Golden Performances at Golden West

Rachael Flatt

This past weekend three of the top contenders to make the U.S. women’s Olympic team faced off for the first time this season at the Golden West Championships in Culver City, CA. It’s rare to see such an evenly matched competition between three skaters this early in the season, and if Golden West is any indication, the ladies’ event at U.S. Nationals is going to be a nail-biter.

Rachael Flatt, reigning U.S. silver medalist, won both portions of the competition and skated with impressive consistency. Flatt was great in her short program, hitting her jumps–triple flip-double toe loop, footwork triple lutz, double axel–and had the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand during her footwork sequence. In the past, Flatt hasn’t been the most exciting skater, and while I respect her ability to skate cleanly under pressure, her performances have generally left me feeling underwhelmed. However, after her short program on Saturday my opinion of her skating changed, and her new program set to “Sing! Sing! Sing!“ really sings, captures her personality beautifully, and shows a new, fun side to her skating.

Unfortunately, the enthusiasm Flatt showcased in her short program didn’t carry over to her long. She still managed to skate with her signature consistency and focus (She opened her long program with a spiral directly followed by a double axel, and then proceeded to cleanly excute her remaining elements: triple flip-double toe loop, triple lutz, triple loop, triple lutz-double toe loop, triple flip-double toe-double loop, triple salchow.), but her long program lacked the excitement and crowd appeal of her short.

In the long Flatt skated directly following 2008 national champion Mirai Nagasu, and it was great to have an immediate comparison between the two competitors. Nagasu debuted her new long set to “Carmen,“ and while her program shows promise, at times it seemed like she was thinking her way through it. Flatt, in comparison, was more confident with her choreography, but she lacked Nagasu’s fluidity and extension. Flatt will need to work on these elements before Nationals.

Mirai Nagasu

Nagasu–who placed second in the short and third in the long–has made a noticeable improvement in her technique under new coaches, Frank Carroll and Ken Congemi. Last season she came across as frazzled and looked gawky and immature on the ice. Now, however, she has grown into her body, and her adoption of Carroll and Congemi’s technique has resulted in a greater control of her jumps and has made her a much calmer competitor.

Nagasu still lacks Flatt’s consistency, though, and had mistakes in both her performances–a two footed landing on her triple flip in the short program and a fall on her triple salchow in her long program–but her triple lutz is greatly improved, and she is no longer jumping as close to the boards as she did in previous seasons.

One thing that Nagasu needs work on in the coming months is her facial expressions and ability to relate to the audience. Sometimes when she competes it seems like she forgets that there‘s an audience watching her, and her performances can be distant and introverted. However, this is much easier for a skater to fix than a faulty jump technique, and it was impressive to the technical progress in Nagasu’s skating.

Unlike Nagasu, Caroline Zhang–who took home the bronze medal and had some trouble on her technical elements this weekend–didn’t show any improvement in her jump technique. At the beginning of the summer, Zhang announced a coaching change from Mingzhu Li to Charlene Wong, but she recently left Wong and returned to Li. Li desperately needs to address the main problem with Zhang’s skating: her speed on the ice and technique on her flip and lutz jumps.

Zhang was injured over the summer, and two coaching changes in only a few months’ time is never easy for an athlete, so perhaps this had something to do with her less-than-stellar skating this past weekend. In her short program, Zhang stepped out of the landing of her double axel, and she also had a problem with her planned combination, leaving off the double toe loop following her triple flip. She showed she’s a quick thinker, though, by turning her solo triple loop into her combination jump.

Caroline Zhang

In the long, Zhang debuted her new program set to “The Nutcracker,” and while her skating was beautiful and her spinning suburb, her choreography and musical selection was slightly disappointing. There were times when it seemed like the levels of the music needed to be tweaked (the volume in middle section of her program was quite low), and her performance lacked the excitement seen in Flatt’s short program and moments of Nagasu’s long program. Adding to this, 75% of the music in Zhang’s long program is slow, which helps to emphasize the lack of speed in her skating.

Like in her short, Zhang struggled with her jumps in her long program–lunging out of her second triple flip and completely aborting the take-off of her triple salchow–but she quickly recovered and ended her skate with a triple loop-double toe loop-double loop combination.

In addition to her ending jump combination, Zhang has some exquisite moments in her programs–namely her spiral sequence in her long, which she holds the length of the ice and goes from a forward inside spiral to a forward outside charlotte. However, like Nagasu, Zhang is an introverted performer, and her skating would benefit greatly if she were able to project more to the audience and fix her flip and lutz technique.

It should be noted that none of the ladies tried a triple-triple in any phase of the competition, but I expect we’ll see these difficult combinations added to their programs for their Grand Prix events. And while each has some issues to address in their skating, I was really impressed with how well-trained the three competitors looked. It’s a shame that there are only two spots available on the Olympic team, and at least one of these brilliant skaters will be left to watch the Games from home. However, each has the talent and ability to achieve a top-10 finish in Vancouver, and there is no doubt that Flatt, Nagasu, and Zhang will be tough competition for Sasha Cohen and the rest of the ladies at Nationals.