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Olympic Ladies' FS: Yuna Kim

drinkingcocoa — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 01:17:34 GMT

Skating around to get the feel of the ice back after being backstage for so long.

Oh yes. Within the first five seconds, she's already established the choreographic mood of the program, with syncopated timing and dance. Watching this directly after seeing Sotnikova's -- it's a world apart.

3lutz-3toe is better than Sotnikova's. Beautiful. Unreal. Perfect arcs, steady pace in rotation, good speed coming out of the jumps which seems just impossible to me, clean trajectory, clean landings like Kostner's although Kostner's quality is a hushed whisper and Kim's is a noiseless glide. Both exquisite. +3.

Gorgeous syncopated steps into the buildup for the 3flip, which is another master class in a smooth sailing jump with evenly timed rotations. +2.

Good character to the Piazzola tango music, quiet effortless 3salchow-2toe. +1.

Directly into a flying camel Harding camel (yes, named after that Harding) sit change sit twist upright. The extraordinary thing about this spin is that it came right after a jump combination. The centering was good, the speed was decent, the positions lovely. +2.

Ahhh, I'm all about this tango-inflected circular step sequence! Here are a few things I love about this sequence: the path of the circle goes clockwise, against the natural rotation of the skater. She turns clockwise and counterclockwise both. She spends almost all of the sequence doing one-foot skating. She uses all eight edges while doing so: forward and backward outside and inside edges on each foot. She does this all with tango tempo, attitude, and subtlety. Her steps pick up on different elements of the music at different times, too. Seriously, this is good. +3.

Rest section, then building up speed for 3lutz. I thought the landing looked like there was a small error on it, but in slow motion it looked clean. The jump itself was huge and blazing fast. Looks like a +1 from home, but probably would have been +2 in the arena where I could have gotten a sense of the immense ice coverage.

Ahhhhh! A glorious Ina Bauer into 2axel-2toe-2loop! Oh, I do wish there were more time in these programs for skaters to hold those stretch moves like Ina Bauers. So beautiful. This jump combination is very well done and she achieved that miracle, a loop jump at the end of a combination that isn't cheated on the takeoff. I like her little smile during this sequence. She knew she did it well. +2.

Looking tired now, a bit labored into the approach to the big 3salchow. +1.

Yes, tired; her shoulders are starting to come up. Nice layback with three changes of position, good speed and number of rotations. I can hear Dick Button in my head, sniping about the position of her free foot, but she held her positions cleanly and the centering was spot on. +1.

Oh, tired champion. Spiral step sequence directly into a 2axel, gutsy to put that move at the very end like this when she's exhausted. Gorgeous textbook jump. +2.

Very good ending combination spin, gorgeous straight forward camel position onto on an outside edge, gorgeous broken sitspin position, good center on each foot, good speed on back sit, 15 forward rotations and 13 back rotations. +2.

It makes no sense that one judge gave this skater, in this performance, a 7.75 for "Transitions/Linking Footwork/Movement." What? Where? What about her transitions, linking footwork, and movement was anything but exquisite? 8.50 for "Skating Skills" and 8.25 for "Choreography/Composition" when she delivered everything in character, utilized almost all of her connecting steps to add to the program's meaning, and reached vastly more of the rink's area than Sotnikova? This is simply incorrect judging. Again, they had to artificially depress the numbers in order to produce the result they wanted -- I can understand that the judges wanted the result to be Sotnikova as champion so they had to fudge the numbers in whatever way they could to get that result, and I actually have sympathy for the point of view that rising to the moment at the Olympics is a score-able element...but those are not the criteria set out in the rules that people used to prepare for the competition, and that's what makes this unfair.

Her program was much, much more difficult than Sotnikova's. Instead of using the time between the jumping passes to rest and skate on two feet without much regard to the music, she poured her concentration into highlighting every beat of the music to create an overall performance. This is so much harder. It's in a different league. It is comparable to what Mao Asada achieved and, in my opinion, harder than what Kostner did, as Kostner had a bit more empty space in her transitions and packed her expression into that magnificent ending step sequence whereas Kim carried the theme of the program through a great many more expressive connecting steps, with fewer steps devoted just to building up speed or getting from one element to another.

