2014 Worlds - Ladies Short Program

[sk8in]

I still feel counting crossovers is a stupid way of quantifying a skaters' abilities. You have to look at their choreography, footwork, and the quality of their elements as a whole. I remember there was some girl in the early groups at Sochi who almost came to a complete stop before jumping into her triples. It was truly bizarre looking. Is she a better skater because she can complete a triple with no speed, or does she have bad technique? On the other hand if you do 5 cross overs, but then do a spread eagle and a backwards spiral going into a triple lutz, and you're able to control those elements with so much speed, who's to say you are not a good skater, or "dependent on cross overs." It is just a dumb way of thinking about the sport.

 

[Kelly]

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You should see her triple flip jump, which she pretends to do so. She is supposed to jump with toe, yet she jumps with full blade making it look like salchow jump. Additionally her 3axel is flawed for its under-rotation. 3axel requires 3.5 rotations while mao barely made up to 3 rotations. Nevertheless, I think she deserves the gold in this competition. All these scores are to cover up the inflated scores in Sochi... And when top 3 gets 220 and higher at this world's, people will start feeling that Adelina's score wasn't that high... ISU's plan to keep people from saying "inflated scores". I have no intention to criticize Mao but the judges. This inflated scores are extremely unreasonable. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1y0yBRtobg

To me, you are less credible than the British commentators. One of them said (sorry, don't remember their names) her 3-axel and 3-flip were beautifully
clean and the other one said her 3-axel was flawless and absolutely brilliant and the program just got better and better from there. Her scores are not inflated at all.

 

[cuon_alpinus]

Then where does all the rumor about Adelina being arrogant and full of herself? I suppose she is a nice girl, why do bad rumors about her are flying around this forum? Some anti-Russian fans are crazy. They don't have to make a young girl a villain.

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I think since Adelina is very young, she wasn't able to control her happiness. I think Adelina could have been more humble. She could have said "I did my best and I think I got little lucky on the score part" during the interview instead of saying that it was accomplished by solely her own abilities. Additionally, in my point of view, jumping and screaming on a podium and leaving the press conference without any excuses while other skaters are speaking didn't look good. Of course it is not her fault, but it is judges' fault for this controversy. and I feel bad for Adelina because she has great potential and abilities to become a better skater, but seems like Russian skating unions are blocking it.

 

[Scott512]

What amazing performances by Asada and Kostner! Fully deserving of those huge scores. Sotnikova certainly made the right choice to skip worlds.

Lipnitskaya was overscored, but I have gotten so used to that I am numb from the effect by now. I would have had Gold and Suzuki above her.

The judges really hammered Wagner I felt. It is clear her stint as #1 American and a world medal contenders are fully over, and she will be back to fighting to make major teams like she was before 2012 now.

Adelina was stopped by her federation from coming to Japan. Her scores in Japan would be through the roof if she skated well as most of the skaters scores in Japan are inflated.

 

[Scott512]

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I think since Adelina is very young, she wasn't able to control her happiness. I think Adelina could have been more humble. She could have said "I did my best and I think I got little lucky on the score part" during the interview instead of saying that it was accomplished by solely her own abilities. Additionally, in my point of view, jumping and screaming on a podium and leaving the press conference without any excuses while other skaters are speaking didn't look good. Of course it is not her fault, but it is judges' fault for this controversy. and I feel bad for Adelina because she has great potential and abilities to become a better skater, but seems like Russian skating unions are blocking it.

Ade's reactions to winning gold were very exuberant much of it from the 12,000 plus Russians rooting for her in the Iceberg Palace and for her skating by far the best in her still young career. Much of her enthusiam can also be contributed to her only being 17 and a long shot to medal and for her being shunned for Yulia in the team event. With all Adelina's emotions and frustrations boiling over is why she burst with such joy and why she was jumping up and down on the podium. She should not have done that but the circumstances and her youth and the crazed Russian crowds got her going and she couldn't stop.

I do agree with you that Ade should not have left the interview room likie she did when Kim was speaking unless she had to.

Now we know she is not shy and that she likes to speak her mind so I want Adelina to at some point say what's really on her mind about her federation forcing her to skip worlds after she said she wanted all the golds, the certain Yuna fans who are vile towards her on her online sites, the South Korean protest and what she really thinks of Yulia being treated better than she is by their federation. Then we would have a story.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Adelina was not and will not be in this competition. ????

 

[karne]

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I think since Adelina is very young, she wasn't able to control her happiness. I think Adelina could have been more humble. She could have said "I did my best and I think I got little lucky on the score part" during the interview instead of saying that it was accomplished by solely her own abilities. Additionally, in my point of view, jumping and screaming on a podium and leaving the press conference without any excuses while other skaters are speaking didn't look good. Of course it is not her fault, but it is judges' fault for this controversy. and I feel bad for Adelina because she has great potential and abilities to become a better skater, but seems like Russian skating unions are blocking it.

You are not actually serious, are you? You actually wanted her to say that she didn't deserve to win? What behaviour on the podium would have satisfied you - donning a black dress and mourning veil?!!??! SHE JUST WON THE OLYMPICS, for crying out loud, of course she was going to be happy!

As to the press conference, she was pulled out by the PR person for Team Russia.

 

[Li'Kitsu]

I am not criticizing mao's performance, but judges should be blamed for mishandling their jobs. They should have caught mao's under-rotated 3axel and awkward 3flip. Mao rotated barely 3 times when she is supposed to rotate 3.5 times. On the 3flip, she jumped with full blade making it look like salchow jump when she is suppose to jump with toe.

