ETA: Sorry
@barbarafan, I didn't realize you were talking about Emy Decelles, and not Kaetlyn at the GP in France (sp), until it was pointed out by
@ChiquitaBanana.
Anyway, I can't sugarcoat Kaetlyn's sp result. I know figure skating is not easy, and the pressure has got to be tremendous. But
when your major competition has practically taken themselves out, you've got to go for the jugular! Kaetlyn has lost a psychological edge over Zagitova by not slam-dunking the sp after Zagitova's errors. I'm sorry, the judges helped out some skaters here, including Kaetlyn. I was looking for Kaetlyn to simply do what she can do with some confidence! This is a program that Kaetlyn knows by heart and can absolutely do in her sleep. She can't go out there nervous and tentative and expect the judges to save her based on PCS every time. Champions have got to bring it! Kaetlyn is the absolute class of this field, and she needed to show it with much more self-assurance and certainty. Kaetlyn should have easily scored in the 70s and taken Zagitova out completely. This is not even the Olympics yet.
If not now, when? The nervous way Kaetlyn skated and only doing a 3/2 and then reaching forward awkwardly on her solo jump is not good.
Some of the U.S. ladies are usually crucified by the judges for under-performing, not gifted. I even thought the judges might slot Kaetlyn behind Sotskova who only had a turnout, but granted that Sotskova isn't better than Kaetlyn aesthetically (still the judges seem to think Sotskova's aesthetics are better than they actually are). Politics is as usual in full force based on who is well-liked or given breaks because of their talent and past results. Meanwhile, skaters without political clout, rep, favor, or top ranking status will be clobbered for the smallest mistake or under-performance.
In fact, it was Shiraiwa who skated better than everybody, so a case could be made that Shiraiwa should be in first, Sotskova second, and Kaetlyn third. Regardless though, Sotskova does NOT have exceptional presentation skills in the way the judges appear to think she has.
No matter that Shiraiwa scored slightly highest on TES than everyone else. Shiraiwa's presentation marks should have been higher and even her technical marks should show a bit higher gap based on what she completed vs everyone else. Clearly, the scores were being manipulated, and as usual kept within a range in order to facilitate desired placements.
TBH, I realize that Polina's rep has suffered and she did not start out the season in great form. But skating first, the judges kept Polina's scores way down at IDF. Polina should at the least have better presentation marks than she was given. Polina did not make a hugely terrible error on the second triple, especially not compared with some of the messes of other performances. Tursynbaeva popped her first jumping pass into a single, and there's no way that Tursynbaeva should be scored so much higher than Polina on presentation. A case could be made for Polina to be in at least 7th place with a score around 61. I'm not saying that Polina has completely overcome her difficulties, but she did look at lot better here, and a lot of other ladies underperformed. With Zagitova making two egregious errors on tech elements, the judges were unable to ignore and overly gift her like they did at Zagitova's first GP when she had a similar fall in the sp. The judges' positioning applecart was upset because of Zagitova's errors, and because they lowballed Polina as the first to skate. Polina overall completed her elements better than Zagitova, and Polina has very competitive aesthetic skills (although of course Polina is not 100% back to full strength).
For some reason, the judges are not as kind to Mai Mihara who skated well at Cup of China, and should have come away there with a bronze medal. At IDF in the sp, Mai had a fluke run-in with the boards, but she landed the second jump in the 3/3 combo. I'm not sure if she got credit for the full rotation on the second jump, which could be the reason why Mihara was taken down so far on her technical elements. Still the judges don't seem to be giving Mai much credit for her strengths so far this season.
If Zagitova skates clean, the judges will do everything in their power to help her onto the podium. Clearly Kaetlyn is respected and favored, so hopefully she will stand up and perform the way she can in the fp with some brilliance, confidence and panache. More than likely, Sotskova will take a podium spot too, although I think both of the Japanese ladies are a step better than Sotskova and also competitive with Zagitova.
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