2018-19 Junior Grand Prix Ladies Free Skate

[Ichatdelune]

This is how I see it. Last Yelim, never even made it to the podium. This year she’s coming into December with 2 JGP silvers and a CS bronze. The First Lady to make to the JGPF since Yuna. I imagine all this sorta got into her head. But I am a firm believer that failures make us bring out of best successes in the long run. I’m a few weeks she’ll be in Korea competing as a senior for a spot at 4CC. She’ll remember this competition and it will make her more focused and determined. It will make her even more determined at nationals, 4CC and junior worlds. This is just a minor setback in a really long journey of hers.

Look at Stephan. He bombed terribly at JGP Richmond and that almost cost him a chance at the JGPF. But that made him more focused and determined. This time he didn’t cave under the pressure. He didn’t let a fall derail him. That’s why he’s the Junior Grand Prix Final Champion this year. Have faith and watch her rise from this.

Of course I'm very much proud of Yelim on just being here and not crumbling under the pressure of it all, and I know she'll grow even stronger (and yes, there's so many competitions to come where she can -and will- shine). I think I'm more upset on her not being happy with both of her skates, that look of resigned disappointment repressed under a calm smile, that's just... See, I have this thing, it just pulls at my heartstrings when young skaters try to stay calm and be mature, I love that they are mentally strong enough to pull that off (I'm older - although not that much - than them and I'm failing miserably on that), but... Like, Yelim's 15, nobody would fault her if she broke out in tears, but she doesn't and even tries to smile. That's just... I don't know, I think I have an older sister complex of some sorts.

 

[Metis]

Seems like Trusova essentially defeated herself, right? Literally any clean triple instead of a +REP on the second 4Lz and she would have won. But her gutsiness in always pushing the envelope is what I admire most about her. Glad that she and Shcherbakova went for it.

In the real world — yes. In a world of correct judging — her spins would have received little to negative GOE for the severe lack of speed, and her PCS would be further behind Kostornaia. I love Trusova’s SP and she’s doing the best she can with the FS, but the minimalist choreography, while a welcome break, isn’t expressing anything either, and aside from the opening moment of fierceness in front of the judges, there really isn’t much going on. No story or emotional response. She’s a great performer — I actually think she’s a bit underrated there — but her skating skills are a solid point to a point and a half behind Kostornaia, especially today, as she seemed slower and less crisp than usual.

 

[Danny T]

TBH I was shook when Trusova's score came up. Looking at her TES and the quite generous GOE she got on the spins especially, plus considering her PCS so far, I was basically resigned to having Alena in second. But whooo, I'm glad to be proven very, very wrong

 

[BillNeal]

Judges are saying that Trusova should start working on her other aspects of skating, instead of putting so much focus on those quads. Daniil's choreography has been lacklustre but Kostornaia makes it work with her relatively superior artistry, skating skills, and flow. Nice extensions on landings is still appreciated to this day and glad to see Alena displays those instead of just getting as many rotations in as possible.

 

[Mawwerg]

I am quite disappointed by the results of the event. For me it clearly shows the unfairness of current system. A skater with such technical advantage over the competitor with three unique and landed elements of higher and significally higher difficulty should never lost a competition. I believe it's an absolute disrespect.

At least happy Alena is able to save my mood.

Poor Anastasia that mistakes in short program costs a lot.

Yelim seems has lost herself in this tough field.

 

[Ichatdelune]

Yelim was wonderful, too, though. I didn‘t see the fall because my laptop decided to randomly shut down so it was basically perfect from my eyes. And she landed herself in the GPF, that‘s a great achievement already, considering the depth in juniors. She is a lovely skater and shouldn‘t be overlooked among the Russian crowd of juniors. She will grow.

Alena the angel (love the name btw) has such a cute voice. And I love how she‘s making an effort to talk in English. Basically I love everything about her.

Sasha wasn‘t at her best today but still kudos to her being so gutsy. Sometimes it pays off (most of the time, actually), sometimes it doesn‘t.

Anna... I‘m so happy for little Alena to make the podium but I‘m also sad for her finishing in fifth... She is such a wonderful girl and this is not the end of the world. It‘s heartbreaking given her potential but she will learn from this and come back stronger. She has all the qualities, just needs to be a bit more consistent.

Then let's say Yelim was perfect I'm so proud of her by just being here and not getting the pressure get to her 100%, I know she'll become even stronger from now on (wonder whether she'll stay in juniors for another season, since she did US Classic as a senior I though she would move up).

Since both Alyona's have a K surname I need a distinguisher, and she is an angel on ice :luv17: I did want her to win gold (although I wasn't expecting Sasha not to) and her smile was so nice to see. And Sasha will probably use this as another reason to get those quads even more stabilized, Tiny Boss is not Tiny Boss for a reason. Wish them both the best, I love them both (albeit in different ways, I love Alyona the Angel for her angelic elegance, and Sasha for her firey energy and grit).

