Cup of China 2015- Ladies

Mao Asada made her first appearance at a major event this season. She skated okay, but not exceptionally. The triple axel in the free was great, much better than some of the men at the senior level, but her free fell apart after that a little. She seemed to be so preoccupied with the triple axel that the rest of the program wasn't really there. It was still a good start to her season, and things are looking very good for her at worlds.

Rika Hongo finished in second, behind Mao Asada, but actually won the freeskate. She skated very well, and I enjoy her skating more than I have in the past. Initially, I thought the free was a terrible choice for her, but it was a whole lot better than I had expected. I'm still not entirely sure about Riverdance for her, but it is really not bad. She's skating very well, especially compared to the Russian ladies who largely dominated the field last season.

Elena Radionova had a pretty disastrous short program, but finished third overall, with the second best free. The Titanic program is really not good. She is a very energetic, upbeat skater, if a little wild, and so the dramatic, slow, tragic story of Titanic doesn't work for her. The program isn't structured great, and I could more than do without the sexy Leo voice over the music. I have no clue why sexy Leo voice is a thing this season, but it needs to die sooner than later. Time to scrap the program and start over, especially for Radionova.

Looking Ahead- Can You Please Not Skate to That? Carmen

After the year of the Paso, Carmen has been done and not always well. Sometimes Carmen can be done well, but all too often they are the same and completely uninteresting. Carmen has been done essentially the same way for many years, and it has become completely uninteresting.

Over the years, we've seen good, bad, and mediocre Carmen programs. Let's take a look at some of the Carmen programs and compare.

This season alone, far too many times have we heard the music from Carmen.

Some examples include:

Yue Zhao and Xun Zheng

Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin

Rika Hongo

Takahito Mura

Samantha Cesario

Alexandra Aldridge and Daniel Eaton

There are certainly more of these programs this season, but I think you get the point.

The use of Carmen is far from a new phenomenon, over the years we've seen more than our fair share of Carmen programs.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir 2012-2013

Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte 2012-2013

(which, let's face it, was a terrible idea for them to skate the same year as Virtue/Moir)

Mao Asada 2005-2006

Evgeni Plushenko 2001-2002

Katarina Witt 1987-1988

Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov 1997-1998

Yuna Kim 2003-2004

Evan Lysacek 2005-2006

Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin 1984-1985

Michelle Kwan 1998-1999

Whether you love them or hate them, I think we all can agree, it's time to give the Carmen programs a break, at least for a little while.

4 Continents Championships- Ladies

The surprise of Four Continents was Polina Edmunds' victory. Based on her skating all season, no one expected her to skate nearly as well as she did here.

The short program has been her biggest issue all season, and now that she finally has the combo in the program under control she has a far greater chance at success. This short program is definitely the better of her two programs. Even when she skates the freeskate cleanly it is not of the same maturity level of other women in the world.

Polina had pretty good skates here, but her chances of landing on the podium at Worlds are slim with the kind of programs she has and the way that she skates. However, this was a huge achievement for her.

For Satoko Miyahara, this event was hers to lose. After the short program she had a decent lead, but fell apart in the freeskate and was unable to hold onto her lead.

Her skating is less emotive and tends to be more technical, so when she can't hold the technical elements together, like here she doesn't have the quality in the second mark to make up for a mistake. However a freeskate like this one could not be saved, regardless of the quality of skating between elements and the performance quality.

Her jumps aren't that big, so there is less room for error, so when her jumps are off, the mistakes can be disastrous. There is a chance for her to take the third spot on the podium, but she is going to have to forget this skate happened and skate at her best for any chance at all.

Rika Hongo skated well, but I find her bad posture to be extremely distracting. She lets her shoulders ride up and loses her neck when she goes into her jumps and sometimes during footwork. These little details make it more difficult to focus on the good aspects of her skating, especially when she isn't the greatest performer either. She's a good enough skater, but I don't see her finishing on the podium at Worlds.

Gracie Gold was a bit of a disappointment. I think everyone expected her to skate better than she did, but she wasn't able to hold it together through the freeskate. Her programs are boring, and it's obvious that she thinks so too.

These programs really aren't anything special, and it's obvious she is just going through the motions, unlike with her exhibition number. Now that she has the chance to skate to any music she wants, it's time to start skating to something she actually enjoys so that she can really commit to the performance. At this point it's too late to do anything for Worlds, so I don't think these programs are enough to get her on the podium, unless others, like Ashley Wagner and Satoko Miyahara make significant mistakes.