2016 Cup of China Ladies SP | Page 35 | Golden Skate

2016 Cup of China Ladies SP

winky97

Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
i disagree...Katelyn should have beat Elena by at least 5-6 or 7 points. Elena is always hunched over, and that opening combo had no flow out of it, scratchy landing. She cannot interpret any kind of music, absolutely zero artistry.

The judges seem to disagree with you Elena is always in it. I think Elena sells the heck out of her programs and this short works for her. Kaitlyn is lucky to be leading her at all given her turnout on the jump and her stumble.
 
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4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
I think Osmond did a wonderful performance and was rewarded for it...my real complaint with the judging is Rika's woefully low scoring in all areas of PCS where Ashley and Elizaveta can score higher than her with some very questionable scores in Skating Skills and transitions. Can one honestly say that at THIS competition, Rika performed worse than they did or had more two footed skating or had fewer transitions? It is a matter of a few tenths of a point here or there, and less GOEs here or there, but in ladies skating it matters a lot.
I'm really sad that her improvements go un-noticed. I by no means think she is perfect she still needs to work on her posture and refinement, her speed and spins can be better... but if judges see fit to overlook Ashley and Radionova's weaknesses in PCS and give them an overall high score, why can't they do the same for Rika?
Ranting over.


ermmm... i have shared it before but i will say it once more...

I was a rika fan for a couple years, culminating with riverdance... went to ACI and my fandom just disintegrated... seeing her live just made it hard for me to like her. The positions, posture, jerky and somewhat slow skating makes it VERY hard for me to like her anymore. When I watch her on tv, it's way less apparent and I want to cheer her on but now, it's like I cannot unsee what I saw at ACI... I think that the UR on the 3T is iffy... when I looked last night, I thought I saw it, and then, 15 minutes later I was no longer sure... but okay... let's add her those 2-3 points for the completed combo, it still doesn't put her in a 70 pointer SP... her PCS are low, and IMHO and YMMV they are correctly placed low because of what she does on the ice. She needs to work a lot on body awareness to be able to show elegance from every angle on the ice.... satoko is a queen in that respect.
Also, the music is too powerful for her skating which doesn't help her... I didn't feel connected to her as an audience member...

I know some people feel differently, and that's fine. I just thought i'd share my experience because it was the first time when my love for a skater really faded away... usually skaters grow on me...
 
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Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
ermmm... i have shared it before but i will say it once more...

I was a rika fan for a couple years, culminating with riverdance... went to ACI and my fandom just disintegrated... seeing her live just made it hard for me to like her. The positions, posture, jerky and somewhat slow skating makes it VERY hard for me to like her anymore. When I watch her on tv, it's way less apparent and I want to cheer her on but now, it's like I cannot unsee what I saw at ACI... I think that the UR on the 3T is iffy... when I looked last night, I thought I saw it, and then, 15 minutes later I was no longer sure... but okay... let's add her those 2-3 points for the completed combo, it still doesn't put her in a 70 pointer SP... her PCS are low, and IMHO and YMMV they are correctly placed low because of what she does on the ice. She needs to work a lot on body awareness to be able to show elegance from every angle on the ice.... satoko is a queen in that respect.
That is assuming that a skater performs the same way each outing. This is not true. Ashley was on fire in Skate America, here she was dull. ACI was hardly Rika's best performance, here she was much better. Patrick was much better in performance at Skate Canada than he was here in China in the SP. If elegance is a PCS criteria ( which it isn't) then Elena and Elizaveta should also get low PCS and Satoko would always be scored through the roof. I don't think Rika should get 70 for her performance. I think 68-69 is good for her program. --As I said, small scoring differences MATTER in Ladies skating.
 
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4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
That is assuming that a skater performs the same way each outing. This is not true. Ashley was on fire in Skate America, here she was dull. ACI was hardly Rika's best performance, here she was much better. Patrick was much better in performance at Skate Canada than he was here in China in the SP. If elegance is a PCS criteria ( which it isn't) then Elena and Elizaveta should also get low PCS. I don't think Rika should get 70 for her performance. I think 68-69 is good for her program. --As I said, small scoring differences MATTER in Ladies skating.

i agree that performances vary. But what I summarized as elegance is actually a factor in figure skating scoring... because it has to do with skating skills... how well balanced is the body, how centered and extended are the positions... etc.. I agree that Elena and Liza also have issues but they are not of the same order IMHO.

