healthnut

I will recommend a couple of podcasts/skating channels for you: The Cutting Edge: A Figure Skating Podcast (good for competition recaps) Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-cutting-edge-a-figure-skating-podcast/id1545036058 This Week in Skating Podcast (good for news and interviews) Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-skating-podcast/id1621874792 They are also on Spotify and The Cutting Edge recently started putting hers up on YouTube. A lot of people like Ashley Wagner and Adam Rippon's podcast, The Runthrough. It's not my personal favorite but it's popular. I watch Anything GOEs sometimes, too.

One year anniversary of team event and still no medals and still no end in sight. A story from Christine Brennan: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/brennan/2023/02/07/olympic-team-skaters-no-medals-beijing-kamila-valieva-drug-test/11205158002/ it’s still mind boggling to me that the American media hasn’t risen more of a stink about this

You mean Danny? Piper had an appendectomy before Canadians. I was surprised they were even on the entry list for 4CC so it makes sense they withdrew. I think the word is now they are going to represent Israel.

I didn’t know that! 😥😢 I remember Travis saying his brother died during COVID and I never made the connection.

Who else has passed away?

H/B need a signature piece, a stand out routine that makes the judges take notice. For Piper/Paul, it was their Starry, Starry Night. For Chock/Bates, it was the snake dance. Lilah/Lewis's Vogue dance. They are lovely and they have great elements but their packaging is horrible. They don't stand out. They need that great piece next year because if they don't, they will get passed by Green/Parsons or Carriera/Ponomarenko. Bratti/Somerville aren't far behind and Zingas/Kolesnik were scored very well out of the gate at Golden Spin this weekend. And if you don't believe it won't happen, ask Chock/Bates. They were expected to be the next great American ice dance team only to get passed by the Shibutanis and then Hubbell/Donahue. As a result, they are still skating, chasing results they were hoping to get two Olympic cycles ago. I've always liked H/B, they are talented and very versatile and I think they could take that next step but they need to be more innovative like Anissina/Peizerat were 20+ years ago. Someone I was having a conversation with on twitter yesterday suggested Uninvited by Alannis Morisette as a good idea for them. I agree, something like that where the music is bigger and they make a big impression.

They’ve been making changes since Skate America and this was far and away their best skate. They had a good competition. You could make a good argument they should’ve won the rhythm dance. I feel much better about their chances going forward whereas Evita is becoming a bit stale. The women’s event was a mess but I’m happy for Mai and Isabeau. LOVED Shoma and Sota today. Beautiful programs. I’ll definitely rewatch those.

Alexa & Brandon got 1st from 5 of the 9 judges including the Japanese judge which is quite surprising. US judge gave the Japanese better PCS so no real bias from either judge. K/F got better levels on a couple of elements, too. Their SBS triple toes are still far apart and Alexa is a little forward and that was the difference in them being ahead or behind. But they’re in a virtual dead heat. It will probably come down to both team’s SBS triple salchows. Riku often under rotates hers and Alexa hasn’t landed a clean one yet this season. Everything else for them is pretty solid. In other news, it looks like Chock/Bates changed costumes again for their free dance. Maybe this will be the lucky combination…

The first few skaters were terrible but Camden and Tsuboi had great performances and the last three were great. Definitely check out Ilia's skate if you can. It was nice to see Kevin Amoyz have a clean set of skates and get back on the podium. Piper & Paul are overscored IMO. Clearly the judges love their content this year, but their lifts are very basic. I feel like they watered down their program content this year after they had some struggles last year and they are being rewarded for it, it's weird. If they are going to get Papadakis/Cizeron type scores then they are clearly winning worlds. All of a sudden the ice dance chaos seems to be thrown out the window and it's predictable again. Piper/Paul win, Guignard/Fabri 2nd, fight for bronze between Madi/Evan and Laurence/Nik. Lilah/Lewis and Kaitlin/Jean-Luc for bridesmaids. I am just really cynical this evening. Japanese Nationals is going to be quite the bloodbath, the men have four GP final qualifiers plus Yuma Kagiyama. The women have three GP finalists (Kaori, Mai, Rinka) plus a surging Rika, Mana Kawabe, and Rion. Meanwhile, ladies in the US will be cray, cray. Outside of Isabeau, who knows! Bradie is still not really ready and looks a mess. Lindsay was much better here whereas she was a total disaster in Canada. I'm here for all the drama 😈

I'm up working on a school assignment (but mostly just watching skating). Madi and Evan just lost to Fournier Beaudrey/Soerensen in the rhythm dance and I am really worried about them now. I don't think this song choice was a good one and its probably too late to scrap it. They seem way behind Guignard/Fabri and Gilles/Poirer and at this point Fear/Gibson and now FB/S are outscoring them. This is starting to look like a disaster. They should be the top team at IAM this year but it seems like other teams there have way better material. I don't know...They will probably still win tomorrow (tonight, actually, LOL) I guess but it's hard to see them really contending for a world title right now. They may not even make the podium. Or win Nationals. Does anyone else agree or am I being dramatic?

Kamila Valieva scandal update

Seriously. I hope no one (skaters, arenas, networks, movies, etc) EVER uses these people again, they are clearly just looking for someone to sue. Total jerks.

For everyone, frustrated about the replays, please do yourself a favor and either download Opera browser or get a VPN app. I use Free VPN and it works great. Then, you can watch the ISU feed on YouTube anytime you want. You can go back and watch previous competitions, too. F*** Peacock and NBC. I watched Peacock the last two weeks because they were in North America but I still used the ISU feed for the event I had to miss. Now that the rest of the competitions are in Europe or Asia, you’ll want an alternative.

The women’s event just now was crazy! 6th, 5th, and 4th place after the short program went 1-2-3. Starr Andrews skated the programs of her life this weekend and got a silver medal! So happy for her 😃

Speaking of missing pairs, Peng/Jin have withdrawn from both their Grand Prix events. 😥😥😥