2019-20 U.S. Ladies Figure Skating | Page 60 | Golden Skate

2019-20 U.S. Ladies Figure Skating

I've seen such effortless triple axel only once - in the training by Kostornaia year and half ago.
How on earth did you manage to raise such a talent, when your ladies fs is in decline? :eek:

Somewhere, on YouTube, there’s a translation of Tarasova commenting on a young Yuna Kim. She says something like, great skaters can be born anywhere. It’s more about the skater than the state of the sport in any country. The US certainly has the resources to support talent when it appears.
 
Under the radar - how are Polina Edmunds and Gracie Gold doing? I got the impression that we now know Ms. Gold was no where ready to compete in Russia. All the instagrams and such can't hide the truth I appreciate the desire to get back on top. Karen Chen is doing amazing this year so who knows. Comebacks are possible. Even Mirai shows us she ain't finished yet. I wonder about Ashley?

i was finally able to watch the Aurora Games last night, and i was so impressed and wowed by Mirai. she looks amazing and her new programs are so beautiful- she is more expressive than i've seen her in years. i hope she isn't done and returns even just to be a national competitor, she would easily be on the podium.

Ashley is retired. she never made an official announcement, but has dropped hints and shared an instagram post after she competed last weekend saying she was reminded how happy she is not competing. as much as i miss her and wish she would come back no matter what her results may be, i don't think it will happen. i believe she has moved on. TSL also made comments in their youtube upload of her FS she has torn labrums in both hips, apparently she shared this on her instagram stories the other day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1lmBFEJhif/
 
i was finally able to watch the Aurora Games last night, and i was so impressed and wowed by Mirai. she looks amazing and her new programs are so beautiful- she is more expressive than i've seen her in years. i hope she isn't done and returns even just to be a national competitor, she would easily be on the podium.

Ashley is retired. she never made an official announcement, but has dropped hints and shared an instagram post after she competed last weekend saying she was reminded how happy she is not competing. as much as i miss her and wish she would come back no matter what her results may be, i don't think it will happen. i believe she has moved on. TSL also made comments in their youtube upload of her FS she has torn labrums in both hips, apparently she shared this on her instagram stories the other day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1lmBFEJhif/

I was so impressed by Mirai. Her programs are so intricate. Could we expect a comeback? I would love to see her.

Too bad about Ashley's injuries. I miss her performace quality and personality. I hope she can heal and return to the ice and do shows.
 
Gracie's coach's instagram is really encouraging, just have to keep in perspective that we don't really know what the ratio of successful/failed jumps is. But her progress is absolutely stunning and really inspiring. I hope she makes it to nationals this year and blows everyone away.

I'll be happy to see Gracie even if she doesn't blow everyone away. I was so happy for Mirai and if Gracie can pull off 2 programs like Mirai did, I'll be happy as a clam. Even if she's off the podium it will be a thrill to see her out there again.
 
I think this year Alysa is unbeatable. Next year is another story, as Sophia A. from Russia also has a 3A and a quad. Yes, many lovely skaters will be winnowed out, but most of them could have worked on, attained a 3A. Nagasu did.
Sofia Akatieva is junior eligible only for 21/22 season (b.7.7.7).
 
You can tell her prerotations from this video? What I can tell here is she looks very slow from a distance, especially before she jumps. It appears she tries to skate fast, but she just does not that easy smooth glide on ice. This is probably the area that bothers me most in her skating at this moment.

It's a pity her pre-rotation on almost every single jump except her second 3A is pretty abysmal. She's turned about 225-270 degrees before actually taking off on each jump, and I thought the Eteri girls prerotated. However, as she's getting enough on her '4Lz' to land it, she should be able to jump her triples without so much prerotation.
 
You can tell her prerotations from this video? What I can tell here is she looks very slow from a distance, especially before she jumps. It appears she tries to skate fast, but she just does not that easy smooth glide on ice. This is probably the area that bothers me most in her skating at this moment.

you can slow the youtube video down enough to see. not sure about her axel but the quad lutz is very prerotated, about 3/4 turn. i don't really understand why people choose to scrutinize it so much because its not judged to my knowledge, but it does have to do with her technique and lack of speed, especially the latter. because of how slow she goes into it she has to use her toe pick more than speed/momentum to get the rotation. the jump goes up and down basically in the same place on the ice, which will probably give her hip/knee problems down the road if she doesn't work on it.
 
I can't tell much about the jumps, either, but it's obvious that Alysa is extremely slow compared to some of the other skaters. This Japanese skater looks like she could literally skate circles around her.
https://youtu.be/6YB8uQTLeZU
Yes, I seen Alysa skate in person before and her skating is very slow for her level. But I feel like if she adds more speed to her jumps she will miss them because she pre rotates so much
 
Yes, I seen Alysa skate in person before and her skating is very slow for her level. But I feel like if she adds more speed to her jumps she will miss them because she pre rotates so much

We'll know very soon how the international judges assess her jump technique, and hopefully it's not too different from how she was judged at Nationals. While she's young and needs time to develop all areas of her skating, Alyssa can't rely on just jumps to do well on the Jr GP. Most of her peers won't be trying the 4Lz, but I don't think Alyssa's will get full credit for hers, and the other top skaters will beat her handily on PCS. The good news is that Alyssa has a lot of support and a strong work ethic, and I have no doubt that her team will help her make the improvements once they see how she stacks up against other top junior skaters.
 
It’s obvious that Alysa needs to work on speed- I’m sure her team is aware of this. I think this first season on the Junior GP will be a really good growth experience for her- she seems to thrive on a challenge. I think she should be confident in the work she’s done technically and use that to fuel developing her skating skills and power. It will be good for her to skate among the best of the best. She is incredibly gifted but the advantage the Russian and Japanese have is that they have a multitude of young and gifted skaters who push each other. Alysa is kind of her own category among US ladies.

Also- I admire Gracie so much for what she has been doing. After the embarrassment of Rostelecom she could have given up but she kept working. To me that is just as impressive as a quad.
 
Does she have the musicality and command of the ice of a mature Michelle Kwan? No, but she's undeniably better than she was.

This season would be Alysa's "Rondo Kwan" season. She skates with much more maturity, Kwan was SLOW too... Alysa has MUCH better spins. Granted, Kwan was never known for her speed (it was really noticeable against Slutskaya which could explain those unexplainable Slute wins..) Alysa is on the right track. But she's not "soup" yet. I'm just going to enjoy her skating as she seems to be enjoying it now. I hope she wins this week. It's hard not to root for her since she's so grounded.
 
Ashley is retired. she never made an official announcement, but has dropped hints and shared an instagram post after she competed last weekend saying she was reminded how happy she is not competing. as much as i miss her and wish she would come back no matter what her results may be, i don't think it will happen. i believe she has moved on. TSL also made comments in their youtube upload of her FS she has torn labrums in both hips, apparently she shared this on her instagram stories the other day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1lmBFEJhif/

Ashley's remark about being happier not competing reminds me of something Kristi Yamaguchi said, when she was competing as a Pro and winning often, and always skating beautifully. Kristi said, "I never wonder why I still skate, but I often wonder why I still compete."

Like you, I still haven't quite gotten over my wish that she'd come back to competition, whatever the results. Like Carolina, who did it for herself, and at the same time provided such an inspiration for younger skaters and for audiences, to show us and remind us of the diversity in skating, and why we love it. But I'm working on it ... because I really am happy for her, that she's so much happier now.


Too bad about Ashley's injuries. I miss her performace quality and personality.

So do I. I'm encouraged by the skaters who say that they look up to her and aspire to her performance qualities and expression. :love:
 
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