U.S. Women [#5]: Remain on the Dance Floor

[PRlady]

This was such a wonderful read.

Wasn’t it? I give them both a lot of credit.

 

[Sylvia]

2 Josephine Lee articles before Junior Worlds:

Likely the final figure skating Los Angeles Times column (Feb. 12) by Helene Elliott who has taken a buyout after 34+ years there:

Elliott: Teenager Josephine Lee announces her presence on figure skating's big stage

Josephine Lee's second-place finish at the recent U.S. figure skating championships distinguished her as someone to watch for the 2026 Olympics.

www.latimes.com

Feb. 22:

Getting to know U.S. silver medalist Josephine Lee - Figure Skaters Online

By Gina Capellazzi, Team FSO website administrator Photos by Robin Ritoss Last year, Josephine Lee sat in 11th place after the short program at the U.S. Championships in what was her senior nationals debut. The next day, the 14-year-old delivered an almost clean free skate that included a triple...

figureskatersonline.com

 

[Sylvia]

ETA 2 excerpts from Elliott's column on Josephine:

Yet Lee, who lives in Irvine and trains at Lakewood Ice, has another talent that isn’t as obvious: She can solve a Rubik’s cube with her feet.
She played a video of her feet feat for The Times but was too modest to share it. Suffice to say that if finishing a Rubik’s cube with your feet ever becomes an Olympic sport, she’d contend for a gold medal.
She had solved it with her hands, but she didn’t stop there. “One time I was on a long car ride and I got really bored, so I decided to put the Rubik’s cube on the floor. It took about an hour,” she said. “It’s a really good ankle exercise.”
It’s not a conventional training method, but it’s working for her.

She handled the pressure beautifully, enjoying her performance instead of ticking off each technical element in her mind like a shopping list. She completed seven triple jumps without a single negative grade of execution from any of the nine judges; though she did a triple flip-double axel-double axel sequence instead of a triple-triple combination, she racked up 138.85 points, a personal best and three points better than Glenn’s free skate routine. Her final total score was 204.13 points.
Her only misstep occurred when, overwhelmed by the occasion, she tried to exit the ice through the Zamboni door instead of the skaters’ door. [...]
They were both happily shocked by her score, but four skaters remained. Lee and Evidente didn’t know if her total would hold up as No. 1 for the long program and they didn’t know where she’d finish.
Lee didn’t see the final skaters or track the standings. “My eyelashes fell off and I was reapplying those. They fell off when I was crying in the kiss-and-cry. So I didn’t really watch Amber’s entire skate,” Lee said.

 

[Flip Jump]

Alysa Liu has posted that she will be making an announcement March 1st at 6:00am PST. The video seems to imply the announcement is about her skating, with the caption saying “to be continued”.
Interested to see what this is about.

刘美贤 Alysa Liu on Instagram: "to be continued…"

9,731 likes, 295 comments - alysaxliu on February 26, 2024: "to be continued…".

www.instagram.com

 

[SkateFanBerlin]

Alysa Liu has posted that she will be making an announcement March 1st at 6:00pm PST. The video seems to imply the announcement is about her skating, with the caption saying “to be continued”.
Interested to see what this is about.

刘美贤 Alysa Liu on Instagram: "to be continued…"

9,731 likes, 295 comments - alysaxliu on February 26, 2024: "to be continued…".

www.instagram.com

Wouldn`t surprise me. I thought she hadn`t given seniors much of a go. I mean for all the years of work.

 

[Karen-W]

It would certainly be interesting to see her competing in the current no-Russian-girls environment.

 

[zigzig]

I always thought she was underappreciated and frankly undermarked internationally. Would be cool for her to come back on her own terms, if that’s what she wants.

 

[Spiralgraph]

Perhaps Alysa wants to try for another Olympics. Who knows?

 

[PRlady]

I bet that announcement has only strengthened Isabeau’s and Amber’s resolve to get the third spot back this year.

 

[Wyliefan]

Perhaps Alysa wants to try for another Olympics. Who knows?

I'm guessing the same. The timing would be about right.

 

[Jarrett]

Alysa Liu has posted that she will be making an announcement March 1st at 6:00pm PST. The video seems to imply the announcement is about her skating, with the caption saying “to be continued”.
Interested to see what this is about.

