Congrats to Sasha for winning her second Campbell's. Her first was '03 with the beautiful black-and-white "Swan Lake." I too think it's silly to make serious predictions for Nationals, Olys, or Worlds based on Campbell's; but one thing about Sasha's '03 "strong start/craptacular end" -- Doggygirl, I LOVE that word
-- is that it was the season she changed from Tarasova to Robin Wagner and Wagner took TT's gorgeous choreography crapsized it. I'm not saying Sasha couldn't have had a meltdown of her own accord with same coach and/or choreography. I'm just saying '03/04 had what I would call a major factor midway through.
Also congrats to Kimmie Meissner who impressed me mightily when I saw her in person at COI last spring. At least for me, Meissner is one of those skaters who looks much stronger in person than on TV. She has gorgeous, unaffected arms; overall, her skating has the kind of authority that comes from having a strong center, deep knees, and well centered edges; plus she stretches out her moves, so she amplifies her choreography. Like Vash (see his Detailed Campbell's Review thread), I think Meissner will be a major force if she avoids serious injury and the skating gods are otherwise with her. Her fundamental technique both from the skates down and the skates up is superb and at least I found her captivating at COI doing a relatively simple program. I think she's got goods like nobody's business.
Third place for Shizza is kind of a bummer, but I think her '04 World gold came during the "honeymoon" phase with Tarasova (not taking a thing away from Shizza; she was still the one who had to hit the performance) and her '04/05 season came during a combination of "Now we WORK!" phase with TT and Shizza's own psychological adjustments to going from hoping for a bronze to being THE World gold medalist. This year I hope we'll see Shizza's mind and technique equally strong, and her relationship with Tarasova -- is she still coached TT? -- or whomever she is coached by strong too. I love a lot about Arakawa; she's had a long tough career; and I'd be very happy to see her with an Olympic medal, even if it isn't gold, to show she wasn't a one-time wonder. That's not a prediction, just a hope based on liking the skater.
Speaking of which, I feel the same about Sasha, Irina, Michelle, and Fumie. Unfortunately, there is only gold, silver, and bronze, so I'm going to have to do an "Aw, shoot!" with at least two skaters.
And speaking of coaching, since others have mentioned that they felt Sasha never should have left Nicks, I disagree. Back in Mesopotamia, when I was dancing and teaching dance, often the best thing for an advanced dancer who hadn't made it to the professional level was a several months to a year or more away from his/her usual instructor or group of instructors, no matter how great they were. Without going into the reasons why, I don't think Sasha would be the skater she is today had she not trained with both Tarasova and Wagner. I agree that Nicks is the best coach for her now, but I feel strongly that Sasha needed to visit the land of Oz in order to appreciate what he has to offer.
Right now my hope is that Michelle recovers and that everyone stays healthy, including the coaches -- remember Carlo Fassi and Worlds '9?, when he died the day before pupil Nicole Bobek's LP? Both skaters and coaches, not to mention parents and families, are going to need everything they've got during this Olympic season.
Rgirl
