I'm really late to post this review, but it was so exciting to watch US Nationals championships !!
Competition is about finding the right mental balance and mind toughness, and I think people who get the right mind-set always win and did successful job.
It's so inspiring to watch all the skaters passion and watching whether they will achieve their goal or not.
For myself as a viewer , great performances are always the ones which make me remember, as unforgettable memories, more than any scores.
Especially, in Olympics seasons, all the countries put big scores for their best skaters to show how impressive their own country's skaters are.
All the countries want to win or get medals at Olympics.
and it looks like scores are getting higher and higher every olympics since the COP system.
Maybe 10 years from now, the world record for short program score will be over 150 ?? , for Long program will be over 200 ?? lol
Actually, when we recently watched around 1998's National's championships, skaters steps looked much less complicated, and speed looked much slower than present skaters level. So technically skaters level are getting higher and higher.
Artistically, there are a few skaters who have natural talent in every generation.
and I noticed that PCS are not an art score, because I've read articles and interviews with the skating judges, where they mention that they are not professional artists.
There is a basic of movements, of how to move, to make great art using body movement , but judges have been giving huge PCS scores to skaters who do not know and have not learned the basics of movement. Professional dancers or ballet dancers and their coaches know this, and can see this .
But when a skater comes along that knows these basics, and has the talent to apply it, it's always so fun and inspiring to watch breathtakingly great performances.
What excitement !!
Congratulations to all the medallists and also to the skaters who made Olympics spots !!!
Men
1. Jeremy Abbott - 274.27
2. Jason Brown - 270.08
3. Max Aaron - 260.44
4. Joshua Farris - 248.06
5. Richard Dornbush - 236.38
6. Douglas Razzano - 232.43
7. Ross Miner - 224.81
8. Adam Rippon - 222.19
9. Brandon Mroz - 208.69
10. Stephen Carriere - 203.25
Ladies
1. Gracie Gold - 211.69
2. Polina Edmunds - 193.63
3. Mirai Nagasu - 190.74
4. Ashley Wagner - 182.74
5. Samantha Cesario - 173.97
6. Courtney Hicks - 168.68
7. Barbie Long - 163.79
8. Christina Gao - 163.03
9. Hannah Miller - 161.41
10. Leah Keiser - 160.33
Sochi Olympics team USA
Men - Jeremy Abbott
Jason Brown
Ladies - Gracie Gold
Polina Edmunds
Ashley Wagner
Pair - Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir
Felicia Zhang and Nathan Bartholomay
Ice dance - Meryl Davis and Charlie White
- Madison Chock and Evan Bates
- Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani
While no one seems to have issues with the decision of men and pair and ice dance Olympic teams , there are many people who have problem with ladies decision.
I understand all the sides.
To avoid to have this kind of issue, from next season, I feel USFS may be better to have a rule that skaters who made good result in GPS competition and top ranking skater are locked to go to worlds/Olympics , or something like that.
There is no clear rule for it, so many people feel top 3 ( or 2 ) placements skaters will go to world/ Olympics. ( depending on the spot they have ).
and skaters also expect they will choose top 3 placements to go to Olympics/world.
As for me, I like Mirai and Ashley both and want both of them go to Olympics.
But I also love Polina's performance in Nationals and she landed 3Lz+3T easily and not one but two. and did 3F +1Lo + 3S combo in her free skate. Also she was planning to do 3Lz+3T+3T in SP.
Her artistry for LP looked very beautiful with a natural ballet style, pure grace.
She's a huge talent.
Gracie Gold's skating is not my cup of tea, though according to the rules, she won fairly even though I felt her PCS looked inflated.
If someone says because Ashley and Gracie were the ones who made 3 spots last Worlds, and also Ashley was the only skater who was successful in Grand Prix competition , who got to GPF, and got medal this season, I agree with it . However, if this is the reason, what about the case which happened to Johnny Weir in 2009 ?
Johnny got 2 silver medals in GPS competitions and one bronze in grand prix finale and mainly he ( worlds bronze) and Stephane Carrier ( 10th in worlds) were the ones who earned 3 spots in 2008's worlds.
Johnny was the top ranking skater in the USA at that time.
