Replay Lounge 2026 Olympics | Women

[Diana Delafield]

. It cannot "prove" national bias, collusion, skullduggery, the judge fell asleep, the judge had a stomach ache from eating bad scrambled eggs, the judge is evil scum who should be expelled from the iSU, etc.

Reminds me of the Europeans many, many years ago that led to some restrictions on who could judge. One very old judge, whose hearing and eyesight had deteriorated considerably, didn't hear the announcement that one pair had withdrawn due to injury. He had a printed list of the order of entries, but didn't realize entry #5 or whichever was out and everyone else had moved up one number in skating order on the list. He marked all the pairs from that point on with the scores he had already decided each pair should have, except that he didn't realize he was marking the wrong skaters until they got to the end and he wondered why he still had one more placement left to give out but no one was skating.

His marks were so consistently out of line with the other judges there was an investigation and an age restriction was placed on judges, or at least they had to meet certain sight and hearing tests -- this was when I was still in Novice, so to me it was just a funny story the coaches were gossiping about.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

I may be wrong but doesn't she backload her combos usually ?

I mean Kaori is already not taking advantage of the Axel sequence. Her repeated jumps are not the heaviest in BV. She's always made it because her GOEs and PCS are rightfully very high... but I remember young Kaori milking the system with backloading until the Zagitova rule. So it's not like she couldn't have a plan B. But I adore Kaori and I would understand if at the moment, she blanked. But I persist to believe that skaters train all sorts of possibilities and I am sad she couldn't just figure out how to save her flip from REP or how to add her third combo on the loop

I just mean the 3F+3T is so risky. She must know that with the 3Z+2T and 2A+3T+2T that she cannot do a 3rd 2T. So she should be training a 3L+2L as her last jump in case she misses the combo on the 3F+3T. Or she should have done a +2A sequence off the 3Z or something, since her 2A is easy for her.

It's just such a colossally unforgiving error not doing the 3F+3T combo. Liu deserved the gold because she didn't make such a grievous error as Sakamoto leaving out a triple on a REP jump, and Nakai doubling out on her 3Z+3T, and the math tracks as such.

As much as Kurt Browning hates skating math, it's important. Because popular skaters who would errors still got 5.9 for technical in 6.0 system, whereas under this system (which every skater has to adhere to, mind you) as much as skaters can get held up with PCS/GOE, the judges are incapable of "crediting them" technical points/base value, when they mess up. This forces skaters to actually hit their content and avoid costly errors.

 

[skatedreamer]

Reminds me of the Europeans many, many years ago that led to some restrictions on who could judge. One very old judge, whose hearing and eyesight had deteriorated considerably, didn't hear the announcement that one pair had withdrawn due to injury. He had a printed list of the order of entries, but didn't realize entry #5 or whichever was out and everyone else had moved up one number in skating order on the list. He marked all the pairs from that point on with the scores he had already decided each pair should have, except that he didn't realize he was marking the wrong skaters until they got to the end and he wondered why he still had one more placement left to give out but no one was skating.

His marks were so consistently out of line with the other judges there was an investigation and an age restriction was placed on judges, or at least they had to meet certain sight and hearing tests -- this was when I was still in Novice, so to me it was just a funny story the coaches were gossiping about.

Wow. That's funny and sad at the same time.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Reminds me of the Europeans many, many years ago that led to some restrictions on who could judge. One very old judge, whose hearing and eyesight had deteriorated considerably, didn't hear the announcement that one pair had withdrawn due to injury. He had a printed list of the order of entries, but didn't realize entry #5 or whichever was out and everyone else had moved up one number in skating order on the list. He marked all the pairs from that point on with the scores he had already decided each pair should have, except that he didn't realize he was marking the wrong skaters until they got to the end and he wondered why he still had one more placement left to give out but no one was skating.

His marks were so consistently out of line with the other judges there was an investigation and an age restriction was placed on judges, or at least they had to meet certain sight and hearing tests -- this was when I was still in Novice, so to me it was just a funny story the coaches were gossiping about.

