2025 Worlds: Women's thoughts and comments | Page 5 | Golden Skate

2025 Worlds: Women's thoughts and comments

I watched on Peacock, but I did catch a replay with Johnny W. He said something really intriguing about how Alysa told him she took control of every aspect of her skating now - music, costume, styling, tech content, etc - having final say in every decision.

I would have assumed that's the norm, at least for adults, but perhaps not since it is apparently uncommon enough that he thought it extraordinary. So it begs the question of how much control do skaters normally exert?

Or perhaps it was just in contrast to when she left the sport... or perhaps Johnny was just blabbering to fill air time.
 
I watched on Peacock, but I did catch a replay with Johnny W. He said something really intriguing about how Alysa told him she took control of every aspect of her skating now - music, costume, styling, tech content, etc - having final say in every decision.

I would have assumed that's the norm, at least for adults, but perhaps not since it is apparently uncommon enough that he thought it extraordinary. So it begs the question of how much control do skaters normally exert?

Or perhaps it was just in contrast to when she left the sport... or perhaps Johnny was just blabbering to fill air time.
It's definitely the contrast between then and now.

I mean, she experienced a lot of coaching turmoil during that Olympic season, and now we know that some of it was due to her father wanting to protect her from the Chinese spies that were floating around.
 
I watched on Peacock, but I did catch a replay with Johnny W. He said something really intriguing about how Alysa told him she took control of every aspect of her skating now - music, costume, styling, tech content, etc - having final say in every decision.

I would have assumed that's the norm, at least for adults, but perhaps not since it is apparently uncommon enough that he thought it extraordinary. So it begs the question of how much control do skaters normally exert?

Or perhaps it was just in contrast to when she left the sport... or perhaps Johnny was just blabbering to fill air time.
Our local commentators said similar things. They said one reason to her burn out was because she felt nothing is in her own hands but now she has taken the main responsibility from everything herself. I thinks it depends much about coaches, parents, even club how much the skaters are controlled. I don't think it is about feds in most cases, but club's rules may differ. Probably kids are controlled more than adults. I am not expert, but sometimes I hear coaches retire because parents are too demanding, in other sports. They say kids are nice but parents make the (sometimes volunteering with no salary) job impossible.
 
Loved Alyssa's joy of skating. Am I surprised she won - I had her as a possible winner I just thought Amber or Kim or Kaori would do it but Alyssa has been steady if not oveten justlurking in the backgroudn ie 4th. Some of her jumps do look a bit short of rotation and not necessarily the biggest but she was solid and her performances fun and exuberant. Maybe not masterpieces but lovely to watch. WE ll done. Kaori such a great sportsman. Such class and grace. Isabeau should be so proud of her self coming back from being out solong. Amber I feel so bad. But fifth is nothing to laugh at. So things didn't work out as planned but she still was a major threat. I did feel for Schizas from Canada. So close. Any other year a 6th sp and11th in fs is usually good enough for top ten. Things didn't line up she probably knew with Amber, Kim and other faves trailing her after the sp she was a marked target.
 
Ironically K
I have not followed the scoring details closely enough to have an opinion about this, but I will say that in general I do not completely buy into the "judges' darling" or "repuation" criticism of figre skating judging. No one is born with a reputation. A skater acquires a reputation by delivering outstanding performances time after time. As for "judges darlings," figure skating judges have a roving eye like the rest of us.

I think that this is especially true at the Olympics, which are figure skating's opportunity to showcase their sport to the world (as opposed to closed-shop events like ISU championships). Relative newcomer Tara Lipinski skated better than super-darling Michelle Kwan at the 1998 Olympics. In 2014 the judges had no problem awarding the title to Yuzuru Hanyu (just beginning to become known outside Japan) when three-time and defending world champion Patrick Chan did not skate his best. Nor was the Japanese Federation more politically influential that the Canadian at the time.

It is tue that in figure skating, as in any sport with a judging component, "a tie goes to the champion." After all, the champion became the champion by beating the old champion, so if you want to become the new champion, then you have to beat her.

Will Alysa get a champion's bounce going into next year? She will have to build up momentum throughout the fall season like everyone else. We'll see.
Ironically, Kaorii never beat the champion to become the champion. Lol
 
Loved Alyssa's joy of skating. Am I surprised she won - I had her as a possible winner I just thought Amber or Kim or Kaori would do it but Alyssa has been steady if not oveten justlurking in the backgroudn ie 4th. Some of her jumps do look a bit short of rotation and not necessarily the biggest but she was solid and her performances fun and exuberant. Maybe not masterpieces but lovely to watch. WE ll done. Kaori such a great sportsman. Such class and grace. Isabeau should be so proud of her self coming back from being out solong. Amber I feel so bad. But fifth is nothing to laugh at. So things didn't work out as planned but she still was a major threat. I did feel for Schizas from Canada. So close. Any other year a 6th sp and11th in fs is usually good enough for top ten. Things didn't line up she probably knew with Amber, Kim and other faves trailing her after the sp she was a marked target.
My betting interests (if I had any) were never on Amber. If anyone, I thought it would be Kim, especially after doing so well at 4CC. She seemed to be rolling into outstanding form at exactly the right moment. In contrast, I thought at US Nationals that Amber was fading at exactly the wrong time. Still, that was almost 3 months ago, and she could have righted the ship. It wasn't just about the missed 3A in the short - I thought she looked flat, but that could have been a product of falling on her first element of the comp. That said, 5th is not a poor result.

