Skate America 2011

zarinaballerina wrote:

Alokya wrote:

purplemaze wrote:

I love Kozuka's Nausicca free! The music and the skating skills of Taka chan matched perfectly. He made misses on his 4T and didn't land it, and surprisingly fell also on his 1st Lutz. But he managed to put together the rest after that. Though i think he was distracted after that first 2 jump misses. Coach Sato was caught saying to Taka chan at the K&C that it seemed his ankles are stiff and lacking in smoothness, hmmm I hope Kozu's alright and wasnt hurt. He surely is not yet 100 percent, though Congrats for his bronze!!! Good start enough for his next assignment which I hope he nails perfectly. Kozuka got a total of 212.09 points and the gold went to Brezina- leader since the short, 216 plus points with no quadruple in his program. Veteran Belgian skater Kevin Van Derperen got the silver, with a very beautiful 4T on his 1st jump. His and Kozuka's points were so close. . .

I agree - I really love Taka's program. Given more time it will look absolutely FANTASTIC. I think he is getting a little more comfortable with the choreography - you could tell that he didn't really feel it at the Japan Open, but even with the mistakes here, I think he sold it better. He will dominate once he gets that quad in hand - I just hope it's sooner rather than later. He won the bronze because of his impeccable form, but there will be no question of winning after he gets that quad. I'm glad he's continuing to do it, though, even though he isn't completely comfortable with it. Overall, though, the men's programs were just awful to watch. Taka's was pretty much the exception to that.

On another note - Die Fledermaus is now my favorite free dance from Davis/White. Wow. That was amazing.

This is my favourite program of his! And he expresses the music so well with his movements. I watched it live on british eurosport and the comentator (can't remember his name) couldn't stop praising him. I would have put Taka ahead of Kevin, since Kevin looked really slow (at least on my tv screen).

As for Davies/White- WOW, that was really awesome.

kozuka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNQ-yLZNWXw&feature=feedu
Dice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVd4aB4rXFk&feature=feedu

I thought he knew he had problem about his jumps before then. his basic point for TES is lower than usual.
but his step is level 4 with 1.3 GOE!!! finally those judges noticed that
I think he gets used to his music now since the music was ready around 2 weeks before JO and you saw him trying to catch up the music in the program. but now even he fall then got up, he still can catch up the music. hope he can make his jump stable as usual. if his jumps are stable, he will be non-stoppable.

Dice...what is going on...uh...sigh

Anyone updating for the ladies?

spoiler http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpusa2011/SEG003.HTM
ladies live stream http://www.parom.tv/sport2

Haruka http://t.co/uuPVJgsK she was in group 1 and I think she should get higher score
In addition, it's confirmed that Haruka is with Yuka team now
DSC ladies are all in PINK...lovely
All ladies in SA are in lovely / beautiful dress ~joy to watch

ETA: ladies' results http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpusa2011/gpusa2011_Ladies_SP_Scores.pdf
one of judge gave lower PCS to Haruka ==>all lower than 6, really doubt is the one hates Kozuka
but there is one judge totally falls in love with her and gave her over 7.5 for all components...lol

shikure wrote:

spoiler http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpusa2011/SEG003.HTM
ladies live stream http://www.parom.tv/sport2

Haruka http://t.co/uuPVJgsK she was in group 1 and I think she should get higher score
In addition, it's confirmed that Haruka is with Yuka team now
DSC ladies are all in PINK...lovely
All ladies in SA are in lovely / beautiful dress ~joy to watch

The link didn't work for me because of flash player.

Much better outing from the ladies compared to the men. A very happy CaroZ is in 3rd, Haruka skates a lovely SP and is in 4th (UR call on the 2A), and Alissa is in 1st over CaroK, mainly due to an obvious spin GOE difference. Alissa's (continued) consistency is really nice to see.

Haruka has a great chance at making the podium here! I hope she can pull it off this time.

shikure! i knew you'd be thrilled for haruka. i am too. you mentioned she might have been ill, so i was holding my breath. i noticed that she remembered to keep her shoulders down better than during one of the summer shows, and her arm movements seemed to be more on the music. really excellent progress for haruka the artist

for my money, haruka's pretty-in-pink performance trumped alissa's. haruka's smile is so warm--her skate to the boards with stuffed animals in her arms is just... awww....

i'm glad to see caroline zhang's persistence paying off (no DG's or UR's).

