2019-20 Japanese ladies' figure skating

[Joekaz]

I am so confused about the absolute conviction that Rika would not be #1 without her 3A. I love Rika, but Kaori is my favorite ladies' skater ever and I am also fond of Wakaba, Satoko, and Mai. Mai's out with an injury (and lost consistently against the other girls last season). Kaori has edge issues with her Lutz, and is known for popping or falling on around one jump per major competition. Satoko has... extremely tiny jumps and will be marked with <s all over by any strict panel. Wakaba has been having absolute meltdowns in her free. I do not see any of them challenging a 3A-less Rika who, even without an 3A (and for the sake of argument, without a 3Lz), still has the best technique in the field and incredible consistency with the rest of her jumps.

I will agree with you for this year so far, because the other Japanese girls haven't been up to their previous standards. But if they skate to their potential they are all quite capable of beating a 3A less Rika. I was however quite impressed with Rika's handling of pressure tonight.

 

[Joekaz]

Haha.. Yes, that is the word for it. Honestly though.. even without the 3A ( and we know this because she popped it in the SP a lot last season) Rika's scores would be very good. Her other elements are all of quality and effortless.

I agree. She handled the pressure very well and skated great. My comments on Kihira vs Alena are not anti Kihira. Kihira is very good. My comments are based on how impressive Alena is. When I say special, I'm being very selective, meaning a once a decade kind of talent. Not simply the best of the current year.

 

[Lunalovesskating]

It was a smart choice by Rika's team to water down the Tech content if she is not 100% healthy. Hope her ankle can rest a little more and then she can pull out her full content when it matters the most

 

[Lunalovesskating]

I love both of Rika's new dresses. They fit the programs so much better in my opinion. I am always impressed with how much Rika works on her performance and interpretation skills after each competition. If you compare her programs from ACI to NHK her PE and IN have improved so much. She really is a skater that works on being a whole package, which I admire a lot.

 

[readernick]

I love both of Rika's new dresses. They fit the programs so much better in my opinion. I am always impressed with how much Rika works on her performance and interpretation skills after each competition. If you compare her programs from ACI to NHK her PE and IN have improved so much. She really is a skater that works on being a whole package, which I admire a lot.

Yes , I love the dresses and her interpretation is a lot better. I do wish her LP dress was a different color. This cut is better but I like the brighter tone of the first costume.

 

[Nord Stream 2]

Sasha Trusova sends greetings https://www.instagram.com/p/B5NnHvSihJN/?igshid=108d0ucdb7trw

 

[lzxnl]

Sasha Trusova sends greetings https://www.instagram.com/p/B5NnHvSihJN/?igshid=108d0ucdb7trw

Wrong thread.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

You forgot one more reason Rika is in second. Alena is simply a better skater. No woman in history could have beaten Alena's short. If both clean Alena wins every time, unless you can do multiple quads.

Well that’s a bit of an easy statement to make after she got a record best for it. But I don’t think it’s untouchable (eg she does a 3T instead of a 3L combo, and the PCS isn’t maxed out). Kihira with a backloaded 3-3 and the lutz back in there could have had a shot at matching it. Especially now that she’s getting higher PCS.

Also your suggestion about Kihira not being special is unsubstantiated (though you’re of course entitled to whatever opinion you happen to claim). She won the GPF in her first senior season, is the first woman to do an 8 triple program, and the first woman to do a 3A+3T. Nothing you say will change that. It’s no certainty either that she would be knocked out of top Japanese spot were it not for the 3A. She still has wonderful elements (bigger jumps than Miyahara) and expression (better than Sakamoto). And the reality is she DOES have a 3A...

Kostornaia wouldn’t, as you say, “win every time” if she didn’t have a 3A and one could argue it’s the only thing keeping her from being only number 3 in Russia (or even potentially 4th behind a clean Liza with 3As). But Alena *does* have a 3A... so I don’t get the point in using hypotheticals for Kihira when it’s not the current state of affairs other than to just grind your axe against her.

 

[Mishaminion]

Rika and Alena are both amazing

That's all I have to say about that.

