U.S. Women [#5]: Remain on the Dance Floor

[Allskate]

Just gonna be the dimmer switch here and point out that Amber's bronze-winning total score at Espoo is 4 points lower than her 5th-place finish at SkAm. It's hard to get on board her fan train when she can't string together two good programs in one competition.

How many of the women have skated two clean short programs and two clean long programs in the Grand Prix this year? How many women have skated a clean short and a clean long in one competition doing their planned jumps? That's a pretty high bar for fandom.

Rooting for Lindsay to skate well next week.

Me, too. I'll still be rooting for her even if she doesn't skate a clean short program and a clean long program next week or pops a jump or two. Or under-rotates some of her jumps. And I'll still be rooting for Amber.

What I hope she has learned from this: the 3a is a distraction. A SkAm short and the FS here would have likely won. Go for that and once you do that a few times you can start adding the 3a.

What did the triple axel have to do with popping the flip in her short program this week? She didn't have a triple axel in that program. And let's face it, if she waits until she does both a clean short and a clean long to add the triple axel, that's unlikely to happen. She was having consistency problems before she ever added a triple axel.

 

[Willin]

Agreed. I mean hate on Glenn all you want, but her BOW is superior to all the other choices so far.

On the GP she's shown that if she skates two clean programs she's in contention for a medal, but even if she only skates one clean program she's still getting 185+ - more than most of her closest competition for that spot.

 

[Badams]

Sure - she's 15 points from a medal after the SP, so there's not exactly much pressure on her to do anything except prove that she can actually deliver her planned program content.

Call me when she steps up and delivers a clean FS with a 3a after delivering a clean SP in the same competition.

Until then, I stand by my assessment that she does not handle competition pressure at all well. She's like the Bebe Liang of the current crop of US women.

Go Amber! I hope she wins nationals, and then shocks the hell out of everyone and medals at worlds!!!

 

[sk8nlizard]

The reason I’m an Amber Glenn fan is because she is one of the only (the only???) female American skater who rarely gets reviews on her jumps. It’s nice to not have to worry if her technical is going to drop 20 points after she finishes skating. She honestly reminds me a lot of Gracie Gold…rotated jumps but very inconsistent!

 

[Jarrett]

What I hope she has learned from this: the 3a is a distraction. A SkAm short and the FS here would have likely won. Go for that and once you do that a few times you can start adding the 3a.

This is completely the wrong plan. You have to go for it. What happens when you drop it and still can’t do a perfectly clean program. Her axel isn’t some Hail Mary. She can do it. And she can do it very well. She looks like she is best shape of her skating career. This is her time to go for it.

 

[peibeck]

Go Amber! I hope she wins nationals, and then shocks the hell out of everyone and medals at worlds!!!

IF, and that's a mighty big if, she were to skate both the SP and FS clean, she could win Nationals as the potential on her jumps to get higher GOE than Levito is a lot higher.

Even with the pop of the 3a today, Amber seemed relaxed and focused, like she did in the SP at SKAM. The judges, at least internationally, are ready to reward her. She just needs to get out of her head and let it happen.

 

[Colonel Green]

This is completely the wrong plan. You have to go for it. What happens when you drop it and still can’t do a perfectly clean program. Her axel isn’t some Hail Mary. She can do it. And she can do it very well. She looks like she is best shape of her skating career. This is her time to go for it.

She can do it in training. Her success rate in competition is extremely low. It's worthwhile to inquire about whether it makes sense to keep going for it.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Be merciful, @Karen-W. Let the fans have this one. It was a great day for her, and sometimes fans just need to bask a little in the good days.

Aren’t you a breath of fresh air, I’ve always adored you.

I know I don’t know what gives over there… It’s not like we have the ability to send up Michelle Kwan to go with Isabeau to worlds. Amber was brilliant, nothing was sent to review either.

 

[Debbie S]

Amber has a ton of talent and has the potential to medal at Worlds. But so do about 5 or 6 others, including Isabeau, who are just as talented and more consistent. Amber has always (during her Senior career) been a top contender on paper but then reality hits. She's more Bebe Liang than Gracie Gold. I like Amber and hope she can pull it together and be a consistent medalist, but I've been saying that for at least 5 seasons now.

 

[Wyliefan]

That's kind of you to say, @AngieNikodinovLove. It's just such a roller coaster ride to be a fan, through good times and bad. Gotta celebrate the good when it happens!

