2025 Cup of China Women's Free PBP - Unchained FGB

[Bunny Hop]

I noticed a lot of people using Chris' phrases this weekend. It amuses me.

For me, a lot of it is stuff I'd say anyway. I watched a lot of British TV as a child, plus ten years living there. But many years with Chris' commentary may have also had an influence. I also caught myself a few times typing the same thing he was saying as he said it.

 

[her grace]

Bad company corrupts good vocabulary

 

[skatingguy]

Free Skate Protocols

 

[jenny12]

Watching Rino skate is an enriching experience. Blade work like that is what makes figure skating great.

 

[SkateFanBerlin]

Has Amber ever trained 3A3T? Or any 3A combination.

 

[leilaofpaper]

Has Amber ever trained 3A3T? Or any 3A combination.

She said she looked at putting too 3As in her free skate but it was too much, and with one there’s no reason to risk it being in a combo, it’s not like she’ll get more points overall.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

She said she looked at putting too 3As in her free skate but it was too much, and with one there’s no reason to risk it being in a combo, it’s not like she’ll get more points overall.

and she already is one of the few that has 8 triples in her free skate.

 

[MacMadame]

For me, a lot of it is stuff I'd say anyway. I watched a lot of British TV as a child, plus ten years living there. But many years with Chris' commentary may have also had an influence. I also caught myself a few times typing the same thing he was saying as he said it.

I never noticed this stuff much until we started playing BINGO. But, then again, until Chris started commentating on Peacock, I don't think I ever heard him commentate.

I do agree that some of the "Chris-isms" people have sent me are things lots of people say. Like "battle royale" and "right from the off."

She wasn’t forced to change it. She’s an Adult who can and will do as she wants. She changed it because it was obvious she would not want to be associated with it; just as her favorite artist dissociated herself with the other artist. Stop pedaling that.

In her interview, she said she didn't want to change it but felt compelled to. So forced by circumstances.

Either way, my point stands -- expecting all new programs at this point in the season isn't realistic given what is going on in her skating life. If she keeps Promise and reworks Gaga, that's good enough for me. If she continues to do last season's programs throughout this season, that's a different story.

 

[Lilia A]

Tech panel didn't call Zhu's second 3F a fall but they did call Rino's end pose stumble a fall and applied it to her layback. I know the tech panel has been inconsistent af here but come on!

 

[honey]

Thought Amber was tentative again today, but managed the tech very well. I wasn’t surprised at her PCS being what they were. She didn’t skate that her best today.

What I was surprised at was Alysa getting higher PCS for what she did. She was crawling by the end and barely moving across the ice. The PCS didn’t reflect that and that’s annoying. But she looks much better tech wise than at the previous event. Another panel might have been a bit pickier though on a few jumps. She’s got work to do certainly but I think the trajectory is going the right way.

 

[zigzig]

Amber - another tight but competent skate that got the job done. Setting herself up as a major O medal contender.

Liu - jumps looked good. But seeing this program and the way she completely ran out of steam by that lethally undercooked step sequence just makes me hope she's reworking Gaga and giving that another go.

Rinka - I'm REALLY happy she clung on to a medal because I really like her but she needs to completely rethink her tech strategy. I don't care what she's able to do in practice but that 3A+3T is not even close in competition. She should focus on one BANGER 3A with big GOE that creates a real wow moment, and then concentrate on maximizing the rest of her jumps which can get really suss with all of her mental and physical focus on the two 3As.

Gubanova - did well, I find her skating and jumps very effortful and I hate all the Ghost voiceovers (unless someone finally uses, MOLLY, YOU IN DANGER, GIRL). Great dress though.

Jia Shin - such a tentative nervy skater. Needs more attack. She oddly used to be so consistent and then towards the end of her junior career and in this transition to seniors she has really lost that stability.

Rino - calling that stumble on her ending pose a FALL on her LAYBACK was a choice. Beautiful basics but needs more sophisticated packaging. Can't believe she's 21 because she skates like a 14 year old.

Zhang - nice springy jumps!

Pezzetta - needs new coach and choreographer. She could be in that 3A club with sharper technique. Tacky program with horrendous music cuts. Nice raw talent desperately in need of a better team.

Lee - super out of shape. will she get in shape as the season progresses?

Yoshida - shame her wonky tech is holding back her PCS because she really should be scoring solidly in the 60s on those.

Zhu - soggy wet blanket.

 

[sk8nlizard]

First Grand Prix medal

I am just catching up but I thought the same thing. I was like someone who has all these medals from major Senior events (and Junior events too) but no Senior GP medals??? I guess it makes sense considering how old she was last quad, Covid, etc. but it’s a bit mind boggling!