Rika has way more choreography than Liza for instance. Rika's programs are more intricate and packed. However, if he is slowing down in order to control the blade work, when it is known that great skaters will retain speed through those, then her intricate programs may do her a disservice.
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
i agree that performances vary. But what I summarized as elegance is actually a factor in figure skating scoring... because it has to do with skating skills... how well balanced is the body, how centered and extended are the positions... etc.. I agree that Elena and Liza also have issues but they are not of the same order IMHO.

Rika has way more choreography than Liza for instance. Rika's programs are more intricate and packed. However, if he is slowing down in order to control the blade work, when it is known that great skaters will retain speed through those, then her intricate programs may do her a disservice.
Sure, but if these arguments justify a low score for Rika then the same can be said about almost any other skater with 'refinement' problems, the point is that these guidelines are not being applied evenly to the skaters. Ashley was slow, did two footed skating, was off balance a lot of the time and got 33 points in PCS. Rika was not slow this time, while she was certainly slow at Autumn Classic.
 

Barb

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 13, 2009
That is assuming that a skater performs the same way each outing. This is not true. Ashley was on fire in Skate America, here she was dull. ACI was hardly Rika's best performance, here she was much better. Patrick was much better in performance at Skate Canada than he was here in China in the SP. If elegance is a PCS criteria ( which it isn't) then Elena and Elizaveta should also get low PCS and Satoko would always be scored through the roof. I don't think Rika should get 70 for her performance. I think 68-69 is good for her program. --As I said, small scoring differences MATTER in Ladies skating.

soooo true!!!
 

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
sigh... i don't disagree that Ashley got gifted one... it tends to happen to some of the top skaters... not all... and sure, I agree, Rika is not the recipient of such favours...

My posts were not aimed at discussing ranking and who got gifted or not... but more as an explanation why we may never see Rika get the points she needs to be at the top, until she fixes these aspects of her skating.... People forget that when a skater first bursts onto the world scene, landing 3-3 and being consistent, the judges are welcoming quite often... a lot of style issues are forgiven, especially with younger skaters.. but after 2-3 years, the small things that were bugging the eyes can become bigger and bigger... in some ways, Liza is going through this as well... when she won worlds, she had a great season. A lot of people were complaining about lack of choreo etc... but it wasn't reflected in her scores much... it is now... and rightfully so.
Sure, but if these arguments justify a low score for Rika then the same can be said about almost any other skater with 'refinement' problems, the point is that these guidelines are not being applied evenly to the skaters. Ashley was slow, did two footed skating, was off balance a lot of the time and got 33 points in PCS. Rika was not slow this time, while she was certainly slow at Autumn Classic.
 

amc987

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 12, 2012
Idk, I'm actually starting to think that the "consistency" PCS bonus is a bit less of a real thing than we think it is. Those skaters you've listed have benefited from inflation - Gracie Gold of all people does not have a consistency bonus. When someone new or old suddenly starts skating at that level, it's wrong to penalize them for "well you haven't skated this well for very long." I gave prime examples of this earlier in the thread: should Adelina in 2014 or Anna P. at Worlds last year have received less in PCS than the people who had been skating consistently all season and/or been at the top for longer? Of course not.

But I think some (not all) critics of Kaetlyn's scores only have a problem with her scores because she's not a certain nationality.

ETA: I'd go so far as to call Kaetlyn the Adelina Sotnikova of Canada. Lots of speed, huge jumps, doesn't have a history of being at the top but is still being pushed as the #1 by a country without a history of enormous success in ladies. Lots of inconsistency leading to PCS of only slightly above average, so then when she skates well and gets PCS on par with the ladies who've been at the top for longer, people get ticked off. The major difference is that the people who supported Adelina most are the ones all mad about Kaetlyn now, and vice versa.

First, Kaetlyn doesn't have a lot of strong international results to speak of. I know she's been injured/ recovering the past 2 seasons, but that's just the way it is. The other skaters I mentioned have all been at least in the top 5 at Worlds or the Olympics with strong performances (and everyone except Gracie has been on the podium at Worlds). I agree that consistency PCS is not as much of a thing in the sense that one doesn't have to do lots of clean programs in a row in order to get it. But the skaters generally must have shown that they are capable of doing strong programs at big international competitions in order to receive the highest component marks. So, when someone like Gracie skated well in Boston, she got very high component marks in part because she was an American skating at home, but in part because the judges knew that she could skate at a high level when it counted (e.g., Sochi). That happened despite Gracie's inconsistencies because she had shown her potential previously. The others I mentioned have shown the same thing. Kaetlyn is, as yet, unproven in this regard. She doesn't even have one really strong performance at a big event (GPF, Worlds, Olympics, even 4CC). But she still has been receiving some of the highest PCS. And yes, we can agree to disagree about whether the system is okay. I don't think it's outrageous for judges to want to know that they aren't watching a fluke performance before throwing out high 8s and 9s for PCS.