I also think Alysa may have gotten a favorable rotation call or two, but that seemed to be pretty fairly applied across the board. It seemed this panel wanted it to be really obvious to the naked eye before a call was made.
 
I think that's the playoff mentality coming to the fore. Let the contest be decided by the athletes, not by the referees,
Personally, I prefer a strict panel. People go into spasms about a point or two of PCS, but they dismiss the real scoring impact of a loose tech panel.

But if I can't have a really strict panel, I want a consistent one. And that was the case here. I'm not displeased with the outcome; the correct placements were achieved. So, in this case, it's an academic discussion.
 
I think that's the playoff mentality coming to the fore. Let the contest be decided by the athletes, not by the referees,
Allysa definitely got away with a UR in the SP. Even the announcer talked about it, for a change. Lol And they definitely were not lenient on Wakaba, but what else is new. Lol
 
I think that's the playoff mentality coming to the fore. Let the contest be decided by the athletes, not by the referees,
Alas, it is not possible in a judged sport.
The closest to this would be obtaining some fair and unbiased judging and scoring. Which was not the case in this event as a whole. Actually, it might come as a surprise to some of you but some scoring at the Boston Worlds was openly joked about by commentators on the TV where I watched it, which was neither the event's sponsor, not emotionally or financially invested in any of the skaters so they were free to say what they really thought. Maybe it is good to know people in other countries are watching and laughing...
 
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Actually, it might come as a surprise to some of you but some scoring at the Boston Worlds was openly joked about by commentators on the TV where I watched it...
No, that is not a surprise. It is an international pastime (and amply represented on this forum) to snicker and fume about figure skating judging. Happens every season, every contest.

We have grown used to the meme of "What?! No 'q"' What a silly and crooked sport this is."
 
Haha. Yes, and especially if your favorite skater doesn't win. There MUST be a conspiracy to hold said skater down (or up)!
 
Alas, it is not possible in a judged sport.
The closest to this would be obtaining some fair and unbiased judging and scoring. Which was not the case in this event as a whole. Actually, it might come as a surprise to some of you but some scoring at the Boston Worlds was openly joked about by commentators on the TV where I watched it, which was neither the event's sponsor, not emotionally or financially invested in any of the skaters so they were free to say what they really thought. Maybe it is good to know people in other countries are watching and laughing...
Actually in a sport like figure skating where how you execute something is supposed to be just as important as what you do, the scoring in a championship should logically be more strict. People laugh and joke because often times the discrepancy in scoring is predictable from a skating politics and or ISU financial perspective. Unfortunately, one of the reasons it doesn't change is because many fans are happy if it benefits their favorite skater and blindly dismiss it as sour grapes. Sticking your head in the sand is a popular pastime, unfortunately. Lol
 
One thing I took out of this event is that I would never harp on Russian internal judging after this event, because they are actually behind the world in score inflation.
ISU Championships have always been judged with boosts here and there. This year all the women champions got home boosts. Niina at Europeans, Chaeyeon at 4CC, and Alysa at Worlds.
I have loved Alysa's programs all season, and she has also been fairly clean all season. But somehow she scored +20 points at Worlds.
I'm not complaining though, I thought throughout the season she would have scored better. It is just how the judges work. They still use PCS for placement like in the old judging system.
 
ISU Championships have always been judged with boosts here and there. This year all the women champions got home boosts. Niina at Europeans, Chaeyeon at 4CC, and Alysa at Worlds.
I have loved Alysa's programs all season, and she has also been fairly clean all season. But somehow she scored +20 points at Worlds.
I'm not complaining though, I thought throughout the season she would have scored better. It is just how the judges work. They still use PCS for placement like in the old judging system.
You forgot GOE with the +5 - 5 system and the q, which both add even more tools of manipulation. Although , its more than a little ironic to say Kaori is a victim of inflated PCS, GOE, and lenient tech calls. Lol
 
Maybe we will have a chance to find out, if Adelia Petrosyan is chosen to compete in Milan.
Not to paint Adelia with the same brush, but I think we saw in Beijing how Eteri skaters can act. Trusova wasn't even sportsmanly to her own training/team mate winning gold. In 2018, Medvedeva wasn't exactly rushing over to congratulate Zagitova, nor was Lipnitskaia going over to congratulate Sotnikova.

To be fair, I understand a skater's natural reaction to not go over and congratulate the person who just beat them. All I'm saying is, I ain't holding my breath to see a silver medalist from Eteri's camp genuinely be happy for a winner who bested them, the way Kaori was Alysa.

It takes a special type of person with a good sense of character who does that (I think back to Biles and Chiles bowing down to Andrade at the Olympics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B37tREe6xyQ). But something tells me that until sportsmanship gains a skater extra points on a protocol, it will never be a priority for the Eteri camp to develop that side of a skater.
 
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