News Between the Edges

If you’re anything like me (and as Letterman would say, “God I hope that’s not the case”), you like reading the skating news of the day, big or small, at IceNetwork.com… but have fallen farther and farther behind as the “news” seemed to increase exponentially day by day. In fact—assuming I’d want to read all of these anyway, even after the fact (and yes, actually I do)—it appears I currently have some 26 articles to look over before I’m caught up. And there’s still 2 days of Olympic news to add to that! Crazy!

But headlines can be very helpful, and these two caught my eye… if you’re so inclined you might want to read them ASAP…

Actually, either one will do:
Olympic Champion Lysacek says Goodbye For Now

Or… Bradley Excited, Ready to Go to World Championships

And the rumors are a-flyin’ that Belgosto will also sit out Worlds this year, allowing 4th place Nationals finishers Navarro/Bommentre to play the “alternate” role… I can’t find an actual news story to back it up, so we’ll just go all TMZ for a moment and speculate…

This will be Bradley’s second appearance at Worlds; he came in 15th back in 2007. And if Navarro/Bommentre go, it will be #2 for them as well… they finished 12th back in 2008.

As I mentioned over at the Required Elements blog, I think we have the Nordic Combined to thank for the shortfall of penultimate group skaters. It just so happened that the USA did well in it this year; so amazingly well I think we got a couple medals for it… and that just happened to trump Akiko, Alena, and Laura. At least I think that was the thinking there…

Speaking of Laura (Lepisto)—I’ve got the details of her free skate score alongside Rachael Flatt’s on the desk here…here are the notables as it looks on paper:

Triple lutz for triple lutz: Flatt 6.0; Lepisto 5.6

Triple loop for triple loop: Lepisto 6.5; Flatt 6.3

Double axel for double axel: Lepisto 5.05 on one and 4.85 on another; Flatt 4.50 on one

Spiral sequence for spiral sequence: Lepisto Level 4/5.20; Flatt Level 3/3.5

Circular sequence for circular sequence: Level 3 for both; Lepisto 4.2; Flatt 3.90

Change foot combination spin level 4: 4.3 for Lepisto, 4.00 for Flatt

As for other elements, Lepisto scored big with a triple toe/triple toe at the top of the program that brought her a 9.80… triple loop/double toe… and multi-jump combo that was supposed to be anchored with a triple salchow, but she doubled it.

Flatt, on the other hand, had a triple flip/triple toe that was downgraded (so Lepisto’s 3/3 combo, while “simpler”, outscored Flatt’s by 3.50), as well as a triple lutz/double toe, triple salchow, and a multi-jump combo that was anchored by another triple flip (also downgraded).

Spins: Lepisto’s totaled 11.3 points; Flatt’s totaled 9.8.

Components: As I figured must’ve been the case, Lepisto outscored Flatt in all areas here…around .5-.6 per line item.

And that, apparently, is how a program with 5 triple jumps beat a program with 7 triples. Which is certainly not to say it’s all about the jumps. Looking at everything on paper proves quite the opposite is true… as it should be.