2019-20 U.S. Ladies Figure Skating | Page 227 | Golden Skate

2019-20 U.S. Ladies Figure Skating

macy

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2011
Skating your best is a noble goal, but perhaps it's a luxury for people who are both skating their best *and* winning medals. It reminds me of Meagan Duhamel, who in 2016 proclaimed that this season, her goal was to "have fun." I suspect she and Eric Radford were feeling triumphant, unstoppable, a bit arrogant (?), as they had just won a second gold medal for pairs at the world championships. But at the 2017 Worlds, they placed 7th, with a fall, shaky landings on a few jumps, and out-of-sync spins. You could see the disappointment on their faces. But why should they be disappointed? After all, didn't they achieve their goal of having fun?

A few months later, Meagan and Eric fired their coach. She talked about their poor results and needing a change. She also talked about the concrete results that she wanted, and made it clear that 7th place was definitely not good enough.

"If we didn’t make these changes we’ll probably find ourselves in seventh place at the Olympics. By going ahead and making these changes, we’re giving ourselves a chance to improve and reach the podium," said Duhamel. "We might also end up seventh at the Olympics even though we’re making these changes, but it’s the risk we needed to take."

At the 2018 Olympics, they got a gold team medal for Canada and a bronze individual medal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgu2CCmCOcA

even though she might not have said it out right, "having fun" most likely meant skating their best and letting the chips fall where they may, whether that means a medal or not. not skating well is in no way shape or form fun.

there should be another thread on this stuff, like the mental-physical aspect of skating and what makes a strong competitor.
 

brightphoton

Medalist
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
even though she might not have said it out right, "having fun" most likely meant skating their best and letting the chips fall where they may, whether that means a medal or not. not skating well is in no way shape or form fun.

there should be another thread on this stuff, like the mental-physical aspect of skating and what makes a strong competitor.

Another thing that must've made a difference is that Duhamel and Radford are top skaters who always had a definite possibility of finishing on the podium. Mentally, someone like Sasha Cohen or Michelle Kwan missing out on gold is different than non-elite athlete skating their best and giving a good performance. If a normal skater had their results, I think they'd party for 3 months straight.
 

mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
even though she might not have said it out right, "having fun" most likely meant skating their best and letting the chips fall where they may, whether that means a medal or not. not skating well is in no way shape or form fun.

there should be another thread on this stuff, like the mental-physical aspect of skating and what makes a strong competitor.

This is completely true. Wise words.
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
Skating your best is a noble goal, but perhaps it's a luxury for people who are both skating their best *and* winning medals. It reminds me of Meagan Duhamel, who in 2016 proclaimed that this season, her goal was to "have fun." I suspect she and Eric Radford were feeling triumphant, unstoppable, a bit arrogant (?), as they had just won a second gold medal for pairs at the world championships. But at the 2017 Worlds, they placed 7th, with a fall, shaky landings on a few jumps, and out-of-sync spins. You could see the disappointment on their faces. But why should they be disappointed? After all, didn't they achieve their goal of having fun?

I highly doubt that it was fun for them to have that skate. They knew they were capable of doing better. So it comes back to the idea of having one's goal be to skate as well as they could. Maybe setting more specific goals works for some people and not for others. That's one of the reasons it's an interesting discussion to me. But in the US in the last 20 or 30 years, the conventional wisdom seems to have been that having a goal (not just in skating life, but in all life) is the only way to go, so I'm interested in exploring the idea. It's also why I've noticed so many Russian skaters saying they're only focused on skating their best performance possible and not looking to the results of the "end season" competitions, etc.

For instance (and this is taking it out of the FS world), actress Julia Roberts said once she never had a goal for her career and "I'm a seat-of-my-pants girl."
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
yes, as a figure skating competitor. i was never a skater that went anywhere but trying to think back it seems my coaches leaned more towards results based goals, obviously skating well being part of it. a lot of it was also my own inability to handle competition nerves and internal goals i'd set for myself for getting on the podium or trying to make a final round etc and it almost always backfired. i remember always being so nervous thinking about whether or not i would skate well (being a good competitor is part of it too, but that's a different topic). when you're a kid you always want to do your best but you have no idea if your goals are counterproductive and then you don't understand whats happening when you keep missing. i think it would have been really beneficial if someone would have drilled that what's important is worrying about what i can control into my head as a young skater (i started at 7) and not being so results oriented.

Thanks for saying so eloquently what I was feeling and wondering about. :)
 

NanaPat

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Country
Canada
You guys do realize that Eric Radford was injured just before 2017 Worlds, don't you? It was a wonder he could skate at all.

They had to change one of their jumps to one they hadn't practiced in 3 months because Eric couldn't do a lutz at all.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/figureskating/figure-skating-world-championships-pairs-1.4046310

As I recall, they didn't know exactly what was wrong. At one point Megan was contemplating what she would do if Eric was forced to retire. She thought about competing singles; she thought that in singles she would likely qualify for the Olympics but not make the cut for the long program.

