2025-26 Grand Prix Final Women's Free Skate | Page 14 | Golden Skate

2025-26 Grand Prix Final Women's Free Skate

People focusing purely on Alysa's jump technique need to open their eyes to her performance ability. At this competition, she really deserved the highest score on that component for both her programs. I do think Mone has the best LP, but she didn't skate cleanly, and she still skates a bit too studiously.

Alysa also has some of the better spins in the field - and the transition she's doing out of her 2A in the SP seems "simple" yet in reality is so difficult.
Her skating and her body lines often look more like the style you’d expect from a junior rather than someone being positioned as a world-level contender.
She is good at showing her energy, but that doesn't mean she has any performance ability. This is american skating from 90s
 
Alysa is a very good performer, although still a little juniorish, but that's just personal preference. Presentation is only one third of PCS . Her skating skills are not great compared to the Japanese, and her GOE are also grossly inflated. You might as well go back to 6.0 if there aren't going to be edge calls or URs called.
Composition is another component, and I feel her SP deserves the highest this season, if skated cleanly. Her basic skating isn't as amazing as the Japanese women's - but the SP is doing a great job of emphasising her strengths in that area, too.

Her spins deserves very good GOE too. Her step sequence deserves credit for being performed well, even if not with the best edges and glide.

I do think her jump GOE is too high - but as an example, some of us disagree with the idea that her 3Lz+3Lo in the SP deserved a call. In addition to that, 3Lz+3Lo is one of the hardest combos being performed in the women's field currently - and Alysa can actually try to bring that into her LP, too. So she is making up for her flaws in multiple ways.
 
Alysa is now the 2025 Grand Prix Finals winner to add to her 2025 World Championship. She's gathering momentum.

But what a topsy-turvy outcome. Sakamoto won the FP but only third overall. Chiba went from first to last, SP to LP. Liu was only third in the LP, but that held up for first overall. At this point, I think it would be folly to try to make predictions about how the Olympics might unfold.:drama:
 
Alysa is now the 2025 Grand Prix Finals winner to add to her 2025 World Championship. She's gathering momentum.

But what a topsy-turvy outcome. Sakamoto won the FP but only third overall. Chiba went from first to last, SP to LP. Liu was only third in the LP, but that held up for first overall. At this point, I think it would be folly to try to make predictions about how the Olympics might unfold.:drama:
And that's why Women is the most compelling discipline!
 
Alysa is now the 2025 Grand Prix Finals winner to add to her 2025 World Championship. She's gathering momentum.

But what a topsy-turvy outcome. Sakamoto won the FP but only third overall. Chiba went from first to last, SP to LP. Liu was only third in the LP, but that held up for first overall. At this point, I think it would be folly to try to make predictions about how the Olympics might unfold.:drama:
I would say that if the judging is lenient like this, it will be Sakamoto slightly in front of Liu, barring major error(like here). If fairly strict judging, then definitely Sakamoto.Petrosian would be a wildcard, if her quads are landing.
 
I'm satisfied with the top 2. However, a scoring system that places an athlete who performed three triple axels across two programs behind someone with two popped jumps (one of which was on a mandatory jump in the short program) is a rather flawed one (and even has that athlete winning the LP overall). It'd be fine if Sakamoto were doing exceptional programs, but she isn't.
That said skater had a bunch of carrots.
 
That said skater had a bunch of carrots.
A 3A+3T< is still far harder than a 1A+3T+2T, as just one example. As is 3A<. Sakamoto's hardest jump pass was 3F+3T. She also missed a call on her 3Lz - it should have been 3Lz(!).

Yeah Watanabe made mistakes, but the very fact that Sakamoto completed too simple programs in comparison technically speaking wasn't accounted for properly. And then comes the fact that while Sakamoto has better skating skill, this 8.5 point lead she was given on it is undeserved on PCS. Sakamoto also didn't deserve the highest PCS in the SP by any stretch of imagination.

Both she and Kagiyama have exceptional basic skating, and yet their performance ability and choreography leaves a lot to be desired.
 
Heartbroken for Mone, looked like the occassion got to her. Hopefully she learns for this and delivers at the Japanese nationals and hopefully the Olympics.

Quite strong event until then, poor Rinka was last overall with several landed 3As. Kaori and Amber were quite impressive. I thought Ami deserved to win overall, Alysa's PCS mark was very generous.

Alysa being seemingly the chillest person in the world may be the difference in the Olympics where the media attention and pressure are on a completely different level than at any other event, she never seems affected by the pressure even the slightest bit and is having so much fun every second on the ice.
 
Kaori off the podium. Whew

She made the podium.

kisses-love-you.gif
 
She was looking unwell before starting, was there a problem other than nerves?
I wondered as well. Yes she looked nervous, but it looked like something else was off. Her timing was very very bad on the two jumps she missed. Like, they weren't even close - we're talking less than two and a half rotations which is pretty crazy for someone who's going for a triple.
 
