Mao Asada

[solar]

Her FS start pose is her SP ending pose! :eeking:

I'm partial to the orchestral version of Ritual Fire Dance, but I love both programs and I can't wait to see them skated with more abandon and more difficult jumps hopefully later in the season. And the concept about the 'connected' SP and FS is really neat and unique!

Already, the step-sequence is amazing, but what more can you expect from Mao?

 

[daphenaxa]

that FS is a gift to humanity. Mao looks so so stunning in her dress. Red is a great colour for her. I loved it. I want to watch it 100 times.

 

[liv]

I absolutely loved her free program. It seemed so fluid to me. I didn't get the impression that this move or that move was put in specifically to garner points...even though obviously that is what the competitors are trying to do. It's just that with so many other programs, moves might not belong where they are put but are placed there anyway...working the system in an obvious way. Some programs seem so cluttered and busy and clumsy... etc... I don't feel she gets the marks she deserves. Obviously here she didn't have enough technical content, but to just watch that skating was wonderful.

 

[Franklin99]

Her step-sequence!!!! I'm so overwhelmed

 

[DiamondDust]

Without the 3A I feel like something is missing in a "Mao Program". But besides that, I love and enjoyed her FS. Congratulations to Mao for her second place finish and a wonderful start of the season.

 

[YesWay]

I didn't go back to the hotel after Ladies practice yesterday, I don't carry any kind of internet-enabled device around with me, and it was late by the time I got back to my room after the free skate last night... so apologies for such a late and redundant "report"...

Mao's practice was much like the day before. Business-like, "Mao pace" not all-out, and her free program (like the SP) should still be considered "work in progress". We can already see the potential in them though, and Mao makes them dazzling even now... but I think we can expect to see the programs become very special as the season goes on. Clean skates with full-difficulty elements should bring monstrous scores...

The free skate competition last night... wow... another beautiful costume, and another spectacular performance. It speaks volumes for the speed, complexity and sophistication of the choreography... that I couldn't keep up with Mao, trying to catch all the dramatic movements, details, gestures and poses with my camera. It's pretty rare when that happens...!

Overall, it was a rather scrappy competition though, I don't think any of the top ladies showed us their best last night. Podium order could have been anything. But well done to Mao for taking silver.

I recorded Mao's practice run through again. Rather redundant now I guess, but I uploaded it anyway. Love the effortless acceleration away from her starting position, and the speed, detail and intensity later on. Once again apologies for poor tracking/zooming etc... and it didn't help that Mao kept fooling me by moving in directions I didn't expect...! ^_^;

I'll be at Trophee de France in November... it will be very interesting to see how these programs look after another month of practice and polish...!

PS wow, I'm worn out by the excitement already... and mens and dance competitions haven't even started...!

 

[tzazu]

Wonderful step sequence, wondeful program

 

[mikaboo]

Congratulations to Mao on the silver medal. I prefer the SP over the FS right now, but the FS will probably change a lot as the season progresses and her health (injury?) recovers so I might change my mind later. She looks stunning in both her dresses. Best of luck to her at Skate America.

Thanks for the videos and the onsite report YesWay!

 

[Vili67]

Just buy my tickets to WC 2017 Ladies free.
Hope to see Mao there again:yes2:

 

[slider11]

Loved both of Mao's programs. Katelyn had a good LP and I can understand her winning Finlandia. But Mao embodies the essence and beauty of ladies figure skating. This LP has great potential and she will grow into it. I predict Mao as the 2017 Worlds Champion!

 

[tzazu]

I bought the tickets for Worlds this morning. I'm going to Helsinki with my husband and he's not a big fan of FS (okey, he's not a fan at all), so I decided to skip some events (all the short programs but men's). When I was purchasing my tickets I thought that my husband was going to suffer a heart-attack when he knew about the amount of money I was spending on buying them (and renting an apartment and the flights), so maybe it was a wise decision to save some money not going to the ladies' FS (sorry, in this moment ladies' field is the weakest for my taste, which is a pity because no so many years ago it was my fav). But then I thought that this will be surely the last opportunity I'll have to see her perform live (I'm afraid OG are out of my reach), so I changed my mind and bought the tikects. She has been the best (and only) reason for doing so

 

[gotoschool]

