There is Newton's Law, Law of Gravity, and Kaori's Law: Kaori is always happy! It's a fact of nature!
2022 Olympics: Women's Free Skate
- Thread starter dorispulaski
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There is Newton's Law, Law of Gravity, and Kaori's Law: Kaori is always happy! It's a fact of nature!
It's not just the psychologists. These girls also don't really do regular physical prep, which is part of normal skating practice. Not that other Russian coaches do have a much healthier approach
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2014
[clipped for focus]
Yes, that explains a lot. Much appreciation because I didn't know that part of the backstory.
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2011
All I can say is I think Sasha should have won. She has improved greatly in presentation. I Get tired of people saying she can only jump. She is not as lacking in grace as say the young airing who I loved as a person and or Surya Bonaly who could jump but hadawful basics like crossovers. Cringeworthy but a true athlete she was.
I like Anna and I personally think she is not even close to Valieva at her best. Whatever happened re the “dupino” u intended, Valieva is a once in a lifetime artistic athlete who can currently jump. I feel badly for her. We don’t know the truth. She likely thought she was taking vitamins from that sleazy team doctor.
Eteri criticizing this child after she broke down on ice was awful. I am really glad Sasha finally screamed at that bunch of tools. This is the price child athletes pay when told only winning matters. I’m glad Russia has shows because all will be in demand I hope if they want to skate. I don’t know what quads were downgraded but Sasha did the extraordinary. I personally find Ana dull compared to others but little Kamila will be 19 with a different body and she will never have a dream just this nightmare. I have long said this coach was abusive and I am glad that Japan values girls like Wakaba and Kaori. Again I prefer many to Kaori but she is different and unique in Ladies in this era. It all comes down to judges Preference anyway. Good for her . Congrats.
These are tough girls. All will be ok. Ana? She should leave Sambo 70 and do shows. I have rarely seen Sasha skate with such attack and it is a shame she feels she will never be Golden either in Russia or the Olympics. What a sad mess. Sad too that Karen Chen didn’t have her skate but very proud of Alysia Liu beaming away and adore Mariah. I love her skating for years and I am glad she had an Olympic moment. Kurkova is adorable. The Koreans were great too. So many good performances. I hope Leona medals somehow at Worlds. She is Europe’s best. Shout out to Nicole Schott. Under marked as usual. Now we have worlds and no more skating left! Who retires? Would love to know. will have to read that thread.
I like Anna and I personally think she is not even close to Valieva at her best. Whatever happened re the “dupino” u intended, Valieva is a once in a lifetime artistic athlete who can currently jump. I feel badly for her. We don’t know the truth. She likely thought she was taking vitamins from that sleazy team doctor.
Eteri criticizing this child after she broke down on ice was awful. I am really glad Sasha finally screamed at that bunch of tools. This is the price child athletes pay when told only winning matters. I’m glad Russia has shows because all will be in demand I hope if they want to skate. I don’t know what quads were downgraded but Sasha did the extraordinary. I personally find Ana dull compared to others but little Kamila will be 19 with a different body and she will never have a dream just this nightmare. I have long said this coach was abusive and I am glad that Japan values girls like Wakaba and Kaori. Again I prefer many to Kaori but she is different and unique in Ladies in this era. It all comes down to judges Preference anyway. Good for her . Congrats.
These are tough girls. All will be ok. Ana? She should leave Sambo 70 and do shows. I have rarely seen Sasha skate with such attack and it is a shame she feels she will never be Golden either in Russia or the Olympics. What a sad mess. Sad too that Karen Chen didn’t have her skate but very proud of Alysia Liu beaming away and adore Mariah. I love her skating for years and I am glad she had an Olympic moment. Kurkova is adorable. The Koreans were great too. So many good performances. I hope Leona medals somehow at Worlds. She is Europe’s best. Shout out to Nicole Schott. Under marked as usual. Now we have worlds and no more skating left! Who retires? Would love to know. will have to read that thread.
