2018-19 U.S. Ladies' figure skating

[Sjs5572]

Thisis where I see the top ladies under the 6..0 system.
Tennell: 5.8 5.7 (WIns lp)
Liu: 5.9 5.6 (WIns sp)
Bell: 5.6 5.8 (4th place sp, 3rd lp)
Cui: 5.7 5.7 (3rd sp, 4th lp)

 

[Shani]

I would love to see them all skate clean so the chips can land where they lay.

 

[mrrice]

I would love to see them all skate clean so the chips can land where they lay.

Me Too....

 

[Seren]

The thing that will make nationals fun this year is that the door is wide open. There isn’t anything that would surprise me. Sure- Bradie and Mariah look like a solid 1-2 on paper but neither of them has enough reputation (neither had a stellar Grand Prix season) to compensate if someone else skates lights out.

 

[sheetz]

The conference calls for Nationals have been uploaded by the Lansing Herald. Listened to Mariah's and she was pointedly asked about upping her technical content to compete with the likes of Alysa and the Russians/Japanese. Mariah answered that the 3A wasn't off the table, but that she is focusing on honing her other technical elements first.
https://lansingherald.com/sports#f6b64700-0e64-4498-9672-d5baac07a64b

 

[chuckm]

The thing that will make nationals fun this year is that the door is wide open. There isn’t anything that would surprise me. Sure- Bradie and Mariah look like a solid 1-2 on paper but neither of them has enough reputation (neither had a stellar Grand Prix season) to compensate if someone else skates lights out.

Bradie won the ONLY US ladies GP medal this season, and she also won two Challenger events. That seems like plenty of "reputation" points to me.

No one else has a better fall season record.

 

[Skater Boy]

Bradie won the ONLY US ladies GP medal this season, and she also won two Challenger events. That seems like plenty of "reputation" points to me.

No one else has a better fall season record.

Bradie is the American fave - she has been the leading lady the last two years, she has been getting even better and beaten Evgenia M twice this year. I would be surprised if she is not in the top two. Alysa and Mariah look to battle for the silver and bronze - Is Alysa age eligible?

 

[bobbob]

Bradie won the ONLY US ladies GP medal this season, and she also won two Challenger events. That seems like plenty of "reputation" points to me.

No one else has a better fall season record.

Reputation points mean nothing at US Nationals. To win, she will have to skate the cleanest.

US judges care little about what is happening on the international scene. That is how Alysa Liu has a chance.

(Personally, while I am no fan of reputation scoring, I think it may be a good idea to reward skaters for long-standing skating skills and quality instead of only looking at who skated the cleanest on the day.)

 

[ice coverage]

If reputation points could ensure victory at Nats, then seems to me that Karen Chen would not have been able to defeat Ashley in 2017?

---

The conference calls for Nationals have been uploaded by the Lansing Herald. Listened to Mariah's and she was pointedly asked about upping her technical content to compete with the likes of Alysa and the Russians/Japanese. Mariah answered that the 3A wasn't off the table, but that she is focusing on honing her other technical elements first.
https://lansingherald.com/sports#f6b64700-0e64-4498-9672-d5baac07a64b

So Mariah's comment re triple axel was only in response to a reporter's question.

I had been wondering whether that was the case. Thanks for providing the context -- and for noting that Mariah also said that she is focused on other technical elements first.

 

[skylark]

I'll PM you when I find it. The problem is remembering what rabbit hole I was going down when I came across it in the first place.

From what I can understand the reason it was described as a brain thing is because our brains response to negative feedback in the same way it would a death threat unless you've specifically and systematically trained yourself to deal with it. And that "training" may not protect you from every negative comment. I think we've all had that one unexpected thing get to us in a way that has our heart thumping in our chest. Social media is triggering our reptile brains.

That's very interesting, and it makes sense. Everyone can probably also recall a time when they or someone else responded at a level that didn't seem to be commensurate with the situation or remark.

So. True. about the lizard brain and social media. Although lizard brain takes over with vision sometimes when regular brain checks out momentarily.

I wonder which brain tells us to go down those rabbit holes?

 

[skylark]

Mariah seems to have been on the cusp for years. Whatever she is doing doesn't seem to be working quite right that so mixing it up seems to be a good decision. Bit I also question if working on a 3A is the best use of time if she does not have consistent fully rotated multiple 3-3.

I personally thought that Mirai's focus on the 3A was to the detriment of her other jumps.

And I thought that focus was to the detriment of her performance quality and expression. Mariah's such a beautiful stand-out in those areas, and I don't want to see her sacrifice them.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

The conference calls for Nationals have been uploaded by the Lansing Herald. Listened to Mariah's and she was pointedly asked about upping her technical content to compete with the likes of Alysa and the Russians/Japanese. Mariah answered that the 3A wasn't off the table, but that she is focusing on honing her other technical elements first.
https://lansingherald.com/sports#f6b64700-0e64-4498-9672-d5baac07a64b

I'd be VERY surprised if Mariah goes for the 3A. The second Worlds spot is really her's to lose at this point, so taking unnecessary risk seems like a bad idea since she'll have to be near her best to secure that placement.

