The Skating Lesson Podcast Transcript U.S. Nationals Recap Jenny Kirk: Hello, and welcome to The Skating Lesson podcast, where we interview influential people from the world of figure skating so they can share with us the lessons they learned along the way. I’m Jennifer Kirk, a former US ladies competitor and a three-time world team member. Dave Lease: I’m David Lease. I was never competing at nationals, and after last night, I’m sure if I really want to, but I am a figure skating blogger and a current adult skater. Today, we are thrilled to welcome Miki Yamashita… Miki Yamashita: Hi. Dave: …and Timothy Goebel to the podcast. Timothy Goebel: Hi, everybody! Dave: We’re just going to break down the ladies competition at US nationals for you. We haven’t discussed it with each other, so it’s gonna be one of those barn-burner conversations on The View. So I hope that you all just enjoy, and send us your feedback if you agree with us, don’t agree with us, think that we’re awful people, but I think today is all about honesty. Jenny: I agree. All right, so let’s get into it. Let’s start with you, Miki. What did you take – what was your takeaway from last night? Miki: I have to say that I spent pretty much all night trying to fathom what the heck happened, especially in the last fifteen, twenty minutes. I feel like after what I saw, in all the ladies that I saw, I feel like the judges took a bunch of pieces of paper, cut them up, wrote numbers on them, and then threw them on the ice like confetti. And those were the results. Jenny: So, just like all over the place. And Tim… Miki: I, just, the – I don’t understand how if I, if as a lifetime skating fanatic, if I can’t figure out what the scores mean, then how is any random schmo off the street supposed to get excited about skating? Jenny: They don’t. What I was – Tim, what are your takes? Tim: I think it was an interesting result last night. I don’t necessarily – I feel very strongly that the, that the rank order of the results did not reflect the programs that were performed. Jenny: Okay. I think we can all agree with that. And Dave? Dave, your opening comment. Dave: My opening comment was that when the results came in last night, I thought, like – instead of being outraged because I have some distance from it, not having competed at nationals, I thought it was just hilarious that I was like – oh, this is done. This is done. And then to see Sandra and Scott sit there and be like – oh, well, Gracie, she had such exuberance – or whatever Sandra was trying to say. Like, and it was almost payback for them because so much of what we have now is because they threw such a hissy at the pairs in Salt Lake City. And I felt like this was ten times the level of joke that those results were. And I thought that it was amusing to watch the commentators on NBC trying to keep their jobs and explain what happened at the same time. It was just – looking back and being absent from it and sitting back, it’s hilarious I really think is what happened. Miki: Ashley looked embarrassed. Dave: I think she had a right to be embarrassed. Miki and Jenny: Yeah! Jenny: Say whatever the heck you wanna say, because we’re gonna go there. Miki: She looked mortified that she – she won a title that she didn’t earn. There you go. I mean, she knew she fell – she knew she had two major falls smack in the middle of her program! I mean, she picked it up at the end, but recovering – it’s like, that doesn’t count as much as, I don’t know, not having your ass touch the ice. Dave: I would say that when you fail at a math test and you get like seven problems wrong in the middle of it, your teacher then doesn’t go give you an A at the bottom. Like – you came together really well at the end! Congratulations to you! They’re like – no, that was bad, you missed seven elements there, go work harder. Jenny: Well okay, here. All right, I have a question for you, Tim, because I posted this on my Facebook and people wrote all these comments, and I’m gonna read some of them. And one commenter said, “Ashley deserved to win. She skated circles around Gracie. Ashley can skate, Gracie has – just has jumps. She will be a wonderful skater one day, but she doesn’t match Ashley or the other ladies in actual skating.” So, I was looking at the protocol. The interpretation of their program – Ashley got 8.46, Gracie got 7.5. So, Tim, what do you take of that? Because as a skater, if you fall twice in a program, that’s gonna affect your interpretation. Like, you’re not supposed to fall in that program! It’s gonna affect the overall presentation. Do you agree? Tim: Well, absolutely. I mean, it’s the same scenario when – we’ve all seen events where someone will go out and fall down under the old system, and they would get a 6.0 for artistic. And we’re going, “but, they fell down, it wasn’t a perfect program.” When you have – Ashley was not on her A-game last night. Her program was a little tight. She was a little bit slow. And she made some pretty major mistakes, and I personally feel that that detracted from the performance. I’ve seen her do that program a couple times this season, and she definitely has not posted component scores like that a previous events where she skated far better. So, I’m a little bit – I don’t care how good of a skater you are. When you make multiple mistakes, when you’re a little bit tight, when you’re a little bit slow – and, like, you could tell from the minute she got on the ice that she was tight and she was a little bit slow. That’s – frankly, that’s why she missed. Jenny: And she – you know, it’s understandable. She was trying to defend her title. Tim: Exactly, but it detracts – it detracts from the performance. I don’t ever – I know as an athlete that performances where I stood up the entire time, I feel like I performed them better because I wasn’t going, “oh, crap, there’s two more minutes of this.” It changes the way you perform the program. There’s just no way around it, and I don’t think many former elite athletes would argue with that. I mean, I just – it would be one thing if she had made one mistake or the program was just tight. But it was – there was a lot going on. Like, her spins weren’t the same quality that they normally are. It just wasn’t her night. And you know what, that’s fine. But, like, she had some of the highest component scores that she got the entire season, and she skated that program much better this season. Dave: Well, I think we need to be real about how good of a skater she is to get these component scores, to get these 8.5s. On the Grand Prix, she got kind of a 7.75 level of component mark. It was between like a 7.7 and a 7.9. And she made two mistakes there as well, and those were, frankly, a little bit generous as well for that performance. And I think the thing with her is that she’s almost the best from the rest, on a good day. Jenny: She’s consistent. Dave: Yes, but if you have a field of top ladies – if she was competing against the Michelles, Taras, Nicole Bobeks, Sasha Cohens, she would be kind that third place, pewter medalist year in year out [Jenny points to herself]. She’s not at that level to get – she’s not you know. Like, I don’t – I feel strong that she’s not, and it’s not insulting to her. I think she’s a good skater, she’s not a great skater. And they’re trying to build her up as a great skater because they’re so determined to have someone repeat as national champion so that Phil Hersh doesn’t write an article saying, “there have been no repeat…” you know, “repeat champions in…” Jenny: And, you know, I think they do this all the time. But the problem is as a viewer, you don’t understand what they’re doing. And I think – I was talking to Tim about this earlier. If we go back to the 6.0 system, you can see – all right, the judges gave Gracie a 5.9 for technical and then, say, they gave Ashley a 5.7. Ridiculously high for how she skated, and then a 5.9 for artistry. But at least you can kind of understand it. When it’s this 100 point da da da da da, a number, we don’t know what’s going on! Nobody knows what’s going on! And it’s just – it’s maddening, and it’s frustrating.