We were watching World Figure skating championships in the beginning of this month on NBCSN and NBC channel.
It was nice to see Johnny & Tara in the commentary, but was wondering what happened to Terry Gannon ?
We both always love to see all three together.
About competitions, I liked the ladies competition this season the most.
The location is Boston, USA, so I was guessing it will be a great opportunity for top two USA skaters to be on the podiums.
Maybe except for France, all the other countries Russia, Canada, Japan, China also do the same thing , when the location is their hometown, usually the hometown skaters who are the top two can get bonus scores.
and this was the USA skater's turn.
Ladies Overall Results
1. Evgenia MEDVEDEVA RUS 223.86
2. Ashley WAGNER USA 215.39
3. Anna POGORILAYA RUS 213.69
4. Gracie GOLD USA 211.29
5. Satoko MIYAHARA JPN 210.61
6. Elena RADIONOVA RUS 209.81
7. Mao ASADA JPN 200.30
8. Rika HONGO JPN 199.15
9. Gabrielle DALEMAN CAN 195.68
10. Mirai NAGASU USA 186.65
Congratulations to all the medalists !!!
Artistically, my favorite performances are
1. Mao Asada FP
2. Evgenya Medvedeva FP
3. Satoko Miyahara FP
4. Anna Pogorilaya SP
5. Ashley Wagner SP
7. Mirai Nagasu FP
8. Elena Radionova FP
Actually artistry of Evgenia's FP and Satoko's FP and Anna's SP are all tie breaker for me.
They all did fantastic !
Evgenia Medvedeva
She is incredible.
Last season, she won the junior world title, and this year , yes, only one year later, she became senior world champion !!!
All the skaters have been dreaming to be a senior world champion.
Even the king on ice Evgeny Plushenko did not win senior world title so quickly after winning junior world title . He got World bronze medal after the season he got the junior world. ( same for Irina Slutskaya ).
We really enjoyed with her free program. I felt that the performance has charisma, with unique mysterious music and matching choreography.
She won everything except the Rostelecom Cup this season which she was placed 2nd.
Really successful season and a very well deserved winner.
Hopefully she will be able to handle her growing season, which will start soon.
Congratulations !!!
Ashley Wagner
It was very enjoyable to watch her short program performance and I really like it.
She was really on.
All her jumps in her short program were perfect with quality smooth landing. I'm still not crazy for her spins which she often does with one straight arm up while spinning.
Her spins are not artistic and more of mechanical.
For her free program, it was a good performance, but not so crazy for the music except for the finale part of music. and she has been using this program since last season, so I got bored and not so inspired much.
I preferred to see new program every season.
I loved her Saint Sean's Samson and Delilah program the best.
But it's great she finally got world medal.
Congratulations on winning a silver medal !
She created that moment by herself to grab this great opportunity to get the world medal .
From the next season, I guess her reputation will be more up , and it will influence her PCS.
Anna Pogorilaya
She was amazing !
When I first saw her skating in 2013 - 2014 season, I felt she looked the most care for artistry of all the young ladies Russian skaters.
But somehow, after that, in 2014 -2015 season, I found she wasn't skating like in 2013 - 2014 season anymore so I was not so inspired her skating anymore.
But in this competition, she brought back her artistic movements again. I really love her short program performance.
It was really excellent !
I felt she was the best in the short program.
For her free program, It was also great, but maybe the program needed more charisma and impact which has ups and down movements.
The choreography was not so matching the music. IMO
It would be better if it had more eye catching movements which fit with the music.
Overall I feel she could get a silver medal if the location of this event was not held in the USA.
Congratulations on winning a world bronze medal !
Gracie GOLD
It might be a great opportunity to get her first world title if she skated clean both programs.
But the pressure must have been huge.
I liked her free program performance in US Nationals competition this year, because she was fierce and her jumps were powerful even though I didnt like her arm and shoulder movements.
and in this competition , I didn't feel there was any art in her performance.
All her movements looked heavy with arm flapping, with straight arms. Her shoulder movements look always stiff. and it was also slower than usual.
Technically, her jumps are big and powerful.
Great 3lz +3T combo in her short program.
I wish her skating has more originality, so that I don't get bored.
Hopefully, she will take a class for ballet and dance to learn the basic of artistic movements and feel the rhythm of music.
Even though I'm not a fan of her skating, I like to see her gorgeous looks .
It's good to have this kind of figure skater as advertisement for the sport.
Satoko MIYAHARA
She is a beautiful skater who has her original way of skating and always fun to watch, so I love watching her skating.
