U.S. Women [#8]: Meet Me in St. Louis

[Sasha'sSpins]

That sounds like usfs pr to me!

Elizaveta also interviewed Ilia. There's a short clip of it on X. I haven't gone on there in forever but someone posted it on GoldSk8 (iirc).

Not sure why you would think that Tuktamysheva would be conspiring with USFS, promoting fake PR on Alysa's behalf. Since her return both Liu and her coaches have said that she's been training a 3A. And there's footage of her attempting them at some practices.

Jeezus, the Doubting Thomases in this thread when it comes to Alysa's costumes, Gaga FS and now her (elusive) 3A have me SMH.

 

[zigzig]

Tuk's interviews with the athletes are really cute. She's always had such a great personality - interviewing suits her well.

 

[caseyedwards]

The whole idea of never doing a jump a whole season and just doing at Olympics is USFS PR. Thy have been doing that for decades now. Saying that skaters can just do something like a quad or 3A at the Olympics. it’s just not true. Even if Liu is practicing it it’s never going to be done. It just doesn’t work that way

 

[Skaterbob]

The whole idea of never doing a jump a whole season and just doing at Olympics is USFS PR. Thy have been doing that for decades now. Saying that skaters can just do something like a quad or 3A at the Olympics. it’s just not true. Even if Liu is practicing it it’s never going to be done. It just doesn’t work that way

Isn't that exactly what she did the last time she was at the Olympics though? She went for the triple axel kind of out of no where. Hopefully she will have more sucess this time.

 

[Spiralgraph]

hmm I don't know. It seems to me that Ilia is the kind of brash skater that would attempt a new jump for the first time at the Olympics. Why not Alysa?

 

[caseyedwards]

Isn't that exactly what she did the last time she was at the Olympics though? She went for the triple axel kind of out of no where. Hopefully she will have more sucess this time.

That shows why it’s silly! You can’t just pull a quad or triple axel out of nowhere. It must be done all season. And now that’s she’s winning without one it will certainly never be tried

 

[Jammers]

That shows why it’s silly! You can’t just pull a quad or triple axel out of nowhere. It must be done all season. And now that’s she’s winning without one it will certainly never be tried

To be honest she needs a 3axel though otherwise she's at the mercy of the other skaters making mistakes and that won't always happen. Someone is bound to finally be clean. As for the new FS that ship has sailed now debuting a new program in front of international judges for the first time at the Olympics is asking a lot.

 

[caseyedwards]

hmm I don't know. It seems to me that Ilia is the kind of brash skater that would attempt a new jump for the first time at the Olympics. Why not Alysa?

By not doing it she is guaranteed gold. Wining gold being easy and obvious ilia can do 5 backflips and win

 

[Private Citizen]

The whole idea of never doing a jump a whole season and just doing at Olympics is USFS PR. Thy have been doing that for decades now. Saying that skaters can just do something like a quad or 3A at the Olympics. it’s just not true. Even if Liu is practicing it it’s never going to be done. It just doesn’t work that way

IIRC Sarah Hughes had never done the 3T+3Lo successfully before the Olympics, and she hadn't even attempted it in two seasons.

By not doing it she is guaranteed gold.

What are you smoking today?

 

[caseyedwards]

IIRC Sarah Hughes had never done the 3T+3Lo successfully before the Olympics, and she hadn't even attempted it in two seasons.



What are you smoking today?

She has a great winning streak and no one can touch her!

 

[Sylvia]

She has a great winning streak and no one can touch her!

Yes, a great winning streak of 2 competitions!

 

[caseyedwards]

Yes, a great winning streak of 2 competitions!

Worlds and GPF. She’s the chosen one!

 

[caseyedwards]

IIRC Sarah Hughes had never done the 3T+3Lo successfully before the Olympics, and she hadn't even attempted it in two seasons.



What are you smoking today?

And she underrotated horribly! But you know 6.0 didn’t penalize

 

[Allskate]

To be honest she needs a 3axel though otherwise she's at the mercy of the other skaters making mistakes and that won't always happen. Someone is bound to finally be clean.

IIRC Sarah Hughes had never done the 3T+3Lo successfully before the Olympics, and she hadn't even attempted it in two seasons.

Sarah wasn't considered a favorite to win, so why not go for it if she was doing it well in practice and they thought she needed it to medal?

Alysa obviously can win major competitions without the triple axel, and she is a favorite for an Olympic win/podium. Yes, she needed other people to make mistakes at Worlds and at the GPF, but it's not at all uncommon for the top women to have a mistake in major competitions these days. Kaori often makes a mistake. Mone, who has been so consistent, was off in her GPF long program. (I can't imagine the pressure the Japanese women are feeling right now.) Last year's GPF was a mess overall.

I can see why Ami and Rinka go for the triple axel even though they are not consistent, because they probably feel like they need it in order to make the Olympic team.

