Ladies short program

[ae9177]

OMG, Yuna! As I said in the prediction thread, when she's ON, she's invincible!

Kudos to Yukari to pull off such a great performance! So proud of Mao, she's a fighter.

Very exciting start of the new season. Alexe is probably the biggest surprise here, Sasha's withdraw turns out to be a win-win situation for both parties.

 

[gourry]

Is it because of her height?
Why can't she get a dress that covers her butt?

Um, maybe I chose a wrong term? Her butt was ok and well covered.

....I feel so awkward....

 

[MissCleo]

to save others from the embarrassment, Caro's dress does not fit well across her chest. If it did not have the illusion fabric, it would have been a disaster. The length of the dress wasnt a problem

 

[SerpentineSteps]

Very exciting start of the new season. Alexe is probably the biggest surprise here, Sasha's withdraw turns out to be a win-win situation for both parties.

It's obviously just a thought, since we haven't seen her FS yet, but I could actually see Gilles having a shot at the Olympic team now!

Her butt was ok and well covered.

So... her boobs?

EDIT: ok. her "chest" it is.

 

[taaak]

elene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utZOPcpmrgI&feature=channel

 

[*Sniper*]

Um, maybe I chose a wrong term? Her butt was ok and well covered.

....I feel so awkward....

Oh, sorry about that.
I wasn't able to watch her SP, so I just assumed that it was her bottom again.
Her dresses, as gorgeous as they are, usually fail to be of appropriate length.

So, it's her chest, this time?
Oh dear.

 

[sillylionlove]

Oh I certainly hope they will show the SP! Last time when Skate america was on NBC, they said only FS will be broadcasted, but SP also was shown. I hope it will be the case here again!!

I know the short program is being shown on Universal Sports. But they might show part of the short programs on the NBC broadcast but who knows!

 

[cornell08]

Thoughts on scores..

I actually felt Yuna was overmarked. She was brilliant-- but her 3-3 this time was no where near its best, and her flip did not quite sail as it has before. Over 70 for sure, but the judges shouldn't get carried away. She definitely was the best by an incredible measure but a tad overmarked.

Yukari I thought delivered a solid performance, and the leg wrap wasn't as distracting as it has been. Beautiful axel-- might've been the best one today (can't decide between her's and Yuna's). I thought she should've broken 60.

Caroline was a bit undermarked. She had better ice coverage and speed than before, and improved her presentation so that it was actually saucy! Muled till the cows came home, but her axel was improved. She's had worse performances than this with an underrotated 3-3 and/or stepped out axel and gotten better scores with less speed so I'm a bit puzzled by her 57. Wonder if she got docked points for not counting her spin rotations (though they looked fine to me) or for underrotation..

 

[skatingbc]

Caroline was a bit undermarked. She had better ice coverage and speed than before, and improved her presentation so that it was actually saucy! Muled till the cows came home, but her axel was improved. She's had worse performances than this with an underrotated 3-3 and/or stepped out axel and gotten better scores with less speed so I'm a bit puzzled by her 57. Wonder if she got docked points for not counting her spin rotations (though they looked fine to me) or for underrotation..

Although she landed all of her jumps, I thought all of her jumps had one issue or another. Her mulekick is just disgraceful. She slowed considerably going into her loop and the landing edge wasn't long and gliding, but slow and it circled too much. She is still slow as molasses going into that darn double axel. So, although she landed all of her jumps, I could see her getting 0 GOE or -GOE on all of them. I thought she looked faster as well, but still not nearly as fast as she should be. I love Caroline and I want her to do well, but I think she needs to seriously correct her technique before she can really compete with the upper echelon.

 

[cornell08]

I agree, but the issue is that this was a better short program performance than most she's done in the near past and yet she was scored lower. This is an issue of inconsistency in her scores. She might still be slow and mulekick and go slow into the axel but the point is she's improved, if only a little. This was a better performance than any of her short programs last year (except perhaps World Team Trophy) and yet her score does not reflect this.

 

[i love to skate]

Although she landed all of her jumps, I thought all of her jumps had one issue or another. Her mulekick is just disgraceful. She slowed considerably going into her loop and the landing edge wasn't long and gliding, but slow and it circled too much. She is still slow as molasses going into that darn double axel. So, although she landed all of her jumps, I could see her getting 0 GOE or -GOE on all of them. I thought she looked faster as well, but still not nearly as fast as she should be. I love Caroline and I want her to do well, but I think she needs to seriously correct her technique before she can really compete with the upper echelon.

Very good post. I completely agree! I didn't see any visible improvements or even any slight attempts at improving her technique. People have been talking about her technique for years and still nothing is being done about it. Makes me wonder about her willingness to try and fix these problems. I am concerned about what her coaches are thinking as well; they are doing more harm than good for her.

 

[Tinymavy15]

Maybe I'm missing something, but why does Mao need a 3A in the SP, if she has a 3-3? Why not just match Yu Na, jump for jump?

