Cup of Russia 2012

polosatik wrote:

zarinaballerina wrote:

I've just seen the pairs SP, I love the new look on Bazarova, but I'm not fond of Maxim's new look. He looks weird.

At previous competition he looked like..Hitler

haha

polosatik wrote:

zarinaballerina wrote:

I've just seen the pairs SP, I love the new look on Bazarova, but I'm not fond of Maxim's new look. He looks weird.

At previous competition he looked like..Hitler

polosatik, I was thinking the same but wasn't brave enough to say it out loud. Here, to me, he looks like Hitler with a goatee. Maxim WTH are you doing?!

Just have to say this: Agnes' fan spiral in her ChSq is the ugliest one I've ever seen...
And....how would Kanako miss one element??

zarinaballerina wrote:

polosatik wrote:

zarinaballerina wrote:

I've just seen the pairs SP, I love the new look on Bazarova, but I'm not fond of Maxim's new look. He looks weird.

At previous competition he looked like..Hitler

polosatik, I was thinking the same but wasn't brave enough to say it out loud. Here, to me, he looks like Hitler with a goatee. Maxim WTH are you doing?!

You know, no one can beat me in honesty!!!

the problem with the scores, is that if you notice the speed, kanako, agnes, and gracie, had and compare it to kira, there steps had much more content, even the spins where more impressing then kiras. then there is the jumps, and kiras didn't have height or flow, she fell, had an e and underrotates and looked even downgraded when i watched her jumps, she has no steps leading up to the jumps, her entrances are also straight to the jumps, it's those things that makes her lacks really visible. her skating skills are really average, if one looks at her steps, they where really easy, barely any content, and when it's done to such slow music it becomes easier! her skating just is so "underwhelming". and her lacks technically department is too big.

I have watched skating for soo long but have never seen a skater skate to the same kind of music, as many times as i have seen kira do, and now i finally understand what people mean when they say certain skaters just can't skate to anything else! cause if she did her lacks would become even more visible, that music and choreography is what hides her weakness so well.... i could write 3 pages with arguments to why i think kira is overscored sigh. people should just compare her elements, look at her entrance to the jumps, her low speed, her junior content, her easy and slow steps...................

polosatik wrote:

You know, no one can beat me in honesty!!!

If you say so...

ballerinamao wrote:

the problem with the scores, is that if you notice the speed, kanako, agnes, and gracie, had and compare it to kira, there steps had much more content, even the spins where more impressing then kiras. then there is the jumps, and kiras didn't have height or flow, she fell, had an e and underrotates and looked even downgraded when i watched her jumps, she has no steps leading up to the jumps, her entrances are also straight to the jumps, it's those things that makes her lacks really visible. her skating skills are really average, if one looks at her steps, they where really easy, barely any content, and when it's done to such slow music it becomes easier! her skating just is so "underwhelming". and her lacks technically department is too big.

I have watched skating for soo long but have never seen a skater skate to the same kind of music, as many times as i have seen kira do, and now i finally understand what people mean when they say certain skaters just can't skate to anything else! cause if she did her lacks would become even more visible, that music and choreography is what hides her weakness so well.... i could write 3 pages with arguments to why i think kira is overscored sigh. people should just compare her elements, look at her entrance to the jumps, her low speed, her junior content, her easy and slow steps...................

Not only does she have no steps leading into the jumps, her set up for jumps takes forever!!! she's channeling Alyssa here. She's an avarege skater who is judges favourite for whatever reason.

[/quote]

Not only does she have no steps leading into the jumps, her set up for jumps takes forever!!! she's channeling Alyssa here. She's an avarege skater who is judges favourite for whatever reason. [/quote]

NO doubt about that, that's why her placement and scores are

Sorry guys I'm minority here again, but I thought Kiira's win was fair. Her pros this season might lack some content compared to Mao's pros, but they are sophisticated enough at least for me and they fit her well.

