2021 Worlds: Ladies FS "Thoughts and Observations"

[gsk8]

Anna Shcherbakova takes world title in FSR sweep

The Ladies’ event concluded with the Free Skate at the 2021 ISU World Figure Skating Championships on Friday night in Stockholm, Sweden. All three ladies that represented the Figure Skaters […]

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Some definite surprises here!

Very impressed with Olga Mikutina - good for her!!

I really feel like the quads just put pressure on the ladies. I mean, yeah, show off the goods, but don't pepper the routine throughout as it detracts from the performance. That's just me though.....

What are your thoughts on the Ladies' event?

 

[Noxchild]

Devastated by the rare implosion from Rika when even getting silver would have been so easy if she'd skated just average by her standards, but that's life Not like this has been an average season alas...

Delighted for Karen though, and cheers to the medalists!

 

[zanadude]

Bradie Tennell should send Rika Kihira a fruit basket of thanks.

Well, they got this competition off, and I believe they showed that the pandemic has set women's skating back about 3-5 years.

 

[friedbanana]

Karen was the skate of the night for me! Fabulous skating.

 

[randomfan]

Wow...that was a mess

 

[Lunalovesskating]

The judging was absolutely diabolical..

 

[zanadude]

The judging was absolutely diabolical..

You don't think they got the podium right?

 

[ranjake]

Karen Chen made me cry! Thank you!

 

[Tolstoj]

I'm really happy for Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, she fought almost against her own country for this opportunity at Worlds, and proved once again she's a top skater. I hope she'll go to the Olympics.

Huge skate from Loena Hendrickx also, she was foot perfect in the free.

Olga Mikutina was the surprise of the event for me, never seen her before, she was amazing.

As for the rest we could say a lot of things about these calls, how we're so sure to give a lutze to Sakamoto but no calls for Shcherbakova's questionable lutzes. I don't like the direction this discipline is going, the way components are given is almost disgraceful and very unfair for certain skaters.

The podium with 4 falls from the medalists is a very clear sign to me.

 

[Bentley]

Karen was the skate of the night for me! Fabulous skating.

Karen had the most beautiful skating and the most enjoyable of al the skaters. I frankly think she should have been scored lot higher.

 

[coldblueeyes]

Thank you, next.

 

[Lunalovesskating]

You don't think they got the podium right?

No the podium is not correct. The PCs judging was completely off and made no sense. Also the selective calling for edges and underrotations was insane. Giving a skater +3s +4 and +5s for spins that traveled across half the rink and were wobbling is insane. This even tops the questionable judging at the Russian Cups this season.

 

[Dogo]

I mean, I have no words. I'm not even disappointed anymore. I looove Trusova and Tuktik to bits, but the scores are completely ridiculous.

A few things: Kaori and Karen delivering the best performances ever hands down. Scores are very unfair compared to the splashfest that happened at the 'podium.'

Isn't it a bit ironic that here you have Karen Chen, a skater with Asian heritage, paying tribute to one of the most famous orchestra works of Chinese music, skating with actual beautiful spins; and then you have Tuktamisheva skating to what the Russians consider to be "Asian enough", with music choreographed by a Russian choreographer, and with a gigantic Chinese character on the back of her costume? Yeah right...

Also I guess congrats to the world champion who has proven that she can't spin in the same place at all...

 

[apgold]

Copying my post from the FS thread since it might be more appropriate here.

Wow, what a weird event in a weird season. I have to say that Karen and Loena were my favorite skates along with Olga, the Austrian skater, whose name I will learn and look forward to seeing again.

Shocked that Rika tanked - is she suffering from an injury or was it pressure? This happened in 2019 but not as bad.

I am thrilled for Liza getting the silver (reminds me of when Ashley Wagner got a surprise silver medal in 2016 around the same age), and glad that Sasha got on the podium (winning the FS by a hair). Anna was my prediction to win as she is a fierce competitor but it looks like she was not at her best either, and said so as much during her post victory interview. As her 17th birthday approaches, I would hope she can aim for the same longevity that Liza has.

I am also happy Karen managed 4th place again and managed to get the three spots for the US ladies. After Bradie did not do her best (I hope the move to Tom Z is working for her), I thought our chances were gone. USFS made the right choice in sending Karen. I can't imagine that Amber would have placed so high being her first Worlds. The judges like and reward Karen for her beautiful skating. She doesn't even have a 3-3 in her FS and yet she was 6th in the FS and 4th overall.

I enjoyed Kaori's Matrix skate and I think her scores were about right - they were over inflated at NHK. I don't even want to talk about Satoko.

 

[s_parks]

That was an event that happened, I guess.

 

[mrrice]

The judging was absolutely diabolical..

They were probably in shock from all the bad skating. This FP was just awful for most of the ladies. UR's aside, I truly enjoyed Karen Chen the most of all the ladies.

 

[NastiaGalliamovfan]

a splatfest, you cant complain with the medalists as everyone had the chance to skate clean.

 

[Bentley]

Anna deserved this win. She was not perfect, one mistake but her skating is so beautiful. Congratulations to Sasha for having the free skate of her life. She never ceases to amaze. Scary to think how she would score if she was perfect. Karen was fantastic. I think she was underscored and should have gotten on the podium. Not crazy about Lisa's style of skating but glad to see her success. Bradie and Rika, well what can you say except it was not their day. Thanks to Karen, the US has their 3 spots. US chose wisely to send her. Except for Karen who was way underscored, I think the Judges got it right but I would have put Karen in 3rd.

 

[NastiaGalliamovfan]

Karen needs to be reserved by US as a thank you to her securing 3 spots

 

[Fluture]

I will preface this by saying that I have no intention of discussing whether the podium order was correct or not.

However, today the judging showed once again a large scale problem in figure skating that, imo, contributes to its constantly falling popularity basically everywhere but Russia and Japan:

PCS. Theoretically, they should reward performance, interpretation etc, “artistry“ if you want it. Let‘s look at the PCS of the top 8:

Shcherbakova: 73
Tuk: 69
Trusova: 66
Chen: 67
Hendrickx: 66
Sakamoto: 67
Kihira: 69
Mikutina: 61

Would ANY casual viewer at the Olympics understand these kinds of scores watching the programs one after another? How is it possible that a non existent program by Trusova with two falls scores the exact same as Hendrickx with a clean performance and 5 points higher than a relatively clean Mikutina? Why does Kihira get two points more in PCS than Chen who had arguably the best skate artistically of the night? Why is Shcherbakova so far ahead of anybody else even though she, too, messed up her performance?

I know the answer and it‘s reputation + politicking. But from a casual standpoint it makes NO SENSE and will anybody really be encouraged to learn more about this sport if it‘s so thoroughly illogical in its very essence?

I don‘t think so. That‘s sadly and honestly my biggest takeaway here. The three medalists fought and I‘m happy for them. But the rest was a pure mess.