Because YU-na has a perfect Lutz and Mao does not. If she is lucky she gets a ! sometimes it is as bad as a "e." Mao does not feel comfortable with the lutz after she has been trying not to flutz. If Mao gets a -2 on the lutz and Yu-na gets a +2 then that is 4 points right there. Not to mention that her 3/3 is downgraded often.

 

[cornell08]

...so Caroline ought to score what she used to score, when she landed everything. Am I the only one who sees this glitch in logic? I'm not saying she's improved by much at all, only saying for the same if not worse performance she's gotten better scores.

 

[ehdtkqorl123]

Maybe I'm missing something, but why does Mao need a 3A in the SP, if she has a 3-3? Why not just match Yu Na, jump for jump? If Mao has a problem on the lutz, do a flip. Mao's spirals, spins and footwork are, IMO, better than Yu Na's.
She can compete, but not with missed triple axels.

To me, it seems like 3A is Mao's lottery jump - too bad for her that she doesn't win the jackpot often.

 

[jenaj]

Because YU-na has a perfect Lutz and Mao does not. If she is lucky she gets a ! sometimes it is as bad as a "e." Mao does not feel comfortable with the lutz after she has been trying not to flutz. If Mao gets a -2 on the lutz and Yu-na gets a +2 then that is 4 points right there. Not to mention that her 3/3 is downgraded often.

Then why doesn't she do a 3F-3T? Isn't that her usual 3-3? She doesn't have to do a lutz in the short program, does she? And even if she does, she can do it as her solo jump. Mao needs to forget about the 3A in the short program until she can land it consistently. What did Frank Carroll tell Michelle about consistency--80? 90? before it goes into the program?

 

[museksk8r]

Then why doesn't she do a 3F-3T? Isn't that her usual 3-3? She doesn't have to do a lutz in the short program, does she? And even if she does, she can do it as her solo jump. Mao needs to forget about the 3A in the short program until she can land it consistently. What did Frank Carroll tell Michelle about consistency--80? 90? before it goes into the program?

I think Mao should try 3flip+3toe, 3loop, and 2Axel for the SP. The 3flip+3loop and the 3Axel have far too great a chance of being downgraded. She could put some super difficult entrance into the 3loop as well as a difficult exit to boost the GOE potential as well as for the 2Axel. There are so many ways for the skaters to gain extra points. They need to maximize those transitions!

 

[fairly4]

i will always state THAT THE USFSA And ICE NETWORK Doesn't LIKE Caroline Zhang--see icenetwork. stating gilles on.74 out of 3rd. and nothing about how close caroline zhang is from third-
also that gilles is with what his face--name as a coach--they perfer white american coaches. to me --that the usfsa doesn't want caroline zhang up there and will do everything in power behind the scenes to keep her down--including alexi gilles fans with the mule kick--not realizing GILLES SkATES LIKE A JUNIOR SKATER_ -has nothing do it-except she is white.no artistry no-nothing.
zhang might have skated a bit slow--aslo no triple triple, maybe the score could have been higher ; maybe gilles got a bit higher based on a smidge higher in jumps not much. there is NO DIFFERENCE BETSWEEN GILLEs and Zhang in scoring -to pcs Caroline got higher pcs. she skated solid--gilles not so sure. (overmarked a bit).
sorry about being rude-but it seems caroline zhang gets rooked everytime, andwant to make sure she isn't the one they want up there by keeping her scores too low.

 

[skatingbc]

I agree, but the issue is that this was a better short program performance than most she's done in the near past and yet she was scored lower. This is an issue of inconsistency in her scores. She might still be slow and mulekick and go slow into the axel but the point is she's improved, if only a little. This was a better performance than any of her short programs last year (except perhaps World Team Trophy) and yet her score does not reflect this.

Her previous scores are irrelevant to this competition. The judges are marking what they see in front of them. I see your point, but the judges don't hand out A's for effort. Perhaps she has tried to work on it and perhaps she has improved her speed, but has anything else improved? I don't really think so.

On the other hand, maybe she got zero for an illegal spin or something?

 

[fairly4]

also how low--maybe she should have got a 58. or low 59.
with all the brouhaha about sasha--getting special treatment. they want to make sure caroline doesn't get the marks to make room for SASHA and rachel.
see even junior skaters beat carolina out--not realizing Kira was OVermarked in her short programs.

 

[demarinis5]

I agree, but the issue is that this was a better short program performance than most she's done in the near past and yet she was scored lower. This is an issue of inconsistency in her scores. She might still be slow and mulekick and go slow into the axel but the point is she's improved, if only a little. This was a better performance than any of her short programs last year (except perhaps World Team Trophy) and yet her score does not reflect this.

Maybe the judges were stricter today. But I do agree about her score I thought she would score higher for that program. I did not think her SP was that bad at all, I liked it.