Sochi 2014: The Ladies Roster- Who Will Win Gold?

The Games at Sochi is just days away from commencement, and sure enough- the ladies' figure skating event remains the jewel in the crown of the Winter Olympics. The fact that it is slotted in the later half of the event raises more tension and excitement in the air. Who's going to take the gold? We have a very deep field of seasoned veterans and fresh young talent, waiting to take their place on the ice and leap their way to victory. Take a look at the ten ladies you should watch out for: (The ranking is how I predict the top ten will finish)

Yu Na Kim (Getty Images)

1.) Yu Na Kim (KOR)- The reigning World and Olympic Champion comes back to defend her title after a rather light, yet still impressive, couple of seasons. Kim managed to prove her critics wrong when she sashayed in at London, Ontario last year, beating the competition to a pulp despite being away from the circuit all season. In the run up to the Winter Games in Sochi this month, Kim showed little signs of wear and tear, failing to skate clean programs at the Golden Spin Trophy and South Korean National Championships. It's not costly as was shown by her victories, but every little counts when she has young and hungry skaters breathing down her neck. Due to her low ISU ranking, she is set to skate in the earlier groups. This can be a good thing in that there will be no pressure as she should stay ahead of the pack going into the final group. However, as history can often repeat itself- the judges may want to save marks for later and leave Kim a few points behind like they did at Worlds, despite a perfect skate. It will prove vital that she lands her triple lutz-triple toe combination in both her programs, and skate with the fire that has been lacking since her win at Vancouver, to win gold again and the chance to add her name to a rather short and exclusive list of repeat Olympic Champions. 

Mao Asada (Getty Images)

2.) Mao Asada (JPN)- She remains unbeaten in the circuit this season, as she was last season in the run up to the World Championships. However, come the showdown between Asada and Kim last March, she made a couple of costly errors that ultimately cost her the gold. Since her silver medal at Vancouver, she seeked out revered Japanese coach Nobuo Sato to help her restructure and relearn her jumps from scratch to regain full use of her arsenal. Asada remains to be the only woman who is capable of landing all six jumps, however, it all depends of whether she does land them. She has matured greatly in artistry in the last four years, and so in the run up to Sochi, Asada once again looks as a heavy favourite for gold. I put her behind Kim because unless she had changed her mind, she enters the free skate with a hope of landing two triple axels again, therefore removing her lutz (which apart from the change of edge, has been looking solid thus far) and her triple-triple combination. This poses as a problem because she had only managed to land her triple axel cleanly, once this season. Nevertheless, she goes into the Games with the strongest short program, a renewed reputation with the judges, and a gutsy fighting spirit that may serve her well and land her on top of the podium. 

(EDIT: Mao has just announced she's ditching the second 3A in the free program for a more balanced layout. Phew! Good girl! Read it here.)

Julia Lipnitskaya (Getty Images)

3.) Julia Lipnitskaya (RUS)- This young Russian prodigy has proven that she is a main threat. She doesn't yet have the artistry of Kim and Asada but she has the technical goods to blow the competition away. Despite her tendency to flutz and her relatively small jumps, she is capable of landing a solid triple lutz-triple toe. Puberty is also on her side, being small still and so flexible- so if she hasn't gone through the ugly shift just yet, then now will be the time to strike! Clean will have to be Julia's agenda heading into the Games, and the fact that she will be competing on home turf and skating to Schindler's List- the stars may very well align for this young talent and get her a medal at her first Olympics. Her recent victory at the European Championships will also help with the judges to cement her status as a serious contender. Yes, her scores have seen a rather dramatic rising from the Grand Prix Series to the Euros, but will we see the same 'inflation' at Sochi? The Russians are notorious when it comes to politicking, but at the end of the day, ice is slippery. She showed cracks when she competed at the Cup of Russia earlier this season, and she heads into the Games as Russia's number two. Anything can happen. 

Thoughts on Four Continents 2013: Ladies' Event

Hello darlings!

Apologies to those who read my blog, for the lack of recent posts. I have recently started at a new job and finishing up the other contract has really drained me. The free time I had in between was spent catching Zs and watching a backlog of American TV, in hopes of just switching my brain off and recharging. Also, I seem to be going through an uninspired lull- going through the motions with nothing greatly exciting to rouse my spirits. I have a BIG holiday coming up real soon and the momentum for that has been steadily rising, so I am foreseeing a slew of posts running up to my departure for The Philippines. Also, any excuse to write a post on skincare essentials for an Asian summer- SPF 15 won't cut it. And although I'm only going to be gone for two weeks, I need to readjust my routine to fit what I am assuming to be excruciating 40-degree weather. Anyhow, let's move on!

