2024 Cup of China Women's Short Program: Mone, Mone, Mone

[barbk]

Nice to have a real horse race for the long!

 

[zigzig]

GREAT COMPETITION - nice job ladies.

Mone - the q on her lutz is a headscratcher but glad she did well. Song doesn't really work for her but she's cute.

Amber - looked really tight but glad she held it together.

Rion - best jumps of the competition. Undermarked in PCS.

Chaeyeon - not sure I agree with the q, close call I guess. Glad to see she's really worked on her expression and outward projection.

Rinka - talented skater. good fight. the fact that she's a lower-middle of the pack japanese skater just underlines the insane depth there.

Kimmy - I don't think she hasn't quite figured out how to harness her length and limbs yet.

Minchae - strong jumper but weird technique and unpolished skater.

Maddie - decent skate for her but there's so much tension to her skating these days. she opens up once the jumps are done but it's too late in the program at that point.

Xiangyi - love her spunk. Would have had her a hair above Maddie.

Yi - solid but boring.

Gubanova - maybe she has other stuff going on in her life but her skating has taken a huge step back this season.

Hongyi - meh all around.

 

[jenny12]

Seeing how we are talking about Donna Summer, which is Alysa's LP...

Anyways, the performance PCS is based on three criteria: expressiveness and projection, variety and contrast of energy and of movements, and musical sensitivity and timing, I can see Chiba has it all over Liu IMO on the latter two of those criteria. If you want to give Liu all the points for her smile and her energy to start the program, then there's that.

Totally agree! I find Mone’s movement very committed! She’s very on the music throughout the program and I find has a real warmth throughout it which is supported by her very good skating skills. Alysa has a nice smile in her program but I don’t feel her movements engage with the music nearly as well as Mone does.

 

[peibeck]

Mone is absolutely a beautiful skater and her movement beautiful, but I don't get "Last Dance" disco ferocity. So while I enjoy her skating the program screams early teens dance recital in its concept, to me.

I don't get the "q" on Glenn's 3a. The 3t in the combo looked more short to me, but compared to NHK, the calls here seemed more lenient (and at NHK way too harsh).

I prefer Rion's FS, but she was very solid today. I honestly might have put her in second, although the scores are so tight anything is likely to happen tomorrow.

Kim, great jumper but zero performance ability. I don't get her PCS at all.

I feel terrible for Gubonova. It's been all downhill since she won Euros and she can't seem to get any confidence back. Her SP outfit is one of my favorites this season though; she looks amazing.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Mone is absolutely a beautiful skater and her movement beautiful, but I don't get "Last Dance" disco ferocity. So while I enjoy her skating the program screams early teens dance recital in its concept, to me.

I don't get the "q" on Glenn's 3a. The 3t in the combo looked more short to me, but compared to NHK, the calls here seemed more lenient (and at NHK way too harsh).

I prefer Rion's FS, but she has very solid today. I honestly might have put her in second, although the scores are so tight anything is likely to happen tomorrow.

Kim, great jumper but zero performance ability. I don't get her PCS at all.

I feel terrible for Gubonova. It's been all downhill since she won Euros and she can't seem to get any confidence back. Her SP outfit is one of my favorites this season though; she looks amazing.

Wow, I agree with every single thing you said, especially the first two paragraphs

After watching slow-motion I think Amber Axel is totally fine but I think the triple toe after the flip had an issue with the rotation. I don’t get it.

Oh, I think I also said this in her previous performance if you listen to the lyrics of Last dance, I think it’s inappropriate for a skater of that age. It’s sometimes these choices baffle me.

 

[annie_mg]

I personally feel like Mone looks like a good student when she performs. As in, she's clearly done that programme a thousand times, knows the movements by heart and tries a lot to do them well. But she isn't a natural performer. There's nothing special in her performance, and this song in particular needs that spark which she lacks.

Repond reminds me of a young Carolina Kostner. Fast and wild. I don't have the answer but maybe Kostner does because she was able to harness that power 10 years after she came onto the scene.

My two cents. Can't wait for tomorrow, it's going to be close!

 

[Coco]

Finally getting a chance to watch, just got to Xiangyi AN, who was wonderful. The choreography was done by Benoit and Yeaji Shin.

 

[mtnskater]

I must be in a good mood. I enjoyed most all the dancers in the RD and most all the women in the short. So close and hard to separate them all. On to watch the men’s short replay.

 

[genevieve]

Mone could take some lessons from Alysa Liu on how to sell a Donna Summer program. Great skating, but the presentation isn't quite fully extended through her entire body all the way to her fingertips & face.

ok I know there was a whole thing about this already, but I'm watching the SP now, and while Mone was skating, I was thinking her performance quality sometimes reminded me of Alysa's - and Mone needs to go the other direction.

I do agree that Mone's expression does not extend all the way through her limbs - that 2A into a slide would go from awesome to incredible if she stretched out a bit more - but that level of expression is not what I associate with Liu.

The sometimes empty smiling? That was very Alysa.