Ok so I watched the free skate. Here's my rankings for the whole event:
24. Jenni Saarinen (FIN) / Josefin Taljegard (SWE)
I don't want to criticize lower skater too much, but I will just say Josefin Taljegard skated very well in the SP. She was denied the chance to skate in the free skate which she rightfully earned. The one good thing is she will always have that clean Olympic skate.
23. Alexandra Feigin (BUL)
I thought Alexandra acquitted herself very well at this competition. She has the most junior presentation of these ladies, so I hope her packaging and presence will mature in the years ahead. Good luck to her!
22. Kawabe Mana (JPN)
Tiny bullet! Kawabe really went for the 3A, good for her. I know her free skate was a disaster, and she really looked like she was going to throw up on the ice when she finished, I thought she would there for a second. I'm going to root for her to get back to Olympics again and have a better experience. If she skates in 2026 or 2030, I think she will succeed because she has no fear. Even her mistake this time was the same mistake over and over again, she can easily fix it. Some girls splat because they have weak ankles, too nervous, afraid, but that's not what happened with Kawabe. She just have bad time to have an off night.
21. Karen Chen (USA)
What is it about Karen? She is a beautiful skater to watch, even more than Alysa and Mariah, but she doesn't have the fight that Mariah has, and she doesn't have the joy and optimism like Alysa. There's doubt, negative energy, something off, like she's trying to get through the program without a mistake instead of showing off. She was punished too hard in the short program, she should have been ahead of Mariah. Nothing went right after the fall on that loop.
20. Eva-Lotta Kiibus (EST)
This girl has an all-time great name! I may introduce myself to everyone as Eva-Lotta Kiibus from now on! She skated better in the free skate than she did in the short program, at least I liked her program more. Nice she tries different things and is still searching for her unique personality, rather than just play the stereotype princess. Good for her on that.
19. Madeline Schizas (CAN)
You know, she fought for these two skates. She had her Olympic moment in the team event. Hopefully she gets that team bronze medal!
18. Nicole Schott (GER)
She have good refinement and training. A solid Olympic experience that will last her a lifetime I'm sure.
17. Lindsay Van Zundert (NED)
First Dutch figure skater at Olympics in almost 50 years. I'm really surprised she can go clean twice with that pressure. Well done! Didn't think anything of her short program at all, was thinking I will be bored to watch her free skate. But no, she really brought it! Well done again!
16. Alexia Paganini (SUI)
This girl really have the packaging, I thought she was underscored! But something negative about her last night, like Karen. You never know what is going on with these skaters, so I'm not going to speculate, except to say at first I thought it was because her jumps were not there in warm-ups, but I think it's something more than that. Total lack of transition in program, coach have negative body language. Anyway, I think she's a beautiful skater with all the packaging potential. I hope everything gets sorted out.
15. Eliska Brezinova (CZE)
Wow! She was the real underdog story for me at these Olympics. Lower ranked girl who went on a real hot streak trying to make the top 10. Eliska ran out of steam at the end, but what a memorable run she had! Loved her skating!
14. Olga Mikutina (AUT)
Another girl who made an unexpected impression. Very consistent with good energy, well done!
13. Ekaterina Kurakova (POL)
Great comeback in the free skate after her short program. Was that the skate of her life? She had terrific performance quality, but not until after her jumps were done. Only criticism I would offer is to compare her with Madeline Schizas who skated in her group and could have challenged for the early lead. Madeline performed for the entire free skate. Kurakova will do really well if she can get to that level too.
12. Viktoriia Safonova (BLR)
I thought Viktoriia was incredibly consistent and an excellent technician. Usually this kind of skater bores me, and she did in the short program, but her long program choice of music was really perfect. She got me to enjoy her free skate.
11. Ekaterina Ryabova (AZE)
This girl was really underscored, especially in the short program. Everyone can imagine why with politicking and Mariah's top 10 on the line. Absolutely didn't like to see that, but she delivered two great skates at the Olympics. She should be proud of her accomplishment.
