Best Silver medal LP performance (2) in Olympics by a Lady

[blue_idealist]

No. The judge was demoted by the ISU.

Thread 'UKR judge Yuri Balkov "demoted"; new provisory ISU members; 2015 JGP locations; 2016 YOG qualificat.' https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...2015-jgp-locations-2016-yog-qualificat.94546/

Isn't that the same guy who did the foot-tapping thing in 1999?!

 

[bardtoob]

Isn't that the same guy who did the foot-tapping thing in 1999?!

Yes, he had been caught cheating before.

 

[olympic]

Cecilia Colledge of GBR, cuz she probably would've won in 1936 w/o Henie and her dad's and schmoozing Hitler probably didn't hurt

Seriously, Medvedeva, Kwan, Kerrigan and of course Yu Na Kim should be the top here. At least 2 of them were robbed (I'll let you guess)

 

[Bigbird]

Cecilia Colledge of GBR, cuz she probably would've won in 1936 w/o Henie and her dad's and schmoozing Hitler probably didn't hurt

Seriously, Medvedeva, Kwan, Kerrigan and of course Yu Na Kim should be the top here. At least 2 of them were robbed (I'll let you guess)

Yuna and Med?

 

[bardtoob]

Cecilia Colledge of GBR, cuz she probably would've won in 1936 w/o Henie and her dad's and schmoozing Hitler probably didn't hurt

After their figures were so close, somehow, magically, Cecilia was first in the skating order among ALL the skaters for the free while Sonja was last in the skating order among ALL the skaters, so the judges had to save room for Sonja's marks in addition to a couple of other skaters.

 

[olympic]

Yuna and Med?

Yuna and Nancy

 

[Bigbird]

Yuna and Nancy

You know I did not connect with Kerrigan much, but maybe she should have won. Baiul was just not emotionally ready for all that.

 

[On My Own]

I thought Kerrigan should have won. Not just because of Baiul "not being ready", but rather because Kerrigan just did better on most aspects of skating IMO. I do think Baiul was the better overall skater, but it didn't show at those Olympics.

For me, the actual confusing part is Medvedeva being second best in the poll right now. Ignoring the choreography, the skating skills and the jump technique were just a pain to watch.

 

[Bigbird]

I thought Kerrigan should have won. Not just because of Baiul "not being ready", but rather because Kerrigan just did better on most aspects of skating IMO. I do think Baiul was the better overall skater, but it didn't show at those Olympics.

For me, the actual confusing part is Medvedeva being second best in the poll right now. Ignoring the choreography, the skating skills and the jump technique were just a pain to watch.

I will never understand the fawning over Zagitova though. She is sweet, she also has attack and drive, her skating skills are average and the posture is such an eyesore. Yes though, her jump technique was superior but what else was there? What did I miss? Honest question really.

 

[ЭPiKUilyam]

Zagitova had MUCH better spins, much better jumps, and didn't feel the need to mime.....

 

[olympic]

I will never understand the fawning over Zagitova though. She is sweet, she also has attack and drive, her skating skills are average and the posture is such an eyesore. Yes though, her jump technique was superior but what else was there? What did I miss? Honest question really.

Agreed. I am not a fan of most skaters coming off the Eteri conveyor belt to begin with, but between Zagitova and Medvedeva, I though Medvedeva had an edge overall. Zagitova's program may have been technically great, but everything from the basic skating, posture and even costume were not what I would consider Olympic champion material

 

[On My Own]

I will never understand the fawning over Zagitova though. She is sweet, she also has attack and drive, her skating skills are average and the posture is such an eyesore. Yes though, her jump technique was superior but what else was there? What did I miss? Honest question really.​

Well, my understanding of the thread isn't who we think has the best case of winning over the actual winner. It was simply the best of the silver medal performances ("Best Silver medal LP performance in Olympics by a lady")... So Medvedeva is confusing, absolutely. People didn't think Sasha Cohen, Yuna Kim, Mao Asada, Nancy Kerrigan were better? I found Ito more enjoyable, too, even though I'm sure she's considered nothing but a jumper on this forum

