This. Bell has definitely improved after seasons of stagnation but also got a little help from the judges/technical panel who were overly lenient to her but absurdly unfair to Alina. Bell's jumps are lower and with less displacement than Alina's, even if Bell mostly does them from crossovers and takes a long time to set them up while Alina uses very difficult transitions. Also Bell had the skate of her life, while Kaori Sakamoto and Wakaba Higuchi who are stronger skaters but not in top form right now made costly mistakes. In a normal world Bell would have placed fifth or lower in this field, so she should be happy with that bronze. As Scott says, she's older than Liza Tuktamysheva, who beats her both in terms of technical skills and career accomplishments. You can applaud her for trying, but a bronze in a field with weak competition for third place where better skaters make mistakes is her ceiling. But you also have to give Alina due credit for well-deserved silver. Fair is fair.
While I agree that Mariah should have gotten the bronze and (while I don’t like Alina’s skating) Alina was clearly the deserved silver medalist and is still better than almost all the ladies in the world except for maybe the 3A and then possibly Rika if Alina’s not skating well, I think you’re doing a great disservice to Mariah by calling it the “skate of her life.” Mariah’s been skating clean for a few events now. I wouldn’t say it’s the skate of her life but she’s starting to get rewarded for her consistency and upping the tech content. And I would say Kaori is a stronger skater but I don’t think Wakaba is a stronger skater than her anymore.
But anyway...Aliona has been blowing me away. Her 3A’s and her gorgeous artistry...she is truly the complete package. Everything you could want in a skater (I mean minus the quads but I know she’s working on that.)