2017 Worlds Preview: Ladies | Page 3 | Golden Skate

2017 Worlds Preview: Ladies

Who will earn the title?

  • Evgenia Medvedeva

    Votes: 278 76.0%
  • Anna Pogorilaya

    Votes: 29 7.9%
  • Carolina Kostner

    Votes: 18 4.9%
  • Ashley Wagner

    Votes: 14 3.8%
  • Kaetlyn Osmond

    Votes: 21 5.7%
  • Mai Mihara

    Votes: 3 0.8%
  • Other

    Votes: 3 0.8%

  • Total voters
    366
  • Poll closed .

narcissa

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Does anyone else think she does too many of those Boitano arm over-the-head jumps. It's obviously to get more points, which I understand; but more than 1 in a program is just annoying. Maybe it's just me; but I feel like it detracts from the rest of her performance because it's so unnecessary and it smacks a bit of show boating. Anyone? :scratch3:
Everyone :biggrin:
 

MaiKatze

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 4, 2012
No skater is a shoo in for the gold. Looking back through archives of skating, There have been a few top skaters that had their downfalls and rose to the top unexpectedly. Look at Tara, Sarah Hughes and Kimmie, all were long shots and rose to the top while the front runner made mistakes. Evgenia is human and mistakes can happen. It would be nice to see someone beat her not because of her mistakes but because they skated better.

But if she makes no mistakes no one can beat her, no matter what they do. That's what the last year has shown. She is the standard, the one who gets scores around 80 and over 150, that others, even clean, even perfect, cannot reach.
 

xeyra

Constant state
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
But if she makes no mistakes no one can beat her, no matter what they do. That's what the last year has shown. She is the standard, the one who gets scores around 80 and over 150, that others, even clean, even perfect, cannot reach.

Yeah, there was that thread about ladies average scores and someone calculated the total score of each person's best and worst SP and FS in the season so far, and Evgenia at her worst still won over everyone else's total best scores. This is a testament to her consistency, ability to milk every GOE point possible and the PCS that come with all of this. This is why she will only lose gold if she has a total meltdown.
 

evasorange

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Evgenia will have to crab walk for every jumping pass to lose at this point. God how I wish points could be deducted for choreography, because that open mouth wave into the skipping rope posture in her sp is some of the most cringey skating choreography I have seen, worse then Plushenko blowing kisses to the judges at Vancouver. As for second and third, I think its a battle between Anna, Ashley, Carolina, Katelyn with possibly Maria(pls no) Mai and or Gabby sneaking their way in. Karen, Mariah, Wakaba I do not see getting on the podium and in fact I could see any one of them fall out of the top ten with a meltdown. I'm nervous already!!
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Welsome OHgirl. Tahnks for joining us. Post often, post long! :yes:

Does anyone else think she does too many of those Boitano arm over-the-head jumps. It's obviously to get more points, which I understand...

Points are points. Whoever gets the most, wins.
 

rosy14

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 2, 2016
At this point problems for Evgenia can arrive only from her camp, I mean Alina. Because no one else, even in Russia, has their BV TES + GOEs , and then PCS.
And the problems will be psychological, not technical or physical, unless she's still having puberty or she gets injured.
I don't beleive one moment that two cocks (or two hens in this case) can live in the same hen-house. Unless the owner is very tough and clarifies gerarchy.
And indeed Eteri was not at Junior Worlds.
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
Evgenia is human and mistakes can happen. It would be nice to see someone beat her not because of her mistakes but because they skated better.

The problem is the judges don't think anyone can skate better than Evgenia if she goes clean, despite other skaters potentially being better (or already being better in certain areas, but the scores not reflecting it in the PCS and GOE).
 

narcissa

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
At this point problems for Evgenia can arrive only from her camp, I mean Alina. Because no one else, even in Russia, has their BV TES + GOEs , and then PCS.
And the problems will be psychological, not technical or physical, unless she's still having puberty or she gets injured.
I don't beleive one moment that two cocks (or two hens in this case) can live in the same hen-house. Unless the owner is very tough and clarifies gerarchy.
And indeed Eteri was not at Junior Worlds.

yuzu and javi?
 

rosy14

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 2, 2016
yuzu and javi?

Fist of all, Juzuru and Javi are much more mature and experienced skaters than Evgenia and Alina.
Secondly, when Javi is Brian's focus, as last year due to Juzuru's injury, Javi is very "on". This year, as it was two years ago, it's Hanyu the focus. Results speak clearly.
Thirdly, I think Brian has a greater penchant for Javi, he sees him an an alter ego. But Javi must follow the rules and not going too early on his own path.
Fourth, I believe Orser is a clever hen-house owner, who knows how to strategise and make gerarchy clear to everyone.
Fifth, the rivalry among skating schools in Russia is immensely greater than in other countries, because they need Fed's money. Eteri has won senior and junior worlds championship, Euros amd Nationals, but not the Olympics, as CSKA.
So the pressure on her athletes will be much more, they must win not only for themselves, but for the school too.
Brian simply does not need to prove anything to anyone, two Olympic gold medals, more than three senior Worlds championships gold medals, GP finals, silver here and there, junior competiotions too...
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Welsome OHgirl. Tahnks for joining us. Post often, post long! :yes:



Points are points. Whoever gets the most, wins.