 

[Fluture]

I am quite disappointed by the results of the event. For me it clearly shows the unfairness of current system. A skater with such technical advantage over the competitor with three unique and landed elements of higher and significally higher difficulty should never lost a competition. I believe it's an absolute disrespect.

At least happy Alena is able to save my mood.

Poor Anastasia that mistakes in short program costs a lot.

Yelim seems has lost herself in this tough field.

Had Sasha pulled off those quads, she would have won and very much deservedly so. But today she wasn‘t at her best, she struggled on all three quads and her other elements didn‘t look as crisp either. Sasha normally has that fire to her and interprets the heck out of a program, even if that kind of interpretation isn‘t always to my taste, I have to give her credit for that. But today, she didn‘t, she looked a bit tense.

She is very brave and gutsy to try those difficult elements and normally it pays off for her. Today it didn‘t and the skater who had two clean and technically basically perfect programs won. I don‘t see any shame in that. And I think Sasha will use this to push herself even further and work even harder. She will grow from it and it will make her more determined.

Personally, I‘m very glad that quality got rewarded today. As cute as a person and strong as a competitor Sasha is, Alena just was stronger today. Granted, I thought until the last second Sasha had this in the bag.

Edit: Or did you talk about Anna here? I‘m sorry, it‘s so late, I might have understood you wrongly. Sorry, lack of sleep.

Then let's say Yelim was perfect I'm so proud of her by just being here and not getting the pressure get to her 100%, I know she'll become even stronger from now on (wonder whether she'll stay in juniors for another season, since she did US Classic as a senior I though she would move up).

Since both Alyona's have a K surname I need a distinguisher, and she is an angel on ice :luv17: I did want her to win gold (although I wasn't expecting Sasha not to) and her smile was so nice to see. And Sasha will probably use this as another reason to get those quads even more stabilized, Tiny Boss is not Tiny Boss for a reason. Wish them both the best, I love them both (albeit in different ways, I love Alyona the Angel for her angelic elegance, and Sasha for her firey energy and grit).

Who else is there in seniors for Korea? Lovely Eunsoo, I know her. Dabin Choi was at the Olympics but I haven‘t seen her this season. In juniors there are Young You, Yelim and Haein but only two spots to worlds. Does Korea have two spots for senior worlds this year? If so, it would be better for Yelim to go there. I didn‘t know she was old enough to be in seniors, though. I thought she was like Alena (the angel) who just missed senior eligibility by a few months.

Tiny Boss will work even harder now, that‘s for sure. I can‘t imagine how determined this will make her to win next time out. She is Tiny Boss for a reason and she‘ll show it next time. I‘m very happy with the podium, the first two spots are like I had secretly dreamed them to be. Also really great to see little Alena sneaking on the podium. My Linz-girls (clarification: I saw them live at JGP Austria and got their autographs and yes, I’m proud of that. ) really brought it at this competition. :luv17:

 

[Ichatdelune]

Who else is there in seniors for Korea? Lovely Eunsoo, I know her. Dabin Choi was at the Olympics but I haven‘t seen her this season. In juniors there are Young You, Yelim and Haein but only two spots to worlds. Does Korea have two spots for senior worlds this year? If so, it would be better for Yelim to go there. I didn‘t know she was old enough to be in seniors, though. I thought she was like Alena (the angel) who just missed senior eligibility by a few months.

Tiny Boss will work even harder now, that‘s for sure. I can‘t imagine how determined this will make her to win next time out. She is Tiny Boss for a reason and she‘ll show it next time. I‘m very happy with the podium, the first two spots are like I had secretly dreamed them to be. Also really great to see little Alena sneaking on the podium. My Linz-girls (clarification: I saw them live at JGP Austria and got their autographs and yes, I’m proud of that. ) really brought it at this competition. :luv17:

Only one spot for senior worlds, assuming that Yelim doesn't go for it (I think she's going to go to JW, she's guaranteed a spot) it's going to be a battle between Dabin and (darling squirtle) Eunsoo, but Dabin has had boot problems for half of this season (that's why she withdrew from her GPs and a Challenger) so I think Eunsoo has the upper hand. And Yelim is actually a month older than Eunsoo, she just decided to stay in juniors this season.

I am also very happy with the gold and silver placements, and with Sasha even more determined than ever it's going to rain blood at RusNats. If Alyona (the Angel) gets her 3A what a competition it would be :luv17:

 

[Metis]

Who else is there in seniors for Korea? Lovely Eunsoo, I know her. Dabin Choi was at the Olympics but I haven‘t seen her this season. In juniors there are Young You, Yelim and Haein but only two spots to worlds. Does Korea have two spots for senior worlds this year? If so, it would be better for Yelim to go there. I didn‘t know she was old enough to be in seniors, though. I thought she was like Alena (the angel) who just missed senior eligibility by a few months.

