2022 Olympics: Women's Short Program

[lariko]

Of course! Unbridled Nationalism. My country right or wrong. Arrogance. And yet, with all the Japanese skaters I sit with at comps, they seem to support not only all their own skaters, but many others as well. How many people here agree with Joekaz that the Japanese only support their fav skaters? Anyone? Speak up now!

I do. Omg, i do so much. The Japanese and American skating fans behaviour at live competitions wasn’t very nice. Gosh, I still remember seeing poor Rizzo standing there in the middle of the rink and those Japanese still screaming because of Hanyu and not letting him to start… and they literally only showed up for Hanyu’s skating, and cared for nobody else. And those two people who sat behind me trashing Sinitzina all event in Skate America, and how American girls were better and we are talking like Starr Andrews here, not Tennell… or like complete silence after Grassl skated his beautiful free program… omg. I really disliked that attitude. I specifically would try to avoid Hanyu in competition after that hysteria. It’s just terrible. I am not even talking about Mozalev’s hounding during Olympics by Hanyu’s fans.

 

[[email protected]]

Of course! Unbridled Nationalism. My country right or wrong. Arrogance. And yet, with all the Japanese skaters I sit with at comps, they seem to support not only all their own skaters, but many others as well. How many people here agree with Joekaz that the Japanese only support their fav skaters? Anyone? Speak up now!

What a bias and stererotyping. I won't bother to read you any more. I would just say that I like and support many skaters not just the Russians with "arrogance and unbridled nationalism". I was one of the first to say that still junior Rika would be a star when everyone bet on Marin. I supported Bradie who was brave enough to double the number of transitions compared with usual amount of American skaters to match Eteri's girls. I like Loena who is the embodiment of elegance to me and so on and so forth.

 

[CoyoteChris]

There are many ways to get these infos, but the easiest way is probably to look it up on SkatingScores. But perhaps you shouldn't look i up as you could be disappointed that there are no russians involved at all.

A kind person here gave me the info I sought. Thank you for the link. She gave me that also. I am sure that the Russians have absolutly no influence on Croatia, China, and Estonia, as well as other places like GEO, BLR AND AZE. I also believe in the Tooth Fairy.

 

[SNAKSuyun]

Of course! Unbridled Nationalism. My country right or wrong. Arrogance. And yet, with all the Japanese skaters I sit with at comps, they seem to support not only all their own skaters, but many others as well. How many people here agree with Joekaz that the Japanese only support their fav skaters? Anyone? Speak up now!

I think Joe is mostly frustrated that Kaori has supposedly gotten better treatment than some other Japanese skaters, but especially Wakaba. How true that is aside (I think that's a part of it, but not all of it), I find it understandable (Wakaba deserves better!), but a little ironic considering how much #Wakakao have been trending on twitter with them sharing a room, show gossip, and fun times in the Beijing snow. JSF has its faults just like RusFed, Chinese Fed and Skate Canada, there's not much we or the skaters can do to affect them. The things I'd give to be able to change the behavior of certain feds... goes back to writing my fs fanfiction (dw, it doesn't involve real skaters )

 

[Silvia451]

Speaking of artistry, my expectations are getting lower and lower. The only lady that really impressed me artistically in the last few years is Kostornaia and it took me some time to accept that the ladies figure skating nowadays is such that she might never come back to the top again.

 

[Joekaz]

Of course! Unbridled Nationalism. My country right or wrong. Arrogance. And yet, with all the Japanese skaters I sit with at comps, they seem to support not only all their own skaters, but many others as well. How many people here agree with Joekaz that the Japanese only support their fav skaters? Anyone? Speak up now!

I wasn't talking about fans, I was talking about the Federations.

 

[Skater Boy]

Sakomoto is a strong all-around skater, who is also very consistent, and rightfully in a real contention to win gold at this Olympics. But calling her more artistic than any other skater or any other Russian skater is a stretch.

Fair statemet.

 

[Joekaz]

Fair statemet.

I wouldn't say Kaori is strong all around. She has great strengths and great weaknesses. What her and her team do well is highlight her strengths and hide her weaknesses. Thats why she uses alot of unconventional music and choreography.

