Post by Admin on Feb 6, 2020 20:12:44 GMT
How she could be a gold medal threat at the Olympics
But difficult jumps aren't the only part of the scoring in figure skating. There's also the component score, which judges a skater's "artistry." Both Rippon and Lipinski said that Liu has some work to do on this.
Lipinski pointed out how the best Russian skater of the moment, Kostornaia, has been beating her two teammates who have quad jumps thanks to her higher artistic score (the hardest jump she does is the triple axel).
"It's finding this balance and it does take time to sort of learn how to be the complete package," Lipinski said. "I think for Alysa, she needs not only to add more quadruple jumps but to make those jumps very clean."
"I think Alysa is still building that momentum to create moments where you feel things, sort of in the vein of Michelle Kwan. But I think she is on her way to doing that," Rippon said, adding that Liu is also working with one of the best skate choreographers.
Rippon said that he thinks Liu will "100%" be a gold medal threat if she stays healthy in the two years leading up to the next winter Olympics.
"I think that when we look ahead, especially to the way the rules are set up right now, Alysa is sort of at this perfect timing in her career. When she's 16 — which seems to be sort of a golden age for ladies figure skating — that she really could be a medal threat, if not a gold medal threat at the Olympics in Beijing."
Lipinski called it a "really exciting" time for US ladies' figure skating.
"I think that Alysa is not only going to have a successful future and possibly eyeing an Olympic gold medal, but I think she's redefining what ladies skating is in the US," Lipinski said.
She added: "I think we're going to see a lot of other young skaters coming up that are pushing their technical bar up to meet hers. So I think it's going to be very interesting and exciting over the next few years, to see what's coming out of those low levels of novice juniors."
But difficult jumps aren't the only part of the scoring in figure skating. There's also the component score, which judges a skater's "artistry." Both Rippon and Lipinski said that Liu has some work to do on this.
Lipinski pointed out how the best Russian skater of the moment, Kostornaia, has been beating her two teammates who have quad jumps thanks to her higher artistic score (the hardest jump she does is the triple axel).
"It's finding this balance and it does take time to sort of learn how to be the complete package," Lipinski said. "I think for Alysa, she needs not only to add more quadruple jumps but to make those jumps very clean."
"I think Alysa is still building that momentum to create moments where you feel things, sort of in the vein of Michelle Kwan. But I think she is on her way to doing that," Rippon said, adding that Liu is also working with one of the best skate choreographers.
Rippon said that he thinks Liu will "100%" be a gold medal threat if she stays healthy in the two years leading up to the next winter Olympics.
"I think that when we look ahead, especially to the way the rules are set up right now, Alysa is sort of at this perfect timing in her career. When she's 16 — which seems to be sort of a golden age for ladies figure skating — that she really could be a medal threat, if not a gold medal threat at the Olympics in Beijing."
Lipinski called it a "really exciting" time for US ladies' figure skating.
"I think that Alysa is not only going to have a successful future and possibly eyeing an Olympic gold medal, but I think she's redefining what ladies skating is in the US," Lipinski said.
She added: "I think we're going to see a lot of other young skaters coming up that are pushing their technical bar up to meet hers. So I think it's going to be very interesting and exciting over the next few years, to see what's coming out of those low levels of novice juniors."