U.S. Ladies [#19]: Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

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OK, Angela with 121 + and no deductions in the free?

OK, Shonda, now we got a scandal (LOL, Thanks Jack!)

Well, lets throw her in the mix for the Oly team (although I really have never been a fan. I don't think she has all the triples in her arsenal, and never has? Correct?)

I/we should do a new USA Olys poll.

Im still thinking Mirai, Ashley and one of Bradie, Karen or I guess now Angela if she improves.) P.S. Karen really is proving to be hit-or-miss. I guess if she nails Nats again she's in.
 
Too unpredictable and early yet to be choosing the teams for the ladies or the men. So many things can happen, and probably will. However, the polls are fun, but mostly a fan's wish. Geez, I have no idea and have not been able to detect who people desire or want to see on these teams! :p :D :2faced: :EVILLE: :lol:
 
Really proud of Angela! I have been waiting eagerly since she turned Senior to translate some of the great talent she showed during her junior days:cheer2:
Lets hope she can build on these performances and show some consistency leading up to Nationals. Is she scheduled for any other Senior B this season?
 
Polina Edmunds: I did not expect great things from her based on long absence and reports/videos from her public outings so far this season in shows and competition. Unfortunately, her Finlandia showing was even worse than I expected. Frankly, it was shockingly non-competitive even by early season standards. I don't think another 5 weeks before IdF is going to be enough to solve the obvious lack of training time and be enough to get her jumps back--that would take nothing short of a miracle. Nothing against Polina but one must be realistic--I doubt she will be a factor at Nationals nor post-Nationals competition.
 
@jiejie The most interesting thing I noticed about Polina's skating in the LP, particularly with the falls, was just the lack of fight in her. Some of those landings could've been saved - instead it looked like she didn't even try to stay up, she just sat down. She only had a couple jumps that looked truly awful in the LP as opposed to the SP where all jumps were messy, so I think if she can fight on the landings she'll be able to land most of her jumps cleanly. Her choreography also looks really empty, as if she needs the extra time to set up for jumps and the extra steps for speed. I'm wondering if stamina/conditioning is the problem here?

Her instagram is full of college/friends/sorority/travel pics as opposed to skating - I wonder if that reflects an emphasis in her personal life as well? There's nothing wrong with having a life outside of skating, and many skaters can pull it off (Ashley, Caroline, Mirai, etc.), but successfully making a comeback during an Olympic season from an injury that kept you off the ice that long probably requires so many hours in the rink that you wouldn't have any time for your sorority or photoshoots or vacation. If you're serious about making a comeback in nine months after being off for a year, you need to go all out, all the time. It seems insane how fast skaters are back on the ice after an injury last season or that Alexa Scimeca was still training with her severe stomach problem, but that's what it takes to get on the Olympic team nowadays.
 
While I totally appreciate the need to get out there and get feedback on the level of your steps and spins, there has to be a point at which you don't compete because doing so will give all callers a bad impression of you that will last for several competitions.

There was no point to putting Polina out here so early, given what she showed this summer. I believe I posted this a month or so ago about her and GG. Better for them to get their jumps back in private, and go to a later Senior B. Her performance is surprising only because ...what the hell were they thinking putting her out here this early? Honestly, they should have scaled it back and let it be known that she's coming back from injury and only going to attempt 4 triples or something like that.

I can't believe she did anything approaching a clean run through of this program, maybe even of her SP, in the weeks leading up to this. How incredibly unpleasant and demoralizing must it have been for her to be put on the ice, knowing she had to attempt something she couldn't do. There's "getting up" toughness and then there's foolhardiness. There is rarely any value achieved by putting a skater in this position.

We've seen callers look more closely at the rotations of skaters who are known to UR. The entire US Ladies program has a reputation as URers, so when someone in the shape Polina is in gets sent to an International competition, that just reinforces this. So....why send a US Lady to an international competition if she doesn't have a 50-50 chance of at least 5 clean triples? I thought that was part of the purpose of Champs Camp?
 
Does Edmunds have a bye to Nationals because of her entry at Internationaux de France?

I'm sure she would love to compete at Nationals in her home town, San Jose. But failing to qualify at Sectionals (or even Regionals :yikes:) is probably not how she wants to end the season (and possibly her career).
 
I think she does have a bye though not making it out of sectionals seems merciful as of right now.
 
Angela Wang was marvellous in the free. reminded me of Michelle Kwan's "Wintersong". a breath of fresh air.
just found out the choreo was done by Charlie and Tanith White, well, they were inspired indeed. especially loved the back-to-back double axels. it's great when jumps are used like choreographic elements, i wish much more programs had that.
 
