Noemie Bodenstein | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Noemie Bodenstein

Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Australia
:)

Another solid outing for Noémie at Volvo Cup today. Euros TES minimums for the free skate achieved, an unofficial SB for the free skate, a whopping personal best in PCS for the free skate (we're talking a solid two points on Cup of Tyrol from back in the day) and an absolute (if, again, unofficial) PB for total score. 41.29/44.79 = 86.08, total 135.71, and this is the first competition in which she's gone at minimum first-level clean* in both programs too. :hap10:

Plus, finally a choreographic sequence that's worth the name and lets her express something beyond 'I can do an Ina Bauer and a spiral'. I am appreciating Michael Huth's choreography for her more and more...

So, she enters the SIS personal best list, which determines eligibility for Senior Nationals, in fifth place and with a month to go. The top of the leaderboard is (or will be when SIS updates its spreadsheet) currently:

--Alexia Paganini 174.16 (Swiss Nationals 2019 - places 1-3 carry over to the new season if not supplanted by a more recent score)
--Anais Coraducci 156.81 (Golden Bear 2019)
--Yasmine Kimiko Yamada 153.25 (Swiss Nationals 2019)
--Tanja Odermatt 142.79 (Finlandia Trophy 2019)
--Noémie Bodenstein 135.71 (Volvo Cup 2019)
--Shaline Ruegger 133.43 (Halloween Cup 2019)

Yoonmi Lehmann doesn't seem to be skating this season; she has no assignments on the spreadsheet and her 2019 Nationals score isn't listed on the leaderboard. I hope she's not dealing with injury.

Things may change slightly based on how Shaline and Noémie skate at their respective Swiss Cup events this weekend and next, but probably not by much (Shaline had a rough trot in the SP at Eulach Cup today, poor girl), so Noémie will be starting in the final flight at Nationals in a month's time, and is in a good place to fight for the podium. All she needs to be in contention for assignment to Euros too is to meet the internal SIS benchmark of 70.5 TES across a competition. She was 2.38 points below that benchmark here, but Swiss Nationals also count for these purposes, so she's got time to make the grade. While it's an outside chance that she'll make it to Euros this year**, there are always substitute spots - but the more important thing right now is to be back in the conversation, ready to build on for next year. And if she can put out two more SPs like yesterday's at Zuri-Leu Cup and Nationals - they're focussing on sending skaters who can make the FS and help keep that second spot open for Switzerland - her place in that conversation will be more secure.

But all those numbers are really just me keeping track of the details. What's most important is that she's both gaining back the technical ground she lost to injury over the 18 months before the start of this season, slowly but surely, and growing substantially and visibly as a skater and performer. And looking so much stronger, happier and more confident than before. I couldn't be happier for her.


*First level of clean is no falls. Second is no falls and no underrotations or no falls and no edge calls/queries. Third is no falls, no underrotations and no edge calls or queries. Not that anybody but me uses those definitions. The SP was second level and the FS was first, and if she can get those URs sorted by Nationals she'll absolutely kill her PB...
**Coraducci would be favorite for the second slot at this point, but she's also favorite by far for the Winter Youth Olympics, and that's only about a week before Euros - it's unlikely they'll ask her to do both. Yasmine Kimiko Yamada and Tanja Odermatt are otherwise the strongest candidates.

ETA: Updated SIS Personal Best list, top 6:

--Alexia Paganini 174.16 (Swiss Nationals 2019 - places 1-3 carry over to the new season if not supplanted by a more recent score)
--Anais Coraducci 156.81 (Golden Bear 2019)
--Yasmine Kimiko Yamada 153.25 (Swiss Nationals 2019 - just scored 142.69 at Prague, will skate next at Warsaw Cup)
--Tanja Odermatt 142.79 (Finlandia Trophy 2019)
--Shaline Ruegger 140.86 (Tirnavia 2019 - withdrew from Eulach Cup after the SP, scheduled to skate next at Warsaw)
--Noémie Bodenstein 135.71 (Volvo Cup 2019 - skates next at Zuri-Leu Cup)
 

Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Australia
Swiss Nationals is underway and Noémie is currently in fourth place after the SP, with a score of 47.37! :hap10: With a TES of 25.62 here she needs a tech score of at least 44.88 - so, an equivalent skate to Courchevel, but with the ChSq added there's a bit of leeway - to go into consideration for that substitute spot at Europeans. Very doable. Getting to the podium will be tougher, as Paganini, Yamada and Coraducci are all skating extremely well right now, but matching her 2017-18 placement? On track so far. :)

She's also, if she cares to pay the CHF100 fee for it, passed her ARP Level 1 test with absolutely flying colours - it was the last test missing from her SIS and ARP sets.*

Good luck for the free skate Noémie!

