?? The current depth of the ladies' field

[apache88]

I'm no expert but I'm certainly keen to analyze and hear about others' views on this. So much has been talked about of the emerging great jumpers, spinners, artists...etc...etc. However, take Michelle, Sasha and Arakawa out of the equation, SA and SC competitons seemed to be watered down by a few notches (no intent to take anything away from the champions and medalists). I can't help but see this whole thing a paradox, full of contradictions. The last worlds served a warning to Michelle and Sasha of the up and coming skaters who, in the opinions of many posters, could throw them out of the podium, yet this early season has shown the field to be the weakest as far as triples are concerned.

Comparisons of seasons not calendar years:
1995-2002 seasons
Mostly 6-7 triples done by the champions

2003 season
Mostly 5-6 triples by the champions except Marshall (7 triples by Sasha)

2004 season
Excluding Michelle's 6 triples in Campbells, it's just 4-5 triples by the champions in SA and SC!

Am I too shallow in my analysis? Feel free to rebut.

 

[gkelly]

Comparisons of seasons not calendar years:
1995-2002 seasons
Mostly 6-7 triples done by the champions

Do you havestatistics on this? I'd have to do a lot of research to list exactly how many triples were landed by fall competition champions in each of those years, but I definitely remember quite a few winners with only 5 and occasionally 4 completed triples, and winners who fell a couple of times.

Sloppy or conservative performances are pretty much par for the course early in the season. And even a consistent skater such as Michelle Kwan who has often been able to put out six or seven triples at all times of year has also often won fall events with four or five.