2004

World Championships

Ladies Event

By Maggie Doyle

Shizuka Arakawa

Michelle Kwan

The strong single performances of the men’s event seems contagious as many of the ladies competitors delivered with clean short programs on Friday afternoon at the Westfalenhalle Dortmund for another day of exiting performances. Skating is now drawing much better crowds here in Dortmund. The top 24 competitors now advance to the free skating round which will be held on Saturday afternoon. Triple – triple combinations are becoming more and more prevalent.

When all the dust settled Sasha Cohen lead at this stage of the competition after skating a clean and mesmerizing performance of Lecuona’s "Malaguena". Her ordinals were all firsts with one second. She began her program with a triple Lutz - double toe loop combination followed by a triple flip and a big double Axel. Her strong footwork and charlotte spiral were highlights and the judges rewarded her with four 6.0 marks. Her marks ranged from 5.6 through 5.9 for technical merit and from 5.6 to 6.0 for presentation.

Shizuka Arakawa of Japan skating with grace for her interpretation of "Swan Lake". She wore a new costume that was a mass of feathers, almost to the point of being distracting.

Her technical merit marks were 5.5 to 5.9 and her presentation marks ran the gamut from 5.5 to 5.9. She will be the first skater of the last group to skate, skating 19^th in the overall order. She landed a triple Lutz – triple toe loop combination and a huge double Axel. "My body was very tight today. I told myself during warm-up, relax, relax, relax!" she said.

Her teammate Miki Ando of Japan skated to "The Pianist" by Frederic Chopin for her short program. She opened with a nice triple Lutz – triple toe combination. She was leaning over for her triple flip but saved it and landed a double Axel in her clean program. Her technical marks ranged from 5.4 to 5.9 and her presentation marks were 5.2 through 5.7. "I really enjoyed skating today. It was very exciting to skate in the last warm-up group," she said. She and her coach will decide during Friday’s practice if they will include the quad Salchow in her free skate.

America’s Michelle Kwan, the five-time world champion continued to not have her best skates here. She began with a double Axel for the "The Feeling Begins" by Peter Gabriel followed by a triple Lutz - double toe loop combination. She did a really nice triple Flip that was much higher than her other jumps today. A timing question proved to be very costly for her. She can still medal but she no longer controls her own destiny for a win.

Michelle Kwan suffered a .1 timing deduction for going two seconds over on her music during her short program. The US Figure Skating has filed a protest on the timing deduction assessed to Michelle Kwan in the short program at the 2004 World Championships. U.S. Figure Skating president Chuck Foster issued the following statement: "All week long Michelle Kwan’s music has been timed at 2:40. Our question is, how then can the timing be off in the performance?

Julia Sebestyen of Hungary was the final short program competitor and she finished in 6^th with a solid clean short program but moved ahead of Kostner for overall placement at this competitive stage. She included a triple flip, triple Lutz – double toe loop and double Axel in her waltz program.

Jenny Kirk got off to a strong start for her short program with a gorgeous triple toe – triple toe combination during her entertaining program to "Chicago, the musical. She then fell on her triple Lutz but landing her double Axel. "I dropped my shoulder going into the Lutz and ADD," she said.

Kirk said, "I think from the artistic side I entertained the audience today. I am going to push hard in the long program tomorrow, to improve and move up in the ranking."

Caroline Kostner of Italy will skate as the last competitor of these world championships. She skated a clean short program with a triple flip – triple toe loop combination followed by a triple loop and double Axel. Her technical marks ranged from 5.5 – 5.8 and from 5.4 to 5.7 for presentation. "I was so excited I couldn’t sleep last night. I was nervous for Stephane (Lambiel) of course, and also because of my own performance today. (Lambiel is her long-time boyfriend.)

It was not a good day for the Russian ladies. Irina Slutskaya dropped to 8th in the short program but is 7th overall and Elena Sokolova had a jump meltdown for 14th place in the short program and 11th overall.

A final note: Canada’s Joannie Rochette landed one quad jump in Tuesday’s practice sessions but did not plan to attempt it yet in competition.

She opened strong with a triple Lutz - triple toe loop, double loop combination and followed that with a triple Salchow – triple toe loop combination. She successfully included a triple flip then a triple loop and later a triple Lutz in her violin fantasy on Turandot by Puccini.

Sasha Cohen of the USA said, "I don’t know why I missed the take off on the triple Salchow. I was focused and ready to go for it. Being for the first time on the podium at Worlds is the first step to bigger things." Her marks were 5.6 to 5.9 for technical merit and 5.8 to 5.9 for presentation for her "Swan Lake" program.

Cohen opened with triple Lutz that she saved but left off the combination jump. She had a nice triple flip, followed by a triple loop, and a triple toe loop. After a double Axel and her Russian splits, she completed a triple Salchow with a double toe loop. Her program also featured a triple Lutz – double toe combination but she had a doubled Salchow as her final jump before her footwork sections. She said, "I could have been better but I did a lot of good things here. I had a really wacky take off on the Salchow."

Teammate Michelle Kwan successfully survived a prankster who came out on the ice to promote a website for a casino when she was about to take the ice to compete. Kwan said, "I made one mistake, but overall the performance, I felt was brilliant, because I felt good. That is all that matters." She opened with a triple loop, followed by a triple Lutz – double toe loop. She next attacked her triple flip and next did a double Axel. Kwan’s marks were 5.6 – 5.9 for technical merit and 5.7 – 6.0 for presentation. Kwan received six 6.0’s and if Code of Points passes then she received the last 6.0 at the World championships. She skated to "Tosca" by G. Puccini.

Miki Ando of Japan did not skate up to her previous performances here this week for the final. She dropped to fourth place in the free skate and overall. Her marks were from 5.5 to 5.8 for technical merit and she had but 5.4 to 5.8 for presentation. Ando began strong with triple Lutz – triple loop combination and then doubled her quad attempt. She included a double Axel, then a triple toe loop – triple toe loop combination with the second toe loop cheated. She then included a triple Flip, triple loop, and another double Axel. She skated to "Firebird" but did not set the ice on fire tonight; her performance was rather lackluster.

Italy’s Carolina Kostner for her Vanessa Mae program started strong with her triple flip, triple toe, double loop combination but for her triple Lutz combination, she doubled the toe loop and stepped out of it. She landed her triple loop. Her sequence had problems she had the double Axel but singled the Salchow and didn’t do her Lutz. She placed sixth in the free skate and but finished fifth overall. "I didn’t hear about the incident. I was so excited to skate in front of so many people. I am just so happy that I finished the season well," she said.

The USA’s Jenny Kirk said of her performance "Die Fledermaus" by Strauss, " I tried very hard today but my jumps were out of control. I think I wanted to land them too much," said Kirk. She fell on the second triple toe loop of her triple – triple combination and fell on her triple Lutz and triple flip to slip to 18^th place overall and for the free skate.

At this competition Arakawa was the first gold medalist here NOT from Russia. At the Russian Worlds 2005 presentation this morning, the speaker joked that the Russians were allowing the other countries to go after that medal, after he introduced the other champions, all from Russia. The three Russian girls did finish far out of the medals with Irina Slutskaya in ninth, Elena Sokolova in tenth, and Victoria Volchkova in 15^th.

2004 World Championships Ladies Medalists