In other words, Kim, Asada, and Kostner could have done Sotnikova's choreography in between the jump and spin elements, but Sotnikova could not have pulled off any of theirs, simply due to being at a younger stage in her career and not having had time to develop those skills yet. The sophistication -- by which I mean technical difficulty, although in a slightly different area than the technical difficulty involved in jumps and spins -- of Kim's program was several grades higher than Sotnikova's, and that means her achievement in landing jumps of equal size and quality to Sotnikova's is actually a greater achievement, trickier to manage when she's expending so much more energy and concentration in total.

3lutz-3toe
3flip
3salchow-2toe
3lutz
2axel-2toe-2loop
3salchow
2axel

Seven jumping passes, like all the other ladies. Repeated triples are lutz and salchow, slightly harder than Sotnikova repeating flip and toe.

So, I don't know how I would have ranked Kim vs. Asada if I'd been watching those two free skates in the arena, live. It's hard to compare two programs when one skater goes 16th and the other goes 24th; this is one of the disadvantages of bombing the short program, and the difficulty of comparing impressions accurately must necessarily be resolved in favor of the more recent memory -- this is only fair in a sport that involves live judging. I'm guessing I would have gone with Kim's FS over Asada's because Asada had more tiny little quality errors on her jumps than Kim did, but I really can't tell from home. For one thing, Asada's performance gave me chills and had the element of Olympic greatness, which Kim's did not, for whatever that's worth in the scoring. But for another, ice coverage and speed and jump size are extremely important factors and it is simply not possible to judge those things reliably from TV; I don't know whether Asada or Kim had the advantage there, although historically, Kim has been extraordinary with all of those qualities. Asada looked more sure of herself and Kim looked more tentative and tired -- those may sound like subjective judgments, but those impressions, which may seem unquantifiable to casual viewers, are based on measurable observations in the areas of performance, execution, and movement. Sureness can be seen in the cleanliness of a tracing; fatigue can be seen in the degree of knee bend or the form of a spin entry.

My best guess, based on the incomplete information of TV viewing, is that I would have ranked the freeskates:

Kim
Asada a close second, but too many quality errors on jumps
Kostner
Sotnikova

I am not going to review the freeskates of Gracie Gold, Lipnitskaia, or Wagner the same way, as I've had quite enough of figure skating ;-) and these reviews are my attempt to exorcise the Olympics from my mind. But generally, there is little concern about improper judging in the freeskating portion of competitions except for the podium contenders. For the short program, there is sometimes concern about propping up skaters to get them into the final warmup group, precisely to avoid Asada's problem of not being fresh on judges' minds when being compared to the final skaters. The fix was in for Sotnikova in the SP when she got inflated program component scores to keep her even with Kim and Kostner; a surprised Johnny Weir's first description of those scores was "generous." I wish the media would stop circulating the picture of the Russian judge, Alla Shekhovtseva, hugging Sotnikova after her win; there is nothing suspect in a human being's happiness for another human being's achievement, in front of billions of people, in an area where they've both invested their entire lives. I do think it likely that Shekhovtseva is the judge responsible for the most outrageously high scores for Sotnikova and the inaccurately low scores for Kim, but that is a separate issue. Her joyous hug for a teenage girl who had the skate of her life was nothing more or less than a beautiful moment and it fills me with happiness to see it.

So, after scrutinizing the top four programs, I do believe that Kim is the rightful winner of the Olympic gold medal and probably the winner of the freeskate, ahead of Asada (who was too far behind to win over Kim, in any case). I do believe that Sotnikova was unfairly overmarked on the Program Component Scores to a ridiculous and indefensible degree, although her quality of Olympic magic and her general appeal make it painless to accept her as champion. And Yuna Kim will be fine. She told her daddy as much. :-) Koreans are upset now, but they really can't stay bitter for long; they have an Olympics to organize, and I have a sneaking suspicion that we may see a familiar person lighting the torch in four years.

