pointedly ignores goings-on in dc-comics-land
"what the fuck is gwen even talking about anymore" post part two: ladies!
Yuna Kim (South Korea): She's nicknamed "the Queen" for a reason. She holds the world records for highest short program, free skate/long program, AND total scores. She's the reigning Olympic champion, and they make a big deal about how with her scores she could have placed within the top ten in the men's event; what they don't tell you is that if men's and ladies skating had the same requirements and were scored in the same way she could have got a medal in the men's event, even without a triple axel. She seemed to have peaked at the Olympics though, and hasn't been competing much since. This season she skipped the Grand Prix circuit entirely and entered (and won) a random B-level competition in Germany instead; even in that single international competition she got the second-highest score of any woman so far this season. Here's her vampire-themed short program:
Mao Asada (Japan): And Yuna's longtime rival (they're almost exactly the same age). She does have a triple axel this season, and she's the only woman right now who does. (She placed second in Vancouver despite being the first woman to ever land three triple axels in the same competition.) And unlike both reigning champions, she's actually done the full season this year-- and has placed first in every event she's entered. She's had a rough couple of years, but Mao is definitely back. And did I mention she's got her triple axel back? Here's her SP, from the Four Continents Championship:
Carolina Kostner (Italy):: Reigning World Champion. She took the first half of the season off for health reasons, so I wasn't sure whether she'd be as successful this year. Like Yuna, she entered and won a B-level competition; but that's hardly a challenge for A-list skaters. But she also held on to her European title and showed the world that she's on-form again and still a contender. She's skating to Ravel's Bolero, a piece which is... Heard a LOT in skating; but she's kind of first person since the iconic 1984 ice dance version I've seen actually do an interesting Bolero:
(Carolina's SP is also vampire themed, if someone were to write me a Yuna/Carolina vampire AU I would probably love them forever. /most predictable human)
Akiko Suzuki (Japan): The oldest competitor in the ladies event, at 27 (positively ancient by singles skater standards). She's had a problem this year where if she skates well in the short program she falls apart in the free but if she has a lousy short she claws her way back up in the free. If I thought she could do both programs clean she'd be a definite medal contender. I'm posting both of her programs because I think they're two of the best this season; her PCS marks have been way WAY lower than deserved.
Free skate, to Cirque du Soleil music:
Short program, to the Kill Bill score:
Ashley Wagner (USA): She's done remarkably well this season for a woman who doesn't have a triple/triple jump combination. It looks like she may have peaked early in the season though; Ashley just barely hung on to her national title. I like her, she seems like a sweetheart and I enjoyed what she did on the Stars on Ice tour last year. Here's her free skate:
So that's what I expect the top five to look like. Potential spoilers:
Adelina Sotnikova: (Russia) This will be Adelina's first senior worlds; she's sixteen and was born exactly one day too late to be eligible last year. She had some problems early in the season with some of her jumps being ruled invalid, but she's bounced back well; she won the short program at Euros and was less than a point behind Carolina overall:
Liza Tuktamysheva (Russia): The other (or should I say one of the others? The other that you need to know about right now, anyway) tiny Russian girl. She's certainly got the raw talent but her skating needs to mature a lot before I'll take her seriously as a contender. (Her coach, Alexei Mishin, is, shall we say... Known for focusing on jumps, so the artistic maturity I'd like to see from her may be a long time coming.) Here's her free skate from Europeans, where she placed third:
In addition to the two very young Russian women there are also two young North American women, making their senior debuts this year, who have been getting a lot of press. They've both been very inconsistent this year, I don't think either has a very real chance, but a recap of this season needs to have them in it.
Kaetlyn Osmond (Canada): Came out of nowhere and won Skate Canada, her first-ever senior Grand Prix event. After that the pressure was on her, but until then nobody really knew who she was. (Skate Canada had a pretty weak/inconsistent ladies' field this year; I like Kaetlyn a lot but she would not have won with that score at some of the other Grand Prix events). Canada does this thing where we pretend not to want to put too much pressure on our young skaters and then we turn around and compare them to some of the greatest skaters in history; commentator Tracy Wilson has claimed that the person Kaet reminds her most of is (two-time Olympic champion) Katarina Witt:
Gracie Gold (USA): I'll be honest here, I really don't like Gracie Gold. The United States Figure Skating Association has been hyping her all season and she's yet to skate two clean programs. She almost won US Nationals this year.... Entirely on the strength of her free skate, since her short was a disaster and she was ninth. I'm not going to be mean though so I will post her Nationals FS:
Some other people who will probably round out the top ten are China's Zijun Li and Japan's Kanako Murakami; I like them both well enough but this post is getting LONG.