10. Mariah Bell (USA)
That little rant aside, I just loved Mariah's fight to go clean in her free skate. She has a very beautiful style, but what amazing focus and determination to finish those close jump landings! National Championship and 10th at the Olympics: crowning achievement to end her career!
9. Loena Hendrickx (BEL)
Gosh, if there's one skater I want to rank higher, it's Loena! Her performance might have been the best of the night, she just had too many mistakes in both her short and long programs. But I just love the serious look of determination and purpose in her eyes while the other girls were giggling for the cameras. Think I'll keep an eye out for her more from now on.
8. Anastasiia Gobanova (GEO)
Another beautiful and clean skater who was underscored because she comes from a small country. Really wanted to see her make the top 10, she definitely deserved it.
7. Yelim Kim (KOR)
Another even more ridiculous underscore! Yelim has wonderful lines, body type that remind me of Shizuka and they used the same music too. Just a beautiful skater to watch. How can she be clean and so exquisite but her score behind a mistake-riddled Loena and Mariah Bell?
6. Alysa Liu (USA)
Well I just thought Alysa was brilliant. What a joy to watch! And she had two clean programs., despite falls during her warm-ups. Something about that spirit I really like. She really brought the energy to rank her above Yelim imo.
5. Wakaba Higuchi (JPN)
Waka! Triple-axel short program! Triple-axel long program! And they were superb too! No doubt at all about the rotation, just the one downgrade or fall in each program that keep her behind Young You in my rankings, but wow her Lion King performance was such high quality. Usually you see a fall like that and the whole program will deflate, but that didn't happen, I couldn't believe it. Amazing!
4. Young You (KOR)
She is such a classically beautiful skater, went for the triple axels, and performed the heck out of her Les Miserables program. Criminally underscored because she's not ROC, USA, JPN. The judges were saying that if she didn't have 3A or last group scoring advantage, apples to apples they would score her behind Alysa Liu. Ridiculous! Already inexplicable that she was behind Waka's two mistakes. Just love watching Young You skate and that wasn't just a girl being happy and carefree on the ice, that was an Olympic Moment worthy performance!
3. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN)
Kaori! The skater's skater! Congratulations! Five years ago I thought you would win World Championship and Olympic Gold Medal one day. There will always be suspicion about Eteri's skaters, how they finished ahead of you. Bronze, gold, it doesn't matter, you won Olympic medal and everyone knows you are the greatest skater of your generation! The edges, the flow, the dedication and mastery to your craft, how light and fast you were across the ice when you were younger, now all these years later you added so much power and womanly strength to your repertoire, such precision on top of beautiful artistic performance. Thank you so much for your skates, I will remember them the rest of my life!
2. Alexandra Trusova (ROC)
Sasha, Sasha, Sasha. Well, we'll see what happens with the investigations, but as for this competition, way too overscored in the short program, with serious errors; nevertheless, five quads was a superlative athletic achievement. I also agree and disagree with criticism of her components, she's not as complete skater like her teammates, but she has her own style, and her program wasn't empty as people make it seem.
1. Anna Shcherbakova (ROC)
Same situation with Sasha and Kamila, they will all forever be linked to Eteri and the positive doping test. But as for this competition, the results stand for now. Anna deserved to win versus her teammate Sasha. She's the more complete skater, who also had quads. Whatever happens or doesn't happen with the investigations, I will always have some admiration for this girl as the quiet, smart, thoughtful one, the girl who stayed calm and emerged from the dark storm. She seems like the steady and reliable center of gravity, where everything can blow up around her and she will somehow turn out OK.
Congrats to all of the skaters and thank you for all of your wonderful performances!
24. Jenni Saarinen (FIN) / Josefin Taljegard (SWE)
I don't want to criticize lower skater too much, but I will just say Josefin Taljegard skated very well in the SP. She was denied the chance to skate in the free skate which she rightfully earned. The one good thing is she will always have that clean Olympic skate.
