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Milan Olympics Recap: Women · The Rocker Skating Podcast

0:05
Welcome to the Rocker Skating Podcast presented by John Wilson
0:09
Blades. And you know what?
0:11
The Olympics is over. I'm very sad.
0:18
I mean I keep saying I've been here for like 5 months but you
0:27
know, you never want the Olympics to be over and it's
0:30
over. The women's free skate just
0:32
finished and we have a new Olympic champion named Alyssa
0:38
Liu. I am still trying to process
0:45
Olympic champion Alyssa Liu in my brain for many reasons, but
0:58
the the biggest reason is that this is potentially the most
1:09
impossible story that you could write between Alyssa Lou and
1:14
Deanna Stellato at these Olympics.
1:16
The movie scripts are sort of writing themselves.
1:20
Let me just go back four years. In 2022, Alyssa Liu was so
1:30
burned out, so out of love with figure skating, so just not into
1:39
it, that she finished the Olympics and was so excited to
1:48
just get out of there and like, you know, and, and finished
1:53
skating. And she went to world and she
1:55
won a world bronze medal. And she said, see you later, I'm
1:58
going to retire. And then she realizes that she
2:03
actually loves figure skating. And she came back.
2:13
She came back only about two years ago and started skating
2:19
again. She had her first competition a
2:23
year and a half ago and she won the World Championships in her
2:32
comeback season and then she comes and wins the Olympic
2:40
title. I just don't understand how her
2:46
brain works because it is it is like she is completely
2:56
invincible to pressure negative pressure.
3:04
I truly believe that she is very much a pressure person, but the
3:11
pressure that she is under is positive pressure.
3:14
I talk about this a lot in like the work that I do outside of
3:20
figure skating, which is that I love stress.
3:26
I guess I could talk about that with figure skating as well.
3:28
I love stress, but I love motivational stress.
3:34
It gets me more productive. It gets me to be at my best.
3:38
It gets me excited about what I do.
3:40
I hate negative stress because it it's debilitating, right?
3:46
And the thing that Alyssa has is she as much as she talks about
3:52
how like, oh, you know, she's like sort of having a lot of fun
3:58
and the metal doesn't mean anything to her.
4:00
She is actually a quite a competitive person, period.
4:05
But again, all of that manifests itself in this like, you know,
4:13
in just this, this lack of negative stress pressure that
4:20
has fueled her to become what she has become.
4:27
And I don't know if we have had more of a nonchalant Olympic
4:34
champion ever. I mean, other people in other
4:39
sports might tell me differently, but it just seems
4:41
like an anomaly that we have an Olympic gold medalist who is
4:47
literally just kind of waltzing around, like just having a good
4:51
time. And nothing seems to faze her.
4:55
And I just, it's just so amazing to watch.
5:00
And it's been so amazing to watch her come back.
5:03
And the story continues to just be pretty epic now.
5:11
Had everybody skated perfectly, would Alyssa Lou have won?
5:16
No. But she skated Florida State,
5:23
and she also got the unclear edge called on her flips, which
5:29
didn't happen last year at at Worlds.
5:33
So had she gotten those two calls not called, she would have
5:41
been a couple more points higher and, and they were the right
5:43
calls. Yeah, it, it, it just Alyssa
5:49
Lou, I, I tip my hat to you because you you have exemplified
5:57
the what it is like to just go out and skate for yourself and
6:03
skate to love skating because you love skating and there is
6:11
just not anything else there for her.
6:15
I was remarking at the end of the last practice today, she,
6:23
Alyssa went out and did her bows and then went and grabbed her
6:27
camera and start taking pictures.
6:30
And there is still like 3 minutes left in the practice
6:33
session that you know, there, there, there are, you know, I
6:35
think it was Monet and Kaori who are still out there, you know,
6:40
like finishing their, their stroking exercises.
6:43
She took pictures of her team. She took pictures of the arena.
6:48
Then she went and like went to the other side, the judge's side
6:52
and, and wanted to just take the pictures of of like the, the ice
6:58
and all that. And then Kaori comes and, and
7:01
makes a face and makes a pose and she takes a picture of
7:04
Kaori. And then Kaori goes and does her
7:07
final bow and she literally bows right at Alyssa and she was
7:12
taking pictures of it. Can't wait for the photos to
7:15
come out. So you know who does that?
7:20
Who does that? Alyssa Lou does OK.
7:25
I want to talk about the what happened with the women's free
7:29
escape, but I'm going to do a little bit of set up for what
7:33
happened in the short program first.
7:34
So we have a, a, a, a little bit, a lot of bit of context so
7:41
that we could talk about how this women's short program
7:47
actually, or this, this women's free escape actually started.
