specialj67

It reminds me of Nathan Chen’s 2018 Olympic free skate, but this time with a medal as a result!

No complaints about the placements in the women’s SP, but was Loena really 3+ points better than the other top skaters? I’d score her a point or 2 lower. I’m just happy Amber didn’t completely implode from the pressure. The pair’s competition was pretty fun to watch—not too many teams missing their SBS jumps.

My gift to myself for my 40th birthday is going to Montreal to see the last day of the world championships—free dance and men’s free skate! After seeing how well Yuma did at 4CC, I am so excited to (hopefully) see him skate in person. Really, the talent is so deep in both fields, I’m looking forward to seeing so many of these competitors. I don’t think anyone in my meatspace life fully appreciates how much figure skating is a Special Interest of mine and how much I’m looking forward to this!

Re: Jason Brown continuing to compete, who’s to say that USFSA didn’t approach him and ask him to keep competing? Not saying they did, but they know he’s still beloved and would be a crowd fave in any event he’s in. And as others upthread said, he’s still more reliable than most of the other competitive U.S. men. They can reasonably count on him to place in the top 10 at a world championship.

That third spot for the U.S. ice dance world team is going to be interesting. I think if Green and Parsons had better material, they might have a stronger case. I feel like they and Bratti/Somerville would place similarly, somewhere around 10-12th. My fave free dance of this event was Flores and Desyatov—so much energy and commitment to the program! I’m really looking forward to seeing how they do in the coming years.

IDK about it mellowing so much as the dramatic aesthetic of the current era being less driven by these more character-y pieces that were so abundant 10-15 years ago.

I think I read somewhere that one of them possibly was dealing with a concussion? I think? I also wouldn’t be surprised if burnout is a factor in their decision too. I loved the video they shared. It would be wonderful to see them compete with the program in the future, but if this is all we get, it is more than enough. 🫶🏻

The top two groups of the dance free skate at Euros today were generally pretty great! It’s too bad Fear/Gibson had that spin stumble and the #2 Czech team had the near fall. I really enjoyed the other 2 French teams, but for whatever reason do not connect with Lopareva/Brissaud.

its my understanding that Mai is coming back from an injury, which explains her middling NHK result. Very pleased for Ava Marie! Her jumps have so much spring, and she skates with a lot of power. Here’s hoping she can replicate/improve her score from this event. Given how well she did here, I’m wondering why USFS didn’t select her for another GP. She seems more than ready for it.

While I enjoy Loena’s overall style and presence, I can never truly sit back and enjoy watching her. Her consistency on the big jump combos isn’t the best, and her consistency from one phase of a competition to the next is always in question . For me anyways.

Oof, the men’s event from SC this week was a tough watch. IDK what was up with Junhwan Cha; those falls looked painful…it seemed like maybe his timing was way off? Deanna and Max were clearly on a different level compared to the other pairs teams. I love that they finally got a win and really look forward to seeing how they do, now that the Japanese’s world champ team is out of the GP for the season.

Love both of Kevin’s programs for this season—he’s probably one of the few who could get away with a warhorse like Bolero, IMO. And so pleased he held it together for both the short and the long. I can’t remember the last time he was that solid so early in a season.

This inspired me to Google “Horton”+”dance” and watch a couple of videos of dancers and choreographers practicing the same kinds of sweeping and angular movements from Jason’s Sinnerman program. So cool to see where skaters and skating choreographers draw inspiration from! And proof that, once again, it is possible to meld art and athleticism AND create a program that satisfies all of the requirements of the current scoring system. It also shows, in my estimation, the value of encouraging skaters to keep competing later into adulthood if they still have the desire and ability and proper resources. You can’t get that level of sophistication from most 16-18 year-old skaters—you just can’t. It takes years to develop a distinctive skating style and to get truly comfortable with who you are as a skater.

ITA, Ilia’s skating skills and nonjump content is very mid right now. Really, the most junior-ish out of all of the top men. Reminds me of where Nathan Chen was around 2016…but honestly, not even that good-ish. Hopefully Ilia will spend more time on his basic skating skills in the off season.