I was mocking your post because you criticize her 3A, yet the problem is you don't seem to know well enough about it's jumping mechanics. The 3A is a 3.5 rotation jump, but usually jumps are done with a certain amount of pre-rotation. If you do an axel jump, usually you skid into it, which is about a 1/4 rotation and has the skater facing side-warts when they get off the ice. So no, a 3A does not require 3.5 revolutions in the air. Additionally, up to a 1/4 rotation ended on the ice is allowed, which means to have a 3A ratified and "clean", you need to do 3 revolutions in the air. That's why your complain about her 3A being bad because she has 3 revolutions is simply wrong.

I've never seen this variation before though. In the past most such posts would claim that all her triples were secretly loops. The triple floop, the triple Sloop, the triple toop, the triple fLooptz, and the triple Axloop.

That sounds like too much creativity for the haterz, especially the flooptz!
I've seen the "her 3A is no real 3A because it has pre-rotation"-thing waaaayyy too often, and it really gets tiring. I'd rather have someone complaining about flooptz for a chance

 

[Bonnie F]

Random thought after watching Pogorilaya's short progam, she really reminds me of a young Oksana Baiul.

 

[usethis2]

This is not true at all. Mao has 13 crossovers in her SP. Carolina has 19. Carolina does have more speed, though, yes.

Focusing so intently on programs in this way is missing the whole picture, though. The number of crossovers in a program, looked at solely by itself, has nothing to do with performance, choreography, or interpretation. I feel that Mao's performance here beat Carolina's in all of those areas. Carolina does deserve to be ahead on skating skills. I wouldn't put her ahead on transitions. She does "nothing" into 2 of her jumping passes, whereas Mao only does "nothing" into 1 of her jumps.

I agree. And actually Carolina slowed down quite a bit in recent years. Intentionally, I think, because she had a hard time jumping to music. Lori Nichole did a great job disassociating Carolina's jumps with music so that she could find timings more easily.

 

[tmdsiddl]

I agree with the standing, but not the scores people.

 

[tmdsiddl]

You are not actually serious, are you? You actually wanted her to say that she didn't deserve to win? What behaviour on the podium would have satisfied you - donning a black dress and mourning veil?!!??! SHE JUST WON THE OLYMPICS, for crying out loud, of course she was going to be happy!
As to the press conference, she was pulled out by the PR person for Team Russia.

I feel bad for Adelina also. Russian skating union is hindering her to proceed into this world championship. Adelina said she wants to gather all the golds but Russia skating union said no. Why??????? and I agree with cuon that adelina could have been more humble. and where can I find the source that PR person pulled her out?

 

[CarneAsada]

That sounds like too much creativity for the haterz, especially the flooptz!
I've seen the "her 3A is no real 3A because it has pre-rotation"-thing waaaayyy too often, and it really gets tiring. I'd rather have someone complaining about flooptz for a chance

I was mainly commenting on the claim that Mao's 3Flip looked like a 3Salchow. Has the guy ever seen anyone jump a Salchow? I've seen Mao do both jumps, and the flip entry really doesn't resemble the Salchow's...

 

[Tinymavy15]

Well Ashley and Gracie are about where I thought they'd be. Both skated clean, Polina was a little shaky, but still I think so far it is a good showing from the US women.
But it seems if Ashley wants to move up why doesn't she do a triple lutz for her solo jump? It seems as if she is playing it safe but if she wants to get closer to the podium she can't keep playing it safe.

What a great competition, especially for a post Olympics worlds. Mao was stunning and so was Caroline. So gorgeous.

ETA: What a great audience and the arena is packed! You can feel the energy, very positive and I am sure that is rubbing off on the skaters.

Ashley hasn't had the best history with the lutz, she often flutes, or jumps too bigs and loses the jump.
Her loop is usually a strong jump for her.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

I'm going to take a moment to congratulate Yulia on scoring perfect 3's across the board from every incompetent judge for her last two spins!

LSp4 4.2pts Perfect GOE unanimous +3
CCoSp4 5.0pts Perfect GOE unanimous +3

 

[sk8in]

I feel bad for Adelina also. Russian skating union is hindering her to proceed into this world championship. Adelina said she wants to gather all the golds but Russia skating union said no. Why??????? and I agree with cuon that adelina could have been more humble. and where can I find the source that PR person pulled her out?

I'm curious to see what Sotnikova's scores will be next year, if she's able to continue performing or improves. Also what will her scores be like compared to Yulia and Radionova, if all three skate clean in the same competition? It seems like conventional wisdom suggests either Radionova or Yulia would the best, but how will their PCS measure up?

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

I'm curious to see what Sotnikova's scores will be next year, if she's able to continue performing or improves. Also what will her scores be like compared to Yulia and Radionova, if all three skate clean in the same competition? It seems like conventional wisdom suggests either Radionova or Yulia would the best, but how will their PCS measure up?

I'm more curious if there will be a WC's podium sweep for Russia in the next quad! Wouldn't be surprised one bit

 

[jaylee]

I'm more curious if there will be a WC's podium sweep for Russia in the next quad! Wouldn't be surprised one bit

2016 Worlds is in Boston.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

2016 Worlds is in Boston.

I'm already compililing evidence for my own conspiracy thread in a few years.

 

[usethis2]

I feel bad for Adelina also. Russian skating union is hindering her to proceed into this world championship. Adelina said she wants to gather all the golds but Russia skating union said no. Why??????? and I agree with cuon that adelina could have been more humble. and where can I find the source that PR person pulled her out?

That is what happens when the federation and the officials fix the results of the biggest skating event it hosted. Poor Adelina's future skating career is unfortunately not up to herself.