Gracie Gold set to return

[mag]

Her coaches are not experts if they let her turn up like that

It is quite possible Gracie was running solid programs in practice. I can remember times when my dd would be running clean programs in practice only to show up at a comp and become a human zamboni! It happens more often than fans think. Not every skater who has a bad skate or even a bad comp goes in unprepared. I would argue most don’t.

Gracie thought she was ready both physically and mentally. Apparently she wasn’t so she pulled. These things happen.

 

[Vagabond]

Not every skater who has a bad skate or even a bad comp goes in unprepared.

Gracie thought she was ready both physically and mentally. Apparently she wasn’t so she pulled. These things happen.

But in Gold's case, she has herself admitted that she did go in unprepared. Which raises the question of why she thought she was ready both physically and mentally and what her coaches had to say on the subject.

In other circumstances, Gold's state of mind might be best treated as a private matter, but I think the coaches' role in all of this is very much fair game.

 

[mag]

But in Gold's case, she has herself admitted that she did go in unprepared. Which raises the question of why she thought she was ready both physically and mentally and what her coaches had to say on the subject.

In other circumstances, Gold's state of mind might be best treated as a private matter, but I think the coaches' role in all of this is very much fair game.

It sounded more to me that Gracie realized after she skated the short program that she wasn’t prepared. In other words, before the short she thought she would be fine. After Skating she realized that she wasn’t. Skaters are, for the most part, incredible optimists. They have to be to keep going in this brutal sport.

 

[Vagabond]

It sounded more to me that Gracie realized after she skated the short program that she wasn’t prepared. In other words, before the short she thought she would be fine. After Skating she realized that she wasn’t. Skaters are, for the most part, incredible optimists. They have to be to keep going in this brutal sport.

Which is why coaches are supposed to step in. Not that they always do. See Zakrajsek, Tom.

 

[ChiquitaBanana]

Perhaps we should just ask Gracie to sign a personal check to @Tinami Amori and all others here who were so “offended” by her showing up and wasting their time and the Federation’s money, ad nauseum. Then they could all toast each other for their obvious superiority in knowing what she should have done vs what, God forbid, she and her coaches and the ACTUAL skating experts planned for.

One of the threads where I pat myself on the back for putting some posters on my ignore list... I don't know what you are talking about and at the same time I can envision what has been written...

 

[Clutz]

Ok folk, some simple science here: when you have knockers bigger than Dolly Parton, you are not going to land triple -triples. Call it body shaming, racist, sexist, whatever.....as an athlete, your body must be capable of doing what it is suppose to do. There is no way in heck that Gracie Gold has been doing anything in practice or otherwise that is competitive on the senior international level.

Health issues aside, it's not uncommon for female athletes who stop training to go through a delayed puberty which it looks like Gracie did but boobs can't land jumps; just ask Elena Gedevanishvili who had a breast reduction in 2013. Gracie Gold does not currently have a body which can do what it is asked to do.

 

[Willin]

@Clutz Then where did the multiple reports of her landing triples in practice at RC come from?

Yeah, she gained weight, but I thought the problem with jumps was more nerves/technique issues than weight. Her thighs are big not because of fat but because of muscle she's put on. Her jumps still got enough height and distance. She just wasn't getting in tight enough on the rotation. I think she can still do it.

 

[blue_idealist]

She may be able to get her consistent jumps back at this higher weight. Mae Berenice Meite (and also Cynthia Phaneuf when she was skating in her 20s) is not that much lighter and jumps well.

 

[Erin]

Maybe she does have a slight injury.

This is only speculation, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Gracie was dealing with some sort of a hip injury given the absence of any loop jumps from either program in her planned program content (particularly the long where I would have expected a triple loop).

 

[Clutz]

@Clutz Then where did the multiple reports of her landing triples in practice at RC come from?

Yeah, she gained weight, but I thought the problem with jumps was more nerves/technique issues than weight. Her thighs are big not because of fat but because of muscle she's put on. Her jumps still got enough height and distance. She just wasn't getting in tight enough on the rotation. I think she can still do it.

Ha....unless there's video, my guess is fake news. There is no evidence anywhere that she has been able to do the skills she must do to be competitive on the international level. And those thighs were not muscle. No doubt she was nervous, and who could blame her, but she didn't do the jumps because physiologically, and probably mentally, she can't. She has a normal person body....not an elite level athlete body.