7:52
So 2 days ago we had the women's short program and it was a nervy
7:56
set of skates. There were not too many who just
8:02
skated like with freedom and the, the, the two skaters who
8:11
really put that out there. I would say even 3 skaters who
8:17
put it out there kind of with, with a, with a, with a lot of
8:23
just openness right where Ami Nikai who was your leader after
8:27
the short program, beautiful triple Axel skated like there
8:31
was nothing going on and she was, she was just having the
8:34
time of her life. Alyssa Liu who skated a A grade
8:40
short program was in 3rd 7659 and Ami Nikai was a 7871.
8:45
So it was a 2-2 ish point to 1/4 point difference between those
8:50
two. And then I would say Adelia
8:53
Petrosian skated like nothing was really bothering her.
8:59
You know, she, she was in her first major senior international
9:04
event and only her second senior national event period because of
9:09
the ban on Russia and the ISU events.
9:11
And so I thought she handled that really well.
9:15
There were a bunch of mistakes from skaters who you would have
9:21
expected to not make mistakes and the from ranging from major
9:26
to minor, right? So Amber Glenn made a major
9:30
mistake popping her triple loop into a double and then having a
9:34
step sequence that was not so great and frankly could have
9:39
gotten a fall called on it because she slipped on one of
9:43
her slides. The Jia shin fell on her triple
9:49
let's triple toe and the two of them were 13th and 14th going
9:55
into the free skate. You know, Isabel Levito was
10:01
skating a little bit small and tight.
10:04
She she she was fine. She didn't make any major
10:07
errors, but the the fact that the grades of execution weren't
10:11
super high made it that she ended up in 8th place going into
10:15
the free skate. Mona Chiba was a little bit
10:21
tight as well. She could have gotten a bigger
10:26
score. She has gotten a bigger score
10:28
for her. She got she was in fourth place
10:29
with a 74. Kari Sakamoto was tight.
10:33
I mean, she, the first half of her program was, was just a bit
10:39
nervy. The Lutz went a little bit awry.
10:44
The flip toe was was tighter than usual and I think she got
10:49
AQ on the toe. So she goes in in second place
10:55
with a 7723. So you, you're hearing those
11:01
scores, right. It was very close.
11:04
The top three were separated by two and a quarter points.
11:08
And then you have Mona Chiba at 74, so she was 2 1/2 points off
11:13
of 3rd. And then from Adelia Petrosia
11:17
and who is fifth with a 7289 to Amber Glenn, who is 13th with a
11:23
6739. We're talking about 5 1/2 points
11:31
that separated those two. And there was a, there was a lot
11:35
of room for people to move. And we knew that going into the,
11:41
the, the free skate, we knew that just, you know, based on
11:48
what we've seen from these, from these skaters, that it really
11:53
would come down to definitely major errors.
11:58
But it also was going to come down to minor things, grades of
12:03
execution levels, rotations, edge calls, all of those things.
12:11
And that's what happened. So that, that was 2 days ago.
12:14
And the last couple of days of practices have been good.
12:17
Like nobody was going too crazy with the, you know, with the
12:26
pressure of the whole thing. I think the one that I was sort
12:30
of a little bit nervous for was actually Laranaki Goodman
12:34
because she's had a couple of not so great practices.
12:38
She looked like she was not look like she was getting tired and
12:47
that her practices felt a little bit tired.
12:50
And so that was that was how we came into this to this field.
12:55
First group came up and they were kind of up and down.
13:00
We started with two decent skates, Lorraine Shield, Livia
13:04
Kaiser skated well, and then we had a really good skate from
13:09
Rooyang Zhang and she was the one who was leading the the, the
13:16
the free skate going into the second group.
13:21
And Tara and I talked about this two days ago on the podcast, We
13:26
knew that the second group, the skaters ranked 13th to 18th.
13:34
We knew that that group had the potential for fireworks, and we
13:44
got so many fireworks in that group.
13:47
Every one of those six skaters who was in that second group
13:51
skated amazingly well. Laranaki Gutman came out.
13:57
Sharknaki was off the rails and you know, she had a couple of
14:03
tight jumps, but this was probably one of the best that
14:07
she has skated the the Jaws program and you know it, it has
14:12
to feel good for her. It's been a long Olympics.
14:16
It's a home Olympics. She made mistakes in the team
14:19
event, free skate and in the short program here 2 days ago
14:23
and you know, she wasn't having the Olympics that she dreamed
14:29
of, but she had a a free skate that she can be proud of.
14:36
And that was how we let off the second group.
14:40
Olga Mikutina skated well. Yulia Soucher skated well.
14:44
ETA Carhunen skated well. Jia Shin.
14:48
Jia Shin loves to skate close to the boards.
