specialj67

I’d also be stoked if Chock and Bates get a medal at the Olympics! Their free program is growing on me the more I see them perform it; it’s way more interesting than Hubbell and Donohue, IMO. and really, did anyone ever think Johnny Weir would say something approaching open and honest regarding the Sambo 70 group? I’m hard pressed to think of any figure skating commentator who would speak honestly on national TV about the disordered eating and punishing training those girls and young women likely experience.

On the one hand, what Valieva achieved in that free skate at Rostelecom Cup was amazing and impressive. On the other hand, the program itself—the choreography and its complete disconnection from the music (which is also blech)—is hot water trash.

There is a lot of costume happening in Anna Scherbakova’s new SP costume, that is for sure.

For me, I appreciate that Chock and Bates went weird this season. Many of the other top teams have a similar generically dramatic aesthetic for their free dance this season—in my completely biased and semi-informed opinion. I think Chock and Bates sell it best when they’re performing material that gives them something more specific to convey than just the vague idea that FEELINGS ARE HAPPENING.

Domnina and Shabalin—god, that was horrific and offensive. Makes some of the more questionable hip hop rhythm dances this seasons seem merely cringe in comparison.

Yes yes yes! I love the improvement in Muramoto and Takahashi’s program since last season. I hope they are selected for the Japanese Olympic team. Since Daisuke came from a singles skating discipline and has strong individual skating skills, they are one of those teams where both partners are equally grabbing my attention. Also agree the alien makeup on Madison isn’t doing it for me, at least in its current iteration. If she wore, like, a dark colored lipstick instead, I think it would work better? Evan’s fall at the beginning of their program was too bad, because the rest of their program was really good. I love the arm choreography in their twizzle sequence. As I suspected at the beginning of this season, the more I see this program, the more I like it. I wish I could say the same for Fear and Gibson’s free dance this season. It just isn’t doing it for me the way their other recent free dances did.

I can appreciate that H/D have superior speed, power, and ice coverage, but I think I like Green and Parson’s Janet Jackson RD more. also, I can’t pinpoint why, but Stepanova and Bukin’s RD made me cringe—same with the lower ranked French team.

That’s a bummer about Hanyu. Though now this is a real opportunity for Vincent.

God, I would LOVE to see any of the top skaters in Eteri’s group use programs from almost any other choreographer. I know it won’t happen (why spend the money with an outsider when you can save it by keeping everything in house?) I also hope the ISU revisits some of the PCS criteria after this season. A skater should be rewarded just as much for holding one beautiful position for 4 seconds as they would for racing through 4 hand-wavey choreographed moments in the same amount of time. And I’m not talking about the choreographic sequence, which seems to be the only point in a program right now when a position might be held longer than a second or two. I’d like to see skaters rewarded more for held positions throughout their programs.

I do not like Valieva’s free skate this season. The choreography has absolutely no connection to the music, and it doesn’t require her to hold a position for longer than a second. It’s like Zagitova version 2.0, but with quads. Props to Tuktamysheva for her resurgence, but her program content outside of the jumps is hilariously nonexistent. Getting 9s for sassy wrist flicks and what amounts to a choreographed smoke break in the middle of her program?!

Even Nathan was kinda messy with some of those landings. This men’s free skate was definitely an example of medaling by making the fewest mistakes. I feel bad for the Canadian guys—Keegan had such a solid short, and Roman had such a promising start to his free skate before things got messy.

As long as figure skating is a judged sport with an artistic component to the score, there will be squirrelly judging.

For real! If anyone should be getting mid-to-high 9s in this particular field, it’s Jason. I’m sure part of it is because he’s not not even attempting a quad in the program.

That’s odd. I just looked on the Peacock app and found the Skate Canada events among the upcoming figure skating events. Seems like they’ll be live-streamed when I compare the scheduled time in the app with the competition schedule on the ISU site.

I was curious, so I went on the Peacock app. It seems you can replay the practice cam streams—at least for this particular event.

In my memory, Nathan’s never been in top form for Skate America. Even when he won, there was still some messiness. I want to love Chock and Bates’ free dance, but I’m not sold on it yet. I lost interest about halfway through. I hope it improves, because I want to love it so much! I like it when experienced teams go for weird. This reminds me a bit of the Kerr’s alien-themed free dance from 2009. The women’s free skate was the standout of the competition for me this weekend. Purely on personal taste, I would have had Daria in first. I admire Alexandra for her determination and gutsiness, but I don’t feel anything when I watch her skate. I hope Young You can replicate what she did here, because she was an absolute delight.

As a skating fan, I’m intrigued but skeptical of the James/Radford team up. I guess I’m mostly curious to see if they actually could make it onto the Canadian Olympic team next year.

