This is extremely disrespectful, IMO, to whoever wins the third spot. There are several US ladies, excepting Wagner and Gold, who are more than capable of placing third at Nationals and earning a berth to the Olympics. To call their efforts "irrelevant" based on your "Czisny must go no matter how many mistakes she makes" bias is just :disapp: New talents and new faces will come onto the scene, as they always do. If you can't keep up, as neither Mirai nor Caroline could this year, then someone will undoubtedly rise to take your spot.
Oh, my. I did not mean to inspire such a reaction. The hazards of expressing one’s views on the internet, I suppose.
Some of my words were poorly chosen. Trying to think back to what was in my head when I wrote the post, I think what I meant (by “irrelevant”) was that there were no other American women (besides Wagner, Gold, and Czisny) who would have a decent chance of getting good program components scores from international judges. (Though, thinking about it now, Nagasu would too.)
My view (and I am aware I’m in the minority here) is that who should get a third spot is much more complex than who should get the other two. In my view, it is utterly arbitrary to award to it whomever happens to skate third best at Nationals—even assuming the judges’ judgment of this is objective (far-fetched, I know). This is why I think it is naïve when people say the third spot should go to the person who wins the bronze medal, as though that is or could be an objective judgment.
Since Nationals is traditionally the qualifying round for the Olympics, I suppose you could say that deserving means skating better on home ice. I don't believe, moreover, that Czisny, beautiful skater though she is, has been cheated out of what she "deserves" as a once-dominant US lady. She's had four chances to skate at Worlds, and placed out of the top ten all but one of those times. She's had three chances to skate at Four Continents, and never placed higher than fifth. For eight straight seasons, she consistently received two GP assignments, a privilege which she only forfeited when she had that epic meltdown at 2012 Worlds. The fact also stands that up-and-comers like Christina and Agnes have had the crucial competition experience of the pre-Olympic season (Christina actually placed HIGHER at 4CC than Alissa ever did), while Alissa has not. If Alissa falls at Nationals while Christina and/or Agnes are clean, would you be in favor of sending Alissa to the Olympics simply because you feel that she hasn't had enough chances to prove herself? I'm not saying that Alissa should be barred from going to the Olympics, whatever comes. But if she's going to go through the trials process as she intends to do, then she should have to EARN that spot with what she shows at Nationals.
Yes, of course, Czisny should have to prove herself just as everyone else must. Part of the purpose of my post was to raise the question, “What does it mean to earn?”
If Czisny were to skate as she did at the 2012 Worlds, the Challenge Cup that same year, or the GP final earlier the same season, then, no, I would not want or hope that she be named to the Olympic and World teams. I would mainly just feel terrible for her.
I'd also like to point out that, despite your harping on Misses Wagner and Gold, they have an international leg-up on Czisny right now. This will probably still be so when they hit the GP in the fall. Although Ashley doesn't have a solid 3-3, the jumps that she DOES have are far more consistent than Alissa's ever were. As for Gracie...well, let's not get into a useless debate about which US lady currently has the best technique. Really, on a good day, only Yuna can out-jump her. And, even with her "junior-ish choreography and presentation," Gracie's personal best score is a good six points higher than Alissa's.
I, too, would like Alissa to succeed at her comeback. But I don't believe that criticizing or outright insulting other skaters is the best way to make her case.
Here I am not sure what you’re responding to. Wagner and Gold don’t do a lot for me, but I don’t think I said anything particularly harsh or controversial about them in the post of mine to which you’re responding. I think the effort you and some others here make to criticize Czisny is far more striking than anything negative I said in the post of mine to which you’re responding about Wagner or Gold.
I would love to see the 3rd spot go to a younger skater like Hicks, Wang, or Edmunds. I'm a bit tired of watching Alissa and Mirai looked terrified out there on the ice when the pressures on and i'm not sure how far Gao or Agnes can go.
But let’s admit that this would be a poor criterion for judges to use. At any rate, when we interpret what emotions a skater has while competing, more often than not, we’re simply seeing according to the narrative Scott Hamilton, Sandra Bezic and the “everyman” commentator impart in us.
