The GOE guidelines clearly state that if a jump has either a bad take-off or a bad landing, it should not receive more than max. +3 GOE. Kamila received multiple +4 and +5 for her 3F and 3Lz+3T.
It is certainly true that there's currently no clear rule as to how much pre-rotation really is allowed. They were supposed to introduce a rule this season but then scrapped it. So, apart from capping e.g. Kamila's GOE at +3 for her lutz and flip, she couldn't be punished according to the rules. Hence my point that she'd
still be the best and
still win, even if they did note her technical issues.
I suppose, though, the point could be made that Kamila's take-off is not a bad one according to the current rules, so there would be no reason to cap the GOE. The judges
do have to judge according to the rule book, and the rule book does not penalise a take-off that makes use of rotation of the ice, or the skater transferring their weight back along the blade of the picking foot as they rotate, which Dolfini also critiques in that really interesting and informative video. Thank you for linking to it!
Now, going very very off topic from Russian women - one of the things I do wonder about, though, is the use of slow motion. Dolfini [edit: or maybe it was Ambesi?] says that the technical panel has the tools to evaluate jumps with the precision that he shows in that video, but the rule book again explicitly states that their review of the take-off must be conducted at real time speed, not slowed down. So while the technology exists, it isn't allowed under the current rules.
I also have a somewhat different take, I admit, which is shaped by my equestrian background. No judges in any of the equestrian sports I am familiar with may make use of slow motion: they have to judge what is before them, in real time - and no replays allowed either. (Maybe polo and horseball are different, I don't know.) Slow motion footage, however, is obviously widely available, and is used by people wanting to look at technique, improve safety on obstacles, etc. One controversy that slow motion footage brought about was the fact that the canter pirouette, long considered to be a three beat motion (beat referring to footfalls), was shown to be a four beat movement instead. This led to acrimony in dressage, with people claiming that the four beat pirouettes were wrong and shouldn't be getting the marks they were. In the end, scientific research showed that a three beat canter pirouette is pretty much impossible, because of the mechanics of the movement.
So, to me, it strikes me that slow motion is useful at revealing the biomechanics of an action, but it doesn't have to be the be all and end all for judging the accuracy of it. Obviously, there are skaters who are capable of a more textbook take-off than others, re rotation, so it's not quite the same as the three vs four beat canter pirouette debate, but ... there's something else I have noticed and am curious about, not being a skater myself. Jumps with fewer rotations seem to be more likely to have delayed rotation - thinking about the big single axels people have shared on older videos of skaters here in the past - while jumps with more rotations seem to be more likely to have this on-ice rotation at the start, and the skaters certainly have to snap into tighter positions in the air. Which leads me to wonder if pre-rotation is not simply a natural part of getting the body to whip around the required number of times, between initiating take-off and landing the jump. No expert here, just an idle speculator.
(Again, I have an equestrian analogy, which may be accurate, or may be awful, but it is the development of the Caprilli seat in jumping; up until the early twentieth century, riders used to sit back over jumps, with their feet out in front of them, until Federico Caprilli found that a forward seat, with the rider coming up out of the saddle, made it easier for the horse to jump. Some horses and riders could still jump ridiculous heights with the pre-Caprilli seat, but the Caprilli seat was biomechanically easier for horse and rider, and made it easier for more horses to jump higher heights. So, again, that colours my perception of pre-rotation: is it bad, or is it just biomechanically more efficient? Not a skater, not a coach, I do not know the answer.)
As for the discussions here , I think Kamila is definitely the best skater among the mix. I do however, think the Eteri girls are a little overscored but skating is subjective and over scoring and underscoring will be a part of the sport. I think them choosing Kamila for both events is fair. It would have been ridiculous to have Anna do the free over Trusova when trusova basically stated the quad revolution. No hate to Anna but I think she should be happy she got on the team because her performance at nationals and euros wasn’t great and she was helped by the judges.