23. Alexandra Feigin (BUL)
I thought Alexandra acquitted herself very well at this competition. She has the most junior presentation of these ladies, so I hope her packaging and presence will mature in the years ahead. Good luck to her!
22. Kawabe Mana (JPN)
Tiny bullet! Kawabe really went for the 3A, good for her. I know her free skate was a disaster, and she really looked like she was going to throw up on the ice when she finished, I thought she would there for a second. I'm going to root for her to get back to Olympics again and have a better experience. If she skates in 2026 or 2030, I think she will succeed because she has no fear. Even her mistake this time was the same mistake over and over again, she can easily fix it. Some girls splat because they have weak ankles, too nervous, afraid, but that's not what happened with Kawabe. She just have bad time to have an off night.
21. Karen Chen (USA)
What is it about Karen? She is a beautiful skater to watch, even more than Alysa and Mariah, but she doesn't have the fight that Mariah has, and she doesn't have the joy and optimism like Alysa. There's doubt, negative energy, something off, like she's trying to get through the program without a mistake instead of showing off. She was punished too hard in the short program, she should have been ahead of Mariah. Nothing went right after the fall on that loop.
20. Eva-Lotta Kiibus (EST)
This girl has an all-time great name! I may introduce myself to everyone as Eva-Lotta Kiibus from now on! She skated better in the free skate than she did in the short program, at least I liked her program more. Nice she tries different things and is still searching for her unique personality, rather than just play the stereotype princess. Good for her on that.
19. Madeline Schizas (CAN)
You know, she fought for these two skates. She had her Olympic moment in the team event. Hopefully she gets that team bronze medal!
18. Nicole Schott (GER)
She have good refinement and training. A solid Olympic experience that will last her a lifetime I'm sure.
17. Lindsay Van Zundert (NED)
First Dutch figure skater at Olympics in almost 50 years. I'm really surprised she can go clean twice with that pressure. Well done! Didn't think anything of her short program at all, was thinking I will be bored to watch her free skate. But no, she really brought it! Well done again!
16. Alexia Paganini (SUI)
This girl really have the packaging, I thought she was underscored! But something negative about her last night, like Karen. You never know what is going on with these skaters, so I'm not going to speculate, except to say at first I thought it was because her jumps were not there in warm-ups, but I think it's something more than that. Total lack of transition in program, coach have negative body language. Anyway, I think she's a beautiful skater with all the packaging potential. I hope everything gets sorted out.
15. Eliska Brezinova (CZE)
Wow! She was the real underdog story for me at these Olympics. Lower ranked girl who went on a real hot streak trying to make the top 10. Eliska ran out of steam at the end, but what a memorable run she had! Loved her skating!
14. Olga Mikutina (AUT)
Another girl who made an unexpected impression. Very consistent with good energy, well done!
13. Ekaterina Kurakova (POL)
Great comeback in the free skate after her short program. Was that the skate of her life? She had terrific performance quality, but not until after her jumps were done. Only criticism I would offer is to compare her with Madeline Schizas who skated in her group and could have challenged for the early lead. Madeline performed for the entire free skate. Kurakova will do really well if she can get to that level too.
12. Viktoriia Safonova (BLR)
I thought Viktoriia was incredibly consistent and an excellent technician. Usually this kind of skater bores me, and she did in the short program, but her long program choice of music was really perfect. She got me to enjoy her free skate.
11. Ekaterina Ryabova (AZE)
This girl was really underscored, especially in the short program. Everyone can imagine why with politicking and Mariah's top 10 on the line. Absolutely didn't like to see that, but she delivered two great skates at the Olympics. She should be proud of her accomplishment.
10. Mariah Bell (USA)
That little rant aside, I just loved Mariah's fight to go clean in her free skate. She has a very beautiful style, but what amazing focus and determination to finish those close jump landings! National Championship and 10th at the Olympics: crowning achievement to end her career!