So no, it's not fun to compete in excruciating pain and not knowing if you can even finish the program.
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
You guys do realize that Eric Radford was injured just before 2017 Worlds, don't you? It was a wonder he could skate at all.

They had to change one of their jumps to one they hadn't practiced in 3 months because Eric couldn't do a lutz at all.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/figureskating/figure-skating-world-championships-pairs-1.4046310

As I recall, they didn't know exactly what was wrong. At one point Megan was contemplating what she would do if Eric was forced to retire. She thought about competing singles, she thought that in singles she would likely qualify for the Olympics but not make the cut for the long program.

So no, it's not fun to compete in excruciating pain and not knowing if you can even finish the program.

I remember that very well. I thought it was very courageous of them to skate at all.
 

brightphoton

Medalist
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Yes, I knew they were injured. That was unfortunate, but only a compounding factor for them completely changing coach, goals, training in the following season.
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
Gracie's interview with Scott Hamilton
https://youtu.be/AkzKgtvHRAE

I just listened to the whole interview, and what I love the most is how Gracie has this stream-of-consciousness thing going, which I love. Like talking in circles, and each time you revisit an arc, the meaning or comprehension grows. It's very cool ... and she's not overwhelmingly going "deep" with her thoughts, she keeps it light and about the subject. It's about her, but also not, if you know what I mean. Very refreshing.

My favorite parts were when she talked about (1) why Alex (Chicago) was such a good coach for her, and (2) about her and twin sister Carly.

At the end, she says thank you for letting her talk like she talks. Her friends know that whatever tangent she's on, there's four more tangents going off each one, and it's okay to jump in.

Altogether, I'm writing a five-star review here. :points:
 

macy

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2011
every time i see Gracie give an interview my respect for her just grows and grows. i love her personality and sarcastic humor.

she truly seems happy, and i'm so happy that she has been able to come this far as a competitor but more importantly as a person. she is such an amazing role model.
 

AshWagsFan

Edges for days.
Final Flight
Joined
Oct 14, 2017
Country
United-States
Does anyone know of Karen Chen is going to compete again? I think she was considering retirement after this season, but I’m not sure
 

halulupu

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 21, 2017
I just listened to the whole interview, and what I love the most is how Gracie has this stream-of-consciousness thing going, which I love. Like talking in circles, and each time you revisit an arc, the meaning or comprehension grows. It's very cool ... and she's not overwhelmingly going "deep" with her thoughts, she keeps it light and about the subject. It's about her, but also not, if you know what I mean. Very refreshing.

My favorite parts were when she talked about (1) why Alex (Chicago) was such a good coach for her, and (2) about her and twin sister Carly.

At the end, she says thank you for letting her talk like she talks. Her friends know that whatever tangent she's on, there's four more tangents going off each one, and it's okay to jump in.

Altogether, I'm writing a five-star review here. :points:

was a great interview! she looks very fit to me, quadgracie is comming for 2022 olymics
 

mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Have any of the US Ladies given any training updates? Other than Gracie's recent interview, I feel like I haven't heard a peep out of last years medalists.
 

Roo87

Medalist
Joined
Nov 12, 2017
Skating your best is a noble goal, but perhaps it's a luxury for people who are both skating their best *and* winning medals. It reminds me of Meagan Duhamel, who in 2016 proclaimed that this season, her goal was to "have fun." I suspect she and Eric Radford were feeling triumphant, unstoppable, a bit arrogant (?), as they had just won a second gold medal for pairs at the world championships. But at the 2017 Worlds, they placed 7th, with a fall, shaky landings on a few jumps, and out-of-sync spins. You could see the disappointment on their faces. But why should they be disappointed? After all, didn't they achieve their goal of having fun?

A few months later, Meagan and Eric fired their coach. She talked about their poor results and needing a change. She also talked about the concrete results that she wanted, and made it clear that 7th place was definitely not good enough.

"If we didn’t make these changes we’ll probably find ourselves in seventh place at the Olympics. By going ahead and making these changes, we’re giving ourselves a chance to improve and reach the podium," said Duhamel. "We might also end up seventh at the Olympics even though we’re making these changes, but it’s the risk we needed to take."

At the 2018 Olympics, they got a gold team medal for Canada and a bronze individual medal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgu2CCmCOcA

Eric was very injured at 2017 worlds, they probably shouldn't have even skated. The only reason they did was to get 3 Olympic spots, and that was completely reliant on Lubov and Dylan skating their best (which they did).
 

Jeanie19

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 20, 2017
Country
United-States
I want to discuss something related to this forum, i am new here and i want to know the rules of this forum. Can anybody tell me about this?

Welcome to Golden Skate. Post often.
At the top of the page is guidelines.
Also, there is a thread 2020 2021 U.S. ladies, which would be perfect for your second post. :)
 
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