Does Emily Hughes have a shot at the National Title? | Page 5 | Golden Skate

Does Emily Hughes have a shot at the National Title?

My gosh...if Emily and Sarah are fat--

what would they call the rest of us? I'm a 5'7" male weighing 160 lbs...according to doctors I'm normal and healthy...

What would Emily call me?
 
I believe the standards (BMI, etc.) are different for men than for women. But I see what you're trying to say.
 
who said anything about banning...

I remember the comments from where I was looking 'way back' the more 'official' skating boards... I wasn't on GS at that time, IIRC.

as for agreeing or not, it doesn't matter... none of the skaters are fat by anymeans... and I didn't think Sarah looked fat during SOI... she looked like an average person... not an olympic athlete... and there'snothing wrong with that...
 
not an olympic athlete... and there'snothing wrong with that...
I see your point and I am not really disagreeing but Gretchen Muller ( whatever the snowboarder's name is) is practically the same shape as Emily. And I would have to consider her an Olympic athlete - based on her placement at the Olys. And Kat Witt... and what is Anton's G-friends name, bigger then Emily but still Mighty fine looking lady IMO!

Lord I love the ladies because they look so good in so many different ways!
:bow:
 
I'm not saying in this thread either girl is getting ragged on... I'm saying in the past...

ragged is a term my mother uses, Joe... she's 60... I think sean's definition is pretty close to what I use it for. I've always understood it to be a negative term in that people just get off on being overly harsh to someone for no real reason

to call any olympic level athlete overweight or even fat (which both Sarah and Emily have been accused of by 'fans') is absurd.

Many 'fans' of the sport were very negative towards Sarah 'back in the day' when she was skating and catching up to Michelle and Sasha... people saw her as undeserving and so took to petty attacks on the girl.


Sarah consistently beat Sasha at international events. Sasha seemed to be favored by the US judges. There were some real negative comments about Sarah after winning the Olympics, and after Worlds '03 everyone was saying she was fat. That was mean and really, not nice at all! I really wish someday for Sarah to come back to skating, but doubt she will. Until then, I will give my support to Em, who IMO isn't fat and looks just right for a skatergirl. :agree:
 
As I recall, Sarah Hughes was very thin during the Olympic season, so much so that some people were concerned that she was anorexic. But she withdrew from Worlds then withdrew from Campbell's with an injury, and did not surface again until the Crest and Hallmark competitions, about a month before Nationals.

At that point, she was no longer the stick-thin Sarah she'd been at SLC and she had grown another inch or so in height. She was slightly heavier at Worlds than she'd been at Nationals, and the extra weight did seem to affect her performance. She huffed and puffed her way through the QR and finished way down in her group. She didn't make the final group for the FS, but managed to finish 6th overall. A month later, at the spring cheesefest, she finished last in a field of 8 ladies. The next time we saw Sarah on the ice was in SOI, where she was barely able to manage two double jumps and a single axel.

If people made comments about Sarah during the SOI tour, it was more because of her subpar skating than her weight. But some people did feel that it was the extra weight that kept Sarah from regaining her jumps. Also, her body type had changed drastically: where she had been a skinny, flat-chested girl as an Olympian, Sarah was now a full-busted woman.

Incidentally, I am having a hard time recalling Sarah "consistently" beating Sasha at international events. Between the fall of 2000 and the spring of 2003, there were few times when they faced each other on international ice. Sarah beat Sasha at 2000 Skate America, 2001 Lalique and at SLC. Sasha beat Sarah at 2003 Worlds and at the 2003 Spring cheesefest, an international event. Sasha beat Sarah at 2000 Nationals and 2002 Nationals, while Sarah beat Sasha at Nationals just once, in 2003.
 
I see your point and I am not really disagreeing but Gretchen Muller ( whatever the snowboarder's name is) is practically the same shape as Emily. And I would have to consider her an Olympic athlete - based on her placement at the Olys.

I think you mean Gretchen Bleiler.

How did a thread about Emily Hughes turn into a thread about Sarah Hughes? :laugh:
 
Some people feel that Emily and Sarah, as sisters, share some physical characteristics. Their mother is a petite, thin woman, while their father is tall and on the portly side. Emily and Sarah would seem to take more after their father than their mother insofar as body type is concerned. Since Sarah began to 'blossom' in her 18th and 19th years, some may feel that Emily, soon to turn 18, might be facing a similar 'bloom' in the near future.
 
It's incredible how much sympathy is pouring out for Sarah about her weight, and how some posters recall the ragging she gets as if there were hundreds of posts calling her fat. I checked out #52 for the term 'fat'. It was just a remark that Sara is NOT fat. Why resort to such a tactic to prove a point? Are there any posts at all available for calling Sarah fat?

The biggest defenders of a slim Sarah will not comment on the underrotated jumps which indeed she got ragged about, and I defended her in that I didn't see the underrotation. That was about her figure skating. Maybe some posters don't want to talk about figure skating.