9. Loena Hendrickx (BEL)
Gosh, if there's one skater I want to rank higher, it's Loena! Her performance might have been the best of the night, she just had too many mistakes in both her short and long programs. But I just love the serious look of determination and purpose in her eyes while the other girls were giggling for the cameras. Think I'll keep an eye out for her more from now on.
8. Anastasiia Gobanova (GEO)
Another beautiful and clean skater who was underscored because she comes from a small country. Really wanted to see her make the top 10, she definitely deserved it.
7. Yelim Kim (KOR)
Another even more ridiculous underscore! Yelim has wonderful lines, body type that remind me of Shizuka and they used the same music too. Just a beautiful skater to watch. How can she be clean and so exquisite but her score behind a mistake-riddled Loena and Mariah Bell?
6. Alysa Liu (USA)
Well I just thought Alysa was brilliant. What a joy to watch! And she had two clean programs., despite falls during her warm-ups. Something about that spirit I really like. She really brought the energy to rank her above Yelim imo.
5. Wakaba Higuchi (JPN)
Waka! Triple-axel short program! Triple-axel long program! And they were superb too! No doubt at all about the rotation, just the one downgrade or fall in each program that keep her behind Young You in my rankings, but wow her Lion King performance was such high quality. Usually you see a fall like that and the whole program will deflate, but that didn't happen, I couldn't believe it. Amazing!
4. Young You (KOR)
She is such a classically beautiful skater, went for the triple axels, and performed the heck out of her Les Miserables program. Criminally underscored because she's not ROC, USA, JPN. The judges were saying that if she didn't have 3A or last group scoring advantage, apples to apples they would score her behind Alysa Liu. Ridiculous! Already inexplicable that she was behind Waka's two mistakes. Just love watching Young You skate and that wasn't just a girl being happy and carefree on the ice, that was an Olympic Moment worthy performance!
3. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN)
Kaori! The skater's skater! Congratulations! Five years ago I thought you would win World Championship and Olympic Gold Medal one day. There will always be suspicion about Eteri's skaters, how they finished ahead of you. Bronze, gold, it doesn't matter, you won Olympic medal and everyone knows you are the greatest skater of your generation! The edges, the flow, the dedication and mastery to your craft, how light and fast you were across the ice when you were younger, now all these years later you added so much power and womanly strength to your repertoire, such precision on top of beautiful artistic performance. Thank you so much for your skates, I will remember them the rest of my life!
2. Alexandra Trusova (ROC)
Sasha, Sasha, Sasha. Well, we'll see what happens with the investigations, but as for this competition, way too overscored in the short program, with serious errors; nevertheless, five quads was a superlative athletic achievement. I also agree and disagree with criticism of her components, she's not as complete skater like her teammates, but she has her own style, and her program wasn't empty as people make it seem.
1. Anna Shcherbakova (ROC)
Same situation with Sasha and Kamila, they will all forever be linked to Eteri and the positive doping test. But as for this competition, the results stand for now. Anna deserved to win versus her teammate Sasha. She's the more complete skater, who also had quads. Whatever happens or doesn't happen with the investigations, I will always have some admiration for this girl as the quiet, smart, thoughtful one, the girl who stayed calm and emerged from the dark storm. She seems like the steady and reliable center of gravity, where everything can blow up around her and she will somehow turn out OK.
Congrats to all of the skaters and thank you for all of your wonderful performances!
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2013
Well then you're decades behind the times since that's how long a 3A has been is the SP.
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2014
Well, I don't get why people don't understand (and that has not anything to do with Russian press, because i can't read it) how IOC and WADA are exactly the one to blame. If they already waited for so long to publish the tests results, which was only their own 'mistake', they could wait just for a little bit more for the competition to end and take away her medals after it if they were sure she is guilty
IOC and WADA literally made a scandal for publishing the tests results far late according to their own rules and 'broke' an athlete for publishing it at the worst possible time for her, and the only one who tried to sort out the things is CAS. My opinion (if we should go for one good conspiracy theory) - they have their own stuff to sort out, so they used this situation to distract people from their own corruption work, known from Nagano. If I am Kamila, i would go to CAS and sue IOC and WADA for 'emotional harm'. 