 

[rollerblade]

I wouldn't say Kaori is strong all around. She has great strengths and great weaknesses. What her and her team do well is highlight her strengths and hide her weaknesses. Thats why she uses alot of unconventional music and choreography.

And what's wrong with that? Shouldn't that be everyone's strategy? It's a math game - you maximize what you can get from your strengths, and minimize the damage done from your weaknesses.

Over time, you do things you can to improve those weaknesses, while at the same time try not to lose the strengths you already have.

 

[Joekaz]

The Kaori hate amuses me especially when Kaori fans are never against artistic skaters getting better treatment in PCS. Heck, I was/am totally fine with Alena, Anna and Kamila scoring higher than her on PCS (although I find Kamila's advantage a little bit preposterous). When DID Kaori ever score higher PCS than the Russians anyway? Unless y'all legitimately think she's less artistic than Sasha? Y'all makng it sound like she's out there outscoring everyone in PCS when the only one she's currently outscoring at the olys that she probably shouldn't is Wakaba (and I'd be in favor of 37 PCS Wakaba, too, but that's not my or Kaori's decision to make).

One last thing: some people watch the sport for the Russians. Others watch it for people like Kaori Sakamoto. I didn't buy my skates and go to all the FS competitions because I wanted to see quads, I am here because I love people who spark joy and are leaving all that they are on the ice. They're here because they're doing what they love and sharing that love with the world. That's what inspires me.

I don't hate Kaori at all. But I do get tired of people acting like the Russian Fed is the only source of corruption and unfair judging in skating and attacking their skaters scores only. In the SP, Kaori also benefitted from lenient tech calls and generous GOE and PCS just like the Russians did, compared to the very strict way it was called for most of the skaters. For example Kaori not only got away with her flutz, but it actually got more GOE than Wakaba's perfect 3A. Not to mention getting 9+ in every component to Higuchi's 8.5- in everything. Just ridiculous, but all you here is that Russians were overscored and Wakaba AND Kaori were underscored. That is an insult to Wakaba,who along with every other Japanese skater, including Rika, has had to endure this for several years now. I don't blame Kaori for this, the JSF used to do the same with Satoko, and completely ignore her URs for years.

 

[Joekaz]

And what's wrong with that? Shouldn't that be everyone's strategy? It's a math game - you maximize what you can get from your strengths, and minimize the damage done from your weaknesses.

Over time, you do things you can to improve those weaknesses, while at the same time try not to lose the strengths you already have.

I never said anything is wrong with it. To the contrary, I think she is the best managed and smartest coached skater today.

 

[KaoriFan]

I watched the short program day later, except for one skater.

My scores:
(just ranking, since PCS, GOE, and all q and ! calls are made up by the judges to ordinal skaters anyway)


29. Kailani Craine (AUS)
28. Natasha Mckay (U.K.)
Tough skates for these ladies, but they will always have the memory of skating on Olympic ice.

27. Anastasiia Shabotova (UKR)
Another tough skate, but she is young and I really like she went for the 3A. What courage! Never see that from someone just trying to make the free skate. I think she will do well in the future, but I'm worried about her political situation.

26. Jenni Saarinen (FIN)
Very nervous and uneven skate, then very nervous afterwards on the bubble all night! I think other skaters were more deserving to advance.

25. Zhu Yi (CHN)
She looked absolutely terrified at first, but after jumps were over, I really loved her beautiful skating! Nice moment she could have redemption after team competition.

24. Josefin Taljegard (SWE)
She skated well and was really happy with her performance. Josefin definitely deserved to advance over Jenni Saarinen who had invalid element imo. Feel really bad for her.

23. Ekaterina Kurakova (POL)
22. Eva-Lotta Kiibus (EST)
Surprisingly poor performances. They are lucky to advance! Second chance to redeem on Thursday night!

21. Madeline Schizas (CAN)
She really fought to advance and I loved that. Good for her saving that performance and qualifying for free skate.

20. Lindsay Van Zundert (NED)
She was just solid. It's been a long time since Dutch woman made the free skate. Welcome back!

19. Olga Mikutina (AUT)
I really liked her energy early in the night. Clean skate!

18. Nicole Schott (GER)
Like a few other skaters in Group 3, she had good solid middle of the pack quality. I guess you would call refined, well-trained. Too bad about the downgraded jump.