Vagabond said:
I'm sure she would love to compete at Nationals in her home town, San Jose. But failing to qualify at Sectionals (or even Regionals :yikes:) is probably not how she wants to end the season (and possibly her career).
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I am wondering if Polina just plans on retiring from eligible competition and do a little touring after. She is going to have a commercially recognizable name in skating probably until after the end of this Olympic season, so why not skate at Nationals then tour.
 
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@bardtoob The FP music sure seems to be a piece implying retirement, but maybe she just wanted to skate to it? I could see her touring in a couple years, after college, but who knows if her name will still be marketable for touring then?
 
Vagabond said:
Does Edmunds have a bye to Nationals because of her entry at Internationaux de France?
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Yes.

The first 2 Regionals were held this past week and the Senior ladies champions are Maxine Bautista at Upper Great Lakes (eta: very good total score of 166.33; she landed 3T+3T, 2A & 3Lo in her SP) and Katie McBeath at North Atlantics - I'm compiling Sectional singles qualifiers (and known byes) on the Regionals page of my blog: https://unseenskaters.wordpress.com/regionals/
 
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Willin said:
@bardtoob The FP music sure seems to be a piece implying retirement, but maybe she just wanted to skate to it? I could see her touring in a couple years, after college, but who knows if her name will still be marketable for touring then?
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I do not think going continuously through college is all that necessary these days, so if Polina is interrupted a couple of quarters (her university is on that system) then it probably will impact her minimally. If I was her, I would tour then go back.
 
@bardtoob I certainly think it's possible for her to do that, but whether she wants to or not is another question. It seems on her instagram that she loves school and her sorority, so I don't know how willing she'd be to skip out on that. Maybe for a couple shows like she did this year, but not for a whole quarter.
 
What I don't understand is why Polina herself didn't withdraw from Finlandia. I agree with above that I doubt she was anywhere close to clean run throughs in training, and I also agree about her lack of fight. She seriously needs to see where she is in 3 weeks, and if she can't make a credible showing at IdF, withdraw and allow the hosts enough time to pick a replacement--which of course may not be a US lady. It would be the decent thing to do. By "credible" I don't mean perfect, but at least enough completed technical content and performance value to not totally embarrass herself. Having two very public bad competitions in the space of 5-6 weeks wouldn't help her "brand." The only reason to keep the IdF is to get her out of Sectionals which the way she is skating now, she might not make it through.

IMO, I think over the last year she mentally moved on from competitive skating into other aspects of Life, and is only giving it a try because it's an Olympic year. Fair enough, but I don't see this "comeback" going very far. And I doubt if her name is big enough to support much touring--nor is touring more than a one-off show or two, compatible with a college lifestyle.
 
Willin said:
@bardtoob The FP music sure seems to be a piece implying retirement, but maybe she just wanted to skate to it? I could see her touring in a couple years, after college, but who knows if her name will still be marketable for touring then?
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I believe this is the music she had for last season, but didn't use because she was injured, so I wouldn't take it as a sign.
 
Edmunds was just using Finlandia to do a run-through. Plenty of skaters show up to CS and GP events in worse form. She probably isn't in contention for Olympics, but having one last competitive season is a better way to go out than just injury retire. I have never been a fan of her skating, but I can appreciate that it took a lot of courage for her to come back.
 
I dont know what Polina's future holds or what she wants but I wasnt as horrified by her skating as others. She had not only a bad injury/layoff but a major body change to overcome. I didnt think her SP was bad under the circumstances (havent seen the FS yet). I like the dynamic music and choreography and thought her basic skating, performance quality and spins looked really good. It's kind of hard imagining her making it onto the Olympic team but she's a very talented, accomplished skater so I'm not writing her off just yet.
 
maureenfarone said:
Why didn't Polina have a coach with her in the K&C?
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Her mother, Nina, has always been listed as one of her coaches and she was with Polina in the kiss & cry.

Re-posting these first-hand observations here (with permission) from the Finlandia Ladies FS thread in Kiss & Cry section:
Enchanted said:
Some notes from the arena.

Wang skated well, especially in the FS. ... Angela inhabits the music she is skating to. There are areas that need to be worked on and polished but overall lovely performance and beautiful presence.

Edmunds has lovely musicality and her arm movements accentuate the music. I hope she continues to work with her jumps. It took Osmond two season to make progress after injury and it may be the same with Edmunds. It's a long process.
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jlai said:
I think what hurts Wang is that she tends to not score a bunch of points in the second half, thereby not getting much bonus.
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Honestly I think what hurts her the most is that she rarely skates well. I think this is the best I've ever seen her skate, except maybe a nationals freeskate years ago after she'd already bombed the short. Skating well in both programs is a big step forward. I really enjoyed her here, I hope she's able to build some momentum this season.
 
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