Carolina Kostner wins the ISU GP NHK Trophy 2010 in Nagoya!
| 1 | Carolina KOSTNER |
|
164.61 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 2 | Rachael FLATT |
|
161.04 | 3 | 1 | |||
| 3 | Kanako MURAKAMI |
|
150.16 | 2 | 5 | |||
| 4 | Kiira KORPI |
|
148.44 | 5 | 4 | |||
| 5 | Ashley WAGNER |
|
143.73 | 4 | 6 | |||
| 6 | Elene GEDEVANISHVILI |
|
141.52 | 9 | 3 | |||
| 7 | Caroline ZHANG |
|
133.86 | 6 | 9 | |||
| 8 | Mao ASADA |
|
133.40 | 8 | 8 | |||
| 9 | Viktoria HELGESSON |
|
130.11 | 10 | 7 | |||
| 10 | Lena MARROCCO |
|
122.03 | 11 | 10 | |||
| 11 | Jenna MCCORKELL |
|
121.52 | 7 | 11 | |||
| 12 | Diane SZMIETT |
|
88.33 | 12 | 12 |
Japan's Mao Asada performs in the ladies short program at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Nagoya, central Japan, Friday, Oct. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa) Photo Credit: AP Photo
World champion Mao Asada could only finish eighth in the women’s short programme at the NHK Trophy in Nagoya as Carolina Kostner took the lead.
Japan’s Asada finished the day on just 47.95 points after two-footing the landing on her opening triple axel and singling a triple flip.
Italy’s Kostner heads the standing at the halfway point of the ladies’ competition at the first of six grand prix events this season after she earned 57.27 points for her programme skated to Galicia Flamenco.
World junior champion Kanako Murakami of Japan is second with 56.10 points, with the USA’s Rachael Flatt third on 53.69.
“Tonight was not perfect,” Asada said of her routine with new coach Nobuo Sato. “I’ve been feeling only 50 per cent with this routine at practice. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.”
USA’s Meryl Davis and Charlie White lead the ice dance category after the short dance. The Olympic silver medallists scored 66.97 points to top the standings ahead of Canada’s Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje (58.69) and Russia’s Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov (56.89).
“I think it was a solid performance given that it’s early in the season,” Flatt said. “I feel pretty good about my chances.”
The pairs short programme is going to form with world champions Qing Pang and Jia Tong of China claiming the lead with a score of 67.10 points.
Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov of Russia were second with 60.16 points, while Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran of Japan were third with 57.23.
Eurosport
source: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com
ckjapan
South Korea’s Kim Yuna shrugged off the weight of expectation from her homeland to win figure skating gold on Thursday but Canada’s Joannie Rochette won most hearts by overcoming heavy personal grief to claim a bronze medal.
An extraordinary day of raw human emotion and unrelenting drama at the Vancouver Winter Olympics also saw Norwegian cross country skier Marit Bjoergen become the first triple gold medallist of the Games and Canada win the women’s ice hockey to join Germany and the United States at the top of the medal standings.
The Canadians beat the U.S. 2-0 to trigger wild celebrations at Canada Hockey Place—and add to the suffocating pressure on the men’s team to emulate their feat in the final event of the Games on Sunday.
It was the evening figure skating, however, which provided Thursday’s icing on the cake after another day of enthralling action on all competition arenas.
Yuna, 19, showed poise and grace beyond her tender years to win the women’s figure skating gold with a record total of 228.56 points, well clear of Japan’s Mao Asada, who finished second, and Rochette, who maintained her composure to win the bronze just four days after her mother suddenly died.
“I do not see myself as a hero. When I stepped on to the ice I knew I had to be as cold as possible. My legs were shaking but my mother was there with me, giving me strength,” an emotional Rochette told reporters.
“It was almost like a relief going on the ice. I needed to be in a state of mind where I was Joannie the athlete and not Joannie the person. I was shaking but I knew that I would leave everything on that ice.”
Joannie Rochette (Amy Sancetta)
ROYAL APPROVAL
Earlier, Bjoergen, 29, skied the last leg of the 4x5km relay in front of a packed grandstand where Norway’s King Harald V was watching. She grabbed a Norwegian flag and skied without using poles in the final few metres to her fourth podium finish in four events.