Then he got health issue and could not recover his condition back by the time of Nationals, and could not skate well and placed 5th in Nationals. and they didn't send him to worlds which was held in LA, USA.
So this is not the only reasons they selected Ashley.
In Japanese Nationals this season, they chose Daisuke who placed 5th, over Kozuka who placed 3rd this season.
Personally I feel it's better to send skaters who received generally successful results during the whole season. and Ashley has been the top ranking USA skater since 2 years ago, so only this Nationals 's one competition where she could not skate well.
In any case -
Out of the following skaters -
Yuna, Mao, Akiko, Julia, Adelina , Ashley or Gracie, Carolina ,
I feel one skater from Korea, one from Japan, one from Russia will be on the podium for ladies skating.
I'm pretty sure USA will get gold medal in Ice dancing and Russia for pair skating.
For men, gold is for Canada or Japan.
Chance of USA podium for ladies is not sure, maybe if Polina does 3Lz+3T+3T in her Short Program and 3Lz +3T twice successfully in her free program, she can earn points from her jumps and may get chance to get to the podium.
But since she is newbie in senior international competition, we don't know how they score her PCS. They usually don't give high PCS for newbie skaters , even though her PCS should be through the roof.
Mirai did good job in Nationals, she's another huge talent, so I also wanted to her to go to Olympics. but...consistency issues of this season, and maybe a little more challenging program might have been needed to be chosen.
For about Ashley, I always thought she is so strong, and she was the only skater who was announcing going to competition to win and to go to Olympics, during Grand Prix competition.
So I'm so surprised to see she was crying after her long program.
I've never seen her crying.
Can anyone imagine this difficult situation ?
Being the defending Champion's difficulty with mental toughness.
Olympics pressure will be bigger? but US Nationals competition look so tough to compete mentally , after seeing Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir.
I still remember that when Evan was defending Champion to challenge 2 time title in 2008, before the competiton, Frank Carol had to slap him to calm him down, because they said his whole body was shaking and panicking. and his movements in the performance looked very stiff, and made many mistakes.
Evan is known as strong mind, but for Nationals competition, he was not.
Ashley has been strong in international competition.
So if they didn't choose Ashley, it would have felt strange for me.
Ashley experienced that tough situation last Olympics season , she was the only skater who got to the Grand Prix finale in that season, so I thought they will send her, and she skated clean, both programs but she placed third , and there was only 2 spots in that year so she could not go.
She had never got spotlight until 2011 but I liked her performances since she was working with Priscilla Hill , her Borodin's music FP, Black swan's program and Saint Saen's FP last season were great. Actually her artistry has been getting better and better.
I'm happy for her, finally she got the ticket to Olympics.
Mirai is still 20 years old and next Olympics, she will be 24. I think she still has chance to go to Olympics.
I hope she wiill bring back her triple/ triple combo and improve to challenge more difficult program. She has natural talent all the way. Ashley, I feel is more effort type .
My reviews for Men & Ladies performances
Men
Jason Brown
Wheeee !!! He was awesome !!!
We got so nervous when Jason's turn came up, and could not watch him skating live , and realized how much we want him to skate well in such an important competition.
and you may not believe , how much he made me happy and exciting after hearing he rocked the house !!!!!
Since Johnny Weir, me and my husband haven't had become such a huge fan of a skater.
Hands down, his programs are our favorite performances in this competition.
What a gorgeous & exciting performance !
Crowds were passionately screaming every time Jason landed jump.
He really rocked the house that night ! One of the biggest standing ovations I have ever seen.
His only problem was his second triple axel jump, which became under rotated.
Everything else was fantastic.
His flexibility, musicality , every details of movements from toe to head, finger tips to shoulder.
He uses full body for every movement, so it's balancing.
In overall score, he placed 2nd but he won the Free skate with his killer performance !
Jason Brown FS at US Nationals 2014
Even though I felt his performance was fantastic , I was shocked to see the number of the viewers of his free skate video in youtube , above.
Now it's 3,292,754 people have viewed ( on Jan 29 ) and the number is still increasing !!!
It's incredible !!!
I have never seen such a large amount of viewer in men's skaters.
He is attracting many non-skating fans !!!
Non skating fans watch it as an entertainment, and if it's boring they don't watch.
