2018-19 U.S. Ladies' figure skating

[princessalica]

I agree that I think Gracie will be there. She's planning on aiming for Beijing, and if she WDs from CoR, that makes it way harder for her to get a GP event in the future.

Even if Gracie isn't back to her best form yet, she seems mentally prepared to make mistakes and cope with that - it's part of the journey.

Karen I am less sure about, since she's dealing with coming back from injury.

I’d be shocked if Gracie withdraws. I think she’s putting everything into this comeback and knows she might not get back to 2016 form, but she’s going to do this in her terms.

I don’t know about Karen, but why assume they’re out? Give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

[bennorii]

The following ladies have been assigned to Golden Bear in Zagreb (October 23-28):

Adv. novice
Alena Budko (I4 @ 2018 Nats & Silver at Novice Challenge Skate)
Kate Wang (Gold at Novice Challenge Skate)

Junior
Emilia Murdock (Bronze at Junior Challenge Skate)

 

[concorde]

The following ladies have been assigned to Golden Bear in Zagreb (October 23-28):

Adv. novice
Alena Budko (I4 @ 2018 Nats & Silver at Novice Challenge Skate)
Kate Wang (Gold at Novice Challenge Skate)

Junior
Emilia Murdock (Bronze at Junior Challenge Skate)

Those are really good choices for the Advanced Novices.

I have not followed Emilia this year so I have no opinion there.

 

[MarinHondas]

The following ladies have been assigned to Golden Bear in Zagreb (October 23-28):

Adv. novice
Alena Budko (I4 @ 2018 Nats & Silver at Novice Challenge Skate)
Kate Wang (Gold at Novice Challenge Skate)

Junior
Emilia Murdock (Bronze at Junior Challenge Skate)

Great! Do you think there will be a stream or videos?

 

[lavenderblossom]

are there any videos of Mariah and Bradie from this last weekend? Can't seem to find any...

Bradie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN4CnrcB5A0
Mariah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9kLdneKmYk

 

[Bluediamonds09]

Bradie can feel good that she’ll probably receive around 67+ in pcs this season. That’s not bad at all. If she slays her tech content, that’s a 200+ score, probably. I’m rooting for her.
And LOVE the new dress!

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Bradie can feel good that she’ll probably receive around 67+ in pcs this season. That’s not bad at all. If she slays her tech content, that’s a 200+ score, probably. I’m rooting for her.
And LOVE the new dress!

Bradie's PCS ceiling is probably higher, assuming she skaters well in her GP events. She's the top American and her programs are a lot more interesting than last season's. I would expect her to earn in the low 70's if she's perfect, especially at Skate America.

 

[Bluediamonds09]

Bradie's PCS ceiling is probably higher, assuming she skaters well in her GP events. She's the top American and her programs are a lot more interesting than last season's. I would expect her to earn in the low 70's if she's perfect, especially at Skate America.

True.....I’m considering that 1)all the scores at JO were a bit inflated 2) she got 67+ even with mistakes, so when she’s clean the score will be higher. 3) at Skate America she’ll definitely receive a boost in pcs.

I’m wondering if USFSA told her to get rid of the old dress and the bejeweled headband.

 

[Seren]

The following ladies have been assigned to Golden Bear in Zagreb (October 23-28):

Adv. novice
Alena Budko (I4 @ 2018 Nats & Silver at Novice Challenge Skate)
Kate Wang (Gold at Novice Challenge Skate)

Junior
Emilia Murdock (Bronze at Junior Challenge Skate)

Great! I Just watched Alena compete at Regionals. She is pretty amazing.

 

[SimplyAFan]

The following ladies have been assigned to Golden Bear in Zagreb (October 23-28):

Adv. novice
Alena Budko (I4 @ 2018 Nats & Silver at Novice Challenge Skate)
Kate Wang (Gold at Novice Challenge Skate)

Junior
Emilia Murdock (Bronze at Junior Challenge Skate)

I’m happy these ladies are getting a chance to compete internationally. I believe Emilia is a new junior so this is already one international before she would compete at a JGP next year. I hope USFSA also sends young skaters like this to spring comps as well.

 

[MarinHondas]

Bradie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN4CnrcB5A0
Mariah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9kLdneKmYk

Bradie’s underrotations seemed more apparent to me here than at ACI even. Without the UR’s, it would have been a pretty nice skate but it’s hard to ignore those. Hope she cleans up her jumps. It’s a difficult habit to fix. Anyways LOVE the improved dress and hair! Also AMAZING spins per usual!!

 

[DanseMacabre]

Bradie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN4CnrcB5A0
Mariah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9kLdneKmYk

I love the changes to Bradie's dress and styling. And Mariah had a bad skate but at least she was serving up LOOKS. Despite the mistakes, I liked her speed and attack on the ice. Here's hoping they both have a great season after getting the jitters out now.

 

[Sai Bon]

Bradie’s underrotations seemed more apparent to me here than at ACI even. Without the UR’s, it would have been a pretty nice skate but it’s hard to ignore those. Hope she cleans up her jumps. It’s a difficult habit to fix. Anyways LOVE the improved dress and hair! Also AMAZING spins per usual!!

What happened with Bradie? I don't recall her having underrotation problems before - is it because she's doing different jumps?

 

[andromache]

What happened with Bradie? I don't recall her having underrotation problems before - is it because she's doing different jumps?

I think Bradie is one of those skaters who benefited from the quarter degree of rotation that they've been allowed in the past - her jumps tend to be pretty close. (I personally don't have a fantastic eye for URs but I don't have a terrible one either, and hers are very difficult for me to see compared to most chronic UR ladies.)

I hope it's something her team is seriously working on. Bradie seems determined as heck so I imagine she will do what she can to address it.

 

[StitchMonkey]

What happened with Bradie? I don't recall her having underrotation problems before - is it because she's doing different jumps?

Yes. She is going for the 3Lz+3Lo this season and is getting the 3Lo under so far. It is a points getter and is impressive but I am not sure it is soup yet.

 

[macy]

Bradie also looked a little tired to me towards the end of her skate, hence the mistakes. usually making a silly mistake like that on a spin is due to heavy legs.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Bradie also looked a little tired to me towards the end of her skate, hence the mistakes. usually making a silly mistake like that on a spin is due to heavy legs.

Yeah, I agree that Bradie's seemed to lack energy overall in her Japan Open skates. I think we'll see her skate better on the GP and not have these issues with under rotation.

 

[Spinning]

Yeah, I agree that Bradie's seemed to lack energy overall in her Japan Open skates. I think we'll see her skate better on the GP and not have these issues with under rotation.

Jet lag maybe? She did extremely well on the previous competitions. US skaters have been doing not so well together with battling health issues(food poisoning mostly) in almost every Asian competitions. USFS might need to come up with some solutions.

 

[sheetz]

You can't compare JO to a regular competition. The foreign skaters flew in on Thursday and had to practice for both JO as well as the gala on Friday. It was just very exhausting and not at all how skaters would normally prepare for a regular competition.

 

[chuckm]

Bradie trains in the Chicago area. Traveling from there to Japan has to involve pretty severe jet lag for just a one-day performance. I'd say it's unfair to compare the Japanese and even the ladies traveling from Russia with those traveling from NA.