2008 U.S. Nationals

Shatterpoint's post in the Europeans thread prompted me to start this one.

The senior nationals started yesterday with the compulsory dance and the pairs short program. Today is the original dance and the ladies short program.

So far...
Dance
1. Belbin and Agosto (no surprise there)
2. Davis and White
3. Navarro and Bommentre
4. Samuelson and Bates
5. Wester and Barantsev

I think gold and silver are pretty much spoken for. The real battle will be for bronze.


Pairs
1. McLaughlin and Brubaker
2. Inoue and Baldwin
3. Castile and Okolski
4. Evora and Ladwig
5. Vise and Trent
...8. Nam and Leftheris (I wonder what happened with them)

It's pretty wide open. Less than 2 points separates the top 2. It'll be cool if McLaughlin and Brubaker can hold on for the win but it will also mean our national champions won't be able to go to worlds (she's too young).

Thanks for posting this... my internet has been pretty slow lately.

The men have their short program tomorrow I think... if anyone has a paid icenetwork account you're supposed to be able to watch it live online, ( I have an account so hopefully my computer will comply and let me watch it!)

Also, in case no one else has heard, Emily Hughes withdrew.

Original Dance: Top 3 stays the same, although Belbin and Agsoto increase their lead to nearly 3 points. Unless Belbin and Agosto and Davis and White make major mistakes in their free dance, they will take gold and silver respectively.


Ladies Short: Shocking!!! Mirai Nagasu is in the lead with Ashley Wagner in second and Rachel Flatt in 3rd. Kimmie Meissner sits in 4th after a fall and Caroline Zhang is down in 7th after some downgrades. It'll be interesting to see if Kimmie can make up the 12 point deficit and take the title. Even if she gets pewter, she'll probably still go to worlds since Mirai and Rachel are too young.

Thanks very much for creating this thread and for the information and updates swandie!!

Yeah, the ladies' SP was a big shocker. Tonight is the men's SP (8-11 PM Eastern time I believe) which should be very exciting. The biggest battle is between Johnny and Evan of course, but after what happened in the ladies' SP you never know what could happen.

The ice dance event is a bit closer than I had thought it would be. The top two teams are both really good though.

Tomorrow, there will be coverage on NBC- 4-6 p.m and 8-11 p.m. They're supposed to show the ladies LP live which, if I remember correctly, is tomorrow so it'll probably be shown from 8-11.

Thanks a lot for informations, swandie, Shatterpoint and UMgal!

WOW! Mirai took the lead! 12 point between Mirai and Kimmie!? That's surprising news.

It seemed Johnny and Evan did great performances. I want to see them very much. What I am disappointed most is we can't see any vids of games in US on youtube. Why are US skating federation SO strict??? I think it would be good adverdisement for US figure skating popularity...........

Here's the men's results after last night's SP. I heard that Johnny was completely clean and Evan did a quad, double combination (the quad was 2-footed). The men's LP will be broadcasted on NBC (primetime!) on Sunday starting at 7 PM.

The SP scores:

1 Johnny Weir: 45.55 + 37.85 = 83.40 Personal Best score
2 Evan Lysacek: 43.38 + 38.67 = 82.05 Personal Best score
3 Stephen Carriere: 41.76 + 34.90 = 76.66 Personal Best score too??
4 Ryan Bradley: 39.77 + 34.43 = 74.20
5 Jeremy Abbott: 38.14 + 35.14 = 73.28

Yeah miyu, U.S. Figure Skating is very strict (this year especially) in terms of controlling their copyright. Once a video appears on Youtube, they take it down so quickly now. They're forcing us to pay money to watch figure skating on Icenetwork.com or we'll just have to wait patiently for it to show on TV. This crappy marketing is definitely killing or hurting figure skating's popularity in the US!

About Lady's SP-
I'm actually quite surprised by the amount of controversy that Caroline Zhang's SP is generating (with her score being increased and then decreased).

Evan had a bit of a problem on his triple axel as well as his quad.

I'm really proud of Johnny, and I'm so happy! I really hope he can skate like this again tomorrow and win his title back.

I have an icenetwork account, so I should have been able to watch the mens short program live, but my internet is being so slow it won't let me!

Horrible timing really. But the short program will be on tv today, in only a few hours.

I hope Kimmie can get at least bronze. Her season has been up and down so far.

Very excited to see how the men's LP turns out. With both Johnny and Evan so determined, it could be either of them. Evan has been having an under rotation problem with his triple axel lately and it's really hurting him. I hope he will be able to fully rotate it in the LP.

I'm predicting that Stephen will stay in bronze medal position...although the distance between him and Ryan Bradley isn't much.

U.S. Nationals seem to be very interesting!
Thank you all for information!