Kanako is a good skater, and when she's at her best she can probabaly beat Kiira easily. But she hasn't been in good condition over the past few seasons, she's getting better bit by bit, but I think she has to do extremely well to prove to the judges once again that she's as good as we think she is to get more scores. And to do that, I don't think her SP this season is the ideal pro for Kanako. So if she can't nail all her jumps in SP and get high scores both in TES and PCS, they're certainly not going to give her high scores for just doing fairly good in her FP. Besides, even with a wrong edge, UR, and an invalid 3T, the judges did score her higher than Agnes for FP. If she hadn't made those mistakes in her SP, she would've made the podium! So I see no reason to complain about her scores. I loved Kanako skating her energetic powerful pros when she first appeared in seniors, I think she should've gone on skating those type of pros until her growth period was perfectly over and her techs became more solid. But she was bashed within Jpn then by countless ill hearted people all saying her pros are 'too childish', and I have my reasons to believe that that pushed her into trying 'more mature' pros too soon.

But mind you I'm no Kiira freak either. I simply like her programs this season esp her FP, and her jumps are becoming much higher than they used to be, so my view is that she totally deserved what she got (this time). Gracie looked much better in her FP than her SP, but again I couldn't help feeling she didn't perform along with the music in a true sense. I know you're all gonna hate it when I say this, but I think what happened here is similar to what happened at COC between Mao and Julia's FP. It was a close call just like Mao and Julia's case, and I do think Gracie's techs are good. But even without her beautiful face, I felt Kiira skated with the most elegance (this time). She had more control over every small move she made, while Gracie was kind of doing most of her upper body moves by force. It was the same impression I got from Julia's FP.

I also feel that they should award skaters older skaters when there's not much difference between such skaters and younger skaters. If the younger skater skates as perfectly as say...how Gao skated at SA (and yes, I know she's not that young so this may not be a good example), I'm totally fine with them medalling or winning (in fact if it were up to me, I would've given Gao the gold there not Ashley). But when you have a bunch of skaters all skating just fairly well with edge problems and URs equally, I think it's better that the older skaters win cause they'll know better that they made mistakes here and there which aren't that visible and they'll go on practicing not to let it happen again. But with young skaters, I think they need to experience losing as well as winning, and feel the vexation so they can realise what more they need in order to win and work on those elements. I think the way Gracie reacted when she found out she made 2nd place was very admirable and modest. I think that girl knows more than anyone where exactly she's standing right now in her promising years to come in her skating career.

I assume Kanako has no complaints about her scores either, cause she never ever says anything like that, nor does she show it on her face. From all that I've read and heard from her through articles and tv interviews, it seems clear that she knows well that she's still in the middle of her struggles to become a 'more mature' skater. She knew from the start that her scores aren't going to rise sky high so suddenly this season.

Sorry for the long post guys...but as much as I appreciate some of your voices saying that our Jpnse skaters are being underscored in COR, I just can't feel the same. The kind of performances I want to see from our skaters are the ones like Takahiko's SP & Machida's FP at SA, or at least a performance like Mao's FP at COC if they should include edge errors and URs. I do not think Takahiko, Nobu nor Kanako has performed that well in COR so far, therefore I don't feel like complaining about their scores.

Btw, I'd really wish you'd all give Kiira just a little bit of a break. If everyone's sayin' it, okay fine, maybe she does get extra beauty scores. But it's not her fault she was born with a pretty face. I actually never took her as a serious skater until about 2 seasons ago for the same reason, but she's become an extremely better skater than before then, which means she must've worked real hard as any other skater, I think she deserves at least a touch of more credit. Just my opinion though...no hard feelings if you all feel differently!

ETA:

Quote :

I'm surprised Kana got only one < , but she did two flips and her toe got zero That cost her medal here. I don't like Kiira skating, but she deserved to win. Even with a fall, she had flip and lutz, and her mistakes were only a fall on the loop and doubling her loop in combo. To be honest it was the best from Kiira in FS for years! Usually she pops her jumps a lot. Do you remember a lutz and a flip from Kiira? Though she has an edge call on her flip, still she was good enough to win and everyone else was just blah... The worst competition in ladies in GP series.

Oh yeah! Worst competition in ladies GP so far for sure.

Quote :

her set up for jumps takes forever!!!

Er...that's the same thing some of Kanako's bashers used to point out about her too...never actually thought so before, but I've noticed it in her first jump in her FP this time. Check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXPou4PDyhc

Did Volosozhar/Trankov just scored 132 points for a very flawed program?! And I thought SC was bad at holding up their own. It looks like CoR doesn't want to be left behind. I love Tanya and Maxim but this score was just...