 

[overedge]

Ha....unless there's video, my guess is fake news. There is no evidence anywhere that she has been able to do the skills she must do to be competitive on the international level. And those thighs were not muscle. No doubt she was nervous, and who could blame her, but she didn't do the jumps because physiologically, and probably mentally, she can't. She has a normal person body....not an elite level athlete body.

My guess is that you should STFU.

 

[MacMadame]

Her coaches are not experts if they let her turn up like that

Of course they are experts. That doesn't mean they can't make mistakes. And that we can't post to a fan board debating their advice / decisions.

It sounded more to me that Gracie realized after she skated the short program that she wasn’t prepared. In other words, before the short she thought she would be fine. After Skating she realized that she wasn’t. Skaters are, for the most part, incredible optimists. They have to be to keep going in this brutal sport.

Except I read an interview she gave before the event where she said something about only being at 25-40% (I don't remember the exact numbers but they were less than 50%).

My reaction to this was and also:

I just don't see how showing up so unprepared is a good idea for any athlete at any point in their career.

 

[Clutz]

My guess is that you should STFU.

Yeah I'll get right on that. Not everything is safe and cozy....you're quote not mine BAM

 

[binbinwinwin]

Here's a video of the 3F she landed in the SP warm up: https://www.instagram.com/p/BqQdVLfnDO5/

 

[Willin]

Don't forget the 3Lz-2T. There was a hand down, but the 3Lz is more rotated than we see from some US ladies right now. No bite on that landing. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqR3dh3nFtQ/

 

[overedge]

Yeah I'll get right on that. Not everything is safe and cozy....you're quote not mine BAM

I think you meant "your" quote, BAMmeister. Enjoy the videos

 

[Clutz]

Don't forget the 3Lz-2T. There was a hand down, but the 3Lz is more rotated than we see from some US ladies right now. No bite on that landing. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqR3dh3nFtQ/

Edge call on the lutz though. A few posts above said she admitted to being 25-40%.....wtf! What kind of athlete goes into an event knowing they have less than a 50% chance of accomplishing the goal? (Please no Todd Eldridge/quad remarks...too soon).

 

[Clutz]

Correcting people's grammar... what is this an AOL chat room from 1994? Get laid....get a life.

 

[Vash01]

Correcting people's grammar... what is this an AOL chat room from 1994? Get laid....get a life.

Even though I am trying to be tolerant of some errors, you're instead of 'your' is a bit too much for me (I chose not to bring it up until I saw your post). I have no idea what is a chat room from 1994.

 

[skateboy]

Correcting people's grammar... what is this an AOL chat room from 1994? Get laid....get a life.

Well... THAT escalated quickly.

 

[Clutz]

Correcting people's grammar... what is this an AOL chat room from 1994? Get laid....get a life.

Even though I am trying to be tolerant of some errors, you're instead of 'your' is a bit too much for me (I chose not to bring it up until I saw your post). I have no idea what is a chat room from 1994.

I am guessing you mean "I have no idea what a chat room from 1994 is". To answer your unnecessary post, back when the Internet (yes, it should be capitalized) was young, when one had no point to make but yet wanted to interject something, said person would correct someone's syntax.

 

[misskarne]

What kind of athlete goes into an event knowing they have less than a 50% chance of accomplishing the goal?

Didn't Todd Eldredge do it once with the quad?

 

[Clutz]

Didn't Todd Eldredge do it once with the quad?

Gosh....As best I can remember, his only clean quad was at one of those made for tv competions. He never landed one at nationals or an ISU event.

 

[cheremary]

Edge call on the lutz though.

That’s one of the deepest outside edges I’ve seen going into a lutz. I think Gracie’s flip sometimes goes to an outside or has an unclear edge, but not so much the other way around.

 

[misskarne]

Gosh....As best I can remember, his only clean quad was at one of those made for tv competions. He never landed one at nationals or an ISU event.

You could argue he turned up underprepared any time he tried it and didn't land it in real competition, though.

 

[Vagabond]

There is a difference between being underprepared for landing a particular jump in competition and being underprepared for the competition itself.

 

[ZilphaK]

...boobs can't land jumps...

Oh, for heaven's sake.

Katarina Witt had bodacious ta-tas and landed jumps. I'm sure plenty other athletes have racks and use any variety of miracle fabrics (warning: video link NSFW) to corral them into more aerodynamic form.

