As this is a summer competition and has little to do with what will happen when the season officially kicks off in the next two months, we'll take this as a snapshot of where these skaters are so far. It also gives me an opportunity to give my bitching, ranting, raving, etc. a good warm-up before the season starts. So here we go...
Senior Ladies SP
Ashley Wagner (58.58): I have to say, this is an improvement for Ashley. The general consensus when it comes to Ashley is that her skating is full of frantic and frenetic energy that makes her look like she just took a bottle full of "speed" and decided to go perform. Whenever she skates, I want to bitchslap her across the face and scream "RELAX!" Thankfully, it appears as though someone did that for me. This program is very calm and light and she delivered it very well. Her jumps looked secure, though I hope she doesn't think she's fooling anyone with that lightning-quick entry into her lutz...we can still see you're flutzing, honey. Strong spins, nice moments in the choreography and I like the simplicity of her dress. All in all, it looks like Ashley's on the right track to finally getting out of that 2nd tier of US ladies.
Mirai Nagasu (57.83): This program is a little saucey, a little fiery and much more mature than we've seen Mirai look and I like it! Unfortunately, the dress doesn't match it the way I hoped it would. It's not an awful dress, but I'd have liked to see something a bit more mature and stunning. Hopefully this is a temporary dress and her super-fierce tango-y style dress is still being made...one can only hope. This is a good program with lots of in-between moments that should help her TR score in components. Mirai has gorgeous carriage and is a perfect example of skating from head to toe. Her jumps looked secure here, though I surely hope this is just the summer layout and that she'll up the technical difficulty once the season kicks in. I'd love to see Mirai re-insert that 3lz-3t we've been waiting on...if ever there was a time to do it, it's now. This season is going to be the make it or break it one for Mirai. For the past few years everyone's been waiting around for her to realize that she is the shit and skate like it...with the newbies coming up, in particular the Russian Babies, Mirai needs to skate like a champion and stop being afraid to be the best. The opportunity won't be around too much longer. With her GP events back-to-back this season, I'm glad to see her here working the kinks out early...so far, she's off to a decent start...
Courtney Hicks (56.58): Last year during nationals, everyone seemed to be having happy piddles over this girl...I just don't see it yet. I can see that she has potential to be a killer when it comes to jumps, but for right now I'm too distracted by her choppy lines and all-over-the-place presentation. She lacks refinement in her movements and that's okay because all of that will come with time...but for now, I'm struggling to get past it. Her spins (aside from her "Twicks" position) need a lot of work in terms of line and extension and flexibility. She should scrap that Biellmann until she can do it correctly; it just looks ugly right now. Overall, her skating is very juniorish in my eyes, but that will change once she matures a bit and reins her movements in. For now, she's just too damn sloppy and unfinished for me to be excited over...
Leah Keiser (55.27): Leah was the surprise here for me. In terms of reining it in a bit and slowing down, Leah does a much better job than several of the other junior skaters in this competition. Don't get me wrong, she still has JUNIOR scrawled across her skating like a big neon light, but her presentation is better than most. Her 3-3 looked pretty good as did her spins. Her footwork crept along rather than really flowed, so there is a spot she needs improvement. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. I haven't paid much attention to Leah prior to this, but I think I may have to keep an eye on her.
Caroline Zhang (51.38): I'm a former CZ worshiper. When she made her debut in 2007, I was completely in her corner rooting her on and hailing her as the second coming of The Kwan...boy have things changed since then. Caroline's downward spiral was heartbreaking to watch, but this competition is giving me hope that the fork previously stuck in her might be pulled out. She looked stronger here than she looked all last season. Physically, it doesn't appear as though she's slimmed down much and that dress she insists on wearing makes her look much wider than she is (paging new costume designer, new costume designer please...). Still, she hit on most of her jumps here and looked less depressed than she usually looks. I'm praying for some kind of comeback for Caroline down the line. She's got a long way to go, but stranger things have happened...just look at Alissa Czisny.
Vanessa Lam (47.79): I laugh whenever she skates this program to "Con Te Partiro" because all I see is Will Ferrell from Step Brothers singing this song with John C. Reilly on the drums ("It's the f**king Catalina wine mixer!"). However, I'm glad I had that to think about because I don't know what happened to Vanessa here. It didn't look like she had her feet under her at all. While her presentation is pretty decent, she rushes through her movements without finishing them out and that totally annoys me. I can think back to a 16 year old Michelle Kwan or Sasha Cohen and remember how a movement was rarely ever lost them...why haven't these girls picked up on that? *Sigh* I know she's capable of doing better, so I won't hold this against her...Boats N' Hos!
I'll post my thoughts on the ladies FS tomorrow...
I hope Zhang will bring her energy into the program. still Mirai is fantastic!
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