Olympic Ladies' FS: Adelina Sotnikova

drinkingcocoa — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 22:16:11 GMT

Adorable, perfectly muscled young spitfire takes the ice. :-)

Opening 3lutz-3toe. Difficult! Good size, not the most beautiful shapes, good cleanliness of jumps. The degree of difficulty is awesome, but that's not up for judging -- that's in the base mark. The quality of execution I'd give a +1.

Then a bunch of not very memorable crossovers and a bit of two-foot skating as she sets up for her next jump. Here is where she is clearly not in the league of an Asada or a Kostner. They would not have taken up so much time with empty skating.

But then! Ooooh! Tricky tricky steps into a ginormous 3flip! Oh, that is loooooovely! Cleverly done! The landing stops a tiny bit so I would give it a +2 and not a +3, but that is spectacular. :-) :-) Happy jump!

A little bit more lumbering about between jumping passes, some poses not held and extended to their full choreographic potential. This would not be notable except in comparison to top-level masters like Asada and Kostner, who have had tons more experience. But compared to Asada's steady feeling of surefire connectedness to the ice or Kostner's otherworldly stillness, Sotnikova is a good example of a less seasoned skater who is still learning to connect the jumps into an overall program.

Oh! Into a huge 3loop! From this camera angle, it looked good to me, +1, but I see that all the judges gave it +2 or +3, so maybe it was even more majestic when seen live.

A bit more under-realized choreography into -- yikes! A flying camel that turns into the most painful-looking catchfoot variation I've ever seen, like a donut spin but it looks as though she has some extra vertebrae or a sort of hinge effect in the hip socket so the two-handed hold can pull the free leg up sort of...sideways, straight up into the air. OW. Oh, ow. Um, I guess +2 because wow, especially because of the inside edge of the skating foot, if you can even think about the skating foot while all that is going on!

After that, she takes a bit of a break with some two-footed skating with a spiral in it. Asada and Kostner would never have taken such a long break, but that is because they are goddesses and not mere mortals.

Having regained her footing, the next jumping pass is a monster 2axel-3toe. I'm giving this one a +2. The size and cleanliness of the jumps are exceptional, but the landing position of the 2axel is a bit hunched over, not the ethereal perfection of Kostner or the surefooted carriage of Asada.

More two-footed skating into a 3flip-2toe-2loop. This is the combination where she stepped out of the landing and it's shown as the reason she shouldn't have won over Yuna Kim, but it's not actually that huge of a mistake. The 3flip was big and good, the 2toe was fine, it was just the 2loop that was cheated and had a step out. -2. The bigger issue for me is that during the interval between the two combinations, she gave up any pretense of doing anything but marking time until the next jumping pass.

Oh goodness, that gets even more unmistakable in the lead-up to her big, lovely 3salchow. She wasn't doing much but setting up for that jump -- it's easier to do a great big sailing jump like that if you're not packing other moves into your program like Asada was. +1.

And then even less pretense leading up to her big, easy 2axel. +2.

Exceptional layback catchfoot, terrific centering and flexibility. +2.

Not crazy about the step sequence. It didn't have emotional connection to the music and I didn't feel like she used it to express anything. On the other hand, who can blame her, considering that she's just skated the best she's ever skated in her entire life, in front of Putin and a home crowd, and absolutely nailed every jump and owned her spins and been huge? I give this sequence a +1 for difficulty but not more. This is because I'm watching at home with a remote control. Had I been there live, the feeling of performance and moment within the arena would have improved my score to a +2, and I think that would have been the more honest and accurate score than the dispassionate +1 I'm giving now.

Oh, nice spiral sequence. +1.

Camel illusion sit hopover sit front catchfoot upright. Very, very nice! Good centering, good speed, steady positions, but most of all, fantastic and almost superhuman concentration to keep her head at the end of THAT performance! +2.