IIRC, in her appearance on TSL, Renee Roca said she thought Hawayek and Baker were held down in the scores, and I agree. Maybe it’s the difference of seeing in person instead of on a screen, but I don’t get how they were 8 points behind the Canadian team who finished in 8th? And I agree about the Fanyus! I realized during this competition how pleasant it was to watch Hanyu skate without having to see a wave of Pooh bears cover the ice after he finished. And how nice it was to watch him skate without the loud crowd roar after every single jump. I wonder what will happen when he does stop competing—will the Fanyu forces transfer their energies to a different skater, will they stop caring about skating as much, or bemoan it’s decline with Hanyu no longer on the scene , or constantly compare every new skater to the great Hanyu? Probably a little of all of that.

It seemed inevitable S/K would win. I guess I wish I liked their free dance more—it’s boring to me. The highlights of the free dance for me were Gilles/Poirier medaling and Lewis/Gibson finishing in the top ten. The overall depth of talent in ice dance now is amazing. This was the only segment In which I watched every competitor. Even the teams in the first group were thoroughly entertaining.

Finally got to watch the men’s competition, and you are so right! That was one of the best final flights of skating I’ve seen in awhile. Even with Hanyu not able to deliver his best, he was still really good. Everyone fought for every jump, and no one imploded. Of the other top ten men: glad to see Jason stayed upright on the 4 sal even if it wasn’t fully rotated; ecstatic that Kevin Aymoz held it together; and just plain appreciative of the beauty that is Mikhail Kolyada’s free program. Of course I wish he could have medaled, but it was nice to see him fully back in the mix with the other top skaters. Of the lower ranked skaters, the skater from Belarus, Konstantin Milyukov, was a delightful surprise for me. I liked his intensity and commitment to his program—and his sparkling turtleneck top. And Hen Yan actually caused me to well up at the end of his program. I’m just happy to see him still competing at championships like this; his is just plain good skating, with or without the jumps.

I haven’t watched yet. Based on the scoring, it seems like a lot of the higher ranked men had less than stellar skates today—similar to the ladies event yesterday?

I was having the same thought. All of the good stuff for the top 2 skaters happened in the SP. And this time around, it’s not like Alexandra had the skate of her life, like Denis Ten did in 2014. All of my fave performances from the ladies event today were the nonmedalists: Leona, Karen, Kaori, Olga.

So happy to see Kolyada do well, even with the oops on his first jump. His free is my fave of this season, so I’m really rooting for him. I know if Hanyu and Chen both skate to their capabilities in the free, that Kolyada can’t beat them, but he would be my pick for bronze. Maybe I was just distracted by the razzmatazz, but I really liked the team from Russia who won the pairs event. I’m disappointed Sui and Han couldn’t repeat as champs again, but at least they didn’t give up on the performance after the small mistakes. And color me pleasantly surprised that both U.S. pairs kept it together enough to maintain 2 spots for next year. if you can, I recommend watching on the Peacock app. The commentator doesn’t talk much during the performances and makes efforts to say something positive about each competitor. If he has preferred faves, I can’t tell.

What an...anticlimactic?... ending for the men’s event. I’m sure there were reasons for Jason putting in that quad attempt, but man, I wish he wouldn’t have. And it was strange to see Nathan make mistakes like that. Less strange to see that with Vincent, but still. You can tell what a difference not competing much this season did for the top 3. Still, even with the errors, Jason’s general skating was beautiful. it was nice to see Yaroslav and Maxim do so well. I’m not super familiar with either skater, so I hope these performances are examples of what to expect in the future and not flukes. My favorite individual moment of the men’s free skate was Jimmy Ma’s reaction to his score—it’s always nice to get a glimpse of the real person and not a rehearsed response! My favorite discovery was Joonsoo Kim. Even though the back half of his free skate wasn’t the cleanest, the front half was really nice, and he projects a really warm and inviting vibe in this program.

As disappointed as I am that Chock and Bates didn’t win again, I get it. Chock and Bates have better programs, that very effectively highlight what they do best, but Hubbell and Donohue are wonderful skaters and made less costly errors overall. Most of my quibbles with Hubbell and Donohue are down the aesthetics, like music and costuming choices. I was sort of distracted by Zach’s shirt in the free skate; it seemed like the design choices was “warm-up gear, but make it fashion!” And I am so over Hallelujah as a music choice. In general, ice dance is my fave to watch from US nationals. We truly do have an embarrassment of riches in that discipline. All of the teams in the 4th-7th place range were great to watch, even if the lower ranked teams do not have the same speed or choreographed complexity of the top teams. I don’t think I’ve ever watched Cesanek and Yehorov before, so this was a wonderful introduction for me. Is this their first year at the senior level? If so, I am very impressed. Their lift where she was perched on his shoulders was my fave of the event.