14:50
She had a perfect program with the exception of the triple loop
14:54
that she put her foot down and almost hit the boards on.
14:57
I thought, I thought a few of those skaters were underscored.
15:02
I would have had Olga Makutina higher, Lara, Naki, Gutman.
15:07
I think I scored them in, in my live scoring like 10 points
15:11
higher than what they actually got.
15:13
I would have had Jia Shin a little bit higher.
15:17
You know, they skated really well.
15:20
Those first five were just so good.
15:24
And then we had Amber Glenn and we know what happened in the
15:30
short program. We know how disappointed she
15:33
was. We know it's been, it's been a
15:37
whirlwind for her here in Milan and she goes out and was a
15:46
triple loop hand down away from a perfect program.
15:53
It's still elusive Amber Glenn, but you know, as as much as she
15:58
would have loved to get that triple loop back, you know she
16:03
did. She did an amazing job.
16:06
She ended up with A14752 as her free season score.
16:12
So that triple loop and a level 2 step sequence, those cost her
16:17
probably 3 or 4 points. She would have been in the 15151
16:23
range probably if she would have skated clean.
16:29
But you know, she she put it down, landed two triple axels,
16:35
one in the short, one in the free that were two of the best
16:37
that she's done this week. And she's got to be proud of
16:41
that. And Deja Vu from the World
16:45
Championships last year. And she sits in that dreaded at
16:55
this point, leaders chair. I don't know if it's dreaded
16:57
anymore, but you really are just kind of sitting out there
16:59
watching everybody do their stuff and having to be like, uh,
17:04
uh, am I going to stay? So Amber Glenn was sitting in
17:07
the leaders chair and we knew she, she got a 21491.
17:16
We knew with a 21491 that that most of the rest of these women
17:24
would not be able to catch her. It would have been very close
17:29
with with a couple of them, but they needed to be perfect,
17:31
perfect, perfect. And it wasn't quite perfect,
17:35
perfect, perfect for for a lot of them, but they were skating
17:37
very well. I definitely was of the mindset
17:43
that Amber Glenn would not be challenged until the final group
17:47
and that's what happened. But the second to last group was
17:50
also very good. Sofia Salmadelkina came out and
17:55
did a fantastic free skate, got more of the points and the
18:01
components that she deserves and what almost scored a 140.
18:06
I should have she should have scored over a 140.
18:09
But you know, I think, I think the, the, the trajectory of
18:13
these scores are, is promising. Nina Pinzarone skated a very
18:17
good free skate, better than she did at EUR, especially
18:23
considering how she how her season has gone with injury and
18:27
all that like this. This was a this was a win for
18:30
her. Nina Petrikina skated very well,
18:34
not quite the the sort of booming skate that she had at
18:40
the Europeans where she won, but it was still clean or near
18:47
clean. And and she she goes up into
18:51
right behind Amber Glenn actually by about four points
18:55
after after her skate, Hay and Lee skated very well.
19:02
You know, just a couple of calls, but you know the best
19:06
that she's looked in a while. And then you got Isabel Levito,
19:11
which if she had skated the way that she skated at Nationals, it
19:15
would have been a very different story.
19:17
But she went out there and she and her warm up was fine.
19:20
Her warm up was fine. Her practice this morning was
19:24
fine. She goes out there and overcooks
19:27
a triple flip and falls on it again, a little bit reminiscent
19:32
of Worlds where she did a triple flip, triple toe at the
19:35
beginning and fell on it. Salvage the rest of the program,
19:42
but it was just too, too much. And there is she gave up too
19:49
many points there and then she doesn't put in a third combo.
19:54
She had ample opportunity to put in a double toast somewhere and
19:59
she did not. She doesn't practice it that
20:03
way, I don't think. It doesn't seem like the the
20:08
plan is there for if she were to miss something like that.
20:14
I think the the the sort of consensus perhaps with her coach
20:21
or her coaches is that if she makes a mistake in the
20:25
beginning, it would be probably on a triple toe.
20:28
She would have done the combination and fell, fallen on
20:31
a triple toe or something. They were not prepared for the
20:37
fall on the solo flip, so she lost a few points there.
20:41
It wouldn't have made too much of a difference.
20:45
You know, had she put a double toe on to something, she still
20:49
would have been behind Jia Shin. But she finishes in 12th.
20:53
And you know, it was a, it was a, it was a really good Olympics
21:00
experience wise for Isabel. Not a great Olympics you know
21:05
for her in in the competition. It's unfortunate Luna Hendrix
21:09
had a good skate just a single flip on her second triple flip,
21:17
but the rest of it was clean it was going to be tough either way
21:20
with her because she only has four different triple jumps
21:27
right she she has the let's to flip the sow and the toe.