“This has been so great. I had a dream of winning one gold medal and now I have three so this has been a wonderful Games for me,” said Bjoergen.
With three in the top four after Wednesday’s first run, the Austrians had looked set to win their first Olympic gold in the Alpine events at Whistler mountain but again came up short.
German Viktoria Rebensburg unexpectedly won the women’s giant slalom, which was delayed 24 hours because of fog, after her parents had flown home following Wednesday’s opening leg when she was in sixth place.
Elisabeth Goergl was first after the opening leg but found a soft course on the second run and ended up with her second bronze of the Games.
The silver went to Slovenia’s Tina Maze, who finished just 0.04 seconds behind Rebensburg, a former junior world champion yet to win a World Cup race on the senior circuit.
Rebensburg weaved her way to the front with a dazzling second run to become Germany’s first women’s giant slalom champion in 54 years and second youngest Alpine gold medallist.
“It sounds so strange, it’s unbelievable,” she said. “I think it’s going to take a few days for me to realise it.”
TWO GOALS
After Finland beat Sweden 3-2 to claim the women’s ice hockey bronze medal, Canadian forward Marie-Philip Poulin scored both goals in the first period of the final against the U.S.
Canada’s men, watching from the stands, play Slovakia in Friday’s men’s semi-finals while the U.S. face off against Finland, setting up the possibility of a dream north American final on Sunday.
On the curling rink, Canada’s women continued to clean up, advancing to the final against Sweden by beating Switzerland in a tense semi.
The Canadian men also booked their place in the final with a 6-3 win over Sweden to extend their unbeaten run. They next play Norway, who have developed a cult following in Vancouver with their diamond-print pants.
Belarus collected their first Winter Olympic gold when Alexei Grishin won the men’s freestyle aerials at Cypress Mountain. Jeret Peterson of the U.S. took silver and China’s Liu Zhongqing the bronze.
American Bill Demong won gold in the Nordic combined as the U.S., Germany and Canada ended the 13th full day of competition with eight golds each and the U.S. ahead on overall medals.
Away from the ice and snow, the U.S. Olympic Committee confirmed that American bobsleigh crew member Bill Schuffenhauer had been arrested and then released to compete in Friday’s event.
Vancouver police had earlier said a U.S. Olympian had been arrested on Wednesday for assaulting his common law partner but did not name him.
A South Korean man was arrested too in Seoul for threatening to blow up the Australian Embassy after an Australian judge disqualified the South Korean women’s short track team on Wednesday.
source: sports.yahoo.com
South Korea’s Kim Yu-na has won the women’s figure skating gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics – and did it by setting a record.
Kim shattered her own world mark by scoring 228.56 points, more than 18 higher than her previous record. She is the winner of South Korea’s first Olympic medal in the sport.
Mao Asada of Japan won the silver, but finished 23 points behind Kim.
Joannie Rochette, whose mother died four days ago, got the bronze, Canada’s first women’s medal in the games since 1988.
American Mirai Nagasu finished fourth.
Kim Yu-na
Kim Yu-na
Kim Yu-na
Here what the Los Angeles Times writes about this super-star:
Kim Yuna of South Korea leads after the short program of the women’s figure skating event on Tuesday at the Vancouver Olympics. Yuna, who skated to a James Bond medley, scored 78.50 points.
Mao Asada of Japan is in second place with 73.78 points after she skated to the “Waltz Masquerade” by Aram Khatchaturian.
Canada’s Joannie Rochette, whose mother passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on Sunday, received a lengthy standing ovation after she finished. She skated to “La Cumparsita” and received 71.36 points, putting her in third place.
Miki Ando of Japan skated to “Requiem” by Mozart and finished with 64.76 points, good for fourth place.
Rachael Flatt of the U.S., skating to “Sing Sing Sing,” is in fifth place with 64.64 points
Mirai Nagasu of the U.S., skating to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” soundtrack, is in sixth place with 63.76 points. Her nose started bleeding midway through her performance.
“Halfway there I felt stuff running down my nose and thinking ‘don’t think about it just keep going.’ My performance tonight wasn’t as good as nationals, I’m a little disappointed but I think the next Olympics I’ll know how to feel.”
