2019-20 GP and JGP Final: Day 1 | Page 3 | Golden Skate

2019-20 GP and JGP Final: Day 1

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Is it 3A and tech advantage magic?

Yes. Are you just now starting to understand how figure skating is scored "after the (big jump) revolution"? :) Alysa did a triple Axel (8.0), others only did a triple flip (5.3) or a triple Lutz (5.9). Therefore Alysa will be ahead of the others by by about 2-3 points in total segment scores.

Don't worry, we will see the same with the senior ladies. The scoring is actually very consistent this year. Big jump, big score, win by 20 points. :yes:
 

readernick

Medalist
Joined
Dec 5, 2015
For the sake of peace and quiet on the GS I would recommend that the TV people do not show Alysa's landing. Cuz... come on, we are not blind. But US-comrades will blame us that we are h...rs, that we are envious Russians, etc.
Just show start of jump and at the top of the trajectory the frame change - it will be better for everyone :) Anyway, we can't influence anything - the score will be what it is, but at least we won't fight with each other here :)

I think the tech panel was very generous with all skaters. The Russian federation asked for lenient ( we all know what "fair" meant) judging and that is what has been happening in ever event since the letter was sent.

I, personally, like strict judging for all competitors but, apparently, the Russian federation doesn't. So, their junior skaters are suffering so that the senior skaters don't get edge calls, URs and so on.... Not the type of judging, I prefer...but ........


Anyway, I still like Ksenia the most among all these ladies. But, Eteri's junior skaters are so much better than the previous generations in terms of SS (Alyona excepted, of course). I don't like Usacheva's program but her SS and extension really impressed me, here. Valieva also has great SS but the expression of fear on her face ruins the program for me. Haein is a beautiful skater but this wasn't her best performance.
 

Orlov

Medalist
Joined
Jun 19, 2018
I think the tech panel was very generous with all skaters. The Russian federation asked for lenient ( we all know what "fair" meant) judging and that is what has been happening in ever event since the letter was sent.

I, personally, like strict judging for all competitors but, apparently, the Russian federation doesn't. So, their junior skaters are suffering so that the senior skaters don't get edge calls, URs and so on.... Not the type of judging, I prefer...but ........


:laugh2:

lame :)
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
The judging always gets more lenient at the end of the year. The audience does not want to see skaters get low scores at major championships. Give them all high scores, that way the audience thinks they are seeing great performances.

It is the same in every sport -- fewer fouls are called in the playoffs than in the regular season.
 

readernick

Medalist
Joined
Dec 5, 2015
When people have nothing of substance to comment they resort to insults.

Back to the issue at hand, the pairs in both juniors and seniors were as a group incredibly impressive. I really love B/K and Sui/Han. Despite their small error on the throw jump, Sui and Han really had the performance of the night for me.

The Junior men were all nervous. I actually thought Shun Sato gave the best performance but his spin levels really pushed his TES down. He needs to work on them. Mozalev was technically pretty impressive but he is not a natural performer .


I hope Yuzuru has a nice fs.
 

NanaPat

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Country
Canada
Did Yuzuru not get ANY points for his second quad because it wasn't in combination?

The on-screen score tracker showed zero, but the points appeared later. This isn't the first time I've seen zero points for a missed combo on the "score wart", but the TES has gone up after the skater finishes to include points for the element.
 

Alex65

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 11, 2018
Country
Russia
The judging always gets more lenient at the end of the year. The audience does not want to see skaters get low scores at major championships. Give them all high scores, that way the audience thinks they are seeing great performances.

It is the same in every sport -- fewer fouls are called in the playoffs than in the regular season.

I want 35/70 for Sasha. Well, please!
 

eppen

Medalist
Joined
Mar 28, 2006
Country
Spain
Watched junior men and ladies and men.

The boys were not glorious, but I guess I did not expect too much of them in the end. Good job for Mozalev, he is (for the time being) almost as bland on ice as his costume is. The smallness of Samsonov among the other guys was astounding.

Junior ladies were tough as nails - I still do not like Valieva much, she just skates through the music in this one. The beginning and end pose are cool, but what happens in between makes no sense to me as a supposed storyline. Uschaeva and Sinitsina deliver more on the performance side, esp. Sinitsina I liked with her attention to detail. I think the peppy program that Alysa has fits her very well - she is a fourteen-year-old after all and she kind of lets it show as well. Most of the teenage girls going for heavy tango/Ne me quitte pas/Je suis malade drama fail miserably at it.

