2021 U.S. Nationals: Senior Ladies - Free Skate

[CellarDweller]

You shouldn’t be allowed to represent your country if you aren’t a medalist in your national championship that year

Yeah, right. There's a problem with this statement. World's Championships has an age limit of 16. Skaters younger than that can compete and win medals in their National Championships.

In 2019 the top 3 Russian skaters were Anna Shcherbakova, Alexandra Trusova and Alena Kostornaia. My math may be off, but I believe they were all under 16 at the time they competed and won those medals.

If I'm right, by your statement, no Russian women would've been able to compete at the World Championships, because all the medal winners were too young, and all those old enough to compete didn't win a medal that year at Russian Nationals, and therefore shouldn't be allowed to go.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

And a team? LOL Please tell me you are joking when you said US doesn't have one of those. Pairs, I'd agree,

STOP dissing U.S. Pairs. That's such a knee-jerk backwards diss, and totally not true.


And I now see the naming of the World team. Just wow! I disagree. If they wanted Karen, then score her ahead of Amber for the silver medal. This is just not right. As far as I'm concerned, I love Karen and her beautiful skating, but in the Worlds environment I'm not sure Karen was the best pick. She's rebuilding. Is she ready? Will her rotations get fully around? Amber has a proven triple-axel, and renewed confidence. This is a huge snub in sending Karen. If they'd sent Mariah, I would maybe not feel that it was such a snub. But Karen who is in a rebuilding phase? She's a beautiful skater, but her composure under pressure is not always stellar, and she doesn't have tech weapons.

A vote of confidence for Amber (if Worlds even goes forward) could have paid dividends for U.S. fed. Sometimes you just need to reward skaters for the right reasons, instead of going for politics and favoritism all the time. Sadly, U.S. figure skating is always shooting themselves in the foot with bonehead decisions. I completely disagree with this selection. There's going to be a ton of pressure on Karen to skate clean in both programs.

If they felt it was a risk to select Amber, then it would have been a risk worth taking! Support a skater like Amber who has come into her own. I like Karen, but I don't see her doing much. Even if Karen does skate clean, the international judges are not going to give her much, IMO. With Amber, if she hit with her 3-axel, that's an important weapon. I hope Amber doesn't feel deflated by this vote of no confidence. I hope she just goes back to the drawing board and shows these naysayers. There's no 4CCs this year for alternates, so Amber should have been chosen. I also felt that Amber should have been ahead of Karen in the sp!

I wonder if Amber had completed the 3-axel successfully in the sp whether U.S. figure skating might have named her. But still, she's landed it in practices plenty of times and is capable of performing it so should be given more competitive opportunities.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

The jumps and speed of the sport is phenomenal. The Russian ladies have been absolutely fantastic for figure skating, and my hope is that a few more counties pour money to replicate their success. We need more Russiaot less.

To each their own. Speed has always been an important part of figure skating, and acquiring speed has a lot to do with blade expertise. Acrobatic jumps came later, and frankly multiple rotations are NOT everything. They have less to do with the essence of what figure skating is than blade skills which are the foundation of the sport.

In what way have the jumps by Russian ladies been so fantastic for the sport? The only way their jumps mean much is when they are backed up by artistry and SS. Luckily for Eteri, the current crop have a bit better technique, and a few have better artistry. But they are still so young, and a dime a dozen. Whether or not the current 'IT' girls will have longevity in the sport continues to be a question and a mystery. Flashes in the pan don't help the sport's growth and legitimacy. That's my opinion.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

STOP dissing U.S. Pairs. That's such a knee-jerk backwards diss, and totally not true.

How about you stop making knee jerk assumptions?

I do not "diss" (what are we, 10yo?) any skaters or disciplines of my/the sport. I was just pointing out that yes, American pairs is far behind the success of ice dance. That is a FACT, whether you like it or not. That does not put down pairs skaters so please stop trying to make an argument where there isn't one.

 

[rollerblade]

Why are you guys going back and forth about pairs and dance and russians in this thread?

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Why are you guys going back and forth about pairs and dance and russians in this thread?

Exactly my point in my original post.

 

[labgoat]

rewatch

2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships: General Info

Joint interview with Nathan Chen and Mariah Bell is new on Fan Zone today. Brian Boitano and Rusty Kath conducted the interview. 8:11 in length. https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/watch/?Archive=2269&type=Live Below is the link to today's press release from NBC Sports re its Nats coverage...

www.goldenskate.com

 

[Janice4th]

The US has been burned before by a skater having the skate of a lifetime at Nationals and sucking eggs at Worlds. That’s why they changed the protocol. Winner is automatically chosen. Then the committee decides on body of work. Some might call that reputation. That’s okay. If Amber Glenn can provide a body of work that would give them that confidence, then next year she could have that shot.
If she was old enough, I would have selected Liu.
Karen Chen is a good choice- she just needs to work on those UR’s. The scores were really close between the two, and Chen’s skating skills are strong.

Ordinarily they would choose between them from 4C’s, but that isn’t an option.

And no committee on the planet would not select Nathan Chen to go if he had a bad competition here.

 

[Sjs5572]

The US has been burned before by a skater having the skate of a lifetime at Nationals and sucking eggs at Worlds. That’s why they changed the protocol. Winner is automatically chosen. Then the committee decides on body of work. Some might call that reputation. That’s okay. If Amber Glenn can provide a body of work that would give them that confidence, then next year she could have that shot.
If she was old enough, I would have selected Liu.
Karen Chen is a good choice- she just needs to work on those UR’s. The scores were really close between the two, and Chen’s skating skills are strong.

Ordinarily they would choose between them from 4C’s, but that isn’t an option.

And no committee on the planet would not select Nathan Chen to go if he had a bad competition here.

