- Joined
- Aug 15, 2003
Wow, really? Actually, neither Satoko, Radionova, or Tukt skated better than either Gracie, Ashley or Polina in the free program. Satoko had one major error. Radionova had a series of errors and poor form, and Tukt had several minor mistakes. Obviously, Tukt knew she had the cushion from the sp, and decided to play it safe. All of the final skaters were nervous about the fact that all 3 U.S. ladies had skated very well and Gracie and Ashley had been given fairly high scores, although they both deserved a bit higher on both TES and PCS. The U.S. ladies' scores were clearly held down a bit and most will say because they skated early, but it's also due to politics and perception. Ashley did have a couple of minor miscues (slight double-footed landing on one combo), but clearly Ashley deserved much higher PCS than she received, and Satoko, Radionova and Tukt received higher PCS than they deserved, especially Tukt. My goodness, just because Tukt is landing a 3-axel and she's Russian that means she deserves high PCS out the wazoo.
I love Satoko, but she is not at a point where she deserved a silver medal at Worlds. Both Gracie and Ashley are right now overall better skaters. Satoko has tremendous potential, but she needs to refine her technique and work more on getting better height on her jumps. She's a lightning fast rotator, but I question how high her overall score was. If anything, Satoko's score should have been no higher than 189, and Radionova's score for the free skate is just an example of how some skaters can mess up and not be heavily penalized, while others have to continually prove themselves and if they make the slightest mistake their scores drop. And, in the case of Gracie and Ashley, when they skate exceptionally well, their scores are still held down. It's at bottom about politics, and the fact that the U.S. Fed has historically not known how to politically support their skaters. In the current environment, U.S. Fed has little to no clout politically, especially with the fact that skating money and popularity is overseas and television contracts in the U.S. are meaningless.
Another thing: Polina, for whatever reasons was jobbed in the sp. And then with her teammates skating very well in the fp, and Polina skating almost equally as well, the decision was to keep Polina's scores down and examine her with a fine tooth comb. Why didn't they examine Satoko with a fine tooth comb? While Satoko has the potential to become a great skater, neither she, nor Tukt, nor Radionova are so great that they are better than the U.S. ladies. They simply are not. At this point, I'm tired of fans' constant criticisms of U.S. skaters too. U.S. skaters should be unconditionally supported and encouraged. BTW, Polina won 4CC over Satoko and the other Japanese ladies, so now why wasn't she given more cred at Worlds? Polina should have placed higher in both sp and fp. She skated better than Hongo and Kanako who are placed in front of her. Skating very well and coming in as the 4CCs champ, Polina was kept in 7th in both sp and fp and still overall dropped a spot to 8th!? No way. If all the ladies who came after the U.S. ladies had skated their best without significant mistakes, okay, But that's not what happened.
I give my congratulations and great props to the U.S. Ladies for going out there and showing what they are made of!!! Now consistently show just how good you are and make the asinine politics of figure skating work for you!
I don't know why you putting Satoko down. Ashley and Gracie would have beaten Satoko had they skated clean SP. It's not Satoko or the judges fault. They always seem to fall apart when it matterd the most. Maybe you should complain if they skated clean and still lost to Satoko.