Zagitova pockets gold at GPF debut | Golden Skate

Zagitova pockets gold at GPF debut

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States
Alina Zagitova of Russia captured the gold in her debut at the 2017-18 Grand Prix Final of Figure Skating on Saturday in Nagoya, Japan. Teammate Maria Sotskova rose from fourth to win the silver, while Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada earned the bronze.


"I was in good shape for this competition and I was able to finish well, so I am very happy," said Zagitova. "I feel relaxed now. I know there are some mistakes in today's program, and it was not the best performance I could put out. I felt little bit more nervous compared to Skate America. I was more relaxed for the short program, but I was not so in my free program. I found there are areas for improvement and still found some weakness in my mind. I tried hard and finished without major mistakes, so I was relieved."
"I feel very good, but I was a little bit more nervous than usual," said Kostner. "I am not completely satisfied with my technical content, some minor mistakes, which my coach will not probably say so, but at the end just being here was magnificent. I think I can still improve. I love both my programs so much. I love to work, I love to skate, that's what keeps me motivated. I have nationals next week, so this is my last task before Christmas, then I can go home to my family. I can really go home and be proud of myself and be content with the line of training. This is not the end. This is just a step along the way."
"I am disappointed after my skating today," said Higuchi. "During the six-minute warm up, I moved better and was able to jump, but when I went out on ice, I was too nervous, and my body wasn't moving. These last few days of practice I wasn't doing my best, so I felt pressure and was thinking too much during the performance. I forced myself to do my triple Lutz-triple toe combination and landed it, but I am still upset after my performance, because I missed the triple Salchow and the second triple Lutz. I felt that I didn't have speed in the step sequence."

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What are your thoughts on the Ladies' event?
 

GrandmaCC

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 18, 2017
I was pleased to see Alina win, but then she is a favourite of mine. I WAS concerned to read that she felt fatigued when approaching her second half! Hopefully it was due to something transient like a cold coming on, being tired from all her recent flying/competing, dealing with the mental pressure of the ISU situation etc, etc. - and not something injury or growth related (as she seems to be growing before our eyes!). If so, and if she does go to Korea, it will do her well to know that even a (slightly) lacklustre performance on her behalf can still leave the rest of the non-Med field in the dust.

I want to know what the heck is up with the commentary from Canada, though!!
Could they be any ruder? I know there is a separate thread dedicated to their awfulness, but this was something else altogether. Does that guy get paid a bonus for every time he throws out a bitter comment? It would be one thing to just be critical, but some of this stuff was just downright disrespectful, not to mention contradictory (things like “yeah she can jump but her footwork is IMMATURE and footwork is IMPORTANT!! It is LITERALLY EVERYTHING!! Kaetlyn and Carolina have BRILLIANT FOOTWORK!! LET US ALL PAUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT!!” Versus - “.....the first half of this program is awful, like, she ONLY does footwork and as we all know, that just is in NO WAY IMPORTANT or required AT ALL.”) and incorrect (“There HAS to be a jump in the first half, it’s a rule and so yeah we should not only disqualify Alina but shoot her for good measure. Oh, and have you noticed how awesome Carolina looks sitting over there??”).


Contrast to British Eurosport’s commentary, quite lovely, impartial and informative as per usual.

I was honestly a little let down by the overall quality of the field, everyone seemed tired, very “meh”...really hoping everyone gets a good rest before the Olympics!
 

Anni234

Ina Bauer
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 29, 2015
Country
Estonia
One heck of a season for her so far :agree: Only her first senior season, but she's gone unbeaten by anyone. Now the biggest question is what will happen if they finally compete with Evgenia :p
 

[email protected]

Medalist
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
One heck of a season for her so far :agree: Only her first senior season, but she's gone unbeaten by anyone. Now the biggest question is what will happen if they finally compete with Evgenia :p

If Medvedeva is well Alina is going to lose. I think, if Medvedeva wins in Korea she might stll go to the worlds. But after that it's possible that she will take a break or retire. Then it will be Alina's time to rule until trusovas and kostornayas of this world become senior.
 

madison

Record Breaker
Joined
May 2, 2015
Medvedeva already said not just once that she wants to compete as much as possible.
I don't think she'll retire even if she wins the Olympics (if she stays healthy, of course)
 

Bluediamonds09

Medalist
Joined
Sep 8, 2016
I was pleased to see Alina win, but then she is a favourite of mine. I WAS concerned to read that she felt fatigued when approaching her second half! Hopefully it was due to something transient like a cold coming on, being tired from all her recent flying/competing, dealing with the mental pressure of the ISU situation etc, etc. - and not something injury or growth related (as she seems to be growing before our eyes!). If so, and if she does go to Korea, it will do her well to know that even a (slightly) lacklustre performance on her behalf can still leave the rest of the non-Med field in the dust.