It makes perfect sense for Amber to include the triple axel because she's quite consistent with it and it is what has helped her win and medal.

But, we have no idea how often Alysa lands a triple axel in her runthroughs. She says she's practicing it almost every day but doesn't feel comfortable including it yet, so it makes sense for her not to include it, esepcailly if she is jeopardizing a win/medal. If she is landing it consistently in runthroughs by Nationals and she feels comfortable including it, then it would be great to see her do it.

 

[Vagabond]

To be honest she needs a 3axel though otherwise she's at the mercy of the other skaters making mistakes and that won't always happen. Someone is bound to finally be clean. As for the new FS that ship has sailed now debuting a new program in front of international judges for the first time at the Olympics is asking a lot.

As Peggy Fleming likes to say, skaters don't usually win the Olympic Gold Medal by skating their best. They win by skating better than their competition. She uses herself as an example.

Liu might not win in Milan, but she seems to rise to the occasion better than her nearest rivals.

 

[honey]

I think if Alysa wants to, she can get the Gaga program ready for nationals. A month is not oodles of time, but it could be done especially since she’s supposedly already been working on it. But at this point I’d question if she sees it as necessary. She’s scoring well as is. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Interesting conversation about Sarah Hughes. She ended up only changing about the last third of the program between nationals and the Olympics. Originally that was the part that changed to Rach 2 from Daphnis and Chloe inexplicably, and also ended on a bit of a wimper. I think Robin was absolutely correct to change that. The music was far more cohesive in SLC and also built to a finish. But in its entirety, not really that much of the program changed.

Interestingly though, she was toying with going back to Turandot pretty late in that season. She did it instead of Don Q as her second LP at the GPF in December and she also did it at whatever the December 2001 cheesefest was (Marshall’s or Campbell’s?). I think pretty much everyone else did show programs, but she did a that competitive program and Peggy mentioned she was thinking of going back to it. The other night I happened to see this in my YouTube feed and I’d totally forgotten she was openly saying they might ditch the original LP that season.

 

[Bulletsdad]

I think if Alysa wants to, she can get the Gaga program ready for nationals. A month is not oodles of time, but it could be done especially since she’s supposedly already been working on it. But at this point I’d question if she sees it as necessary. She’s scoring well as is. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Interesting conversation about Sarah Hughes. She ended up only changing about the last third of the program between nationals and the Olympics. Originally that was the part that changed to Rach 2 from Daphnis and Chloe inexplicably, and also ended on a bit of a wimper. I think Robin was absolutely correct to change that. The music was far more cohesive in SLC and also built to a finish. But in its entirety, not really that much of the program changed.

Interestingly though, she was toying with going back to Turandot pretty late in that season. She did it instead of Don Q as her second LP at the GPF in December and she also did it at whatever the December 2001 cheesefest was (Marshall’s or Campbell’s?). I think pretty much everyone else did show programs, but she did a that competitive program and Peggy mentioned she was thinking of going back to it. The other night I happened to see this in my YouTube feed and I’d totally forgotten she was openly saying they might ditch the original LP that season.

I could see Alysa changing to Gaga for artistic, rather than competitive reasons. As we've seen with the 3lz/3lp, it's sometimes more about the challenge than the points.

 

[Sasha'sSpins]

The whole idea of never doing a jump a whole season and just doing at Olympics is USFS PR. Thy have been doing that for decades now. Saying that skaters can just do something like a quad or 3A at the Olympics. it’s just not true. Even if Liu is practicing it it’s never going to be done. It just doesn’t work that way

Where on Earth did USFS say or do anything at all, in relation to this particular Russian interview, as to promoting the idea of a possible 3A for Alysa??? Liu was responding to a direct question from Liza Tuktamysheva for Russian television! How do you get from there to the notion that this is a sinister plot from USFS, they're lying and promoting fake PR on Alysa's behalf over a 3A???

And BTW - if any skater is crazy enough to go for a 3A at the 2026 Olympics, after not even competing one since 2022 - my bet would be entirely on Alysa Liu! Coming from her, NOTHING would surprise me anymore!

 

[olympic]

Alysa is a good strategist. She threads the needle when it comes to competing with the JPN women. IOW, her consistency allows her to slip past skaters like Kaori (x2 now) and Ami when they have a mistake. But my big question is what happens when the top JPN women are clean? Someone is bound to be at the Olympics, and then Adelya Petrosyan will be there ....

ETA - My spidey senses tell me that the battle for gold in Milano will be between Kaori and Adelya (how is she these days?) based on nothing but my gut. I think Alysa would be a solid bronze bet. In my mind, I wonder if she's at some sort of ceiling scoring-wise, so I think for team USA, the one shot at gold would be if Amber had back-to-back skates of her life, because she has the highest scoring potential, but what are the chances? Anyway, let's hope for great skates from all.

BTW - Bradie just scored 132 points in her LP at Golden Spin. Go Bradie!