carolina kostner had stumbles here and there, but as a general skating fan and mao fan, i feel very encouraged by this program. caro's dress is less hideous than past dresses, and more importantly, that program is more interesting than any other lady's short program that i've been able to spy on youtube this season (even TAT's bolero for adelina S). there's still a creative streak within lori nichol. even if mao stays with lori and doesn't move on to other choreographers like camerlengo, dickson, or kenji miyamoto, there's still hope

it looked to me like alissa c two-footed her first jump (toe-pick went down). LOL it wouldn't be a skating competition if i didn't disagree with the judges.

skfan wrote:

shikure! i knew you'd be thrilled for haruka. i am too. you mentioned she might have been ill, so i was holding my breath. i noticed that she remembered to keep her shoulders down better than during one of the summer shows, and her arm movements seemed to be more on the music. really excellent progress for haruka the artist

for my money, haruka's pretty-in-pink performance trumped alissa's. haruka's smile is so warm--her skate to the boards with stuffed animals in her arms is just... awww....

i'm glad to see caroline zhang's persistence paying off (no DG's or UR's).

carolina kostner had stumbles here and there, but as a general skating fan and mao fan, i feel very encouraged by this program. caro's dress is less hideous than past dresses, and more importantly, that program is more interesting than any other lady's short program that i've been able to spy on youtube this season (even TAT's bolero for adelina S). there's still a creative streak within lori nichol. even if mao stays with lori and doesn't move on to other choreographers like camerlengo, dickson, or kenji miyamoto, there's still hope

it looked to me like alissa c two-footed her first jump (toe-pick went down). LOL it wouldn't be a skating competition if i didn't disagree with the judges.

skfan, good to see you around are you the last judge in the panel who gave higher scores to Haruka than Alissa ? (joking )
I was totally scared by Haruka when I saw this on her FB yesterday morning "コーチもジェラミーも友達も吐いちゃって、遥も昨日から熱出て吐くし、なんか変な菌でも回ってるのかな…(>_<)"
so when I saw her on live stream with lovely smile on her face, I am so happy
and I always like her picking up fan's gift or skates to the board to get the gift from fans directly.

but she got e on her 3Lz then UR called on 2A==> and don't know why there are some judges hates her 3Lo. if she can deliver a stable performance, she can be on podium.

Carolina, felt like she was a little unsure of herself in the program but it's beginning of the season maybe she needs more time. Her dress...because other ladies wore lovely / beautiful dress here, her dress is not good compared to others. but I have seen AS's SP dress, Carolina will not be the worst dress winner for SP this year.

Alissa, she just skates to a program fit her well. Nothing bad but nothing makes me exciting. but a least she is always the joy to watch and really deserves the score.

Caroline, good to see her coming back and it's really tough for ladies grow up in short time and lose all the lightness.

rest of ladies, don't know what is going on. but Elene's dress reminds me Miki's dress of JO this year.
The dress fits her well but it's pity she was not in good shape.

Guys, what do you think about Ksenia's program? I love it and I think if Mao would skate it it will become a masterpiece.

polosatik wrote:

Guys, what do you think about Ksenia's program? I love it and I think if Mao would skate it it will become a masterpiece.

Love the music. Can you imagine Mao hitting every note and expressing it with her whole body! The scores would go off the roof.

OT- is it just me or did Bazarova lose weight? She seemed scary thin on tv.

zarinaballerina wrote:

polosatik wrote:

Guys, what do you think about Ksenia's program? I love it and I think if Mao would skate it it will become a masterpiece.

Love the music. Can you imagine Mao hitting every note and expressing it with her whole body! The scores would go off the roof.

OT- is it just me or did Bazarova lose weight? She seemed scary thin on tv.

Mmm I think she is almost the same like she was last year, i doubt she lost weight. She always was very thin.

I don't know with you guys but I really didn't like alssa's program it was soo boring, and so repetitive with the same movement all the way and with nothing original in that program, the only thing I really liked was her gourges spins.. and because of that I was really surprised to see her beeing in first place, because the four who are right behind her skated much much better and alot more originality...but the judges seem to like her alot if oe looks at her PCS score quite overscored if you ask me...

with the exception that I feel myself torn with carolinas program that is really odd but at the same time really original and different... I really didn't like the music but the choreography fit it really well, but technically her jumps always makes me soo nervous it really feels like she could fall at any moment, her landing were really shaaky and with her height it makes her falling look scary... the program was okay but didn't move me emotioally...


I really liked haruka and ksenas programs they where actually the ones I enjoyed the most... I just was really surprised when i saw haruka's PCS score since I think her program deserved more then that....

