DR Jennifer,
Kim Yu-Na said she felt her left foot vibrating during the skate and that's why she was so distracted. Clearly something was amiss because she was making errors in simple things like entry in a camel spin and her footwork that she seemed to get lost in doing. As I said last night, she was given very generous marks, I thought, with the kinds of basic mistakes she was making.
But certainly she can still win or at least land on the podium if she skates her very best and is helped along by generous judges while others don't do their best. Stranger things have happened.
Very generous, indeed.
That clumsy, missed entrance to a spin went a full revolution, and the subsequent "good spin" should not have counted. As that was a required element, she should have gotten ZERO points for it (according to Peter Carruthers and Johnny Weir). That same reasoning applies to the incomplete spiral sequence...there should have been NO credits given for what was -- by the book -- a second missed element in a program requiring completion of regulated elements.
Yu-Na was given a present. And, yes...she can easily win if she skates perfectly in the free skate. She beat her competitors in the long program at the Olympics by 20-plus points. She's only 9 points behind Mirai Nagasu after the short program.
All of that said, however, it WAS Nagasu who lit up the arena and skated better than anyone I saw. I, frankly, don't find Yu-Na Kim very interesting on ice. Lovely, but distant...no sparkle or connection with the camera audience that I can discern.