 

[Matryeshka]

With the exception of Zhang, this was the Group of You Need to Rethink Your Life Choices in an Olympic Season. Even if these programs had been skated perfectly, I'm not sure they would actually be any more enjoyable. Also, Anna is wearing so much make up, it's aging and not in a good way. It doesn't read sophisticated, it reads I raided my mommy's make up drawer and used all her eyeliner. If I were Lara, I'd be sleeping a tad easier after this event. Letting your gloves be the extent of your interpretation is a choice.

Rino just made up for everyone else's poor choices. The judges should ignore her fall like they ignored Sui/Han's transgressions. It's only fair.

I love this modern interpretation of Ghost: The Musical. Nothing quite so emotive as when the ghost goes into Whoopi's body and screams I AM SPARTACUS. It's EVOCATIVE.

Jia is skating programs she should be skating in two years. Hopefully, we'll still be talking about her in 2030; she has a lot of potential.

Amber needs to put her combo not after the 3A. She also needs to stop being so hard on herself--she seemed genuinely surprised by her score and she shouldn't have been.

I feel like Rinka got a little gift today, but Anasatsiia has gotten MANY gifts, so I can't get real upset about it. I want to know if there was a fire sale on bad skirt lengths in Japan.

I think Alysa skated great considering she had to go back to both of last year's programs unexpectedly. For my sake, I'm so glad she's a skater but I feel like by all rights, she should have been a snowboarder, personality-wise.

I'm good with this podium.

I know we're only on the second grand prix, but unlike the men's, the women's seems pretty set. Barring injury/illness, I can't see how the Olympic team won't be Alysa, Amber, and Isabeau. I feel bad for Bradie and Sarah, but I just can't see them making it, and I don't think Ava Marie Ziegler or Elyce Lin-Gracey would even be in the running.

 

[Jammers]

I am just catching up but I thought the same thing. I was like someone who has all these medals from major Senior events (and Junior events too) but no Senior GP medals??? I guess it makes sense considering how old she was last quad, Covid, etc. but it’s a bit mind boggling!

Why are we acting like Alysa has been on the Senior GP for a ton of years? It's only her 3rd season on the GP her first season was when she was only 16 and last season after she had taken two years off from competing and was not in real competitive shape yet at the beginning of the season. Gabby Daleman has a World medal but never came close to winning a GP medal in her career and she did the Senior GP for a way longer time then Alysa has so far.

 

[peibeck]

Yoshida: is she the victim of a vampire or what is this costume? Not close on the 3A. Pretty disappointing overall, she seemed very tentative.

Zhang: Not the most difficulty but a good skate, the pandering to the judges at the boards in the steps is a big no from me though.

The amplitude on Pezzetta's jumps is staggering. Ballet music doesn't suit her at all though, she doesn't have the polish or stretch for it at all. I wonder if she's training a 3A, with the pop she gets, I think she could do it.

Zhu: the curse of "Ghost" got her jumps today, and my eardrums.

Lee: Oh dear, another dreadful musical... sigh. From World medalist to all these iffy jumps, pretty sad. Her presentation for a Korean lady is good though, at least she doesn't skate through her (terrible) music like most of them.

Matsuike: Getting the jumps done but then splat on the steps? I didn't feel like the presentation really got going til she finished the jumps though, fairly robotic at the top.

Gubanova: ANOTHER "Ghost?" KILL. ME. NOW. There is basically zero program here for the first 2:45. Jump, jump, jump. Spins nice positions but on the slow side. Meh.

Shin: "Liebestraum" playing but she kind of bulldozes her way through the music with occasional nice nuance. Probably too many mistakes to fend off Gubanova though.

Glenn: best ladies 3A ever? Yes, a long set up, but we see men doing that on their quads all the time. Ugh, on the 3T in the combo again. I wish this music was more memorable, but a great skate for her. Finally a 4 on the steps.

Watanabe: Gutsy to go for two 3As but no payoff with all the errors though. The music also just dies at the end, really need to be perfect to pull a quiet finish.

Liu: let the Gaga program return. She's such a fighter, but I cannot with this cheesy program.

 

[skateboy]

She wasn’t forced to change it. She’s an Adult who can and will do as she wants. She changed it because it was obvious she would not want to be associated with it; just as her favorite artist dissociated herself with the other artist. Stop pedaling that.

No one is pedaling anything. Of course she wasn't forced to change it, but she might as well have been. Can you imagine all the hissy fits (especially on here) if she had chosen not to?

 

[Bunny Hop]

I never noticed this stuff much until we started playing BINGO. But, then again, until Chris started commentating on Peacock, I don't think I ever heard him commentate.

You wouldn't have, but we had Eurosport the whole time we were in the UK where he was skating commentator (with Simon Reed), and I think he did the world feed with Belinda Noonan at the last Winter Olympics as well.