Tonya Harding was out of shape and smoking and living on Hostess Twinkies and Slurpees, or some such nonsense, and landed monster 3lzs. There's a video of her from 2018 landing a 2S with enough airtime for a triple...and she has enormous knockers, makes Dolly Parton look like a boy.

No, it's not the norm. Nor are tall skaters, and yet we have Polina, Maria, Lucinda and Carolina. Older skaters aren't the norm, and we had Ashley and Caroline and Akiko hitting peaks over 20 years old.

Skaters who start out "late" and who become elite are unusual, and yet Gracie didn't start until 8 years old and was landing all triples by 13. Johnny Weir was just getting on the ice at 12. It took Ashley 4 freaking years to land her double axel.

Kristi Yamaguchi was born with club feet and Elaine Zayak wore a wooden mold in her boot because her dad cut off three of her toes with a lawnmower. I'm sure he felt bad about it, but not as bad as she feels about the Zayak Rule.

None of these is the norm, and I'd tell anyone thinking of making a run at Rostelecom 2029 that if they are outside the norm, it's going to take a lot of work (and possibly a lot of Spandex) to do it. But, I wouldn't be too quick to discourage new skaters -- or skaters making a comeback -- based solely on their chest fat.

(Edited to fix some punctuation, because lord forbid.)

 

[MR-FAN]

I wish she'd take a page out of Kostner's book circa 2010 and slowly build her technical arsenal. I'd rather she fully commits to improving her artistry and embrace the joy of performing while only doing toe-loops and salchows until the difficult jumps and combos are back. It'll do wonders to her confidence and performance ability, and when the jumps are all back and consistent, she'll be ready and prepared mentally.

And yes, she might not make it to major competitions for a couple of years, but that's not the point is it.

I'm still proud of what she did in Russia and happy we got to see her on the ice

 

[Vash01]

Ha....unless there's video, my guess is fake news. There is no evidence anywhere that she has been able to do the skills she must do to be competitive on the international level. And those thighs were not muscle. No doubt she was nervous, and who could blame her, but she didn't do the jumps because physiologically, and probably mentally, she can't. She has a normal person body....not an elite level athlete body.

Two posts showed videos of her landing 3f and 3Lz. There is your evidence.

You could argue he turned up underprepared any time he tried it and didn't land it in real competition, though.

I think Jeff Buttle did something similar with his quad toe. He rotated but didn't land it. Sometimes skaters go for it even though they are not landing it consistently. Frank Carroll used to demand a very high success rate (80-90 percent?) for his skaters. I heard some other coaches were less demanding.

I think the point here is that Gracie didn't need to be 100 percent ready. If she felt that she was ready to compete, that was enough. She found out that she was less ready than she had thought. That is a very common mistake.

 

[JeffClair1979]

Of course, I don't know why but it sounds so much like Coldplay I automatically connect them even though I know that it's not.

Some of you are really unbelievable with your comments.

We don't know the full details about this situation and maybe we won't ever get them. Maybe Gracie thought she would be more competitive by the time mid November came around when she first received the Rostelecom invite-- remember it was a while ago (June?), and then maybe she thought to herself that she knew she wasn't 100% but she didn't want to be one of the several USFS skaters who have announced comebacks and then withdrew at the last moment before the competition- only for us to hear later that it probably was never the plan. Maybe she thought to herself 'Well I need to start somewhere'. Maybe she thought to herself 'I need to go out there and see if I can handle this situation again'.

I'm going to repeat this as I did in the Rostelecom thread- it was reported that she was landing triples in practice. She didn't show up here with the intention of bombing the short program, that's for sure, and she didn't show up planning to show all doubles and singles. Competitive pressure, whether you're a medal contender or not, can be there. She hadn't experienced it in almost 2 years and maybe she did realize after the short that she needed more time. Maybe she does have a slight injury. Maybe she is going to go back and re-evaluate.

There's too much focus on this and for some of you, it seems that you believe she was going to come back and be in gold medal contention from the beginning. No, she didn't make it through this competition. Does it mean her career is over? Absolutely not-- if she doesn't want it to be.

I saw people commenting that Savchenko was desperate and stupid in 2014 for deciding to skip shows with Szolkowy and focus on 2018. I saw people commenting that Tuktamysheva was desperate for continuing past last season. Just let people do things on their own agendas, and realize not every story is a straight line.

YES!! ALL OF THIS! Thank you Tony, this needed to be said.