Finally someone I wish was going to Worlds but isn't:
Christina Gao (USA): NO BIG DEAL JUST GONNA QUALIFY FOR THE GRAND PRIX FINAL AT THE LAST MINUTE, FLY IN, SKATE, AND THEN FLY BACK HOME TO DO MIDTERMS. How is Christina Gao even a real person? I am in awe of her. USFSA, sadly, is not. Here she is in a surprise second-place finish at Skate America:
This entry was originally posted at http://gwenfrankenstien.dreamwidth.org/70251.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Yuna Kim (South Korea): She's nicknamed "the Queen" for a reason. She holds the world records for highest short program, free skate/long program, AND total scores. She's the reigning Olympic champion, and they make a big deal about how with her scores she could have placed within the top ten in the men's event; what they don't tell you is that if men's and ladies skating had the same requirements and were scored in the same way she could have got a medal in the men's event, even without a triple axel. She seemed to have peaked at the Olympics though, and hasn't been competing much since. This season she skipped the Grand Prix circuit entirely and entered (and won) a random B-level competition in Germany instead; even in that single international competition she got the second-highest score of any woman so far this season. Here's her vampire-themed short program:
Click to viewMao Asada (Japan): And Yuna's longtime rival (they're almost exactly the same age). She does have a triple axel this season, and she's the only woman right now who does. (She placed second in Vancouver despite being the first woman to ever land three triple axels in the same competition.) And unlike both reigning champions, she's actually done the full season this year-- and has placed first in every event she's entered. She's had a rough couple of years, but Mao is definitely back. And did I mention she's got her triple axel back? Here's her SP, from the Four Continents Championship:
Carolina Kostner (Italy):: Reigning World Champion. She took the first half of the season off for health reasons, so I wasn't sure whether she'd be as successful this year. Like Yuna, she entered and won a B-level competition; but that's hardly a challenge for A-list skaters. But she also held on to her European title and showed the world that she's on-form again and still a contender. She's skating to Ravel's Bolero, a piece which is... Heard a LOT in skating; but she's kind of first person since the iconic 1984 ice dance version I've seen actually do an interesting Bolero:
(Carolina's SP is also vampire themed, if someone were to write me a Yuna/Carolina vampire AU I would probably love them forever. /most predictable human)
Akiko Suzuki (Japan): The oldest competitor in the ladies event, at 27 (positively ancient by singles skater standards). She's had a problem this year where if she skates well in the short program she falls apart in the free but if she has a lousy short she claws her way back up in the free. If I thought she could do both programs clean she'd be a definite medal contender. I'm posting both of her programs because I think they're two of the best this season; her PCS marks have been way WAY lower than deserved.
Free skate, to Cirque du Soleil music:
Short program, to the Kill Bill score:
Ashley Wagner (USA): She's done remarkably well this season for a woman who doesn't have a triple/triple jump combination. It looks like she may have peaked early in the season though; Ashley just barely hung on to her national title. I like her, she seems like a sweetheart and I enjoyed what she did on the Stars on Ice tour last year. Here's her free skate:
So that's what I expect the top five to look like. Potential spoilers:
Adelina Sotnikova: (Russia) This will be Adelina's first senior worlds; she's sixteen and was born exactly one day too late to be eligible last year. She had some problems early in the season with some of her jumps being ruled invalid, but she's bounced back well; she won the short program at Euros and was less than a point behind Carolina overall:
Liza Tuktamysheva (Russia): The other (or should I say one of the others? The other that you need to know about right now, anyway) tiny Russian girl. She's certainly got the raw talent but her skating needs to mature a lot before I'll take her seriously as a contender. (Her coach, Alexei Mishin, is, shall we say... Known for focusing on jumps, so the artistic maturity I'd like to see from her may be a long time coming.) Here's her free skate from Europeans, where she placed third:
In addition to the two very young Russian women there are also two young North American women, making their senior debuts this year, who have been getting a lot of press. They've both been very inconsistent this year, I don't think either has a very real chance, but a recap of this season needs to have them in it.
Kaetlyn Osmond (Canada): Came out of nowhere and won Skate Canada, her first-ever senior Grand Prix event. After that the pressure was on her, but until then nobody really knew who she was. (Skate Canada had a pretty weak/inconsistent ladies' field this year; I like Kaetlyn a lot but she would not have won with that score at some of the other Grand Prix events). Canada does this thing where we pretend not to want to put too much pressure on our young skaters and then we turn around and compare them to some of the greatest skaters in history; commentator Tracy Wilson has claimed that the person Kaet reminds her most of is (two-time Olympic champion) Katarina Witt:
Gracie Gold (USA): I'll be honest here, I really don't like Gracie Gold. The United States Figure Skating Association has been hyping her all season and she's yet to skate two clean programs. She almost won US Nationals this year.... Entirely on the strength of her free skate, since her short was a disaster and she was ninth. I'm not going to be mean though so I will post her Nationals FS:
Some other people who will probably round out the top ten are China's Zijun Li and Japan's Kanako Murakami; I like them both well enough but this post is getting LONG.
Finally someone I wish was going to Worlds but isn't:
Christina Gao (USA): NO BIG DEAL JUST GONNA QUALIFY FOR THE GRAND PRIX FINAL AT THE LAST MINUTE, FLY IN, SKATE, AND THEN FLY BACK HOME TO DO MIDTERMS. How is Christina Gao even a real person? I am in awe of her. USFSA, sadly, is not. Here she is in a surprise second-place finish at Skate America:
This entry was originally posted at http://gwenfrankenstien.dreamwidth.org/70251.html. Please comment there using OpenID.