(*Actually, not quite - too many judges gave negative GOE on the combo and 2A - each obligatory element needs to have at least two judges give base or positive GOE - and she was just under a tenth of a point short of the required TES to pass under filiere suisse rules. Rats.)
 

Harriet

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Joined
Oct 23, 2017
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Australia
2019-20

SWISS SILVER MEDALIST

NOÉMIE BODENSTEIN


:love: :love: :love: :love: :love:

Oh my goodness, what a phenomenal fightback she's had from this time last year. That was an absolutely amazing free skate - clean, evidently without underrotations to bring the BV down*, and so beautiful (helped along on that front by a stunning new frock, purple and grey with a halterneck that makes her look very grown-up). She skated like a dream and she got the reward for it:

108.68 for the free skate. 156.06 total score.

And this with predominantly Romande judges, who are, in defiance of all stereotype, generally somewhat harder than their Schweizerdeutsch counterparts.

Second place behind Alexia Paganini. A jawdropping new PB, even if only domestic. And with a total score like that she has to at least be in contention for the second Swiss spot at Europeans; there's no way she could not have met the 70.5 total competition TES requirement...

I could not be more thrilled for her.


*Protocols will not be available until the wee hours of the morning, after all sections of the competition have finished, so I can't confirm that until tomorrow morning, though.
 

Harriet

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Look at that protocol. A thing of perfect beauty. No edge calls. No underrotations or downgrades. Positive GOE on every element, and by that I mean no negative integers at all. And that PCS!

When my girl is on, she's on.

Yasmine Kimiko Yamada has been given the second place at Euros, which is absolutely understandable - she has a stronger track record in the SP over a longer time and multiple international competitions, and helped to retain the second place for Switzerland last year - but I have my fingers crossed about that Substitute spot...and Junior Worlds.
 

Harriet

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Australia
Oh my! Not only has Noémie just announced that she'll be a torchbearer for the Youth Olympic torch on its way through her hometown of Lausanne on 8 January*, but despite not making the 70.5 combined TES in international competition, she's been rewarded for her consistent improvement and amazing Nationals skate by being listed as a second substitute for Europeans!

Among other things, this means that she's guaranteed a place on next year's national team. :) And she has to be in serious consideration for Junior Worlds.

Hoping to see her at at least one more competition before then, too...

*And skating in the Opening Ceremony!
 

Harriet

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Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
SIS modified their selection criteria in light of the marauding coronavirus and the 2020-21 junior and novice team list is out already. Noémie is in the Équipe Nationale Junior for her fourth year, in the Under 19 bracket. Going by the documents on its website, the federation has been tweaking its team structure lately, and now skaters must stay in the junior team until they're 19 years old on 1 July of the year each season starts, even if they skate in seniors internationally, so she has one full year in the junior team left after this (I think they're doing a long-term trial of a more stepped approach to skater development as opposed to the push-them-through-as-young-and-fast-as-possible model, not to mention this ensures that kids from all cantons will be through with high school before moving into seniors).

It's a shame she apparently had another injury and so didn't get to skate at Dragon Trophy, which meant she didn't get to try for the Junior Worlds spot, but pffft. That amazing Nationals FS was a great way to end a season. And next season, depending on what she chooses to do academically, she may be eligible for the Winter Universiade, which is being held in Switzerland in January 2021 and so might still actually happen, even if without an audience. It would be a great opportunity for her ahead of the Olympic season, so fingers crossed.

Sometimes being a little ahead of your age group scholastically can be an advantage in more ways than one. :)
 

Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Australia
Switzerland has been slowly easing back its COVID-19 restrictions without seeing a rise in case numbers, and although it seems not all the rinks in the Lausanne area are open, Noémie posted earlier this week that she's back on the ice, which is great. :) And they're opening their border with Germany for more than essential travel in the middle of June, too, so she might be able to go and train in Oberstdorf soon!

