2022 US Nationals: Women - Thoughts?

[gsk8]

Mariah Bell takes first National title

Mariah Bell captured her first national title at the 2022 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday night. Karen Chen maintained second overall to earn the silver […]

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What a fantastic event! It was a shame to lose Glenn and Liu and I hope they have a speedy recovery. But wow! Levito! And Izzo and Thorngren!

Bell finally got her gold!

What are your thoughts?

 

[HeadBanger]

Great skates by the medalists. So happy for Mariah and Karen, punching their tickets with wonderful skates!

 

[skatinggold]

Bell is overscored. 140 for no triple triple and two messed up jumps and bad landings.

 

[Bentley]

Olympic team will be Bell, Chen and Liu. Levito is probably the best of all but too young to go.

 

[sabinfire]

Meh.

 

[Mauvedreamer]

Isabeau absolutely the best. Nothing more to be said .

 

[Ross74]

Jill Heiner made me smile.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Meh.

I mean they deserve a bit better than that. Sure the technical department left much to be desired and showed little promise for the team event (and based on SPs it would be a huge triumph for the US to make the final flight at the Olympics with the right calls). But there was still some beautiful skating.

 

[skatingiscool]

Bell got 140 FS score with NO triple triple, NO 3A and NO quad. I'm wondering.....what's Kamila Valieva FS score if Kamila competes at US nationals tonight? 300?

 

[alexocfp]

Well, from a human interest story, Mariah and Gracie definitely provided that.

At the beginning of the year, Bell looked to be the odd woman out. But she rode her luck, her competition got hurt or got sick, but fair play to her for taking advantage of the window opening. At the end of the day, you can only beat whose in front of you. So congrats to the new champion.

Gracie continues to work, battle, and fight. You have to respect and applaud that. She can easily be doing other things successfully without needing to go through this grind this late into her career. So a standing ovation for her.

That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the state of the union is anything but strong.

Forget the Russians that are in rare air, I don’t think any of the women here are better than Loena. And I have a hard time seeing them beating at least 2 of the Japanese girls and at least one of the South Koreans.

Besides Liu, who bless her heart is trying to up the ante and realizes the level that is needed to compete with the best, the rest of the women are going into the 2022 Olympics with 2018 weapons.

Won‘t be a good look to have a big skating nation like the USA having their competitors 60 points from the gold medal position (or more), which isn‘t out of the realm of possibility right now.

 

[ptvvibezz]

The alternates better be training like they're going to Beijing cause they probably will.

Both Karen and Mariah were lovely and Gracie being in the last warm-up group at Nats was definitely one of the best moments. Happy for Gabby being pewter. Was a "meh" nationals overall but the juniors look exciting. Wonder who they'll send to junior worlds, 4CC, and Worlds.

 

[nickp91]

Isabeau Levito definitely made herself known at her first senior championships

 

[friedbanana]

Karen's musicality

No comment about the jumps lol. I hope everyone stays healthy.

 

[soccerjc77]

My two favorites of the competition Isabeau Levito and Lindsay Thorngren both girl showing gutsy element with difficult triple/triple and Lindsay an attempt of triple axel. Bravo ! Hope that they will be the future of USFS.

 

[readernick]

Bell got 140 FS score with NO triple triple, NO 3A and NO quad. I'm wondering.....what's Kamila Valieva FS score if Kamila competes at US nationals tonight? 300?

The same as she got at RN. They both equally overscore their skaters.

Mariah and Karen were definitely overscored but this event was better than expected so it's fine. Mariah was overscore in GOE. Karen had a bunch of her URs in the FS ignored.

Isabeau probably should have won but she is a junior. Lindsay was harshly scored. I like Izzo quite a bit.

I had low expectations. So, the result satisfied me. Mariah, Karen and Alysa are a pretty decent team.

 

[bubblecherry]

karen’s sp was the highlight of the event. it’s just so so good. isabeau was stunning and in my ideal world she would be the champion. i can’t wait to see her at nationals for years to come. congrats to mariah for winning! both karen and mariah were able to put out two solid programs after a year of competitive highs and lows.

 

[noskates]

Awww - I'm always amazed that the posters here know more than the actual judges and technical specialists.

I'm very happy for Mariah. Karen is not a favorite but she skated well tonight - albeit with her usual URs. Isabeau and Alysa are our future and I anticipate a great rivalry between them. Both need to develop some finesse and musicality but they are definitely two to look forward to. Lindsay really had an off night. I think Audrey Shen will be in that up and coming group as well. Too bad her SP was not so good. All in all, truth be told, none of our ladies are going to be competitive with the Russian jumping beans but they can still have success.

 

[Mathman]

For me, it was a great competition all around. No need toi bring the Russians or anyone else into it. If you win a national championsahip, then you are the national champion!

Congratulations to Mariah, snagging gold on her 9th try. I am very happy for her, as I would be happy for Karen if she had pulled it out. Interesestingly, we (or at least I) think of Karen as being the more "artistic" skater of the two, but Mariah got her edge in part by winning the Performance, Composition, and Musicality program components.

Huge shout-out to Isabeau. (Her charming interview with Andrea Jpyce after the short program showed just how young 14 is. )

Go, Gracie! I hope ther memories of the short program wi;ll cheer her heart for a lifetime.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Bell got 140 FS score with NO triple triple, NO 3A and NO quad. I'm wondering.....what's Kamila Valieva FS score if Kamila competes at US nationals tonight? 300?

I’m not sure if you understand the scoring system very well. If a skater pulls 70 PCS (which often the top US skater does), then with 70 TES they will clear 140. And 70 TES is very achievable even without maxed out content/base value. Granted Bell and Chen got generous tech calling and scoring and internationally no way would get 140.

But also let’s not pretend like Russian Nationals wasn’t a joke in scoring either. Anna got 9.75s (77 PCS) with a fall … Trusova got 74 PCS with a fall (clean with no falls she shouldn’t even clear 70, IMO). Tuktamysheva got 10.00s and didn’t even skate clean. And Valieva while clean technically was not perfect on all PCS points and no way she would get 79.20 outside of Russia.

I’m actually shocked that none of the top 2 at US nationals cleared 70 PCS in spite of staying on their feet and being in the 70 range already internationally (so over 70 for fairly clean skates at Nationals wouldn’t be too egregious) - as I said compare that to Anna/Sasha getting 9.75s and 77/74 PCS even with a fall (and frankly, sloppy skating from Anna compared to her usual). And there’s wasn’t a ton of generosity on the GOE front (like Anna getting -3 for falls lol).

So to answer your question: at US nationals, no, Valieva wouldn’t score 300. But she also wouldn’t score the 283.48 monstrosity that she got served up to her at Russian nationals either. With US having relatively conservative scoring compared to Russian Nats (and Rostelecom where there was also favourable home scoring), Valieva probably would have scored sub 280 and probably closer to 275 in a non-Russian environment.

Of all countries that you should be joking about overscoring, Russia is the LAST one to compare to.

 

[R.D.]

I really felt the absence of Liu and Tennell during the final group and was underwhelmed overall. Not to take away from the winner Bell and Karen Chen's efforts, as they did what they needed to do to stamp their Olympic tickets.

And given how the week has gone, whoever the alternates are, they'd better be ready as the likelihood that at least one could be called upon is rising...