Well, I have upgraded my "like" of Yu-Na Kim's 007 short program to "love and kind of want to marry." Wow, another record-breaking performance for Korea's skating queen. But there were other competitors at Skate America tonight too! Really, there were!
Rachael Flatt's performance of her Sing Sing Sing short was muuuch better than at her first Grand Prix a few weeks ago, in my opinion. I had to rewind and watch again because it was so fun. I am sure part of it was that I was watching it on my television rather than streaming it on the internet. Another part was that Scott Hamilton kept crowing about how much he loves the program. But I'm pretty sure there was a spark there that I didn't see last time. Meanwhile, she fell on the secondary jump of her combination - but she still managed to end the night in second place.
Not a successful outing for Emily Hughes, who stands in 11th place after popping her triple lutz and getting a downgrade on her other planned triple.
There was some really pretty (a bunch of it clean or close to clean) skating going on tonight, definitely worth watching. But I think Yu-Na Kim could fall several times in this competition and still beat the field. She is just that good.
The results:
1. Yu-Na Kim, Korea: 76.28
2. Rachael Flatt, USA: 58.80
3. Julia Sebestyen, Hungary: 58.54
4. Fumie Suguri, Japan: 56.04
5. Elena Glebova, Estonia: 52.28
6. Elene Gedevanishvili Georgia: 52.18
7. Joshi Helgesson, Sweden: 51.32
8. Tugba Karademir, Turkey: 49.42
9. Susanna Poykio, Finland: 46.72
10. Alexe Gilles, USA: 46.56
11. Emily Hughes, USA: 45.32
12. Sarah Hecken, Germany: 43.86