Caroline Zhang | Page 4 | Golden Skate

Caroline Zhang

I recall a skater who had the lead after the SP at Nagano and SLC who could not close the deal.

Burn! Oh snap :laugh: prepare for the onslaught from that skater's fans! :rofl:

As for Nagasu- she is really only competing against one person- herself. Once she can beat "herself", she can beat anyone in the US. And be a world medal contender- perhaps even title contender. But does she have the competitor's mentality? Unfortunately I do not see it in her at this point.
 
I recall a skater who had the lead after the SP at Nagano and SLC who could not close the deal.

If results were so predictable they wouldn't need to keep score.


Well, of course we who love Michelle often think (in unguarded moments) that she did close the deal at Nagano. (I can't resist saying that.)

Your second point is quite true. There are very few inevitables in skating. Trixi Schuba in 1972 was probably inevitable, after the score she racked up in school figures. But these days, anything can happen between the end of Act I and the end of Act II on the ice.
 
Well, of course we who love Michelle often think (in unguarded moments) that she did close the deal at Nagano. (I can't resist saying that.)

Your second point is quite true. There are very few inevitables in skating. Trixi Schuba in 1972 was probably inevitable, after the score she racked up in school figures. But these days, anything can happen between the end of Act I and the end of Act II on the ice.

And some fans only care about the color of medals.

Michelle will always be one of my all-time favorites. She may have peaked technically at 17-18 but her skating continued to grow and mature in other areas.

Mirai is a current favorite of mine. I don't think we have seen her best yet and watching her develope and mature as an athlete and artist is more interesting to me than how many medals she wins.

Think of fans like RD who wrote off Alissa after 2010 Natls. He doubted her after the SP at the GPF.

Watching Alissa last season was very satisfying because she came back from such disappointment to have her finest season. I don't know if we have seen Alissa's best yet and I admire her for skating on when so many others might have quit. Sometimes it's about the journey, especially with skaters we have watched grow up.

I am sure we have not seen Mirai's best. Winning a medal or coming fourth at CoC last season is not part of the equation for why I watch skating.
 
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That was very good. No mule kick and the pearl spin is back. (I almost wish it weren't, thinking of the impact on her back, but it's a lovely spin.) A small stumble on her 2A but other than that everything was solid, if a bit slow in parts. The music is beautiful and the program is good enough. If she can add a little passion, she should do well with this. Great job, Caroline!
 
Loved Caroline's music and her speed going into her beginning 3-2 combo. Her skating slowed down quite a bit after the combo, however, but overall I liked her SP.
 
Caroline is a new skater. Her trademark ballerina style is diminished (sad lack of pointed toe) and her spiral is a shadow of its former glory, but her flip and loop looked great. Her speed is generally fine. Nice to see the pearl again. She is on the right track and hope she gets some favorable results this year.

Does anybody know about Caroline's college plans...if there were any or if she is waiting until she stops skating?
 
I see considerable improvement in speed and fitness level, like she has gotten stronger. Her skating is not a labored as it was last season. There were a couple of mistakes, but much better than what we saw most of last season.
She is off to a good start. :)
 
Lovely to see Caroline skate well again! Weeeeeee!

Also, I want to thank everybody who have been visiting my Caroline fan site! I hope to upgrade it soon!
 
The bad news for Caroline is that she has been beaten handily here by the junior and novice champions. The new wave is coming up with stronger basics and technique, thus she will have hard time moving back into contention.
 
Again, I'd like to stress that it is early and a lot can happen between now and season's start, and throughout the season as well.
 
I have never been a hugh fan of Caroline but in the end of her LP I got all teared up.. It has been painful to see her struggles through the last few years and it was incredibly nice to see her start of the season with two solid programs.

Of course, she still has a long way to go but it feels like she needed a competition like this to build up her confidence and I hope she will be rewarded with better scores if she continues to improve throughout the season..
 
I was a little surprised to see Caroline's TES so far behind Leah Keiser's, actually, because Leah's jumps were not big and many landings looked less solid than Caroline's. I was also surprised that Leah Keiser had much higher PCS, because she had no extension in her arms/fingers/back, and generally lacked presentation finesse except for youthful enthusiasm. I feel like the tech panel was especially lax with Leah on the under-rotations. Maybe it was the difference between my angle and theirs. I would be very surprised if Leah got scores as high as she did here at international competitions.
 
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