GP France: Women's Thoughts?

[gsk8]

Levito secures first Grand Prix title in France

2023 Grand Prix de France: Women USA’s Isabeau Levito secured her first Grand Prix title in the Women’s event in Angers, France on Saturday. Nina Pinzarrone of Belgium rose from fourth […]

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Lots of moving around in this event!!

Very happy for Sumiyoshi, what a good skate! I'm so glad to see Higuchi back as well Lee and Gubanova were both devastated and in tears, so we opted to give them breathing space for comments to allow them time to process.

Repond...She still has Espoo. Will she go?

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Lots of moving around in this event!!

Very happy for Sumiyoshi, what a good skate! I'm so glad to see Higuchi back as well Lee and Gubanova were both devastated and in tears, so we opted to give them breathing space for comments to allow them time to process.

Repond...She still has Espoo. Will she go?

I'm sad to hear about Haein and Nastya, hopefully they can come back even stronger . Thank you so much for the on-the-ground comments, they've been fantastic, but also I really appreciate you respecting the athletes' boundaries and mental health.

Rion, Nina, and Lea were the highlights for me, they all had such great skates! And, of course, I loved seeing Wakaba back. Even if she's not quite at 100%, she still did amazingly well.

 

[purplecat]

Happy Isabeau got a win, sad that it wasn't her best. Nina was a huge surprise here, good for her. I was surprised she didn't seem surprised by her score which was by far a personal best - thought we'd get one of those shocked expressions but nope, she's all ho hum - lol Great job by Rion - I am surprised the quad didn't get a call of at least a quarter. It looked good in real time but the replay looked under. I was impressed with both French women - really strong skates here! Very very sad for both Mone and Kimmy. They are usually so reliable.

 

[gsk8]

Higuchi got the idea for the music for the free skate from watching USA's Maia and Alex Shibutani perform it at the 2018 Olympics.

"I thought it was a really good song," said Higuchi. "I think it's a song that links the many things I felt during my break, and what I feel towards skating right now. I told Shae-Lynn that I want to skate to it and had it mixed."

The skater noted that she had dropped in levels at this event.

"I hope to fix it before the next competition at NHK Trophy and make it a perfect performance!" she summed up.

 

[Skating91]

The subsequent event after the ladies restored some of my faith in the sport, but I won't be able to look at this sport the same way after the women's free skate. With regards to the judging of athletes there might even be a violation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. This is how serious this has become. I'm also concerned about the mental health toll this is taking on athletes who are judged extremely harshly for relatively clean programs while other colleagues who have disaster skates where they program falls completely away have sky high PCS. I just want fairness. In no way am I criticising the athletes just officials.

Nina was the biggest surprise a European medal looks like a realistic possibility which would be incredible, Haein Lee the biggest disappointment (apart from adjudicating of course). It is 4 months from worlds after all I hope she can turn this slide around. I can't see anyone coming within 15-20 points of Sakamoto (that will be GOATamoto if she wins three world titles in a row) if programs are judged honestly.

Serna and Schild I really enjoyed as well performed solidly in front of their home crowd. Kimmy was disappointing but I have felt this was coming with such low height on her jumps, it wouldn't take much of a change in her height or weight to throw everything off kilter. There was always no margin for error. Still, she brings excitement and her style is distinctive and memorable.

 

[Alex Fedorov]

It was a controversial stage. The negative aspects (strange decisions of the judges, manipulations with the GOE and PCS, Isabeau’s performance) have already been discussed here. I can only add that most of the programs were boring and it was not interesting to watch the tournament.

However, there are also positive aspects. In particular, 15 attempts were made at the tournament to perform solo 3F, and in 10 cases the skaters received a positive GOE. This is the best result for all three stages (at the first stage, 6 out of 13 3F attempts were successful, at the second - 6 out of 14). The most notable is the free program - all 9 3Fs were successful.

The performance of other solo triple jumps (with the exception of 3T) remained approximately the same as in the two previous stages or improved slightly. In addition, 5 attempts to execute the 3Lz+3T cascade out of 12 turned out to be successful - this is also the best result in three stages, and this time no one tried to use the archaic 3T+3T combination.

 

[Azikin]

Who'd have thought there would be more quad attempts here than in the last Russian GP? And it was even a successful attempt! PCS were generally low but 60 points for Eropean Champion seems a bit...

