US Nationals

Mirai's score! It must've been those f*cked off downgrades. Forgive my vocabulary.

But that program was soooo much better than earlier in the season!! Go Mirai! 2nd is good and she received the highest PCS

3 DG's. Eek. Still, second overall; congrats Mirai! And Rachael too, on her first US title!

Here's hoping USFSA won't go crazy and just pick Rachael and Mirai as their Olympic picks.

When will the team be announced?

MikiAndoFan#1 wrote:

When will the team be announced?

Not so sure. The broadcast said to tune in to IN and nbcolympics.com for the announcement so I'll be waiting.

ETA: IN just announced that the Olympic Team press conference will begin at 1:00AM ET, so we have about an hour and a half left.

I didn't realize that Rachael has such a high base value......

Does anyone else think Mirai should have, if not won, then been much closer to Rachael's score? Her jumps have gotten so much better and they didn't look UR-ed to me. Mirai's spins and spirals and just overall musicality and presentation just seemed levels above Rachael.

Do you guys think they'll pick Mirai for the second Olympic spot? I'm a bit worried they'll pick Ashley because of her international record this past year. I hope they take into consideration the fact that Mirai has improved so much over the season, especially in this competition.

bellarina wrote:

Does anyone else think Mirai should have, if not won, then been much closer to Rachael's score? Her jumps have gotten so much better and they didn't look UR-ed to me. Mirai's spins and spirals and just overall musicality and presentation just seemed levels above Rachael.

Do you guys think they'll pick Mirai for the second Olympic spot? I'm a bit worried they'll pick Ashley because of her international record this past year. I hope they take into consideration the fact that Mirai has improved so much over the season, especially in this competition.

Mirai's jumps definitely looked stronger this Nats, so the 3 DGs are confusing me as well (the 3T on her 2A-3T looked OK to me, but guess not). I do think Rachael has improved considerably in terms of presentation and it looks like she got the levels on most of her spins and spirals in the LP - not to mention the jump content is a lot more packed than Mirai - so I don't mind her winning the competition.

That said, I definitely agree that the scores between Mirai and Rachael should have been closer. The tech caller caught DG-fever like at Japanese Nats '08, which I never enjoy. Heck, the protocols for the ladies' LP is really not making much sense to me at all.

ETA: IN started the press conference coverage! @ Phil Hersh asking questions.
ETA2: Jeeze these journalists are asking some rather venomous questions to the Ice Dance reps.
ETA3: The reps are indeed Rachael and Mirai! Congratulations.
ETA4: Final group is on the ice now for the West Coast broadcast of the Ladies' FS (confirmed on both TVU and TVAnts).
ETA5: LOL @ some of Rachael and Mirai's answers in their conference.

I'm happy for Rachel and especially Mirai for making the Olympic team, but a little sad for Sasha- she tried her best though, and deserves a round of applause for her comeback

Congratulations to Rachael and Mirai for making the Olympic team! I am not familiar with Rachael's skating, but from what I've heard, she is very consistent and has great technique. And Mirai - it's difficult not to fall in love with her. I haven't seen her LP at Nationals yet, but I was so impressed by her SP. The speed with which she covered the ice, the lightness of her jumps, flexibility in her spins and spirals and, most importantly, the spark in her performance . Both Olympic places are totally well deserved, in my opinion.

However, as someone who was introduced to the world of figure-skating by Sasha Cohen, I cannot truly say that I did not hope that Sasha would pull off an awesome LP and make the team. Although my heart now belongs to Mao , I was first a Sasha fan. I don't know how many times I've watched and rewatched her 'Dark Eyes' program at the 2006 Olympics. I was so, so happy when I heard that Sasha was making a comeback this season.

So, despite Sasha not making the team, my respect for Sasha is now greater than ever before. How difficult it must have been to get back into shape for competition, both mentally and physically, after four years! Whatever her decisions from here on in, whether to retire from competition or to keep competing in the many seasons to come, I will continue to cheer for her. Go Sasha!