Then the men - was worried that the organizers bungling Kevin's music derailed him, but luckily the end result was one of the greatest skates from Mr Tiny. Sharpness in jumps and the performance side working like it always does. The choreo still gets me in its originality and suitability to His Purpleness. :love: I started thiking of the costumes in the top three and even though the colour is right for Kevin, what he is wearing looks a bit cheap and poorly made. No class in it...

I like Nathan's SP a lot - the vintage feel is great and they have a lot of the feeling also in the choreo (some of the recycled step sequence moves could be ditched though for something new). He has more speed now, even some fairly good running edges although the combo is still a bit slow and tight. I truly admire his game nerves - he knows what and when he needs to deliver! But ditching the costume that fitted the theme for that fashion creation/whatever was not a good idea. Admittedly the vest/shirt combo did make his shoulder/arms line hard to see, but they could have found a solution to that easily enough (thinking of all the times Javi wore vests and/or shirts and he never had those problems).

Delighted to see Dima also do fairly good - although the TP was very nice to him. I like the fluidity of his upper body and arms very much, hope he gets those jumps under control soon enough. Not to mention the spins...

E
 

century2009

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 15, 2018
Nathan, Yuzu and Kevin were awesome.

I'm one of the few who doesn't mind Nathan's fashion choices. It's so "him" I find myself looking forward to whatever random shirts he comes up with.

It has become a very "Nathan" thing. Lol.

He makes his own fashion choices and does his own thing. It does look comfortable compared to the other one.

I really will forgive him when he skates like that. It feels now that he wouldn't be Nathan without these fun costume choices.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Wow amazing skate by Nathan and Kevin!

While people (unsurprisingly) are wailing about Nathan’s PCS, that was a superbly performed program with nice transitions, interesting choreo and good expression. A bit high to be 47, but 46ish would have been appropriate and at least it was a clean program. The jump elements weren’t pristine (especially the 3A and his camel spin) so it makes sense that it isn’t a record but I don’t think Chen really cares about trivial stuff like that compared to doing his best - it’s like people who throw shade at his costumes because it makes them feel better about him winning over their fave(s). Meh... it doesn’t even matter when he’s in first.

Kevin was sensational and showed great focus with the music issue... that aerial cartwheel always gets me. :love: Hanyu’s skate was great save for the error... 4S and 3A were very strong (although the landings weren’t the smoothest he’s capable of). The commitment to the program was good but some parts were a bit rushed like the hydroblading. The 4T was an unfortunate costly error, but the judges still gave him the highest PCS even with a major error so I don’t get those who say he was robbed. Do they expect 50 PCS if clean and 49.5 if he makes an obvious error? Nevertheless it should be a good battle in the FS... unlikely Hanyu can win given Chen’s content but anything can happen, and Hanyu has had some stellar skates this season.
 

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States
All this claiming that Alysa is the first junior girl to land 3A3T is blatant Rika Kihira erasure :laugh:

Alysa did great though, happy she had a clean skate. Ksenia’s SP continues to be a marvel, she really should’ve won the PCS by a margin for that. Proud of Haein for putting out a solid skate, a shame about the underrotated combo.

I clearly made an error after hearing Ted Barton. Perhaps he meant the "JGP" although he said the "JGP and Senior GP", but nevertheless, I should have done my research. The article has been corrected :).

Has the term "making history" been applied to any skater more frequently than Alysa Liu recently? She's doing great things, and I'm happy for her, but the American press needs to chill out, and I say that as an American :drama: There are female skaters from all around the world doing really amazing stuff right now.

I always give credit where it is due regardless of the nationality as can be seen in articles over the years :)
 

evasorange

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 22, 2015
Hanyu’s skate was great save for the error... 4S and 3A were very strong (although the landings weren’t the smoothest he’s capable of). The commitment to the program was good but some parts were a bit rushed like the hydroblading. The 4T was an unfortunate costly error, but the judges still gave him the highest PCS even with a major error so I don’t get those who say he was robbed. Do they expect 50 PCS if clean and 49.5 if he makes an obvious error?.