 

[Baron Vladimir]

Beside Rion's 4T , the biggest impression for me was American judge who gave Gubanova 107.58 points for the free skate (with 5.75!!!, 6.75, 6.50 in the components), placing her 10th in the free, and gave Rion 129.36 points placing her third in the free . I hope Susanna Rahkamo or somebody from ISU is reading this and will react

 

[SmileHappy34]

Great job ladies.
I saw on tv.

Even with mistake Isabeau program stood out.
hidden power and elegance do soft , flow .
The tech score about right to me
The others blended to me.

Nina wonderful skate and elegance. Great tell story. Quiet understated skating.

rion such power .yes her quad underrotatedo but beautiful underated.. quiet speed.

Haein Lee , I like her program.
She was selling it. A little underscored in PCs . But beautiful.

Anastasia great job. U gave all I had Flow . Loved it

 

[throw_triple_flip]

Interesting competition. The favourites all seemed to flounder to some degree, more costly for some than others. And others really stepped up. Lea Serna was great, I've not been keen on her programs in the past, but that suits her. We all know what Nina Pinzaronne is capable of and she showed it here.
I admire Haein Lee for laying down a brilliant step sequence even though she likely knew she'd lost a chance at a medal at that pointl. I read that Anastasia Gubanova was injured last year, could that still be issue? It's a lovely free skate that suits her and it seems to have better composition compared to her previous programs.

 

[throw_triple_flip]

Beside Rion's 4T , the biggest impression for me was American judge who gave Gubanova 107.58 points for the free skate (with 5.75!!!, 6.75, 6.50 in the components), placing her 10th in the free, and gave Rion 129.36 points placing her third in the free . I hope Susanna Rahkamo or somebody from ISU is reading this and will react

What's wrong with Rion?

 

[niks]

It was a controversial stage. The negative aspects (strange decisions of the judges, manipulations with the GOE and PCS, Isabeau’s performance) have already been discussed here. I can only add that most of the programs were boring and it was not interesting to watch the tournament.

I've already posted my opinions on how problematic the judging here was. But I do agree with you that ultimately the biggest issue of the women event in this stage laid with the quality of the performances and the programs themselves. They were okish, not terrible or anything, but for a GP level, it was disappointing that you would hardly have any moment while watching when you would go "oh, that's really cool!", and that you would most certainly not remember anything of the programs afterwards. It was indeed boring

 

[throw_triple_flip]

Happy Isabeau got a win, sad that it wasn't her best. Nina was a huge surprise here, good for her. I was surprised she didn't seem surprised by her score which was by far a personal best - thought we'd get one of those shocked expressions but nope, she's all ho hum - lol Great job by Rion - I am surprised the quad didn't get a call of at least a quarter. It looked good in real time but the replay looked under. I was impressed with both French women - really strong skates here! Very very sad for both Mone and Kimmy. They are usually so reliable.

Bear in mind that the tech panel aren't looking at the same replays as the viewers. It's a different angle and they do tend toward giving the skater the benefit of the doubt if it's not clear.

 

[eppen]

Went down to France to enjoy (?) this live. My short program thoughts in the competition thread.

The free was not too great. The French girls were the hghlights in the first group. Mone Chiba's review collection was one of the most impressive of the day, at least 9. The Techies were pretty busy with her!

Wakaba's return to good form I greet with joy though this free was not quite as good as it could have been (it was boring unfortunately).

Gubanova's free was even more boring and although she has some of the loveliest arms in the business, I kind of understand why the judges were not too excited either.

Funnily enough, I liked Haein Lee's Notre Dame de Paris despite the terrible music. If she seemed slow and unimpressive in the short, she was all fire and flame in the free. The steps flew!

Pinzarrone has pretty dresses but as a skater I find her very cautious and unexpressive. Her thinking about every move did not come through here as much as in the short. Strange muisc cut. Benoit is not very good with warhorses.

Rion was a different woman from the short, on top of her skating and program and I liked it a lot! The highlight of the day! Despite the unexpected 4T call. My seat gave me excellent visibility to that jump and even though I am not very good at spotting URs live, I thought it looked iffy. Then the replay showed it quite clearly. I looked down (as I sat above the judging panel) and to my infinite surpise, NOTHING... She landed it basically in front of the tech panel, they should have been able to see it without reviewing tapes. (And no, they did not have that much to review with her performance, so they had also time to do the review properly.) After years of nitpicking (almost) every possible 3A and quad attempt to death and giving much better attempts qs and <s this was an unexpected decision. Rion has been trying for a long time, but I would have wished a truly clean jump for her.

