Mao Asada

[figureskateobasan]

I think JSF fund came from the government, isn't it? I mean they are the country's official federation. So like what the other poster said, Mao's endorsement fee should be divided between the agency and her.

BusyMom, she doesn't look that skinny to me.. I think she was look like a skeleton 4 years ago during the Vancouver Olympic season.. I think I remember her current coach made her gained some weight in order to re-polish her jump or something..

 

[BusyMom]

BusyMom, she doesn't look that skinny to me.. I think she was look like a skeleton 4 years ago during the Vancouver Olympic season.. I think I remember her current coach made her gained some weight in order to re-polish her jump or something..

What do you think? 2010 http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/zyn7ZZcVENO/Figure+Skating+Day+14/Rl4uzEwkw78/Mao+Asada
2012 http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/j2mU6XcKzEo/Skate+America+Day+Two/-s7VQwXlfXp/Mao+Asada

I didn't mean skinny in the sense of criticism way. More like a parental POV. I don't care about her weight. I love to see young people enjoy food in general. We live in a crucial world. All the young girls grow up under the pretense of having the perfect body, in their case the supermodel perfection. That scares me to the death. I am 5f2 and 95pounds but no longer fit into the dress size S. I have been in the same size for most of my adulthood. My body doesn't change but the fashion size does. Half of the girls in my country now wear size XS which is too fit for my 12-years old daughter who weight 50 pounds. Anyway, it not irrelevant in Mao case. Hers are more about training and the pressures from competition, I think.

 

[YesWay]

If you watch Mao's older (2011?) DVD... you'll realise what a miracle it is, how slim she is.

Because wow, SHE LOVES TO EAT!!!

 

[BusyMom]

If you watch Mao's older (2011?) DVD... you'll realise what a miracle it is, how slim she is.

Because wow, SHE LOVES TO EAT!!!

yes especially in the first Sheherazard dress.

 

[nimi]

Half of the girls in my country now wear size XS which is too fit for my 12-years old daughter who weight 50 pounds.

I've had my struggles with body image issues and disordered eating even though in my part of the world girls/women aren't expected to be nowhere near that petite. (At 1.67m and 60kg I'm considered "normal size": my dress size is usually M but sometimes S.) I can totally understand your parental concern! I wish you and your daughter best of luck in building her self-esteem <3 <3 <3

Um, now that I got that out of my chest, let's get to the topic, that is, the wonderful Mao... Has anybody found a HIGH QUALITY video for Mao's Sochi FS? I've only come across the fairly low resolution one with TAT's commentary. It was a truly exceptional performance, I'd like to see it in its full glory again....

 

[BusyMom]

I've had my struggles with body image issues and disordered eating even though in my part of the world girls/women aren't expected to be nowhere near that petite. (At 1.67m and 60kg I'm considered "normal size": my dress size is usually M but sometimes S.) I can totally understand your parental concern! I wish you and your daughter best of luck in building her self-esteem <3 <3 <3

Um, now that I got that out of my chest, let's get to the topic, that is, the wonderful Mao... Has anybody found a HIGH QUALITY video for Mao's Sochi FS? I've only come across the fairly low resolution one with TAT's commentary. It was a truly exceptional performance, I'd like to see it in its full glory again....

Thanks.

For Mao OG's FS try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJChxuXE6WY It has HD version. Not the best HD but OK for me.

 

[nimi]

^ Thank you!

 

[Meoima]

Thanks.
For Mao OG's FS try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJChxuXE6WY It has HD version. Not the best HD but OK for me.

Seriously, after rewatching this program over and over again, I coudln't help but wonder, why was this program marked 142? This is the one that worths 149 or even more!

 

[nimi]

Seriously, after rewatching this program over and over again, I coudln't help but wonder, why was this program was marked 142? This is the one that worths 149 or even more!

EXACTLY!!!

If you want to, um, provoke conversation, I'm sure you're familiar with a couple of Sochi related threads where you could pose that question and get, er, interesting answers from certain posters.

 

[YesWay]

Seriously, after rewatching this program over and over again, I coudln't help but wonder, why was this program was marked 142? This is the one that worths 149 or even more!

