It's a question that's been on my mind quite a bit: Can Ashley Wagner become a World Champion? And, even bigger, Olympic champion or medalist?
Yes, Ashley became the first American Lady to win a World medal since 2006 - by winning the silver. Before she took the ice, the Russian wunderkid, Evgenia Medvedeva, broke the world record fs score with a completely flawless program. When Ashley's name was announced, many people were already saying "gold was out of reach". But was it really? Here's my analysis on the event that unfolded in her freeskate. Let's start with the triple flip+triple toe< So here's my issue. I know Ashley has struggled with UR calls in the past, and, as a huge Ashley fan, I will admit that many of those calls were right. But, I would have liked to see some consistency from the tech panel. Take her 3lo+1/2lo+3s for example. The landings of the Sal and the toe from each jump looked identical to me, so why is one called UR and the other called clean? That aside, I looked at what the technical box gave her without the UR - 10.30 After the UR and the - goe that comes with it, it came down to 7.90. Now let's talk about the solo triple flip< This was the only mistake that was visible to the audience. This jump is usually solid for her, so it was slightly frustrating that she had that small bobble. And, this bobble cost her quite a few points. When it came up in the tech box, it was 4.90, already counting the bad landing but then getting called UR brought it down to 2.77. Going back on the season, that triple flip would many times receive +3's from judges, and at the GPF that jump pass earned 7.13 points. I then looked at the technical score of when she finished at worlds. It was at 74.01. This was already counting the bad landing, but neither of the UR calls. With that technical score, her fs score would have been 147.79. That's getting close to Medvedeva. Now we look at it, had she landed the triple flip well, and earned the amount of points she did at the GPF, we add 2.23. That brings her up to 150.02, which is quite close to Medvedeva's score. Finally, let's look at the lutz. Now, I'll be the first to admit that yes, Ashley does not have the strongest lutz in the field. However, Medvedeva's lutz is clearly off of the wrong edge as well, so I'm looking for consistency from the tech panel once again. The way I see it, if Medvedeva got a clean edge call on the lutz, Ashley should have as well. Because of the unclear edge call on her lutz, her goe was less. It does not affect the base value. At TCC a few weeks later, Ashley got a clean edge call on her lutz. At Worlds she received 6.90. TCC was 7.86. A difference of 0.96. We are now at 150.98, which, ladies and gentleman, would have won. This means, that yes, if Ashley Wagner had gone 100% clean that night, she would be world Champion. Now, I'm not trying to tarnish her great achievement. Like I said, I am a huge Ashley fan and over the moon for her, what I'm trying to show you is just what this amazing woman is capable of. If she went 100% clean that night, not only would she have won, she would have broken the world record right after Medvedeva did it. If this doesn't prove what Ashley is capable of, I don't know what does. She is capable of being World Champ, and to think of just how close she was is pretty amazing. I definitely will be cheering her on at Helsinki and every other competition in between. All of this can happen, but before that, she has to get the consistency she needs to stay on top. I think she's figuring it out, but it will be tough to tell until the beginning of next season. So, Can Ashley Wagner be World Champion? Absolutely!
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Author19 year old figure skater, writing about anything and everything. Many posts will be Ashley Wagner related. ArchivesCategories |