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Emily Hughes is probably kicking herself now that she didn't try a triple toe loop on the back of her combination instead of a double. Her triple lutz was great and she had plenty of air and time to attempt a triple toe. I've never been particularly enamored of her, but she was great tonight.
Kimmie Meissner was gifted on her combination tonight. Her second jump was definitely cheated but because she's the World Champion, the judges overlooked it. There is no way that jump was a true triple toe loop, it was a toe axel.
I was thrilled for Bebe Liang though. It was great to see her finally put it all together. I loved the music, her costume and she skated brilliantly. She definitely deserved 2nd place.
Katy Taylor was a surprise tonight as well. She had a horrible Grand Prix season but she skated extremely well tonight. As she was skating her program, I kept saying to her in my mind "keep concentrating and slow down." Katy aka "Pink Hummer" has a tendency to "rush" things, but fair play to her tonight she didn't.
I think a lot of people that follow figure skating thought that the US women wouldn't be able to compete against the rest of the world. After tonight, I doubt that.
While I wish ESPN had cut down on the "fluff" pieces, I mean did we really have to see Katie Couric interviewing a six year old Emily Hughes; the coverage of the ladies short was above average. At least I got to see some of the ladies senior skaters that usually get "chacked" from their coverage. It's not too often that ESPN shows almost the entire final flight of skaters from any SP.
However, I do wish they had shown more of the Men's SP. Only showing Evan Lyascek and Johnny Weir really was quite bad.
Also fair play to "Uncle" Dick Button for pointing out that Rachel Flatt got robbed on her combination jump. It's not too often that Uncle Dick will disagree with the judges at the US Nationals, but what he said tonight was the absolute truth. It'll be interesting to see what happens with this "controversy".
Looking forward to watching tomorrow night. There's a real fight going on in the pairs for the gold medal and as far as the ice dancing goes the fight is for silver and bronze. B&A have the gold medal sewn up but it will be very interesting to see who gets the second and third spot.
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