LOL. Yeah :-D

I don't have any particular problem with final placements or medals, but it's pretty incredible that Asada's amazing and historic 8-triples-including-3A program was not enough to win the free skate.

But whatever. It's figure skating. And it's the Olympics. And in my opinion, the Olympics are different. Things go crazy at the Olympics!

It was the same in 2010 - Kim beat her previous world record total by a giant 18 points, and subsequently never got close to that score again. You'd think people would have cried foul and made 300 page threads to moan about that, but I don't think anybody really cared at the time... because she was the clear winner anyway, whatever the score.

So yeah... I was not that surprised, when the scoring went wild again in the ladies FS, at this year's Olympics.

Actually I was more surprised at how fair and consistent the judging seemed, generally. I thought it was about as good as it ever gets in figure skating (!). And it was only in the ladies FS that things went crazy. Really, I had expected much worse!

The most important thing is that Mao gave us that magnificent free skate.
It will live in our memories forever. It doesn't matter what score they gave it.

 

[Meoima]

EXACTLY!!!
If you want to, um, provoke conversation, I'm sure you're familiar with a couple of Sochi related threads where you could pose that question and get, er, interesting answers from certain posters.

Seriously, I did not follow ladies events closely, so I didn't know Mao was this good in the LP. This deserves a world record. Even though she couldn't make it to the podium, she deserves over 150 for this performance. It's true that skated early affected her PCS badly. That only means they had fixed the PCS for each group before hand. That is not fair!

 

[gotoschool]

Seriously, after rewatching this program over and over again, I coudln't help but wonder, why was this program was marked 142? This is the one that worths 149 or even more!

Numerous posters have remarked how this is the most obvious corruption in the competition. Mao was held down in GOE's, PCS and given some questionable under-rotations and of course nailed on the flutz in order to give what came to be a highly inflated Lipnitskaya (in PCS and GOE's with no ur's or flutzes) a chance to leapfrog her and put Lip in place for a medal, in case Sotnikova fell. Mao had merely 6 +3's in GOE's (she usually gets 10 or 11 for a normal performance) and everyone of her beautifully wave-like 8 triple jumps received less than 1 in GOE. Meanwhile, Lipnitskaya was awarded 27 +3's in GOE with over +1 all her jumps except the fall. She also received a higher PCS than Mao, who delivered one of the greatest performances in history, yet received a humiliating 5th place PCS finish.

The Lipnitskaya inflation and Mao deflation also gave the Russian skater a chance to participate in the Gala- which is only supposed to be awarded to the top 5 skaters. The fact that Mao was allowed to attend- in a manipulated 6th place finish- is at least a small admission of guilt. She had to be held down for the Russian subterfuge to ripen on the rotten vine. The whole travesty was irredeemably corrupt and in my mind really doesn't bare any more scrutiny because of its sleazy certainty. I call a spade a spade, wash my soul clean by bathing in the peerless beauty of the performance, with no numbers from corrupt judges to adulterate its pristine memory. Mao here is spiritual magnanimity and technical perfection personified. She has transcended the narrow confines of the scoring system with a performance of inimitable epic grandeur delivered in a fiery but delicate texture.

 

[mary01]

LOL. Yeah :-D

I don't have any particular problem with final placements or medals, but it's pretty incredible that Asada's amazing and historic 8-triples-including-3A program was not enough to win the free skate.

But whatever. It's figure skating. And it's the Olympics. And in my opinion, the Olympics are different. Things go crazy at the Olympics!

It was the same in 2010 - Kim beat her previous world record by a giant 18 points, and subsequently never got close to that score again. You'd think people would have cried foul and made 300 page threads to moan about that, but I don't think anybody really cared at the time... because she was the clear winner anyway, whatever the score.

So yeah... I was not that surprised, when the scoring went wild again in the ladies FS, at this year's Olympics.

Actually I was more surprised at how fair and consistent the judging seemed, generally. I thought it was about as good as it ever gets in figure skating (!). And it was only in the ladies FS that things went crazy. Really, I had expected much worse!

The most important thing is that Mao gave us that magnificent free skate.
It will live in our memories forever. It doesn't matter what score they gave it.

