These jumps aren't under review: The Bradie Tennell Cheer Thread!

aftershocks said:
^^ Thanks ANL for posting the link in Bradie's fan thread. She's looking good, and I can't wait to see more. I'm hoping that someone will soon identify her sp music selection and choreographer. Is it Benoit Richaud for both of her programs?



I don't think Johnny 'trashes' his own country because he's made choices sometimes that don't please everyone. Personally, I have no huge issue with Johnny's love for Russia and Russian skaters. I just tire of the obvious and OTT praise he tends to give which doesn't seem to have a filter most of the time, and can often be grating during his commentary. For those who dislike Johnny anything and everything he does can be irritating and fodder to exaggerate and pile on. Of course he isn't perfect, but who is?
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If you skate under the flag of a country, you are claiming it as your own, so show some loyalty.
 
aftershocks said:
At Worlds, Wakaba Higuchi might have been dumped on too because she was not a favorite and she'd been unfairly passed over by her fed for the Olympics.
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Yep, you didn’t say “lowballed” you said “dumped.”

Back to Bradie, her scores at worlds were fine for where she was. Your continual ranting that she was somehow held down, lowballed, ripped off (choose whatever word you like) is very tiresome. She and her team clearly got the message that they needed up their game in the PCS department and from the clip we have seen she appears to be working on it.

I am sure Bradie is not looking back. She seems to be clearly focused on the future. Here’s to her taking no prisoners at SA!
 
DreamSkates said:
If you skate under the flag of a country, you are claiming it as your own, so show some loyalty.
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So you want Johnny to like American skaters better than skaters of other countries just because he represented the U.S.A.? Isn't that the type of partisanship that we decry in judges?
 
mag said:
Yep, you didn’t say “lowballed” you said “dumped.”
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Yeah, as I explained before, I was saying that Wakaba 'might have been' meaning she 'could have been dumped on' or kept down in the standings since she was probably not considered a top favorite coming into Worlds, partly because she was not at the Olympics. You misread my comment. I did not mean to imply that Wakaba was actually dumped on at Worlds. She made a mistake in the sp, so that fairly kept her down. And it's also possible coming in that her scores could be or might be held down with or without mistakes because of how she might be viewed as sometimes being inconsistent. That happens to skaters. A variety of factors are involved.

I think Wakaba's talent is respected, and she skated well on the GP and she was rewarded. But I happen to feel she skated well enough to deserve some higher scores on the GP. In any case, Wakaba wasn't one of the top favorites to medal, coming into Worlds. So I'm happy for her that she was able to break through and win a medal.
 
BittyBug said:
So you want Johnny to like American skaters better than skaters of other countries just because he represented the U.S.A.? Isn't that the type of partisanship that we decry in judges?
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Patriotism is important to me, that is why I think that way. Not true for everyone. If you skate representing a country it should mean something.
 
Total admiration & respect for Bradie! She deserved to top Medved at last nights SP in Canada. I can see Bradie being USA #1 all the way to the 2022 Olys. Remember- she’s already gone through puberty a long time ago & has the PERFECT physique into her 20s. It gives her extraordinarily beautiful line, as well as aiding in her jumping technique. We’re entering, at long last, a new great era for the USA in ladies figure skating. God Bless America! ??
 
Marco said:
LOL how ironic is this thread title
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To be fair, when this thread was made she seldom if at all was under review and her jumps were to the naked eye much more obviously rotated than her American peers. Then the Olympics LP happened and she does a cleanish SP at Worlds and then we got carrots for the first time on cleanish jumps at the Worlds LP. Now all of a sudden she got her Flip called UR here when she didn't have these issues before. At least her 3/3 with a loop combo was called fully rotated, a rare occurrence. It remains to be seen if has chronic UR issues but she wasn't the type to have those issues that so many of our past top ladies skaters have had until all-of-a-sudden.
 