Time to count:

3lutz-3toe
3flip
3loop
2axel-3toe
3flip-2toe-2loop
3salchow
2axel

So, seven jumping passes, seven triples, the repeated triples were flip and toe, the quality of the jumps was extremely good. The spins were also extremely good. The in-between skating was several notches below that, with a lot of time spent on two feet. The choreography and interpretation are not mature yet; she was not able to convey a mood with the quality of her movement, and she was not elevating her skating or the music by drawing out the character of the music with her choreography. So I would put her jump quality very high, as high as Kostner's though for different qualitative reasons, but her in-between skating and other Program Component Scores at a much lower level with the younger, less experienced skaters.

But if we take a look at what the judging panel gave her for Program Components, there are 9.5s and 9.75s there for things like "Linking footwork" and "Choreography" and "Interpretation"! Really? Really? This is absurd. This is really absurd. With all that two-footed skating, her PCS total is higher than Asada's, higher even than Kostner's with Kostner's gorgeously interpreted ending step sequence. That is absolutely not right.

I understand that if the panel meant to say such a performance had such greatness that the current scoring system is inadequate and must be unfairly manipulated in order to produce the result they want -- in order to say that Sotnikova's ability to deliver under the pressure of the moment lifts her to champion status regardless of the level of her transitional skating -- then of course they had no choice but to give unrealistically inflated scores in the wrong categories to produce the right numbers. The problem, of course, is that the skaters prepare their programs according to the rules of the current scoring system. The variable of "ability to skate up to Olympic pressure" is not supposed to outweigh the variables of quality of in-between skating, of posture and carriage, of choreography, of ability to express meaning by combining movement quality and music. If the skaters had been told ahead of time that Olympic greatness -- of which Sotnikova has loads and loads -- would count for more than those skills, then by all means, the other skaters could also have replaced the complex transitions of their programs with time on two feet as they prepared their jumps!

She did a fantastic job, I find her lovable, she transcended the Olympics, she gave an immortal performance -- Sotnikova did everything she could and more. The judging, though. This program should have scored behind Asada's and Kostner's on program components. I don't mind having Sotnikova as our Olympic champion, gutsy and talented young woman that she is; she is bound to get better, too. Bad judging does not always correlate to unacceptable results. But it vastly corrupts trust and creates a destructive, eventually toxic cynicism in the sport.

Olympic Ladies' FS: Carolina Kostner

drinkingcocoa — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 20:33:39 GMT

Skating to Ravel's Bolero sends several messages. It means sexual maturity, drawing attention to Kostner's age (27) and making it a positive thing, reminding the viewer that she's had the experience to learn how to put emotional depth into her performance. It means the skater is confident enough to bear comparison to Torvill and Dean's legendary 6.0 ice dance from 1984. It means the skater believes they can sustain slow, intense pacing that builds in impact throughout the program. Her costume adds to the impression, with the graduated sizes of sequins radiating from her neckline and the overtly sensual cut of the stretch velvet top with the mesh cut-outs, plus the formal elegance of the long sleeves and choker collar.

Ooh, the opening choreography establishes the mood nicely from the beginning. Upright, majestic, with some attitude.

She is speeding into her 3lutz, but her upper body is so calm that she looks absolutely still while doing so. Oh, clean jump, big jump, like an arrow through the air, whispery landing, position held as though she were a soaring eagle on a current. It doesn't look like she's fighting the forces of air and drag and gravity at all. Just soaring. +2.

The connecting moves are divine. She picks up on tiny nuances of the beat. She hits great positions and you can sense a little smile from her before she slips back into the languor of her persona. And then the cleanliness of her 2axel-3toe makes me cry out. What is this wizardry? How can her landings be so clean? How can she do these feats with no apparent effort whatsoever? So gentle. She's hurtling through the air on steel and ice, and all I can think is gentle. +2.

Triple flip! Another pure one! So big, sailing across the ice. So clean, so still. Amazing hang time . +2.

Flying camel hopover change sit, good speed, good positions, good number of rotations. +2.

Toe Arabian into inside bent-leg camel into catchfoot. +1.

3loop, big and fast. +1. Choreography and connecting steps starting to look empty.

3toe-2toe. 0.

3salchow giant. +2.

3salchow-2toe-2toe with slight underrotation on final landing. 0.

