Women’s Free Skate, Worlds 2007

It seemed that nerves got the best of some of the female skaters at the World’s championships, while others were able to rise to the occasion.

Kimmie Meissner, for example, was in third after her short program, and in spite of being the defending gold medalist and having less pressure than the Asian women, wasn’t able to shake off her nerves. Of course, it didn’t help skating immediately after Mao Asada, who came from behind after a short program affected by her nerves to make her personal best and win the free skate.

“It was tough tonight,” admitted Meissner. “Mao skated before me and obviously did very well so that the crowd was really into it. It was very emotional and intense. I had to calm down myself, and I think it took me a jump to get into it.”

As Candus Thomson of the Baltimore Sun said about Meissner, her “performance at the World Figure Skating Championships looked a lot like her performance at the U.S Championships. Except for one major difference: she didn’t win here today.”

Like she did at Nationals, Meissner put her hand down on her opening jump and failed to do a triple-triple combination. She was also downgraded for cheating the landing of the second jump of her triple flip-triple toeloop combo. She was able to complete six clean jumps and her footwork was excellent, but it unfortunately wasn’t enough. It was the first time since 1994 that no American woman won a medal at Worlds.

“It was not my best; I can do better,” Meissner admitted. “So I’ll regroup and come back strong next year.”

Yu-Na Kim’s long program was the most disappointing, especially after she earned the highest-ever score for a short program earlier in the week. She came into the long program the favorite to win Korea’s first gold medal at Worlds. Her nerves and chronic back pain seemed to get in the way, though. Two minutes into her free skate, it appeared that Kim would fulfill all expectations, but she fell on the first jump of an intended three-jump combo, fell a second time, and had another combo ruled scoreless.

“I didn’t really feel any pain in my back,” she reported. “But my legs felt heavy and so I was unable to perform well and I wasn’t as confident in my jumps.”

The biggest comeback at Worlds was Canadian champ Joannie Rochette. She skated a dismal short program, putting her way back in 16th place. Canada needed two berths for next year’s Worlds, though, and she was able to deliver for her home country. She rallied and her long program was the fifth-best.

“I was disappointed [in my short program] so I wanted to come back and fight for it and try to keep those two spots,” Rochette said. “I knew I needed a top-12 finish. It was really hard to stay focused and I tried to give it my all.”

Mao Asada won the free skate, but narrowly missed the gold medal, probably because of her disappointing short program. Her home audience was completely behind her; by the time she ended her free skate, they were on their feet. She was able to overcome the nerves that had hassled her previously and she earned her personal best, winning the silver medal.

“I am very happy,” said Asada. “Before the program, I was in the 5th place after the short program, so I really wanted to win a medal of any color. I am very satisfied with my performance. The crowd was very nice. I was very impressed by myself. I love skating at home!”

Asada’s teammate Miki Ando came back in more ways than one. The first woman to land a quad salchow, Ando was attacked in Japan after a poor showing at the Olympics. After finishing 15th in Turin, she re-hired her previous coach, Yuko Monna, and moved to New Jersey to work on her choreography and jumps.

At Worlds, though, she had practiced her acclaimed quad and even made it a few times during the practice sessions earlier in the week, but chose to play it conservative and “only” do a triple salchow, her opening jump. When she ended her marvelous performance to the roar of the crowd, Ando knew that she had won a medal, but didn’t know if it would be enough to win the gold. She posted a personal best. She was second in the free skate, but edged out Mao Asada by a mere 0.64 points.

“After the Turin Games I had such a hard time,” Ando said, tears running down her face. “I came back strong.”

Sources:
Associated Press. Ando Wins Women’s Title. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032401047.html

Canadian Press. Rochette 10th at figure skating worlds. http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/195716

ISU World Figure Skating Championships: Tokyo (JPN) Day 5. http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/content/news/0,10869,4844-131973-133281-18886-268081-news-item,00.html
Kaye, R. 2007 World Figure Skating Championships: Ladies’ Free Skate Highlights. http://goldenskate.com/articles/2006/032507_ll.shtml

Thomson, C. Meissner comes up short in world championships. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-skating0324,0,80130.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Worlds 2007 Original Dance

There was at least one sports blogger who, in his “preview” of the Worlds Figure Skating Championships, held in Tokyo last month, who refused to write about ice dancing, saying, “Ice Dancing doesn’t get a preview because Ice Dancing is s***.”

