Skating Skills is only 1/5 of the PCS. The next is Transitions; Gracie stops after every spin, awkwardly skates out of her jumps, and essentially has nothing resembling transitions. She only gets high transition marks because of her reputation - she should be getting TR marks in the 5s, to truly represent them. Then Performance/Execution; Gracie has 2 facial expressions - a dead-pan stare, and an "I'm supposed to be smiling right now" look. I see absolutely no emotional connection to the music. Her P/E scores should also be in the 5s. Then comes Choreography; Gracie literally has no choreography, apart from some Kimmie Meissener-arm waving. The rest is just skating around the rink from jump to jump. Finally, the last PCS score is Interpretation; did you see Gracie telling the story of Life is Beautiful? Because I sure didn't. She's not interpreting the music, therefore her Interpretation score should also be low. If Gracie was marked on how bad her PCS actually are, instead of on reputation, she would be correctly getting PCS scores in the high 40s/low 50s. Her 60 PCS mark in her Nationals LP was a JOKE.
I think you're blaming this "error" on Gracie's so-called international reputation, which is, in actuality, nearly nonexistent--at least compared to big shots like Yuna, Mao, Carolina, Ashley, Akiko, Kanako, etc...even the Russians have been on the senior circuit longer than Gracie has. We're talking about a debut senior who had rather poor performances in the first half of the season, nearly didn't make it out of her own Nationals, and has only skated one clean short in competition. Where is this titanic international "reputation" coming from? Because I wouldn't assign her one, and neither do the international judges.
I assume that you're referring to Gracie's lack of transitions in the FS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU78A1ezsJA
In which case, it's clear that she stops after the spins because her program is choreographed that way...not because she's just that atrocious at transitions. If you take a look at her SP, you'll see that she does have some connecting steps out of her spins. They're not great, but not deserving of PCS as low as 5's, IMO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEqW03xY4U8
Also, while Gracie needs more flow out of her jumps, I don't see anything particularly "awkward" about how she skates out. She attempts to hold her running edge for as long as her momentum will allow--more speed going INTO the jumps should solve that problem, which is a technical one.
It's evident from Gracie's Worlds protocols that her weakest areas are choreography and transitions, which more or less go hand-in-hand. Her programs are not "literally" devoid of choreography, obviously--there is some attempt to connect to the music, though she could make it more obvious. She isn't getting stellar marks in P/E or IN either...she's consistently in the low to mid sevens, with a few sixes thrown in here and there. And these are season-end scores, after she's made significant improvement in projecting her emotions. I think that "Life Is Beautiful," a bittersweet and emotionally loaded piece, was too much for a skater of Gracie's experience to handle. Trying to shape new seniors to such serious music will almost always fail because of a lack of emotional maturity, which can be blamed on their age and the fact that they haven't had the necessary life experiences to interpret the music. Just compare it to the "Hernando's Hideaway" program, which is much more fun and more "Gracie"--she seemed more comfortable with putting her personality out on the ice.
Meaning no disrespect, but the math says otherwise. Gracie's PCS are adequate--that is, above average, but falling short of the ingenuity that characterizes the top scores. For comparison, Caroline Zhang received pretty consistent fives and sixes in her Cup of Russia LP, which was far removed from ANY of Gracie's free skates this season in terms of quality. It makes sense that Gracie would be getting high sixes to mid-sevens, and the occasional eight from a generous judge.
Everyone knows that you can't use Nationals scoring as a legitimate baseline for evaluating a skater's true skills, because it's almost always inflated. But Gracie also received 60+ at Worlds (with a flawed skate) and 61+ at WTT (with a nearly technically perfect skate). If the international judges are corroborating the Nationals scoring, it's because Gracie has improved enough to give them a reason to.
As good as Osmond is, she's nowhere near Asada or Kostner, who both got solid 8's and 9's for much better free skates.