Photo: Kim Yuna of South Korea competes during the short program Tuesday night. Credit: Richard Mackson / U.S. Presswire
source: latimesblogs.latimes.com
Ursula Andress, Jane Seymour, Halle Berry – they’ve got nothing on the newest Bond Girl.
Nobody does it better than Kim Yu-na.
The South Korean skater delighted fans and judges alike with a playfully sexy and sophisticated James Bond medley Tuesday night in the women’s short program, shrugging off the enormous expectations that come with being the biggest favorite since Katarina Witt in 1988. Her score of 78.5 points not only shattered her own world record, it put her almost five points ahead of longtime rival – and chief threat – Mao Asada of Japan.
“I had waited a long time for the Olympics,” Kim said. “I had ample time to practice and prepare, so I wasn’t shaky or nervous just because it was the Olympics. I was able to relax and enjoy the competition.”
Despite Kim’s cushion, this one isn’t over. With two triple axels planned, Asada can make up the difference in Thursday night’s free skate, setting up the best showdown in figure skating since the “Battle of Brians,” the epic duel at the Calgary Games between Brian Boitano and Brian Orser – appropriate, considering Orser is Kim’s coach.
Not surprising, either, considering the 19-year-olds have been trading titles since their junior days. Kim and Asada have combined to win the last two world championships and five Grand Prix final titles.
“Usually I think there’s like a 10-point difference,” Asada said. “So I feel good there’s only this difference between myself and Yu-na.”
Canada’s Joannie Rochette, skating two days after the sudden death of her mother, gave the most moving performance of the night and was third.
“It was hard to handle, but I appreciate the support,” Rochette said through Skate Canada.
As she took her starting pose, Rochette composed herself and let her training mask her grief. But when her music ended, she sharply exhaled and doubled over, no longer able to hold back the tears. She tried to smile as she waved, to no avail, and buried her head in longtime coach Manon Perron’s shoulder when she left the ice.
“I watched her when she was getting ready to skate and she looked like she was struggling emotionally,” Skate Canada CEO William Thompson said. “I think her mother’s jumping up and down in the sky. That was the dream performance.”
Japan’s Miki Ando, the 2007 world champion, is fourth, followed by the two young Americans, Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu – who fared far better than she expected after getting a bloody nose once the ice.
“Halfway through the program, I felt it running down my nose and just said, `Don’t stop, keep going,”’ Nagasu said. “I skated the best I can.”
Just a point separates Ando, Flatt and Nagasu. But with Ando 6.6 points behind Rochette, it’s going to take a fantastic skate – and mistakes by at least one of the top three – for Ando, Flatt or Nagasu to medal.
Kim Yu-na
For Kim, gold is the goal.
She arrived in Vancouver with the greatest expectations of any single athlete. The reigning world champion is a rock star in her native South Korea, dubbed “Queen Yu-na” and so wildly popular she can’t leave her parents’ house without bodyguards. Though South Korea has piled up plenty of medals – 10 here in Vancouver, as of Tuesday night – the country has yet to win anything in any winter sport besides speedskating and short track.
But if Kim was feeling the heat, she didn’t let it show.
“I didn’t think that this is the Olympics or I have to be perfect,” said Kim, who trains in Toronto and competed in Vancouver a year ago. “It wasn’t that special a feeling, it was the same as other competitions. So I was very comfortable, like the other competitions.”
Skating right after Asada, Kim showed no reaction when she heard her rival’s marks. When the rowdy cheers finally faded, she simply took her spot at the end of the rink, slowly unfurled one arm, cocked her index finger like a gun and turned her head to give the judges a sly, seductive smile.
“It was perfect that she skated right after Mao,” Orser said, “because she’s a competitor. She’s very fierce.”
Kim doesn’t have Asada’s triple axel – few women in the world do – but her jumps are no less impressive. She goes into them full speed and her triple lutz-triple toe combination was done with perfect timing and smoothness, like a rock skipping across the water. Her spins show so much flexibility they’d make Gumby green with envy.
But what makes her so captivating is her presentation. Anyone who complains that figure skating has lost its sizzle hasn’t seen Kim skate. She played the Bond Girl to the hilt, rubbing her hand up one thigh while she was in front of the judges, fixing them with a flirtatious look.
When she saw her marks – 2.22 points better than her previous record – she gave an easy smile as if she expected it all along.