Ok, so at first, after seeing Marai's scores pop up, I was like, "WTF?! NOOOOO!!!" But I just read that Rachael's program was more technically difficult, and three of Marai's jumps were downgraded. So I guess after being able to see the reason behind the scores, I'm a little calmer now. Lol. Although I would not put Rachel in the same catagory as Mao, Yuna, and Joannie, like these judges did... The rest of the scores, and placements all seemed pretty reasonable to me. In fact, IMO, this ladies competition was one of the most reasonable, fairly judged competitions all season. Rachael was the only one who really seemed to have an inflated score.

Although I don't really enjoy Rachael's skating very much, she IS the best the US has competitor wise - she's the most consistent, she seems to be very strong mentally, and she's pretty strong technically. Although she was not one of the top girls I was hoping to make it to the olympics, I was pretty much counting on her to earn one of those spots. And although I hate to say it, I think she will probably fair a little better than Marai at the olympics. I hope I'm wrong on that though. Congrats to them both!

As for Sasha, I'm left disappointed. I LOVED her SP, but her LP just had too many mistakes. It still had that impossible to not be there Sasha beauty, but it just wasn't enough. At least everyone, including her, can agree that it was her skating which got her 4th, and cost her spot on the olympics team, and that it was NOT because of the judges. Everyone was rooting for her. All she had to do was step up, and grab it. What I saw tonight was the Sasha I remember from back in the day, unfortunately. IDK, maybe if she'd had those other competitions under her belt this season, things would have been different for her. Or maybe not. But either way, it's done now. Would have been nice to see her compete those two programs more than once, but I'm not expecting her to compete any more

Well, good luck to Marai and Rachel at the olympics!

Here's the link to one of the articles I read. It's pretty informative:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=399985.html

I'm so happy for Mirai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When she finished I thought she won, but yeah all these UR I need to watch it again, does anyone have links?
I'm very dissapointed for Sasha, but to be honest I didn't think she could make the team, so i was expected it.

I was trying not to anticipate Sasha's performances too much here, because half of me still didn't quite believe that she'd be there at all, and the other half remembered how Sasha can be brilliant one moment and collapse the next. I love her skating, but it just wasn't there for her. I so wish that I could have seen her skate that LP cleanly, because I think it would have been so beautiful, so etherial...but the mistakes took away from that beauty. I hope she is able to put this behind her and get on with her life, and remember that she has won an Olympic silver medal, after all. Not many skaters can say that--even Michelle couldn't do better.

As for the rest, I am happy for Rachael and Mirai, though those downgrades took me by surprise too. Rachael's score seemed a little high, but she did land a lot of jumps, and I think judges like to reward consistency. She is a good competitor, certainly, and may be the US's best chance to finish well.

I have to confess, I wish Ashley was somehow on the team, because I actually enjoyed her free skate the best. But I guess the short program has to count...

My favorite portion of this competition was the ice dance, though--especially Davis & White!

illani wrote:

Did Christina Gao remind anyone else of Yu-Na? I guess that's to be expected, given that Orser's her coach and she trains with Yu-Na...not to mention that she is her idol. Something about her posture and particularly the way she goes into her jumps just reminded me so strongly of Yu-Na.

OMG, illani, that's EXACTLY what I thought!! My friend and I were freaking out; it was like she was channeling Yu-Na!! Right down to the shy smile at the end! It was uncanny, really!

Well, I will say that I was mighty pissed off about the ladies' result. Mirai is my second favorite skater in the world, and I think the crowd totally thought they were watching the soon-to-be-crowned US champion too. Well, kudos to her for pulling off two clean performances (bahh to the technical specialist), and THANK GOODNESS they're sending her to the Olympics. (I wonder if Mao sent her a good-luck fax like she did two years ago. )

Rachel Flatt - well, what can you say when the best thing the commentators can say about you is that you're consistent? I don't think her jump technique is that great, either; she mule kicks like the others but I guess she completes the rotations. She's a sweet girl, a great competitor, but I am so not a fan...

I have to say though, that watching the US ladies overall was quite painful. My 3 friends and I were literally holding our breaths before everyone jumped--with the exception of Mirai, perhaps. Everyone's take-offs just look so shaky that I was amazed that they landed the jumps (though there were quite a few splats). I guess I've been horribly spoiled by the Japanese ladies. (Yep, what a world of difference Japan Nat's were!)

HOORAY FOR MERYL & CHARLIE!!! Their free dance was AMAZING!! I love them!