Second, I disagree with Adelina's 2014 PCS on principle. She should've been scored about 5 points lower in the long and 3 points lower in the short. And, even when she'd skated semi-clean programs that season, her PCS were nowhere near what they were in Sochi (74.41 PCS, 149.95 total): 2014 Euros (69.6 PCS, 131.63 total), 2013 TEB (64.65 PCS, 129.8 total). Even at Russian Nationals with inflation out the wazoo, she got 73.38 for a program that had one small step out on the back end of a 3Lz-3Lo combo. She should've gotten lower components because she isn't as good of a skater as Carolina, Yuna, and Mao. And she didn't magically become one just because she hit almost all of her jumps in front of a home crowd.
 
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Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
sigh... i don't disagree that Ashley got gifted one... it tends to happen to some of the top skaters... not all... and sure, I agree, Rika is not the recipient of such favours...

My posts were not aimed at discussing ranking and who got gifted or not... but more as an explanation why we may never see Rika get the points she needs to be at the top, until she fixes these aspects of her skating.... People forget that when a skater first bursts onto the world scene, landing 3-3 and being consistent, the judges are welcoming quite often... a lot of style issues are forgiven, especially with younger skaters.. but after 2-3 years, the small things that were bugging the eyes can become bigger and bigger... in some ways, Liza is going through this as well... when she won worlds, she had a great season. A lot of people were complaining about lack of choreo etc... but it wasn't reflected in her scores much... it is now... and rightfully so.
Then we mostly agree I guess.
I don't want Rika overscored or underscored. I want her scored right. (though it is still just my opinion.) I'd put her in 3rd or 4th place, tying with Mai or about the same as Radionova. Instead, she's in 6th place, and she must feel awful about it.
 

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
Then we mostly agree I guess.
I don't want Rika overscored or underscored. I want her scored right. (though it is still just my opinion.) I'd put her in 3rd or 4th place, tying with Mai or about the same as Radionova. Instead, she's in 6th place, and she must feel awful about it.

i don't think she does... one thing Rika has is a competitive drive. let's see if she brings it on tonight but honestly, it starts in 5.5 hours and i haven't slept last night... so i think i am headed for a big night of sleep.... i hope ladies skate well but moreover, i hope the men do a better job... i think they will... the SP is so stressful for men as it requires them to land ALL their trickiest jumps, 3A, quad, combo.... for ladies, the solo jump is often the comfy one, the 2A is an easier jump for most, and of course, the combo is the big deal... but i find that we tend to get better SP for ladies, while we get better LPs for men... anyways... i am exhausted... sorry for rambling and thanks for the civilized conversation. As you said, we agree on a lot of things...
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
i don't think she does... one thing Rika has is a competitive drive. let's see if she brings it on tonight but honestly, it starts in 5.5 hours and i haven't slept last night... so i think i am headed for a big night of sleep.... i hope ladies skate well but moreover, i hope the men do a better job... i think they will... the SP is so stressful for men as it requires them to land ALL their trickiest jumps, 3A, quad, combo.... for ladies, the solo jump is often the comfy one, the 2A is an easier jump for most, and of course, the combo is the big deal... but i find that we tend to get better SP for ladies, while we get better LPs for men... anyways... i am exhausted... sorry for rambling and thanks for the civilized conversation. As you said, we agree on a lot of things...
Good night. More ranting to come after the FS. :biggrin:
 

gravy

¿No ven quién soy yo?
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Osmond has joined the upper echelon of the ladies and unfortunately for her fans, that comes with increased scrutiny like all skaters in that realm for all disciplines are under. And as is expected for virtually every upper-tier skater, people will criticize Katelyn's federations for inflation. How many times have we heard accusations of the Russian federation cheating or the US propping up their skaters? Newsflash: Canada isn't exempt.

