2016 World Championships Ladies SP

[Sam-Skwantch]

Well after years of reading posts where posters have stated 'let's forgo the free skate and just hand the gold medal to Chan' - I think it is fair to say now 'Let's just hand the Gold to Gold!' With this lead and her overscored PCS she can make a couple errors in the free and still come out on top.
My worse fear is that now that she is world champ - no one will have a shot. She will be there winning everything until the next Olympics. The US has been pushing for a USA lady to win back Olympic Gold for a long time now and I think this is the start of the run for it.

Um....she's kind of a head case at times. Did ya watch 4CC? I honestly think you might be taking things a little too seriously.

 

[jenaj]

I thought the crowd was fine. Very appreciative of great skates no matter where the skater was from. As for some people leaving early, is a pet peeve of mine. It happens at every live performance and is no insult to the skater. Pavarotti could be singing at the opera and some people would still leave early to beat the rush. It's rudeness, plain and simple.

 

[jkun]

I love the American ladies, but I think Gracie was overscored. I would have given her a 74. I do not like her windmill arms and in my opinion she should have received a lower PCS score than Ashley. Did Gracie even get an edge call on her flip? Anyways, I'm proud of the American girls. Hopefully, they can continue this momentum towards the free program.

I would have ranked the SP like this:
1. Anna
2. Ashley
3. Gracie

Agreed. And no she got a ! and 0.30 GOE. I agree she should have gotten an edge call. Seemed pretty obvious from replay, but whatever. She works the camera angle to make it seem not that bad. Anna and Ashley were the best. Gracie's interpretation score is a joke.

 

[Tolstoj]

I think that it's easy to forget that Anna is only 17. She's been in 2 World Championships before this. She almost won a medal in 2014. The difference is that she looked like a woman in 2014 already. She didn't have that obvious puberty change we see now in Elena and which is probably still to come for Evgenia. And I guess, that's another reason why she kind of flew under the radar (besides her splats). She just seems older, powerful. That's why she falls so horribly, she just doesn't hesitate. Her jumps are all or nothing and she should be rewarded. Russia was correct in sending her. I hope her lobby gets bigger now.

Also her technique is one of the best from the ladies: she doesnt' have problems of UR or Edge calls at all, no pre-rotated jumps, no lip in her flip, no flutz.

 

[Ekm]

I just got a chance to watch, Ashley, Anna, and Gracie all clean :shocked: so happy for all of them, hope they can follow it up with strong free skates!

 

[Sugarpova]

btw thanks for everyone posting onsite reports!
lucky ppl u're having so much fun

Well after years of reading posts where posters have stated 'let's forgo the free skate and just hand the gold medal to Chan' - I think it is fair to say now 'Let's just hand the Gold to Gold!' With this lead and her overscored PCS she can make a couple errors in the free and still come out on top.
My worse fear is that now that she is world champ - no one will have a shot. She will be there winning everything until the next Olympics. The US has been pushing for a USA lady to win back Olympic Gold for a long time now and I think this is the start of the run for it.

noooooo shhhhhhhhhhhhh dont sound off my nightmare
It might materializeeee!!
ugh why cant Ash be this pushed US lady!!:luv17:
or Mirai!

 

[MaiKatze]

Also her technique is one of the best from the ladies: she doesnt' have problems of UR or Edge calls at all, no pre-rotated jumps, no lip in her flip, no flutz.

I wrote it in Anna's thread, but even if she is not on the podium tomorrow, I think she is one of the medal contenders of Pyeongchang 2018. To have a shot at that podium I think the skaters currently competing are the one's to watch out for. And Anna has experience. One more season to get her more controlled...it could happen.

 

[Ares]

i cant wait for the day when Elizabet grows taller and people will talk about other thing than "ohh she looks 12, no no actually 10, or even 9, her face looks old but her body says otherwise" and notice other amazing qualities she has :luv17: i said it before, i will say it again (and again and again!) i think she is destined for great step sequences!! she rocked that program :hap57: and her jumps looks getting bigger to me :yes:

and crowd seemed to enjoyed it too! loud cheer she got after her combo and 2A was obvious even on livestream, and that little shimmy made the old couple smile

Yeah that step sequence of Elizabet was bloody good indeed She's really enjoyable to watch when on and very expressive with lots of power in that small frame :luv17:

 

[janav]

Will they do the same during the FP with the Americans skating last?

Comparing SP and FS isn't good thing to do IMO. Because the winner is decided after the FS, whereas the SP is 'only' the beginning - there simply isn't that much of an incetive to stay till the end of the SP if you don't have some connection to the skater who skates last (e.g. nationality).

 

[andromache]

My speculations going into the LP:

This is the headcases' to lose. Ashley, Gracie, and Anna will all medal if clean (though not sure in what order). Even though Ashley is currently 4th, Evgenia's lead over her isn't enough to beat Moulin Rouge skated last in Boston, if it's perfect.

Are all three going to skate clean? Probably not. (But if they did ). If two do, there's the silver and gold medalists, with Evgenia getting bronze. If only one headcase is clean, that's the gold medalist, with Evgenia getting silver and Elena/Satoko/the headcase that made the least mistakes getting bronze.

But basically, the headcases proved last night that even though they don't always skate clean, when they do, the quality of their skating/performances is really amazing.

My ideal podium is any combination of Gracie/Anna/Ashley, but I suspect the pressure will get to at least one, if not two of them. But I'm thrilled that all three put down clean SPs. The ladies competition just got a lot more interesting than the assumed Evgenia/Satoko/Elena podium. I like it when competitions suddenly get unpredictable.

