New Gracie Gold profile

[FSfan107]

I've found the people who endlessly complain that people are hyping Gracie to the high heavens far outweigh, and are far more obnoxious, than the few who actually do.

This.

Seems like there are more of these than actual Gracie ubers.

[seaner00]

Can you provide a link to people saying she's going to win Olympic gold? I'd love to see this for myself.

The title of the article for one.

[Carolla5501]

I think she is a very nice skater. It was the Send her to worlds chant I found disturbing. Gee, she hasn't trained a Senior Program so let's send her unprepared. And that would do what????

Probably shatter her confidence, but ....... Long term vs short term. Giving her time to grow into a Senior will probably have better long term outcomes, but posters on here would be more then willing to see if we can screw that up

[MacMadame]

The title of the article for one.

That's not someone posting here or anyone on her team saying it. It's some editor somewhere who knows squat about figure skating trying to come up with a catchy title.

[RD]

Interesting article...but it's a bit too early to be hyping her for OGM. I do think (provided she stays healthy) she will have an impact on the US senior ladies field and will be a strong contender IF she shows improvement. Based on what I saw particularly in the exhibition, I saw a decent skater who hasn't quite figured out how to connect to the audience, but I didn't see a STAR. Her performance was not memorable to me- again, I feel as if people are telling me to take notice of her instead of allowing me to take notice of her for myself.

[Vash01]

I would like to see her compete in at least a few senior level events before even talking about the Olympics. I have never seen a skater being hyped as much as Gracie is, at this stage of her career. May be because the USA has had a drought (sp?) of world championship contenders since 2006- after Sasha, Michelle and even Kimmie (she too was overhyped but at least she was competing at the senior level at that time).

[Jammers]

We saw some very promising girls at Senior Nat's this year. Angela Wang, for one. And although they're not age eligible now, Nina Jiang and Leah Kaiser. We have yet to see what a healthy Yasmin Siraj or Kiri Baga could accomplish. Or Christina Gao with more consistency and personality. It doesn't have to be up to Gold alone to save US Ladiezz.

When i meant Seniors i meant from the last Olympic cycle. I consider Wang, Keiser, and Jiang Juniors who skated as Seniors only at Nationals but who are part of the new wave of girls who will hopefully take over soon. When i meant the current crop i mean Mirai, Ashley, Alissa, Rachael and Caroline.

[Mayra]

It's a good thing Gracie is already seeing a sports psychologist...

[martyross]

looking at the pics on her twitter, if i didn't know her age, i would swear she's 20-21.

[Sylvia]

If anyone would like to read the pre-2010 US Nationals local Springfield, IL feature article on a 14-year-old Gracie Gold (and 15-year-old McKinzie Daniels) by the same author who wrote the article linked in the first post of this thread, here's the link: http://www.sj-r.com/features/x179348...figure-skating

[martyross]

It's a good thing Gracie is already seeing a sports psychologist...

why not? if she needs extra-help in dealing with her competitions... and then, better sooner than later. even because, if she fails 2 or 3 competitions in the future people will start calling her "headcase" and "inconsistent". i'm not surprised that these kids want that kind of support at such tender age. a skater's life is probably much harder than we think.
btw, i'm a bit puzzled at all the advertising she/her team is making.

[martyross]

btw i read she's also a juggler. is there a footage of her juggling by chance? i'm curious.

[Sylvia]

btw, i'm a bit puzzled at all the advertising she/her team is making.

I don't think she/her team is directly responsible for the "advertising" (i.e., 3 simultaneously active threads) on FSU?

ETA: There's a big difference between fan-driven hype on the Internet and media-generated hype. IMO, Gold has had, to date, by far more of the former here on FSU than the latter.

btw i read she's also a juggler. is there a footage of her juggling by chance? i'm curious.

Peter Carruthers conducted a short interview with Gold the day after she won and asked her to juggle for him at the end. The video can be watched without an IceNetwork subscription in their video archive (scroll back through January 2012) - it's titled "AT&T ICE Desk - Gold."