17. Alexandra Feigin (BUL)
I think out of the ladies who achieved more harder technical content, she had the most junior presentation. But her technicals were good and she was clean, that's the most important start!

16. Kawabe Mana (JPN)
She went for 3A too. Nice! Miyahara is Tiny Queen, but Kawabe is Tiny Bullet now!

15. Mariah Bell (USA)
Mariah skated absolutely beautiful after the fall, but a fall is a fall. Her score wasn't really propped up, it was that other skaters scores were held down in order to get her into penultimate group and top 10. Not her fault, just the judging, I really didn't like that.

14. Karen Chen (USA)
Karen is a beautiful skater and young lady, but another heartbreaking fall for sure. She was so close too.
She was penalized too harsh and should be ahead of Mariah. She was a better skater than Mariah tonight. I think Team USA may be sending Karen another punishment warning like they always did Mirai. They only do this to the Asian American girls btw.

13. Loena Hendrickx (BEL)
Loeana performed well but this was a sloppy skate. She can do a lot better. I'm brutally honest about the placements, without regard for reputation, politicking, etc. She was way overscored based on reputation and not much else.

12. Viktoriia Safonova (BLR)
11. Alexia Paganini (SUI)
10. Anastasiia Gubanova (GEO)
They did well! These middle of the pack girls are easy to overlook, they aren't the top and they aren't the bottom fighting to qualify for free skate either, so good for them skating so well!

9. Ekaterina Ryabova (AZE)
She was shockingly underscored just to make sure Mariah made the penultimate TV group and chance at top 10. Really hated to see that. This girl was shaking her head and threw her hands up in disgust in the Kiss and Cry, and rightfully so.

8. Eliska Brezinova (CZE)
She was wonderful, I think my favorite early skater of the night! Very clean technicals too.

7. Yelim Kim (KOR)
Yelim was really underscored, wow! I think her placement was about right though, more or less.

6. Alexandra Trusova (ROC)
She can make up points in the free skate, but there's no excuse for her being scored higher than girls ahead of her on this list. The short program is a technical program, and Alexandra is a technical skater. She fell once and almost fell forward on her face a second time.

5. Alysa Liu (USA)
Wow, Alysa had one of the most fabulous skates of the night! She had the best "face" or presentation of anyone. I like that about her! Clean skate, she was underscored and of course there is one undeserving athlete blocking a place; otherwise, Alysa should be skating in the last group competing for a medal tomorrow night.

4. Young You (KOR)
She was breathtaking! Not close at all on the 3A but I hope she keeps working on it, she landed in junior olympics right?

3. Wakaba Higuchi (JPN)
Triple-axel, wow! If her other jump wasn't downgraded, I would put her in first place!

2. Anna Shcherbakova (ROC)
Anna was great! She was the best Russian on the ice, and one of the few Russian ladies I actually like to watch skate. Her timing with the music seemed a little off, but otherwise she really brought the energy!

1. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN)
I've said this since 2017-2018 season: Kaori Sakamoto is the best skater of her generation. The speed! The power! The footwork and edges! Just watch that free abandon! Her jumps are high and fly across the ice! Nobody skates like this girl and that was an Olympic MOMENT.

She won the short program last night many people think!

 

[Flying Feijoa]

I do. Omg, i do so much. The Japanese and American skating fans behaviour at live competitions wasn’t very nice. Gosh, I still remember seeing poor Rizzo standing there in the middle of the rink and those Japanese still screaming because of Hanyu and not letting him to start… and they literally only showed up for Hanyu’s skating, and cared for nobody else. And those two people who sat behind me trashing Sinitzina all event in Skate America, and how American girls were better and we are talking like Starr Andrews here, not Tennell… or like complete silence after Grassl skated his beautiful free program… omg. I really disliked that attitude. I specifically would try to avoid Hanyu in competition after that hysteria. It’s just terrible. I am not even talking about Mozalev’s hounding during Olympics by Hanyu’s fans.

About the Japanese fans, I was at Autumn Classic a couple years back and noticed many of the Pooh crowd actually spoke Chinese. I think it's just a special Hanyu-related phenomenon rather than nationalism (e.g. Shoma doesn't elicit this sort of reaction). [Disclaimer: not all Hanyu fans are like this, of course.]