That is both hilarious and sad at the same time. While that's mortifying for him, imagine being a skater being assessed according to a different skater's pre-assessment? I didn't realize there was an UPPER age-restriction placed on judges because of it.

edit: lmao great minds think alike skatedreamer

 

[yfan1]

I just mean the 3F+3T is so risky. She must know that with the 3Z+2T and 2A+3T+2T that she cannot do a 3rd 2T. So she should be training a 3L+2L as her last jump in case she misses the combo on the 3F+3T. Or she should have done a +2A sequence off the 3Z or something, since her 2A is easy for her.

She already had two 2As...

The most obvious option for Kaori IMO was to try out 2A+3T+3T if she was too worried about the 3Lo at the end of the program to try 3Lo+2Lo. It'd cover the +REP, even if she made a small error. But it's a hard combo, and I doubt she even trains it.

It should never have been choreographed that way though. The 3F+3T already should have been done earlier in the program. OTOH, I would probably not have done 3Lz+2T to begin, even with this layout, the 3F+2T should have come earlier even if she wanted to backload a 3F+3T, leaving the 3Lz to be the solo jump because she doesn't repeat it.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Honestly, I think the judges would have preferred giving Sakamoto the gold. She had amazing GOE on many of her elements (some might even say excessively high on a few of them), she won the PCS by a few points... the table was set for a Kaori win. The problem was that there just wasn't enough base value to make the stretch to gold.

My scoring conspiracy is that Ami was lowballed to make sure that Kaori took silver. It's OK, taking both segments into account, the podium was correct, and in the proper order.

Now, lower down... off the podium... I think there's some issues that might be discussed there, but is it really worth the bother to argue over who should have gotten 5th or 7th or Top 10?

They really wanted it for her. That final spin was not great, and her 2A was a bit wobbly on the exit but still (after dropping the +4) got a perfect score. She got +1 and +2 on her 3F+REP, even though it was low and clearly an error. She almost messed up her ChSq1 after the spinning on her knees, but it got +4s. Her lutz wasn't called for the edge switch (kinda hard to tell from the angle but it did look like she went outside to inside even before her pick went in), while Liu got ! on both of her flips (which I think were correct calls, mind you).

 

[4everchan]

I just mean the 3F+3T is so risky. She must know that with the 3Z+2T and 2A+3T+2T that she cannot do a 3rd 2T. So she should be training a 3L+2L as her last jump in case she misses the combo on the 3F+3T. Or she should have done a +2A sequence off the 3Z or something, since her 2A is easy for her.

It's just such a colossally unforgiving error not doing the 3F+3T combo. Liu deserved the gold because she didn't make such a grievous error as Sakamoto leaving out a triple on a REP jump, and Nakai doubling out on her 3Z+3T, and the math tracks as such.

As much as Kurt Browning hates skating math, it's important. Because popular skaters who would errors still got 5.9 for technical in 6.0 system, whereas under this system (which every skater has to adhere to, mind you) as much as skaters can get held up with PCS/GOE, the judges are incapable of "crediting them" technical points/base value, when they mess up. This forces skaters to actually hit their content and avoid costly errors.

I think she just loves doing the 2a on its own and didn't want to mess that up when they added the axel sequence...

but even just a + 1a after that flip would be good

yup. I guess Kaori was confident enough about her layout and never thought to make it zayak proof.

Many skaters do that now. At the same time, some others have made another kind of mistake : not planning the axel other than in sequence and got their last jumping passed invalidated when they failed to include the axel.

I wonder why we, couch coaches, are seeing all these issues while the real coaches don't bother.

Kaori could have tweaked her layout a long time ago to slightly boost her BV, have easier combos and avoid Zayak

 

[fsfan2480]

4everchan says: "but even just a + 1a after that flip would be good "

Or a 1a after the triple loop. It's maddening to think that these incremental changes (either) would have given her the Gold that the judges were ready and willing to give her. It's all history now. Just a bit sad, for her - while also being happy for Alysa, who really rose to the occasion.

 

[4everchan]

4everchan says: "but even just a + 1a after that flip would be good "

Or a 1a after the triple loop. It's maddening to think that these incremental changes (either) would have given her the Gold that the judges were ready and willing to give her. It's all history now. Just a bit sad, for her - while also being happy for Alysa, who really rose to the occasion.

Yup. It is sad for Kaori. I hope she will have no regrets though.