A bit more sadly, this post just popped up on my Instagram explore feed. A former Swiss National Champion turned filmmaker, a student of Peter Grütter's, has made a documentary about his life and coaching work, and it included filming Noémie's SP at 2019 Nationals - he was overseeing her training when she was in Switzerland at that point. Apparently she'd had a concussion sometime prior - I don't read Russian, but Instagram's translate function renders it as "brain shake" which seems pretty straightforward - and basically couldn't train at all between Volvo Cup and Golden Spin/Nationals. I remember she had a crashing fall in the SP at the Volvo Cup earlier that season and then had to withdraw from the FS; maybe that caused it, or maybe it exacerbated a previous injury, I have no idea, but either way, what a horrible thing to go through at age fifteen, and while trying to keep up with school too. :( I can't say how glad I am that her coaches at TCC and Oberstdorf have been patient and dedicated in helping her to recover from this and her other injuries and rebuild her skating.
 

Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Australia
Insofar as there will be a season this year, Noémie is starting hers at Nebelhorn, which is great news! :hap10: Happy for her to get another go at a Challenger event.

(And it's a home rink event, too...)
 

Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Liebestraum (Liszt) for her SP this season and next. I like it; it's warhorsey enough not to go out of style too quickly, but not desperately overplayed, and the two recordings listed in her bio are very nice, especially the one with the cello. :) Looking forward to Thursday night now!

(She's taller than Carolina Kostner now by one centimetre.)
 

Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Skating with tape on her neck; I hope she's okay. :frown: She looked worried going into the big jumps. It's really hard watching her struggle against injury so much of the time.

The Liebestraum is gorgeous choreography though, and I love the illusion she's added to her combination spin.
 

Harriet

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Australia
Aw. this is nice! Noémie's been at home in Lausanne for a while now, presumably due to that injury that derailed Nebelhorn for her (I suspect it's a chronic back problem; I suspect she's had it since her first international season :( ), but she must be on the mend because she just posted an Instagram story about doing some coaching at Vaudoise Aréna. I snooped around the CPLM website a bit, and it looks like she was working with new learn-to-skate students age 8 and over - which is appropriate, as she was 8 when she started skating herself according to her ISU bio!

Stanick Jeannette, who works at the IceDome camps in the off-season, also coaches for CPLM, so it seems she's got a familiar coach handy to keep an eye on her recovery too. She looked happy and healthy in her story, which is good - and keeps commenting that she misses the girls at Oberstdorf, so I hope she's able to go back soon. Especially since Oberstdorf seems to be in a much better COVID-19 situation than Lausanne and the rest of Vaud!

(ETA: And with Swiss Nationals pushed back till late February she has time to recover in and still defend her silver medal, too, which works out nicely.)
 
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Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Australia
Looks like Noémie's Psoas Syndrome rehab is progressing well. She posted a while ago about starting work on retraining her sit spins, which is one of the later stages of rehab for Psoas Syndrome in a skater - and missing jumping, but fingers crossed that will be added soon!

And in the last few days, she's also choreographed a show program and performed it at the temporary ice rink in Lutry, which is very cool except that she hasn't posted any proper footage from it yet! (Still photos in Insta stories don't count, miss. However, from the colour of that dress, I'm guessing La La Land?) From a comment she made in a story, it sounds like it was part of her travail de maturité, which makes me think that she might be using this pandemic season to not only rehab the psoas injury, but also sit the federal maturité exams, which...well, if those are still anything like they were when I looked at the Swiss education system back in my B.Ed days, that is a lot of exams. Ridiculous young overachiever. :laugh:
 
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Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Australia
Three beautiful action photos from what looks like a skating show that Noémie (as usual) didn't say anything about in advance* - not the same La La Land program as she did for her travail de maturité, possibly Liebestraum without the jumps? I haven't seen that dress before, but it's very pretty. Metallics really suit her.

She's not listed for the Junior Team PISTE in late March - and nor is Anais Coraducci, who didn't enrol for so much as a Swiss-Cup event this season - but the CPLM website lists her as competing in the Elite bracket for next season's Swiss Championships again, so I suspect she and Coraducci will both have requested national team consideration under the long-term injury clause.

*ETA: It was Nationals 2020 (captions would've helped!).
 
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Harriet

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Oct 23, 2017
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Australia
Seven months of diagnosis, treatment, rehab and retraining later: jumping again! A pretty, gentle rippon double lutz (posted in Instagram story). She must be happy (and relieved). :love:

ETA: And she's back on the National Team (Junior Under 19 division) for another year, pending a test skate along with other team members with long-term injuries (Coraducci, as I surmised, also Chervet, Manni-Roethlisberger and brother Noah, along with several others on the larger national squad). She's also on the longlist for the Winter Universiade - eligible by age and (predicted?) university enrolment - and if she's back into full training by then, which she should be, will be the strongest candidate after Yasmine Kimiko Yamada. I'd so love her to get the chance to skate her very best before a home crowd, COVID permitting...
 
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