Technically, in her short program, her first jump combo's second jump triple toe loop looked under rotation but the final jump triple flip looked full rotation to me.
but it was judged as opposite for those jumps.
In her free program, I thought she landed all the jumps without UR after seeing it all slow-motion in the video.
Her spins are beautiful and artistic using her finger tips, hands, and arms .
I often felt the skating style and the way how skaters move shows their personality.
Her spiral is well stretched and beautiful as well. She looks very neat in personality .
Artistically , only thing missing is deep emotion. Her expression is getting better and better.
In her short program's tango, it might better to show more passion using ups and down movements.
But I really love her free program performance. It's very lovely and beautiful.
Elena RADIONOVA
In my impression, she was the most speedy skater in this ladies competition , plus the program is very difficult.
The jumps she did in her free program were
3Lz+3T ( huge powerful jumps, a little scratchy landing though it was clean )
3F ( clean landing )
3Lz ( a little losing a balance but landed well )
3Lo+1lo+ 3S ( clean )
2A ( clean )
3Lo+2T ( not smooth landing but clean)
2A ( not smooth landing but clean )
Maybe if the quality of her jumps get better, she could have got higher GOE and could get on the podium.
Her spins are unique and artistic.
Love how she uses her arms and hands while spinning.
Artistically, I think she has her own original way of skating and always interesting to watch.
Her arm movements are often straight and a lot of attack so I think she needs more softness to have good balance of movements.
Very emotional and great expression. Her costumes are always interesting and unique.
I don't know who is choosing her costumes, but if she is the one who is choosing all her costumes, I think she really is an artist.
Overall , great job !!
Even though I 'm not crazy for both of the music Sp and FP, but I like her free program performance.
Mao ASADA
I love her artistry in her free program ( Madam Butterfly ) the best in this event. It was so clear to see and makes me to realize that she really is a veteran skater all the way.
Even though a few of her jumps were under rotation , her performance execution was awesome for her Madam Butterfuly !!!
Every detail of her movements are really naturally artistic and beautiful. and she does it easily, there is nothing mechanic in her movements.
Her short program was lovely and fun with good rythm.
Her expression and emotion were much better than before. In the beginning of this season, when I first time watched her Madam Buttefly program, I was not sure I like it or not even though she skated clean , but now I really love it.
It became one of my favorite performances of her programs , as well as her Nocturne No. 2 by Chopin, and Swan Lake by Tchaikovski and Prelude in C-sharp minor by Rachmaninoff.
After one year break from all the competitions, she did really great !
I'm looking forward to seeing her new programs next season.
Rika HONGO
She is a very speedy powerful skater and her skating reminds me of Evan Lysacek. so I feel like she is a woman version of Lysacek.
Lack of artistic movement, but has a lot of energy and speed so I feel her performance fit with this judging system.
Hopefully she will take a dance class to learn the basic of artistic movement and body language. and more feel with music so that the emotion will appear naturally.
But her movements got better than last season since Akiko Suzuki started teaching her artistic movement.
I love her free program costume. It looks elegant and gorgeous.
Mirai NAGASU
It was great to see her doing difficult jump combination 3F + 3T+ 2T, and landed excellently in her free skate ! ( even thought marked as not clear edge )
I've heard that she was working with a Russian coach Mishin for her jumps during the summer time (?) last year.
I think her jumps have improved compared to last seasons even though she still got a few UR jumps.
Artistically , I was watching her 2010 Vancouver Olympics free skate performance, and noticed she has changed her movements since 2010 - 2011 season.
In all her performances, my favorite Mirai's performance is still 2010 Vancouver Olympics Free skate.
Mirai Nagasu 2010 Vancouver Olympics Free skate
I don't know why but her skating had much more charisma at that time than present, from after the Olympics seasons.
Somehow she has lost something and she is not skating like at that time anymore.
I know she has natural talent for skating, but something has changed.
Choreography of both programs this season were not bad, but it didn't make me to watch over and over like her Vancouver Olympics performance.
Hopefully she will figure it out and will have more charismatic programs and skating next season.
It was sad to hear Polina Edmunds had to withdraw the world championships due to injury.
When I watched her US Nationals performances, I really loved her SP performance.
I think she is the most artistic US skater right now.
But for her free program "Gone with the wind", I didn't feel Scarlett's image and character fit her.
My image of Polina is " wind " but Scarlette's image is " fire ", so burning strength and passion and sharpness of movements were lacking in the program, IMO.
It looked too soft and dry.
I love the story very much, so I may have my own image of Scarlette Ohara though.
Hopefully her injury is not serious and get full recovery soon.
I'm looking forward to seeing her next season's performances.