 

[mtnskater]

Rino Matsuike is one of the skaters I most look forward to watching these days. I absolutely love her flow, glide and deep edges and could watch that all day. I love her gentleness too. In an age where power skating rules the day, I find her very delightful. I’m not watching her for the jumps, though she is quite a good jumper too. She’s just a skater’s skater in my book. Would love to see her improve on her stretch and line more….but I think that about most of the skaters

Amber is looking so mature in her presentation compared to the others. Such a complete package these days. Thought it was interesting what Chris said about her flip technique and how he feels she kind of rushes it, which makes the combo difficult. Like others, I wish she would stop immediately telegraphing her errors at the end of the program. Deserved the win!

Alysa is such a trip. She does not get phased by anything it seems. I enjoyed seeing McArthur Park again as it brought back happy memories how much I enjoyed it live in Boston. I love to see her joy in performing and I hope she doesn’t go too dark with her Lady Gaga program theme. I’ll be excited to see what she and her team come up with. She is such an interesting personality on top of being a super talent.

 

[Karen-W]

Time to watch the rest of the women I missed when I fell asleep, lol.

Zhang – the only thing truly memorable is the judge-whoring to start the step sequence

Pezzetta – well, it wasn’t perfect, but she is getting better about controlling the wildness of her jumps.

Zhu – oooof… guess there will be no Olympic redemption for her; these voiceovers from the musical are so unnecessary; well, it was nice to see her bounce back after the disaster of the first three jumping passes.

Lee – well, that fell apart on the last few jumping passes; it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either; she’s lucky that the KSU only uses their domestic ranking competition & K-Nats to determine their Olympic team.

Matsuike – hmmmm… I’d have thought Liebestraum not The Nutcracker based on her dress; I’m sorry, but she is the most boring Japanese women’s skater competing these days. I know it’s not the music because I’ve loved plenty of Nutcracker programs & I haven’t zoned out during them. LOL – Chris blames himself for her random fall in the step sequence. Nah, you shouldn’t do that, I’m sure that Rino just zoned out herself like I did before that became the only memorable part of her performance.

Gubanova – what are the odds of two Ghost FS in the same women’s GP comp? Probably really low, yet here we are… Ooof, that 3lo – miracle she stayed upright; these voiceovers aren’t as annoying as the ones in Zhu’s program; pretty credible skate, though not as good as Trialeti.

Shin – Oh, so here’s the Liebestraum program of the day, from the skater dressed as a very young bride – too bad she’s not an ice dancer in Colorado Springs; another boring program from a skater who has zero personality beyond skating to a classical warhorse.

Okay, I woke up and commented in real time for Amber, Rinka & Alysa, but I am going to re-watch Rinka because I want to see if I still think she was overscored by comparison to what came before.

Yeah, Gubanova was underscored in the SP and Rinka made just enough mistakes in the FS that I still think Gubs should have beaten her overall. Not that it matters because Rinka’s not making the Olympic team for Japan unless something really bizarre happens at J-Nats.

 

[skateycat]

"The People's Republic of Korea"? Chris, go grab a coffee please
At least he didn't say "Democratic PRK"

He also said that during another segment of this competition. Hopefully he corrects himself sooner than later. I don’t hold out too much hope. How many years did he mangle Kaori’s name?

 

[Simone411]

I missed watching the competitions on Friday because of doctor's appts. in Shreveport, and also, I had another appt. including my home health nurse came.

I watched replays last night of the Ladies SPs and LPs. First of all, I noticed how much Anastasia has improved. Her spins and footwork are more polished. She's also improved on her jumps. I was really impressed.

I noticed a few mistakes with Rinka, but she has a great triple axel. In a way, I felt Anastasia should have had higher scores than Rinka in the FS. However, I was pleased with Rinka and Anastasia.

Amber Glenn has improved in everything since last year's Grand Prix and Worlds. Last year, it seemed to me that she would get so excited making her adrenalin really hyped up. I believe that's when Amber's mistakes happened because of her adrenalin rush.

She did so well with her LP. I did notice her putting her hand on her right shoulder and she was having pain. I pray that the pain in her right shoulder isn't too serious. It looked like she may have pulled a muscle in her shoulder during one of those amazing spins.

I'm glad that Alysa chose to do her last year programs again. She's not by any means the first to do that. She had only one mistake with her combination jump. Other than that, she looked pretty flawless to me.

I know Clippy is very proud of Amber, Alysa, Rinka and Anastasia. I'm proud of them, too!

Kudos to all the skaters for getting out there and giving all they had. I'm proud of the Ladies this season!

ETA because I spelled Alysa's name wrong. I used 2 S's, and I do know better than that!