[DORISPULASKI]

Cool!

[mikemba]

[QUOTE=Vash01;3470392] I have never seen a skater being hyped as much as Gracie is, at this stage of her career. QUOTE]

I think that Tara had close to this much hype, though. And the good news is that she had an incredible ability to handle all types of pressure -- from being heavily hyped as a junior to competing against the beloved Michelle Kwan to doing the 1st triple loop/triple loop to delivering perfectly clean programs when even the slighest of mistakes would have surely cost her the gold. It seemed like pressure made her better -- the more pressure she had, the better she skated.

Although I generally don't like over-hyping young skaters, the little I have seen of Gracie makes me think that she might have a Tara-like ability to thrive under the hype. Although some skaters crumble under the pressure, hopefully Gracie will be one of the ones who use it to her maximum advantage, whether that's an Olympic medal, a senior national title, or whatever personal goals she has.

[berthesghost]

tara sure was hyped as junior, and was expected to win everything. Instead she was 2nd at nats and 6th at worlds.

Her first year at nats, she had much less hype and won an almost surprise medal and trip to worlds. The next year she was almost lost in kwans shaddow, yet came from behind and won almost surprise and worlds.

Now hyped as kwan's equal, she all but imploded, skating poorly at SA, losing Lalique to Hubert, bombing the sp at nats and giving a so-so lp.

By olys she was back to underdog status which is where she really seemed to thrive, when all the pressure was off and people were counting her out,that's when she usually delivered.

[Vagabond]

Gee, she hasn't trained a Senior Program so let's send her unprepared.

How, exactly, do you know she hasn't trained one?

According to Jayar, whom I regard as a reliable source:

She already had it choreographed and was ready to compete with it if the call came.

http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/show...&postcount=191

[mikemba]

tara sure was hyped as junior, and was expected to win everything. Instead she was 2nd at nats and 6th at worlds.

Not sure how I rated a , but that's ok.

Our recollections of Tara seem very inconsistent with each other respect to her "imploding" -- she had a very high percentage of times when she delivered perfect 7-for-7 triple jump programs.

More importantly, my point is that Tara was very much hyped when she was a junior to be the next Olympic Champion, and she did indeed accomplish that very lofty and rare goal. So, yes, it's quite possible to be hyped as the next Olympic Champion while still a junior and successfully handle that type of pressure.

[DORISPULASKI]

tara sure was hyped as junior, and was expected to win everything. Instead she was 2nd at nats and 6th at worlds.

Her first year at nats, she had much less hype and won an almost surprise medal and trip to worlds. The next year she was almost lost in kwans shaddow, yet came from behind and won almost surprise and worlds.

Now hyped as kwan's equal, she all but imploded, skating poorly at SA, losing Lalique to Hubert, bombing the sp at nats and giving a so-so lp.

By olys she was back to underdog status which is where she really seemed to thrive, when all the pressure was off and people were counting her out,that's when she usually delivered.

The first year I remember Tara at Nationals it was 1995 in Providence, and she was a new Junior. Her publicist was working full time, and you would have thought from the newspapers and everything else that she was going to wipe the rink with the other juniors. Instead she totally bombed and was beaten by Sydne Vogel of Alaska.

After that, AFAIR, she responded very nicely to pressure.

[Dilng]

Not sure how I rated a , but that's ok.

Our recollections of Tara seem very inconsistent with each other respect to her "imploding" -- she had a very high percentage of times when she delivered perfect 7-for-7 triple jump programs.

More importantly, my point is that Tara was very much hyped when she was a junior to be the next Olympic Champion, and she did indeed accomplish that very lofty and rare goal. So, yes, it's quite possible to be hyped as the next Olympic Champion while still a junior and successfully handle that type of pressure.

Yeah I have that tape and she didn't implode. She made some errors, but it certainly wasn't imploding. Plus she had the flu even though she didn't use that as an excuse. If Gracie handles pressure like Tara she will definitely be successful.