Joe
 
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II also agree that the USFS is aggressively 'pushing' Emily because of name recognition. We're probably doomed to see even more of this because of the absence of Kwan and Cohen. I'm not sure that that will contribute towards the judges 'helping' Emily to win the US Championship, but I hope that is not the case if Emily doesn't skate well.

I'd much rather see the introverted Kimmie win the championship based on her SKATING talent than exuberant Emily win based on her sister's name.


No they are not! Emily is a fine skater in her own right and it's not as if the US have any other ladies who can step up to the plate? Who is better besides Kimmie? Bebe who is an inconsistent competitor or Katy Taylor who fell on almost every jump in SA? Emily has problems with her jumps but considerably less than the other US ladies. However as a skater I think Emily ranks up there with the very best- amazing all around skater with solid edges, great spins and knows how to deliver a program.

And for the person who is ripping on Emily's smile- Emily is so happy to be out there that she can't contain herself and it makes me happy to watch a skater like that.
 
The fact is Emily has not been a fine skater this season so far. She hasn't been able to land the 3Z at all in her FS, and in her last FS she got credit for just one triple because all the others were underrotated. I wouldn't call her performances this season amazing, I'd call them shocking.
 
I know Marshall's was just Cheese, but I enjoyed her skating. Not because I saw high quality skating skills, as much as a high quality attitude. I missed the post on the "smile" not being liked??? and can't really understand how it wouldn't be liked, but to each their own I 'spose. I think chances are good but not as likely as say Kimmie for this title, but anything could happen and I would say she is more likely to gain a spot then others I would also like to see.

Outside of Kim n Em I am torn on who I would want the most. I like all those ladies, but thread related would like to see Emily "earn" a spot.

Thanks RD for the last name of Gretchen, at least it rhymed:laugh: I guess I could have looked at that list of 20 SI athlete cuties, I think that also says a lot for that body type being liked by "the dudes" anyway.

The main reason I don't like the term "chunky" (well some don't like "hot" or "cute") is because it brings visions of "lumps" on a otherwise smooth surface. Like a cookie. Or cellulite or something that just makes me feel bad for someone under that kind of "fire." Like I said, I should just let it be for "celebrities" receive that type of scrutiny all the time, but something in my brain says "you better defend that person and show them there is someone who feels completely different." I think I should relax being an advocate, but it is natural to me.

Acutely I think this thread is going fairly decorously compared to some. And think it is nice to read opinions most of the time without feeling offended, also means I am more likely to get the point rather than be distracted by "uncourteous terms." A lot of the talk about weight was directly relating to the effect on skating anyway, so be it a valid topic for some.
:agree:
 
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The fact is Emily has not been a fine skater this season so far. She hasn't been able to land the 3Z at all in her FS, and in her last FS she got credit for just one triple because all the others were underrotated. I wouldn't call her performances this season amazing, I'd call them shocking.


Well jumps are only part of skating. Her skating skills, choreography and non-jump elements are among the very best in the world and she gets rewarded for them.
 
Emily's spiral is just average. Her head and shoulders are only a foot or so off the ice, to make her leg look higher by comparison, but no one is fooled. Her spins and footwork are OK, but not the best in the world.

Overall, Emily muscles through her jumps and they are not pretty, even when she lands them. At her best (2006 Olympics), she was out of the top 6, and she isn't skating anywhere near that well this year.

Sorry, but Emily isn't one of the best in the World. She was average for a bottom-of-the-top 10 skater last year, but this year her jumps (or lack of them) could well take her out of the top 10.

I would also add that jumps are a fairly big part of Skating Skills.
 
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Emily's major problem is that although she is a good SP skater, she cannot seem to skate a good FS. All that boundless energy gets dissipated in the FS and she has no juice left 2/3 of the way through. Maybe if she toned down the ta-das and the bouncing around and paced herself, she would have better FS results.
 
Emily's major problem is that although she is a good SP skater, she cannot seem to skate a good FS. All that boundless energy gets dissipated in the FS and she has no juice left 2/3 of the way through. Maybe if she toned down the ta-das and the bouncing around and paced herself, she would have better FS results.

I think that is a great point, to pace herself like ... well a lot of sports.:agree:
 
Em does need some improving, but so does Kimmie yet everyone already has Kimmie crowned the next US National Champion. I agree that if Kimmie has all her jumps and her 3axel she will be hard to beat but Em just might pull it off, especially if Kimmie doesn't land the 3axel.
 
Kimmie should have no problem capturing the US title. It's the World competition that she needs major improvement for. Don't be surprised with an OTP finish for her when you have skaters like Kim, Ando and Asada in the mix.
 
Kimmie should have no problem capturing the US title. It's the World competition that she needs major improvement for. Don't be surprised with an OTP finish for her when you have skaters like Kim, Ando and Asada in the mix.

Kim, Asada and Ando are not unbeatable. Ando didn't skate well at all at the GP Final. I am aware that she was ill but that goes to show that illness and injury can strike at inopportune times.
 
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