Johnny was not in this event.
But Ray and I were curious to see some of the other skaters, Evan and Oda for men because they are one of the tough competitors for Johnny . and also for women, we wanted to see Miki Ando and Mao Asada .
Ray and I love Miki Ando right now. I was not really interested in her skating until I saw her new program at Campbel's Cup , because I thought her skating is boring but now she looked like totally different person from last Olympic and before.
She lost 10lb since last Olympic and looked really nice.
She changed her skating style, learned from great Russian coach who were also teaching Shizuka.
I loved Miki's both programs ( SP & LP).
She is a beautiful powerful skater. I know she is not as good as Sasha especially for her component but I loved her powerful jumps and straight line foot work. also I loved the way how she uses her hands and fingers. Very graceful. Also love her gorgeous costumes. ( SP & LP ) and also music was really great ! I love Russian music !
Miki won this competition at the score 192 ( total ) !!!!!!!.
This level is same as Irina and Sasha ! and that was much higher than the other skaters. Her technical score 70 , was really amazing !!!
Go Miki !!!
For others,
For others,
Mao 's ( Mao Asada ) SP was great. I've never impressed with her skating before, because I thought she had no emotion and not feeling with music and no art.
But in this SP program , she shows her ballet talent and more feeling with music. Her jumps looked easy and landed beautifully. I also love the music. ( Chopin )
She was in a top after SP, but lost it at FP because she made many mistakes with her jumps.
Finished at third place.
Kimmie did clean skate for FP and got silver medal. I'm not really crazy about her skating and after watching her skating, Miki looked really polished skater.
For Men,
Oda was great ! Just not my taste of skating but I could really see he improved a lot from last World Championship. Especially his component. He was more feeling with music and his movement looked natural. His jumps were more powerful than before. He is very dangerous competitor for Johnny, even I think Johnny's talent is high above from Oda, his jumps are very secure beside he seems he is strong with pressure.
Evan did brand new program for his SP, but it looked still in the process and not completed.
Music was boring, because so many other skaters were using the same music before.
His movement was not really good same as ever, I think he need better coarch . He is not creative like Johnny , Stephane, Sandhu and Plushenko, but if someone teach him how to use his body , arms and hands,
I think he will get it soon. because I think he is talented and much better than any other US skaters except Johnny.
His LP was same ( Carmen) as last season. I'm getting bored to see the same program many times.
He is very good at this program , and beat Oda at FP, but at total score, he finished at second place.