21:31
She does not do a triple loop. It's it was never a good jump
21:35
for her. She did it maybe one season and
21:39
you know it it it the the loop isn't there for her and she
21:42
doesn't practice it anymore. And these days she front loads
21:46
her program with the the combo and and the luts.
21:52
So the the back half is not as points driven as as it used to
21:59
be. So she needed to be really
22:02
strong and she was good, but not not as good as she would want to
22:09
be. But still right.
22:12
She she she still had a good Olympics, you know, third
22:18
Olympics for Luna. She didn't even know if she was
22:22
going to be able to come and skate at these Olympics given
22:25
that she just like she had a couple of like minor injuries
22:28
that bothered her for the last couple of weeks.
22:31
And last week she literally was like, I don't know if I can
22:34
come. So she made it and and she had
22:38
her Olympic experience. She ended up in 14th and that
22:42
was the end of the second group or the the second to last group.
22:48
So we go in to the final six with Amber Glenn in the lead to
22:56
1491 again, Deja vu with world anyone 2/14/91 for Amber Glenn
23:04
Nina Petrochina's in 2nd 21082 hey and Lee 3rd 21056.
23:11
These are big scores force for like it's already enough, right?
23:18
It's already impressive for skaters to go over 200 to go
23:23
over 210. I think there were ten women in
23:26
the world, many of them were Japanese who got who went over
23:35
to 10 this season. And so, you know, you knew those
23:41
were going to be big scores and and that that it would be
23:44
actually very tough to continue. If you were in the final six,
23:49
you still would have had to skate very well in order for you
23:53
to figure in there. And so the first we got was
24:00
Anastasia Gubanova, who if we remember the team event free
24:06
skate, she was incredibly good. And you know, she just had so
24:12
many, she had so many good skates this these last couple of
24:17
weeks with that team event, free skate with the short program
24:22
here in the individual event. And she just had one thing that
24:29
that just kind of took her out of the running the the the
24:33
triple let's the first triple that she stepped out of and that
24:37
cost her a good two to three points probably.
24:42
And you know, in the in the team event she scored a 140 and here,
24:48
you know, she got a 138. So that was the difference
24:51
between the one it really a 141 probably that she would have
24:57
gotten and also the difference between where she ended up,
25:01
which was 8th as opposed to 7th. No, I'm sorry, where she ended
25:05
up where she was 9th instead of 7th over Nina PetroChina.
25:10
But memorable Olympics for Anastasia and I'm sure she will
25:15
take a lot out of this one. Then it was the final five and
25:23
what we knew coming into this free skate was that there were
25:29
quads to be done and the quads to be done were to be done by
25:33
Adelia Petrosian. And if you've been following any
25:38
of my practice notes over the past few couple of days, you
25:43
will know that Adelia Petrosia, Adelia Petrosian has done a lot
25:49
of quad toes and she's fallen on the majority of them.
25:55
And so you wonder how much the adrenaline from the competition
26:01
and the the extra excitement and energy is going to help her
26:05
potentially land those things. And you know what, in the warm
26:10
up, they were pretty good. She was, she was putting them on
26:14
one foot. Were they rotated from my
26:18
position? Maybe 1 was rotated cleanly.
26:23
The other ones were either Q's or unders, but she was standing
26:27
them up, which was very different than what we've seen
26:30
in practices. And so we we thought there would
26:36
have been a potential for her to actually land those in in in
26:43
there in her pre skate. And if she would have landed
26:47
them and if she would have landed them cleanly, it would
26:50
have been a huge game changer because of the sheer number of
26:54
points she would have gotten from having two quatos.
26:59
But it wasn't to be. She goes and does a quad toe
27:03
that was under and falls on it. And so she always has there,
27:09
There's always a a plan A, which is if she lands the first quad
27:14
toe, she'll go for a second quad toe.
27:16
Plan B is if she falls on the first quad toe, she actually
27:20
will go and do a triple Lutz instead of the second quad toe.
27:24
Just to salvage yourself from having more falls potentially.
27:29
And so, so that's what happened. She went in and finished the
27:34
program with the rest of her 123-4567 triples, right.
27:40
So it was a, it was a under rotated fall on a quad +7
27:44
triples. Both of her Lutz's, by the way,
27:48
got an unclear edge call, which she did not get in the short
27:53
program to a bit of surprise sometimes, sometimes like the
27:59
angle just doesn't capture it. And and the the panel today
28:03
called both of those Lutzes with an exclamation point.
28:09
And we've seen that with her Lutz.
28:12
Her Lutz is a little bit suspect on on it.
