Analyzing the Jumps of Gracie Gold:

Phil Hersh recently wrote about US Junior skater Gracie Gold.  Many are ridiculously predicting her to show up at Sochi already.  One quote from the article that is particularly astounding is the following:

 The way Glenn and Berlin see it, there also hasn't been a U.S. woman skater with Gold's jumping ability since Tonya Harding.

I'm not so sure her jumps are quite as big as many are saying.  Sure, they're great, sure they're not wispy little jumps, but there isn't a comparison to Tonya.  Tonya's jumps were almost not even human. Gracie needs to work on her landings, they need to be held better, but this is something that many skaters these days seem to have trouble with.  What do you all think?

There have been many U.S. women with Tonya Harding-esque jumps, Bobek, Nikodinov and Zawadski just to name a few.

It seems too presumptuous to predict that a 16 year old junior skater will show up in Sochi and bring home the gold but it is an interesting topic and hey, it's fun to discuss especially with the US ladies being so dull lately.  It's great that Gracie won her first JGP, hopefully she will continue to improve.  She will need difficult transitions, difficult footwork, spins, choreography if she wants to make it to Sochi.  These things could all come in time for her, true, but there are many skaters that have that now.  I just don't see her beating the Russians but we'll have to see what happens at Junior Worlds this year, should be exciting!

Article is here.