Interesting thing is Jason didn't look nervous before he skates.
Just breathing lightly.
I remember Lambiel was like that, too.
Congratulations on winning a silver medal in Nationals and make Olympics ticket !!!! It's really amazing !
I'm so looking forward to watching his skating in Olympics Game !
Jeremy Abbott
Somehow I suddenly had a feeling that Jerremy may win after seeing what he was tweeting, his attitude , and also read about he lost weight 5 lb for nationals championships.
We were watching 2010 US Nationals Championships before the nationals competition, and when we saw Jeremy, he was much thinner than recently, maybe after Vancouver Olympics, he gained weight ? and had never seen him landed quad in the competition.
So I was feeling if he lost weight , he may be able to land quad (?).
It was a big surprise, he landed not single quad, but did combination jump 4T +3T ! Wow!
I think this kind of program and music really fit him.
Technically this performance may be his best SP ever, but personally I still prefer his Take Five performance he did in 2011 all the way.
But still, the choreography was interesting.
One part of choreography reminds me of Daisuke Takahashi's 2009 - 2010 season's free program.
Me and my husband's problem of his skating is his movements when he does slow, lyrical type of program.
He can skate with music, however, his upper body always looked stiff, and also his shoulders.
I think to make great art, every movements need to use full body which comes from center of body ( called chakra number 2, right below belly button ).
Arm movements need to be coming along with the shoulder line, but his shoulders are often stiff.
also he uses his arms not from both sides of shoulders but from top part of arm , so this doesn't make great balanced art.
Best way to learn how to use body and arm to make great art are to take a ballet class, if he wants to perform lyrical style with soft movements.
Until he fixes this problem, I will not be inspired by his artistry because for me it's the source of the movements that make beautiful art using the body.
Hope he will notice this before he retires from competitive skating.
But his mindset was really impressive in this event.
Getting 4 times US title is not easy, he didn't only achieve his goal , but gave many younger skaters hope, to be able to win at the age of 28 if you didn't give up.
Congratulations, and good luck at Sochi !!!
Richard Dornbush
For short program, I liked his performance after Jason Brown's SP and really enjoyed with it.
His quad and triple axel jumps were awesome , very powerful with flow and it was very entertaining with interesting choreography.
It was a big surprise because I have never impressed with his performances in the past.
I feel this kind of program really fit him. I think this is his best performance ever. He received big standing ovation.
In his Free skate, I felt sympathy he had to perform after Jason Brown 's huge applause and surely he heard Jason's huge scores.
It must be hard to focus to skate after that.
Max Aaron
I wonder he has a problem with his leg because of quad jumps ? His quad looked more stable in 2013's Nationals competition.
He is a speedy skater, he skated almost clean program without major mistake.
Our problem with his skating is his musicality and artistry.
He looked like he was thinking about only elements to elements, jump to jump, ignoring music, movements were not in rhythm with music at all.
and each move of his choreography was unfinished and was rushing to next move without any ups and downs.
I hope he will learn to feel with music , mentally and physically so that people will be more interested and enjoy with his performance.
I have a good impression of his personality, his attitude was very classy without any complaints. So I think he will improve with good motivation.
I felt Max and Jason and Richard looked nice personalities and have great sportsmanship, after seeing their attitude to their competitors when the competition ended.
Adam Rippon
He looked nice in his SP costume.
I wished him to go to Sochi Olympics with Jason Brown after seeing his NHK performance.
I really liked his programs this season, both SP and FP.
Many skating fans were predicting him to win Nationals this season.
I've heard that when the first jump was not successfully landing, it's easy to be influenced by it and difficult to move on. so easy to make another mistake, and then another one.
There were only 2 spots for US men to qualified to go to Olympics this season, so no wonder it gets pressure.
I hope he will continue working with his present coach and Tom Dickson's choreography because his artistry is great this season.
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I've read about that Alexander Johnson was unable to compete this season due to injury. We were really impressed with his skating and artistry last US Nationals and were looking forward to watching his skating again.
He is one of the greatest artistic skaters we've ever seen , besides Johnny Weir ( who has some big fans who are classic ballet coaches, and professional ballet dancers as well ), and Jason Brown, in USA skaters.
