2018-19 Japanese Ladies' figure skating

[largeman]

To be fair, Wakaba's Skyfall at Worlds was better than anything I saw pretty much ever, by anyone -- a true one in a million performance.

Yes, a stellar and emotional performance that is only second to another performance of her own - the perfect free skate at 2017 CoC

 

[theharleyquinn]

Makes me think that as no one medaled, and that Satoko and Kaori haven't been rock solid this season, maybe fed will start to look at other skaters too and give them some love (Mai).

To be fair, this was Kaori's first Worlds and to let her go would be a waste of the momentum she created this season building up her GOEs and PCS. People respond very positively to her skating. That said, I really hope the fed gives Mai more of a chance. I love Satoko but I think it's time to spread the wealth of assignments in GPs and 4CC/Worlds in other ways.

 

[Noxchild]

It is shocking to see where Satoko has suddenly landed in this new world. At the start, during Skate America and NHK I thought she was going to be a top three threat this season, but dang GPF just completely took the wind out of her sail in a way no other competitor got*... I feel bad, considering how hard she worked over the summer to get her URs in check. Knowing Satoko though, this will only inspire her to work harder, and I hope it pays off...

*just look at Alina and Evgenia's scores when they had bad vs good skates... where's Satton's mega-boost when she's clean? :dev2:

 

[yume]

The most surprising was to see her get these low PCS. I thought that her PCS would rise a bit. But she got scores under her SBs.

 

[hippomoomin]

At her GP events, especially the first one, her jumps did look much better than previous seasons. But by GPF, she reverted to her old small jumps. If she could keep her improved jumps through the seasons, jumps may give her higher score. And she was not clean in her LP, and her competitors are getting stronger, while she stays about the same. She has lost her #1 Japanese lady boost for sure. But if you just compare her LP with Evgenia's with a similar style of music, Satoko's interpretation, composition and performance were all better, but she received much lower score in all three categories.

It is shocking to see where Satoko has suddenly landed in this new world. At the start, during Skate America and NHK I thought she was going to be a top three threat this season, but dang GPF just completely took the wind out of her sail in a way no other competitor got*... I feel bad, considering how hard she worked over the summer to get her URs in check. Knowing Satoko though, this will only inspire her to work harder, and I hope it pays off...

*just look at Alina and Evgenia's scores when they had bad vs good skates... where's Satton's mega-boost when she's clean? :dev2:

 

[Casual]

JSF should mostly take master classes of politicking. Because what happened to their skaters in Japan wouldn't have happened to skaters of the 3 other big feds at home.

Sadly true. The fault did not lie with Japanese ladies, but with as usual corrupt judging.

Removing Japanese judges, while replacing Russian judges with pro-Russian Eastern European bloc, severely undercut any chances Japanese ladies had.

Remember what Dick Button wrote about the olden times rivalries? It was not enough to be better; one had to be leaps and bounds better, while skating to perfection, in order to have a chance of winning over "Eastern-bloc (SU)" countries.

 

[GoodMorningGrapeseed]

Sadly true. The fault did not lie with Japanese ladies, but with as usual corrupt judging.

Removing Japanese judges, while replacing Russian judges with pro-Russian Eastern European bloc, severely undercut any chances Japanese ladies had.

Remember what Dick Button wrote about the olden times rivalries? It was not enough to be better; one had to be leaps and bounds better, while skating to perfection, in order to have a chance of winning over "Eastern-bloc (SU)" countries.

They already are. But it’s still not enough.

 

[Joekaz]

Is it just me or did the ISU wait until the last 6.0 skater(Kostner) was gone to abandon the thought that PCS has anything to do with artistry or gracefulness? Satoko was 3 points behind Kaori and almost a point behind Rika in PCS. Totally ridiculous! This year it's just reaffirming the tech scores. Not good for skating. It's not just what the skates are doing, but what the skater looks like while their doing it that makes a good skater. That's the whole reason for having 2 separate scores. To balance technical and artistic proficiency. Its totally out of whack now.