But to answer the question, apart from spins, I think Zagitova had the difficulty over Medvedeva (3Lz+3Lo), and the more difficult transitions. And I did find the program better, even though there's nothing much to pick between the two. It was what it was, and I'd still take it over that contrived Anna Karenina. Medvedeva was the more expressive skater, but there really wasn't much to watch there, for me anyway, because the program was just that bad. Zagitova's posture was worse, but I don't think there was much to pick apart between their basic skating apart from that (slow, with scratchy glide and poor flow). For the steps, it was the same Eteri-school of twisting their bodies to get level 4s (so not much to speak of in terms of edge quality) - but Zagitova had the more athletic step sequence. Basically, she utterly trounced Medvedeva on every athletic regard, and does take that victory for me.​

 

[VGThuy]

I think I appreciate the idea of Med…or more like the way Med wants to be more than her actual skating by 2018. I have issues with Zag too but I felt she seemed like a “cleaner” overall skater than Med was, who has a rag doll way of moving and is so laborious, (I would say herky-jerky, but that’s a quality all Eteri skaters share, esp. in 2018), despite Med’s inclination of trying to do artistically-minded routines.

 

[On My Own]

I have issues with Zag too but I felt she seemed like a “cleaner” overall skater than Med was, who has a rag doll way of moving and is so laborious,

Yes, this, precisely. She never did anything from the core. Zagitova's jumps at least had a more powerful, stable quality, that made her look "cleaner", and this was the one season where they actually did a good job of covering up her flaws (lack of deep expression - so emphasise the jumping aspects, and the musical timing; lack of extension and completion of movement - so place all the jumps close together. It really worked). Medvedeva also looked "unclean" because she was coming back from an injury that season.

 

[caseyedwards]

Obviously other skaters have jumped with both arms over the head! It is called a Rippon many times! But the way she did it looked like she had invented new elements! That’s what made zagitova stand out for me! It’s why I go back and watch her. She was like a jewelry box ballerina all over the ice in that program!

 

[Bigbird]

Zagitova had MUCH better spins, much better jumps, and didn't feel the need to mime.....

I often wonder if Med would have been better in dance. If it really all just comes down to athletic ability, then the colour of the medal isn't really that important, is it? Because for my tastes many gold medal performances just don't satisfy but as they say only one team or person can win.

 

[jenny12]

For me, the actual confusing part is Medvedeva being second best in the poll right now. Ignoring the choreography, the skating skills and the jump technique were just a pain to watch.

Agreed. You could feel Medvedeva scraping through the ice. There was absolutely no natural flow and the jumps were all muscled. I didn’t enjoy Zagitova’s program but she at least had good spins and a little more flow and more fluid jumps than Medvedeva. Medvedeva got by a lot of the time with her miming which the judges confused for interpretation. But if we look beyond the facial expression and down at her blades, her deficiencies are pretty clear.

I preferred Osmond to both easily, however.

 

[bardtoob]

Zagitova had MUCH better spins, much better jumps, and didn't feel the need to mime.....

I don't think Zagitova had any more choice about what she needed in her program than Medvedeva. They both did what Team Eteri said.

It is interesting to note that Medvedeva did win the LP.

Note: Medvedeva is not one of my actually picks, so this is a comment in the conversation, but not something I care that much about.

 

[olympic]

Ito deserves an honorable mention for the 3A after the 3 min. mark. It was a decent performance. The only mistakes were the doubling of a crucial part of the opening combo, and the fall on the 1st 3A, but she got the points back to some extent on the 2nd 3A and a 2-3 combo is still noteworthy.

 

[Wyliefan]

I don't think Zagitova had any more choice about what she needed in her program than Medvedeva. They both did what Team Eteri said.

Bingo.

 

[Skibean]

Kwan and Medvedeva for me. Both had similar careers also. Injured and beaten by the younger teammate. Both would have won any other Olympics with those performances.

 

[PRlady]

Kwan and Medvedeva for me. Both had similar careers also. Injured and beaten by the younger teammate. Both would have won any other Olympics with those performances.

I’m with you. All this Med hate baffled me so much, I rewatched the program. No one came close to her way of telling the story with her body and the music. If Oksana won on performance, Med by the same criteria should have won.

And I’m a big YuNa fan but her free program in Sochi was passionless and it showed.

 

[Bigbird]

I’m with you. All this Med hate baffled me so much, I rewatched the program. No one came close to her way of telling the story with her body and the music. If Oksana won on performance, Med by the same criteria should have won.

