I almost feel bad about it but, despite all the talent, I don’t particularly like any of the Russian babies (yet?).
This time again, judging only from the videos, I enjoyed Yuka Nagai much better than Serafima, although Serafima deserved to win.
I don’t know if I have a thing for the Japanese skaters (I’m not Japanese) but I realize they tend to be my favorites.
What do you think about Yuka’s potential, by the way?
So far, I could see big effortless, fully rotated jumps, very nice lines and arms, lovely spin positions and overall gracefulness and elegance, good musicality.
She looks and moves very harmoniously on the ice, which is something I somehow miss in the Russian girls.
Actually, I can’t think of any of the top Russian ladies, whose lines I would like or whom I would describe as graceful, which is strange, as I’m sure they must be getting plenty of ballet training.
Most of them are either very impressive jumpers e.g. Tuktamysheva (when she’s on), Pogorilaya; or brilliant perfomers (Radionova); or to a degree both (Sotnikova, Sakhanovich, Medvedeva),
or have other assets like Lipnitskaya, whom I don’t consider a particularly great jumper nor a great artist, but she has the difficulty, consistency and the undeniable wow factor (flexibilty, incredible spins etc.)
But really elegant, graceful and polished with clean positions and no distracting movements? For me no, although they still have plenty of time to develop that.
ETA: Just remembered, yes! Elizaveta Iushenko fits this description to me and I really enjoyed her skating in Ostrava, although her jumps were not with her that day.
If there are any others I might have missed, please let me know.
I don’t mean to make this sound anti-Russian (I’m not by any means), nor do I think that gracefulness, beautiful lines and elegance are the only qualities to look for.
I’m just trying to find out if others see what I’m seeing and why the Russian girls might be somewhat lacking in this department, when they seem to have almost everything else.
Back to the competition, I loved Serafima’s energy and how into the performace she was; I was impressed by her jumps and the speed in her spins but, as shine mentioned,
her landing position tends to be distracting and her lines and arm movents are not particularly appealing either. I simply didn’t find the whole picture as well balanced and aesthetically pleasingas in Nagai’s case,
but maybe that’s just me.
Oh, and I absolutely HATE the half-over tights on anybody!
Out of the others I liked Da Bin Choi’s FS overall performance; loved Bradie Tennell’s spins and thought the music choice and choreography really suited her;
found Jenni Saarinen to be a really beautiful skater (pitty about the meltdown) and her skating sometimes reminded me of Mao.
I've been very impressed with Nagai as well. I could watch her jump all day. Her programs and movements have nice sophistication.
I like Sakhanovich and Medvedeva's skating but hope they would have better choreography. Especially their free programs have weird and generic music editing and choreo.
Da Bin Choi has nice foundation for her skating but I wish there would some interpretation that she would be mentally present in her programs.