Agreed. I mean you don't see anyone being like, "Augh what is up with Carolina Kostner/Kaetlyn Osmond/Satoko/etc. doing ALL her triples without a tano/Rippon! It gets so boring watching her do them all the same way!"

Evidently using a tano all the time is overuse but avoiding a tano all the time isn't condemned as lacking variation or doing the same old.
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
That's because a tano is choreographically like an exclamation point and a lot of these tano jumps are executed smaller in order to be able to do a tano on them in the first place. Imagine if you read something! Where every sentence! Was chopped up! And had an exclamation point afterwards! The exclamation point! Would lose its significance! It would in fact! Become annoying!
 

andromache

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Fist of all, Juzuru and Javi are much more mature and experienced skaters than Evgenia and Alina.
Secondly, when Javi is Brian's focus, as last year due to Juzuru's injury, Javi is very "on". This year, as it was two years ago, it's Hanyu the focus. Results speak clearly.
Thirdly, I think Brian has a greater penchant for Javi, he sees him an an alter ego. But Javi must follow the rules and not going too early on his own path.
Fourth, I believe Orser is a clever hen-house owner, who knows how to strategise and make gerarchy clear to everyone.
Fifth, the rivalry among skating schools in Russia is immensely greater than in other countries, because they need Fed's money. Eteri has won senior and junior worlds championship, Euros amd Nationals, but not the Olympics, as CSKA.
So the pressure on her athletes will be much more, they must win not only for themselves, but for the school too.
Brian simply does not need to prove anything to anyone, two Olympic gold medals, more than three senior Worlds championships gold medals, GP finals, silver here and there, junior competiotions too...

Don't agree with your assumptions regarding the pecking order at the Cricket Club - clearly if one of the top skaters felt they were not getting the attention that their rival was getting, they would leave.

We have no reason to believe that Brian gives either man more attention than the other, or that he prefers one over the other. Based on how successful both men have been over the past few years, plus their seemingly positive relationships with Brian and one another, there's no need to assume anything else.

That said, I do think that, in general, girls of Evgenia/Alina's age are going to struggle more to get along with one another than guys who are a bit older. Javi has a serious girlfriend, he enjoys going out, etc.; Yuzu is traveling between Canada and Japan all the time, is very involved in Japanese media, is taking college classes (I think?), etc. Both men have a lot going on besides skating, in part because they are grown-ups. Evgenia and Alina are still teenage girls, and it's likely their lives revolve around the rink. It's a tough situation, and Yulia and Serafima both left when they began to struggle against their training mates.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Eteri is much tougher to please than Brian, considering what has been publicly said about her almost-rejection of Polina for not being the right size. Her tolerance for struggles/failures might be lower, which makes the relationships between her skaters more tenuous.
 

Ares

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 22, 2016
Country
Poland
I don't have a problem with Evgenia winning everything, I don't, she clearly deserves it, but I wish there was a way that Kaetlyn or Anna could beat her if she makes a mistake or two and they go clean. I don't think that's unreasonable. No matter how dominant Hanyu is, if he makes mistakes he is vulnerable (not only to BV-crazy guys like Nathan, but to guys like Patrick and Javi).

It takes the suspense out of everything, and I don't think it's good for the sport as a whole. Not because Evgenia is undeserving, but because viewers want suspense and drama! Rivalries or up and coming underdogs are captivating for not only fans, but for people new to the sport just tuning in. Maybe by the Olympics next season there will be some suspense, with the introduction of Alina and Marin to seniors, plus the possibility of a new and improved Gracie Gold. A Plushenko in 2006 situation would not be fun at all.

I agree. I would like to see that window of opportunity for the rest to beat her in case you mentioned but I don't expect it. If Medvedeva skates like she did this season so far or even bit worse I still don't expect anyone to legitimately threaten her.
 
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Globetrotter

Medalist
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
At this point problems for Evgenia can arrive only from her camp, I mean Alina. Because no one else, even in Russia, has their BV TES + GOEs , and then PCS.
And the problems will be psychological, not technical or physical, unless she's still having puberty or she gets injured.
I don't beleive one moment that two cocks (or two hens in this case) can live in the same hen-house. Unless the owner is very tough and clarifies gerarchy.
And indeed Eteri was not at Junior Worlds.

Alina Zagitova has stronger jumps. She uses the rippon moves but not as blatantly as Zhenya on the tano. Even without the backloading, Alina should get higher TES. Where she is weaker is that she doesn't have Zhenya's natural X-factor that makes you go wow and smile and dish out lots of PCS. I don't think that is something that can be trained. It's unique, somewhat like why judges will love Sasha Cohen even though her basic SS is awful. The only other skater who has that unique expressiveness that will gain lots of feel good now is IMO Marin Honda. She may be the threat to the Russian phenoms if only she can get Zhenya's consistency.
 

Ares

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 22, 2016
Country
Poland
I expect Maria Sotskova to skate two clean programs (ok ... maybe with a couple of UR calls across event). That Free Skate at the Europeans was a bad day in office, she's known for her consistency since junior days. When she fell I was stunned because ... I've never seen her falling before :)laugh:), and that second fall was also surprising. What result it can bring? That is a mistery, everything between 3rd to 7th is possible if that's the case that she skates like she did at Nationals or NHK Trophy.
 
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