Watching the ice dance and men this morning was such a treat! There was so much good and great skating in the top 2 groups in each discipline. Personal faves include: the Czech dance team, Taschlerova/Taschler, who finished in 8th. Their speed and power is wonderful! Fear/Gibson and Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen having career best free dances Chock/Bates finally winning a world title! Jason Brown AND Kevin Aymoz, my 2 favorite artistic boys, having career best performances. I have no idea what Jason’s plans are after this…I wouldn't be surprised if he decides this is his last competition as a skater, because what a way to end. Junhwan Cha really going full out! So exciting to see him finally put together 2 great programs and get rewarded for it. Also, I do kinda love his commitment to costumes that are pretty much identical to one another except for the shoulder decoration. And of course Shona Uno successfully defending his world title. Very cool that he and Kaori because the first Japanese singles skaters to win consecutive world titles (and on home country ice!)

Is the technical level lower with top Russian or Chinese pairs competing this year? Sure. But damn if I didn’t cry for each of those medal winning teams today! Conti and Macii and my fave “new to me” team this season. It’s been super fun to watch them improve and gain confidence with each competition. And I’m also impressed with Pereira and Michaud for being such a new team and doing as well as they did. Really looking forward to what they can do over the next few years, assuming they keep at it.

Here’s Kaitlyn’s IG (her post about it is just below her pinned posts). I had no idea she’d been dealing with the ACL injury for so long. Wishing her and Jean-Luc the best. Selfishly, I hope they decide to keep competing. But I’d understand if one or both of them decided another 1 or 3 years of that kind of intense training and competing isn’t what they want to do anymore.

Man, watching that final group in the dance event—you’d think it was the world championships! Makes me even more excited for the actual world championships next month.

Keegan was def. the performance of the night last night. Would have been cool if he could have pulled off a win…put back-to-back, I do slightly prefer the cheesy-ness of his “Home” program to Kao Miura’s LP. But I can’t be mad at Miura’s win. Outside of the U.S. skaters and Boyang Jin, there were a lot of pretty good performances in the top 2 groups. regarding the U.S. men, I really like Liam Kapeikis—I don’t know if it’s his posture or just how he uses his arms or what, but I think he creates some beautiful pictures on the ice. There were a couple of nice moments when he’s doing a spread eagle that feel pleasantly throwback-y, in a similar way to what Keegan does in his choreo sequence. I hope he can figure out how to get through an LP in competition cleanly.

Even with the falls and Yelim kinda falling off toward the end of her LP, the caliber of skating the top 2 groups of women/girls delivered was such a step up from Euros this year. And that’s without Kaori and Mai! Very impressed by all of the Japanese skaters, Haein really putting it together to win, and like 90% of Yelim’s performance in this competition. Her SP this season is one of my faves. I’d love it if she medaled at Worlds next month.

Agree that Bradie’s FS score was kinda ridiculous, but still impressive to see that much improvement from 2-3 months ago. Very happy to see Amber didn’t let the small mistakes get to her; both of her programs this season seem like much better vehicles for her than the soft, sad girl ballad stuff she’d been doing before. Isabeau’s win is well-deserved, but I do wonder about her jump technique and how it will serve her if she has a growth spurt. She seem to hunch over quite a bit for the toe pick jumps.

Their speed and energy was so great! Hoping for good results in the free dance for them.

C/B have the zazz and G/P have the schmaltz. The Italian team doesn’t seem to have that something extra in the performance to make them stand out against the other world champion contenders. They seem to be very good at skating cleanly and precisely, which really benefits them when other teams make mistakes.

For real! Their free dance is exquisite, and their opening one-foot step sequence is *chef’s kiss*. But in all seriousness, I think a lot of the lackluster scoring has to do with there not being much (if any) height difference between the two of them. The old school aesthetic ideal of ice dance is the male partner being at least a few inches taller than the female partner. That H/B don’t fit that works against them. Also, relative to other top teams, they haven’t always been as fast and were prone to making errors. That seems to be less of an issue in recent years, at least from what I can tell through a screen. Ice dance is still such a reputation-based discipline, it can take years for a team to win over judges. I don’t really care for Ted Barton’s commentary delivery style (he is the English language commentator on the ISU’s GPF streams this week), but I totally agree with his gushing over H/B’s GPF free dance. Is it a retread of last year’s? Sure. Doesn’t mean I love it any less!

Aside from the pairs event, there was a lot of great stuff in the Finland event this week! I think my fave was Turkkila/Versluis rising to the occasions and getting bronze in the dance event. Their FD has a kind of soft elegance that feels like a throwback but is also refreshing. The Czech team, Taschlerova/Taschler were also wonderful because of their speed and power. And of course the unadulterated joy of Kevin Aymoz delivering 2 pretty clean programs and getting a podium finish!