specialj67

I used to be anti-quad in the ladies discipline, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that I just don’t care for the way that most of Eteri’s female students do them. They’re often pre- or under-rotated, and delivered with cluttered choreography. When I stopped to consider that many of the big name skaters doing these quads come or came from Eteri’s program, I realized my annoyance wasn’t with the elements so much as these skaters delivering these elements in these particular ways. Hopefully, in the future as more skaters start working in these elements seriously, we will get a variety of top tier females skaters delivering beautiful, substantial quads. At least, I hope so.

My sentimental fave, Karen Chen is back on the podium, which is all I really wanted from this competition. So I’m happy about that. As for the rest of the girls/women: Bradie isn’t necessarily my favorite skater, but she is my favorite competitor. She does not throw away a performance if she can help it. I’m happy for her that she gets another national title. She really earned it. Too bad about Mariah, but she’s never been the best when the pressure’s really on. Watching her skate right after Bradie did so well really showed how weird it must be for all of them to compete in a virtually empty arena. You don’t get to feed off the audience energy. You don’t get that intangible push. It seemed like Mariah could never really settle into her program. I was honestly shocked the judges didn’t try to help Alysa more with her score. But without a showstopper element like a triple axel, and some squirrelly jump combinations, I guess reputation will only get a skater so far. Dear Amber Glenn, congrats on your medal. Please pick some more upbeat music for next season.

Great RD competition today. I’m surprised the judges placed Chock/Bates ahead of Hubbell/Donohue. I love both teams, but I thought Hubbell/Donohue seemed faster. Plus their RD this season is a big improvement over last season’s Marilyn Monroe nonsense. Random costume quibbles: I miss Madison Hubbell’s gold dress from Skate America! I though it was the best kind of over-the-top. Maybe they got feedback that this isn’t the European Championships in 2001? Alas. And the second-to-last team to compete today, while charming, I couldn’t fully pay attention to because the skirt part of the young woman’s costume looked like a GD trash bag (shiny+angular cut+dark color).

So pleased for Alexa and Brandon! Her shoulder shimmy when they got their score was delightful. Of the other lower ranked teams, Chan and Howe were my faves. I love it when both skaters on a team are equally attention-grabbing. A bit surprised at the standings in the women’s short, if only because I thought the judges would try to help Mariah a bit more than they did with her score. Also, maybe it was just the music, but I found Alysa’s program to be quite charming. I think this may be the first time I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching her skate. And there’s the added layer of her and Bradie being essentially even in terms of technical content right now. I look forward to seeing who can deliver a cleaner skate in the free.

Re: US nationals I agree that the women’s field is the least predictable this time around, which will make for (hopefully) exciting viewing. I’m also more interested in the pairs completion than I have been in a long time, what with no more Kanye/O’Shea and the addition of Knerim/Frazier. Alexa and Brandon have loads of experience, and Alexa is one of my favorite pair skaters to watch; but Calalang/Johnson have the benefit of being a team for a lot longer. If both teams skate clean (or make a similar number of errors, which seems more likely), I’m interested to see which team could be anointed.

Re: Nathan Chen at the 2018 Olympics, the U.S. media hype around him leading up to those games was intense (for U.S. figure skating). He was heading there undefeated for the season and viewed as a realistic contender for gold, since Hanyu had an injury and was still a bit of a question mark as to whether he would be back at full force. I can’t imagine the kind of mindfuck all of that external, and internal, pressure could create. IIRC, Chen had some LP issues all that season, and was constantly changing some of the jumps around. He depended on the SP more than once to give him enough of a cushion to still win, even when his LPs were less than great. Looking back on it now, those terrible skates at the Olympics seemed inevitable. He was so young and was probably putting an immense amount of pressure on himself, in addition to all of the external pressure/expectations.

I agree that the women’s competition at 4CC was more interesting, however I don’t think it was solely the lack of quads. I think it’s because the medal favorites all came from different training environments and had different skating styles and personalities that showed through more. I know I enjoyed an international championship where the top 3 didn’t come from the same rink producing the same cookie-cutter programs.

The competition for bronze among the men (because something bananas would have to happen for Chen and/or Hanyu to not be 1st and/or 2nd) is going to be fun/stressful for me watching worlds. All of my favorite artistic boys (Aliev, Aymoz, Brown) have a realistic shot if they go clean and other top contenders (like Jin) make mistakes in the free—as has happened multiple times this season. I have the least confidence in Aymoz, since even on a good day his success feels more accidental than assured. Aliev and Brown both seem to be on an upward trajectory since the start of the championships phase of the season.