“It was a really good vehicle for her, because she likes to skate a character piece, especially for the short program because it can be such a nerve-racking experience,” Orser said. “She likes to show off. She certainly did, she was beautiful.”
Asada’s program was in sharp contrast to Kim’s, playful and light. The highlight was, of course, that triple axel, which she did in combination with a double toe. The jump is so difficult few women even try it, yet Asada rips it off like it’s a single. She’s not just a jumping bean, though.
She was so in tune with her “Masquerade Waltz” that, during her footwork sequence, she did a little hop and an illusion – swooping her head and torso down while her leg is kicking up – just as the music lifted. She beamed during her spiral sequence, which seemed to go on forever.
Asada clasped her hands together and hopped up and down when she finished, giving the cheering crowd a slight bow as she left the ice. She looked stunned when her marks were announced, turning to coach Tatiana Tarasova as if to say, “Is that good?”
“I was nervous at the beginning but then I realized I’m here at the Olympics and I’m skating,” Asada said. “That made me very happy and confident.”
source: sports.yahoo.com
Officially, Kim Yu-na of South Korea will be judged only for her jumps and spins when the Olympic women’s figure skating competition begins Tuesday. But there will be important political and cultural elements to her programs as well.
No South Korean figure skater has won an Olympic medal, much less gold, as is expected from the willowy Kim, 19. So not only does she have to shoulder enormous athletic expectations, but also Kim’s main rivals, Mao Asada and Miki Ando, are from Japan, which occupied the Korean peninsula for 35 years through the end of World War II.
More than a half-century later, South Korea’s nationalistic fervor and sense of victimhood still inform sporting rivalries between the two nations. The Olympic buildup has been fueled by great anticipation of Kim’s beautiful, speedy, flowing style, and also by Internet vitriol and fears that she will be unfairly marked down for the quality of her triple lutz-triple toe combination jump.
“Koreans’ blood roils when their country competes with Japan in sports or elsewhere,” said Song Doo-heon, a professor of computer science at Yong-in Songdam University in South Korea, who blogs about figure skating and is a popular commentator on Kim.
Figure skating is as much art as sport. Kim is a cultural icon as well as an athlete. Thus, Song said, the competition between Kim and her Japanese rivals will also be viewed as a referendum “on which country’s culture is better regarded by the rest of the world.”
Given that Kim is a national hero in South Korea, “her loss or her winning will be perceived as a national loss or a national winning,” said Kyung-ae Park, a political scientist who holds the Korea Foundation Chair at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
“If she wins the gold medal,” Park said, “I think it will be a great boost for national pride for Koreans. In a way, it will work as compensation for past humiliations.”
The first Korean to win an Olympic gold medal, Sohn Kee-chung, took the marathon at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but he had to compete for colonialist Japan and take a Japanese name. He remained a fierce Korean nationalist, though, and his story is still taught to South Korean schoolchildren.
“I know of him,” Kim said at Skate America in November. “I will try to be like him.”
Some South Korea experts suggest that anti-Japanese sentiment ebbed once Kim became the 2009 world champion, vanquishing Asada and Ando, the previous two champions. Also, when the countries co-hosted the 2002 soccer World Cup, South Korea advanced further than Japan, to the semifinals.
“Anti-Japanese sentiment in sport has decreased a lot,” said Chung He-joon, a professor of sports science at Dong-A University in South Korea. “It’s not what it used to be, partly because South Korea has defeated Japan very often, especially in soccer. Nationalistic fervor has found other vents as well — for example against the United States. There are even many South Korean fans of Mao Asada, because she is pretty.”
Kim is also popular in Japan, said Lee Yun-hyang, an Olympics interpreter who was born in Seoul, South Korea, and now works for the United States State Department. The enmity felt toward Asada and Ando, Lee said, does not match the antagonism directed toward the American short-track skater Apolo Anton Ohno over the disqualification of a South Korean competitor during a race at the 2002 Winter Games.
“We want to see Kim do well, but we don’t want to see Mao Asada fall,” Lee said. Yet, she conceded, “We have to win against Japan in every way.”
Chung, the sports science professor, said that South Korea seemed unique in the sense that “the whole nation laughs or weeps depending on one athlete’s success or failure,” a prospect that he found “a bit absurd,” considering that “these athletes do what they do for personal success and fortune.”