Hope he will come back next season with healthy body and look forward to seeing his skating.
Ladies
Gracie Gold
Great music choice which fit with her powerful skating.
Tchaikovsky 's music is emotional and has a big impact, so it's also influencing judge and crowds impression to remember. Besides Olympics location is Russia, which is Tchaikovsky' s home country.
She had only one minor mistake in her free skate and all the other parts she did everything she could. It was well deserved gold medal in this competition.
My favorite part of her performance was her finale spin in her free skate. That was quite artistic and beautiful.
In Grand Prix events, she received her straight line step sequence for level 3, and her 3Lz + 3T combo jump were not successfully landed, but all her spins were level 4.
About her artistry, I feel her movements are still not so improving compared with her 2013's Nationals.
Tchaikovsky' s music is very emotional and needs more ups and downs to coincide with the music. Her hands are often good, but her arms are often straight and stiff, so hopefully she will improve and show more body movement and artistry.
Polina Edmund
I really enjoyed with her free program. Her gentle grace is beautiful to watch , has a lot of artistic potential.
Maybe she knows ballet ? or she has natural artistic talent.
I was surprised to see that she was planning to do 3Lz + 3T+3T combination jump, even though she did only 3Lz+3T. It means in the future she will challenge to do 3Lz +3T+3T ? which I've never seen any ladies skaters done in the past.
Her steps have more room to improve, I feel she will be a US Champion in the future, and also will be a great rival of talented Russian young ladies, Julia LIPNITSKAIA, Elena RADIONOVA and Ana POGORILAYA who are all very talented 15 years old skaters.
Mirai Nagasu
It was so thrilled to watch her performances and I was glad she showed her best performances in this season.
In her Free program, in her first combination jumps, I was like wow, because how could she land with such an unbalancing air turning position ?
She was on fire, and fierce , and did best she could.
She received one of the biggest standing ovations, similar to Jason Brown's, I didn't know she is so popular .
I was so glad she was on the podium.
In Rostelecom Cup, her jumps were not counted as UR, and also Nationals as well.
So we know she can do jumps with full rotation when she is on.
Judges and federation care in the competition worlds seems to be always who medals.
So if she shows more successful result, by keep winning gold medals or at least silver medals whole season, USFSA will be impressed.
Making more challenging programs than other skaters , may improve her skating skill scores as well.
I really think she has a very natural talent for skating, artistically and technically, so training with a good coach who can pull out her full potential can change her present situation.
I wish her all the best.
Ashley Wagner
I've read that she had a boot problem in this competition and skated with foot pain. Maybe this was the reason she was not skating well ?
Also defending champion also sounds hard to make successful mind-set because of pressure.
I loved her last season's free program and also her black swan program, but this season, I was not so impressed with her performances for both SP and FP.
So I'm glad to hear that she will skate with her last season's free program for Olympics. It was very beautiful and loved her movements and the choreography.
For this season's free program, her expression and emotional movements with music looked weak when the music was really climax.
and the choreography was not so impressive.
I hope she will be able to land 3F+3T in Olympics. If she skates clean for both programs, I feel she will possibly be in top 4.
Samantha Cesario
We really enjoyed with her Carmen program. It's always nice to see an artistic skater's performance like her , who cares for every detail of movement. She is very musical, and passionate, even jumps with the music.
Only one part of the movements, which was in fast move in step sequence , when her arms didn't stop fully with the music , I thought it would be better to stop just one second, and then quickly to the next choreo.
I loved all the other parts of her performance. She has been landing all her jumps, whether some are counted as UR or not.
When I checked the protocol , she was planning to do Triple loop + triple loop for her triple loop + double loop combo jump !
I've heard that loop jump is very difficult, this is why no one ever landed quad loop (?).
While we are watching Jason Brown and Samantha Cesario's performances, we forgot about this is a competition, forgot to think about scores.
They are never boring.
Because their movements are so beautiful to watch.
For men, Alexander Johnson is also one of my favorite present skaters.
I look forward to seeing these kinds of artistic skaters will be champions in the future.
Because now, for Men - quads , and ladies - triple + triple jumps are required to be a champion nowadays.
Maybe scoring system can change ?
so that millions more people will be attracted to watch skating, like they did for that Jason Brown video.