I'd almost rather that Gracie go to someone other then Alex. She needs a great choreographer to work with also and Scott Brown won't cut it like when she was with Alex the first time. Say what you want about Frank but he did make huge improvements in her skating not counting the jumps. I'd love to see her with Rohene he thinks outside of the box and might finally get Gracie to open up and skate to what she really wants.
You don't have to be coached by Frank to have Lori as a choreographer (not that Lori's programs for Gracie were that good, JMO). And even the best programs in the world won't change anything for Gracie if she keeps on falling and doubling her jumps. I'd say, packaging is not her #1 problem right now.
Going to back to Alex seems like a logical choice for her now: he knows her, he is the one she learned her jumps from, and the next season is the Olympic season, while getting a new coach now would require some time for that new coach and Gracie to get used to each other. Also, I would love to see her beautiful big jumps back, because her jumps with Frank became significally lower and nothing special overall.
Some of my thoughts on ladies event:
Karen Chen is probably the best American lady right now. Still, her 3-3 would get called UR anywhere outside of the US (not that she is the only one, when I watched top 5 after the SP I haven't seen a single clean 3-3, yet the protocols tell different story) and I never liked her programs, I think she deserves better ones. And, of course, consistency is not her strong side.
Mariah Bell is a joy to watch, very charismatic and beautiful skater. However, her scores with such mistakes were too high, but it's Nationals. Consistency is a big question for her too, and it's quite risky for the US to have two inconsistent debutants in the team in terms of 3 spots next year, but not that there are much choice. Mirai is just as inconsistent, and Gracie was a disappointment all season.
Ashley is not my cup of tea at all.
I really liked Tessa Hong, great posture and musicality, and she is so young. But backloading the LP is a big mistake for her (and also her performance shows how hard it really is to do the jumps in the second half and why it's rewarded, even though I agree with those who prefer well-balanced programs).
Glad for Caroline Zhang, after so many ups and downs she still found the strenght to come back and even improve her skating
. Thank you!
Gracie will remain in the top 24 world standings, and so be guaranteed at least 1 GP next season according to ISU rules. So she still will have the door open to compete internationally and get her bye to nationals next year. This season has been a total disaster for her so far, so having that security makes it all the more a better time for her to sit out, reflect and regroup this spring & summer.