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It does seem like once a skater gets a few UR calls, they start getting the microscope treatment on everything, and then it just snowballs. Hopefully this is just a one-off.
 
toddlj said:
It does seem like once a skater gets a few UR calls, they start getting the microscope treatment on everything, and then it just snowballs. Hopefully this is just a one-off.
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It depends on if they want you to win or not. "Hmmm...a carrot or two will stop her in her tracks!"/Ass't Caller: "I think [favorite skater] was a bit under on that jump..." Tech Caller: "oh, it's fine. Clean call."
 
If they are using a microscope on Bradie's jumps, that's because they do not want to reward her top scores over some other top skaters like Medvedeva. That's it, pure and simple. I will call it out this season every time I see it. This is just the beginning, and we can see same-old, same-old scoring misses and messes across-the-board in recent events. It's surely only going to get worse as the season progresses. Skaters will just need to toughen their resolve in putting out their best and persevering, no matter the obvious scoring manipulation by judges for desired placements.

Judges have been ignoring and downplaying Med's weaknesses since forever. Med from the get-go has been a fast rotator, but with poor technique on some jumps and lack of speed and flow-out. Plus, Med was not and still is not the best skater artistically. That Med has been so over-scored on PCS consistently is a conceit often over-rewarded to Russian skaters. There are scads of examples of this PCS overscoring for Russian skaters who are not great creatively or artistically (e.g. Andrei Lazukin recently at Lombardia Trophy). I have enjoyed some of Med's exhibitions, but she's simply not as great artistically as judges tend to overcredit her. Med's greatest strengths are her fierce determination and her competitive grit. But it's fs politics and rep politics that have always been the determining factor that gives her a huge advantage.

While this genre of sp was okay for Med and she performed it okay, and I can see where Orser and Tracy have been working with her, Med was clearly NOT head-and-shoulders better than Bradie. There is certainly a good argument for Bradie being in first. While I think Bradie's score for how well she skated should definitely have topped 70 points (and didn't), I was not surprised to see her placed in second behind Med. Why? Because I know this scoring result is partly based on rep and fs politics. As we know, Bradie was unfairly kept down in the marks at 2018 Worlds, with the judges attempting to microscope her landings there too.

Med had a slight problem on one of her jump landings at AC, and she still has issues with speed and flow. Bradie has very good SS, with excellent jumps and flow out on her landings, as well as superior speed vs Med, which was not reflected in the scoring. Plus, Bradie has improved a great deal on PCS, and the difference in the scoring on CO and IN is too great between Med and Bradie -- the scoring should be tighter there, with Med maybe having a slight edge, but not by as much as the judges gave. Bradie was wonderful. Even the Canadian commentators were wowed.

And let me just say, despite Wakaba's mistakes at AC, Wakaba was definitely dumped on in the sp standings, especially on CO and IN. She's a hiqh quality skater with a World silver medal, but the judges continue to look down on her.
 
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What I am loving about Bradie is what seems to be her nerves of steel. The last American ladies skaters I can remember who had this were Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan to some extent.

You do not see nerves on her face or by being tight on jumps or jump landings.

The reason I feel that her jumps may be under a microscope are because of the letters "USA" at the end of her name...plain and simple.
 
Actually, now that I had time to look at Bradie's protocols in the past, @Marco is right in that this thread title is ironic. I think when this thread was made, we had like 10 years of U.S. ladies skaters with chronic UR issues (with Gracie being an exception but she had other issues like falling) that people jumped the gun a bit with her clean calls at Lombardia Trophy and Skate America. I can admit when I was wrong.
 
The RichaudSquat(tm) seems to a mandatory feature in all his programs.

All kidding aside, I like the placements of all the elements of the short. Some good transitions/field moves in and out of some (though not all) of the elements.
 
When judges decide to look at skaters under a microscope, they will always find something they can use to downgrade, if that's their aim. We know there have been so many instances of judges simply not believing a skater landed a jump, or simply looking for anything they can find in order to manipulate placements for skaters who aren't favored and still have yet to build rep.