I also don't understand this whole victim complex that so many fans of certain countries have, namely those from Canada and Russia. I've observed quite often on several boards and social media that many criticisms thrown at skaters from these countries tend to elicit a reaction of anti-[insert country] sentiment. "Oh, you think Katelyn is overscored? You must hate Canada!" "You think Medvedeva's jump technique is terrible? Looks like we have an anti-Russian here!"

It's funny because I don't recall any American claim that someone is anti-USA because they say Ashley has no transitions in her program or that the Shibutanis are boring. As someone who grew up in Norway and was subjected to the "USA! USA! USA! LET'S GO POUND SOME FOUR LOKO AND FLIP SOME BURGERS AS WE WAVE OUR AMERICAN FLAG ON THE FOURTH OF JULY!" nonsense, it's kind of fascinating to see that Americans tend to be the least patriotic ubers across several international sports.

On the other hand, Russians and Canadians tend to back their skaters with complete fervor. How many times have we seen an American Gracie fan throw Ashley under the bus? Or a Shibs superfan hate on Chock & Bates? It's quite rare to see a Russian or a Canadian bash one of their own in favor of a personal favorite.

Sorry for the off-topic post. It was just an interesting observation. :laugh:
 

Ice Diva

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 10, 2012
Interesting observations but aren't you generalizing a bit? Sure, some Russian and Canadian fans probably act like victims. Since these two countries often dominate in figure skating, they might feel more defensive.
 

rvi5

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Scores should be allotted by what happens on that day, not based on past history/reputation. Is it any wonder some people argue figure skating is not a sport?

"Sorry bobsled team. We know you got to the bottom faster, but the other teams did it quicker all season."


... But the skaters generally must have shown that they are capable of doing strong programs at big international competitions in order to receive the highest component marks...

...I don't think it's outrageous for judges to want to know that they aren't watching a fluke performance before throwing out high 8s and 9s for PCS...
 

Raomina

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 11, 2014
I was playing around with the PCS scores for this event and I thought I should share some of the tables that I generated for fun.

It has been noted before, but the Australian judges really have very different tastes compared to the other judges.
Here's a table of the pairwise correlation for all the PCS scores given by the judges.
http://i.imgur.com/1vyQDha.png

She seems to like the other two Chinese ladies but not Zijun and doesn't really like the Russians either.
Here's another table for the raw total scores given to each skater by each judge with the final unfactored scores (last column):
http://i.imgur.com/pQenR3M.png

and also their rankings with the final PCS rankings (last column):
http://i.imgur.com/pgbg4MO.png
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
Osmond has joined the upper echelon of the ladies and unfortunately for her fans, that comes with increased scrutiny like all skaters in that realm for all disciplines are under. And as is expected for virtually every upper-tier skater, people will criticize Katelyn's federations for inflation. How many times have we heard accusations of the Russian federation cheating or the US propping up their skaters? Newsflash: Canada isn't exempt.

I also don't understand this whole victim complex that so many fans of certain countries have, namely those from Canada and Russia. I've observed quite often on several boards and social media that many criticisms thrown at skaters from these countries tend to elicit a reaction of anti-[insert country] sentiment. "Oh, you think Katelyn is overscored? You must hate Canada!" "You think Medvedeva's jump technique is terrible? Looks like we have an anti-Russian here!"

It's funny because I don't recall any American claim that someone is anti-USA because they say Ashley has no transitions in her program or that the Shibutanis are boring. As someone who grew up in Norway and was subjected to the "USA! USA! USA! LET'S GO POUND SOME FOUR LOKO AND FLIP SOME BURGERS AS WE WAVE OUR AMERICAN FLAG ON THE FOURTH OF JULY!" nonsense, it's kind of fascinating to see that Americans tend to be the least patriotic ubers across several international sports.

On the other hand, Russians and Canadians tend to back their skaters with complete fervor. How many times have we seen an American Gracie fan throw Ashley under the bus? Or a Shibs superfan hate on Chock & Bates? It's quite rare to see a Russian or a Canadian bash one of their own in favor of a personal favorite.

Sorry for the off-topic post. It was just an interesting observation. :laugh:

This is verrrry interesting, and I would actually agree. Rather than use specific countries, I have noticed that when a skater does not do well, many posters will say "It is the Great Anti-MyCountry Eville Konspiracy!" and "call out" Judge So-And-So from OtherCountry, as though that is proof of the Great Anti-MyCountry Eville Konspiracy.

