About Gracie Gold - Phil Hersh

[love_skate2011]

^
I think some are still hesitant , I maybe wrong but the future is bright for Gracie, I understand some of the other seniors us ladies skaters might be very threatened by Gold's superior technique and abilities. but I for one do not doubt Gracie would have eaten Caroline,Ashley,Alissa,Agnes and any us senior by by a huge score gap had she really pursued senior.

and that is why the us skating fed made it clear to the seniors to step it up !

Still though its one thing to hype a junior but its another thing to be encouraging expectations that could actually shorten said jrs career. I.e a quad/3axel by next year.

hype is ok, as long as they can deliver
and Gracie has the goods.

[query5]

yes gracie skated well, her score was high.
however i think they graded her according to junior standards of skating not senior standards of skating. (pc)wise

[DORISPULASKI]

Lower than she deserved? Because that's how junior PCS usually works

[peibeck]

Well there was one judge who was scoring her with high 7s and even some 8s. Several other judges were scoring her in mid-low 7s as well.

We don't normally see that in juniors.

[MacMadame]

but I for one do not doubt Gracie would have eaten Caroline,Ashley,Alissa,Agnes and any us senior by by a huge score gap had she really pursued senior.

I doubt it. I think her skate that won Jr. Ladies would have come in around 4-6 place. So better than Rachael and Mirai put out here, but on par with Zhang & Gao. Even if you take her raw score from Nationals and assume that everyone skates exactly the same and is scored exactly the same, she only comes in 3rd and doesn't beat everyone by a large gap.

But what is more likely to have happened is that inexperience would have caused her to make more mistakes and she'd have gotten a lower score. Staying in Juniors this year was a really smart move on her part and I think it sets her up nicely for next year in a way that jumping to Seniors would not.

[sk9tingfan]

She is powerful and very talented but she needs refinement, i.e. what to do with her arms, more stretched positions in spins and overall. But she has an awesome foundation. IMO, at this point, she is not particularly musical yet.

[pinky166]

Gracie is a lot like Agnes when Agnes won the Jr. Title at US Nats, and while Agnes has done well for herself and is still one of the top up-and-comers, she didn't exactly take the senior international skating world by storm either. The pressure didn't seem to get to her at domestic junior competitions or JW that season, but once she made the jump to the big leagues, she was not nearly as consistent. Gracie is good but I'm not convinced she's going to dominate internationally right off the bat, especially with this crazy deep field!

[RD]

^ and yet you were one of the biggest hypers of Zawadzki and Gao. (Go figure!)

Anyway, I think US skating fans are accustomed to early peaking because that's the pattern most of our successful skaters seemed to have followed, at least recently. Quick to hype up the Next Great One and when she doesn't fulfill expectations the very next season, toss her out and then look to the next youngster. And at the same time, we wonder, where did Czisny come from? Where did Zhang come from? Nagasu is the latest victim here, showing signs of being in a slump and tons of people are now writing her off. Have we learned anything from the past 2 years?

[love_skate2011]

^ and yet you were one of the biggest hypers of Zawadzki and Gao. (Go figure!)

in fairness, Gold is far better than Agnes, Agnes didn't had much to offer other than jumps. Gold will probably be the most successful us skater in this decade.
she has a chance of winning all the us senior nationals consecutively once she makes a transition, even more successful than Alissa, imo

[bek]

^ and yet you were one of the biggest hypers of Zawadzki and Gao. (Go figure!)

Anyway, I think US skating fans are accustomed to early peaking because that's the pattern most of our successful skaters seemed to have followed, at least recently. Quick to hype up the Next Great One and when she doesn't fulfill expectations the very next season, toss her out and then look to the next youngster. And at the same time, we wonder, where did Czisny come from? Where did Zhang come from? Nagasu is the latest victim here, showing signs of being in a slump and tons of people are now writing her off. Have we learned anything from the past 2 years?

I don't think Nagasu is the same situation though. Nagasu won nationals at 14 but since turning senior has made only one world team. She was fourth in the world, won the Worlds Short program; and now is back to not making the US team for two years straight. I think its more than fair to think Nagasu's results are disappointing. Mirai's success wasn't just Juniors success. And I think she's on more of a slump. But of course she could pull it together.

We've yet to see some of those juniors at the senior level.

in fairness, Gold is far better than Agnes, Agnes didn't had much to offer other than jumps. Gold will probably be the most successful us skater in this decade.
she has a chance of winning all the us senior nationals consecutively once she makes a transition, even more success than Alissa, imo

I actually think Gracie is the one who doesn't have much to offer besides jumps although she does skate with speed/power so reportedly does Agnes.

I think Agnes is by far the more stylish skater AND the better spinner. This being said Agnes is quite inconsistent. In terms of Gracie who knows how she'll react to Seniors pressure... All this being said Gracie is younger so can develop style.

[Vash01]

I think Agnes is by far the more stylish skater AND the better spinner. This being said Agnes is quite inconsistent. In terms of Gracie who knows how she'll react to Seniors pressure... All this being said Gracie is younger so can develop style.

I don't think Gracie is that much younger than Agnes who is just 17. They both have time to develop.

[bek]

I don't think Gracie is that much younger than Agnes who is just 17. They both have time to develop.

Well of course they do but I was a little huh? at Agnes doesn't have much besides jumps but Gracie does.

[Gracie4Gold]

Gracie is our hope for Sochi!That's for sure..I believe in her

[julieann]

Gracie is our hope for Sochi!That's for sure..I believe in her

I'll wait for her South Korea

[Gracie4Gold]

I'll wait for her South Korea

Why?She is a complete package..

[Autumn_girl]

Oh God, I haven't even seen much from this girl yet, but already sick of all the hype around her. No idea how she will handle all the pressure and expectations at JW where all three young Russians will compete, and later in seniors

[bek]

I love how people forget about Hicks for example.

[Tesla]

Oh God, I haven't even seen much from this girl yet, but already sick of all the hype around her.

That's how I feel about the Russian wonder babies.

[Domshabfan]

That's how I feel about the Russian wonder babies.

Russian wonder babies have competed a lot internationally... the least among them is Julia with 3 ISU event... since there were far too many of these wonder babies, the attention was spread among the girls. Gracie's single performance at a JGP event was enough for Hersh to write an article on her declaring her as the next best thing...I think hype Gracie is getting is much higher than all the wonder babies put together.

I am not saying she won't succeed but this is a whole new level of hype.

[orbitz]

Gracie is our hope for Sochi!That's for sure..I believe in her

Gold certainly looks like she has sound jumping techniques, and they're impressive; However, the non-jump aspect of her skating isn't that impressive yet. For now it reminds me of someone like Kimmie Meissner.