European Championships 2017 review: ladies
Second part of my review on European Championships 2017 is dedicated to beautiful ladies.
My impression from pairs you can read here: European Championships 2017: pairs’ review
So, let’s go!
Angelina Kuchvalska continues to fight with puberty. Alas, so far puberty wins.
From the second ten I liked the Scandinavian girls Matilda Algotsson and Emmi Peltonen. Apparently, I’m completely tired of Joshi Helgesson’s strange and absolutely not suitable for her programs. So, I was happy to see some fresh blood. Emmi Peltonent I noted for myself as an example of classic Finish women’s figure skating: lovely, with beautiful lines, but not complicated. Oh, but she’s very beautiful girl and has nice dresses)
Good girl grew up in Hungary. Ivett Toth definitely stand out with her Michael Jackson short program. And she has a good jumps. Now it’s necessary to gain consistency and experience, including the experience of performing in the last warm-up at the European Championship.
Team Hendrickx surely got the nomination “Breakthrough of the year” at this Championships. Who would have thought that Loena will be able not only to get into the top ten, but will be not the last there. Interesting, whether Belgium has a second set of skaters for the next Europeans?)
Nicole Rajicova is another skater whose skating is pleasant to watch. She has lovely free program and the music is very helpful. By the way, interesting fact or effect. Many people liked the music from Nicole’s FP, but not all were able to remember where they’ve heard it)
Laurine Lecavelier was called a discovery of Grand-prix in France for a reason. Successful performance there was not by chance. At the European Championship Laurine took the highest place that was possible, first after prims. This girl is out of the beaten path, a gust of fresh air in the European women’s skating. I’m intrigued what she’ll show us next season.
Russian Nationals remained in Chelyabinsk, as well as Maria Sotskova‘s fully rotated jumps and high PCS. Poor Tomas Verner dared to call her skating juniorish and angered some Russian fans) Hold on, Tomas, I’ll join you soon) Because I agree. When she skates clean, it is not so evident, but when mistakes came …. In general, actions of Russian Figure skating federation at the Russian Nationals once again proved to be senseless absurd. I wonder whether they are going to send Masha to Worlds or Radionova and Tuktamysheva have a chance to win a ticket to Helsinki at the Universiade?
In the short program Anna Pogorilaya was gorgeous. Beautiful, mature, confident. This tango really suits her. Why it all disappeared in the free program? When Anna starts to fight for the jumps, she starts to rush and stops pay attention to stretching of her arms, legs, finishing movements( Of course jumps are the most important thing, but then don’t say that it’s “true women’s figure skating that’s not valuable any more because of little jumpers”, because it’s not such. On the background of fight with jumps, rush, oh and after Carolina ……Anna’s performance wasn’t impressive. Definitely not her best skate. Why Russian girls were so nervous at the Europeans?
Zhenya Medvedeva is still somewhere there ahead of the rest, on a cosmic level of world records. You don’t even worry for her, you know that she will go and do everything and even if something won’t turn out where it was planned, she will do it elsewhere. Great feature and amazing consistency. I still don’t like her programs, on the step sequence in the FP I want to stop up my ears, but who cares……..So go ahead, Evgenia, for the second world title.
And Her Majesty Carolina. When Carolina was skating I forgot that someone skated before her and someone will skate after. Elegance in every gesture. The eyes do not rise to the table with tech score, actually it does not matter what place she’ll take…..it’s such a trivia … ..you just watch hypnotised and catch every absolutely musical gesture.
Such a stylish short program, even innovative. Brave choice. In the free program Caro was very focused on the elements, but when she’ll be able to let herself go, the crowd of chills will run over the skin. Hats off, I did not believe that Mish will be able to prepare her that well. It was interesting to watch them in the kiss&cry, seemed he to restrain her, not allowing to splash out all the emotions … perhaps to keep this fire till World Championships.
To be continued……
Related topics: Angelina Kuchvalska, Anna Pogorilaya, Carolina Kostner, Emmi Peltonen, European Championships, Evgenia Medvedeva, Ivett Toth, ladies, Laurine Lecavelier, Loena Hendrickx, Maria Sotskova, Matilda Algotsson, Nicole Rajicova
I liked a lot the finish girls, They are beautiful to watch. Ufortunately they don’t have the big jumps to compete against the Russian girls at the top…
Laurine Lecavelier was amazing !! As you already said, she’s giving us a really good fresh air. I can’t wait to see what she can bring to Worlds !