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- Joined
- Mar 14, 2007
No. No one period. It's abusive. It's CHILD abuse, even.
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2021
There were some happy moments from non-russian girls at Women FS event though. Not everyone cried at that night.
The following link has a video from the green room.
https://www.another site.com/r/Figu...a_wholesome_moment_with_alysa_young_and_loena
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2021
Should it really? CO, IN and PE has nothing to do with what is from waist down mostly. And SS of Kaori is overrated somewhat - since almost everything she do - she do on two foot. Unpopular opninion, but Anna fit the image of ideal woman figure skater more for me while Kaori is looking more fit for short track rather then figure skating. I believe arms movement is extremely important for presentation and interpretation in figure skating - and that's certainly is not Kaori's strong suit.
I would recommend for everyone to respect the rule "not guilty unless proven". You would look very foolish if Kamila's second sample will be clean - for example. That constant anti-Eteri narration got old long time ago - I just skip all this now because reading it is very boring - and I need to skip a lot.
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I don't know, to me Trusova was always really lacking in the artistry, with this program and GoT. heads down for most of the program, no transitions whatsover, facial expression only at the end and the posture isn't great.
With Plushenko she was trying more with the transitions, like the cantilever into the 3ltz-3lo and the skating skills in the first part of the season they were working on it, now it's all empty.
The difference with other skaters that performed before and after her was very noticeable, in the quality of skating, i've heard commentators saying it looks like a different sport: artistry in the other programs, whiile here it was a jump exhibition and nothing else.
I can see why she got mad, cause with 5 quads you want to win, but the strategy was not the smartest for her. Maybe one less quad and more skating in between the elements could have made her to the gold medal.
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2018
fact is and there is nothing to say that this is not fact that her family made the excuse with the grandfather. they didnt say no it cant be that the substance was found. so they knew she had taken it somehow. so i doubt the b sample matters. because if they were so sure b sample is negative they would not have had an explanation ready as to how it apparently got into her system. not that this excus is actually believable , because the timeline doesnt fit in in the first place , kamila was at the rusnatsq in st.petersburg for days so when exactly should she have dra k from her grandfathers glass? like a week before?, neither the rusada agent that was at the hearing nor WADA beliebed that excuse Actually from what is known. and you know its bad when even your agency that up to this point advicated for you doesnt believe it. . and i dont put any blame on kamila she is a child. i blame the adults around her that she trusted above all and that have let her down while the world watched it on tv
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2021
Wrong. They knew nothing (even whether there really was substance in her body or it's lab's mistake) - Kamila included. They did what advocates told them to do. "I don't know" answer means automatic guilty verdict in sports law - even if it's truth. Of course the excuse is a lie - but noone cares about truth in sports law - only about balance of probabilities. They couldn't blame anyone without proves - so they choose what they can to affect judges. If and when they find proves to support other version of what happened - they probably will change their stance.. or not. Because judges do not like when initial testimony is changing - so they can be compelled to still keep their first testimony even if they find out what really happened.
But further discussion will be more suited for other corresponding topic, I think. All I can say here is that I fully support Kamila - but I am not going to write about it to her directly. I strongly believe any reminders of her supposed "crime" is traumatizing for her now - even in form of support.
The problems we have with Eteri go way beyond Kamila's failed test.
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2021
I have no doubts about it
Yet the only problems which matters are those which can be proved in court with evidence. If an issue you have with someone is not punished by the law or you can't prove it - shouting about punishing that person will make you look just salty and foolish.It's all come out in public.I have no doubts about it
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2010
It was Rita Mamut. Olympic Gold Medalist from Rio 2016 (rhythmic gymnastics). Here's her picture from Instagram with Zhenia and Alina: https://www.instagram.com/p/CaKiEdfFk1e/Who is that with Evgenia with the flag? Is it Diana? Poor Zagitova. ' You can't join us in this flag'
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