Ladies' Free

[ManyCairns]

Wow, Mao's skating has never really touched me as to artistry, and I never understood why she got quite so much hype when she's never had the full set of triples (flutz, no sal, etc.), but geez it was hard to hear that she had two rocky programs at TEBC.

Always loved Rochette but, boy, she's really got the judges' attention this year!

 

[R.D.]

Final placements (don't know if these were posted)

1 Joannie ROCHETTE CAN 180.73 1 1
2 Mao ASADA JPN 167.59 2 2
3 Caroline ZHANG USA 156.54 3 3
4 Candice DIDIER FRA 135.25 5 4
5 Beatrisa LIANG USA 134.29 4 5
6 Binshu XU CHN 123.83 10 6
7 Elene GEDEVANISHVILI GEO 121.78 9 7
8 Anastasia GIMAZETDINOVA UZB 116.99 7 8
9 Emily HUGHES USA 115.48 8 9
10 Gwendoline DIDIER FRA 111.18 6 10

 

[gold12345]

Frankly you know what I think. Fine keep the judges anonymous because you don't want their federation pressuring them.

BUT the ISU should know whose giving what marks. IF a Judge is found under marking other skaters, and then over marking their skater, than that judge should be punished. It's what is totally wrong with this sport.

Good point. I agree.

One judge passed out such PCS to Joannie.
PCS: 8.00 8.00 8.75 8.25 8.75

And that judge gave her a +3 GOE on her spiral sequence. It's really not funny though.

 

[MissIzzy]

Frankly you know what I think. Fine keep the judges anonymous because you don't want their federation pressuring them.

BUT the ISU should know whose giving what marks. IF a Judge is found under marking other skaters, and then over marking their skater, than that judge should be punished. It's what is totally wrong with this sport.

Well's it not like this didn't happen in the past. Wasn't there an Italian judge blatantly trying to put Fusar-Poli and Margaglio ahead back in the day?

 

[McWicked]

Im afraid if Caroline doesnt change her jump technique she'll never be one of the top contenders...

 

[R.D.]

Im afraid if Caroline doesnt change her jump technique she'll never be one of the top contenders...

Obviously not. This comp was the prime indicator of that. Could she have done any better, really? (in the FS that is)

 

[McWicked]

Do you think Mao is also sufferin the "world champ" curse??? You know, such a burden... of needin 2b perfect & stuff... look at Kimmie, Miki...

 

[fiercemao]

Im afraid if Caroline doesnt change her jump technique she'll never be one of the top contenders...

If she changes jump technique, it can get even worse. We'll see how she's going to develop for the next two years.

 

[bekalc]

Do you think Mao is also sufferin the "world champ" curse??? You know, such a burden... of needin 2b perfect & stuff... look at Kimmie, Miki...

I disagree about Meissner. The Olympic year Meissner did not medal at a GP (because she didn't skate well although those events were packed) and she had a fairly bad skate at the Olympic free. (Her skate at nationals was pretty good) but really that's it.

She wasn't great the next year, BUT Meissner's placements were pretty good. It's just new skaters were eligible.

Ando though had a horrible year later.

 

[McWicked]

I disagree about Meissner. The Olympic year Meissner did not medal at a GP (because she didn't skate well although those events were packed) and she had a fairly bad skate at the Olympic free. (Her skate at nationals was pretty good) but really that's it.

She wasn't great the next year, BUT Meissner's placements were pretty good. It's just new skaters were eligible.

Ando though had a horrible year later.

??? Kimmie won her world championship after the Olympics, Im talkin about a skater after winnin that title.

 

[Love_Skate]

Ando though had a horrible year later.

And it's because she was fixing the lip. I hope Mao is not the case.

 

[bekalc]

??? Kimmie won her world championship after the Olympics, Im talkin about a skater after winnin that title.

I'm arguing that Meissner's skating the year later wasn't that much the year she won.

And as for Shizuka fixing the lip, I dont' think that was ever fixed, nor was it considered a big deal back then. She had injuries, and lack of motivation, from what I understand. But switching to Morozov made a big difference too.

 

[harmy18]

Do you think Mao is also sufferin the "world champ" curse??? You know, such a burden... of needin 2b perfect & stuff... look at Kimmie, Miki...

Agree

:think: Since she is so nervous about her flutz that makes all her jumps a mess, why not continue using it? I mean it doesn't matter actually (except for some deductions), who cares she flutz or lutz?

Congratulations to Joannie it would be perfect if she landed 3loop today. Sounds like she eventually be treated in a rational way. She deserves it!!!

 

[rochettefan]

The best part about Joannie's victory here is that she came in with alot of expectations after her superb showing at Skate Canada. And even though she fell on the triple-triple, she proved once again that 9 times out of 10 you can count on her to deliver an almost clean long program. And she did it under pressure of being in a position to win. I wonder if she knew before hand how poorly Mao had skated.

I think her decision to focus on the PCS this year is paying off brilliantly. Going by Skate Canada's Tracy Wilson..."She's lighter, she's faster, she's jumping higher"...lots of confidence. The judges reward speed and quality skating and she's got tons of both this year. It does sort of look like the judges have kind of finally accepted her into the elite group, but many of us fans have thought she belonged there for a long time.

Her technical element scores have always been high. Despite her remarkable jump technique and obvious effort to put detailed choreography into her programs, she's been hit hard. Remember at the Olympic short program how tough the judges were in her short program. She's come a long way and is obviously now in their favor. But she deserves to be! The judges generally tend to favor the best and if you can't prove you deserve to be there they will stop favoring you soon enough.

So let's see where Joannie goes from here. I think the grand prix final will tell alot about whether this truly is a new Joannie and how she handles the pressure of being one of the favorites. But my guess is she'll come out with a medal of some color.

It's too bad about that judges obvious PCS overscoring. She didn't need it to win.

Sorry for the long winded post. I don't post often so I just had to pipe in about her great skating.

 

[McWicked]

Btw... when is the exhibiton of champs???

 

[museksk8r]

Many congratulations to Joannie Rochette for a well deserved big win! I knew she had this level of performance within her and it's glorious to see it realized. She and Manon were very wise to tinker with her technique during the 2006-2007 seasons in order to give Joannie the necessary time she needed to become comfortable with new technique in preparation for 2010. Smart strategizing on their parts! I'm so happy to see the judges warming up to Joannie's improvements in the PCS as well . . . it's about time!

 

[bekalc]

The thing is that if Mao fixes her lutz by the Olympics it could make her unbeatable...

 

[Tigger]

Congratulations to Joannie!! After all the hard work, it's deserved.

 

[Love_Skate]

The thing is that if Mao fixes her lutz by the Olympics it could make her unbeatable...

I doubt it because the deduction of flutz she got was around -1 point. Even if she get +GOE with a true lutz, the score only increases by +2 or +3 from before.
If she can nail two 3A, then she will get unbeatable.

 

[museksk8r]

1loop for Joannie doesn't alarm me as I know she is very much capable of doing a gorgeous 3loop on a pretty consistent basis, but that pesky 2Axel+2Axel+SEQ continues to haunt her. I haven't seen her land it cleanly once since she added it to her jump layout last season. She always either pops the 2nd one into a single or steps out of the 2nd 2Axel. She would be much better off changing that sequence to a 2Axel+2loop OR she could do a 3Lutz+2loop at the top of her routine and make the 2Axel pass be her 3 jump combo of 2Axel+2toe+2loop. I hate to see her losing so many points on that very shaky 2Axel sequence.