Mirai should go back to her memoirs of a geisha program with technical elements upgrade. Suited her much better than Miss Saigon.
It's a little late for that...
Mirai should go back to her memoirs of a geisha program with technical elements upgrade. Suited her much better than Miss Saigon.
Rooting for Adam to win if he can land 4Lz carrot.
Patrick, Kolyada and Keiji all have wonky quads.
Rooting for Adam to win if he can land 4Lz carrot.
Patrick, Kolyada and Keiji all have wonky quads.
Adam is gonna do 2A instead of 4Lz since he has never landed it clean in competition and it can jeopardize the rest of the performance.
OAR needs thre perfect results for the win - Zagitova and Kolyada first, with Gabby and Chan last, if B/S are third place in ID.
I hate the choices Team USA made so much:
*Nathan Chen should have been skating both segments and the whole idea about him getting "too tired" is just ridiculous, look at Duhamel/Radford doing a full schedule when they have to skate the soonest in the individual event after the team event! Beyond that, Nathan could have set a record by being the first singles skater to win a Silver + Gold in one Olympics, if Team USA was taking this event seriously and really trying to top Russia. Now that possibility is probably gone.
*Shibutanis skating both segments when USA has 3 great teams and when the Shibutanis have been the weakest of the 3 in the Free Dance all season and also didn't even show a dominant Short Dance score? Ridiculous!
*Bradie should not have been chosen, I talked for months about how this would just be throwing away the chance of getting a higher placement that would be necessary for the USA to go above Bronze medal placement, and that's exactly what happened! Only getting 5th place in the SP when the door was open for a USA lady to get 3rd is so sad to see, consistency doesn't mean anything here, peak potential is what matters and it was so obvious that Bradie lacks quality and wouldn't pull in a score to challenge the top ladies. And, no, more face time with the judges is not going to help Bradie score better. Her skating needs to become less fugly for that to happen.
The other countries made really disappointing choices too:
RUSSIA - 1.) Tarasova/Morosov obviously should have been doing both segments in order to be most competitive here, 2.) Kolyada for the LP when he has disappointed there all season and when he completely bombed the SP?!? Aliev is the freaking European Silver medalist, give him his chance!!
JAPAN - 1.) Shoma not doing the LP when Japan had a shot a medal here, 2.) Why did they have Miyahara in the SP and Sakomoto in the LP instead of the other way around? Sakomoto placed better in the SP at Nationals and has skated it clean all season long, whereas Miyahara always has an underrotation on her combo, giving the judges an opportunity to drop her down. Sakomoto very possibility could have placed ahead of Osmond here.
ITALY - 1.) Not using Marchei/Hotarek for the SP. They soundly beat Monica/Guarise in both phases at Europeans and have always been the more talented team, so they really should have been used for both segments. Marchei/Hotarek could have placed 3 spots higher than Monica/Guarise in the SP, which would have made Italy an extremely serious medal threat.
But Bradie was the national champion. What were they supposed to do? Give her the cold shoulder? Karen and Mirai weren't scoring higher than her all year.
what needs to happen for Italy to get a surprise bronze? Capellini/Lanotte beating Shibs? + Carolina placing 2 places above Mirai? + Adam finishing third with Rizzo fifth?
that's possible ... let's say men's:
1, 2, : Keiji, Patrick or Kolyada, then Adam third - it could even turn out Keiji, Patrick, Kolyada 1,2,3 with Adam fourth (although that's not probable with the form Patrick is in)
1, 2: Alina, Carolina
3: Kaori
4: Gabby
5: Mirai
Also possible ...
I can't see Capellini/Lanotte overtaking the Shibs looking the way they were scored today, even though I think they deserved to be closer ... but C/L must place right behind the Shibs to make it happen ...
If they are serious about medalling in the event they need to put the person in there who has the best chance of scoring high. Not based on whether they are national champion or not. I think the whole thing is kind of crappy because Bradie is not known to the judges and unfortunately that matters. Unfortunately Karen Chen is probably not going to score high either, IMHO (I hope I am wrong and she slays in the individual event!). So that would leave Mirai who is inconsistent and bleh, I don't know what I would have done.
If Ladies go as you say, and Rippon only beats Rizzo by one spot and S/S beating C/L again only by one spot (so either B/S beating S/S or C/L beating B/S), they would be tied
*Shibutanis skating both segments when USA has 3 great teams and when the Shibutanis have been the weakest of the 3 in the Free Dance all season and also didn't even show a dominant Short Dance score? Ridiculous!
*Bradie should not have been chosen, I talked for months about how this would just be throwing away the chance of getting a higher placement that would be necessary for the USA to go above Bronze medal placement, and that's exactly what happened! Only getting 5th place in the SP when the door was open for a USA lady to get 3rd is so sad to see, consistency doesn't mean anything here, peak potential is what matters and it was so obvious that Bradie lacks quality and wouldn't pull in a score to challenge the top ladies. And, no, more face time with the judges is not going to help Bradie score better. Her skating needs to become less fugly for that to happen.
I really think it should have been Mirai short, Bradie long
but if Mirai hits everything amazingly, including her 3A.... that might be bye-bye to Kostner and even Daleman, perhaps even Sakamoto
I'm so torn
If Ladies go as you say, and Rippon only beats Rizzo by one spot and S/S beating C/L again only by one spot (so either B/S beating S/S or C/L beating B/S), they would be tied
Agreed with the US dance teams. Hubbell/Donohue are the national champions and they don't get a chance to skate in the team event at all? They had a great FD at US nationals. I think either of the other 2 teams are JUST as capable of putting up a respectable score.
I don't like Bradie's skating, I think it is very juvenile but they used her because she's been consistent.
Overall, I think a LOT of the substitutions for the freeskates were done because the countries want to give more skaters chances at a medal. Which, ironically, could be what loses them their chance at a medal. Look at Canada- we ONLY substituted our women's skater and kept our strongest for all other disciplines and that might just be what gives us an edge over the other countries.
you're right ... so who would get the medal if the were ties?