Mao's dress and skating in the long and short were gorgeous. I really was overwhelmed with how stunningly beautiful she looked in the long in person sitting really close to the ice. Definitely, a fiery red flamingo flavor. Her skating skills, fluidity, symmetry, elegance, her subtle and complex depth of emotion, immense classiness, beauty and nobility are mesmerizing live. I love both programs more and more as I watch and I already liked them a lot to begin with. I think Mao should have gotten a higher PCS score in both programs than a mere 32 and 65 especially considering the recent rises in PCS scores. I think Mao should have gotten level 4 in step sequences (instead of 3) and that level 3 in spins were too low and so was the -2 on the triple flip in the short program. Besides, Mao's triple lutz looked clean no !, she only touched the tip of her inside blade on take off, and it had a lot of snap to it. Also, I thought her overall GOE were too low. I have some really good photos of Mao's LP performance but they are in raw format and I haven't posted them yet. I am still working on it.

It got a lot colder during the women's free program, so much so that I had to keep blowing and making fists with my hands to keep them warm. It was quite uncomfortable. I think this is one of the reasons why it was hard for anyone to skate clean especially Mao with a revealing but very classy and beautiful outfit. I think Mao did the best job of covering up two small jumping miscues though by anticipating ahead of time so there was more of a continuous flow to her program.

Confession- Though I was really impressed with Mao's LP performance live, it was so cold in the arena and I was so focused on getting great photos though only at certain moments and on hoping that Mao won- playing the dreaded points game- that I didn't focus fully on the great dramatic performance she gave with such marvelous dance moves or even on her great triple lutz. Besides, I was also focused on how to slip the gift I had onto the ice without being conspicuous since I was in the front row and it was bigger than any of the others, so I was a little embarrassed. Also, Mao was so beautiful. I think her LP costume is one of her most beautiful ones. It was just kind of a mix of emotions so it was hard to focus on the performance. But after watching her performance on youtube, I now realize Mao's performance was even more marvelous. As with a lot of great art, it takes time to realize how magnificent it really is and it gets better and better with repeat viewings as Mao's LP and SP performances do. Like peeling the layers of an onion away with each one revealing a new revelation of beauty and emotion. Thanks to Mao for giving such a great performance even with an injury. I think she really is a warrior for her art with so little thanks from the judges. Some are criticizing her choices of music, but I think like most great artists Mao wants to do something original and innovative that merges her personal vision with Lori Nichols but may not be valued in a merely conventional and empirical system. That's why so many of her performances are transcendent like spiritual meditation while still having a powerful appeal to the senses and emotions.

As mentioned earlier, Mao did some triple flip and loop combos in practice quite successfully but she didn't hit them every time. I have heard talk on another forum that her longstanding back injury was acting up (now confirmed in mikiboo's post as a knee injury). She hit a lot of jumps beautifully in her performance - the triple flip, solo triple loop and yes even the triple lutz looked the best. She also did some wonderful triple flip / double loop / double loop tano during practice and warmup.

It is so exciting to see Mao skate live. The people sitting next to me had flown all the way from Japan and said they were going to Skate America in two weeks. Mao also had 4 banners hung in the arena from different performances.

 

[yhmafan]

After seeing Mao’s SP and FS I have come to think that Lori gave her all for Mao’s programs and I can really feel the close-knit between Mao and Lori through the programs. It’s just awesome.
As someone said, "Efforts don't pay off sometimes. The person who practice most is not always a winner. But the effort that didn't lead to success itself isn’t meaningless..."

I feel that her efforts over many years were not for nothing at all. The part of that has borne fruit as her gorgeous SP & LP finally.
I am so glad I’m able to LOVE both her programs and her costumes altogether this season.

 

[largeman]

I am so glad I’m able to LOVE both her programs and her costumes altogether this season.

I know what you mean... I had tears running down my cheeks as I watched her long program. It was a completely raw and visceral reaction that I didn't have last year watching her first performance from JO. I suddenly realized how profoundly Mao's skating can move me, with or without difficult technical content.

I confess that in the past, Mao impressed me equal parts by her grit and determination, her technical prowess, and her artistry. The former two were manifested through her gorgeous triple axels. I had never been moved to tears by a performance where she didn't do a triple axel. However, this performance has taken my appreciation and love for her to a whole new level, one that rises above expectations for her to show off jumping chops. If she only does the 2A for the rest of the season, I will have no problem with it. She is just breathtaking.

