lacking this season.
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- Jul 31, 2014
two as long as one is done in combination. yes it can be in combination with itself.
I don't think you make those kind of artistic improvements and regain the amount of technical skills that Polina has this season without being motivated. That said, I suspect that she's enough of a realist to know that she's not in serious medal contention this Nationals. She said something in an interview some time ago that returning to form was taking longer than she thought it would. It may be that her focus this Nationals is giving a good performance in her home town, not pushing the envelope for maximum points.
I don't think college is the issue. I'm a local and around here the high schools are *competitive*--the students here find college easier than high school. Being a communications major at Santa Clara is respectable, but it's not like being a physics major at CalTech. Polina did multiple competitions this season and improved between each of them. It's not a situation where she's stagnating--but one where she's not improving quickly enough to vie for a top spot. I don't think anyone would think of it if she hadn't been on the team last time and if it weren't an Olympic year.
And do what? she was off ice for a good 18 months! We're not talking about Kwan that never had that long of an injury. It's really sad that it happened, specially after that incredible SP in 2016 nats, so it was perfect timing to get on a good deal of college dealt with.
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- Jul 9, 2014
I have to disagree....Life is very long and the time for being a competitive athlete is very short. As my ballet teacher said to me.. "You need to strike while the iron is hot." If it were me, I would have put college after her career as a competitive skate was over. Look at Max Arron, he just received his degree and he didn't have to take a season off to do it.
I've heard that athletes who take time out for injury usually need about the same amount of time to get back to their previous form. So with Polina out for well over a year I would wait until next season to make a more definitive assessment of her progress.
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- Apr 2, 2009
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- Mar 23, 2014
I hope you're right and I'm wrong, sincerely.
The only thing I want to add is that LIVING at college, which Polina seems to be doing, is a major, major lifestyle change, and regardless of your academic workload, can result in way less time and energy to devote to off-campus activities. Plus, it's my understanding that Polina was/is involved in a sorority? Which is a big time investment.
It's great that she's having the "normal" college experience and seems to be enjoying it.
I also totally apologize for saying she should get motivated or retire. I'm just bummed she's not competitive this year - I shouldn't have said it. Obviously there are dozens of skaters who are great enough to compete at nationals or even at senior Bs or the Grand Prix even though it is not necessarily their full time job (as it obviously is for world/Olympic medal contenders). And maybe she is 100% motivated and will make it to Worlds next year after she's had more time to recover from her bone bruise. I hope so.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2014
I've been the only member of the "Starr Andrews is overrated" club, but this practice is very nice. She looks much more polished than she did on the JGP and has better posture, and her jumps look bigger. My only concern for the future is her skating skills. Her edges seem very shallow.
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- Mar 3, 2007
She does look good. I have to say though, if you are going to pick a song like One Moment In Time, why not use the Whitney version?
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- Aug 29, 2016
She’s singing the cover herself! At her earlier competitions it was the Whitney version but then she recorded this version herself. She’s a talented singer, isn’t she?
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- Aug 12, 2014
I certainly agree with you there. What puzzles me is how many people seem to think Ashley doesn't feel the same way. Every time she speaks, she's talking about what she's doing, and has to do, in order to skate well. She's not acting entitled, IMO. In fact, I think it would be quite hard on Ashley, if she didn't prove to herself that she earned a (theoretical at this point) place on the Olympic team.
As for the Brennan article, when I read it I understood the point she was making, pretty much the way you're saying you understood it, except I'm not sure she's "making a case." And when I read the sentence that you bolded, but in the context of the article:
the one who almost certainly will be sent to Pyeongchang, barring a complete collapse, will be Wagner
I get a totally different impression from the sentence "Ashley Wagner has already proven she belongs on team." That to me is a sentence meant to inflame and cast doubt. In complete contrast to Christine Brennan's words. So I object to the *!@#$%! person who used that as a teaser for the online article, and I'll admit I thought it created the wrong impression when that was all you wrote in your first post mentioning it. I do realize that you minimize your words and expect people to follow the link and read the article. I just get very frustrated with the conversations about Ashley on this forum. One thing I know is that the consensus around here about her isn't typical among most US fans ... she is beloved by audiences, because she GIVES them something other than an opportunity to inspect rotations. Someone posted on another thread today that Ashley is very popular in FS fan circles outside the US. So I have to console myself with those facts, the first of which was re-confirmed for me when I attended Skate America.
Go Ashley!
Wishing all the competitors SP skates that make them feel happy tomorrow, and confident going forward into the free skates!Yeah, it's frustrating, given that Polina really seemed on an upward trend before her injury--she was damned close to nabbing that National win from Gracie and she could have had a hell of a skate at Worlds that year.
It's never been clear to me whether the whole sorority/college thing was a distraction for Polina or something to do because she couldn't skate for more than a year. Given that she was injured, going to college last year made sense. It's also possible that having a non-skating life grounds her--maybe, say, if Karen Chen had a nonskating life, she might not have overthought her programs so much and just stuck to one until she skated it well. Who knows? That said, I'm not sure Polina should have taken a full course load while working on a comeback this Fall. But, then, maybe the slow improvement has more to do with physical issues--both the foot and the growth spurt doing a number on her technique. I mean, did anyone expect her to add another inch in her late teens?
Polina's an unusual skater--tall girls are pretty much discouraged from skating--I'm amazed she can do any sort of triple, frankly. I'm kind of hoping she follows the Carolina Kostner route and continues to explore what she can do with those long lines of hers. Makes her interesting, but also a little hard to predict what she will and won't be able to do.
She is only 19, after all--a few months younger than Bradie Tennell. Hope she stays around for the next quad and has a hell of a skate this nationals.
I skated competitively until my mid-teens and then stopped precisely for this reason. I'd always been tall but prior to puberty I was in the mid 5'5 range, okay for a skater but still one of the tallest at my rink. Then I started growing very quickly and today I'm 5'10.
I still remember, they had to bring in an outside coach for my dance levels because no one else was even the same height as me, never mind taller (at the time I was probably 5'7) so I'm not surprised she's been struggling with the extra height+injury.
I hope she does manage at least some kind of comeback from her injury so that she can retire on a high-note and follow her undergraduate degree full-time if that's what she wants to do.
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- Apr 2, 2009
Thank you!
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