I was waiting for the competition between Johnny and Evan...
SP result is a bit strange in my opinion... Weir has the best score for Technical Elements, while Lysacek for Program Components... usually Weir is stronger artistically...
BTW, I think Evan will win gold. He has a strong FP and the last step sequence is gorgeous!
We have to wait...

McLaughlin and Brubaker win pairs!!!! Inoue and Baldwin finish second and Castile and Okolski finish third. It is very likely that the world team will be Inoue and Baldwin and Castile and Okolski. I was hoping Evora and Ladwig would hold on for 4th but they're still in the top 5.

Congrats to all the medalists!!!

In other news, Inoue and Baldwin are engaged!!!!

John proposed to Rena after their long program. When they were taking their bows, John got down on his knee and it was like "Is he proposing?!?!?!" Sure enough, cheers went up from the crowd and they announced that Rena had said yes. It was so sweet. Congratulations to them both! I wish them nothing but happiness in their life together.

Tonight, they're showing the ladies LP and the Free Dance live! Can't wait to see if Kimmie can pull off the win and if Caroline Zhang can make it to the podium. Should be very exciting.

Shatterpoint, hopefully you've got your Icenetwork coverage to work by now (of course you won't need it for tonight though).

The Inoue and Baldwin proposal was a total shocker, but it was very entertaining and sweet to watch! Rena was even crying. I have never seen anything like this occur in figure skating before. I had fun watching it.

I finished watching the ladies' SP a while ago and I was especially impressed with the performances of Mirai Nagasu, Ashley Wagner, and Rachel Flatt who sit in first to third place respectively. McLaughlin and Brubaker who won the pairs event were terrific (and so young!) as well. I feel that Inoue and Baldwin have really improved in various aspects of their skating- speed, performance, and so on.

The discussion about why Evan received higher PCS scores than Johnny in the SP has been discussed in other forums as well. I think that in terms of PCS scores, Johnny has the upper hand in Skating Skills. Johnny and Evan have different styles of performing though. Johnny is a beautiful skater who is more of an introverted perfomer, while Evan is more of an extroverted performer who purposely sells/reaches out to the audience in his performances (think of his footwork sequences). Evan's style might gain him higher marks in certain areas. Of course the judges' own preferences/bias for which style they like better can also affect PCS scores.

I also really hope that Kimmie and Caroline both have strong comebacks for tonight! I really feel for them after what happened in the SP.

UMgal wrote:

The Inoue and Baldwin proposal was a total shocker, but it was very entertaining and sweet to watch! Rena was even crying. I have never seen anything like this occur in figure skating before. I had fun watching it.

What about the Shen and Zhao proposal from last years worlds? lol! I think theirs was more entertaining since Xue had no idea that Hongbo was proposing. It wasn't until after the medal ceremony that she figured it out.

Quote :

What about the Shen and Zhao proposal from last years worlds? lol! I think theirs was more entertaining since Xue had no idea that Hongbo was proposing. It wasn't until after the medal ceremony that she figured it out.

Wow, I completely missed seeing this!!! I must have been living under a rock for a while or I was as clueless as Xue because I completely didn't pick this up while I was watching Worlds (maybe I didn't pay good enough attention or I was just kind of dumb). Shen and Zhao are two of my favorite skaters though. Which part of Worlds did this happen (I would like to rewatch it on Youtube)?

It was after their long program.

Dance is over and as expected, Belbin and Agosto take it and Davis and White get silver. Navarro and Bommentre won the bronze medal. Belbin and Agosto and Davis and White were both awesome. The best they've done all season! I also really loved Samuelson and Bates and I think that if it wasn't for their fall, they probably would have taken bronze.

Dick Button said that Davis and White's performance had a sexual quality! I was very caught off guard by that!

Ladies final coming up in a few!

Mirai Nagasu wins! Rachel Flatt comes in second, Ashley Wagner takes third, and Caroline Zhang moves up to 4th. Great performances from all four of these ladies! I was hoping Caroline would pull off a Mao-like comeback and make the top 3 (technically, she's still on the podium since US Figure Skating gives out a pewter medal) but I was happy she skated as well as she did.

My heart breaks for Kimmie Meissner. It was like the Grand Prix Final all over again except it cost her a medal at Nationals and possibly a spot on the world team. Her falls were either on the triple lutz or the triple flip. She might have been trying to fix her flutz and so it might have messed her up coming into this event. Whatever happened, I hope she can learn from it and continue.

The world team is up in the air though because 3 of the top 4 ladies are ineligible for senior worlds and Kimmie is the only one with a decent amount of international experience. I hate to be pessimistic but I get the feeling that the US will be down a spot at 2009 worlds.

One title left...the men. Johnny skates after Evan but I highly doubt that he will watch like he did last season. Johnny's focus could help him win the title back. However, I think that if Evan does the quad and he doesn't, Evan will take it.

