2024 Worlds: Women's thoughts and comments

[gsk8]

Kaori Sakamoto takes third consecutive World title

2024 World Figure Skating Championships: Women Kaori Sakamoto of Japan convincingly took her third consecutive world title in Montreal, Canada, on Friday night. USA’s Isabeau Levito maintained second to win the silver, while Chaeyeon […]

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The top four after the SP all had the chance for the gold with so few points separating them. It was clear the pressure was on for many!

I was really rooting for Glenn to have a clean free skate to cap off the season. She's already focused on next season, so that's good!

“That was just terrible,” Glenn said of her free skate. “You know, I did not feel the greatest out there and I really did try to pull myself back in and fight. I really just want to go back and next year, really plan out a better layout that resonates. I seemed to just lose focus every time on that middle part, no matter what I’ve tried. Different strategies, you know, focus points, but I always seem to just kind of lose it in the middle. So, I’ll just try and go back home and reset for next year.”

I'm very happy for the podium finishers. Hendrickx admitted to being stressed. I hope she's able to work on that for next season.

Kudos to Repond and Chiba for bouncing back after the short!

What say you?

 

[Skating91]

Kaori has done it she's the greatest ISU skater in modern history.

A wonderful podium. I was scared for the integrity of the competition but it worked out in the end. I thought Kim was robbed in the short program and to an extent in the free skate especially with her PCS, whereas Loena really got the rub of the green 2 of her 3 jump elements in the short had jumps on the q but none of it reflected in the score. If Loena had of won by 4-5 or less points it would have been an title with an asterisk (just my opinion). Of course this is not Loena's fault it is the incompetence (or bias which would be much worse) of the tech panel. It's really obvious too. I posted screenshots if people doubt me.

Levito quite fortunate in the free skate but definitely the third best of the competition while I'd have Kim second. Levito a little fortunate with PCS I don't think it should be much higher than Kim who has greater speed and flow, the jumps are so much better. Some of the GOE on Levito's jumps were huge, I thought 4 should have been given a q but the tech panel only noticed one (this seems to be a trend).
What an achievement for Kim she started skating a late age now on the ISU championships podium. Did it too while being given ZERO favours from the judges. Always did it the hard way all throughout juniors and now seniors. She can definitely feel she earned that medal on merit. Well done.

The really went hard after Gubanova. It would be fine if they were consistent, but other high profile skaters had similar issues but it seems not only the tech panel missed the cheated landings but gave high GOE. Hopefully the ISU can look at this over the summer. It's really important to the integrity of the competition.

 

[Anna K.]

What a competition!

It's been an emotional roller-coaster. I need a break

One thing I can say right now though. Congratulations, Kaori! You have made the history!

 

[icewhite]

I didn't watch anything from the women but a few short clips, so I can't really comment.
All I can say is congrats to Kaori . Huge achievement.

 

[Anna K.]

I didn't watch anything from the women but a few short clips, so I can't really comment.
All I can say is congrats to Kaori . Huge achievement.

Oh, watch it! There were tremendous achievements from other skaters, too - their personal bests and long-time bests.

 

[Anna K.]

Another thought that just came to my mind: I have only seen successfully landed tripple axels in women competitions this season. Am I lucky or is it a fact?

 

[Skating91]

If the old age rules stayed in place, I think Jia Shin hypothetically would have taken silver with her world juniors performances. With these judges she would get low 70's for PCS rather than 65, also higher PCS in the short. Would score close to 220. Possibly beats Kaori. Interesting to think about.

Anyway, it will be an interesting fight between Kaori and Shin next season. I think Kaori is favourite to win in 2025. Conditioning is great, no injuries.

I fear a little for Loena next season she will be 25 and has aggravated a hip injury she took into the event. If it's the joint rather than a muscle it could be the end of her career.

 

[Anna K.]

...and another thought: so we will have 3 Japanese skaters, 3 Korean skaters, 3 US skaters and 3 Swiss skaters next year. Interesting

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Anyway, it will be an interesting fight between Kaori and Shin next season. I think Kaori is favourite to win in 2025. Conditioning is great, no injuries.

Jia isn't Senior eligible yet next season (2024/25), she only turns Senior in the Olympic season (2025/26), so you have to wait for one more season to see those two go up against each other

 

[Jumping_Bean]

3 Swiss skaters next year

Unfortunately not, they just missed getting three entries (the combined placement would have needed to be 13 or lower, their combined placement is 14) - One of the big issues with the entry allocation system, two top 10 placements are not enough to get three spots.

 

[Anna K.]

Jia isn't Senior eligible yet next season (2024/25), she only turns Senior in the Olympic season (2025/26), so you have to wait for one more season to see those two go up against each other

Plus, the team Korea inner competition before Olys is going to be mad. Mad in the best sense of the word.