 

[lzxnl]

Is it just me or did the ISU wait until the last 6.0 skater(Kostner) was gone to abandon the thought that PCS has anything to do with artistry or gracefulness? Satoko was 3 points behind Kaori and almost a point behind Rika in PCS. Totally ridiculous! This year it's just reaffirming the tech scores. Not good for skating. It's not just what the skates are doing, but what the skater looks like while their doing it that makes a good skater. That's the whole reason for having 2 separate scores. To balance technical and artistic proficiency. Its totally out of whack now.

Rika had the highest FS TES of the night. Her PCS was robbed. PCS isn't for reaffirming tech scores. It's for reaffirming judges' scores. Evgenia does not beat Rika technically or artistically. Tursynbaeva has a case for beating Rika technically for landing a 4S, but not artistically. PCS this season has been in shambles. Even for the men.

 

[yume]

To be fair, this was Kaori's first Worlds and to let her go would be a waste of the momentum she created this season building up her GOEs and PCS. People respond very positively to her skating. That said, I really hope the fed gives Mai more of a chance. I love Satoko but I think it's time to spread the wealth of assignments in GPs and 4CC/Worlds in other ways.

Well, imo Kaori is the n.1 Japanese lady in judges and fed's eyes, giving how her PCS SB jumped by 5 points in FS (with a mistake) while Rika and Satoko got PCS under their SB for the same quality of skate with what they got their SBs. Judges like her skating (or simply she skated in more favorable circumstances, i don't know). So i don't think that fed will drop her.
Satoko maybe won't get favoured as much as before but other girls will have to give their best consistently to boot her out of that nats podium. Because after so many years of pushing i don't think fed will just stop like that.

 

[Joekaz]

Rika had the highest FS TES of the night. Her PCS was robbed. PCS isn't for reaffirming tech scores. It's for reaffirming judges' scores. Evgenia does not beat Rika technically or artistically. Tursynbaeva has a case for beating Rika technically for landing a 4S, but not artistically. PCS this season has been in shambles. Even for the men.

That's my point. If PCS reaffirms the score the judges already gave, what's the point of having it? Just go with one score then. The reason there was always 2 scores in skating was because they were judging different aspects of the skating. Are you saying Rika is artistically better and more graceful than Satoko? How many times did Kostner fall doing weak tech content programs in the past, yet still got huge PCS? Should Lil Bet suddenly get PCS close to Satoko cause she hits a quad? All of judging is a shambles, just like always. The problem is that when they got caught cheating instead of changing the crooked people, they changed the scoring system. Now it's just as easy to cheat as in the 6.0 system, but you can hide it better. And that goes for the TES score as well as PCS. The criteria for the technical score is just as subjective as PCS is. And +5-5 gave the judges even more power. Not to mention that when fans of a sport talk openly about level of federation support affecting the scoring, yet just accept that as normal, is it even a sport then?

 

[sk8ath]

Well, imo Kaori is the n.1 Japanese lady in judges and fed's eyes, giving how her PCS SB jumped by 5 points in FS (with a mistake) while Rika and Satoko got PCS under their SB for the same quality of skate with what they got their SBs. Judges like her skating (or simply she skated in more favorable circumstances, i don't know). So i don't think that fed will drop her.
Satoko maybe won't get favoured as much as before but other girls will have to give their best consistently to boot her out of that nats podium. Because after so many years of pushing i don't think fed will just stop like that.

I think Kaori's FS PCS will stay at around 70s next season, if her performance is already strong from the beginning.
Her programs are not graceful but her personality shines in both programs.
(IMO Coach Nakano has a better understanding of the taste of judges than Coach Hamada)

That's my point. If PCS reaffirms the score the judges already gave, what's the point of having it? Just go with one score then. The reason there was always 2 scores in skating was because they were judging different aspects of the skating. Are you saying Rika is artistically better and more graceful than Satoko? How many times did Kostner fall doing weak tech content programs in the past, yet still got huge PCS? Should Lil Bet suddenly get PCS close to Satoko cause she hits a quad? All of judging is a shambles, just like always. The problem is that when they got caught cheating instead of changing the crooked people, they changed the scoring system. Now it's just as easy to cheat as in the 6.0 system, but you can hide it better. And that goes for the TES score as well as PCS. The criteria for the technical score is just as subjective as PCS is. And +5-5 gave the judges even more power. Not to mention that when fans of a sport talk openly about level of federation support affecting the scoring, yet just accept that as normal, is it even a sport then?

