Ladies FS

[Mathman]

Can someone post the PCS marks like the Skating Skills for Irina and Mao? Thanks.

Besides the link supplied by JOhio, Sailor Galactica posted the PCS above in post #8.

Skating skills: Mao 7.55, Irina 7.65
Transitions: Mao 7.05, Irina 7.30
Performance/execution: Mao 7.55, Irina 7.70
Choreography: Mao 7.45, Irina 7.40
Interpretation: Mao 7.55, Irina 7.75

Total PCS: Mao 59.44, Irina 60.48

So the judges thought that Irina was superior in every category except choreography.

About Flutzing, Mao got a -0.40 GOE on her first triple Lutz and 0.00 o her 3Lutz/2Loop combination. Irina got +1.00 GOE on her 3Lz+2Lo. She did not do a solo triple Lutz.

As for the tiny, wobbly triple Axel -- that's 7.5 points, same as for a huge gorgeous one. She even got +0.40 GOE for it, and +1.00 GOE for her later double Axel (planned as a triple).

Go Mao!

MM

 

[bronxgirl]

What I hope is that the New Judging System will provide a spur for a resurgence of interest in professional skating. I see nothing at all wrong with skaters of Asada's generation striving to outdo each other with triple Axels and quads. Higher, faster, stronger, and I hope she wins a big medal.
Mathman

Higher, Faster, Stronger, and hope that they don't mind hip replacement surgery at age 20:yes:

 

[yelyoh]

And I haven't seen any other article that says Irina made the statement "I didn't lose".

There's a link at MKF to the article. Makes IS sound like a sore loser.

 

[Mathman]

Higher, Faster, Stronger, and hope that they don't mind hip replacement surgery at age 20:yes:

That's the beauty of my plan. Olympic medal at 16, then you're done with all that, time to move on to the real thing before you cripple yourself.

OK, it didn't work out for Tara, but Yagudin could have saved himself a lot of grief if he had backed off those quads sooner.

But who listens to me, LOL?

Seriously, though, don't you think the problem is all those years of abusing your body, rather than just doing it for a couple of years when you are young? Look at Plushenko, for instance. He could take it for a number of years, but sooner or later it is going to catch up with you.

JMO

MM

 

[gkelly]

But what about the skaters who don't win an Olympic medal their first try, don't win gold and think they may be able to 4 years later, or don't even make their country's Olympic team when they're 16?

If they think they have it in them to have Olympic success next time, or even just international-level success in the meantime, they're likely to keep trying as long as their bodies and their funding holds out.

So there need to be ways for the non-prodigies to make it likely that their bodies will hold out for the long term.

 

[Mathman]

Well, my proposal -- now all I need is a billion dollars of seed money to make it happen -- would be that professional skating would become so lucrative, so cool and so much to be desired, that nobody but the kids would care about the Olympics one way of the other.

You take your shot, win a medal or don't, then on move on to the big show if you have the talent. If you aren't a prodigy, then you start working on your edging and moves in the field so you can move up to the big time if you get good enough.

I guess my main gripe is that figure skating has tied itself so firmly to the Olympics that it has strangled itself on the cords. The result seems to be to put everyone in the hospital.

MM

 

[mzheng]

makes me grind my teeth. The competition WAS important for all the skaters except Irina because she didn't win. Waaaaahhhhhh! Puh-lease. I think her scores from this competition were more in line with her skating than at any other time in the GP Series. Just like her to denounce the competition and in so doing, she denounces her competitors. Nice. Real nice.

Hey, Real, why you grind your teeth? You just said in another thread, you don't care GPs. The rest agreed.

 

[swannanoa54]

mzheng, I don't care for the GP Series enough to watch the darn things. However I do care about outcomes. I won't watch the GPF when it airs. I can download the skating from fsvideo anyway, so why watch it? And right now, I've only see Mao's.

However I can have an opinion based on reading someone's pathetic whining...again.

And Mathman, I am so totally with you about a resurgence of professional skating. I'd love to see that myself. I didn't realize how much I missed watching some of my favorites without all the "fandom" antics that go on with the "amateur" skating. Now if I get a billion and you get a billion, let's do it.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Has Irina serious illness miraculously disappear?

When she skates poorly we worry about if she is not in good health. When she wins we say how remarkable she was in spite of her illness. that's the way it is; that's the way it was, that's the way it will be.

Joe

 

[Mafke]

I guess my main gripe is that figure skating has tied itself so firmly to the Olympics that it has strangled itself on the cords. The result seems to be to put everyone in the hospital.

THANK YOU!!! My feelings exactly. The worst thing is that skating had a nice little window of opportunity (post whack) to disengage itself from the olympic ghetto (I think that was part of what the grand prix was supposed to do) but mostly didn't. So it's back to being a sport that only gets attention once every four years.

The olympics _should_ be encouragement for more casual fans/viewers to start following the sport on a regular basis and not the "only competition that matters". yecchhh Somewhere between gymastics (ultimate olympic ghetto sport) and tennis (ultimate olympic non-event sport) would be good.

Also (while I'm ranting) if the olympics are the only way to create stars (which is the case in the current reality) then it had better create stars with continuing careers or it's tv numbers will go down the tubes very rapidly. The last three ladies olympic champions have had _at best_ mediocre post olympic skating careers. That's a big factor in the loss of popularity.