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

That's kind of you to say, @AngieNikodinovLove. It's just such a roller coaster ride to be a fan, through good times and bad. Gotta celebrate the good when it happens!

well, when you are or were an Angela Nikodinov die hard and then and also Nicole bobek and an Emily Hughes I’m used to being on the nonstop roller coaster lol

 

[Allskate]

Call me when she steps up and delivers a clean FS with a 3a after delivering a clean SP in the same competition.

Call me when any of the women competing in the Grand Prix do that!

Her axel isn’t some Hail Mary. She can do it. And she can do it very well. She looks like she is best shape or her skating career. This is her time to go for it.

She can do it in training. Her success rate in competition is extremely low. It's worthwhile to inquire about whether it makes sense to keep going for it.

Her success rate in practice reportedly has changed. It's become more consistent. She did one in the warm-up. And it's her first jump, so it's not like she's tired when she does it in her program. I think the only way for her to get comfortable doing it in competition is to actually do it in competition.

 

[mtnskater]

So happy for Amber putting out a great free skate and earning the bronze medal. I watched the women’s free skate last, late in the evening, figuring it would be dismal again for all. Such a nice surprise from Amber! That free skate was wonderful. I am so tired of that music, but Amber made me love it on her. She had beautiful movement and excellent technique all around. Enjoyed her total package more than Kaori (whose program is not well suited for her this year). Big props to Amber. The one skate from the women in Espoo I’ll watch again.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

So happy for Amber putting out a great free skate and earning the bronze medal. I watched the women’s free skate last, late in the evening, figuring it would be dismal again for all. Such a nice surprise from Amber! That free skate was wonderful. I am so tired of that music, but Amber made me love it on her. She had beautiful movement and excellent technique all around. Enjoyed her total package more than Kaori (whose program is not well suited for her this year). Big props to Amber. The one skate from the women in Espoo I’ll watch again.

totally agree with everything you said here.

 

[Jammers]

Uhm, Elyce IS skating senior at Nats - her assignment to Warsaw Cup was her 3rd international and gave her a bye. She also already has the TES mins for Worlds.

I meant moving up to Senior next year internationally and leaving the JGP.

 

[Frau Muller]

Will either of the two US singles women - Ziegler or Thorngren - medal at NHK next week? Who will end highest? Tough to guess. Going against Pinzarrone, Gubanova, three Japanese and three Koreans.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Will either of the two US singles women - Ziegler or Thorngren - medal at NHK next week? Who will end highest? Tough to guess. Going against Pinzarrone, Gubanova, three Japanese and three Koreans.

hey you, I think I’m gonna go all in with Nina taking a gold. although Mai will be there?

 

[Karen-W]

hey you, I think I’m gonna go all in with Nina taking a gold. although Mai will be there?

Who knows what shape Mai is in even if she is there?

I don't have any confidence in the Korean women this season on the GP apart from Mai, I don't think the Japanese women are much of a threat (Wakaba still has a ways to go in her recovery).

I think Nina is as good of a bet as anyone. Lindsay could be another surprise medalist.

 

[Trillian]

hey you, I think I’m gonna go all in with Nina taking a gold.

Two Belgian women in the GP Final is the kind of chaos that I need, so I’m on board with this prediction too.

Everyone else is enough of a question mark that I wouldn’t be shocked if one of the Americans manages to medal, but they could also both end up lower in the pack. It’s a pretty wide open field.

 

[PRlady]

Mai and Wakaba are both coming back from injury. Last season Lee and Kim would be medal favorites but they’re off to a slow start. I think it’s going to be as much of a mixup between short and long as Finland was. Ava and Lindsay are my two non-Isabeau US favorites so fingers crossed for both of them.

 

[Allskate]

Ava and Lindsay are my two non-Isabeau US favorites so fingers crossed for both of them.

Fingers and toes crossed. IMO, this is the most wide open field of women in all of the GPs this season, with the best chance at medaling.

 

[AYS]

Maybe Amber will have a Paul Wylie moment one of these years. I think a lot of people in the sport would love to see it.

 

[Maximillian]

Call me when any of the women competing in the Grand Prix do that!

Yes, because Amber failing to put together two clean programs in a row is 2023 Grand Prix season abberation, usually she...oh wait...

 

[SidelineSkater]

Yes, because Amber failing to put together two clean programs in a row is 2023 Grand Prix season abberation, usually she...oh wait...

Yes. Just like most of the other women failing to do two clean programs in a row in the 2023 GP season for more than one comp...oh wait...