 

[ice coverage]

I'd be VERY surprised if Mariah goes for the 3A. The second Worlds spot is really her's to lose at this point, so taking unnecessary risk seems like a bad idea since she'll have to be near her best to secure that placement.

"During the off season" -- not 2019 Nats -- was the timeframe in the original tweet reporting on Mariah's media call.

From the original tweet: "Mariah Bell said during the media call that she has not taken the Triple Axel off the table and it may be something that she works on during the off season."

AFAIK, no one said anything about [ETA: even just a possibility of] Mariah going for triple axel at 2019 Nats.

(Disclaimer: I have not listened to the audio from Mariah's media call.)

 

[Mathman]

(Personally, while I am no fan of reputation scoring, I think it may be a good idea to reward skaters for long-standing skating skills and quality instead of only looking at who skated the cleanest on the day.)

Do you really think that?

To me, in any athletic competition you have to give the highest scores to the one who performed the best. Otherwise, why hold a competition?

Now, who is sent to Worlds, that's a different question.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Do you really think that?

To me, in any athletic competition you have to give the highest scores to the one who performed the best. Otherwise, why hold a competition?

I think what the poster was getting at is that the US judges will reward programs that are clean, regardless of international judges' assessment of PCS features like SS. There's probably some truth to that, as I think it's easier for a skater to stand out at Nationals if they don't have a strong international reputation.

 

[Carolla5501]

The thing that will make nationals fun this year is that the door is wide open. There isn’t anything that would surprise me. Sure- Bradie and Mariah look like a solid 1-2 on paper but neither of them has enough reputation (neither had a stellar Grand Prix season) to compensate if someone else skates lights out.

I think Bradie has the status to compensate. Mariah is much more "iffy"

 

[andromache]

I think what the poster was getting at is that the US judges will reward programs that are clean, regardless of international judges' assessment of PCS features like SS. There's probably some truth to that, as I think it's easier for a skater to stand out at Nationals if they don't have a strong international reputation.

That said, it would probably be a different situation if the US had a very strong PCS skater (then again, Ashley was not rewarded very high PCS at Nationals last year...so who knows? But she and Gracie were both very well-rewarded for flawed programs in previous years...things just change.)

How Alysa Liu is scored in PCS will be interesting. She's pretty far behind Bradie, Mariah, Ting, and other ladies in terms of SS (unlike most of the Russian/Japanese wunderkind). Nathan placed 3rd to Adam and Max in 2016 (?) despite his comparatively insane technical content. So the judges could "lowball" her and surprise us.

 

[tothepointe]

That said, it would probably be a different situation if the US had a very strong PCS skater (then again, Ashley was not rewarded very high PCS at Nationals last year...so who knows? But she and Gracie were both very well-rewarded for flawed programs in previous years...things just change.)

How Alysa Liu is scored in PCS will be interesting. She's pretty far behind Bradie, Mariah, Ting, and other ladies in terms of SS (unlike most of the Russian/Japanese wunderkind). Nathan placed 3rd to Adam and Max in 2016 (?) despite his comparatively insane technical content. So the judges could "lowball" her and surprise us.

I don't think they'll need to lowball her. Her jumps are great but she's not yet a skater that really blows other skaters out of the water. Thus far her seasons best as a senior is a domestic score compared to the international scores of the other skaters. So it's harder to predict what will happen once Bradie and Mariah get their national score inflation too.

 

[Seren]

Bradie won the ONLY US ladies GP medal this season, and she also won two Challenger events. That seems like plenty of "reputation" points to me.

No one else has a better fall season record.

I was more implying if Bradie skates poorly (not just so-so) and others skate lights out. I don’t think any of the US ladies have that much weight this season.


That said I am referring to Nationals placement. Who they send to worlds is a whole different question.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

That said, it would probably be a different situation if the US had a very strong PCS skater (then again, Ashley was not rewarded very high PCS at Nationals last year...so who knows? But she and Gracie were both very well-rewarded for flawed programs in previous years...things just change.)

How Alysa Liu is scored in PCS will be interesting. She's pretty far behind Bradie, Mariah, Ting, and other ladies in terms of SS (unlike most of the Russian/Japanese wunderkind). Nathan placed 3rd to Adam and Max in 2016 (?) despite his comparatively insane technical content. So the judges could "lowball" her and surprise us.

I feel like at Nationals, more than at international events, if you can win the audience you can win the event. For most skaters, that means skating an error-free program with good choreography. Someone like Alysa could have her deficiencies overlooked if she outjumps the other women, but I think she'll need to bring excitement, in addition to the jumps, to place high.