This is a sport well known for quid-pro-quo judging, and scoring scandals down through the ages. Nothing has changed, no matter ISU's p.r. bs, and some fans turning a blind eye when they wish. A sport that raps the hands of some judges for cheating and then blithely reinstates them (while blackballing forever a good man and a passionate figure skating advocate like Ron Pfenning), will continue to be suspect.

Personally, I am not upset about Bradie not being in first in sp, because I knew she wouldn't be. I would have been surprised if the judges had put her in first over Med. Certainly a case could be made for Bradie being in first, based on Bradie's wonderful sp performance. However, Med's and Bradie's overall sp performances were slightly close enough so that the judges could manipulate to keep Med ahead. At this point, Med not only has her Russian cred and political backing, she's also got the all-powerful political clout of Canadian fed behind her as well. And she's got plenty of avid fans. I don't dislike Medvedeva. She's just not one of my favorite skaters, despite it being interesting to see her make this move to Orser. However, it's not 'the first time a Russian skater has trained outside of Russia with a non-Russian coach,' like the Canadian commentator said :duh: (they've been making a lot of mistakes about skaters in their commentary at AC). I would like to see Med improve and excel, but I also wish the scoring could be fairer and less politics-based. I guess I will be waiting for an eternity though for that to ever happen in this sport.

And let's face it, looking down on and dissing U.S. ladies became a blood sport in the aftermath of Michelle Kwan's years of dominance. Yes, U.S. ladies also had a downturn in terms of competitive fire and dominant talent, but they also have not been given full credit when credit has been due quite often in recent years. So it will have to continue to be a slow and steady build for U.S. ladies. Bradie's talent and her unruffed confidence is much needed for U.S. ladies' discipline. I really hope Bradie continues to improve and to perform with grit and confidence, and to just dismiss the judges' lowballing and microscoping. Keep on pushing ahead Bradie and staying confident in your abilities, and the tide will turn.

Let's see what happens in the fp at AC. From what I saw in her previous outing, Bradie's sp appears to be a bit stronger than her fp. But she does have a good and choreographically interesting fp too. She just needs to temper her arms more in the fp and work on certain aspects of it more, while maintaining her boffo technical consistency. Bradie and her coach should take a look at her jump landings and if necessary ask U.S. fed to question calls that are suspect. I don't want Bradie to begin being affected performance-wise and confidence-wise by the judges microscoping close calls that are not clearly URs.
 
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Free Autumn Classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn-O34d-sos

STELLAR BABY!!!!

I quite like her dress...its different...

That opening 2 axel... SO GOOD!

Very interesting choreography! She sold Juliet!

Look at That exit from her triple jump at the 1:30 mark..Very cool.

A 3 lutz/3loop and a 3/3/2

The commentator called her "Tenacious Tennell." Maybe I should rename the thread that. LOL

GOLD Medal Bradie!!!!!!
 
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Kudos to Bradie! She's a fighter. She gave no quarter and she took no prisoners. She stayed within herself, and she did not let the judging get her down in any way, shape or form. That's how champions are made.

I love the fact that Bradie has improved her fp interpretation and gained better control of the flow and nuance of her arm movements and overall body movements in her Romeo & Juliet fp. Quite clearly, Bradie, her coach and her choreographer went back to work after her previous fp outing. A big wow! Keep up the great work, Bradie!
 
VIETgrlTerifa said:
Her Juliet sure ain't no usual damsel in distress.
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:lol: Bradie is like Juliet on a Passionate Mission! She ain't thinkin' about dyin'. She's thinking about being alive, breathin' fire, overcoming the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, staying in the moment, and above all taking no prisoners. When that kind of power, passion and talent is smack dab in the judges' faces, they have got to reward it! Enjoy this moment and continue to be spurred on, by your own determination and belief in yourself, Bradie! Screw the petty naysayers, who are NOT in the arena valiantly weathering blood, sweat and tears. :cheer2: :encore:
 
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