Overall I do think Alena has the advantage, she is sheer quality...A Russian Satoko Miyahira but with great jumps. Even with her slight mistake she had enough overall quality to stay ahead.
Rika still has no lutz, and did not risk her 4S, I see her going for broke at GPF though...she doesn't really have much to lose, facing Sasha, Anna and Alyona.
Sasha seems to be landing a stable 3A in practice, which we all knew after seeing her 2As last week would only be a matter of time.

But they are both special

 

[Nord Stream 2]

Wrong thread.

Sorry. Wrong finger pressed.

I take this opportunity to congratulate all fans of the Japanese ladies. Rika is a truly unique skater. She added a lot of quality this season. It is very nice to look at her. I wish her to polish her 4S as soon as possible and add it to the program.

Thanks to the Japanese for their love of Russian girls.

We in Russia also have a lot of fans of your skaters.

Be all healthy and happy.

 

[Joekaz]

Well that’s a bit of an easy statement to make after she got a record best for it. But I don’t think it’s untouchable (eg she does a 3T instead of a 3L combo, and the PCS isn’t maxed out). Kihira with a backloaded 3-3 and the lutz back in there could have had a shot at matching it. Especially now that she’s getting higher PCS.

Also your suggestion about Kihira not being special is unsubstantiated (though you’re of course entitled to whatever opinion you happen to claim). She won the GPF in her first senior season, is the first woman to do an 8 triple program, and the first woman to do a 3A+3T. Nothing you say will change that. It’s no certainty either that she would be knocked out of top Japanese spot were it not for the 3A. She still has wonderful elements (bigger jumps than Miyahara) and expression (better than Sakamoto). And the reality is she DOES have a 3A...

Kostornaia wouldn’t, as you say, “win every time” if she didn’t have a 3A and one could argue it’s the only thing keeping her from being only number 4 in Russia (or even potentially 5 behind a clean Liza with 3As). But Alena *does* have a 3A... so I don’t get the point in using hypotheticals for Kihira when it’s not the current state of affairs other than to just grind your axe against her.

I don't have an axe to grind. I said she's a very good skater, but Alena is better and she wouldn't be definite number one in Japan without 3A if the other girls skated to their potential, which they aren't this year. Neither of those statements are outrageous. Sorry I hurt your feelings, jeez.

 

[Mishaminion]

guys, don't feed the trolls after midnight *or at least it's after midnight here LOL

Rika is awesome and so is Alyona. Both are my angels I am championing until they retire.

So do I

I hope they both manage to win major titles but that might not always be possible

 

[gotoschool]

If Rika had been scored fairly, she would have won the NHK competition. The tech irregularities that were addressed in the memo were quite pronounced in the NHK and extrapolated to other areas like PCS, step sequences and GOE and were "normalized" or overlooked in a way that was very inconvenient for Rika and other Japanese skaters. While Rika was called on a ur on her backend triple triple combo in her SP, Alena's flat edge was ignored and given almost plus 2 GOE instead of the ! and the .5 GOE it received before the memo. The 8-9 point increase in evaluation in the short program alone for Alena between the Grand Prix of France and the NHK for programs that looked very similar is enough to close almost all the gap between Rika and Alena's overall scores in the NHK, but this doesn't include the LP in which the euler / triple salchow backend ur was overlooked, as well as the two footed landing on the triple lutz as evident from the spray coming off the ice with the free leg on landing. Finally, the landing on the triple axel in the LP was a little short of rotation with a hook on landing but was not called and received higher GOE than Rika's with better rotation, unlike in the Internationaux de France where it received a ur in the SP.

The most striking contradiction in the scoring for me was Rika receiving a lower overall step sequence score in the NHK than all of the following skaters did in their last SP and LP programs: Evgenia, Alena and Alina, with the most being for Evgenia then Alena, even though the sharpness of Rika's edge work, complexity and fluidity of movement to the music in her skating skills and step sequences is actually the most impressive to me not the "worst" in this group, though I admit Evgenia, Alena and Alina all have impressive qualities in these categories. . The same holds for PCS with Alena receiving 2.5 points higher than in the Internationaux de France SP. Yet, Rika maintained an amazingly similar 6/100 of a point difference between Skate Canada and the NHK. Can a point spread be this similar by coincidence? Again, Alina is a very smooth and graceful skater with very good speed and expression, but Rika has been steadily developing and honing the sophistication of her artistic expression for longer in seniors with long graceful gliding arm movements while doing beautiful weaving crossovers and intricate transitions which on top of the impressive skating skills should have given her the overall PCS lead, which she didn't receive. The huge applause from the audience in the NHK seems to only be selectively applied for peak PCS for certain skaters even if Rika also received big applause in Canada. and most of the irregularities benefitting Alena appeared in the LP. Furthermore, Rika landed 3 instead of 2 triple axels and they had better rotation, though the height on Alena's are very good.