刘美贤 Alysa Liu on Instagram: "to be continued…"

9,731 likes, 295 comments - alysaxliu on February 26, 2024: "to be continued…".

www.instagram.com

I assume she is practicing otherwise I have no idea what she would put such a badly rotated quad lutz on that video. Maybe she has some unfulfilled goals or frankly just misses it. Or like the top comment on the post she’s opening her yogurt stand.

 

[NinjaTurtles]

I'm surprised - not that it doesn't make sense with the timing (i.e., the last 2 years of the quadrennial comeback we've seen from several skaters), but I got the sense that she fully moved on from skating.

 

[Vagabond]

I'm surprised - not that it doesn't make sense with the timing (i.e., the last 2 years of the quadrennial comeback we've seen from several skaters), but I got the sense that she fully moved on from skating.

Maybe having put some distance on things, she has a different perspective.

 

[toddlj]

I'm guessing the same. The timing would be about right.

Maybe she saw nationals and thought... "I could have won that."

 

[Jarrett]

Maybe she saw nationals and thought... "I could have won that."

I’m sure Ashley Wagner, Karen Chen… etc thought they could have won that.

 

[coppertop1]

Wouldn`t surprise me. I thought she hadn`t given seniors much of a go. I mean for all the years of work.

She wanted to move on, not everyone wants to have a long career. Plus, she was overhyped and overpressured.

 

[Debbie S]

The announcement (except unless I missed something she doesn't actually mention "announcement", just "to be continued") time is actually 6 AM PST on Friday, so we'll know early in the day.

She also lists Friday's date in her IG bio.

There is also a reference to January 5 in her vid....the day she decided? That would have been before Nats.

Assuming we can get a 3rd spot by the next Olys, it's wide open at the moment.

 

[Vagabond]

I’m sure Ashley Wagner, Karen Chen… etc thought they could have won that.

I may need to update my list of codeword references to Michelle Kwan.

 

[Jarrett]

I may need to update my list of codeword references to Michelle Kwan.

Yes. Alysa is actually announcing the return of Michelle Kwan for that 10th national win.

 

[On My Own]

Why are we jumping to conclusions?

 

[BlueRidge]

Why are we jumping to conclusions?

wishful thinking?

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

I’m sure Ashley Wagner, Karen Chen… etc thought they could have won that.

Ummmm no

Meet me down by the creek

 

[Rukia]

Why are we jumping to conclusions?

that's like 75% of what we do on this board

 

[Theatregirl1122]

What would we do other than speculate????

 

[ice coverage]

The announcement (except unless I missed something she doesn't actually mention "announcement", just "to be continued") time is actually 6 AM PST on Friday, so we'll know early in the day.

She also lists Friday's date in her IG bio.

There is also a reference to January 5 in her vid....the day she decided? That would have been before Nats.

Assuming we can get a 3rd spot by the next Olys, it's wide open at the moment.

Audrey Lu's comments on Alysa's Instagram post:

" she’s coming back "

" and who was the first to know? "​

ETA:​

Update: Comments on the post no longer are visible.​

ETA:​

Update #2: Older comments still are gone, but some newer ones now are visible.​

 

[kwanfan1818]

The whole point of announcing that your making an announcement is for people to speculate, ie, jump to conclusions. Otherwise, you'd just make your announcement and let people know you already did.

 

[Rukia]

Audrey Lu's comments on Alysa's Instagram post:

" she’s coming back "​

​

" and who was the first to know? "​

ok but when audrey lu's comeback????

 

[ice coverage]

ok but when audrey lu's comeback????

Sorry, I'm not really getting the humor here?

As Alysa's college-mate and former Team USA-mate, Audrey would be a likely confidante for Alysa, I think.
There have been recent glimpses of them together off ice and on ice.
Perhaps we'll eventually hear a little more from Audrey (if not Alysa?) about what the significance of Jan 5 is/was?

 

[Karen-W]

ok but when audrey lu's comeback????

Right? The US Pairs field could desperately use her back. She's in LA. Danylo Siianytsia's GF is in LA. He should just move out there and partner with Audrey, lol.

But honestly, Audrey seems to be living her best life and enjoying the collegiate skating experience.

 

[On My Own]

The whole point of announcing that your making an announcement is for people to speculate, ie, jump to conclusions. Otherwise, you'd just make your announcement and let people know you already did.

But why is the conclusion being jumped to a particular one? It could be an ice show or some sort of ice camp. She could also just be doing collegiate skating.