I also would have preferred Bradie in 2nd over Young You, but I can’t be too annoyed since they essentially tied in the final points total. You is very impressive, especially considering how young she is. I have a lot of love for Kaori, but that free skate was Not Good. I’ve wanted to like her free skate all season, but it just hasn’t clicked for me. I hope she comes back roaring next season—she really is one of my faves to watch.

The 4CC mens short was fantastic. Especially with the last group, it felt like watching a world championship short. A whole different level than what happened at Euros a couple of weeks ago. When I compare the lineups of this year’s 4CC and Euros across the disciplines, the 4CC men is the only group where I didn’t really notice the lack of top European (more specifically, Russian) competitors (with the exception of Dimitri Aliev, perhaps).

It sucks for Tomoki and Jessica and Brian to have medaled but then be alternates for the world team. I’m sure it’s down to having somewhat disappointing results on the Grand Prix this season and competing against skaters with better established/ competitive international reputations. I would love someone’s informed take on these selections.

I’ve never felt particularly emotionally invested in Vincent Zhou as a skater before, but damn if his performance today didn’t hit me in the feels. I hope he is put on the 4CC team. Nathan’s score was particularly ridiculous considering some of his jump landings, but there’s no question he is in a league of his own among the current crop of US men. Like Charlie and Tanith in their commentary, I continue to hate the costumes. But love everything else. Jason’s 2nd place finish is well-deserved. Watching a performance like his today feels special. There aren’t a lot of skaters in the mens field who excel at the non-jumping aspects the way he can. I know he’ll never win a world medal at this point, but I’m so glad to get to watch him do what he does. My heart broke a little for Andrew Torgashev after his free skate. He has so many great qualities. Next to Jason, he is one of my favorites to watch just move around the ice. I hope he can improve his consistency.

Dare I say, I DID NOT hate H/D’s re-vamped free dance? In fact, I kinda sorta liked it? The music changes are blessedly welcome to my ears, and the entrance to their first lift is pretty great. It helped me enjoy their powerful skating and just...their overall projection. Still, cannot deny I’m excited that C/B won. I love the snakesssssss theme! This is a perfect vehicle for them, and I sincerely hope they can get on the world podium this year. IDK what Hawayek and Baker have been doing since their last Grand Prix event, but keep it up you two. I was concerned they might get booted from 3rd in favor of Carreira and Ponomarenko (whom I also love, but not quite as much), but they really brought it in the way you always hope an event-closing performance will. The 4th-6th place teams all have great qualities, it’s just a shame that both Green/Parsons and Macnamara/Carpenter had stumbles. US ice dance is lucky to have such a deep talent pool.

See, and here I am getting sexy dad vibes from glasses!Charlie and not being mad at all. Another thing I love about Charlie is him getting on his commentator soapbox about required elements he’s not a fan of. He is emphatically not a fan of the choreographic slide move requirement. He thinks it’s unfair for the ladies because they’re usually wearing dresses and thinner tights while the men wear pants offering more protection from the ice. I kinda agree, now that I think about it.

P/C had been undefeated for nearly 2 seasons—it was only a matter of time before another team started to achieve scoring parity. I only wish it was not S/K. I just don’t case for S/K’s programs, and that makes it hard for me to appreciate their apparent improvement in the eyes of the judges.

The Euros mens and pairs events were a generally rough bunch to watch. Aside from Aliev managing to hold it relatively together for both portions and win, there wasn’t a lot of greatness on display. The absence of recent top competitors like Kolyada and Fernandez was really apparent. The only discipline I’m looking forward to today is ice dance, purely because of the politicking going on with P/C vs N/K scoring in the rhythm dance.

The rhythm dance was super fun to watch. The NBC stream had Charlie White doing commentary solo—he’s really growing on me as a commentator. He does a great job of not talking while the performance is happening. And color me pleasantly surprised that Chock and Bates are in the lead. They and Hubbell and Donahue had oopsie!moments, and I was expecting Chock and Bates to take more of a penalty for theirs since it happened in the Finn step. I would LOVE to see C/B win this year—mostly because I prefer their programs to H/D. And the teams in 3rd through 6th were also great to watch. It’s a real shame that USFSA and/or NBC hasn’t done a better job hyping up US ice dance since that’s where the depth of talent is right now.