In short....yes they absolutely do 😂 but to the surprise of probably no one, Yuzu is clearly pressed about being in second and is pulling out some wild quad axel attempts at practice this morning. One I saw had a horrible fall, I’m obviously not a coach but it seems really kind of irresponsible at this point when he has no intention of putting it his program and his biggest rival is like ten point ahead and isn’t easily intimidated...why risk injury?!
 

chanchan

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 16, 2017
Sinitsina should have win the short. She has way more better program than other junior ladies. So much committed to the music.
 

readernick

Medalist
Joined
Dec 5, 2015
I clearly made an error after hearing Ted Barton. Perhaps he meant the "JGP" although he said the "JGP and Senior GP", but nevertheless, I should have done my research. The article has been corrected :).


First 3A+3T in the junior ladies SP. (or any ladies SP). Not first 3A+3T in junior ladies ( that was Rika) but it is the first in the Short program.
 

lariko

Medalist
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Country
Canada
Mozalev was pretty good but I don't get the music (same with Sato actually)
M

Mozalev’s music is a love ballad from the first Russian Rock Opera. He is skating as a Russian adventurer who begged Russian government to equip two ships —Juno and Avos’ (Avos’ = With luck, maybe...) — to go explore the Americas. While there, he shot a Spanish man over a girl, a governor’s daughter iirc. He married the girl, despite already being married in Russia. He died on the way back home crossing Siberia. The girl never remarried.

The ballad is his parting song to his Russian wife (Oh those Russians...)

The lyrics are wistful and related to leaving St Petersburg (iirc he is training there?) the verse you hear repeating multiple times during the song is: You’ll never forget me/(and) You’ll never see me again.

Overall, it’s a full-on Russian sentimentality in a nutshell, with a great deal of nostalgia. I have no idea if the opera is forgotten now in Russia, but it was big in the late eighties-early nineties.

The song might be too old for Mozalev, given the mid-life crisis vibe of the narrative. But then again, what young man doesn’t dream of the intrepid explorers & it is a pretty love song in the Russian urban ballad style.

You'll have me awaken at dawn,
You'll say farewell barefooted,
You'll never forget me, and you'll...
You'll never see me again.

No blinking away those tears
that the wind gives mahogany cherries,

(*the adjective used in the original is only used for brown eyes specifically, sort of like hazelnut in English, but it starts sounding like a dessert menu. And, it’s sour cherries, so they are associated with darker eye-like colour unlike the red cherry lips in English)

You'll never forget me, and you'll...
now, you'll never see me again.

Shielding you from the cold
I'll be thinking, "Lord almighty,
I'll never forget you, and I'll...
And I'll never see you again.”

Swirling emptily under the heavens,
Those words, reaching up from right here
Now I'll never see you again,
and I'll never forget you.

And this river with goosebumps of winter,
And these Admiralteystvo and Birzha

(*buildings in St Petersburg, the Admiralty and the Stock Exchange. I don’t know any other romantic song out there that mentions the stock exchange...)

Now I'll never forget them,
And I'll... I'll never see them again
 

snowflake

I enjoy what I like
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Has the term "making history" been applied to any skater more frequently than Alysa Liu recently? She's doing great things, and I'm happy for her, but the American press needs to chill out, and I say that as an American :drama: There are female skaters from all around the world doing really amazing stuff right now.

LOL, but US desperatley NEEDS a female figure skating star to survive as a sport, right… or? Anyway I love watching her. Aside from her grit with jumps she's a fun and happy entertainer. About the slow skating, it's not easy for me to see that watching a stream.

Best performance yesterday was Nathan. He’s style is so easy going and cool while doing those difficult elements. He’s a rock star! Sadly men’s figure skating isn’t a thing in US.

Next best Kevin. Also cool and fun. I’m so happy France again has an interesting male skater. At least at Europeans he will be a contender for a medal.
 

khtmyzr

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 5, 2018
In short....yes they absolutely do 😂 but to the surprise of probably no one, Yuzu is clearly pressed about being in second and is pulling out some wild quad axel attempts at practice this morning. One I saw had a horrible fall, I’m obviously not a coach but it seems really kind of irresponsible at this point when he has no intention of putting it his program and his biggest rival is like ten point ahead and isn’t easily intimidated...why risk injury?!

Possibly just to get the frustration and nerves out of his system, at least that’s how I see it. His coach has been spotted at the venue so there’ll be a coach at the next practice and probably no more of that.
 

AlinaRina

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 2, 2019
Diverging from the ladies discussion for a second - I was watching the Junior ice dance RD and all the guys are 20. Does that mean the entire group of 6 team at the JGP are too old for the YOG?
 
Top