Mao Asada, skating to Tchaikovsky's seminal 'Swan Lake' (Getty Images)

What a weekend it has been in Osaka! The ladies' event at the Four Continents Championships was crammed to the top with fantastic skates, and equally sloppy showings that it really did highlight who wants to go for Sochi. Without the likes of Kim Yu Na, Ashley Wagner and the Europeans, the field was open for Mao Asada and Akiko Suzuki to dominate- and THAT THEY DID, resulting to a Japan 1-2-3 finish.

The undefeated Asada finally incorporated her signature triple axel in her programs and successfully landed a blinder in her FANTASTIC short program. Skating to Gershwin's 'I Got Rhythm', the two-time World champion swapped her 2A for her signature element and scored an astounding 74.49 points, just a few marks away from her all-time best. Team Sato had timed her season well enough to start her upgrade in the run-up to the World Championships in March. Mao is already showing early signs of Olympic fire and her win at the 4CC is a great booster for her- not only in ranking, but also mentally and emotionally. Her second attempt at the 3A was unsuccessful in her free programme, but despite three UR calls and only four clean triples, she still garnered 130.96 and a cumulative score of 205.45- just .05 shy of her Olympic score. I really do wish she would either work on her salchow or swap with with a solo 3T instead because she either strains to land it or she doubles. That said, she later commented that her free programme performance was actually on par with her practice run-through and so she was satisfied with the result. To be fair, barring the stellar performances from her teammates, she actually didn't need much to win the title, especially with her comfortable lead in the short. She seems to be coming back on a better form, and we can only hope that Team Asada goes from strength to strength from here on end.

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ISU World Championships 2012: Thoughts

What a weird final! It's been a rather interesting finish to the season, what with Patrick Chan getting booed for winning (stealing) the gold medal, to Carolina Kostner actually skating good enough (for me anyway) to win her first World title. Here are my thoughts on the events that went down this week....mainly on the ladies' event, because Eurosport messed up the timetables that they ended up not showing anything on TV. I did find a stream for the ladies at the end and the videos for the men's have been available online, so fragmented though it has been, I managed to watch most of the Worlds. 

LADIES:

After making the GPF final, and then withdrawing because of the death of her mother...then finishing 2nd at Four Continents, Mao Asada (JAP) skated lackluster programs that ultimately placed her at 6th place. She missed fell on her opening triple axel in the short, which she went for in memory of her mother (it was Kyoko's favourite jump) therefore hurting her scores, and then in today's free programme, she only landed three triples (3FL-2T, 3L, 3Sal), a 2A-2T, and 2FL. She singled her opening axel and the final loop, and in the end she scored 164.52. From where I stand, its all psychological with Mao. It seems to be a mixture of trying to prove she's still a top skater hence all the triple axel attempts, a lack in confidence because of her jump training, and the loss of her mother. It's unfortunate that all of these elements caused another season off the podium, especially after a wonderful start at the Grand Prix and a promising return of her 3-3 combo...but we can forgive her for losing steam. In fact, through it all..as her PCS showed tonight (60.52), her skating quality was still top grass. Hopefully she will take the time off-season to reevaluate where she wants to be by next winter. She does not need the Japanese press harping down her neck on her failure to land triple axels....it's not the only thing that makes her a champion. Also, I think however stubborn she is, she needs to realise that there is nothing left to prove to the world. I kinda wish Yu Na was competing in the circuit again just push back Mao into old form like back in the old days. 

On a much brighter note, WELL DONE to Akiko Suzuki and Kanako Murakami, who finished at 3rd and 5th respectively. Team Japan came out strong, and the Suzuki earned a bronze medal after a fabulous skate to Die Fledermaus with only a singled Lutz tarnishing what was otherwise a gleaming performance. With a strong 180.68, she edged out Ashley Wagner (USA) who was also astounding with her clean Black Swan programme. After tumbling down to 8th in the short programme, Wagner restored the pride of the US team by hitting seven triples and earning 176.77, way ahead of her teammate Alissa Czisny who finished at 22nd place with 124.11 with a sloppy performance full of falls. Carolina Kostner (ITA) finished at the top with a nearly perfect performance that earned her 189.94 points. She hit five triples and capitalised on her component marks by upping the artistry, even with that hideous jumpsuit costume of hers (really, why is nobody commenting on her camel-toes this season!?). That was enough to take the lead from Alena Leonova (RUS) who was emotional after skating a solid programme, eventually finishing at 2nd place. 