Heartbroken for Mone, looked like the occassion got to her. Hopefully she learns for this and delivers at the Japanese nationals and hopefully the Olympics.

Quite strong event until then, poor Rinka was last overall with several landed 3As. Kaori and Amber were quite impressive. I thought Ami deserved to win overall, Alysa's PCS mark was very generous.

Alysa being seemingly the chillest person in the world may be the difference in the Olympics where the media attention and pressure are on a completely different level than at any other event, she never seems affected by the pressure even the slightest bit and is having so much fun every second on the ice.
Agreed. I never liked Liu that much in her first iteration, and thought that there was nothing else remarkable about her skating. But I have to say that her short program is possibly one of my favorite ever, and there's such an elegant maturity in her skating.

And her long program last year was exactly what we needed - after so much either overly pretty or melodramatic pseudo classical music or generic female ballads that the women have been skating to for so long, for her to come out and skate to an outrageously unorthodox piece of music and do it with such joi de vivre was everything that none of us knew was so needed.

So while I acknowledge that she doesn't have the sophistication, skating skills, speed, or jump complexity or cleanliness of many of the other top competitors, there's something about her that just makes you want her to win, because she is just such a neat character.
 
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Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Poor Mone CHIBA (JPN). Two falls early on in the programme.

Not the way you want to end the competitive phase of the event.

That said, the rest of the programme was good.

But she's not going to win. And may not even make the podium.

Her face when she finished said it all.

OK, I'm going to say it. Is it any wonder Mone made mistakes after Mie Hamada shouted in her face like that just before she left the boards?

Ouch! It was even worse than I thought.

She goes into 6th position in the FS, and 5th position overall.

:ghug:

CaroLiza_fan
That's a bit surprising. I know she made two mistakes, but still.. I guess it makes sense...
 
For me alysa is a joy to watch. Kaori effervescent. Ami wonderful next gen here. Mone beautiful. Amber fighter Rinka lovely.
I apologize but I dont get the comical joke if Alyssa wins OGM.
It wasn't an insult. It's that she just takes life as it comes and enjoying it, and it's that Carefree let's just give it a shot attitude that allows her to be so loose and consistent and appear so unfazed when everybody else looks like they're going to be facing a firing squad. So there's a degree of light-heartedness about her - I think that's what people are saying.
 
Alysa should have gotten a UR for her combo. But, Ami should have gotten a UR for her 3A. And both should have gotten edge calls. This competition was so leniently scored it's hard to take anything from it other than Alysa is very hard to beat in leniently judged competitions(and has a hard time making podium in strict ones), because she doesn't fall, which we already knew. The other thing we got from it was Mone has trouble with pressure, which we also knew from last year's Nats.
Nope. Not an under rotation. Maybe a Q, but not an underotation...
 
Her skating and her body lines often look more like the style you’d expect from a junior rather than someone being positioned as a world-level contender.
She is good at showing her energy, but that doesn't mean she has any performance ability. This is american skating from 90s
Interesting... as much as I recognize the lack of complexity in her programs, I still do like them, especially the short program. But you're really pretty correct when you make the comparison to women skating from the 1990s, lol. And not just the 1990s in general, the early 90s in particular :-) I can see Lisa sergeant from Canada be-bopping along to a program like this. That's pretty funny actually! But given all of the overly melodramatic emo type music that the women have been skating too for the last quad and longer, it's kind of refreshing.
 
Alysa Liu reminds me of the last Olympic Champion Anna. She also has that 3Lz 3Lo that was in the arsenal of the last two Olympic champions.
My only negative feedback for Alysa is that she talked about adding a 3A and hasn’t. I know she doesn’t need to. But, I was hoping she would push herself more this season. Everything with her is safe. Also, she is skating to the same two programs. They fit her perfectly. I just want to see something different from her. She already has an Olympic gold secured in the team event. So, regardless, her Olympic experience will be golden. I wonder who they will give the second team spot to: Amber or Isabeau? Amber has had a better season. But, hasn’t placed top 4 at Worlds. Isabeau has placed top 4 in the last 3 worlds….

Ami just locked a spot to the Olympic team with her 2nd place here. She could have won if it wasn’t for that 3Lz. What I love about her, is that she has a 3F 3T as a back up plan when she misses her 3Lz 3T and it came handy here.

Kaori - I think she has everything she needs to win Olympic gold. One mistake in each program affected her. She still won the free skate (well deserved) with a mistake

Mone - She has to now pray that Ami, Kaori and Mao win nationals. Because if one of these three do not, she is off the team. She gets way too nervous and that is what affected her here. Still, to me she has the best PCS. Yes. Even better than Kaori.
 
I caught up on women and two questions:

Is there a chance Sakomoto goes into coaching? She seems to be the kind of person who brings out the best in everyone and she has so much experience. So?

Does Rinka stand a chance vs Chiba? I assume Nakai now is basically confirmed as 2nd girl.

Also, loved Alysa playing the drum. I assume everyone did, heh.
 
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