But as I have said in the past, if I took every anti-Jason comment as some anti-American Konspiracy, I'd have to be building me some big old wall to keep out the conspirators.

With all this chatter, I actually watched Kaetlyn's skate. Looked like a winner to me. But what do I know, being part of the great North American Konspiracy:laugh:
 

shine

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Osmond has joined the upper echelon of the ladies and unfortunately for her fans, that comes with increased scrutiny like all skaters in that realm for all disciplines are under. And as is expected for virtually every upper-tier skater, people will criticize Katelyn's federations for inflation. How many times have we heard accusations of the Russian federation cheating or the US propping up their skaters? Newsflash: Canada isn't exempt.

I also don't understand this whole victim complex that so many fans of certain countries have, namely those from Canada and Russia. I've observed quite often on several boards and social media that many criticisms thrown at skaters from these countries tend to elicit a reaction of anti-[insert country] sentiment. "Oh, you think Katelyn is overscored? You must hate Canada!" "You think Medvedeva's jump technique is terrible? Looks like we have an anti-Russian here!"

It's funny because I don't recall any American claim that someone is anti-USA because they say Ashley has no transitions in her program or that the Shibutanis are boring. As someone who grew up in Norway and was subjected to the "USA! USA! USA! LET'S GO POUND SOME FOUR LOKO AND FLIP SOME BURGERS AS WE WAVE OUR AMERICAN FLAG ON THE FOURTH OF JULY!" nonsense, it's kind of fascinating to see that Americans tend to be the least patriotic ubers across several international sports.

On the other hand, Russians and Canadians tend to back their skaters with complete fervor. How many times have we seen an American Gracie fan throw Ashley under the bus? Or a Shibs superfan hate on Chock & Bates? It's quite rare to see a Russian or a Canadian bash one of their own in favor of a personal favorite.

Sorry for the off-topic post. It was just an interesting observation. :laugh:
While this is all true, those of us who have been around for a while would remember KO has faced considerably more scrutiny than most up and comers ever since she turned senior. As a new skater on the block back in 2012-2013, she has enjoyed unfairly harsh criticism regarding overscoring especially after beating Akio Suzuki at Skate Canada, and was never really given the benefit of the doubt like skaters similar to her age or experience.
 

TGee

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 17, 2016
Most of us don't say Eh very often. It's more of an east coast thing. I think the eh thing is just a quirky Canadian custom. and yes I think you could probably replace it with "right". Now calling someone a hoser on the other hand...

:eek:topic:Not sure I agree about it being central Canadian (translating "east coast" from the Western Cdn perspective)... I realized when I visited home while I lived in the US that while Ontario is ground zero for "eh", my family and friends on the west coast used it more than I ever realized.

here's the official page on "eh" in the Canadian encyclopedia.....with obligatory "Doug and Bob MacKenzie" video clip, naturally...

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/eh/

And while "right" is one of the things that could replace it, linguists have found 10 different and varied usages....(trying to keep up with the number of different flavours of irony in Canadian speech......;))

Sadly, "eh" is reportedly declining in use among the younger and more educated....but in its place there is a lot of "up talking" at the end of sentences that can cover many of the same meanings.

Back to the thread....

I notice that Kaetlyn's Newfoundland English (whole separate history there as they only joined Canada in 1949) has absorbed a good deal of Alberta English (also somewhat different due to the American immigration from Nebraska and other states...).....Encourage her new fans to listen and explore...
 

mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Scores should be allotted by what happens on that day, not based on past history/reputation. Is it any wonder some people argue figure skating is not a sport?

"Sorry bobsled team. We know you got to the bottom faster, but the other teams did it quicker all season."

For the most part, I think that does happen. Think about the NCAA Basketball Brackets. The teams are seeded based on the way they have performed all year up the beginning of the event. There's no to way to predict that a "Cinderalla Story" performance like the one that Sarah Hughes gave in 2002 would have beaten the defending World Champion Michelle Kwan. Especially since Michelle was leading going into the Free Program and Sarah was in 4th. Also, remember that going into the event, it was Maria Butyrskaya who was the European Champion and along with Irina Slutskaya, were both ranked higher than Sarah before the event began. It was very complicated as the top 6 had all defeated each other at point in their careers including Sarah's Bronze at World's to Maria placing 4th at the same event. Both finished behind Irina and gold medalist Michelle. It was very complicated going into the event. But, I don't think most fans predicted a victory for Sarah.
 
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