Last year wasn't much better. GP Final anyone???

I get the haters want to point out Amber has rarely (never) put down two clean skates back to back (maybe close at SA 2022..with a downgrade on the 3A and a q on the 3T in the combo), but really...none of the other current ladies competing have stepped up to show nerves of steel and been consistently clean. Kaori has been known to single a jump or have a silly mistake in a program from time to time. Last year at at the GPF and Worlds, there was some shake up because none of the women went clean back to back.

 

[Sylvia]

Copying over from the U.S. National Qualifying info thread in GSD:

USFS' press release today (Nov. 21, 2023): https://www.usfigureskating.org/new...figure-skating-championships-lineup-announced

"The following athletes have qualified for the 2024 U.S. Championships (and how they qualified)" with Sectional placements added below by me:

* = qualified by having one of the "next best national scores" at Sectionals (... 4 women with Tennell's injury WD that she announced last week on her Instagram)

Senior Women (18)
Starr Andrews (bye)
Alex Evans (senior sectionals) E-2
Sarah Everhardt (senior sectionals) E-1
Amber Glenn (bye)
Sonja Hilmer (senior sectionals) M-3*
Mia Kalin (senior sectionals) P-3
Josephine Lee (bye) P-1 (elected to compete & won so 2nd & 3rd moved into the automatic qualifying spots)
Michelle Lee (senior sectionals) M-4*
Soho Lee (senior sectionals) P-4*
Isabeau Levito (bye)
Elyce Lin-Gracey (bye)
Clare Seo (senior sectionals) M-2
Katie Shen (senior sectionals) P-2
Audrey Shin (bye)
Lindsay Thorngren (bye)
Lindsay Wang (senior sectionals) P-5*
Wren Warne-Jacobsen (senior sectionals) M-1
Ava Ziegler (bye)

Junior Women (18)
Sofia Bezkorovainaya (junior sectionals) E-1
Alina Bonillo (junior sectionals) M-3
Annika Chao (junior sectionals) P-2
Jasmine Clarke (novice sectionals) E-N2
Ela Cui (junior sectionals) E-4
Logan Higase-Chen (junior sectionals) M-1
Keira Hilbelink (junior sectionals) P-4
Jiaying Ellyse Johnson (junior sectionals) M-4
Jessica Jurka (junior sectionals) M-2
Hannah Kim (novice sectionals) P-N2
Emilia Nemirovsky (novice sectionals) M-N1
Cleo Park (junior sectionals) P-3
Maria Platonova (junior sectionals) E-2
Angela Shao (novice sectionals) M-N2
Sophie Joline von Felten (junior sectionals) E-3
Elena Wilson (novice sectionals) P-N1
Sherry Zhang (junior sectionals) P-1
Zhiqi "Coco" Zhang (novice sectionals) E-N1

Note: USFS has yet to announce their 2024 Youth Olympic Games team (selection criterion is highest NQS score of the YOG age-eligible skaters in each discipline) and the junior woman is expected to be Sherry Zhang. Zhang, who won the Pacific Coast Junior Women's event, would miss 2024 Nationals if confirmed to be going to YOG in South Korea and her alternate to Nationals then would be Teryn Kim (Pacific Coast 5th in Junior Women).

 

[Coco]

Lindsay

 

[mtnskater]

Lindsay Thorngren finally gets her due in the short at NHK. Since juniors I thought she would be battling it out with Isabeau. But Lindsay seemed to be more affected by her growth spurt last year, then Isabeau was by hers. Getting back on track. So happy. Isabeau and Lindsay are my favorite style of skaters with the balletic elegance and amazing flexibility and positions. Who knows how she will handle skating last in first place. But I hope this boosts her confidence!

Ava was excellent too. She really flies high on her jumps and I love her presentation and charisma. So glad she made the final flight!

 

[jlai]

Amber may not be superconsistent, but no one has stepped up as US #2. So if I were USFSA I would think that a team of Levito / Amber may work for worlds (for now, unless someone steps up).

Two us ladies saw what I wrote and decided to do something about it today. Good job Lindsay and Ava Marie!

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Two us ladies saw what I wrote and decided to do something about it today. Good job Lindsay and Ava Marie!

I was just coming here to post the same thing, how about that AMZ and Lindsay first and second at NHK

Lindsay also finds herself as second alternate to the Grand Prix final

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Interesting enough if you were to go by total points, Lindsay would qualify into the Grand Prix final in sixth place