If the 2014 Olympics were held under the old rules, which ladies skater would win?

[bardtoob]

I also question whether the ability to make deeper tracings (because of weight) was the key factor. It was the quality of the tracings, wasn't it--staying on the edge, making the loops, etc.?

When do you think a judge assessed the quality of the edges, the size and shape of the figure, etc.? Before or after the skater was done skating? Is a tracing just one carving into the ice or multiple in figures?

When a skater jumps, the air position, height, and number of rotations is there then lost without a video recording. Yet, a trained eye could still tell you almost everything about the entry and exit as well as the distance quite some time after the element is over. However, no judge stands on the ice during freeskating, then rushes over to a jump entry, sweeps the shaving off the entry and gets on there hands and knees.

[Sasha'sSpins]

Mirai Nagasu.

[bardtoob]

Funny, she doesn't look Diane de Leeuwish!

No, she really doesn't ...

[tdl]

Why on earth does Asada have so much support in this thread. 6.0 was about cleanliness more than difficulty which would not be in her favor at all as she has barely skated any clean long programs since she was 15.

Maybe beacause Mao has actually skated far more cleanish or visibly clean performances (not counting URs, e calls or slight two-foots that weren't as harshly penalized under the 6.0 system) than Yu-Na and Carolina (not completely sure about her) ever have.

I don't have time to check all the videos right now, but off the top of my head, Mao skated close to clean LPs at:

Skate Canada 2007
Worlds 2007 (3A out of brackets)
Grand Prix Final 2007 (3A, 3F-3T, 3F-L)
4CC 2008 (3A 3F-3T, 3F-3L)
NHK Trophy 2008 (3A-2T, 3A)
Worlds 2010 (3A-2T, 3A)
4CC 2011 (3A)
Japan Open 2012

And there might be some more which I cannot remember at the moment.
All this without even counting the Nationals where I think she had a couple of pretty good performances too.

Actually, Mao has managed to skate all her LPs "clean" at least once since entering the senior scene.
And that, considering the super difficult content she was attempting, is nothing short of impressive.

Yes, you can argue these performances were not perfectly clean according to the protocols, but I think they would have been scored higher than Yu-Na's LPs that almost always contained at least one visible mistake (pop or a fall).

If I remeber correctly, Yu-Na skated a clean LP only three times since entering seniors.

Cup of Russia 2007
Olys 2010
Korean Nationals 2013

Yu-Na's jumps might be of better quality but I doubt that would have given her as much advantage under 6.0 against those performances by Mao.

So that's for the free skates, of course nobody knows how they would have done at figures.

Anybody has the numbers of clean/close to clean LPs by Carolina?
Would be interesting to know.