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

Btw, I'd really wish you'd all give Kiira just a little bit of a break. If everyone's sayin' it, okay fine, maybe she does get extra beauty scores. But it's not her fault she was born with a pretty face. I actually never took her as a serious skater until about 2 seasons ago for the same reason, but she's become an extremely better skater than before then, which means she must've worked real hard as any other skater, I think she deserves at least a touch of more credit. Just my opinion though...no hard feelings if you all feel differently!

Pochi, personally I have nothing against Kiira, she is very nice (according to those who met her), but it does piss me off, when she receives scores that are higher than what others get for showing the exact same program content. It's not her fault, it's the judges, but unfortunately skaters are the ones who get hit with skating fans' frustration.

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

Sorry guys I'm minority here again, but I thought Kiira's win was fair. Her pros this season might lack some content compared to Mao's pros, but they are sophisticated enough at least for me and they fit her well.

yeah we can all agree that Kira is sophisticated and a mature skater, but that really is not enough to cover her lacks, her skating just lacks at soo many areas, look at her elements and compare it to the other skaters please, from her jumps, to her spins, to her steps it's the quality that is missing in her skating, her elements just lack content and difficulty! everything she does is slow, not at this competition but in every program i remember her skating too!

artistically she isn't my cop of tea either, a skater who skates to the same kind of music with the same kind of choreography is to "monotonous" to me, she even has the same expression when she skates to all her programs!

mature and sophisticated yes, but that just shouldn't be enough to get that score or placement!

zarinaballerina wrote:

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

Btw, I'd really wish you'd all give Kiira just a little bit of a break. If everyone's sayin' it, okay fine, maybe she does get extra beauty scores. But it's not her fault she was born with a pretty face. I actually never took her as a serious skater until about 2 seasons ago for the same reason, but she's become an extremely better skater than before then, which means she must've worked real hard as any other skater, I think she deserves at least a touch of more credit. Just my opinion though...no hard feelings if you all feel differently!

Pochi, personally I have nothing against Kiira, she is very nice (according to those who met her), but it does piss me off, when she receives scores that are higher than what others get for showing the exact same program content. It's not her fault, it's the judges, but unfortunately skaters are the ones who get hit with skating fans' frustration.

I understand zarina, it's okay you have different views. No need to mind me at all!

And I totally understand the frustration when you can't agree with the results; been through that so many times myself...I might've gotten too used to it, that may be one of the reasons why I rarely get frustrated with the scores unless Mao is involved nowadays. I was like about a thousand times more frustrated than you probabaly are now when Mao was in rivalry with Yuna and the judges kept on giving Yuna galactical scores...and I wrote quite alot of bitchy things on Yuna at the time. I knew polosatik admired Yuna, so I kept on apologizing to her through PM, but I still couldn't stop writing bad things about Yuna in those days...which reminds me that I'm in no position to ask you all to be easy on Kiira. All your opinions on Kiira aren't even half as negative nor mean compared to what I had written about Yuna in the past. I'm just probably trying to be nice to any winner in a competition unconsciously no matter what, cause I'm rather ashamed of how I was towards Yuna then.

Taka has a silver! (unless Patrick falls on 3-4 jumps, then he has the gold ) he's going to Sotchi!

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

zarinaballerina wrote:

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

Btw, I'd really wish you'd all give Kiira just a little bit of a break. If everyone's sayin' it, okay fine, maybe she does get extra beauty scores. But it's not her fault she was born with a pretty face. I actually never took her as a serious skater until about 2 seasons ago for the same reason, but she's become an extremely better skater than before then, which means she must've worked real hard as any other skater, I think she deserves at least a touch of more credit. Just my opinion though...no hard feelings if you all feel differently!

Pochi, personally I have nothing against Kiira, she is very nice (according to those who met her), but it does piss me off, when she receives scores that are higher than what others get for showing the exact same program content. It's not her fault, it's the judges, but unfortunately skaters are the ones who get hit with skating fans' frustration.

I understand zarina, it's okay you have different views. No need to mind me at all!