Michelle Kwan, the two-time Olympic medalist from the United States, experienced Kim-mania when she visited Seoul last month as a public diplomacy envoy for the State Department. She saw Kim pictured on numerous billboards and shown on televised replays of her previous competitions.
“She is the nation’s sister,” Kwan said. “That’s a lot of pressure.”
This pressure, of course, would bring huge financial reward if Kim — who already makes $5 million a year in endorsements, according to her agent — transformed expectation into gold.
“If she wins, she’ll be a Godzillionaire,” said Frank Carroll, who coaches the Japanese-American skater Mirai Nagasu, mixing his monster metaphors.
Yet pressure can also be straining. Kim has trained in Toronto, thousands of miles from her yearning fans. At Skate America, held in Lake Placid, N.Y., in November, she won the overall competition but seemed nervous during a faltering long program attended by several busloads of Korean supporters, who came from New York City.
Here, Kim has sometimes seemed tense, struggling to land her triple flip in training, while Asada possesses the more difficult triple axel. In practice Monday, though, Kim smiled and seemed commanding. Afterward, Brian Orser, her coach, said, “I think today was a turning point.”
Four gold medals won by South Korean speedskaters here have relieved some pressure on Kim. But only some. If she is defeated, there will be “some kind of panic” in South Korea, lamented Chung, the sports science professor.
“The society and media have publicized her too much,” he said. “The whole nation hanging on to one athlete — as if some crisis might befall the nation if she didn’t win a gold — this is not good sportsmanship.”
source: www.nytimes.com
The figure skating season gets underway in Paris on Thursday at the first of six Grand Prix events. Here are five things to know before event No. 1:
Postponed (?) start
2006 Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen was slated to make her return to competition in Paris, but announced her withdrawal last week, citing calf tendonitis. In the press release, Cohen said she still plans to compete at Skate America, where she will face Kim Yu-Na and 2009 U.S. silver medalist Rachael Flatt in mid-November. Cohen has not competed in an ISU competition since the 2006 World Championships. While her withdrawal from Paris leads many to question her comeback, from the beginning she has said the goal is to be ready by Nationals in January. In a sport where most top athletes are injured to some degree, Cohen withdrawing because of calf tendonitis suggests that she has yet to regain the technical arsenal necessary to be competitive.
Kim v. Asada
The ladies’ event should prove the most competitive of the series with two of the top contenders for Olympic gold meeting in Paris. South Korean Kim Yu-Na and the woman most likely to challenge her, Mao Asada of Japan, have never competed against one another this early in the season. The past three seasons they have met for the first time at the series finale in December having settled in after two Grand Prix events.
At the Torino Games, observers said one the best ladies’ competitors was absent, with Asada 86 days too young to compete in 2006. Kim was skating in the junior ranks, and just 20 days older than Asada, was also age ineligible for Torino. Fast forward four years and the 19-year-olds are favored to go 1-2 in Vancouver. In head-to-head competition, they are tied at five-all, but with Kim winning the last matchup at 2009 Worlds, where she won her first world title and Asada finished off an ISU podium (fourth) for the first time in her career.
Carolina Kostner
With her consistency, the South Korean superstar has the early edge in Paris. Asada, the 2008 world champion, may risk a triple Axel in the short program and possibly two in the free skate. The duo may not be in peak form four months from Vancouver and at a typical Grand Prix event a few mistakes are permissible, but in a stacked field in Paris, Italian Carolina Kostner, American Caroline Zhang and Yukari Nakano from Japan could challenge the two world champions. Should Kim and Asada arrive in competitive form, Paris may prove to be a sneak peek of February 2010.
Joubert and the quad
In the past, Brian Joubert has struggled competing at the event in his home country, but could use two solid skates in Paris (about 200 miles from his hometown of Poitiers). Coming off a disappointing bronze medal at the world championships in March, he needs to prove he’s still the quad king. At the 2009 Worlds, he was the only man on the podium who attempted a quad, with American Evan Lysacek and Canadian Patrick Chan sticking to their consistent triples. For Joubert, good performances at the first Grand Prix can set the standard for the rest of the season-a season where the quad will likely regain its former importance with the return of 2006 Olympic champion Yevgeny Plushenko of Russia. Joubert has attempted quads in competition since he finished 14th at the 2002 Salt Lake Games. The Frenchman finished 6th in Torino and at the past two Olympics the quad was a must-have to land on the medal podium. Joubert, 25, has won every accolade in figure skating except an Olympic medal, and with serious experience completing the quad, he is a leading contender for gold in Vancouver at his third Games.
