Gracie Gold emerges as skating's bright new star

[Sugar]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...ships/1867471/

For now, though, the U.S. figure skating community found itself in the delightful position of realizing that it had found a new star with the next Olympics 13 months away. While Wagner -- who is still recovering from a bad fall in December – struggled, Gold was a breath of fresh air that blew through the CenturyLink Arena like a spring breeze, with nothing but possibility looming in the most important year ahead.

[Sasha'sSpins]

'Bright new star'.

I'm just not feeling it. Gracie's scores at Nationals were artificially inflated almost certainly to get her onto the World team. She looked terrified in the SP and scared/tense in the FS up to when she landed all of her big jumps.

In bygone days, when I watched skaters like Gordeeva and Grinkov, Yamaguchi, Ito, Baiul, Kwan and Lipinski, Yagudin heck even Bonaly with her iffy basics in their first early outings I thought 'A Star is Born'.

I'm not getting that vibe from Gracie-at least not yet. To me it feels like she's being forced fed on the public.

Time will tell if she lives up to the hype.

[Coco]

I was thrilled to see Gracie's performance tonight. The jumps are more than first rate!

I know that there will be difficult decisions in the future, but she SERIOUSLY needs to work with other choreographers.

[Sasha'sSpins]

I was thrilled to see Gracie's performance tonight. The jumps are more than first rate!

I know that there will be difficult decisions in the future, but she SERIOUSLY needs to work with other choreographers.

STAT!

[gkelly]

I'm just not feeling it. Gracie's scores at Nationals were artificially inflated almost certainly to get her onto the World team. She looked terrified in the SP and scared/tense in the FS up to when she landed all of her big jumps.

In bygone days, when I watched skaters like Gordeeva and Grinkov, Yamaguchi, Ito, Baiul, Kwan and Lipinski, Yagudin heck even Bonaly with her iffy basics in their first early outings I thought 'A Star is Born'.

I'm not getting that vibe from Gracie-at least not yet. To me it feels like she's being forced fed on the public.

I don't know. I felt as though Kwan was being "force fed on the public" ca. 1994-95 and that her performances at Nationals those years were weaker than Gold's LP this year (jump content aside), although the 3rd-place SPs were better than Gold's. For that reason I never felt warm feelings toward her and she was never one of my favorites -- although she did soon begin to live up to the hype internationally and continued to do so for many years, to the delight of many fans who did buy into it or were able to ignore it and appreciate her good qualities for themselves.

I didn't watch 1989 Nationals until several years after the fact on videotape, but there were definitely fans at the time who felt that Yamaguchi was being pushed and hyped (and/or that Trenary was being held up) and that Harding wuzrobbed.

Time will tell if she lives up to the hype.

So, yeah. Now I just take a wait-and-see attitude with all the hyped newcomers. Some of them may live up to it and beyond, but I never expect more than whatever good stuff they're doing now.

[Bostonfan]

Well since you brought it up, I'll rehash 94-95. Kwan was hardly force-fed on us. In 94, the USFSA had no choices. Kwan was the only skater that the USFSA could cling to in the immedate aftermath that was the Harding/Kerrigan saga. She skated respectably enough to place 8th at 94 Worlds. She didn't really make a huge splash doing it. I'm sure the USFSA was hoping to capitalize on Bobek's charisma. If Nicole Bobek had not failed so badly at the 94 Worlds, Kwan likely would have been left to make her mark more quietly. As it was, once Nicole Bobek resurged in 1995, the USFSA was happy to latch back onto her while Kwan's story was still all about how she skated like a girl and not a woman. When Kwan made her 96 era Salome transformation, and Bobek imploded, THEN Kwan pretty much commanded the attention and they never looked back for a decade afterwards.

But Kwan was not the focus right off the bat. She had to transform herself to get to that point. Which was probably a good thing in the long run.

Frankly TPTB aren't doing anything for Gold that they did do to Meissner, NNN, Cohen, etc.

[Sasha'sSpins]

Well since you brought it up, I'll rehash 94-95. Kwan was hardly force-fed on us. In 94, the USFSA had no choices. Kwan was the only skater that the USFSA could cling to in the immedate aftermath that was the Harding/Kerrigan saga. She skated respectably enough to place 8th at 94 Worlds. She didn't really make a huge splash doing it. I'm sure the USFSA was hoping to capitalize on Bobek's charisma. If Nicole Bobek had not failed so badly at the 94 Worlds, Kwan likely would have been left to make her mark more quietly. As it was, once Nicole Bobek resurged in 1995, the USFSA was happy to latch back onto her while Kwan's story was still all about how she skated like a girl and not a woman. When Kwan made her 96 era Salome transformation, and Bobek imploded, THEN Kwan pretty much commanded the attention and they never looked back for a decade afterwards.

But Kwan was not the focus right off the bat. She had to transform herself to get to that point. Which was probably a good thing in the long run.

Frankly TPTB aren't doing anything for Gold that they did do to Meissner, NNN, Cohen, etc.

ITA. And it scares me when a young skater seems over-hyped before she has really made her mark.

[overedge]

Sugar has posted a story about her, so she's doomed

[Sasha'sSpins]

Sugar has posted a story about her, so she's doomed

I certainly didn't mean sugar. I'm obviously talking about media hype. Not all rookies have handled it well as history has shown.

[overedge]

I certainly didn't mean sugar. I'm obviously talking about media hype. Not all rookies have handled it well as history has shown.

I know you didn't. I was commenting on the unfortunate history of skaters that Sugar has gotten excited about.

[BigB08822]

So which is it? Did Gracie look terrified during her LP until she completed her last jump or did she skate so well because she was completely free of pressure after bombing the short? Those ideas contradict each other and I keep hearing both.

[Sasha'sSpins]

So which is it? Did Gracie look terrified during her LP until she completed her last jump or did she skate so well because she was completely free of pressure after bombing the short? Those ideas contradict each other and I keep hearing both.

She looked terrified just before the SP. In the LP imo she looked scared again as she got into her starting position but obviously she handled the nerves better. She was determined to get the jumps done and she did. But there was nothing much in between as far as choreo/presentation. She didn't project. After the big jumps she did have smile on her face that came and went. It looked pasted on to me.