I’m sure there are people in skating circles who don’t agree with how the Sambo70 team trains or their methods, but unless/until Sambo70 reach a certain state of diminishing returns, there probably won’t be many willing to speak against them directly or publicly. No one coach or training center stays number one forever—that’s what I feel, anyway.

My understanding, based on what I learned from an NPR story this morning, is that individual Russian athletes can still petition to participate as long as they can prove they are not doping and are following the anti-doping rules and their drug tests are clean. And they can’t officially represent Russia. They are “neutral” or something like that. So basically what we saw at the 2018 Peyongchang Olympics.

Alina had a very rough free skate. She had one outright fall and a couple of stumbles on other jumps, and every one of her triple jumps was (rightly) called under. At least one of them was downgraded too. Trusova and Shcherbavoka both fell once and had a quad jump called under in their free skates. But Trusova also popped what I assume was a planned quad salchow into a double, her PCS score was the lowest, and she got lower GOE on her non-jump elements in comparison to her fellow medalists. Honestly, I’m a little surprised her PCS scores are as high as they are.

It sucks that, for a certain segment of Hanyu fans, it seems as though any success Nathan Chen has in competition with Hanyu is somehow a threat to Hanyu’s GOAT status. Like, no. One skater’s success doesn’t negate another’s legacy. Who knows, maybe one day Nathan will also be labeled a legend in the sport. Hanyu just wasn’t in peak form for this particular event. I feel lucky, as a fan and viewer, that we get to see these athletes perform at such a high level relatively consistently, and during the same period of time! How cool! I can’t complain about the dance result. Papadakis and Cizeron are untouchable. Chock and Bates have really dialed in on what works for them with this year’s free dance, and I am Here For It! Hubbell and Donohue have superior skating skills and speed, in comparison, but their free dance this year doesn’t showcase their strengths as effectively as Chock and Bates’ does. The result of the senior women’s competition was only surprising in that Alina Zagitova finished in 6th. I thought for sure that she would get more world champion bonus points in the PCS scores than she did. Props to Bradie for handling the pressure as well as she did, though it’s too bad she couldn’t top what she did at Skate America earlier this season. As far as the medal winners, I am not mad at those placements. If all of the medalists must come from the same rink and coaching team using choreography that often has no relationship to what the music would dictate, at least the winner was one who can actually skate with the music when she’s given half a chance. Kostornaia’s free skate music selections still make no sense, but at least she can interpret the music better than her training mates.

Other than hitting all the key points in the pattern dance, I don’t understand the point difference between Nikita/Katsalapov and Chock/Bates? Can someone explain this? N/K were pleasant but blah. Love seeing Han Yan back in the mix, but that whole men’s competition was Rough.

Watching P/C and C/B back-to-back was wonderful and illuminating. P/C was like watching ice dancing as performance art—it didn’t even feel like they were doing individual elements. The lifts and spins came out of nowhere. They were all of a piece. C/B felt like watching the best version of a more traditional program. It felt like a blend of a competitive and a show program. Their lifts were very showy and “look at me” in the best possible way, and their commitment to the theme was superb. I know H/D have an edge over C/B in terms of speed and power/projection, but C/B have the better programs and performance quality.

I think, based purely on what I’ve learned from watching ice dance on TV and what I’ve gleaned from the knowledgeable folks here, the things that P/C do well to give themselves an edge over other teams are the kinds of things that are more difficult to perceive through watching them on a screen. Things like speed, edge quality and control, and small choreographic touches to enhance the performance don’t pop as obviously as something like a well done quad salchow. I know the skills often rewarded in ice dance are the kinds of skills that are less obvious for a casual fan or viewer to notice and appreciate. Even after all these years, I STILL struggle to notice and appreciate those skills and not just get overtaken by the razzle-dazzle.

As impressive as Hanyu was tonight, I think I was more in awe of how well Nam Nguyen did following him. I can’t imagine the kind of mental skill or whatever it takes to perform after someone like Hanyu goes out and skates like it’s the GD Olympics and not let the energy of the arena overwhelm you. That Nam was able to feed off that energy and do as well as he did was so delightful to watch. I still don’t love that Yuzuru is using the same programs, but 100% love the purple/black costume. I sincerely hope he can maintain his physical health and finally make it to another GPF. ETA: Camden Pulkinen, WTF happened? There is no good reason why you shouldn’t have been able to beat Keiji Tanaka for third place!