And I totally understand the frustration when you can't agree with the results; been through that so many times myself...I might've gotten too used to it, that may be one of the reasons why I rarely get frustrated with the scores unless Mao is involved nowadays. I was like about a thousand times more frustrated than you probabaly are now when Mao was in rivalry with Yuna and the judges kept on giving Yuna galactical scores...and I wrote quite alot of bitchy things on Yuna at the time. I knew polosatik admired Yuna, so I kept on apologizing to her through PM, but I still couldn't stop writing bad things about Yuna in those days...which reminds me that I'm in no position to ask you all to be easy on Kiira. All your opinions on Kiira aren't even half as negative nor mean compared to what I had written about Yuna in the past. I'm just probably trying to be nice to any winner in a competition unconsciously no matter what, cause I'm rather ashamed of how I was towards Yuna then.

Pochi, I totally understand how you felt those days. I also overreacted after the Olympics and especially 2010 Worlds and wrote some comments that I now truly regret. But I think much of that frustration had to do with the fandom of the skater than the skaters themselves. I really have no problem with Yuna or any other skater for that matter. I think she is a great skater and contributed a lot to the sport. And if she comes back in Sochi and displays the same level of excellence as she did in Vancouver, I would have no problem with her winning the gold. However, some of her fans have been continuously harsh on Mao back then and now. And as a Mao fan, when I see those negative comments, I get naturally frustrated and respond emotionally. This is why now I try to stay away from heated discussions on forums that is related to Mao, so I won't get dragged into those tiresome debates.

zarinaballerina wrote:

Taka has a silver! (unless Patrick falls on 3-4 jumps, then he has the gold ) he's going to Sotchi!

Yep! Good for Takahiko! But he's still got lots to work on, and I'm sure he will.
(But I don't like his FP as much as his SP this season. IMO Takahiko should not skate to lyrical classic music! I definitely think that more dynamic music actually fits his style however smoothly he skates)

I was sure Pattie's gonna win gold after seeing him skate, and he did...scores maybe a bit inflated IMO, but this time he has totally deserved it (unlike in SC...his SP inflation was one of the worst cases I've ever seen in mens).

I missed Nobu's FP which seems to have been scored higher than Takahiko's...this I gotta see!
Though he didn't make the podium, he just returned to the ice after a long absence, so I think this is good enough for him for the time being.

Also missed Brezina and Denis...but I'm glad Brezina made the podium cause I know how good he can be when he's really good even with mistakes; seen that with my own eyes in Carnival on Ice (Gala for JO). I felt he was underscored for his SP, so it's amazing he made top 3! But so sorry for Denis (again)...I can imagine how bad his FP was even without seeing it. I think he should go to Orser or any coach who's better at stabilizing jumps than Frank! I am this close to PMing Denis on Facebook to dump Frank!

Last of all, I think the results of both mens and ladies FPs prove that the judges really didn't inflate the Russian skater's scores, nor did they underscore the Jpnse skater's scores that terribly. Missed their FPs too, so I don't know yet what the hell happened to Gachinski and Zhan (don't wanna call him Bush... ), poor them. And Menshov seemed to have skated not totally but pretty clean (haven't seen protocals yet), and yet the judges sure didn't give him much of a home advantage boost (when they could've with no booings from the audience) shows how much the scoring was decent.

ETA:Thanks for your comments aoi! I can feel the same about Yuna now too. But yeah, it's some of her extremist fans that get our nerves!

You guys, I haven't seen the programs, but from the protocols alone, I can't understand why Kanako's 3T was called invalid... She has 7 jumping passes, 2 flips and 2 loops, and no other 3T aside from this one... She wasn't repeating the 3T for a second time, from the protocol, it doesn't seem like she tried to do it in combination either, which would have been invalid because of 3F+SEQ... Help?

Oh and wow, there's no 2A in her program... From a skater who used to have 3, that's fairly impressive!

ETA: Wow Team Russia really struggled here... The guys were good in the SP, but aside from Menshoz... And the ladies... that looks like quite a rough event for both of them.

I'm glad that Gracie got her redemption from SC. I don't agree with the 58+ PCS... I actually agree even less with these than I did with Osmond's. At least, Osmond's a performer.

And good for PChan, he seems to be getting his groove back Taka seems to have struggled a bit, but he got his ticket for the GPF. And Nobu got to make up for his terrible SP.

What happened to Alex???

chiyori wrote:

You guys, I haven't seen the programs, but from the protocols alone, I can't understand why Kanako's 3T was called invalid... She has 7 jumping passes, 2 flips and 2 loops, and no other 3T aside from this one... She wasn't repeating the 3T for a second time, from the protocol, it doesn't seem like she tried to do it in combination either, which would have been invalid because of 3F+SEQ... Help?