Unfortunately not, they just missed getting three entries (the combined placement would have needed to be 13 or lower, their combined placement is 14) - One of the big issues with the entry allocation system, two top 10 placements are not enough to get three spots.

Being so close... that's sad
But Switzerland still is in a good position to fight for 3 spots in Olympic games though.

 

[cheerknithanson]

One of the happiest podiums I’ve seen where everyone is happy with their placement.

 

[nickp91]

I cracked up during the trophy ceremony when Kaori Sakamoto searched the arena for a USA flag for Isabeau Levito

 

[Mathman]

I found Loena Hendrickx' program very entertaining, despite the mistakes. Full of sass, sparkle and charm.

Overall the technical panel and the judges were exceptionally accurate, I thought.

Kaori Sakmoto has accomplished what neither Michelle Kwan nor Katarina Witt did, It's hard to win three consecutive world chanpionships. It's hard to win two. It's hard to win one.

 

[LolaSkatesInJapan]

I found Loena Hendrickx' program very entertaining, despite the mistakes. Full of sass, sparkle and charm.

She and her style are not my favorite, but I absolutely agree with you, her programs are entertaining and fun, I think she can perform very well the music choice and I actually enjoyed watching both her short and long programs. And the audience was loving it, it seems.

Kaori Sakmoto has accomplished what neither Michelle Kwan nor Katarina Witt did, with three consecutive world championships.

And I think Kaori is far away from finished, I think we can expect and look forward to many more exciting performances from her, and she keeps improving. In my humble opinion, everything was perfect for her in this long program. Excellent choice of music, beautiful program, her dress is gorgeous and reflects her personality. Congratulations to her and her coaches for amazing choices, amazing training and performances.

 

[TontoK]

The podium was exactly correct. I enjoyed this event, and the ladies is generally not a discipline I care about that much.

Kaori was brilliant.

I remain somewhat skeptical about Isabeau's longterm prospects, but I'm very happy that she held it together when it counted most, and especially following a bad Nationals. I think it took guts to ditch her SP this late, but that was obviously a good call. She didn't let her nerves take control, and it had to be difficult to skate after Kaori.

I love that Kim came out guns blazing to open the final group. It put pressure on the top skaters that followed - they couldn't just skate OK, they had to really perform. Without that pressure, would some have skated better (or worse)? Who knows. But she gave herself a shot.

 

[Thrashergurl]

I think the placements were correct.
I’m in the minority that isn’t blown away by Kaori’s skating. I think she definitely deserved her win and was the best skater of the night, but her program was boring to me.

I felt bad for Loena. Reminds me of Gracie- maybe doesn’t believe in herself as much as she should. In her interviews she defers to Koari being the one who will win, and she needs to stop with that mindset. Some call it honesty, but she obviously beat her in the SP, so she CAN beat her.

Isabeau looked good, but man- that horrible jump technique. I can’t even

Amber- some people just aren’t strong competitors. She’s an amazing person, definitely could win it all if she skates like she knows she can. Something about putting it together at competition isn’t clicking in her mind.

I will throw in how nice it is to watch clean skaters doing realistic elements.

 

[4everchan]

I think the placements were correct.
I’m in the minority that isn’t blown away by Kaori’s skating. I think she definitely deserved her win and was the best skater of the night, but her program was boring to me.

Fair enough... Kaori however, has a real program. So many transitions. It's beautiful to watch. Some of the other skaters just skate from one end to the other, do an element and repeat... and save choreo for Cho SEQ and Step SEQ. It helps that she also does the Step SEQ early on in the program. I find that when skaters put both the Steps and CHOR SEQ near the end, after the jumps, it's a long first3 minutes to go through with just jumps.

I felt bad for Loena. Reminds me of Gracie- maybe doesn’t believe in herself as much as she should. In her interviews she defers to Koari being the one who will win, and she needs to stop with that mindset. Some call it honesty, but she obviously beat her in the SP, so she CAN beat her.

She is injured. So that can also affect your confidence.

 

[Mathman]

This shows how much more competitive women's skating is than men's, I suppose because there are many times more girls interested in the sport than boys. Kaori's feat marks the first time since 1968 that any woman has been able to win three world championships in a row.

During that time, in men's, there were Ondrej Nepala 1971-73, Scott Hamilton 1981-84 (4), Brian Boitano 1985-88,Kurt Browning 1980-91 Alexei Yagudin 1998-2000, Patrick Chan 2011-13 and Nathan Chen 2018-2021 (worlds was not held in 3020). And Shoma Uno is going for the 3-peat later today!

 

[Mathman]

What's interesting, in 2023 she would be 6th. And in 2022 she would be 7th. So, looking at this numbers, can we assume that in four years she would be the first?
I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. That's what happens when one pays attention on numbers, instead of actual skating.

Where would Peggy Fleming have placed? She scored 1970.6 points at the 1968 Olympics.