Straightline step sequence. Good speed into the beginning, good interpretation of the music's tempo and mood, especially in the hauteur of her carriage, the unexpected positions with her head thrown back. This is where her maturity and mastery shine. Few others could pull off this degree of ownership of this music. +3.

Oooh! Powerful forward inside spiral driving into a mazurka well timed to the music. +2.

Slightly wild camel illusion change sit layback. Wobbly and understandably tired. Closing right on the music. -1.

Okay, time to count.

3lutz
2axel-3toe
3flip
3loop
3toe-2toe
3salchow
3salchow-2toe-2toe

Seven triples and the repeated ones are the simplest, the toe and the salchow. The degree of difficulty in her jumping passes is significantly lower than Asada's, and Asada was more consistent about using connecting moves between all the jumps. Probably her speed and the size of her jumps were superior to Asada, but this is one of those things that I cannot tell without watching live in the arena; I'm just guessing. The quality of her landings, though! So clean!

Regal. But this FS is definitely behind Asada's, in my opinion.

Olympic Ladies' FS: Mao Asada

drinkingcocoa — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 18:33:04 GMT

Okay, let's do this. I'm going to look at the Olympic FS again for Asada, Kostner, Sotnikova, and Kim, and write down my own impressions. I'll look at the protocols as well. I'll post about the programs one at a time so I don't overwhelm myself.

Mao Asada first, skating to Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, which is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music for skating. So stirring, turbulent, romantic. It matches up with my own emotional range.

Opening is very slow and doesn't have a whole lot of choreography except for a slow build of emotion: good strategy for giving her a feel for the ice before gearing up for the triple axel.

3axel: about a quarter-turn to an eighth of a turn underrotated, beautiful entry and air position and trajectory, not huge but a good size and, well, triple axel. :-) Maybe I'd give it a +1? A negative for not rotating completely, but it was a minor underrotation and the jump itself was so beautiful.

Her carriage and timing look good between the 3ax and the combination. Very clean, good edging, well measured.

3flip-3loop: the flip was gorgeous. Huge. Very confident entry, beautiful shape. The takeoff of the 3loop was cheated and honestly, I don't understand how anyone in the world could do a 3loop as the second jump of a 3flip combination without cheating it! Is it even humanly possible? A 3flip-3loop is an insanely difficult combination and she is so hardcore for even doing one! The landing of the 3loop was slightly cheated as well. But the combination overall looked really good, confident, and pretty, and that does count for something -- it contributes to the overall impression of the program as soaring and ebbing to the music, and that is not a small matter. That is the whole point of the sport. So, hmm. Maybe I would give this a 0 GOE. The second jump was very underrotated but the first one was so amazing, and the underrotation definitely did not interrupt the program.

Oh, her extension and transitions continue to be so good. Her body looks properly relaxed, not all tight from nerves. Of course, this is a dreadfully sad thing to notice, since surely this relaxation is from her resigned determination to retain some dignity despite the impossibility of a gold medal. But the fact remains that her carriage is a textbook example of how to look controlled and graceful during a high-pressure program.

Dreadful wrong edge on the 3lutz and underrotated landing, although the technical caller does't seem to have taken off for the landing. But the shape of that jump was beautiful, as was the direct transition into her combination spin. GOE -1 for the edge change but kudos for choreographing the spin directly after it, as though to compensate for that technical imperfection.

Good camel change sit. The speed was okay, the centering was fantastic, the positions were good and very steady, flexibility good, number of rotations okay. I'd give it +1 for the centering, wow. Even with the change of foot, dead on. In fact, her whole performance is dead on. She is so centered and balanced, every point of contact between her skate and the ice is like it's drilling a hole straight down. So true.

Transitions into flying camel with catchfoot variation going onto an inside edge. A bit wobbly with the centering but the positions are difficult and the entry was very nice. I would give it 0 GOE; it was a wee bit slow and she finished a little early, off the musical beat, so with the wobbling, the difficulty of the position didn't counteract the performance quibbles.

