2020 Skate America: Ladies' FS

[withwings]

I as european who does not have favourite skater in US want to say about scoring that judges are also humans...and Mariah overall looking much better than Bradie. Mariah is beautiful body, face, legs and stamina! And this helps her even she had some technical errors...this is the way it always has been! Amen!

Hmm.... then why Kira Korpi never got these all the gold medals and first places?

 

[CoyoteChris]

What? I'm sorry, but what you just said comes close to suggesting Mariah is being judged based on her looks, which somehow trumps Bradie's looks???!!! Nope, both ladies have strengths and weaknesses in terms of their skating talent and body builds. Forget about looks which is only skin deep and quite meaningless. It's who you are inside, your character, and as an athlete, your talent, work ethic, self-belief, luck and determination that matter and in the end make the difference in achieving career goals. Yep, in this sport the politics of the judging also factors in.

IMO, Bradie could have given up and faded at the first experience of setbacks, but she's kept working hard. She came back so strong from a difficult back injury, and she keeps coming back every season making improvements. She's got a lot of class and she's just as sweet, tough, and determined as Mariah.

Mariah has talked about being lucky in her background, so both ladies have kind of had opposite challenges in that respect, as Mariah comes from a well-to-do family and Bradie doesn't. So Mariah realized she had to decide to grow up and take charge of what she really wanted instead of drifting or settling for trying to live up to others' expectations. Bradie had to find ways to make it in the sport financially with the help and support of her mother and other close family members. As I said, Bradie could have faded after her back injury, or after some of the scoring setbacks at big events, or after the unfair putdowns, or even in the face of OTT praise which is going to be Mariah's challenge soon at this rate.

Both ladies deserve fans' admiration and respect, and they also deserve to be judged fairly. But the judging in this sport is what it is. The skaters realize they have to take it on the chin sometimes and bear down and keep their eyes on the prize. I hope Mariah and Bradie continue to push each other to even greater heights. That's the main important takeaway. At the same time, I hope U.S. figure skating (made up of individual people of course) will think twice about overdoing the constant 'next-big-thing' favoritism push, and be equally fair to all of their very talented athletes.

Boy, am I glad YOU said this. I gritted me teach and said nothing. Legs! Really? are we grading people on female anatomy? Some here might be surprised at just how ...well....muscular some of these lady's legs look without stockings....They are all beautiful to me because of what they can do....and who they are as people. No swim suit contests in skating, please.

 

[elektra blue]

still catching up with the free skates, some random comments:

Finley HAWK: she chose to skate to Carmen from hell, no wonder she didn't quite deliver

Paige RYDBERG: Shania Twain in the short and Celine Dion in the free. welcome to the 90s

Amber GLENN, USA: as i said before, she is my favourite american lady, i hope she can fix her issues as soon as possible. i don't know yet if i like this free, anyway it fits her better than the short

Karen CHEN: she looks to have found back her competition shape, her programs are not my cup of tea but she delivered with grace.