2022-23 GPF Senior Women's Free Skate

[icybear]

Never realised Mai is 8 years older than Isabeau. Mai could easily pass for being a teenager whereas in the real world a 15 yrs old and a 23 yrs old look drastically different. I swear figure skaters age so differently. You have men in their late 20s carrying stuffy bears and people think its cute but imagine us going to work everyday with stuff toy.

 

[bartlebooth]

Never realised Mai is 8 years older than Isabeau. Mai could easily pass for being a teenager whereas in the real world a 15 yrs old and a 23 yrs old look drastically different. I swear figure skaters age so differently. You have men in their late 20s carrying stuffy bears and people think its cute but imagine us going to work everyday with stuff toy.

Conversely, teenagers are expected to represent their country with honour, to perform under pressure and to behave impeccably off ice. And also to travel alone to shows, maybe to countries whose language they do not speak. Then they are very sheltered with helicopter parents or coaches micromanaging everything in their life, and fans showering them with toys.
I agree, that's bizarre.

 

[skylark]

Predictions: I had Mai in first, and Isabeau in second. For one reason only: Love.

I love both women's skating. Isabeau's skating shows what she cares about. She reminds me of Peggy Fleming, in that she has such deep-down confidence that I feel confident watching her skate. And her skating is all about artistry, beauty, expression and performance. Plus dedication to her music. ETA: But boy, she doesn't like making mistakes! that's allso like Peggy F.

I've always loved Mai. Like Isabeau, you know immediately what she values in skating just by watching her skate. Another interesting thing is to think about this in relation to her best friend and training mate, Kaori, and how what Kaori shows is at the other end of the skating spectrum. That's what I call awesome coaching, an ability to bring the best out of each skater.

If it weren't so shocking, this would have been an interesting competition because of unpredictability, which is always a jolt but fun.

 

[kenboy123]

I wasn’t able to watch…what happened to Sakamoto???

 

[bartlebooth]

I wasn’t able to watch…what happened to Sakamoto???

She stumbled right at the beginning of her program, then started to skate decently, then had many pops.

 

[purplecat]

The women were so fantastic in the short, it was sad to see such mistake filled freeskates. That has to be one of the poorest freeskates I've ever seen Kaori do - I thought she would finally throw it down today but it was not to be. After Isabeau's issues I thought she for sure would finish fifth - wow all the way up to silver! Congrats to the podium! I'm still a bit shocked at all the chaos!

 

[liv]

It was one of those competitions where the winners had the least amount of errors, rather than someone going out and blasting everyone away, which is what I thought Kaori was going to do.

That being said, Mai did that the closest and looked to be home free until the last jump. Today, she def deserved the win. Hear that JSF? Mai won the GPF. Think better of her...

 

[icybear]

I wasn’t able to watch…what happened to Sakamoto???

Stumbled on 2nd jump, only did 2 combos and both were doubles jump. Then also had an invalid jump that was supposed to be her combo

 

[noskates]

Mai did deserve to win. And Isabeau is only 15. This was a very sloppy women's freeskate. However, Mai's skating isn't pleasing to me. You can tell she puts a lot of heart into it but I find her a bit awkward sometimes. Having said that, I'm also happy that the finish was unpredictable. It made an otherwise iffy competition more interesting. There are a few national competitions that are going to be bloodbaths in ALL the disciplines.

 

[icybear]

You know things have gone downhill when you perk up seeing a skater prepare for a 3Lz cause that was the hardest jump today bar Rinka 3a. Meanwhile in Russia it's raining 3a and quads

 

[elbkup]

I missed the entire Women’s’ FS and half of the FD.. we are expecting the first snow in our neck of the woods and I needed to visit the store to stock up in case the storm is worse than predicted which can happen.. Results are a total surprise and I am over the moon for Mai and Isabeau!! And so grateful to all the finalists for their magnificent skating this season. Best to all in their respective National contests, upcoming events and Worlds!

 

[Jontor]

Just caught up with the women. What a disastrous competition this was!!

Kim started below her capacity, but she wasn't in contention so I didn't think much of it.

Then Levito, not a good skate, a fall and other errors. She looks disappointed, Someone should tell her that it makes absolutely no sense in doing the 3Lz+3Lo combo if you do the 3T on your own. All that happens is that she looses GOE on the Loop, and the combo itself is harder to get clean (-GOE here). You only do the Loop combo if you also plan to do another 3+3 combo with the 3T.

Little did I know that Levito's uninspired skate would get her a silver medal!!

Watanabe - not good. Lots of error.

Hendricx - not good. Even more of a disaster than Rinka, so she's also behind Isabeau.

Mihara - not her best skate. And you could tell she was not happy. But at least she's in the lead for now.

Sakamoto - what an absolute disastrous nightmare this was. I have never seen Kaori skate did bad. She had the lowest scored of the night!!

Oh my, this was a competition where I really really really missed the women from you-know-where.

Five women under 200 points hasn't happened since the GPF in 2014.

 

[Agent Michael Scarn]

Lindsay Thorngren would have won the bronze medal had she skated in the Grand Prix Final instead of at Golden Spin. Think about that.

 

[yesterday]

Lindsay Thorngren would have won the bronze medal had she skated in the Grand Prix Final instead of at Golden Spin. Think about that.

You can't compare different competitions, neither scoring wise nor will the skater always be able to deliver the same performance. GPF gets much more on your nerves.

 

[Agent Michael Scarn]

You can't compare different competitions, neither scoring wise nor will the skater always be able to deliver the same performance. GPF gets much more on your nerves.

Yeah, not necessarily. I didn't mean that completely literally, just a comment on how unexpected these results were.

 

[ladyjane]

What a weird, messy event. I hope everyone got the nervous/bad skate bug out of their system.

It's what we men fans are used to in men's events. Sometime even called the chaos category. But in this case the women were all chaos, and the men hardly!

 

[Dreamer57]

Mai better be selected for the world team.

Actually I think there is something about highest ranking at GPF that factors into the world team criteria from JSF. They usually go off nationals results the most.
Let's hope we get the Mai and Kaori podium at nationals too

 

[yesterday]

Actually I think there is something about highest ranking at GPF that factors into the world team criteria from JSF. They usually go off nationals results the most.
Let's hope we get the Mai and Kaori podium at nationals too

there's a detailed post on this in the Japanese Womens' thread.

 

[purplecat]

Then Levito, not a good skate, a fall and other errors. She looks disappointed, Someone should tell her that it makes absolutely no sense in doing the 3Lz+3Lo combo if you do the 3T on your own. All that happens is that she looses GOE on the Loop, and the combo itself is harder to get clean (-GOE here). You only do the Loop combo if you also plan to do another 3+3 combo with the 3T.

Little did I know that Levito's uninspired skate would get her a silver medal!!

I was thinking she could do a triple lutz, double axel sequence and then a solo triple loop later and take advantage of the new sequence rule. But maybe she doesn't like jumping double axels after a jump - she does two solo double axels.

 

[Dawn825]

Just finished watching the FS. Definitely a bit of a rough event, but it's ok. There were still some beautiful performances.
Congrats to Mai for keeping it together. Her short is beautiful, the long is not enjoyable for me personally.
Isabeau won the event for me. She should have been top 3 at least after the short. And her free skate was very lovely, even with the errors.
Loena's free skate was also captivating, I'm very glad she hung on to a medal.
Kaori has my always