Her mule kick is a problem. But I believe if she had the speed it would perhaps be a trade-off, scorewise, for the lack of height in her jumps. Her SP just crept. She did pick up the pace considerably in the FS. But she did not build up speed after her spin just before her double axel, which was accomplished almost from a standstill. (In that aspect she reminded one of Surya, who would begin her program from a standstill and immediately hit the 2 axel. Surya was much more the athlete than the artist, however!)
With all of that said, there is an aura in Caroline's skating. It was very evident in the FS (in which--as said above--she did pick up the pace considerably) resulting in the greatest ovation of the evening--maybe even the whole event. And ishe was in the next-to-last group. Remniscent of Midori Ito at 1988 Olympics--also in the penultimate group-- who absolutely brought the house to its feet. Ironically, there are hardly any similarities between those two skaters other than they both were/are terrific!
Reminder in case somone hasn't posted this elsewhere. Don't dare miss Johnny's Ave Maria in the National's Exhibition to be televised this week-end. I am not a Johnny fan, but this performance was absolutely spell binding. Set your TiVo! It's worth it.