 

[jenaj]

I just scored along with the free skate protocols and, for fun, I designated scores from the old 6.0 scoring system for the free skate to the Top 9 ladies (using the judges ordinals) just to see if anything matched up or made any sense whatsoever, Lol. What I found:

No matter what you may think of her, her skating, her technique, I had Alysa Liu as the clear winner of the free skate and 3 points higher than Sakamoto overall.

It is wrenching to realize and understand that by Sakamoto tacking on a 1T to the Triple Flip that she would gain points by negating the REP, and also add points for doing the 1T and likely would have won the Gold medal in a squeaker. I also figured she would tack on a 2L to the end of her Triple Loop in real time and was shocked/bummed when she didn't. Such a shame. Because I'm sure Alysa would have been happy/content about winning Silver to match the Gold she already has from Team.

The most jarring thing I found in the protocols and also with scoring along 6.0 (for fun) was Ami Nakai's 9th place in the free skate. I had her 5th (in protocols) and, if you pain yourself to give her 9th in the free in the old 6.0 system, it just makes absolutely no sense, whatsoever. Now, I realize that when you're dealing with point totals vs. old system it is apples vs. oranges. Totally. There's almost no way in the old system that Nakai's skate would have given her 9th in the free. But it's still nutty to see. I think that Nakai was dinged a bit too much for 2-3 of her jumping passes and I had her in 5th with the protocols -- very close to 6th/7th -- but still, 5th. So that left her with the Bronze, for me, just closer to Sakamoto and further away from Chiba.

Oh, Mone Chiba. You did so well. And I'm so sorry that you go home empty-handed, when your teammates get medals. Sport can be cruel. I had her comfortably in 4th, overall.

I actually had Amber Glenn 2nd in the free skate (a hair above Sakamoto) and 5th overall, but quite close to Chiba for 4th. So happy that Glenn had her redemption skate.

I had Petrosian 5th in the short and 8th in the free skate for 7th overall jussst behind Petrokina. I really feel for Petrosian given what she had to face at these Olympics (concerning the Russia of it all, her coaches, etc), but I think some of her jumps were overscored, and I dinged her on some of her components because try as I might, I just found that she had very little connection to the music or to the audience and, that matters to me.

As for the rest, I just really, really enjoyed everyone. Everyone brought it.

LOVE Julia Sauter's reaction. Love how the Korean skaters performed; especially Haein Lee. I thought that Samoldelkina was underscored and could've been a place or two higher -- she has some of my favorite jumps in the entire event. I also thought that Isabeau Levito and Loena Hendrickx were a bit underscored and I had both of them a place higher than they ultimately ended up. Fantastic competition, and so much fun to score along.

I did a quick (literal) back of the envelope 6.0 scoring for the top 3 and Amber Glenn (on her LP, only and assuming she is 5th or lower in the short). The podium came out the same but Amber was second in the long.

 

[skatedreamer]

That is both hilarious and sad at the same time. While that's mortifying for him, imagine being a skater being assessed according to a different skater's pre-assessment? I didn't realize there was an UPPER age-restriction placed on judges because of it.

edit: lmao great minds think alike skatedreamer

I had the same thought about the pre-assessment, but wondered if it might have had something to do with his eyesight. Like maybe he did it because he knew he couldn't see and wanted to hide it?

Yikes, I screwed up the quotes and now I can't fix it!

 

[Skater Boy]

Alysa didn't rotate her jumps, is the point being made. And clearly, if you believe Alysa got two edge calls, then those are two flawed jumping passes for her too - and on both of those she got positive GOE despite the TP thinking they were flawed.

She also ended up getting the second highest skating skill score, which is obviously wrong. Many posters and as I said at least one commentary team noted the low speed there, which absolutely should have meant a lower score than she got - and that's before we specifically look at how she did end up gaining the speed she had and her quality of edge and glide.

And about Nakai - no, there's just no way she should have been placed behind Haein Lee, Jia Shin, Petrokina, or Petrosyan. The point being made there is that there seems to have been some deliberate effort to be holding her down. She has better quality glide than all of them, and had a landed big jump with the 3A unlike all of them as well.