Very nicely paced, elegant spread eagles and steps into a 2axel-3toe where the landing of the 3toe is a bit underrotated but the 2axel is, of course, a thing of absolute beauty! The speed! The shape! In love with this one. I might have to give this a +1 GOE just for the first jump even though the second one looked a bit short. The reach back for the pick had such good stretch, though.

Good 3salchow. The landing was confident in its full rotation, so clean, plenty of room coming down. +1. I also liked how it came soon after the 2axel-3toe and the transitions into it expressed the music well with good timing.

Lovely 3flip-2loop-2loop. Insanely difficult, beautifully controlled! How confident she is to put two edge jumps into a three-jump combination! Well timed rotations in accord with the music. This is wild! +1 for execution as I still don't understand the concept of fully rotated loop jumps in combination ;-) and a bit of worship for her mastery.

Now building in intensity, digging strongly into the ice on good deep knees, into a big 3loop with perfect landing. Oh, lovely. Not sure if her weight on the entry was fully on the right outside edge, so +1 from me, plus a big swell of emotion as the music builds and she gives us that "ahhhhh" thrill of excitement that she's finished her jumps splendidly. That rush in the audience, it counts for something. It elevates the performance from the sum of its elements into the possibility of a complete artistic statement.

Flying camel-illusion-sit-change-forward layback-Biellmann. Slight wobble during the illusion but wow, what a fantastic array of positions with otherwise good changes, and again a steadiness in the change of foot. +2. I really liked the clarity of her sitspin position.

Oooh, huge swell of emotion as she does opposite-rotation twizzles to transition into what everyone knows is coming: serpentine step sequence to the crescendo of this concerto! So exciting, so exciting. There's nothing like a climactic step sequence after a full program of clean jumps with no falls or step-outs or two-foots. I have chills throughout this sequence. Her positions hit so many axes with turns in both directions, managing to progress across the ice while forming still pictures with her body shapes -- a pirouette here, a bilaterally symmetrical two-foot backward leap there. It's good that she has enough room in this program to do a serpentine; of the three step sequence patterns (the others are straightline and circular), the serpentine is the longest, and I find it quite incredible that she's managed to do so many jumping passes and have room for such a lengthy step sequence packed with so much difficulty and change in position. Here's why this is significant: the more high-level jumping passes you have in a program, the less time you have to recover and set up for each move. It's much harder and more stressful, and requires you to be in position a lot more securely with less margin for error than someone who has a few more seconds to do crossovers and get their concentration back. With all the difficult jumps, Asada could have done a shorter step sequence and been done with it, but no, she packed this in. Finishing with a triumphant upright spiral right by the judges. Amazing. I am amazed. +3 from me for that.

Flying into her forward right outside spiral. +1.

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW. That was greatness. That was Olympic greatness. That gets extra points from me for delivering Olympic chills, for having certainty in her steps and centering, for keeping the pace and not letting her nerves rush her, for staying with the music which is especially important with a dramatic piece like this that depends entirely on the building of emotion. This is -- should be, in my opinion -- an element in the scoring. Ability to control the self and compete under pressure is a skill and it is part of what is being measured. Ability to convey emotion in the moment, also. Showing what the self can do: that's the point of the Olympics. She did it. Wow.

Okay, time to do some counting.

3axel
3flip-3loop
3flutz (skating jargon for a lutz with an incorrect entry edge)
2axel-3toe
3salchow
3flip-2loop-2loop
3loop

Seven jumping passes, at least one of each triple, eight triples total. So she backed off on the lutzes, wisely, but did two 3flips and two 3loops. It might be seen as a weakness not to have two 3lutzes, but clearly the inclusion of a triple axel and two combinations with loop jumps more than makes up for any possible scoring deficit. Seven jumping passes, including two very difficult ones. Geez. All I can say is, thank goodness for my emotions that I didn't go into these Olympics with my heart set on this skater becoming champion, because this program by itself wins the whole Olympics for me and my heart would have broken from the greatness of it! Oh lord, and now I'm watching her sobbing at center ice having delivered the skate of the Olympiad and still knowing she will leave without a medal. Ach, I think my heart is breaking anyway! It hurts to see a person's soul with every protection ripped away! It hurts!