Leona was very interesting :) And It seems that she got the capacities to improve and go further.
Medvedeva was above everything like always… but she REALLY NEEDS a new choregrapher. (But we already talked about that and I’m sure it’s what I gonna say again after Worlds:))
Well, I think a lot of people gonna hate me for that, but I wasn’t very amazed by Carolina’s programmes this time… She’s beautiful, but I was a little bored by his free skate, like it was lacking something… However, I’m sure that these impressions will change because I really liked watching her before her break. It just his first compétition after come-back, so Go Caro!!!
Finish girls make me nostalgic of the times when I was a little kid. I watched woman’s figure skating and imagined every skater as a princess at the ball) They’re beutiful, their dresses are beautiful ….Maybe they’re not that good in tech but it’s an aesthetic pleasure to watch their skating.
Carolina was very concentrated on her elements, so of course it affected the overall impression. But I think it’s a right strategy, she need to skate clean programs, hope that at Worlds she’ll be able to show more involvement into the free program. I just happy that she’s back, I think she deserves to finish her career on the high note and when she wishes, not because of some disqualification.
Yeah! When I was a little girl, I felt like I was watching fairies flying across the ice. Their dresses were like flowers and they always looked so happy, and they were doing amazing things. It was magical to my 7-year-old self.
I even didn’t care how they skate, because I didn’t understand anything in figure skating rules or elements, I simply was choosing the best dress)
Me too :)
I didn’t watch figure skating when I was a little girl :( (We didn’t have TV ) But there was a time I was only watching the programms if girls have pretty dresses, no matter if they were good skaters or not :) How it changed !
My childhood was in 90th, but I had the same game) who has most beautiful dress wins)
Usually I watch only the top ladies, but I’ve been a fan of Nicole Rajicova ever since she pulled off a stunning free program at Skate America 2015. She is so pretty to watch! I will take her skating to nice music over sirens, ropes, and ringing phones any day.
Laurine is a talented girl with lots of potential, and I like her a lot. Sometimes you get an iconic program and it’s just so much fun to watch.
I like Maria, but she doesn’t have the speed yet. Against Medvedeva, Pogorilaya, and Queen Caro, it was unfortunately evident. She has definitely opened the door for another girl to take her place. But I still think she has a better chance of placing high at Worlds than Radionova or Tuktamysheva.
I love Anna’s short program. She looks so sophisticated. Haute-couture. But the free did not live up to that. She just looked like she was nervous. I can understand why – skating in the same warm-up group as Evgenia would scare the heck out of me! I felt like she was scrambling through the whole program. But she’s still one of the most solid ladies’ skaters in the business, and she’s past puberty so she won’t lose her jumps.
Evgenia is just a jumping queen. I just wish she would get a good tasteful program! I’ve said it a thousand times before, and I’ll say it again. Playing with a jump-rope and picking up a phone is not choreography! If they are going to try coming up with a creative, modern program, they should call Yuri Smelakov. But Eteri Tutberidze – that scary woman with the iron fist and the coats made of some poor animal – decides to pour her own dark past into Evgenia’s programs. Why? Because she doesn’t know how to express herself, so she makes Evgenia express it instead. But it is wrecking this girl’s career.
Carolina…no words. She truly is a goddess on ice. I don’t know how to say what I felt watching her. Heaven, I guess.
And the story goes on…
“She just looked like she was nervous. I can understand why – skating in the same warm-up group as Evgenia would scare the heck out of me!”
It’s already been second year as they skating together in the same warm-up. I doubt Evgenia’s performance could affect Anna. I mean, Medvedeva is obviously unbeatable, so relax and show your best. What could affeat her is the reasult at Russian Nationals, where she finished out of the podium….I think it was unexpectable for her and now she wanted to prove that judges at RN was wrong.
I suppose you could relax and look at it like that – “Evgenia is unbeatable, so I’ll fight for silver.” That sounds like a good plan to me. Maybe Anna was afraid of Maria, because she didn’t know that Maria had skated poorly. Or Carolina’s return shook her up. I imagine being a little Russian girl on the ice with majestic, queenly Carolina would be a daunting prospect and it would make you self-conscious of your limbs.
Anna has an experience of competing with Caro)
I suppose. But I think Caro has a way of making you want to bow down and say “I’m just a humble little ice skater, and you are a queen.”
Loved seeing Carolina skate!