Honestly it was so close. Ami had a youthfulness but was not nearly as mature as any of the other skaers. Now shoudl that warrant a lower score I am not so sure. But in the end the medals would not or should not change. And in the end we had a joyous winner in Alyssa though maybe w are not so much better than the last olympics with the aaon y seen in Kaori and the pressure felt by Adelia who I think in part paid the price for Russia being banned and she wa s unable to compete during the rest of the year and gain valuable feedback and experience. The pain seen in the SP by Aber, and the tears and pain in Kaori and Mone after the FS was heartbreaking. The pressure put on that Russian AIN girl was horrific. the a mount of pressure putting on these skaters is just too much and not called for. So sad. It was refreshing to see Alyssa's joy of skating but I a not so sure we have advanced from the last olympics. The "agony of defeat" as Jim McKay called it has no really changed. You could see it in so many of the ladies from Kaori to Mone to Amber to Adelia.Really high level of skating; I a not so sure I woudl say i is better than the last quadrennia in fact the scores (content) is singifnicantly lower. Comparatively the medallists from 2018 and 2022 would have won gold here in 2026. But it doesn't matter it is who was here in 2026.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

She already had two 2As...

The most obvious option for Kaori IMO was to try out 2A+3T+3T if she was too worried about the 3Lo at the end of the program to try 3Lo+2Lo. It'd cover the +REP, even if she made a small error. But it's a hard combo, and I doubt she even trains it.

It should never have been choreographed that way though. The 3F+3T already should have been done earlier in the program. OTOH, I would probably not have done 3Lz+2T to begin, even with this layout, the 3F+2T should have come earlier even if she wanted to backload a 3F+3T, leaving the 3Lz to be the solo jump because she doesn't repeat it.

Ah right re the 2As. And you’re so right about the 2T should have just been tacked onto her first 3F as you’re allowed to repeat the same triple in two different combinations.

When I saw it I was like “why combo a jump that notoriously gets edge calls/GOE reduction?” But from what you outlined it would have been way smarter to throw it on the 3F instead of the 3Z.

 

[Blades of Passion]

Or a 1a after the triple loop.

That wouldn't do anything, she'd still have the REP on the Flip. She specifically needed to put a 1T or 1Axel after the 3F in order to win. Which is completely stupid. Nobody's score should ever fluctuate by over 2 points because of doing a 1T instead of not doing one.

Why would ISU judges prefer that Kaori Sakamoto win the silver metal rather than Ami Nakai?

Kaori is the one who was "supposed" to place that high. Judging in this sport has ALWAYS tried to align with the pre-determined hierarchy that is expected. Even without outright bribes, the culture of judging has always been to keep the favorites up in their expected spot, while others "wait their turn".

Kaori getting +4 GOE's on her flying sit spin when none of the positions are great and it slows down a lot = easy to spot reputation judging. Another example - her basic "put my knee down on the ice" exit on her combo spin is always given the "difficult exit" level feature, but other people who do the exact same thing are sometimes not credited with it. Have a skater with less reputation give Kaori's exact same performance, and nobody would question anything if all the GOE's were 1 lower and the PCS were .5 to .75 lower. 5th place for her Long Program would have been appropriate here.

 

[soccerjc77]

Amber Glenn deserve a gold medal for the sportsmanship, support for the crying athletes and the protection she gave the athletes from the journalist. She was amazing !

 

[Arigato]

All I can say is, I'm glad I have an uncensored recording of Alysa's FS for my big screen TV.

 

[Skater Boy]

If you get a REP, you get a penalty as the base value is lowered. I believe that it's possible to add a combo on another jumping pass and that will still count as a good combo.

In this scenario, Kaori who had already done 3lz-2t and 2a-3t-2t would have needed to add the combo on the 3loop. It could have been a 3loop-3toe or a 3loop-2loop as she wouldn't have been allowed to repeat the 2t.

Of course, there are some other possibilities which are all hypothetical so there is no need discussing them.

The point I am making is that when a skaters doesn't manage a combo and gets a +REP, they already received their penalty and will not be penalized if they rejig things and add a combo later, as long as they don't zayak again

The best thing Kaori could have done, which would have been simpler was to do the UNO toe. that 3f had very little chance of getting anything but a single toe on the end of it but that would have prevented the +REP and lowered base value. It would have been enough for the win... just a single toe was needed after that flip. Nothing more.

All this is wonderful but computing that in the mind and to add the factor how well or how you landed a jump all affect the combo.