Now, Levito's free leaves me baffled. The worst thing is that it makes me think of Mikhail Kolyada which is never a good thing. Then the dress is just terrible, her shoulder and arms lines are blurred and the skirt is so heavy that it is seems to overwhelm her. Thirdly, what the heck is it supposed to be about? The first time I saw it, she had some birdy arms in the middle and with the dress I thought, ok, literally "The White Crow". But since then she has started with swan references. Which are then completely forgotten. They're wisely using her balletic qualities, but the packaging is baffling and ugly. I was also thinking of the Ugly Duckling story?!

The best part for me was seeing some of the skaters live - the non-Europeans particularly. Was glad to see the historic quad (attempt).

 

[Baron Vladimir]

What's wrong with Rion?

Judging - because she was a clear winner of the free skate, not a 3rd ranked skater in the free programme, even if someone placed her the dead last in the short (E: I mean 3rd place overall is maybe fine, but 3rd place in the free is not), as Gubanova was not deserving to be placed 10th in the free programme by any judge, whatever his personal preferences for the skating are

 

[rain]

Just catching up on the women here.

Of the first group in the long program, Lea Serna really stood out. What a great skater. I'd love to see what she could do with top flight choreography.

Mone Chiba gets lost in the crowd, as I find so many of the Japanese and Korean skaters do this season. They're all mostly skating pretty well, but their programs are all the same flavour of boring and pretty. I need some of these women to break out and stand out from the crowd.

Who did stand out in the short was Wakaba Higuchi. What a phenomenal skater. Too bad about the missed element because the rest of the program was stellar. I love her Coldplay free program. Oh, and she actually had a good illusion out of her spin.

Haein Lee is beautifully packaged. Beautiful dresses for both programs. Great footwork sequence in the short.

Levito was infuriatingly gifted and overmarked in the LP to take the win. There were a lot of good skates here that deserved to finish ahead of hers. Watching her crawl through the footwork is so painful. It was especially glaring in the context of just having watched Gubanova sink like a stone for a performance that didn't seem that bad on the whole. It was bizarre.

 

[Skating91]

Bear in mind that the tech panel aren't looking at the same replays as the viewers. It's a different angle and they do tend toward giving the skater the benefit of the doubt if it's not clear.

It's kind of disturbing that in 2023 I can sit at home and have access to better replays and technology than the officials. What's more my technology isn't even state of the art this is all stuff that could be picked up second hand for next to nothing now.

There are no excuses for the ISU in 2023. For the major events and GP stages, there should be technology that allows them to look at replays in 4k slowed down to 0.1x, and some kind of software that assists in evaluating landings. It doesn't even have to be someone from the figure skating world probably better if it isn't someone.

 

[SXTN]

It's kind of disturbing that in 2023 I can sit at home and have access to better replays and technology than the officials. What's more my technology isn't even state of the art this is all stuff that could be picked up second hand for next to nothing now.

There are no excuses for the ISU in 2023. For the major events and GP stages, there should be technology that allows them to look at replays in 4k slowed down to 0.1x, and some kind of software that assists in evaluating landings. It doesn't even have to be someone from the figure skating world probably better if it isn't someone.

With a better video replay system the manipulation of results in favor of skaters from bigger federations (with bigger I mean bigger checks) would not be as easy as now. It's all about money, power and influencing results, this is why they keep that system.

 

[Mathman]

Beside Rion's 4T , the biggest impression for me was American judge who gave Gubanova 107.58 points for the free skate (with 5.75!!!, 6.75, 6.50 in the components), placing her 10th in the free, and gave Rion 129.36 points placing her third in the free . I hope Susanna Rahkamo or somebody from ISU is reading this and will react

That's why there is a panel of nine judges. One judge might be impressed by a particular performasnce and give it high marks, another watching the same performance will see many weaknesses and give low marks. Other judges will be in the middle. The expectation is that the scores will average out to a reasonabl;e assessment.

 

[throw_triple_flip]

It's kind of disturbing that in 2023 I can sit at home and have access to better replays and technology than the officials. What's more my technology isn't even state of the art this is all stuff that could be picked up second hand for next to nothing now.

There are no excuses for the ISU in 2023. For the major events and GP stages, there should be technology that allows them to look at replays in 4k slowed down to 0.1x, and some kind of software that assists in evaluating landings. It doesn't even have to be someone from the figure skating world probably better if it isn't someone.

You're missing my point- their view might actually be the more accurate one.

Why are you making the assumption that you're viewing better at home (especailly considering how poor the onscreen replays were at this competition)?