I want to know what the heck is up with the commentary from Canada, though!!
Could they be any ruder? I know there is a separate thread dedicated to their awfulness, but this was something else altogether. Does that guy get paid a bonus for every time he throws out a bitter comment? It would be one thing to just be critical, but some of this stuff was just downright disrespectful, not to mention contradictory (things like “yeah she can jump but her footwork is IMMATURE and footwork is IMPORTANT!! It is LITERALLY EVERYTHING!! Kaetlyn and Carolina have BRILLIANT FOOTWORK!! LET US ALL PAUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT!!” Versus - “.....the first half of this program is awful, like, she ONLY does footwork and as we all know, that just is in NO WAY IMPORTANT or required AT ALL.”) and incorrect (“There HAS to be a jump in the first half, it’s a rule and so yeah we should not only disqualify Alina but shoot her for good measure. Oh, and have you noticed how awesome Carolina looks sitting over there??”).


Contrast to British Eurosport’s commentary, quite lovely, impartial and informative as per usual.

I was honestly a little let down by the overall quality of the field, everyone seemed tired, very “meh”...really hoping everyone gets a good rest before the Olympics!

Wait, really?? This happened? I haven’t heard the Canadian commentary yet; no one has posted it to YouTube.
 

[email protected]

Medalist
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Medvedeva already said not just once that she wants to compete as much as possible.
I don't think she'll retire even if she wins the Olympics (if she stays healthy, of course)

Sotnikova said that she wanted to win everything after Sochi.

I would assume that the stress on Medvedeva is immense. She won 18 out of 19 competitions in her senior career. And the main ones are yet to come. She seems like a weightless butterfly on the ice. But no one knows what toll it might have.
 

madison

Record Breaker
Joined
May 2, 2015
Sotnikova said that she wanted to win everything after Sochi.

I would assume that the stress on Medvedeva is immense. She won 18 out of 19 competitions in her senior career. And the main ones are yet to come. She seems like a weightless butterfly on the ice. But no one knows what toll it might have.

I don't think it's a good comparison Sot/Med. I find them very different.
Sotnikova had a good competition at Olympics, and the political opportunity to have the games home and judges wanting Russia to win them. Good for her that she took that chance, but her results otherwise were really modest if we compare them with Med's.
And Med proved all the way that she's a very, very disciplined and hard working athlete and nobody in the world has her mental strength. Of course, what she does after Olympics depends much on her health and motivation but I tend to believe her words when she says that she wants to continue as much as possible.
 

GrandmaCC

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 18, 2017
Wait, really?? This happened? I haven’t heard the Canadian commentary yet; no one has posted it to YouTube.

It sure did!! Well, not verbatim, the shooting part wasn’t said lol but words and phrases very, very much to that effect were. The “immature footwork”, “if you watch Kaetlyn etc you’ll see mature footwork” was in the SP, then come LP time, we got the “there’s nothing but footwork” (I believe “nothing but fluff” might have been said - cause I remember thinking, really? That oh-so mature footwork the others bring is fluff?) and “you’ll have to think the judges will deduct for lack of artistry” stuff along with the “there must be a jump and spin in the first half, that’s what constitutes a well balanced program”.
^^ that’s not verbatim either (I don’t have enough painkillers to get through rewatching their commentary right now lol) but it was basically that.

It was almost like whiny boy (no idea who he is except that he is super pissed off whenever Alina dares to breathe in the same vicinity as him) was like “hey, if she doesn’t go to Korea this may be my last chance to bash this program, so I’m gonna go all out!!”
 

GrandmaCC

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 18, 2017
well not like russian commentators are much better... Averbuch and TAT are biased as hell sometimes

True that. Bias alone though I don’t personally have a problem with, especially baring in mind that the commentators are catering for their home audience. The most recent GP meet the same Canadian commentary team were biased as usual towards Kaetlyn and against Alina but they managed to express their feelings in a decent way, things like “Not sure how I feel about the backloadeding, but hey, it’s allowed, so if she is capable of it then good for her”. They also managed to, you know, not lie (the jump suddenly needing to be in the first half of a LP). And, they showed their enthusiasm for Kaetlyn (as they should, she is “theirs”!) without declaring her falls to be the most graceful things to ever occur on the ice
*cough* first GP *cough cough*.
Admittedly they did acknowledge this time that Kaetlyn’s long wasn’t perfect, but you could tell it killed them inside.