Back on track
At 2009 Worlds, team Canada won medals in the men’s, ladies’ and dance fields to set up multiple podium contenders for its home Olympics. The one hole was in pairs, where 2008 world bronze medalists Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison dropped to seventh in 2009. The team was out-of-sync all season and unable to come together in time to land on another world podium. The two-time Canadian champions re-grouped in the off-season and went back to their comfort zone artistically. With their more romantic-style free skate, the Canadians look to rebuild in Paris by challenging two-time world champions Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy from Germany. Dube and Davison were young upstarts in 2006 where they finished 10th and will rely on their strong individual skating and emotional connection to land them on the podium at their second Olympics.
Injury free
Canadians Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir return to the Grand Prix series after missing 2008 because of Virtue’s surgery last October. Following the team’s 2008 world silver medal, over training in the off-season led to Virtue experiencing pain in her shins, which required surgery on both legs to relieve chronic exertional compartment syndrome. They came back in time to win a bronze medal at 2009 Worlds, but many expect them to challenge for gold at a home Games. Injury free in 2009, Virtue and Moir are one of four teams in contention for a medal in Vancouver. The Canadians will take on 2006 Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto, 2009 world champions Oksana Domnina & Maksim Shabalin of Russia, and 2008 world champions Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Schoenfelder of France. The French team competed at its home Grand Prix for 13 consecutive years and won the past two seasons, but will not compete this week as Delobel gave birth to her first child on Oct. 1. Virtue and Moir look to claim Delobel & Schoenfelder’s top spot at the Grand Prix of France and their spot on the Vancouver podium.
ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating France Schedule
Friday, Oct. 16
- Compulsory Dance
- Men’s Short
- Pairs Short
- Ladies Short
- Original Dance
Saturday, Oct. 17
- Men’s Free
- Pairs Free
- Ladies Free
- Free Dance
Rachael Flatt, a 16-year-old with round, ruddy cheeks and uncontainable perkiness, did not win a medal for the United States at the world figure skating championships.
But when she finished her long program Saturday night, she beamed and giggled. She placed fifth over all and was the top American woman.
With the 2010 Vancouver Games less than a year away — and only two spots, instead of three, available for the United States women — her ranking among Americans meant everything.
“It’s exciting to even think about the fact that I actually could go to the Olympics,” Flatt said as she stopped for a moment to stare into the distance. “I think it will definitely be a hard year training-wise, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
Right now, no Olympic spots are guaranteed for any skater, but the world championships gave them a gauge of how close they were to a possible trip to the 2010 Games — or how far.
For the skaters at or near the top, the worlds were a test to see what their chances might be at winning an Olympic medal. Kim Yu-na of South Korea won that test, hands down.
Kim, 18, dominated, winning with a record-setting performance that brought the crowd to its feet and tears to her eyes. She won by more than 16 points, an overwhelming margin.
Kim was equal parts technically sound and artistically lovely, landing jump after jump so gracefully and softly, it was as if the law of gravity did not apply to her. Afterward, South Korea’s president and its prime minister called to congratulate her.
“I can’t say there isn’t going to be any pressure, because there are a lot of fans expecting me to win,” she said of the coming Olympics. “But if the preparation goes well, just like it did for this championship, I believe that I can win again, with confidence.”
Joannie Rochette of Canada finished second, and Miki Ando of Japan was third.
Mao Asada of Japan, the 2008 world champion and Kim’s rival, cried after finishing fourth, nearly 20 points behind Kim. But not all was lost: her team fared the best among the women. Japan was the only country to secure three entries for its skaters in the Olympic women’s event, increasing their odds of standing atop the podium in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The United States men also earned three Olympic berths, with the help of the newly crowned world champion Evan Lysacek. Teams from the United States and Japan are the only two that will have three skaters each at the Games.
Heading into Vancouver, two American ice-dancing teams will be favorites to win medals. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto won silver at the worlds, and Meryl Davis and Charlie White were fourth.