I thought Dabin was at a GP event but had to withdraw after the short due to boot problems.

 

[freeman21]

Is there any victory ceremony stream?
edit: it's live now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxXAr9skDBo

 

[lichi]

The flower crowns are gorgeous :luv17:

 

[Fruitpie]

Sorry to say this, but Kostornaya is the winner of that Grand Prix Final for me, from all ages and even disciplines. She's an angel from another planet.
But all girls are very talanted and great skaters. Future of ladies figure skating seems bright.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Sorry to say this, but Kostornaya is the winner of that Grand Prix Final for me, from all ages and even disciplines. She's an angel from another planet.
But all girla sre very talanted and great skaters. Future of ladies figure skating seems bright.

Alena deserves this moment! She’s fought very hard for it and did everything in her power to make it happen. She reminds me of Satoko with excellent jumps. That’s a downright scary thing to imagine!

 

[cathlen]

Kostornaia was amazing! Sasha Trusova would've won if she didn't went for that second 4Lz. A fall + clear UR left almost zero points for that element. The quad toe was great though! I think she should try doing 4T-3T instead of 4Lz-3T. And I'm so happy judges finally recognize Alena superb skills in PCS! She's really on the senior lady level right now So happy for her succes! :hap57:

 

[TechPanel]

I know that may have differing opinions and that it's still a sport and the technical is important and blah blah blah, but I did not enjoy watching the quad splatfest by Trusova and Scherbakova AT ALL. It completely ruins the whole flow and just looks terrible. I was glad to see the judges finally take off some PCS, perhaps sending a message that splatting on a quad isn't what skating is supposed to be. If you can't do the element consistently in competition, don't do it in competition.

Also, look at how hard those falls were. They must fall like that in practice too. I will be shocked to see either of them still around by Beijing at this point. They're going to break their necks, or backs, or get concussions too severe to keep skating. That was the worst part of watching--I was unsure if they could even get back up from those falls and just wondering when they would be paralyzed.

It's nice to see skating moving forward, and it's cool when one of them actually lands a quad, but the splatting has to stop. Clearly, neither is ready to do a quad lutz in competition, maybe at all. (I know they've both landed before, but if they can't consistently do it without looking like they will never walk again, they can't do it). I was not impressed; I was concerned. Skating may seem like everything right now, but they will be lucky if they can walk by the time they are twenty. It makes me very sad. These ladies could do so well without throwing absurd tricks that they clearly cannot do. Does anyone care about safety in figure skating?

 

[BillNeal]

^ I kind of agree with you. I was watching Kostornaia's and Trusova's FS. I was able to watch Kostonaia's performance all the way through. For Trusova's performance, I had to stop the video on first watch, shortly after her horrifying fall on her side. Truly appalled at why the coaching team is letting these young ladies perform quad lutzes when they can't even perform a textbook triple lutz. I'm also quite worried about the toll some of these young ladies put on their bodies, especially with those high number of quads they practice behind closed doors.

 

[elektra blue]

Yelim KIM: she may be last, but to me she won the gold as best dressed

Alena KOSTORNAIA: congratulations to her for having succeeded in the impossible task of beating trusova but I believe this just proves what we are already seeing in men, a quadless clean performance is worth more than a messy one with quads

Alexandra TRUSOVA: she is one of a kind, no doubt, and fearless, she would be so even without the quad rush

 

[Spirals for Miles]

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that Yelim gets to skate in the gala, but how come she was invited when she placed last? Wouldn't it make more sense to invite Sasha or Alena Kanysheva, since they medaled?

 

[zounger]

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that Yelim gets to skate in the gala, but how come she was invited when she placed last? Wouldn't it make more sense to invite Sasha or Alena Kanysheva, since they medaled?

I guess for diversity in countries that represented in the gala for the ladies. The only non-Russian/Japanese female skater was Yelim. So they went with her. I found it reasonable and well called.

 

[Fluture]

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that Yelim gets to skate in the gala, but how come she was invited when she placed last? Wouldn't it make more sense to invite Sasha or Alena Kanysheva, since they medaled?

They didn‘t invite Sasha??? I mean, yes, Alena beat her here and rightfully so, but she‘s still the quad star of the juniors... I wanted to see Alena‘s exhibition as well. They are medalists after all, they deserve to be in the gala.

I‘m happy that Yelim gets to skate, I like her and look forward to it. I also understand the point about diversity in represented countries. But still, it feels a bit strange to have last place skate but not silver or bronze medalists.