And I’m a big YuNa fan but her free program in Sochi was passionless and it showed.

The atmosphere got to YuNa. The knowing that even with the slightest of wobbles it would be Adelina. It's the same thing that happens to any non-Russian ice dance team that goes to EC or COR. These people need to take a page from the Shibs, when they went to COR in 2017 it was like, crowbars would have to pry the gold medals from their dead blood stained hands before Bobrova and Soloviev would win that tournament. To this day I laugh out loud at how close the scores were. LOL.

 

[jenny12]

I’m with you. All this Med hate baffled me so much, I rewatched the program. No one came close to her way of telling the story with her body and the music. If Oksana won on performance, Med by the same criteria should have won.

While I think Nancy deserved to win, Oksana was a much better skater than Medvedeva and had more than only performance with her big jumps and swooping edges. If it was a miming competition, Medvedeva would have won, but she just didn't have the skating skills. I think her over-dramatic miming was a cover for the lack of quality of her actual skating.

Yu-Na did not have as much presence in a program in Sochi as she did in Vancouver but I still think she deserved the win. I think when you are that much better of a skater than the other option, passion shouldn’t make that much of a difference.

 

[Evgeniafan]

I’m with you. All this Med hate baffled me so much, I rewatched the program. No one came close to her way of telling the story with her body and the music. If Oksana won on performance, Med by the same criteria should have won.

And I’m a big YuNa fan but her free program in Sochi was passionless and it showed.

Great post. And Medvedeva's performance made me cry. No skate has made me cry before or since.

 

[Vash01]

Great post. And Medvedeva's performance made me cry. No skate has made me cry before or since.

I did not cry but Medvedeva poured her heart into that performance. She told the story very effectively.
Her jumps were not as clean as they were in the past but she landed them with determination, despite her injury.

IMO she should have won the gold, based on her superior SP performance and higher PCS in both performances. I can see the LP being marked as equal Because Alina had higher tech content, but Evgenia had the artistry.

I have seen some fans here hating her ever since she won her first world title (I saw that perfornance live).

 

[caseyedwards]

The atmosphere got to YuNa. The knowing that even with the slightest of wobbles it would be Adelina. It's the same thing that happens to any non-Russian ice dance team that goes to EC or COR. These people need to take a page from the Shibs, when they went to COR in 2017 it was like, crowbars would have to pry the gold medals from their dead blood stained hands before Bobrova and Soloviev would win that tournament. To this day I laugh out loud at how close the scores were. LOL.

Yuna just didn’t bring the tech content

 

[olympic]

While I think Nancy deserved to win, Oksana was a much better skater than Medvedeva and had more than only performance with her big jumps and swooping edges. If it was a miming competition, Medvedeva would have won, but she just didn't have the skating skills. I think her over-dramatic miming was a cover for the lack of quality of her actual skating.

Yu-Na did not have as much presence in a program in Sochi as she did in Vancouver but I still think she deserved the win. I think when you are that much better of a skater than the other option, passion shouldn’t make that much of a difference.

Re Nancy. I had the opportunity to rewatch the top ladies at Lillehammer on youtube videos from JPN TV. One thing I will note that in higher quality, Oksana's speed and height were easier to see, which means to me that live, she probably looked better than our assumption. Yet, I still believe that her program was too poorly put together and the sloppy landings should have made Nancy the winner.

 

[VGThuy]

I actually prefer Yuna Kim’s 2014 skate over her 2010 one even if the latter was more technically clean and at her physical prime.

 

[clairecloutier]

Honestly, a lot of these silver-medal performances were more memorable than the gold medalists'.

I reflexively chose Mao in 2010, because I still feel her performances in Vancouver were some of the bravest I've seen from a woman skater in the Olympics, mainly because she was viewed as such a huge underdog to Yuna Kim that people didn't even take her seriously, to the point where Sandra Bezic was trying to portray Mao as just all about the jumps and technical firepower (bizarre). Yet despite everyone completely writing her off, Mao still give it her absolute all in Vancouver, just as in Sochi. And I remember that more than anything.

But Yuna in 2014? such elegance and class, and yet sadness. Nancy in 1994--just a fine performance, everything in place. Midori in 1992--again, courage. I'll never forget her triple Axels in the LP! And of course Kwan in 1998--no words needed. Some absolutely brilliant performances there.