28:15
I think she often goes on a flat and that's where you get the
28:19
exclamation point from. And the the other thing, though,
28:23
was I don't know if you all saw it in the the the on ATV
28:31
broadcaster, the live stream, but once she fell on the quad
28:36
toe, the ice coverage got considerably smaller.
28:42
I often look at the way that she does her jumps in practice and
28:45
they are often very close to the boards.
28:48
She will, she will on especially like on that triple let's double
28:51
axle, double axle. She will hug the board and the
28:55
boards and kind of go around the the edge of the boards while
29:01
she's doing those double axles. If you looked at where she did a
29:05
lot of those jumps to the right side of the judges, if you're
29:10
facing the ice, everything got smaller and she didn't actually
29:15
come down to the last third of the ice rink for like 2 1/2
29:21
minutes. And, and when she finally did,
29:24
it was, it was the, her last jump.
29:26
It was to flip. So the, the, the ice coverage
29:30
was, was small. She got, she was cautious.
29:33
She just at that point wanted to land the jumps and that's what
29:38
she did. And then it's opened back up
29:40
again once, once she, she finished the jumps and the, the
29:44
step sequence was, was great. I, I actually really like that
29:48
program on her. She, she has a really, she has a
29:51
charisma about her with that music that works really well.
29:55
But it, it, it can't just be that step sequence.
29:59
It can't just be, you know, the last minute of her program,
30:04
right? That, that there was about 3
30:07
minutes where she was skating in circles and it was, it was a, it
30:10
was a hard, it was hard to give her skating skills and
30:15
composition points that were that high.
30:19
And that's what you saw in, in her components.
30:24
And she goes behind Amber Glenn by about half a point.
30:31
She was leading Amber by a, a, a good like four or five points.
30:35
And so, you know, she she needed Amber needed the the extra room
30:42
in the free skate, which she got.
30:43
So now going to the last four, right, Amber Glenn is still in
30:47
the lead. Mona Chiba comes up and she was
30:52
very good, but again, a little bit tight.
30:56
The the two jumps that have been giving her problems this season
31:01
where the loop and the sow and she did those just fine.
31:05
But it was the the triple flip triple toe at the very beginning
31:10
where she just squeaked it out and then later on she the the
31:15
triple let's double toe double loop.
31:18
She basically came to a stop at the end.
31:21
She just didn't have any speed coming out.
31:23
Those two cost her a good number of points, but she still had
31:28
enough, right? Like her, her skating is
31:31
incredibly good. A a lot of it was was done.
31:35
Very well, she. Still had enough to overtake
31:40
Amber by three points and put the pressure on the final three.
31:45
Had she skated cleanly and and freely in the short and the
31:50
free? You bet.
31:52
She would have been. Probably 6.
31:56
To eight points higher. Than where she was here.
32:00
But you know, Mona Chiba, first Olympics, that was how she made
32:08
her case for the Olympic podium. And then we had the last three.
32:16
And. Alyssa Lou.
32:17
Kicked us off. I don't think.
32:22
Any of us kind of expected her to be anything more than
32:25
anything less than just a. Clean Skate.
32:31
And she did it. I I will for one say that I have
32:42
always been dubious of the return to Donna Summer this
32:50
season and. It was, you know.
32:53
She debuted the season with the Gaga program, didn't really
32:57
work. She went back to Donna Summer,
32:59
skated a few times on the Grand Prix, it was OK and then skated
33:03
it really well in the Grand Prix final and won it and then.
33:08
Came. Back with a revived and a
33:12
revised Gaga program at nationals.
33:16
Also didn't really work. And then?
33:19
Went back to. Donna Summer And in my mind, I
33:25
was like, you can't peek. Three times with that.
33:31
Program You peeked at Worlds. You peeked again at the Grand
33:35
Prix Final. How do you peek again at the
33:38
Olympics? And she friggin peeked again at
33:40
the Olympics. The music just worked so well
33:46
and and I think that was really the big difference.
33:49
I really don't think even with like a really good Gaga program
33:53
that it would have gotten the kind of audience response that.
33:59
The Donna Summer program got. Today.
34:04
The crowd. Was into it from the beginning.
34:08
I mean, once she did her triple sow and the music went.
34:14
Up tempo. The crowd just never stopped
34:18
clapping. It was just it worked.
34:21
So. Well, in this arena it worked so
34:25
well in. The.
34:29
In in the Olympics context. I take back.
34:34
Again, this is this is like Piper ball in the in the free
34:37
dance. I take back what I said about
34:40
not believing that this program would work at the Olympics.
34:43
It freaking worked at the Olympics and it doesn't.
34:47
It doesn't hurt that she's gated cleanly.
34:50
She did get the unclear edge calls.