You should know this sport is so corrupted because you can see what the judges are doing.

 

[Casual]

They already are. But it’s still not enough.

True. The judging was shamelessly corrupt during this World Championship.

I'm waiting for the fans to wake up - wouldn't it be nice if one day the audience stood up, turned away and showed their backs to judges, to protest the blatant overscoring of mediocre skaters, while unfairly holding down much better ones?

 

[Casual]

That's my point. If PCS reaffirms the score the judges already gave, what's the point of having it? Just go with one score then. The reason there was always 2 scores in skating was because they were judging different aspects of the skating. Are you saying Rika is artistically better and more graceful than Satoko? How many times did Kostner fall doing weak tech content programs in the past, yet still got huge PCS? Should Lil Bet suddenly get PCS close to Satoko cause she hits a quad? All of judging is a shambles, just like always. The problem is that when they got caught cheating instead of changing the crooked people, they changed the scoring system. Now it's just as easy to cheat as in the 6.0 system, but you can hide it better. And that goes for the TES score as well as PCS. The criteria for the technical score is just as subjective as PCS is. And +5-5 gave the judges even more power. Not to mention that when fans of a sport talk openly about level of federation support affecting the scoring, yet just accept that as normal, is it even a sport then?

That's the main problem. People just accept corruption as normal.

There're no bounds to human shamelessness and greed. Corruption grows like cancer. That's why the only time people in power are stopped from behaving too atrociously is when they are afraid of public reaction.

If the audience, the commentators, the coaches and athletes all accept things as normal and play along - why would corruption ever go away?

 

[yume]

I'm waiting for the fans to wake up - wouldn't it be nice if one day the audience stood up, turned away and showed their backs to judges, to protest the blatant overscoring of mediocre skaters, while unfairly holding down much better ones?

My dream.

 

[jenaj]

Rika had the highest FS TES of the night. Her PCS was robbed. PCS isn't for reaffirming tech scores. It's for reaffirming judges' scores. Evgenia does not beat Rika technically or artistically. Tursynbaeva has a case for beating Rika technically for landing a 4S, but not artistically. PCS this season has been in shambles. Even for the men.

Agree. Scored correctly, Rika would have been on the podium. Her PCS was woefully underscored. She hit every musical accent and had the best long program of the season. Yet she got 70 (in the 8s) to Evgenia’s 72. At a minimum, Rika should have had the same PCS as Med, putting her on the podium. And don’t get me started on Lilbet.

 

[hippomoomin]

Hope when we talks about "corruption", define what it is since there is no evidence of any judges taking a bribery. If you mean judges are biased, they probably are. Every judge has his/her favorite skaters, but it does not mean corruption. When Kostner received sky high pcs with three triples and little transition, did she or the Italian fed have any shady influence on the judges? I do agree that there should not be a +5 to -5 for GOE, unless judges can give an itemized list what they are for. Same for spins. ISU should also publish examples on its website of different jumps with various GEOs so that judges can follow.

 

[Interspectator]

https://twitter.com/sponichisports/status/1110030227931959297
WTT team members will be Rika Kihira and Kaori Sakamoto.

 

[Edwin]

It is still very early, but how is the more serious and informed Japanese sports press and resident figure skating experts reacting to the outcome of the ladies single figure skating competition?

Anybody able to summarise the press' reports on the women's single?

Do they blame the skaters or their trainers?

Do they blame the judging?

Are they objective and self reflecting?

 

[surimi]

True. The judging was shamelessly corrupt during this World Championship.

I'm waiting for the fans to wake up - wouldn't it be nice if one day the audience stood up, turned away and showed their backs to judges, to protest the blatant overscoring of mediocre skaters, while unfairly holding down much better ones?

But how do you do that without showing disrespect to the skater who's currently sitting in the KnC as the scores come up? Unless you mean some sort of silent protest when the judges are introduced...