US Nationals Ladies Short Programs
2008 Ladies Championship Figure Skating Technical Program Review
Thursday night's competition was rebroadcast on NBC and offered an opportunity to review the last group of ladies skating their short programs.
1st Place: Mirai Nagasu
14-year-old Mirai, the 2007 Junior Grand Prix and Junior Nationals winner, won the senior title -- even after a 4-inch growth spurt! Now towering at 4’11”, Marai accented her youth with her music, a bouncy Broadway tune, which she skated to in a hot pink floral dress. She opened her short program with a triple Lutz, triple toe loop combo jump that got the judges’ attention.
A lovely Ina Bower into a double Axel earned her bonus points, although her sit spin position and other choreography wasn’t as professional in appearance as the other competitors. Her final single-hand heel grab spin landed with a head nod that showed the confidence of a fierce competitor with incredible potential.
Her record-breaking score was 41.40, 28.83 was for 70.23 total -- the best-ever score for a national ladies. Remember, not only is this her first year in the senior events, this was also her first time landing a triple triple jump combination in competition! As soon as she’s old enough, there’s no doubt the USFSA will move her up from Development Team B to Team A.
2nd Place: Ashley Wagner
Another new-comer to the Senior level, Ashley Wagner earned 38.08 technically, 27.07 for her program score, which gave her a total of 65.15 points to claim second place before the free skate. Her program was clean, powerful and showed great potential for this athlete to be on the upcoming Olympic team.
A German descendent living and training in the Virginia area, Ashley has developed an interesting flying sit spin and clean jumps. She joins the young and talented group of girls at this competition making an unmistakable statement that they will not wait in the wings any longer. Already on USFSA B Team, the future of American ladies figure skating is bright, and the world will take notice.
3rd Place: Rachael Flatt
Hoping to improve upon her fifth place finish at last year’s Nationals, this high school student opened her short program with a combination spin. Her light and fun music helped her pull of a triple Lutz, triple toe loop combination jump. Her spiral didn’t exhibit the same flexibility of the other ladies, but her nice double axel offset her low back position during stroking.
A bubbly personality with a quiet, understated confidence defined this skater’s performance and gained her 62.91 points total for her clean program. She said the greatest thing about her figure skating performance tonight was that she skated her best. She’s making a statement that she loves what she does and can do it well. This should move her up from her current place in USFSA’s Development Team C.
4th: Kimmie Meissner
Defending her title and A Team standing would prove not to be easy for this skater. Her Arabian-style music set the mood when Kimmie opened her short program with an under-expressive spiral. After falling on her first jump, she doubled the second jump of her next combo. Her athletic ability carried her to the 2006 World title, so it’s not unexpected that she landed her double axel well. Artistically, however, she has room for growth. Her facial expression and long arms are not yet harnessed in to add to the program’s presentation.
If she’s defending her National title here, however, is taking its toll on her. An outside edge on her flip take-off may have been due to her sprained ankle, but it brought her score down to 57.58 for the short program. She said she’s been feeling confident and was pumped for the rest of her program after landing her triple Lutz. She said: “It felt great to get back out there.” She’s sure of herself and the solid training of her long program.
Caroline Zhang
The 14-year old 2007 World Junior Champion was inspired by watching Michele Kwan train and perform. Caroline skates at the East/West Ice Palace in Artesia, California, which is the Kwan family rink. During a recent T.V. interview together, Michele said Caroline can’t have “Little dirty spots anywhere,” she has to be clean. Michele told her to also work on performing from the core (the heart) on up.
Caroline spends time watching other skaters – much to her coach’s dismay -- and is in awe of the size of their jumps. Her “mission,” as Michele noted, is to stay focused amidst the media attention. In her 1st Senior level National competition, she stepped out of the triple toe loop combination, but landed a triple Lutz. Her jumps aren’t big and appear clean. On replay, however, judges can see that her first two jumps were slightly under-rotated. She lost ten points on the first two jumps because she landed before completely rotating the jump.
Artistically, she’s on her way to being identified with the great performers of figure skating. Her double Axel landing position was almost as great as her fast and dynamic spins. Her spiral extensions made up for periods of slow skating and performance lows or missing transitions. Her signature layback into a Biellmann combo spin ended the program strongly.
Unfortunately, her score of 53.49 bumped her from the last group of skaters for the long program. That’s technically not a death sentence for a would-be medal contender, but athletes not in the last group rarely come back to medal. She seems to be developing into the future of the sport, as literal combination of the best of Sasha Cohen and Michele Kwan combined. The USFSA took notice of her talents and placed her on this year’s Development Team B.
Katrina Hacker
This 17-year old felt her music through her fingers and down to her toes. She landed her triple-double combination well, but turned out of her next jump. Her combo spin was top quality, and her footwork was balletic, at the least. Her full-split spiral had the same impact of the other skaters’ but not the speed.
The score of 56.87 likely takes her out of medal contention, but she gets kudos for already putting together charity with her BFF, skater Jenny Bloom. Edges for Education, has raised $32,000 for an East Harlem literacy center, Boys and Girls Harbor. Last year, their Blades for AIDS benefit raised over $25,000 for Save the Children’s AIDS in Africa program.