I remember one Russian journalist wrote, this performance on it's own made her immortal and I couldn't agree more

 

[nimi]

It's true that skated early affected her PCS badly. That only means they had fixed the PCS for each group before hand. That is not fair!

If you ever watch the first warm up groups at Worlds, you'll see clearly how a no-name skater with limited jump repertoire but good skating skills, nice choreo and engaging presentation gets about the same PCS as a no-name skater with limited jump repertoire and mediocre SS, horrid choreo and no musicality/projection whatsoever. That's figure skating judging for you!

As far as Mao's Sochi performance goes, I'm sure she knows she had an AMAZING free skate and the scores she received can't take that away from her.

 

[Meoima]

The most important thing is that Mao gave us that magnificent free skate.
It will live in our memories forever. It doesn't matter what score they gave it.

:agree: Totally agree!
What a pity they haven't uploaded this performance in HQ onto youtube. Why is that? Lots of wonderful performances are held up, for what reason? Hanyu's SP which is a WR, Yuna's SP which is also a masterpiece, V/T's SP in pair event... :scratch:

 

[nimi]

What a pity they haven't uploaded this performance in HQ onto youtube. Why is that? Lots of wonderful performances are held up, for what reason? Hanyu's SP which is a WR, Yuna's SP which is also a masterpiece, V/T's SP in pair event... :scratch:

As far as I can tell, it's because they are Olympic performances. Copyright hawks over at NBC etc. seem to be very alert and if someone uploads "too good" vids, they get taken down really quickly.

 

[Meoima]

The whole travesty was irredeemably corrupt and in my mind really doesn't bare any more scrutiny because of its sleazy certainty. I call a spade a spade, wash my soul clean by bathing in the peerless beauty of the performance, with no numbers from judges to adulterate its memory. Mao here is spiritual magnanimity and technical perfection personified.

I am thinking, it seems to me that Russian Fed are too greedy this time, it might hurt them in 2018 you know.
What a pity since they are having all these girls at once: Yulia, Radionova, Anna Pogo, Liza, Sotnikova... I mean I don't want to see these talents wasted at 2018 because of all politiking between those greedy Feds. Why can't they just wait, just 4 more year? The ladies field in Russia is so deep at the moment, I am sure they would have at least 60% of a gold medal next Olympic. But now... with all the controversial judging, I am not sure anymore.
Or it is because Plushy withdrew so they couldn't give him the gold as plan (not that I mind if they gave him the gold because men event was tedious, at least Plushy would have a high chance of stand still) so they had to give it to another Russian?

 

[BusyMom]

As far as I can tell, it's because they are Olympic performances. Copyright hawks over at NBC etc. seem to be very alert and if someone uploads "too good" vids, they get taken down really quickly.

Last month I found one Japanese user who upload all high def videos of all Japanese sketers with Japanese commentators. She/He avoided the IOC web police by posting the whole thing in Japanese. But I couldn't find them anymore.

 

[YesWay]

:agree: Totally agree!
What a pity they haven't uploaded this performance in HQ onto youtube. Why is that? Lots of wonderful performances are held up, for what reason? Hanyu's SP which is a WR, Yuna's SP which is also a masterpiece, V/T's SP in pair event... :scratch:

Well, I thought all of those ones were on the "official" Sochi youtube channel somewhere? If not, I guess they might show up eventually.

They haven't seen fit to put Asada's FS there (yet).

Don't really understand why they don't just splurge eveything on there straight way though :-/

 

[Sandpiper]

If anyone was underscored in the Olympics free skate, it was Mao. That was a performance for the ages. Just thinking about it tears me up a little.

I'm baffled by what happened with the components score. It's not a given that starting order determines the score. Shen & Zhao won the Olympics by virtue of their short program, and they went first. Mao should have more than enough stature to defy the starting order.

There wasn't any reason to lowball her. She was out of medal contention even if she won the free skate (and she definitely should've), barring huge meltdowns from everyone at the top. Or maybe that's why they lowballed her. Decided it didn't matter, she was out of a medal anyway, and they were gonna punish her even more for the short program disaster.