34:52
If you know if Adelia Pochosian was going to get the unclear
34:55
edge calls on on the Lutz's, my guess was that Alyssa Lou was
34:58
going to get those edge calls on the flip, which she did, and
35:03
that cost her couple points. I think.
35:07
Her technical scores were somewhere in the 79 range when
35:12
she finished, and it ended up at 77.
35:14
So, So she left the door a little bit open.
35:18
It wasn't, it wasn't uncatchable, right?
35:20
This was not a Riku Mira Rishikihara kind of situation
35:25
where where you really needed to skate incredibly cleanly and
35:31
then hope for some more, because who was next?
35:34
Calorie Sakamoto was next, and Calorie Sakamoto can go into the
35:40
One 50s easy. And it was going fine.
35:46
The program was really good in the first half.
35:51
You started feeling a little bit of something in the in the step
35:55
sequence. It didn't have its usual spark
35:59
and. I've I actually.
36:00
Felt like when she was finishing her step sequence on the other
36:06
end of the rink, I was. Thinking.
36:09
Gosh, is, is Kyrie a little a little cautious right now?
36:16
And then my fears were a little bit ameliorated by, you know,
36:21
the triple sow because the the sow has been one of the jumps
36:24
that's given her problems this week.
36:27
And so the sound went off fine. Great, she goes.
36:31
Down to the triple. Flip and it was going to be.
36:34
The triple, flip, triple. Toe the big point getter in this
36:36
in the second-half, she. Takes off.
36:40
A little inside the circle on the triple flip and hangs on to
36:45
the landing. In her mind.
36:50
Trying to figure out what to do because The thing is the program
36:58
layout and the program construction of the jumps has it
37:03
such that she does 2 double toes, she does a triple let's
37:07
trouble double toe at the front, and then she does a double axle,
37:13
triple toe, double toe in the second-half.
37:17
And in my mind. I'm, I have, I asked this
37:21
question to myself the last couple weeks where I'm like, why
37:26
does she put the toe on the triple Lutz?
37:29
Why doesn't she? Put the double.
37:30
Toe on the triple flip. It makes no sense to.
37:34
Me because she doesn't. Repeat the triple.
37:38
Lutz she repeats the triple flip and you can do 2 combos with a
37:41
triple flip. It's fine, but the but because
37:46
she has 2 double toes, there is no other place where if she were
37:51
to not do a combo on the triple flip in the second-half, there
37:56
was no other place where she could tack on a double toe
37:59
because it would be too many double toes.
38:00
It'd be 3 and that double toe wouldn't get credit.
38:06
So. The only.
38:07
Thing she could have done after she didn't do the combo on the
38:12
triple flip and she goes and lands her double axle triple
38:16
toe. Triple the double toe.
38:18
The only thing she could have done was to put a combo at the
38:21
end of the triple loop that was not a double toe.
38:24
In practice she often will put a double toe on the combo if she
38:30
misses the double toe on the double axle, triple toe.
38:35
So many things. But I.
38:39
Don't think. She or her team have.
38:46
Gone through this. Particular scenario where she
38:51
does two solo triple flips. Because.
38:57
What happens? Is when you do a second triple
39:00
flip or a second triple jump without it being in combination,
39:06
the base value goes down. Because it's a repetition.
39:11
Of a jump without a combo. So she goes from a triple flip
39:16
that is worth 5.8 points to a triple flip that's worth about
39:22
four points. Stay with me here.
39:29
There was a. Lot of confusion.
39:32
During the live, the sort of real time calling of everything
39:37
because I was like, Oh my God, double toe.
39:38
She should have done the double toe on the triple loop.
39:41
And then I realized she couldn't because there would have been
39:43
too many double toes. And then I in my head I was
39:46
trying to calculate like, OK, So what if she did a double loop
39:49
instead of a double toe. She never does triple loop,
39:52
double loop. It would have been an impossible
39:53
task for her to tack that on. Could she have done a triple,
39:59
triple loop, single axle? She could have but it wouldn't
40:01
have been enough points because she was she had she trailed
40:07
Alyssa after that skate by 1.8 points and and the double loop
40:13
is not worth that much. So you do all these scenarios.
40:20
The double loop wasn't worth that much.
40:21
The single axle wasn't worth that much.
40:23
But you know what is worth that much?
40:28
A single toe. Jeez, Jackie, what do you mean?
40:33
Why is a single toe worth 2 points?
40:38
Now that's. Because what?
40:40
Of what I said earlier, the triple flip, the second triple
40:44
flip, when she didn't put it in combo, she lost base value
40:48
points because you automatically get a. 30% off Gosh, I'm going
40:59
to I'm going to get this wrong, but you get you, you get
41:02
basically deducted on your base value because you didn't get
41:05
that second combo in. Therefore, if she would have
41:11
literally just put a single toe on to the triple flip.