4everchan says: "but even just a + 1a after that flip would be good "

Or a 1a after the triple loop. It's maddening to think that these incremental changes (either) would have given her the Gold that the judges were ready and willing to give her. It's all history now. Just a bit sad, for her - while also being happy for Alysa, who really rose to the occasion.

IT's over. Over thinking now is only more painful for Kaori. She did her best at the time with what she "had". Remember fols tacking on say a 1A isnt that easy when you are bit off on the flip and trying to think so fast. It is a fraction of a second - so to change from 3T to 1A is a very different entrance. If Russia had not been banned for the last 4 years things probably would be very different. Good or bad from those on this site But stepping back the top ten plus were amazing - over 200. You really weren't going to make the 24 qualifiying without a triple triple. People need to look at the positives. Kaori you won silver. You are loved. Your skating is beautiful and heck if the Russians had skated the last four years are there probably was the odds at least one skater wold be up there. Remember they had skaters in the 170's if not 180's in the fs last olympics. Alyssa as our gold medal winner was barely 150. Even considering it is a different even 20 pts is a lot. Bravo Ami for your youthful joy. Applause to Kaori for her sophsticated grace. Thank you Alyssa for sharing that joy. Mone you showed polished, class and a high degree of difficulty. Amber you have he 3A and are a fighter. Adelia - omg your second international event and with your "hidden" injuries you were solid. Nina, Haen, Jia, Niina,Sofia, Bubanova, et al you were amazing. No tears, ladies you were stellar!

 

[Skater Boy]

If you get a REP, you get a penalty as the base value is lowered. I believe that it's possible to add a combo on another jumping pass and that will still count as a good combo.

In this scenario, Kaori who had already done 3lz-2t and 2a-3t-2t would have needed to add the combo on the 3loop. It could have been a 3loop-3toe or a 3loop-2loop as she wouldn't have been allowed to repeat the 2t.

Of course, there are some other possibilities which are all hypothetical so there is no need discussing them.

The point I am making is that when a skaters doesn't manage a combo and gets a +REP, they already received their penalty and will not be penalized if they rejig things and add a combo later, as long as they don't zayak again

The best thing Kaori could have done, which would have been simpler was to do the UNO toe. that 3f had very little chance of getting anything but a single toe on the end of it but that would have prevented the +REP and lowered base value. It would have been enough for the win... just a single toe was needed after that flip. Nothing more.

All this is wonderful but computing that in the mind and to add the factor how well or how you landed a jump all affect the combo.

 

[yfan1]

That wouldn't do anything, she'd still have the REP on the Flip. She specifically needed to put a 1T or 1Axel after the 3F in order to win. Which is completely stupid. Nobody's score should ever fluctuate by over 2 points because of doing a 1T instead of not doing one.

The way she landed that 3F I doubt she could have added anything, or must have been too scared to try... But yeah. Here, the value of those jumps ended up being much more than what's written in the scale of values, which is obvious bs.

Kaori getting +4 GOE's on her flying sit spin when none of the positions are great and it slows down a lot = easy to spot reputation judging. Another example - her basic "put my knee down on the ice" exit on her combo spin is always given the "difficult exit" level feature, but other people who do the exact same thing are sometimes not credited with it. Have a skater with less reputation give Kaori's exact same performance, and nobody would question anything if all the GOE's were 1 lower and the PCS were .5 to .75 lower. 5th place for her Long Program would have been appropriate here.

Right... I can no longer access skating scores' rescoring, so I gave up, but this is the entire problem, where much of her scores are very inflated. She really deserved fourth overall. Give her low 9s on skating skills, alright, but that's really it. She doesn't deserve particularly high GOE (apart from her 2A passes and maybe the 3Lo) or PCS.

 

[boo69]

is Amber pushing for another quad? I would love that, I would love to see her in 2030. It is not impossible. Corect me if I'm wrong, but Carolina Costner finished her career at 31, right? And she was still competitive. So it wouldn't be unprecedented.

Carolina didn't have to practice the triple axel, so less taxing on her body. I don't know if Amber's 30 year old body will be handle all the triple axels for the next 4 years. Without the triple axel it will be difficult for her to be on the podium even with a clean skate because her PCS are not as high as Alyssa and Isabeau. Isabeau had almost the same PCS as Amber in the free skate, even with the fall.