Like, there’s bias, and then there’s just GET OFF THE ICE, YOU!! I DON’T LIKE YOU SO GO AWAYYYY *sob sob sob* LIFE IS UNFAIR!! WHYYYYYYY *mutes microphone*
“Hey....can we get away with clubbing someone? C’mon! We so can!!”
That was what had today.
 

qwertyskates

Medalist
Joined
Nov 12, 2013
I was pleased to see Alina win, but then she is a favourite of mine. I WAS concerned to read that she felt fatigued when approaching her second half! Hopefully it was due to something transient like a cold coming on, being tired from all her recent flying/competing, dealing with the mental pressure of the ISU situation etc, etc. - and not something injury or growth related (as she seems to be growing before our eyes!). If so, and if she does go to Korea, it will do her well to know that even a (slightly) lacklustre performance on her behalf can still leave the rest of the non-Med field in the dust.

I want to know what the heck is up with the commentary from Canada, though!!
Could they be any ruder? I know there is a separate thread dedicated to their awfulness, but this was something else altogether. Does that guy get paid a bonus for every time he throws out a bitter comment? It would be one thing to just be critical, but some of this stuff was just downright disrespectful, not to mention contradictory (things like “yeah she can jump but her footwork is IMMATURE and footwork is IMPORTANT!! It is LITERALLY EVERYTHING!! Kaetlyn and Carolina have BRILLIANT FOOTWORK!! LET US ALL PAUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT!!” Versus - “.....the first half of this program is awful, like, she ONLY does footwork and as we all know, that just is in NO WAY IMPORTANT or required AT ALL.”) and incorrect (“There HAS to be a jump in the first half, it’s a rule and so yeah we should not only disqualify Alina but shoot her for good measure. Oh, and have you noticed how awesome Carolina looks sitting over there??”).


Contrast to British Eurosport’s commentary, quite lovely, impartial and informative as per usual.

I was honestly a little let down by the overall quality of the field, everyone seemed tired, very “meh”...really hoping everyone gets a good rest before the Olympics!

It wasn't the best version of DQ but it was still an intricate program and quite lovely, ahead of the whole field where only Sotskova skated less flawlessly. However, with the same broken arm tano in every jump, and little personality on ice, Sotskova just wasn't in the same league. Every other skater ur, popped or fell.

The problem with incorrect commentary is they spread falsehoods about the skater and the judging. There are no written rules about jumps placement, in fact the written rule is the bonus in second half. These are just preferences for particular types of layout by the commentator but he made it sound like a rule, which is incorrect. It just turns people off if they believe him and think that FS is again an egregiously judged sport.

I'd rather believe the judges - it is impossible for almost one hundred ISU judges to be all wrong (i.e. counting all the judging panels who have watched DQ) and one commentator right.

Back to Alina, I'm with you. I love how celebratory DQ's happy ending is, and how it is interpreted and portrayed by Alina. It sets the right tone for the Olympics, good choice!:agree:

I'm impressed by her footwork replete with beautiful moves like the Ina Bauer, the Charlotte, the Illusion kick, etc. it's sophisticated, even if it means fewer crossovers and speed across the ice. I really love her hands choreography for both SP and FS. They are so expressive down to the finger tips, whether they are doing a flirty flick or the isolation of a swan's wings.:luv17: The crescendo of jumps is always a marvel to behold, and her tiny step outs show how easy it is to throw off this highly risky and difficult segment - a fall would be fatal and irrecuperable. It's a rare feat in FS.

I will miss DQ after the Olympics, for sure.
 

qwertyskates

Medalist
Joined
Nov 12, 2013
Another thing in the article...I thought Satoko skated to Madame Butterfly by Puccini, not “Concierto de Aranjuez.”?:scratch2:
 

dante

a dark lord
Final Flight
Joined
Oct 16, 2017
Country
Russia
Medvedeva already said not just once that she wants to compete as much as possible.
I don't think she'll retire even if she wins the Olympics (if she stays healthy, of course)

Besides, she seems too attached to her team, I can't imagine her leaving it.

TAT:love: I miss her, really. She's such a colourful commentator.

TAT, Averbukh and Grishin commented the senior GPF.
 

dante

a dark lord
Final Flight
Joined
Oct 16, 2017
Country
Russia
Thanks! Some iconic comments from TAT? :biggrin:

Still looking through. I'll keep you posted.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I ended up preferring Yulia/Alkhazov to TAT/Grishin (that's why I didn't watch them live). Yulia got used to her new role, while her partner at last fixed his stupid football jokes and started telling something meaningful. I was especially amused when he recognized a solo by Led Zeppelin drummer to which Caro skated her gala. As an old fan of English rock, I respect this.
 
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