 

[Joekaz]

So do I

I hope they both manage to win major titles but that might not always be possible

I do too, but the quadsters are going to make it hard this year. If they falter, although I bellieve Alena is better, I think Rika would have a good chance of winning. I think Alena will have more expectations, hence more pressure on her, and Rika could have a quad by then.

 

[evasorange]

The tech irregularities that were addressed in the memo were quite pronounced in the NHK and extrapolated to other areas, edge calls, two footed landings, rotation, step sequences, GOE, and in my opinion PCS, and they were normalized in such a way that was very inconvenient for Rika in Japan yet again, in my opinion, to try to provide yet another blanket of cover for a precedent in underscoring. The most striking contradiction in the scoring for me was Rika receiving a lower overall step sequence score in the NHK than all of the following skaters did in their last SP and LP programs: Evgenia, Alena and Alina, with the most being for Evgenia then Alena, even though the sharpness of Rika's edge work, complexity and fluidity of movement to the music in her skating skills and step sequences is actually the most impressive to me not the "worst" in this group. This provides but one snapshot of how the scoring is "irregular," and in this case inverted to my eyes, and taken with the others categories combined above which I have explained more thoroughly in another post, I do think it is enough to make a difference in the final result, if the judgement were done fairly.

It’s quite obvious now that Rika has to be absolutely picture perfect to stand a chance to overcome the Russians. The fact that she and Alina had the same tes score after Rika did TWO beautiful triple axels, one in combination is just an absolute farce.

 

[nussnacker]

It’s quite obvious now that Rika has to be absolutely picture perfect to stand a chance to overcome the Russians. The fact that she and Alina had the same tes score after Rika did TWO beautiful triple axels, one in combination is just an absolute farce.

Rika had 6 triples, due to the absence of her lutz. Her base value was only 2 points higher, that’s not much at all. Once she gets her Lutz back, she’ll be nailing 160 pretty easily.
With her scoring last season, it was pretty much given she’d score 160 if she goes clean with her last year’s layout.

 

[Mishaminion]

It’s quite obvious now that Rika has to be absolutely picture perfect to stand a chance to overcome the Russians. The fact that she and Alina had the same tes score after Rika did TWO beautiful triple axels, one in combination is just an absolute farce.

That was...do not agree with that either.

With Alyona I can see why she scored higher.

BUT Alina has 2 3Lz and a 3Lz-3L and she did it well this time.
She really fought for her FS, I'll give her that. Still, PCS too high for what she put out there, she was very focused on getting the jumps done, people blast Sasha Trusova for that.

 

[evasorange]

Rika had 6 triples, due to the absence of her lutz. Her base value was only 2 points higher, that’s not much at all. Once she gets her Lutz back, she’ll be nailing 160 pretty easily.
With her scoring last season, it was pretty much given she’d score 160 if she goes clean with her last year’s layout.

But fairly judged goe should have given Rika a higher edge over Alina. Her jumps are much less labored and smooth. Not even going to get into PCS

 

[nussnacker]

But fairly judged goe should have given Rika a higher edge over Alina. Her jumps are much less labored and smooth. Not even going to get into PCS

well, the execution part is subjective. But matter of fact, 3As without the full set of triples do not give enough advantage to Rika right now.
She needs a full set of triples to milk the advantage 3As give her.

 

[Fluture]

Wanna hear the latest news? Rika has a flutz. She did not remove the lutz from her program because of injury but because of “edge problems“. Don‘t believe me? Just ask RusFed. Or better don‘t if you don‘t want to get a letter kindly asking you to “look into the inconsistencies of your statements“.

https://mobile.twitter.com/quadLz/status/1198317400342614017