Oh and wow, there's no 2A in her program... From a skater who used to have 3, that's fairly impressive!
ETA: Wow Team Russia really struggled here... The guys were good in the SP, but aside from Menshoz... And the ladies... that looks like quite a rough event for both of them.

I'm glad that Gracie got her redemption from SC. I don't agree with the 58+ PCS... I actually agree even less with these than I did with Osmond's. At least, Osmond's a performer.

And good for PChan, he seems to be getting his groove back Taka seems to have struggled a bit, but he got his ticket for the GPF. And Nobu got to make up for his terrible SP.

Kanako forgot to jump her 2A chiyori, that's why her 3T became an invalid jump. You have to include an axel jump in your FP too. In the спорт2 broadcast, you can actually hear her saying 'I forgot the axel' as she went off the rink.

I agree with you on the difference between Gracie and Osmond. Osmond does 'perform' better than Gracie at this point. But I think it's a matter of time for Gracie to catch up on that. And I think once she does, she's gonna get better than Osmond. Just a hunch...simply felt more potential in Gracie, plus I think she's learned alot more than Osmond in GP this season.

PochinkoPotanko, you're not the only one here who thinks kiira fairly won this competition. kiira made mistakes but so did gracie.

i think kiira did enough to win. i wouldn't call her the best skater out there, but i think she's on her way of becoming a world championships podium contender. i used to be indifferent about her but now i've become fond of her and i'm pleased with her win. she sure has been working hard this season and it's shows! i suppose she's one dimensional at this point (does nothing more than skating pretty) especially since david wilson does nothing these days but recycle ideas he used previously for yu-na. but at least her prettiness makes her programs somewhat interesting.

i would also consider gracie very one dimensional like kiira except in a different way. to me, gracie is just jumps. there's something very generic about everything in her skating that keeps me uninterested in her programs. turn off the music in her free program and replace with any other kind of music and the effect is the same. for me, there's nothing worth remembering/trying to remember about anything gracie does in her programs. personally, i dont' want any generic kind of skating to be on the top of the podium.

Wah! Wasn't online yesterday. So shocked when I saw the isuresults page. I gather PChan was clean yesterday and deserved to win. Nobu was 2nd in FS but is it almost 20pts worth the PCS difference and 13pt difference for Taka?

And does Gracie's PCS deserve higher than Kana's? Too bad about the jump mistake for Kana. And Adelina!!! What happened? 3 falls in Russia? That's heartbreaking! I was blinking like crazy when I saw the results. Couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I gotta have to look for videos now.

swan wrote:

PochinkoPotanko, you're not the only one here who thinks kiira fairly won this competition. kiira made mistakes but so did gracie.

i think kiira did enough to win. i wouldn't call her the best skater out there, but i think she's on her way of becoming a world championships podium contender. i used to be indifferent about her but now i've become fond of her and i'm pleased with her win. she sure has been working hard this season and it's shows! i suppose she's one dimensional at this point (does nothing more than skating pretty) especially since david wilson does nothing these days but recycle ideas he used previously for yu-na. but at least her prettiness makes her programs somewhat interesting.

i would also consider gracie very one dimensional like kiira except in a different way. to me, gracie is just jumps. there's something very generic about everything in her skating that keeps me uninterested in her programs. turn off the music in her free program and replace with any other kind of music and the effect is the same. for me, there's nothing worth remembering/trying to remember about anything gracie does in her programs. personally, i dont' want any generic kind of skating to be on the top of the podium.

As much as I'm fond of Kiira's pros this season, I feel the same about Wilson's pros. If there's any chance of Kiira convincing others that she deserves the scores she gets, she has to find a choreographer who'll add more content to her pros. The main reason I like her pros this season is only because I think she's interpreting the music quite well; not in any technical terms.

