From:  (JC)
Subject: Re: US National Championship results!
Followup-To: rec.skate
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation; El Segundo, CA
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 21:08:37 GMT

In article <1jt712INNr5n@mojo.eng.umd.edu>, clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>    I'm sure this is in the most recent skating FAQ, but here goes the question
> anyway.   Watching the women's US Nationals (they conveniently replace the men's
> with basketball.   For some reason--ratings, I suspect, skating is routinely
> pre-empted in favor of something else), the top skaters usually are given
> some favor.   For example, Kwaikowski seemed to have more trouble making
> her landings than say, Bobek.   Yet, she scored higher technically.  It
> seems that once you have been in the business a while, and skate well, the
> judges are willing to bump your scores higher, and a new, untested skater
> lower.   Hence, Kerrigan might win because she may never have a chance
> of winning a Nationals again (though unlikely, since this occurs every
> year), and yet despite a fall, she still gets outstanding scores.   This
> kind of scoring seems to apply to sports like synchronized swimming, as well.
> 
>     Of course, I am hardly an experienced spectator, so perhaps there were
> artisitic merits that I failed to see in Kerrigan's routine that elevated
> her above the others, but I get the feeling that this is not true.
> 
>     Right now, I'm not sure who the top people in the skating field are.
> Americans usually fare poorly in the pairs, and it looks like that they may
> fare not well again.   It seems all the good technical skaters go to singles
> while the Russians don't have a top female singles skater, and only one top
> male skater that I can recall, but always do well in the pairs.   The Russians
> usually fare well in the ice dancing, and pairs.   The Americans is women's
> singles, and men's singles (though, not lately).   If anyone has a list
> of who is considered tops in the various categories, I'd like to see it.  I
> assume Usova and Zhulin and Rakhamo and Koko(?) are tops in ice dancing.
> I have no clue who's tops in ice pairs.   Women's, umm, I don't know.
> Surya Bonaly is still skating.   There's Lou Chen, and Yuka Sato.  Of course,
> there's Kerrigan, and Lisa Ervin looks promising.  Any others?  I have no idea
> who's in the men's.

===============================================================================
  The best men are Elvis Stoyko? (yes, Elvis) from Canada and Scott Davis
from
the US. I predict both of them will end up in the top 3 at Worlds. Both
have
CLEAN triples but Elvis edges out Scott in Composition (my humble opinion).

Mark Mitchell has been off lately, but he's also a contender (small jumps:(
). I
don't know who the Russian's are going to send, but they're always a
threat.
They have a dude who does a quad toe-loop in competition, but he may have
gone
pro. (I assume we're only considering amateurs here).
  Kerrigan's hot when she's on. Her triple lutz is textbook: she begins
rotation after she vaults (Yamaguichi always had to cheat a little at
take-off to complete the rotations). If Nancy smiled a little more I think
she would score higher. She always has that constipated look on her face!
  I'd rank Sato slightly above Chen. Chen is a rising star but needs to
work on her stamina. Bonaly is an awesome jumper but no style. Ervin's good
but needs to be more consistant. That will come with time. Tonya Harding is
by far the most athletic of the women (triple axel, now and then), but is
always plagued by health problems (asthma) which affect her consistancy.
  I predict Nancy 2nd in Worlds.
> 
> --
> Charles Lin
> clin@eng.umd.edu