The only thing that concerns me is that international panels are unforgiving on underrotations and love strong, clean jumping. Therefore, I think Amber would be duely rewarded with solud skates at Worlds.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

How about you stop making knee jerk assumptions?

I do not "diss" (what are we, 10yo?) any skaters or disciplines of my/the sport. I was just pointing out that yes, American pairs is far behind the success of ice dance. That is a FACT, whether you like it or not. That does not put down pairs skaters so please stop trying to make an argument where there isn't one.

The bolded is true, but that's not what you said.

First of all, the US has a bunch of strong ladies, as proven tonight. And a team? LOL Please tell me you are joking when you said US doesn't have one of those. Pairs, I'd agree, but Ice Dance is a totally different story.

If you didn't mean this as a diss to U.S. pairs in your response to the other poster, okay. I'm sorry if you took offense at my comments. I'm sensitive to the fact that so many people in the skating community continue to devalue U.S. pairs, which ignores so much that has impacted the discipline.

You said that you'd agree U.S. pairs doesn't have a strong team, as opposed to ladies and ice dance. U.S. pairs do have at least two strong teams who will hopefully continue the arduous process of helping to bring U.S. pairs better respect and medal success internationally. Meanwhile, in terms of strong legacy, it is two U.S. pairs teams who respectively performed the first throw 3-axel (2006), and the first throw quad salchow (2007). Those feats are nothing to sneeze at. In addition, a U.S. pairs team was the first North American team after WWII to break through the former European dominance in pairs to win a gold medal at Worlds (1950).

Frankly, U.S. ladies have not enjoyed tremendous success since the Michelle Kwan era, despite having a lot of depth, talent, and periods of being very competitive, without reaching the World podium (aside from 2016 in recent years, which broke the 10 year podium drought for ladies).

U.S. pairs have not been on the Worlds podium since 2002, which is going on 17 years, so just 7 years longer at this point than the U.S. ladies drought. Of course, it's now been since 2016, another 4+ years and counting for U.S. ladies being off Worlds and Olympics podiums. These are the stats, but I don't always look at competitive strength, skill and athletic value in terms of medal counts at Worlds and Olympics. The sport of figure skating is antiquated in its competitive structure, which hasn't changed much while the numbers of competitive figure skaters has increased tremendously since the sport's early days.

I will take further comment about pairs to the appropriate thread.

 

[Jammers]

Yeah, right. There's a problem with this statement. World's Championships has an age limit of 16. Skaters younger than that can compete and win medals in their National Championships.

In 2019 the top 3 Russian skaters were Anna Shcherbakova, Alexandra Trusova and Alena Kostornaia. My math may be off, but I believe they were all under 16 at the time they competed and won those medals.

If I'm right, by your statement, no Russian women would've been able to compete at the World Championships, because all the medal winners were too young, and all those old enough to compete didn't win a medal that year at Russian Nationals, and therefore shouldn't be allowed to go.

The age limit for Worlds is not 16. If you turn 15 by July 1st of the previous year you are eligible for Worlds and the Olympics. Julia and Alina were both 15 when they won Olympic gold.

 

[taikwan]

Again, it would absolutely be if she fell 12 times in trials as you mentioned. Obviously I’m using your hypothetical. You shouldn’t be allowed to represent your country if you aren’t a medalist in your national championship that year

Also the same if Chen fell on every jump and finished 5th in the championships.

In a perfect world, the spots will just go automatically to to people that place 1-2 or 1-2-3.

Take selection away from the politics and backroom deals.

These back room deals don’t help the sport in the long run.

Full disclosure too:
Don’t watch any figure skating besides the single ladies so I have no emotional attachment vis a vis the politics and favoritism with the men, pair, or ice dance selection

I couldn’t care less about gymnastics, don’t follow it, don’t care.

I do follow gymnastics and have been at every Olympic Trials competition since 2000. I was there when Marta Karoyli played favorites. The selection process was so corrupt but then, Larry was hanging around. You can't get more corrupt than that.

 

[alexocfp]

I do follow gymnastics and have been at every Olympic Trials competition since 2000. I was there when Marta Karoyli played favorites. The selection process was so corrupt but then, Larry was hanging around. You can't get more corrupt than that.

Hopefully, we never see peple like him anywhere in sports ever again. Or anywhere in life for that matter.

 

[TontoK]

The US has been burned before by a skater having the skate of a lifetime at Nationals and sucking eggs at Worlds. That’s why they changed the protocol. Winner is automatically chosen. Then the committee decides on body of work. Some might call that reputation. That’s okay. If Amber Glenn can provide a body of work that would give them that confidence, then next year she could have that shot.
If she was old enough, I would have selected Liu.
Karen Chen is a good choice- she just needs to work on those UR’s. The scores were really close between the two, and Chen’s skating skills are strong.

Ordinarily they would choose between them from 4C’s, but that isn’t an option.

And no committee on the planet would not select Nathan Chen to go if he had a bad competition here.

On the other hand, there are skaters like Rudy Galindo, who had Nationals placements in singles ranging from 5th to 11th in seven prior appearances before winning the title with the skate of his life. He went on to win the bronze medal at Worlds behind Todd Eldridge.

Somtimes people DO actually get their act together, and that is often characterized by a breakthrough performance at a high-stakes event.

 

[Minz]

Hopefully, we never see peple like him anywhere in sports ever again. Or anywhere in life for that matter.

Here here

 

[Minz]

On the other hand, there are skaters like Rudy Galindo, who had Nationals placements in singles ranging from 5th to 11th in seven prior appearances before winning the title with the skate of his life. He went on to win the bronze medal at Worlds behind Todd Eldridge.

Somtimes people DO actually get their act together, and that is often characterized by a breakthrough performance at a high-stakes event.

People do, but people don’t. You can’t really tell. It all just depends.