NHK Trophy 2017 Highlights - The Struggles of Figure Skating (Ladies FS)
Sometimes you need to sacrifice something in order to get what you wished for. That's how I feel about the ladies' final rankings in Osaka. I got what I wanted, but it's bittersweet because one of my favourite skaters dropped a few places in the process. The results have nothing to do with my wishes of course, but with a lot of hard work from some brilliant skaters, some of whom I'll talk about in this blog post.
Rika Hongo was the bitter part of my 'bittersweet' emotions. She didn't make any catastrophic errors though - there was a 3Flip that was all sorts of wrong, but otherwise, the elements were alright. What hurt her more was the presentation - there were some blank spaces in terms of interpretation. Absolutely loved the black and red costume though, very Frida Kahlo-like. Her free score was 122.00, her total score was 187.83 and her final rank was 7th.
Satoko Miyhara was the sweet part, but barely. I wanted her to move up to the top 5, and she did, but only at its bottom. The biggest contrast between her and Hongo was the interpretation - Satoko is a lot more expressive and her arm movements were more elegant. That being said, her jumps don't look as good, and she had obvious trouble with two of them - doubled out of both a 3Flip and a 3Salchow. So, in the end, she only got 126.75 points in the free and 191.80 points in total.
Mirai Nagasu landed the 3Axel again, although she double-footed it this time. She skated to Miss Saigon. The music was very complex, featuring different nuances which allowed her variations on speed and facial expressions. I think her acting skills are not quite at the level of even Miyahara, but there's no doubt her performance was lovely to watch. She finished on 4th place with 129.29 points in the free and 194.46 points overall.
Polina Tsurskaya's free skate made the similarities between her and Medvedeva even more obvious to me. Even the musical structure was one we've seen before in Medvedeva's routines. Is that good, is it bad? Feel free to debate. I'm the biggest fan of originality, so I'd personally like to see Polina's personal style shining through more than it currently does. She got the bronze medal with a free score of 140.15 points and a total score of 210.99.
Carolina Kostner did not have the best afternoon of her career in Osaka, but it was also not the worst. The Salchows kept malfunctioning for some reason - she doubled out of the first and fell on the second. The original position of the high spin made great use of her height. She managed to hold onto the silver medal with a free score of 137.67, and 212.24 points in total.
Evgenia Medvedeva made two very uncharacteristic mistakes here. She fell on the 3Flip and double-footed the 3Lutz. Despite it, her own presentation and her rivals' technical mistakes helped her keep the gold medal. Her step sequence was out of this world; it was so detailed, full of intricate arm movements. Her superiority in interpretation is undeniable. Free score: 144.40; overall score: 224.39.
So the gold was a bit harder to win than usually for everyone's favourite Russian, but people wouldn't be as shocked of the mistakes if it was someone else, so I say it's not really worth mentioning them. She's human, it's a tough sport, it happens. Same thing can be said about some of the other ladies. Although this was not the best final from a technical point of view, I sure enjoyed the beautiful presentations I witnessed.
Rika Hongo was the bitter part of my 'bittersweet' emotions. She didn't make any catastrophic errors though - there was a 3Flip that was all sorts of wrong, but otherwise, the elements were alright. What hurt her more was the presentation - there were some blank spaces in terms of interpretation. Absolutely loved the black and red costume though, very Frida Kahlo-like. Her free score was 122.00, her total score was 187.83 and her final rank was 7th.
Satoko Miyhara was the sweet part, but barely. I wanted her to move up to the top 5, and she did, but only at its bottom. The biggest contrast between her and Hongo was the interpretation - Satoko is a lot more expressive and her arm movements were more elegant. That being said, her jumps don't look as good, and she had obvious trouble with two of them - doubled out of both a 3Flip and a 3Salchow. So, in the end, she only got 126.75 points in the free and 191.80 points in total.
Mirai Nagasu landed the 3Axel again, although she double-footed it this time. She skated to Miss Saigon. The music was very complex, featuring different nuances which allowed her variations on speed and facial expressions. I think her acting skills are not quite at the level of even Miyahara, but there's no doubt her performance was lovely to watch. She finished on 4th place with 129.29 points in the free and 194.46 points overall.
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| Silver: Carolina Kostner (ITA); Gold: Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS); Bronze: Polina Tsurskaya (RUS) Photograph: AFP PHOTO / Kazuhiro NOGI |
Polina Tsurskaya's free skate made the similarities between her and Medvedeva even more obvious to me. Even the musical structure was one we've seen before in Medvedeva's routines. Is that good, is it bad? Feel free to debate. I'm the biggest fan of originality, so I'd personally like to see Polina's personal style shining through more than it currently does. She got the bronze medal with a free score of 140.15 points and a total score of 210.99.
Carolina Kostner did not have the best afternoon of her career in Osaka, but it was also not the worst. The Salchows kept malfunctioning for some reason - she doubled out of the first and fell on the second. The original position of the high spin made great use of her height. She managed to hold onto the silver medal with a free score of 137.67, and 212.24 points in total.
Evgenia Medvedeva made two very uncharacteristic mistakes here. She fell on the 3Flip and double-footed the 3Lutz. Despite it, her own presentation and her rivals' technical mistakes helped her keep the gold medal. Her step sequence was out of this world; it was so detailed, full of intricate arm movements. Her superiority in interpretation is undeniable. Free score: 144.40; overall score: 224.39.
So the gold was a bit harder to win than usually for everyone's favourite Russian, but people wouldn't be as shocked of the mistakes if it was someone else, so I say it's not really worth mentioning them. She's human, it's a tough sport, it happens. Same thing can be said about some of the other ladies. Although this was not the best final from a technical point of view, I sure enjoyed the beautiful presentations I witnessed.
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