Yup, I might have avoided Autumn Classic if I'd known Hanyu was competing (I lived under a rock back then). Actually I like his skating but don't enjoy the huge queues for the bathroom. Also Challengers are usually a good chance to catch high-level skaters in a more quiet and intimate setting, and I was looking for that sort of atmosphere...

 

[Joekaz]

I watched the short program day later, except for one skater.

My scores:
(just ranking, since PCS, GOE, and all q and ! calls are made up by the judges to ordinal skaters anyway)


29. Kailani Craine (AUS)
28. Natasha Mckay (U.K.)
Tough skates for these ladies, but they will always have the memory of skating on Olympic ice.

27. Anastasiia Shabotova (UKR)
Another tough skate, but she is young and I really like she went for the 3A. What courage! Never see that from someone just trying to make the free skate. I think she will do well in the future, but I'm worried about her political situation.

26. Jenni Saarinen (FIN)
Very nervous and uneven skate, then very nervous afterwards on the bubble all night! I think other skaters were more deserving to advance.

25. Zhu Yi (CHN)
She looked absolutely terrified at first, but after jumps were over, I really loved her beautiful skating! Nice moment she could have redemption after team competition.

24. Josefin Taljegard (SWE)
She skated well and was really happy with her performance. Josefin definitely deserved to advance over Jenni Saarinen who had invalid element imo. Feel really bad for her.

23. Ekaterina Kurakova (POL)
22. Eva-Lotta Kiibus (EST)
Surprisingly poor performances. They are lucky to advance! Second chance to redeem on Thursday night!

21. Madeline Schizas (CAN)
She really fought to advance and I loved that. Good for her saving that performance and qualifying for free skate.

20. Lindsay Van Zundert (NED)
She was just solid. It's been a long time since Dutch woman made the free skate. Welcome back!

19. Olga Mikutina (AUT)
I really liked her energy early in the night. Clean skate!

18. Nicole Schott (GER)
Like a few other skaters in Group 3, she had good solid middle of the pack quality. I guess you would call refined, well-trained. Too bad about the downgraded jump.

17. Alexandra Feigin (BUL)
I think out of the ladies who achieved more harder technical content, she had the most junior presentation. But her technicals were good and she was clean, that's the most important start!

16. Kawabe Mana (JPN)
She went for 3A too. Nice! Miyahara is Tiny Queen, but Kawabe is Tiny Bullet now!

15. Mariah Bell (USA)
Mariah skated absolutely beautiful after the fall, but a fall is a fall. Her score wasn't really propped up, it was that other skaters scores were held down in order to get her into penultimate group and top 10. Not her fault, just the judging, I really didn't like that.

14. Karen Chen (USA)
Karen is a beautiful skater and young lady, but another heartbreaking fall for sure. She was so close too.
She was penalized too harsh and should be ahead of Mariah. She was a better skater than Mariah tonight. I think Team USA may be sending Karen another punishment warning like they always did Mirai. They only do this to the Asian American girls btw.

13. Loena Hendrickx (BEL)
Loeana performed well but this was a sloppy skate. She can do a lot better. I'm brutally honest about the placements, without regard for reputation, politicking, etc. She was way overscored based on reputation and not much else.

12. Viktoriia Safonova (BLR)
11. Alexia Paganini (SUI)
10. Anastasiia Gubanova (GEO)
They did well! These middle of the pack girls are easy to overlook, they aren't the top and they aren't the bottom fighting to qualify for free skate either, so good for them skating so well!

9. Ekaterina Ryabova (AZE)
She was shockingly underscored just to make sure Mariah made the penultimate TV group and chance at top 10. Really hated to see that. This girl was shaking her head and threw her hands up in disgust in the Kiss and Cry, and rightfully so.

8. Eliska Brezinova (CZE)
She was wonderful, I think my favorite early skater of the night! Very clean technicals too.

7. Yelim Kim (KOR)
Yelim was really underscored, wow! I think her placement was about right though, more or less.

6. Alexandra Trusova (ROC)
She can make up points in the free skate, but there's no excuse for her being scored higher than girls ahead of her on this list. The short program is a technical program, and Alexandra is a technical skater. She fell once and almost fell forward on her face a second time.