41:20
Didn't really matter how she did.
41:22
It just a single toe. She would have salvage back that
41:29
1.8 or whatever it was that she lost when she got the repetition
41:34
call on the triple flip. Plus, she would have gotten a
41:39
second-half bonus single toe, which was like, you know, a
41:43
couple tenths of a point. And.
41:46
That would have given her. A base value of another 2.1 or
41:51
so and she. Lost.
41:55
By 1.8. So that's how the math worked.
42:01
And again in her brain she was probably like I can't do a
42:07
double toe here. What if I did a double toe here?
42:10
Can I even get my toe pick in to do a double toe?
42:15
Probably not. Like at that point, her hip was
42:18
so far out that it it wasn't really wasn't possible for for
42:24
her to tack on a double toe. But she.
42:27
Would have. Been able to tack on a single
42:29
toe and. That's the thing.
42:34
That was a scenario that nobody probably would have guessed she
42:40
would have needed, and she just needed every single point.
42:45
Now, if she did a triple flip, triple toe and she did it
42:48
perfectly, she would have won this gold medal by like 4
42:51
points. Like that's just the the that's
42:54
just how much she lost on that jump because one, the base value
43:01
went down to she lost the triple toe 3 she lost component scores
43:07
because of it. 4 she lost grade of execution scores for because
43:11
of it. So there was just.
43:13
A. There was a.
43:14
Lot of a lot of of things that she lost out on because of that.
43:19
And that was the difference between what she scored here,
43:23
which was a 147 in the free skate and what she probably
43:28
could have would have scored, which was probably going to be
43:31
in like the low one 50s, low to mid one 50s if she had been
43:37
absolutely perfect it. Was devastating.
43:41
I a low. Crying.
43:47
There. Was a.
43:47
There was a lot of just. Like, general disbelief that
43:50
that's what I just saw from Calgary.
43:52
Sakamoto in her final Olympic, you know.
43:56
Competition. There was also, to be honest, a
44:00
relief that she didn't fall apart in the rest of the
44:08
program. And I also.
44:11
Then had flashbacks to two World Championships where she had
44:19
issues with that exact combo, that triple.
44:24
Flip. Triple toe.
44:25
Has been sort of in her brain somewhere, probably in the back
44:29
of her mind. And it all started with that pop
44:33
in 2024, I think, right? She skated cleanly in, yeah, I
44:40
think. She skated cleanly in 2023-2024
44:42
inside to she, she popped the the, the triple flip into a
44:46
single flip and she tacked on a triple toe at the end of it.
44:51
And that was one of the things that saved her gold medal.
44:55
So, yeah, lots of stuff happened there.
45:01
And so Kawi Sakamoto goes behind Alyssa Lou by just just under 2
45:06
points with Amina Kai left. Amina Kai needed to be perfect.
45:15
We have seen the scores that she's gotten this season.
45:18
We also knew based on what she was scoring in components in the
45:24
short program that she was going to likely trail Kyrie and Alyssa
45:32
on components. And so for her to get the, I
45:37
think it was a 149 that she needed to score.
45:41
No, she needed to score a 148 in in order for her to get there.
45:48
She. Needed to be.
45:49
Perfect because she needed that technical score to
45:53
overcompensate for the component score that she was likely going
45:59
to get and it was going to be around the mid or sorry the the
46:03
upper 60s and like 70 range at best just because of what we
46:10
have seen from the judges right. So she goes out again, another
46:16
clutch triple Axel. It wasn't her best triple Axel,
46:19
but she landed it and it was all the way around and it was it.
46:24
I I looked at that and I was like, we are off to the races, I
46:29
mean Akai. And then the second pass was
46:33
fine. Third pass, she goes a little
46:36
too forward on the landing of her triple toe or triple Lutz
46:41
and she couldn't. Get the triple toe.
46:42
Off and doubled it and put her foot down and right.
46:47
There. That was really it.
46:52
She she, she did the rest of her program very well.
46:55
It ended up being that the flip got an unclear edge call again,
47:00
one of those that was not a surprise given how the unclear
47:04
edge calls have been called today and then she got AQ on the
47:09
loop, which was obvious in real time.
47:13
So those two things plus. The foot.
47:17
Down on the doubled triple toe right that the triple toe
47:21
already had base value issues and then the the the foot down
47:26
on the double toe led to grace of execution issues plus the.
47:31
Fact that the. Final spin was called a three VI
47:36
think it was 3V or 2V all of those.
47:41
Things cost. Her. 8 to 10 points maybe?
47:48
And, and she needed a 148, right?
47:51
And she got a 140 that that was the difference.