 

[Tiana]

makes me grind my teeth. The competition WAS important for all the skaters except Irina because she didn't win. Waaaaahhhhhh! Puh-lease.

Maybe this competition wasn't so important for Irina cos her mother in hospital now and recently had urgent transplantation...

 

[yelyoh]

Maybe this competition wasn't so important for Irina cos her mother in hospital now and recently had urgent transplantation...

Uh huh well if that's the case then why show up at all? And if she showed up because she needs the money then why not win the thing so she can collect the maximum amount? I think IS is just doing a sour grapes act. She got beaten by a kid and she doesn't like it one bit. Just like at SLC. Did Sasha dismiss the event when she lost to Mao recently? Nope. Irina is a sore loser.

 

[alain707]

As for the tiny, wobbly triple Axel -- that's 7.5 points, same as for a huge gorgeous one. She even got +0.40 GOE for it, and +1.00 GOE for her later double Axel (planned as a triple).

Go Mao!

MM

Her second axel can't have been planned as a triple, as she already puts 2 lutzes and 2 flips in her program, so her quota of repeated triple jumps is reached.
It's true that her triple axel can't be compared with Ito's or Harding's in terms of height and ice coverage, but she isn't the same build at all, so we can't expect her to show the same athletic power. Her goes with very fast rotations. The good thing in it is that it is technically correct on takeoff and landing, there is no cheat, it's a fully rotated jump. Otherwise we have been used to a few flawed but validated attempts by other skaters since 2002.

 

[wishicouldskate]

My-oh, Mao My! Just saw the downloads over at the Skate Video site. I cannot decide if I prefer her technique or artistry....she is absolute perfection on both counts. WOW....

THE BEST will not be in Torino. Ladies & gentlemen, we just saw in Tokyo what should have been the 2006 Olympic Gold-Medal winning performance. In Torino, women will vie for second best lady skater of the season. That's the bottom line.

Where is the Skate Vidoe site?

 

[Tiana]

Uh huh well if that's the case then why show up at all? And if she showed up because she needs the money then why not win the thing so she can collect the maximum amount?

Yeah...
I hope you will never be in such situation

I think IS is just doing a sour grapes act. She got beaten by a kid and she doesn't like it one bit. Just like at SLC. Did Sasha dismiss the event when she lost to Mao recently? Nope. Irina is a sore loser.

 

[Tiana]

Where is the Skate Vidoe site?

http://fsvids.9.forumer.com/index.php

 

[gkelly]

Did Sasha dismiss the event when she lost to Mao recently? Nope. Irina is a sore loser.

She said: “I have to say, it’s a little disappointing not to win. But this was kind of a try out for me, to come to the Grand Prix, to put my programs out there. Ultimately Nationals and the Olympics are my main goal.”

Notice that

1) Neither of them said anything at all about the winner (at least, that was quoted).

2) Both said, in different words, that the competition was not important compared to the Olympics which they are working toward.

If Slutskaya "dismissed" the event, so did Cohen. If Cohen just, say, put it in perspective within the season, then so did Slutskaya.

The only difference is that Slutskaya objected to the component marks she got from the judges, and Cohen commented on what she did wrong:

"I wasn’t proud of my performance today, there are quite a few things that I can do better, but it was a great learning experience for me. I was little bit late at the end, and I was trying to make up time, I rushed the jump a bit."

So you could argue that Slutskaya is putting the responsibility on others (judges) for her not winning and Cohen is taking the responsibility on herself.

But even that is a stretch. Really, we only know what they might be thinking from a few sentences. I'm sure they're also thinking lots of other things that didn't get voiced at the press conferences or didn't get passed along by the journalists.

 

[bronxgirl]

That's the beauty of my plan. Olympic medal at 16, then you're done with all that, time to move on to the real thing before you cripple yourself.

OK, it didn't work out for Tara, but Yagudin could have saved himself a lot of grief if he had backed off those quads sooner.

But who listens to me, LOL?

Seriously, though, don't you think the problem is all those years of abusing your body, rather than just doing it for a couple of years when you are young? Look at Plushenko, for instance. He could take it for a number of years, but sooner or later it is going to catch up with you.

JMO

MM

If you start practicing triple axels and quad jumps at a younger age, your body is more suscpetible to damage to growth plates, and it just pushes back the start dates of "all those years of abusing your body". MM, do you own stock in hip replacement production companies?

 

[Mathman]

But BG, I'm not saying to start at an earlier age. I'm saying, OK, you're 15, you're half-way to a hip replacement. Now STOP, ALREADY, before it's too late.

You say you won't stop? Here's a gold medal. NOW will you stop?

 

[Mathman]

Her second axel can't have been planned as a triple, as she already puts 2 lutzes and 2 flips in her program, so her quota of repeated triple jumps is reached.

Good point. I hadn't noticed that.

Before the free skate Mao was quoted as saying that she "might" try two triple Axels. I wonder if she had a plan A and a plan B, depending on whether she decided to go for a second triple Axel or not. She's a pretty cool customer if she can juggle that kind of decision-making in the middle of her skate.

Since she got a positive GOE on the double Axel it is clear that it was not a downgraded triple.

MM