Well, there really is no competition. Yu-na Kim is in a class by herself, or at least she was in this competition. She wasn't even perfect; she botched a triple salchow late in her program. But she was so superb throughout and on every other element, that she could have made several errors and she still would have won. Joannie Rochette of Canada became the first Canadian woman to win a world championship medal since Elizabeth Manley in 1988. She wasn't as good as she can be, but she was lovely as always. I am extremely impressed by Miki Ando's great free skate - she was the only one I saw who didn't actually mess up any of her jumps or water things down, and she was able to overcome Mao Asada for the bronze. Asada was actually quite good too, but she fell on her second triple axel, which opened too much room and took her off the medal stand.

America will only be sending two women to the Olympics for the ladies competition next year. And Michelle Kwan pretty much said it all when she was asked what the American women can do ("get better." heh...). They're just not up to par. Rachael Flatt was great and ended up in fifth place, great job! Alissa Czisny was good, but still only had four triples. She made an improvement though and jumped down to 11th place overall. Still, that added up to 16 and meant only two slots for the U.S. ladies next year.

I thought Sarah Meier's clean performance was particularly heartwarming in light of her injuries this year, which are serious but she wanted to secure Switzerland a spot in the Olympics and so she competed. She finished 9th.

Final Standings:

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