Clearly Mao has some mental toughness, otherwise she wouldn't have won Worlds twice along with a lot of other important international competitions over the years (4CC, GPrix Final, etc.). However, it seems like whenever she is legitimately threatened by someone (i.e. Kim Yuna), she just loses her head and double-foots, pops or flat out falls on at least half her jumps. I think when she knows she is the best in the competition, she does fine...but if there is someone competing against her who she feels is more "solid," she seems to fall apart. Her SP here at Worlds is really a great program..fun, lively, technically sophisticated and full of personality...yet she goes and pops her 3Loop. I just get the sense that she gets uber nervous if she knows there's a 50% chance she may not win and has a hard time letting the music help her along...it sort of becomes a "let's just get through this thing, whew!" sort of thing.