5. Alysa Liu (USA)
Wow, Alysa had one of the most fabulous skates of the night! She had the best "face" or presentation of anyone. I like that about her! Clean skate, she was underscored and of course there is one undeserving athlete blocking a place; otherwise, Alysa should be skating in the last group competing for a medal tomorrow night.

4. Young You (KOR)
She was breathtaking! Not close at all on the 3A but I hope she keeps working on it, she landed in junior olympics right?

3. Wakaba Higuchi (JPN)
Triple-axel, wow! If her other jump wasn't downgraded, I would put her in first place!

2. Anna Shcherbakova (ROC)
Anna was great! She was the best Russian on the ice, and one of the few Russian ladies I actually like to watch skate. Her timing with the music seemed a little off, but otherwise she really brought the energy!

1. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN)
I've said this since 2017-2018 season: Kaori Sakamoto is the best skater of her generation. The speed! The power! The footwork and edges! Just watch that free abandon! Her jumps are high and fly across the ice! Nobody skates like this girl and that was an Olympic MOMENT.

She won the short program last night many people think!

You left out Kaori's most important attribute, jump consistency. Without that she would not have had the success she's had.

 

[Tomadeur]

A kind person here gave me the info I sought. Thank you for the link. She gave me that also. I am sure that the Russians have absolutly no influence on Croatia, China, and Estonia, as well as other places like GEO, BLR AND AZE. I also believe in the Tooth Fairy.

Sorry, but this is more than ridiculous and has nothing to do with the facts. Apparently you didn't look at the scores the judges gave. Not only is there no evidence to support your accusations, but the facts show a different picture.

The Azerbadjan judge gave Kamila by far the worst score in the team event. The judge from Lithuania also gave a relatively low score. The judges who were above the actual score were from Italy, Spain, Finland and the USA.

In the individual competition, the judges from the Czech Republic and Estonia, among others, were below the actual score. Above it were the USA, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria and China.

For Anna and Sasha it looks a little bit different, but also here European judges give the highest scores. The picture is similar in the Grand Prix competitions even if i would say that russian and belarusian judges tend to gave the russian skaters a little bit higher scores.

 

[eterialskating]

Of course! Unbridled Nationalism. My country right or wrong. Arrogance. And yet, with all the Japanese skaters I sit with at comps, they seem to support not only all their own skaters, but many others as well. How many people here agree with Joekaz that the Japanese only support their fav skaters? Anyone? Speak up now!

Unbridled nationalism and hateful bias. Who insulted the entirety of Russian skaters by regurgitating stereotypes and having such clear bias against them. I'm pretty sure uttering inanities like Kaori is better than every Russian ever show such objectivity and lucid judgment. Even the most bias commentators would never utter such drivel. How incredibly hypocritical and dishonest to bring up Japanese support of figure skating while showing such a belligerent attitude towards an entire group of skaters. These people BTW call themselves proper fans and have delusions of being objective judges.

 

[Thrashergurl]

I always find myself rooting for Trusova even though I don't like her skating that much. But I'm impressed how she tries to make up for her shortcomings by taking even more risks instead of playing it safe. Maybe some day it pays off. Maybe thursday is that day.

Same. I just adore her. I find her the most interesting of the ROC athletes because she’s there for herself. I hope she has the skate of her life in the long program and changes the narrative of these Olympics.

 

[moonvine]

Why is everyone acting like Mariah is the oldest woman on the planet?

I’m shocked she can make it onto the ice without her walker.

 

[Arigato]

1. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN)
I've said this since 2017-2018 season: Kaori Sakamoto is the best skater of her generation. The speed! The power! The footwork and edges! Just watch that free abandon! Her jumps are high and fly across the ice! Nobody skates like this girl and that was an Olympic MOMENT.

She won the short program last night many people think!

Were it not for catching her Matrix program last year, I would still be watching only men skate. Her movement across the ice is quite different than the rest— a pleasure to watch.

 

[Janice4th]

There are many ways to get these infos, but the easiest way is probably to look it up on SkatingScores. But perhaps you shouldn't look i up as you could be disappointed that there are no russians involved at all.

Looked like a couple of Slavic names for the tech panel.