I love Ksenia SP! It's too bad about the jumps, but I was very proud of Ksenia that even after the mistakes she was fully committed to performing the program till the end. It's one of my favorite sp's this season.
And Carolina Kostner has a great, unusual short program as well. I think I would have her ahead of Alissa.

babayaga wrote:

I love Ksenia SP! It's too bad about the jumps, but I was very proud of Ksenia that even after the mistakes she was fully committed to performing the program till the end. It's one of my favorite sp's this season.
And Carolina Kostner has a great, unusual short program as well. I think I would have her ahead of Alissa.

Agreed with every word you wrote here. With clean jumps Ksusha's program will be a hit! At first I was afraid that she picked Averbuch as her choreographer( he is a choreographer for show Ice age, Ice and fire etc), but it came out sooo gorgeous!!! And the only explanation I can find for Alissa's 4 points lead is that this is Skate America.

I saw someone judging Haruka's performance on youtube link likes heself / herself can do it better for someone is sick and in pain, I think she was doing very good.

I read the interview she did after SP, she said she doesn't fully recover from her stress fracture yet. then, they need to limit her time for practicing jumps and also adjust the difficulty of jumps in her program. but she said she had done all she can do for now.

I got my GPS 2011~2012 guidebook and if I don't get that wrong, Haruka had two parts of stress fracture on her right leg / foot and she was in pain for six months. finally, she was diagnosed having stress fracture at July. Her next GP assignment is CoR, hope she can recover better during the period.

Okay, I'm headed to Citizens Bank Arena to watch the pairs free and ladies! Then I have to kill a few hours until we watch the exhibitions. I have the best boyfriend ever! We flew in from Chicago on a four hour flight plus the commute & wait time at the airport, so it took us 6 hours to get to my parents' house and we literally just got to the door, left our stuff, and are headed there now!

Anyone else going there? I've always wanted to meet you guys in person.

maowataiyo wrote:

Okay, I'm headed to Citizens Bank Arena to watch the pairs free and ladies! Then I have to kill a few hours until we watch the exhibitions. I have the best boyfriend ever! We flew in from Chicago on a four hour flight plus the commute & wait time at the airport, so it took us 6 hours to get to my parents' house and we literally just got to the door, left our stuff, and are headed there now!

Anyone else going there? I've always wanted to meet you guys in person.

Wow, that's truly awesome! Have lots of FUN at the rink! ☆～☆～☆～☆ The Ladies free is on now live over at pay channel, hikari tv; channel 556, started around 6:40 am JST so i woke up a little early again today just to watch it Lots of pink dresses among the Ladies in the first group. Elene G. of Georgia bounced back from her rough short yesterday to a satisfying free today and currently on lead next now to Ksenia M. Second group is coming, good luck ladies esp. HARUKA IMAI 頑張ってはるかちゃん！＼(^o^)／ ETA : too bad for CaroZ (fell thrice and scored 140. 70 total score) . Haruka had some problems on her jump landings, her My fair lady jazz program earned fairly high on the artistic and presentation aspect, but her technical scores are slim. The thing I was worried about the 4 minute free, considering she was injured just this summer and stamina will be vital at free. Though I'm still proud of you HARUKA for pushing yourself and competing.

I laughed at the judging in the ladies long. Talk about being held up--alissa was like a ghost out there. But look at all those empty seats--the USFSA is desperate for a star, any star to annoint and sell to the public.

The good news is, Carolina Kostner can indeed dress beautifully, Lori can still choreograph an interesting program (two such programs actually), Carolina still has her spark and watching her is still a joy. Haruka looked under the weather, and I don't really like the overly flirty style Yuka's long program foisted on her, but Haruka brought a lot of character and spark to certain moments in the program. I think it bodes well for Haruka's expressiveness in the long run.

i really fear for Mao sometimes--when i think of the judging, and the long road she has til sochi. sick, the politics and such. oh well. it's figure skating, what can you do. as long as mao enjoys her journey, hardships and all.

Agreed. I like Alissa, but she was held up like crazy. You think they'd at least be more subtle about it. . . Alissa's dress was beautiful though.

I cannot believe I'm complaining that Carolina Kostner was robbed by the judges I never thought this day will come but now I feel bad for her. To me, she outskated Alissa at both SP and LP. Strange.

Overall, it seems like very poorly skated event in all disciplines. Probably the late end of last season shows.

skfan wrote:

I laughed at the judging in the ladies long. Talk about being held up--alissa was like a ghost out there. But look at all those empty seats--the USFSA is desperate for a star, any star to annoint and sell to the public.