In a previous post, he attempts to support the above assertion this way: “When I say ‘Figure Skating’ I don’t mean any of that wussy crap that comes under the category of ‘Ice Dancing.’ ‘Ice Dancing’ is not a sport, it’s what skaters do when they can’t make it as figure skaters. ‘Ice Dancing’ is the Rugby League of the Ice World.”

This fellow doesn’t know what he’s talking about, of course. He obviously hasn’t watched ice dancing in the last few years, and he certainly didn’t watch ice dancing at Worlds. The original dance portion of the competition was full of all kinds of excitement. Of course, Worlds ice dancing could be called“the D&S competition,” since three out of the top five competitors’ initials were D and S.

By the end of the original dance, the race was tight, the top three couples separated by only half a point. Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria edged out Canada’s Marie-France Dubrueil and Patrice Lauzon to take the lead. Americans Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto moved up from fifth to third place.

Much of the reason for the excitement with the ice dancers at Worlds happened before the competition began. Canada’s Dubrueil and Lauzon, who in recent years have garnered a great deal of attention, came to Tokyo the favorites by plagued by recent injuries.

As Sportsnet, a Canadian sports webpage, reported, “It’s been one thing after another for Dubreuil.” They continue:

“A terrible fall in the original dance at the Turin Olympics last year left her with an injured right hip and lower back, forcing their withdrawal. They recovered to win silver at the world championships in Calgary last March, but misfortune again befell the Montrealers when Dubreuil hurt her right knee and ankle just before the Canadian championships in January.

They again pulled themselves together just in time to win another national title, and they went on to win Four Continents gold while Dubreuil continued to undergo physiotherapy on her right thigh. If anybody needed a break before the world championships, it was Dubreuil and Lauzon.“It feels so great just to concentrate on training and still have fun with it,” a healthy Dubreuil said from Leon, France, where the couple trains. “Last year I was in so much pain it was hard to focus on anything else other than the problem.”

Dubreuil and Lauzon’s original dance ranked third place, and they were in second place going into the free dance. All their elements were awarded a level four. “It was pretty good,” said Dubreuil. “Probably the best of the season. We love the tango. We even look Spanish so it’s easy to put the feeling and expression into the moves.”

Another thing that garnered a great deal of attention had very little to do with ice dancing, at least not technically, and that was American Tanith Belbin’s hair color change. The native Canadian, who was granted U.S. citizenship before the Olympics, pulled a Jennifer Aniston on Tokyo, which was all a-buzz about her change to darker locks. She and her partner Ben Agosto came in second after the original dance, a mere 0.2 points behind first place.

This in spite of a near-miss of the boards by Belbin. She assured at least one reporter that it wasn’t a new part of their choreography. They were able to go on like nothing happened, though, but it did slightly affect their performance.

“We didn't actually have (an original dance) practice in this arena before, and it doesn’t have hockey lines like the other arena,” Belbin said. “I think we just started our beginning too close to the boards. I’m staring at Ben the entire opening, and I don’t look away from him. So by the time I stepped forward to see where I was, it was too late. But I recovered all right. The rest of the program could have gone better had I not been disappointed and distracted by that little bobble.”

“She recovered really quickly,” said Agosto of his partner touching the boards. “I’m always impressed how she recovers when she has to, and I felt like the rest of the program was strong. We’ve been trying to work on connecting with each other and looking at each other a bit more and expressing that passion between two people in the tango. I think we did a pretty good job at that today.”

So ice dancing delivered in the area of excitement, musicality, and athleticism. By the end of the original dance, the score between the competitors was as close as it gets. There was plenty of drama as well, and that continued later in the week going into the free dance.

References:
Dubreuil and Lauzon carry Canadian hopes.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/more/article.jsp?content=20070317_143125_4580

ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2007 Tokyo (JPN) Day 3.
http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/content/news/0,10869,4844-131973-133281-18886-268038-news-item,00.html

Kaye, R. 2007 World Figure Skating Championships, Original Dance Highlights. http://goldenskate.com/articles/2006/032307_od.shtml

Preview: World Figure Skating Championships 2007. http://shottonothing.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/preview-world-figure-skating-championships-2007/

Why am I so Damned Obsessed with Figure Skating? http://shottonothing.wordpress.com/2007/01/23/why-am-i-so-damned-obsessed-with-figure-skating/