MENS:

Surprise, surprise..Patrick Chan (CAN) takes the gold medal despite botching a planned triple lutz and falling on a double axel. With a collective score of 266.11, he takes his second World title ahead of Team Japan's Daisuke Takahashi and Yuzuru Hanyu, who was a surprising bronze medallist. Takahashi landed a beautiful quad and skated a beautiful programme for the ages, but obviously that wasn't enough for the judges. Seriously, what does it take to take Chan out? Personally, I feel that this season Takahashi has been robbed of many a gold medals, but whatever. I'm no judge so if they say Patrick in untouchable....then I'm sticking with the crowd with their booing. After a rocky short programme, Hanyu unleashed his inner Romeo and jumped ahead of veteran Brian Joubert (FRA) and fellow team member Florent Amodio (FRA) by landing a quad and eight triples. This boy has got such a bright and shining future ahead of him, I have nothing but love! I have adored that step sequence since the beginning of the season and he recovered and delivered effortlessly, I can only applause and smile. Another surprise was Joubert's comeback! After two less than desirable seasons, he serves us two clean programmes alongside gratuitous bum angles that remind us of why we love him so much. Woop woop! Jeremy Abbott (USA) did enough to secure a top ten finish, with only a fall out on a triple axel and a little flaw with his step sequence, he fought for his jumps enough to earn 226.19 points. That just made him so much more adorable to me. 

PAIRS:

Oh the joy! The joy on Takahasi/Tran's (JAP) faces when they finished with a bronze medal was priceless! I couldn't help but smile at Narumi's Tom-Cruise-at-Oprah's-couch reaction to their scores, wasn't it just heartwarming? They just beat Pang and Tong (CHI) and earned the first ever Pair's medal for Team Japan. That on it's own was reason enough to watch the competition. 

Actually, watching Maxim Trankov (RUS) fall on a pivot, dropping Tatiana Volosozhar on a death spiral was also a jaw-dropping moment. Team Russia did not have the best of luck going into the free programme, after unanimously falling everywhere on the ice. But the curse was countered by Mother Russia for they made up for it with a clean skate at the free, earning the silver medal with 201.38 points. Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy (GER) won their fourth World title, with a minutely flawed skate but considering how relatively....average? the field had performed, it did not take much to win. No, actually, it was .11 points that set them just ahead of the Russians. That's how good their comeback was. 

Overall, it was a rather surreal season finish. All week there was talk of how the quality of ice at Nice left more to be desired, and perhaps the warm weather proved a little too taxing for the skaters. But at the very least, with Mao being less than stellar, it gave Kanako, Akiko, Ashley and Carolina an opportunity to shine. Caro deserved her gold and it's about time for her. I never really peg Alena as a medal contender, mostly because I'm not her biggest fan and I find her programmes quite unbecoming, for lack of a better word. Kana-chan and Akiko came to win and they did..especially since Kanako had not medalled at all this season, at least she raised her season's best this week. Shame about Ashley, but she made up for Alissa's crap. I'm happy for the Japanese men for their medals but I stand on my ground that Chan was overscored and was not deserving of that title. Hopefully, next season will be more interesting and exciting. For some reason, this Championship felt a little under the weather, so to speak. With the Russian jumping babies debuting next season alongside the promising Gracie Gold of the US, the field might just be shaken with some fresh talent. Finally, here's hoping Mao gets it all together. If Sochi is her goal, she only has two more seasons before her time is up. I will be here to support all the way :)

Hope you enjoyed the season!

Chopin's Ballerina on Ice

Here's Mao-chan's lovely Gala programme, skating to Chopin's 'Ballade no.1 in G Minor'. Isn't she lovely?! Cue Stevie Wonder please!

I love it as the spotlight hits her and her silhouette is shown on the ice. It's just lovely everything! The lines, the aesthetics, her overall skating, her steady jumps, and most importantly that smile that's been missing until now. She just looks like a proper ballerina on ice! Doesn't she remind you of those dancing ballerinas inside a music box that starts twirling to a lullaby every time you open them? Especially in that last spin. Que bella!

Asada and Kim at Worlds 2010