The good news is, Carolina Kostner can indeed dress beautifully, Lori can still choreograph an interesting program (two such programs actually), Carolina still has her spark and watching her is still a joy. Haruka looked under the weather, and I don't really like the overly flirty style Yuka's long program foisted on her, but Haruka brought a lot of character and spark to certain moments in the program. I think it bodes well for Haruka's expressiveness in the long run.

i really fear for Mao sometimes--when i think of the judging, and the long road she has til sochi. sick, the politics and such. oh well. it's figure skating, what can you do. as long as mao enjoys her journey, hardships and all.

I mostly agree with what you said above! Now I desperately need to see the protocols. _(^o^)ゞ This must be a joke though its not even funny. CaroK had it after Alissa finished skating, least I thought so. CaroK beat Alissa technically by 3 points or so. But Alissa were granted huge points artistically and the rest is history no-no. . . I mean its so clear Alissa messed up her jumps yet... σ(^_^)??? ☆ ETA: the GOE's given to Alissa should be clear from the book and must be explained and justify, at least for CaroK's sake.

CaroK did win the FS portion (although I do think she deserved higher PCS over Alissa today), and Alissa had -GOEs all over the place; only one jumping pass of hers had positive GOE, in addition to one URed jump AND two that were DGed. While her jump elements today were indeed strong, fact of that matter is that CaroK's 5-triple layout was completely subpar with no lutzes, just one 3F, and the repeated jump being a salchow. Having underwhelming spins doesn't help either - it was pretty clear even to the naked eye that CaroK didn't maximize her spin levels on the last two spins at all today, and it was reflected by both of them being stamped with level 1. The fact that CaroK's base value was practically equal to an error-filled Alissa speaks for itself. TES-wise there was no robbing whatsoever.

While unsatisfying, the ladies results this week were still within COP reasoning. "Held up like crazy" is what we might possibly be seeing next week IMO.

I was mostly thinking about PCS. Alyssa all of the sudden started to get higher PCS than Carolina, including skating skills, this has never happened in the past. I thought Carolina has one of the best SS in the world with her speed and power.

ETA: I take it back, their PCS were always close, and Alissa's were higher sometimes.

czisny didn't even deserve her lead in the short. she skated like somebody made off with her soul in the long.

so, no, i don't find this acceptable within COP.

also, just because czisny stopped crashing on her butt several times a program, doesn't mean that the *quality* of her skating skills has now surpassed kostner's. kostner has better speed, jumps that look asthetic (as upposed to still kinda ugly even when landed), to say nothing of her ability to express a range of emotions with her face and body.

IMO it's politics and it's sick. i just pray the skaters i care about won't be too badly hurt by it. they'll be fine, they're strong (so i tell myself--they must be strong to endure all that training). and i'm old and forgetful, so in a couple of days i can study lori's cut of mozart's concerto #27 and not think about that dull, dreary, skate to dull, dreary music that was laughably held up. kostner can skate that program better--and i hope she gets rid of that blade grab spin that just looks unaesthetic (i'm not so blind that i don't see faults with the skaters i love

skfan wrote:

czisny didn't even deserve her lead in the short. she skated like somebody made off with her soul in the long.

so, no, i don't find this acceptable within COP.

It most certainly wasn't acceptable to your own interpretation of COP, that's for sure.

Carolina not getting the levels on her last 2 spins cost her this gold. I hope she will work on that and maximize them next time (what's her next GP?) They looked very wonky. I disagree with the PCS as well but I was kinda expecting it anyway. The judges loooooooove the new Alissa and this is SA. To be honest, I find her a bit underwhelming so far. Her programs are very pretty princess, which I have nothing against in general, but it seems to me that all her programs are like that in recent years... I'd have liked a little more edge now that she's more confident. I prefer Carolina's style.

I do think the scoring should have been closer after the SP though. Alissa's 3F was clearly UR on the replay and all the commentators I heard so far called it, one (I don't remember who) even going so far as to say Alissa made a face when she saw the replay and knew it was UR... but the judges did not call it... Anyway, in the end, 0.13 could come down to so many tiny little things that could have been done differently, either on the judges side or on Carolina's. A 2L instead of a single at the end of her 3 jump combination would have been enough.

I'm very happy to see Carolina skating clean with a smile on her face! She looked relaxed and free out there and it's been such a long time since I've seen her like that...