US Nationals - Ladies Short

Because I'm watching it. (This is something of a work in progress - I am so busy right now, catching up with school after Euros, I just don't have time to watch hours of skating!)

Tatyana Khazova & Rebecca Stern - ouch for Rebecca Stern, fell on two out of four jumps and only managed a single to squeak out a combo. Sweet to see the audience getting behind her though. Khazova was just kind of blah.

Rachael Flatt - Go Rachael! I like Rachael a lot and she seems like an absolute sweetie as a person, but I always find her skating a little flat - no pun intended - next to the other girls. Not tonight, though, I've never seen her sell a program like that before, that was great! I love Sing, Sing, Sing as a piece of music. That dress works for her a little better than some of her other dresses, too.

Alissa Czisny - Oh, Alissa. I have a soft spot for Alissa, mostly because she is absolutely beautiful and she seemed really sweet at Nebelhorn, always around the rink, and her spins and spirals are to die for. Gorgeous new dress, she always has gorgeous dresses. Her axel was nice, and she has the loveliest layback. It's such a shame about those first two jumps, and the missed combo...and wow, that is an unflattering angle in the KnC!

Samantha Cesario - That has to be the gentlest fall I've ever seen. It almost looked choreographed. She has nice fluidity and she's nice and easy to watch, and she has a pretty dress, it looks like it was designed by Tiffany. Although she is skating to some sort of muzak-y version of Bohemian Rhapsody. Nice debut, though.

Christina Gao - Cute! I liked her a lot, hopefully she can keep it up as she gets older and keep on developing her stuff, she has a nice presence.

Mirai Nagasu - I kind of almost resent Mirai's doing so well because I really wanted Ashley Wagner to get an Olympic spot, but I have to admit the program was really, really good and she deserved her marks. If only there was a third Olympic spot, I probably would have really loved her. And her reaction in the KnC was really cute. Good for her!

Chelsea Morrow - Nice speed and nice spins, especially the layback, a little blah, especially after Rachael, Christina, Mirai etc. She looks happy with her skate though. As an aside, I'm really liking Tara Lipinski doing the commentating!

Alexe Gilles - I like Alexe. She had a really nice skate, except for the doubled lutz. I feel like she just needs more attack or something. Seems really sweet in the KnC/general life, anyway.

Ellie Kawamura - I'm interested to see her skate, never seen her before. Rough start though, and I have to say I kind of tuned out after she fell on the first two jumps. Nice spin at the end - did she just put her blade to her nose? Never seen that before. The not-so-subtle costume/music combination makes me smile, and I love her name, which is not a good reason to like a skater, but there you go. And she gets slammed on the scores, poor girl.

Caroline Zhang - I'm convinced that almost half of the skaters I've seen have skated for the All Year FSC in Culver City, CA. Anyway I find it kind of hard to like Caroline. She just looks so very, very slow out there, and she doesn't ever really look like she's having a good time. Gorgeous spins and spirals though, of course. Nice dress, too. Oh, she looks devastated in the KnC. Did she cut her hand? She's such a pretty little thing. "There's always next year," she says. I always forget she's still young, it seems like she's been around forever.

I love how the camera just focuses right in on Sasha while her group wait to take the ice for their warmup. She looks so totally focused, and wow she is skinny. Love the screams when her name is announced, too.

Amanda Dobbs - I loved her in the pairs competition, I am definitely championing her. She doesn't really have the more difficult jumps but the ones that she does have look really easy and secure, and she looked like she was having a great time out there. Her music (The Mission) is used a lot but I like it. She seemed really sweet in the KnC too, great smile.

Laney Diggs - Wearing full-on gloves, for some reason? Hands shaking like a leaf while she waited for her music to start. Fell on her lutz and double-footed the first half of her combo but she has nice enough presence and musicality and things. Nice attitude in the KnC, too, loved Frank Carroll looking totally bemused at her shout-outs and hand gestures.

Melissa Bulanhagui - She seemed a little slow at times, especially in her spiral sequence. I thought her music suited her steps well, but she just looked a little sloppy out there. She seemed really happy at the end though, which is always nice to see. And it was cute how she tried to get off the ice the wrong way! I know a lot of people like her, I can see why, she seems really personable.

Sasha Cohen - Wow. That comeback was Plushenko-esque, for sure. She has the most gorgeous split jump. I love it. I was so excited when I first heard that Sasha was coming back and then when she missed both her GPs I was sceptical (and sad - we were supposed to see her skate at TEB!), but I always hoped she would come back and skate perfectly, and I'm so happy that she did (at least in the SP!). Just beautiful.

Christina-Maria Sperduto - Pretty girl. She was so slow going into her 3Loop, I thought she was going to stop before she even took off. Kind of bad luck for her, having to skate after Sasha anyway, and then doing Sasha's trademark spiral move. I liked her step sequence though, it was nice with the music. I love it when they don't really know what they're doing in the KnC, like she asked where her scores will be shown, and in the men's Keegan Messing was asking his coach if his scores were good. Wow, apparently she was worse than Rebecca Stern. Poor girl!

Bebe Liang - This is one of the skaters that I have always liked based entirely on how fun her name is to say. Nice 3Lz-2T to start, and then a fall, but she had a gorgeous layback. I loved her dress, too, with the red flower in her hair. Wasn't she supposed to be the Next Big Thing at one point?

Emily Hughes - I like Emily Hughes in general, but somehow, even though I watched her whole program, I completely missed her axel. So I guess she didn't exactly capture me with her performance.

Becky Bereswill - What always strikes me most about Becky is how tall she is! I think she has a really nice style, she's elegant and pretty but she still looks kind of 'free'. I liked her spins, and her dress; if she could get the jumps clean, I think she could be pretty good.

Blake Rosenthal - She's another girl that I just kind of inherently like. She's lovely to watch, ouch on the splat on the flip though. I don't think the music really suited her, especially on the step sequence, it was really speeding up and she just wasn't, but it was nice enough. Oh, andshe cut her hand. She has a great smile, and she seems like a real sweetie in the KnC, it was cute when she saw Ashley on the screen; "Oh look, there's Ash!" and Priscilla Hill was like, "oh good, now I know when to find her." I love watching the skaters with their coaches in the KnC, it's one of my favourite parts.

Kayla Howey - I thought Alissa had come out for a second try when she first took the ice! She had quite a nice, easy style but she was just a little blah. She's only sixteen though, so she definitely has time to develop.

Kristiene Gong - I liked her! Is she another up-and-comer of the Christina Gao-Ellie Kawamura set? She had a really pretty 3Lz-2T combination. Cute in the KnC, trying to remember who to shout-out to, she looked really tiny next to her coaches!

Ashley Wagner - Oh, Ashley. I am such a fan of hers, and apart from the fall on the lutz, that program was gorgeous. Beautiful layback. I loved her footwork into the lutz, too. I just really, really love her skating, and she's such an absolute sweetheart.

It only took me about a week, but I finally got through every girl! Overall, I think that Rachael, Mirai and Sasha deserved their places in the top three. I would have loved to see Ashley get higher and skate clean, but she did such a good job otherwise. And yay for Amanda Dobbs for placing 6th! I am definitely going to keep my eye on that girl.

xxx