(Btw, I am so happy that her lutz was so good)

 

[mikaboo]

Has this news already been shared somewhere?
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/1722021.html

Coach Sato has returned to Japan. He says that Mao injured her left knee last season and it is still giving her pain.
Mao has gone straight to Canada from Finland to brush up on her choreo with Lori. Coach Sato says that she probably won’t be upgrading to a 3A at her next competition either because anything more than a 2A is too much of a burden for her and that they are taking it slowly.

I hope she heals completely before going for the 3A

 

[inskate]

Has this news already been shared somewhere?
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/1722021.html

Coach Sato has returned to Japan. He says that Mao injured her left knee last season and it is still giving her pain.
Mao has gone straight to Canada from Finland to brush up on her choreo with Lori. Coach Sato says that she probably won’t be upgrading to a 3A at her next competition either because anything more than a 2A is too much of a burden for her and that they are taking it slowly.

I hope she heals completely before going for the 3A

Thanks for the update! :thumbsup:

I was suspecting the left knee, I didn't want to jinx. I noticed that both in the LP run-through and the actual LP Mao has missed the 3F and failed to add double jumps at the end of the popped jump (which would be enough to give her gold. I think the toe jump in the Axel combo (3T in the run-through, 2T in the LP) made the pain flare up. Plus, the combo would have to be 3F-2T-2L in order not to repeat the 2L 3 times.

I really hope Mao takes it easy. Nobu had a similar injury in the post-Olympic season, the doctors told him to stop training 3A and 4T so much, he ignored that and missed out the next season Even after the return it took him some time to recover, and even his 3Lz and 3F were wonky for a time (because they put a lot of pressure on the left knee/ankle).

He says that Mao injured her left knee last season

I guess that's why she stopped practicing 3F-3T and switched to 3F-3L... She probably practiced too hard, trying to get 3F-3T stable before the GP starts, and it ended up causing a repetitive stress injury.

Prayers for the quick recovery!

 

[deedee1]

I'm not much good at doing "reports" but I'll try to write a few thoughts each day...

Not at all! I absolutely loved every posts of yours. Sorry that I didn't reply you earlier, a HUGE thank-you and kisses to you YesWay!

 

[gotoschool]

My first experiment with figure skating photography after researching it a bit. Click to zoom in. These are raw images converted to high quality jpegs then converted through extra zoom website which was the highest resolution jpeg site I could find. I cannot upload the raw images which are the best quality. Click on the picture to get higher and higher resolution. Mao was the only skater that didn't wear their long program outfit as far as I remember. It is tough to take good figure skating photos. Many I took are way out of focus but Mao sure does make them look great when they are in focus.

Practice
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http://extrazoom.com/image-69542.html Mao appears to be in some pain or not feeling well here. I hope she recovers from her injury quickly.

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Freeskate and warmup The red just pops off the screen.

http://extrazoom.com/image-69570.html

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http://extrazoom.com/image-69565.html I think Mao is cute but tough when she jumps.

http://extrazoom.com/image-69566.html

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Podium

http://extrazoom.com/image-69582.html I have to admit Mao's expression here made me sad and kind of hurt after giving such wonderful performances especially considering her injury and it being the first competition of the season.

I was really happy that Mao gave me five while I held out my hand during the medalists lap around the rink.


Mao, you have given far more than enough great performances. Please only skate for yourself and not fans or judges. I will try to post more later. But, I don't want to post everything. Plus a lot of the remaining shots are blurry though quite a few are not.

 

[omurice]

Thank you for the photos! Mao looks so elegant on the ice, and I really enjoyed her performances. I hope she has a smooth recovery from her injuries and I'm really looking forward to seeing her develop these programs :luv17:

 

[sallycinnamon]

The SP and LP of both this and last season are my most favourite programs Mao has ever done in her entire career, with the exception of her gorgeous short program from the 2013/2014 season, which is my favourite SP of Mao.
These two programs of this season are just stunning. The choreos are exciting, beautiful, classy and mature at the same time, and I absolutely love the unique ending of both programs - ss, instead of spins, and oh those ending poses! Simply amazing.
I can't wait to watch this programs evolve during the season. Go Mao-san!