2021 IdF - Women: Thoughts and Comments?

[gsk8]

Shcherbakova wins fourth Grand Prix gold in France

Anna Shcherbakova of Russia won her fourth consecutive Grand Prix gold in the Women’s event at 2021 Internationaux de France on Saturday. Teammate Alena Kostornaia maintained second overall for the […]

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What are your overall thoughts on the event?

 

[Ziotic]

Anna should have won, but the GOE are outrageous. If a lesser known skater has spins like that they’d be getting negative GOE.

 

[yume]

Thinking that Wakaba would have gotten only 147 in FP without calls hurts.

 

[gsk8]

Thinking that Wakaba would have gotten only 147 in FP without calls hurts.

“I was really happy like I did it!” she said. “When I finished the program, in the Kiss & Cry my coach said, ‘You did it!’ so I was happy. “There were little mistakes, and in other competitions and yesterday, I had under rotations and maybe some lower levels in spins, but overall, it was done well. I will not do something more difficult, but improve the quality and aim for 145 points and a perfect performance at Nationals.”

 

[yume]

“I was really happy like I did it!” she said. “When I finished the program, in the Kiss & Cry my coach said, ‘You did it!’ so I was happy. “There were little mistakes, and in other competitions and yesterday, I had under rotations and maybe some lower levels in spins, but overall, it was done well. I will not do something more difficult, but improve the quality and aim for 145 points and a perfect performance at Nationals.”

She knows that she probably won't get more than that given how stingy Japanese judges are with her. Girl is so used to it that she thinks that 69 in SP is a big score.

 

[gsk8]

Will Yokoi retire? She was thrilled with her performance and said she had changed her mindset from yesterday.

“I know I don’t have much more time left in my career and without good results,” said the 20-year-old. “I told myself that today could be my last performance so that was the major difference in coming into today’s performance. I still wonder if I should continue, and when I have a good performance, I am truly happy and that is why it keeps me going. Today’s good performance made me feel that I might be able to continue.”

 

[rinkside_user]

Higuchi was definitely the emotional highlight for me.

 

[slider11]

What happened to Star?

 

[readernick]

Higuchi's FS was the best program of the event. Well choreographed, great jumps, the best StepSeq. Loved it.

Other than that I wasn't incredibly impressed by anything. Reputation judging was at its highest level here. I understand World champions always get favors but the judging in both programs was hard to swallow.

 

[icybear]

So Alena here with a fall got 70 pcs but in Skate Canada she got 67pcs. The fact a couple of weeks ago she got lower pcs than Loena Hendrick and now she's 1 point behind the world champion despite very little improvement in performance. It was very obvious the Rus fed wasnt invested in her anymore and didnt bother giving her extra pcs candy but now with 2 Russian ladies out of the GP they need to give back her reputation pcs to keep as much Russian ladies on top. I think if Daria and Alexandra were still in the GP, Alena pcs wouldnt have reached 70.

 

[ManyCairns]

I wish Mariah hadn't had the costly mistake on her combo in the SP, but I was happy to see her looking pretty poised out there. Like her new SP, and I can live with Hallelujah II since she seems so confident with it.

 

[lurkerghost1]

Repost of my comment from the live thread:
either Aliona was very overscored or Wakaba was underscored. To be clear, even if Wakaba skated her short program cleanly and scored 79.73 as she did at Cup of Austria, she would have scored 220.77 and still been behind Kostornaia. That’s right, Wakaba with 2 3As landed and two clean programs would have still been behind Kostornaia with no 3A in the short and a 3A< fall in the free. And that’s even before we begin to discuss the quality of the programs themselves...

Personally I was expecting this result so I’m not sweating it but I hope this clarifies the realities of the judging system to people who still refuse to accept that PCS is Political Connections Score.

 

[lariko]

Higuchi was an absolute highlight. I am glad she medaled, but personally I saw silver with her vs Kostornaya, despite the improvements in Kostornaya’s skate. And, well, personally, I also prefer Sinitsina to Kostornaya when neither lands 3A/quads. I feel that Ryabova was a bit under-appreciated But then Mariah has a bright smile, so it gotta count.

 

[Weathergal]

What happened to Star?

She withdrew for medical reasons, but I haven't heard anything more specific.

 

[apgold]

Agree with the egregious scoring, but I expected Wakaba to get bronze here if she landed the 3A and was cleanish. She was the moment for me - such a performance! I want her on the Olympic team almost as badly as she does. I wonder if she will add a second 3A in combo to increase her scoring potential for Nationals.

Karen, Anna and Aliona had some hard falls in the FS - I hope they are all ok. Karen acquitted herself after the bad FS at SCI, going back to a similar layout that got her 4th in Stockholm. I thought Mariah did reasonably well with some water downed content - Adam said that her PCS was too low - I tend to agree with him but she hasn't done too well lately so her PCS has taken a hit from 2019. I love both Mariah and Karen, but I wish they could land and rotate their triple triples.

Aliona's jumps (except for the 3A) have huge spring but her "Lovely" program seemed really empty to me, which is odd for a Dani G program, since he stuffs so much into them. And yes, she should skate to all Liza M. version of NY, NY, since the beginning is a downer.

 

[Hadassa]

I don't understand this much hype for Wakaba. She is a good skater but I don't see an olympic medalist in her. Her program was empty and I would not rewatch it. On the other side I was really sad for Ekaterina Ryabova who was outrageously underscored.

 

[Dawn825]

Wakaba's FS was thrilling, I can't even get into it.

Aliona is harder for me. I don't see her making the Olympics under any circumstances, but i want her to skate well. The SP is like half way there. I actually like the slow beginning but it needs to switch to the fast version right after her first spin. The middle of the program between that spin and the combo is such a missed opportunity. It's slow for too long, then randomly switches on a split jump, but the tempo change is not reflected in any of the next few movements because she's doing her very deliberate combo set up. There should be more choreography in that section. It makes no sense. The FS isn't great but her jumps looked way better than I thought they would after she fell, so good for her.

Anna's FS was incredibly gutsy, landing the quad flip immediately after the other fall. The SP program change is inconsequential. She gives every program 100%, will always in my view be held back by poor skating skills, and will always get among the highest PCS. The constant changing of costumes and programs just makes the team look chaotic. None of the changes have led to real improvements.

 

[lurkerghost1]

I don't understand this much hype for Wakaba. She is a good skater but I don't see an olympic medalist in her. Her program was empty and I would not rewatch it. On the other side I was really sad for Ekaterina Ryabova who was outrageously underscored.

If you have ever seen Wakaba live you will understand it. Not many skaters in any of the four divisions can get the audience on their feet like she can. Actually in ladies I would say Tuktamysheva is the only one I can remember this season who has had the audience in the palm of their hand like Wakaba. I’m sure though if Valieva if she is clean at home next week will have a similar moment.

 

[moonvine]

I could watch Yuhana skate to “Fat Bottomed Giris” and land that triple flip perfectly to “big fat fatty” all night. I have watched it twice already.

 

[moonvine]

I don't understand this much hype for Wakaba. She is a good skater but I don't see an olympic medalist in her. Her program was empty and I would not rewatch it. On the other side I was really sad for Ekaterina Ryabova who was outrageously underscored.

I love Wakaba. Like any other skater you either get/like her or you do not. I don’t care for any Russian skater other than the Empress.

Skating is an opinion.