And so, this leads to why I just couldn't buy Gracie's performances much, although her techs are better than Kiira. Gracie was skating well, but not along with the music much. I felt the more or less the same about Osmond and Julia. But compared to Gracie, Osmond gave me a better impression because she was skating more alive with joy. Julia seemed no better than Gracie when it comes to expressing the music, at least in her FP Gracie was a bit more into the music than Julia I think. But Julia's techs were more impressing than Gracie, so that kind of makes them even for me. But when I compare these 3, I think Gracie has the highest potential in becoming a top skater in the future. This is because it seems like she's already passed her growth period, but her jumps are quite consistent. When she couldn't nail her jumps, I think it was purely nerves which got to her, and technically she's okay. So I think all Gracie needs is more experience in competitions. Once she becomes mentally stronger, I think she'll have more room in her mind to absorb the music when she skates. I think then, she'll really start shining. I'm not so sure that Osmond and Julia can do the same though...Osmond seemed relaxed enough when she skated at SC but still she wasn't blending with the music, and Julia if going to have to face growth period soon. We'll just have to wait and see how they'll all do in further seasons anyway, but in anycase they all have talent for sure, so if they can, IMO they should all move on to a better coach soon.

roma wrote:

Wah! Wasn't online yesterday. So shocked when I saw the isuresults page. I gather PChan was clean yesterday and deserved to win. Nobu was 2nd in FS but is it almost 20pts worth the PCS difference and 13pt difference for Taka?

And does Gracie's PCS deserve higher than Kana's? Too bad about the jump mistake for Kana. And Adelina!!! What happened? 3 falls in Russia? That's heartbreaking! I was blinking like crazy when I saw the results. Couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I gotta have to look for videos now.

Pattie did well so I think he deserved not only 1st place but also much higher scores for his FP than Nobu and Takahiko...but I do think they gave him a bit too much again. Plus, I thought Takahiko's FP scores were quite fair but Nobu was underscored this time. Although he fell on his quad, it was rotated and he only got 1 UR for a 3S, while Takahiko got 3 URs along with landing problems. And most of all, Nobu had real good speed...I even felt he was too speedy for the music at some points; which might've hurt his PCS maybe just a little bit. But I think he proved that he still has most of what it takes to be one of the top skaters. Real proud of him!

OTOH, I can hardly say Takahiko did well this time, esp after seeing what he's really capable of in SA. Although Takahiko seemed quite happy after he finished his FP, I felt Sato knew already that the judges won't score him that highly by the look on his face. But anyway, everyone has their ups and downs so what the heck! Takahiko got his ticket to finals, and COR was a good opportunity to figure out his weak points and work on them till then. It's better he makes mistakes now than later.

I think Kanako added a clear half-revolution axel after the flip, I expected it to be a 3F+A+SEQ, so the toeloop should have been valid, in my opinion...

Mao2012 wrote:

I think Kanako added a clear half-revolution axel after the flip, I expected it to be a 3F+A+SEQ, so the toeloop should have been valid, in my opinion...

maybe that single jump wasn't considered a jump,but rather part of the choreography

ballerinamao wrote:

Mao2012 wrote:

I think Kanako added a clear half-revolution axel after the flip, I expected it to be a 3F+A+SEQ, so the toeloop should have been valid, in my opinion...

maybe that single jump wasn't considered a jump,but rather part of the choreography

No, I can't agree. It seems she tried to add something, but it wasn't even a single jump. And I think (not totally sure) that even if you attempt an axel, if you can't manage it to be at least a 1A, they won't count it as a jump. But yes, she was planning a 3F+2A+SEQ it seems...which I think is terribly risky for Kanako who has clearly mentioned that she's not good at axel jumps herself in the past. She is getting better at it, but placing her one and only axel in her pro between a 3F and a SEQ was too dangerous from the start. The only good thing about what happened to her was that her last jump which was discluded as invalid was a single 3T. I think (again not totally sure so correct me if I'm wrong) that if her last jump was a combo, she would've lost points for all 2 or 3 jumps!

I think her layout for FP this season is a bit too risky. If she's not confident about her axels, I think they should've included at least one more of it with no combo, in case she should totally pop one without rotating at all, even if she doesn't forget to jump them.

Btw, just saw the gala for COR a while ago, and I have to admit...there, Gracie skated better than Kiira! And I think the difference in Gracie's skating compared to how she did in competition was that her music had lyrics and she was actually singing along to it while she performed! That made her blend very well to the music, plus her EX had no cheap sexy posturings like her SP, so it fit her image more naturally. Gracie seemed very relaxed skating to it, unlike Kiira who seemed a bit more tense than she was during competition; plus she fell on a jump during her encore which is something you really do not want to see from a gold winner...ouch!