 

[Mirunna]

Loved the final flight last night but Ashley stole it. The same goes for Anna - wow I did not see that coming! exquisite program, breathtaking!
I was never a fan of Gracie but I was not breathing when she jumped. After watching her blowing it so many times, I wanted her to skate clean, especially after all those amazing performances before her.
Satoko's call on the flip was questionable and to me, she gave an amazing performance last night.
I was underwhelmed by Radionova. Bad program, a bit clumsy, tough down with the free foot on the flip and she somehow got in front of an amazing Rika. Medvedeva was blant to me and the 3F was a bit hesitant. No lutz, not great skating skills, this is not the best vehicle for her. Her LP is much, much stronger.

I would have had them:

1. Anna (I put her in front of Ashley just because of a harder combo)
2. Ashley (a very very close second)
3. Gracie (a very close third - she was sooo nervous in the first part, the program suffered a bit; however her skating skills are so good and the program is strong, first place is justifiable I guess)
4. Satoko
5. Medvedeva
6. Rika
7. Radionova.

Just wanna send a virtual hug to Mao and wish her to take a step back after worlds and take the best decision for her regarding her future. It pained me to see her not with mistakes (as sadly we have seen her in the last couple of years), but somehow resigned both to her skate and her score. I don't know, maybe she learned to put a brave face on and inside she is firing up, but I miss the fire which I don't know if it's there anymore. Her skating is sublime though and the steps were goosebumps inducing. She is not a skater to be at a competition and to realistically hope for a top ten finish. She is too good for that. The saddest thing is that it's clear she wants it badly, but lost her confidence somewhere on the way.

 

[whatif]

I hope Anna does well, at least she is going to get a lot more respect from Russian Fed after last night result. But I was very confused at why she looked so pissed in KandC.

 

[Yatagarasu]

I hope Anna does well, at least she is going to get a lot more respect from Russian Fed after last night result. But I was very confused at why she looked so pissed in KandC.

I said this before but it's buried somewhere. She wasn't pissed, she was trying not to cry. Take a look at her even on the ice, the emotions were right at the surface, understandably so. When you're that close to the edge, if she had expressed joy, she would have burst into tears anyway. I get trying to prevent that in public. I am crossing fingers and toes for her FS!

 

[[email protected]]

Comparing SP and FS isn't good thing to do IMO. Because the winner is decided after the FS, whereas the SP is 'only' the beginning - there simply isn't that much of an incetive to stay till the end of the SP if you don't have some connection to the skater who skates last (e.g. nationality).

I guess, the only way to judge about that is to wait for pairs. If there are the Russians or the Chinese finishing the last group of FS will the crowd behave the same as with ladies (Gold&Wagner) or men (Chan)?

As for me, I was in Sochi and felt embarrassed about Ra-sse-yaa! during the ladies SP. I could attribute it then to our losing to Finland in hockey quarterfinal just an hour before the competition started. Being a part of the hockey crowd I myself felt the biggest disappointment. Still did not agree with the crowd's behavior. As for yesterday, I did notice that the crowd was much more silent after the spectacular Anna's performance than after.... well some less spectacular ones.

 

[chloepoco]

I find it appalling that you would be cheering someone for their "low" scores.

It's akin to me cheering when Kailani didn't make the cut (which I would never do, just using that as an example).

 

[Tolstoj]

I hope Anna does well, at least she is going to get a lot more respect from Russian Fed after last night result. But I was very confused at why she looked so pissed in KandC.

i think that's because she wanted to redeem herself and shut up critics, but also as she said, to stay focus for the long program.

 

[Violetti]

I said this before but it's buried somewhere. She wasn't pissed, she was trying not to cry. Take a look at her even on the ice, the emotions were right at the surface, understandably so. When you're that close to the edge, if she had expressed joy, she would have burst into tears anyway. I get trying to prevent that in public. I am crossing fingers and toes for her FS!

I think you are right. She tried to control herself and managed to do so. Well done Anna!

 

[taltaltel]

Very unimpressed by the home-cooking for Gracie. That program was not worthy of a 35.92 PCS. Not even close.

I scored the top 11 and had:
1. Ashley Wagner 73.44
2. Satoko Miyahara 72.95
3. Anna Pogorilaya 72.90
4. Evgenia Medvedeva 71.50
5. Rika Hongo 70.64
6. Gracie Gold 70.06
7. Elena Radionova 69.96
8. Mao Asada 69.76
9. Li Zijun 69.38
10. Gabrielle Daleman 67.28
11. Mirai Nagasu 66.28

My opinion only of course.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Hey Karne. I think, in general, American audiences tend to like more mature performances. I don't think we've ever warmed up to the little girls who skim across the ice.

For example, I was not surprised that the audience reaction to Pogo was much more warm than the one for the other Russians. I think the idea of the gangly Russian and Japanese adolescents racking up huge scores leaves American's scratching their heads. Well, it does me at any rate.

Pogo's more mature style and power suit the American eye much more.

Also, American audiences are pretty savvy about a lot of things, backstory stuff, so the applause for someone like Mirai had much to do with things other than the actual performance she had just delivered. Although it was quite nice.

I was disappointed that your girl didn't make the final. I'm sorry, I was hoping for it.

This is exactly how I imagined the guy felt who was in the front row and didn't clap or seem to enjoy one of the best spins of the night going off right in front of him.

 

[Tolstoj]

Am i the only one who thinks that Zijun Li' TES is inflated? The second 3T looks under to me, and even 3F and 2A landings aren't that clean.

I would give to her 63-65 anyway because she deserved 5-6 points more on the components.