Also, I’ve been following Kamila Valieva all season, and I could tell she was sort of tight in her skates for the team event. When billions are watching, a lot of people have this extra edge, which some effectively use to enhance their performance. But I could tell Valieva had this extra energy she didn’t quite know what to do with. Wasn’t surprised she fell on her 3rd quad attempt, even though she hadn’t fallen on a quad in competition the entire season. The Olympics commentators had to go on about the historic nature of the 2 quads she landed, but she’s been landing 3 quads + triple axel consistently this season.
Still, she smoked the competition. She can probably fall in the individual event too and win gold. Her closest competition, Anna Shcherbakova, only does one quad in her free, and doesn’t have a triple axel. Her other main competition, Alexandra Trusova, will do up to 5 quads in the free, but she doesn’t have Valieva’s components or consistency.
They’re not allowed to bring their subs due to covid restrictions, and it’s based on number of skaters on the total team (and spots per event type earned by each country) - the US already had used their 16 skaters since Zhou already skated. Zhou tested positive after the order had been drawn for the short anyway, so alternates can’t even be declared at this point.
The Japanese skaters are just…fucking magical. I am so so so happy that Yumi and Kaori got their olympic medals. They deserve them. If Hanyu trips up, Yuma could very well take the gold.
I honestly think she could win just because of the bananas GOE points that all the Eteri skaters seem to get for pre-rotated jumps sideeye.
Her long was… rough compared to normal for her - I felt so bad for her afterwards. they should have NOT put her in for the long, they should’ve used Trusova and they still would’ve won gold. I think not subbing skaters for Russia will hurt them overall, all the skaters looked like they were falling asleep standing up and I’m worried it might exhaust them for the individuals. It might be what happened to Yulia Lipnitskaya after the 2014 team event again. Particularly with that fall in ice dancing.
I think JapFed knows that Hanyu wants to land that quad axel and they’re letting him have all the time he can for that
There’s mental health counseling, kinda…there’s a team sport psych. They tried to step things up after USAG had the scandal, but given all the safesport issues the past few years.
I do not understand this at all. I mean, some of the prerotation is so great, it’s like 95% of a rotation.
Like this jump (is this a flip or a lutz…probably not good that I can’t tell…) Reddit - Dive into anything
That entire thing is on the toepick. By this logic…I can do a double toe.
Not to mention this style of jumping is extremely hard on their hips and backs and relies on super thin legs…which is exactly what Eteri’s formal proteges have hurt and left competitive skating at the ripe age of 17
I might be projecting as someone with super fucked up shoulders from skating, but Kamila’s shoulder hyper-flexibility makes me so nervous. Seeing her terrifying axis in the air combined with those shoulders that can bend 90 degrees behind her. I’m worried
Yeah, I don’t understand why ROC put Valieva in for the team long, either. Her face looked so tired before the event, and she even seemed congested(!). They could have put in either Trusova or super-consistent Shcherbakova and won. And they were so far ahead, they didn’t even need to win the women’s free for the gold.
Kaori and Wakaba were both exceptional in their skates for Team Japan.
And that pre-rotation, OMG. I had no idea. How do the judges look past that???
Break now in the men’s short before group 4, which will include Hanyu. So exciting. Can’t discount Japan’s #2 either, Shoma Uno, who delivered a fantastic short in the team event.