Wow...didn't mean to write so much....I just had a lot to say about everything...

Thanks for the information and results, all.

Congratulation, Johnny!!
And also congratulation on engagement, Inoue and Baldwin!!
Swandie, you are lucky to see beautiful sight. I've been waiting for a long time for their marriage. John was supporting a lot with Rena, when she had a hard time.

Thanks very much for the information about the marriage proposal, swandie.

Belbin & Agosto and Davis & White all gave stunning technical & artistic performances. I didn't really detect any "sexual" qualities in Davis and White's performance so I was also surprised by Dick Button's comment. Hmmm, what could Uncle Dick have picked up or seen that some of us might not have?

The ladies event was truly exciting and towards the end of the competition it was one terrific performance after another. The results were totally unexpected though (in my opinion). The future of the ladies program in the U.S. truly looks great though with Mirai, Rachel, Ashley, and Caroline all moving up and being able to shine at this Nationals.

The U.S. ladies' World team has been announced already. It will be Bebe Liang (it will be her first trip to Worlds), Ashley Wagner, and Kimmie Messneir. This will be a great opportunity for Kimmie to redeem herself. She's a sweet girl and I'm sure she'll have plenty of fight left in her to do this. She had one bad competition and she definitely does not have to be doomed by this.

Thanks for the news, UMgal! I'm glad Kimmie gets to go to Worlds. She should feel good about that. I think she should rest her ankle a bit before trying to fix her flip/lutz problems. I wonder who gets to go to junior worlds. I think they'll send Mirai for sure and maybe Rachel but I wonder about Caroline since sending her would pass over the current junior national champion.

And I don't know what Dick Button could have been thinking when he said that about Meryl and Charlie. Maybe he thinks they're romantically involved or something...

Hmm, I'm not sure who will go to junior worlds either, swandie. Anyone know when this will be announced?

Davis and White are both really cute, but I've never heard any rumors about them being romantically involved. I did notice in the past that Uncle Dick liked to describe various pairs teams as having a "romantic" quality in their skating, so I guess he just likes the idea of a team having this quality (of course he's taken this idea even further this time with the added "sexuality" comment).

Here are some Youtube links to some of the U.S. Nats performances (watch them quickly everyone who is interested before they are deleted for copyright reasons)!! I haven't found any programs from the men yet though (sorry). In general I couldn't find a lot of videos on Youtube for this event so far.

Mirai Nagasu SP (I haven't found her LP yet. I heard that Mao Asada actually sent her a good luck or congratulations message for these Nationals which is very sweet.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWD4nZhsQeY

McLaughlin/Brubaker LP (Gold Medal in Pairs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAYqtLX8Tqw

Caroline Zhang fluff (a very cute one with her idol Michelle Kwan)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2iPT-xqhfA

Caroline Zhang's LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyNtrO9wClA

Inoue & Baldwin's LP (Silver Medal in Pairs. The marriage proposal is here at the end of the performance.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g-ixyhk0cI

Thanks for the linking vids, UMgal.
Poor, Kimmie, but now I'm glad Kimmie goes to the Worlds!
I'm also looking for the vids of Men's, but could not find them so far.

Here's an article on the ladies from icenetwork.com:
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080127&content_id=42967&vkey=ice_news

They are indeed sending Mirai, Rachel, and Caroline to junior worlds this year. Kimmie won't be at 4CC though. They opted to send Katrina Hacker in addition to Bebe and Ashley.

Thank you all for information and link!
WOW! I love Caroline Zhang more and more every time I see her! Perfect jumps, gorgeous spins (look at layback spin... fantastic!)... and she is also so elegant!

Johnny and Evan had the exact same total score!!!! Evan wins by virtue of winning the free skate though. If Johnny had done his 3 jump combination, he likely would have won. Stephen Carriere takes third, Jeremy Abbott is fourth and Ryan Bradley is fifth.

Thank you for the infromation and links, swandie and UMgal!
WOWWWWW!! What a exciting and dramatic competition!

Congraturations to all of the medalists!

I was moved by John & Rena... So sweet. (Actually tears came down from my eyes...) Rena had spent a very very hard time before. I'm glad to see her in full of joy.

I'm happy with Mirai's win and Poor Kimmie... I hope we can see Kimmie's comeback at Worlds. I like Mirai's skating which is very refreshing with good jumps, spins and speed.

Regarding Men's comepetition..... What?? The same scores!????
I'd like to give gold medals to both Johnny and Evan.........
I saw the protocol. Evan got Level 4 and 2.71 GOE for his SlSt of FP. It's pretty amazing score, isn't it. Obviously it made Evan a winner. I really wanted to see their performances.

BTW has it already been decided who will be sent to 4CC in men's game?