47:54
She she had to be perfect. And the second she wasn't the
47:58
the door was closed. So that was how.
48:03
That all went and I will never cease to be amazed at the fact
48:16
that Alyssa Lou in 2022 wanted. Nothing to do with.
48:24
Skating anymore after she finished and.
48:28
She comes. Here is having the time of her
48:31
life and asked her coaches whether like that said to her
48:38
coaches that it would be so fun. If she could do.
48:43
Another short program and another free skate next week in
48:48
an Olympic competition. She, she was just, you know,
48:56
she's having the. Time of her life.
48:58
And, and she is also just loving skating.
49:04
She is. Olympic champion.
49:07
It's. Icing on the cake.
49:08
If she wouldn't have been Olympic champion, she would have
49:11
had she was still. Had fun like.
49:14
It, it just, this was all about just her being out there and
49:19
doing what she does best, and she did it really, really well
49:24
today. That's it folks.
49:30
For the 2026 Olympics, it was a roller coaster starting from the
49:38
team event, and I'm just very happy that we had a women's free
49:45
skate tonight that was really strong, that so many of the
49:51
skaters came out to do their best, and they did.
49:55
And it was. Really.
49:59
It was a great way to end. It was still devastating.
50:03
Trust me that Kaori Sakamoto didn't skate to her absolute
50:08
potential. But Kyrie Sakamoto.
50:15
Is a legend and will always be a legend and she has graced us
50:20
with 10 incredible years of skating.
50:27
And who would have thought also that when I saw Kyrie in. 2018.
50:35
In Pyeongchang and we were watching her be the first one
50:41
out in practice and doing all this stroking around the ice and
50:47
making these great curves that we would be seeing her again in
50:51
her third Olympics and now winning her 4th Olympic medal.
50:59
She now. Has 3 silver medals and a
51:03
bronze, right? Yeah, 3 silver medals and a
51:07
bronze. That's not too shabby, Calri
51:10
Sakamoto. I bowed down to you.
51:15
You have been an amazing an amazing ambassador to the sport
51:21
and. I don't know if.
51:26
Calorie Sakamoto's going to Worlds, and if she isn't, I will
51:30
really, truly miss her. Her presence as a competitor,
51:37
her sportsmanship with everybody, her being, her being
51:43
a mom to most of the skaters around because she's been around
51:46
for so long. Truly, truly a special, special
51:52
skater and a special human being all.
51:56
Right, I'm going to stop this. Before I start crying, but
52:01
there's. Your Olympics.
52:03
Alyssa Lou wins the women's event.
52:06
Ricumura Ryuchi Kihara wins the pairs event, Mikhail Shyderov
52:12
wins the men's event, Lorenz Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume
52:18
Cicarone win dance and Team USA takes the team event.
52:23
We're not going to have any more live shows until Monday when
52:32
Michelle is back with me. We're going to have a lot to
52:35
talk about still, so we're going to process this over the next
52:39
few days. A quick reminder that rocker
52:43
pins are available if you want to support, if you want to get
52:46
some manning pins, they're ready.
52:49
They have been very popular over the past few days.
52:53
Go to rockerskating.com/pins. Thank you so much to everybody
52:57
who has supported, who has followed, who has, who has
53:07
frankly given me really positive feedback during these Olympics.
53:13
It, it's, it's, it's always good to know that what I am providing
53:22
is of value to you all. And because I if, if it weren't
53:27
a value to anybody, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing right
53:31
now. So thank you so much to all of
53:35
you. Thank you for making this
53:39
podcast almost triple in size over the last few weeks.
53:45
I have big plans for this. I have big plans for my new
53:48
website, the if you if you tried live.rockersgame.com over the
53:54
past couple of weeks. I will be making improvements to
53:57
it over the next few weeks for World.
53:59
So thank you for being the Guinea pigs.
54:02
I think it generally worked very well, but it will get better.
54:07
We're putting a lot of stuff into all of this for this season
54:14
and beyond, and I'm so happy to have you here and I am so happy
54:20
to have this skating community be what it is.
54:25
All right, I'm going to get emotional.
54:27
But thanks, as always, to John Wilson Blaze and all its brands
54:33
for supporting this podcast. Thank you.
54:38
To Taryn. Nichols for editing and
54:41
producing this podcast. Thank you to Michelle Ellis for
54:47
keeping me sane and hydrated most of these last three weeks
54:53
because she's been bringing me water once every few hours.
55:00
And and you know. Making sure I'm not going
55:05
completely nuts. And thank you to you all.
55:11
This is Jackie Wong, chief skate nerd of the Rocker Skating
55:15
Podcast and rockerskating.com. And we'll talk to you again on
55:20
Monday. Bye.