But the American women still remain the biggest question mark. Based on the performance of the two United States women at the worlds, Flatt and Alissa Czisny, only two Americans will compete in the women’s event at the Olympics for only the second time since 1924.
Czisny finished 11th Saturday, the worst showing for a women’s United States champion in decades. The United States failed to win a medal in the women’s event at worlds for the third year in a row, a streak last held in 1964.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a disaster,” Kristi Yamaguchi, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist, said. “I think the U.S. is in between generations right now, with a lot of older people and a lot of younger people. But I still think we have a deep pool of talent we could pull from. It will be a year of growing.”
At 24, Sasha Cohen, the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, is talking about a comeback. Kimmie Meissner, the 2006 world champion, is struggling with injuries. She is 19.
Two talented American 15-year-olds — Caroline Zhang and the 2008 national champion Mirai Nagasu — did not qualify for the worlds. Nagasu has been trying to adapt to a recent growth spurt that has thrown off her jumping abilities.
Now all of them must vie for two Olympic berths, when a third one could have turned out to golden.
If the United States women had had only two spots at the 2002 Salt Lake Games, Sarah Hughes would not have competed because she had finished third at the nationals, where the team was selected. Instead, she took that third berth and went to become an Olympic champion.
“Having two spots is definitely going to make the next year very interesting,” said Yamaguchi, who said she still had faith in the young skaters on the United States team. “A lot can happen when you are that young. Look at Rachael Flatt. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a skater who has been more consistent, and now she has a whole year to improve and grow. Her experience here at worlds will be priceless.”
She added, “The U.S. skating fans shouldn’t give up hope.”
source: nytimes.com
When her score popped up on the monitor at the world figure skating championships on Friday, Kim Yu-na could hardly believe it.
She buried her face in her hands. Her jaw dropped. Her coach, the two-time Olympic medalist Brian Orser, grabbed and shook her.
In front of a crowd filled with South Korean fans waving South Korean flags, South Korea’s Kim dominated the short program here Friday, winning by more than 8 points. Her score was 76.12, the best ever for a woman. It easily eclipsed her previous best score of 72.24.
Joannie Rochette of Canada finished second, with 67.90. Mao Asada of Japan, the defending world champion and Kim’s longtime rival, was third, with 66.06.
“I was very comfortable when I was skating,” Kim said of her reaction to the audience, many of the fans from the sizable Korean community here. “I felt that I was able to do well because of all the people cheering me on in the stadium.”
Kim, 18, had come into worlds expecting her biggest competition to be Asada, but she had no competition at all. Her performance put her in perfect position to win her first world title on Saturday, less than a year from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Skating in a black outfit that sparkled in the lights, she landed each of her jumps, but her moves in between were what mesmerized the crowd. She effortlessly floated from one element to another, often with a smile, always with grace.
“It’s one of those moments in skating people will always remember,” Orser said.
The United States team had a night to forget, with its hopes of earning three spots at the Olympics likely slipping away.
The Americans must finish at least a combined 13th for the team to be awarded three Olympic entries. After the short program, the Americans are in 21st, combined. The last time the team brought only two women skaters to the Olympics was in 1994.
Alissa Czisny, the national champion, fell twice and is 14th going into the long program. She had 53.28 points.
“Today was disappointing because that’s not the way I’ve been practicing,” she said, devoid of emotion. “I have higher expectations of myself, and it just didn’t happen.”
Rachael Flatt, who finished seventh, stepped out of a triple flip and flubbed her first combination jump. But it did not ruin her night. Flatt, 16, said she was excited, not nervous, for her first senior-level world championships. She scored 59.30 points.
“I was hopping around out back, saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool,’ ” said Flatt, who has been studying for her A.P. chemistry test and writing an English paper on “The Great Gatsby” during her down time.
The United States men could rest easy. They secured their three spots for Vancouver on Thursday. Evan Lysacek’s gold medal certainly helped the cause. At 23, he will go into the Olympic year as the gold-medal favorite.
Lysacek skated brilliantly to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” landing eight triple jumps as the crowd roared. He became the first American man in 13 years to hold the world title.
“To perform it just how I imagined it hundreds of times and visualized it,” he said, “I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
source: nytimes.com
