2017-18 State of U.S. Ladies Skating | Page 338 | Golden Skate

2017-18 State of U.S. Ladies Skating

slider11

Medalist
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
Sorry, but I'm afraid Angela Wang, much as I love her, fits in the same category as Mirai and Courtney (Polina's unfortunately persistent injury puts her in a slightly separate category). Angela is 21, has competed at every Senior Nationals since 2012 and has never finished higher than 7th.

Internationally, she has two gold medals to her credit: a JGP medal in 2012, and a 2017 Bavarian Open gold medal. She has been on the podium at some summer and Challenge events, including a silver last summer at the Philadelphia Intl, bronze at the 2015 US Intl FS Classic, and silver and bronze at 2014 Challenger events. But she has come up short at the bigger events: She finished 8th and 9th at her two GP events, one in 2014 and one in 2015. She was 9th at 2018 4CC.

Angela just seems to crumble when faced with serious competition---it's almost as if she doesn't believe in herself. I certainly wouldn't put her in the same category as Bradie Tennell and Ting Cui.

You bring up compelling facts with Angela. It looks like Bradie and Ting are our best bets.
 

MarinHondas

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 29, 2016
I would just like to add that Amber Glenn posts lots of crazy combos on her IG( 3lutz-3loop, 3loop-3loop, 3lutz rippon 3toeloop etc etc) and I think if she could get a handle on her popping habit and nerves... who knows? I wouldn't count her completely out.
 

pearly

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Speaking of Mirai and Shin Amano, can someone honestly please explain to me why Shin Amano is an ISU specialist? In other sports, specialists usually have had a certain modicum of success in the sport. Shin Amano medaled once at Japan Nationals where he won Gold and then competed at Worlds where he placed 28th!! He never medaled again in singles in Japan. He also won Japan Nationals ONCE in Pairs and then competed in the Olympics where they placed 20th! He was a very mediocre skater at best and in my opinion he should not be the specialist at a World Championships.

I have been very suspicious of him since the 2016-2017 Grand Prix where at the Cup of China he went ballistic on Ashley Wagner with calls. It was problematic because of the fact that it knocked Ashley out of the Grand Prix finals and put his countrywoman Satoko Miyahara (who was on the bubble) into the 6th position (and it worked as Satoko won Silver that year). It seemed very calculated and it looked suspicious. He is inconsistent and relentless but in ways that make it look biased and suspicious. At the end of the day I just don't understand how someone who was such a weak skater can be in such a high level, important position. I could understand it if someone like Takeshi Honda was a specialist but not him.

Judges, tech specialists and controllers take seminars and tests to become international and ISU judges, specialists etc. It has nothing to how successful they were as skaters. Last time I checked you had to have competed at a certain level to become a judge.
 
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