boaty mcboatface

That was very disappointing from Karlene. I think there is something much deeper going on with her. And I'm sorry, I try to give these contestants a long rope, but being verbally abusive to Andrew and showering him with profanity is not on and she should be ashamed of that display.

Jean-Francois Ballester, one of the two coaches for Savchenko/Massot, died suddenly of a heart attack last night just after returning home from the Tallinn Trophy. Only 53 years old, really tragic and upsetting news.

They should do cognitive testing on all the contestants after the first episode. Give them the WAIS or something. Some of them seriously seem to have deficits in visual-spatial skills, or processing speed, or working memory. Or all three. It might tell them something about themselves. I refuse to believe that people who have this much trouble with problem-solving or following instructions during a driver training course don't also have issues in other areas of life.

Another scary episode. Brandon is the only driver in his family--do they not have taxis in St. John's, NB? Seems like it would be much cheaper to take a cab everywhere than to write of 5 cars in 10 months. I looked it up and it appears Uber does not operate there yet, but this show is like a one-man advertisement for changing the rules. Alexis may be the first contestant in the show's history to be unable to even drive between 2 cones in a training session. I thought after 13 seasons with the likes of Flora, Kevin, Angelina, and Dale, everything had already been seen or done, but I guess not. Philippe Letourneau is like a Francophone Buddha--over a decade on the show and I've never seen him once raise his voice or get frustrated, even with people who cannot do the most basic things and make the same mistake over and over and don't listen. Watching her hit the same cone over and over again had me screaming in anger from my couch and he was cool as a cucumber. Even Andrew loses it now and then.

How do these people still have auto insurance? What are they paying for it? Surely after you've had 30+ accidents in a 10-month period, your insurance would just drop you? 50 speeding tickets? Written off 5+ vehicles? I could hardly believe what I was hearing. Aside from the infamous Dale who said she'd hit over 1500 things in her driving career, I can't remember a crop quite this destructive.

I think it's mostly to do with what they felt were unfair decisions and DQs in the short track. But 2 Chinese Olympics judges have also been under investigation for national bias and have in fact been given suspensions today, one for ludicrous overscoring of Boyang Jin and the other for blatant underscoring of Savchenko/Massot in order to boost Sui/Han. However, they weren't the only ones with highly questionable marks, just the only ones singled out.

Lengthy interview with Aljona Savchenko about coaching, future plans, and the Knierims: http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2018/05/17/276810168 Also, as many suspected, she wanted to continue competing next year, but Bruno didn't and she said he's the only partner she'll skate with now, so that was that. They will reevaluate in one year's time, but he is moving to Switzerland to begin his own career coaching youth and I don't imagine spending a stress-free, pain-free year with fiancee and baby in a town where everyone speaks French will be much of a motivator for a comeback. She also doesn't sound too certain of anything, but I hope for everyone's sake that this experiment is a smashing success. If anyone has the tools to add some panache, it would be Aljona.

It will be very interesting to see how this works out. Aljona Savchenko is the pairs queen on ice, but it remains to be seen how that will translate to coaching. The logistics will also be quite an issue: Alex Koenig is moving to Berlin, the Knierims are splitting their time between Germany and Chicago, and Aljona has a number of shows on the schedule for next season but Bruno Massot is moving to La Chaux-de-Fonds to start his own coaching career with youth, so they will have to sort that out. This is very exciting, though.

Pairs news: Duhamel/Radford have officially retired, and Savchenko/Massot are doing Holiday on Ice Germany/Austria next year and will be taking a break from competing of unknown duration. This makes way too much sense for them: they are at the peak of their marketability and will get serious $$$, but the window for that is short and needs to be taken advantage of now. Plus it allows them to stay relatively local instead of wearing themselves out traveling halfway around the world all the time and taking Bruno too far from Baby Massot. The question is whether they ever come back again. Never say never when Aljona is involved, but I'd be surprised.

It was already unlikely before this, IMO. Olympic gold, Worlds gold, smashing the world record for FS and total score, there is nothing left to accomplish. And listening to interviews with Meagan Duhamel and Lynn Rutherford after Worlds, I think the back pain issue is serious and ongoing. To put up with it in pursuit of a life's dream is one thing, to continue putting up with it once that's been achieved is pointless. And now, of course, a baby on the way. Ironic that all the speculation has been about whether Aljona will step away from skating to start a family, and then this news! The question to me now is if this will spur them to move back to France sooner rather than later.

Savchenko and Massot are simply magical, a totally higher class of pairs skaters. Who would have imagined this after Sochi? Their story is really incredible, from both of their sides--they should jointly write a book. I suspect from their emotional reaction that this was their swan song, and while I love watching them skate, I do sort of hope that this was the end. They are at the absolute supreme peak right now, there is no higher way to go out. What else is there to accomplish? They deserve this legacy. I want to see Aljona go out on top like she has earned, not to show any decline. And Bruno needs to stop before his back deteriorates to the point that it affects his everyday quality of life, he's barely 29 and it's not worth it. 245.84, I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.

Very disturbing interview with Bruno Massot in L'Equipe yesterday about the true details of his release from FFSG. I can't find a link to the full French article directly but a Russian site has picked up on it and Google Translate at least gives the gist: https://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/darling/1624416.html I knew it took a long time and caused money problems but the extent of it is shocking. For 18 months Didier Gailhaguet would not release him but blockaded him from earning any money in competition or shows so he was surviving on pasta and 200 euros a month and had absolutely nothing. He said he was happy to bring a gold medal to Germany because even when they didn't know if he would ever be able to skate for them, the DEU not only paid for his training, they literally put a roof over his head and food on the table so he was not living in his car. He's decided to speak the truth now because he's in Germany and not afraid of Gailhaguet anymore. I knew Didier was a scumbag, but to treat your own skater like this is sickening.

I liked that they went with an automatic instead of the usual stick shift for the teeter-totter challenge. None of these people should ever drive stick (or a car with no ABS, for that matter) and the primary concern is pedal control. Baba G will be missed. What a cool woman.

I think they need to start having one of the nominators demonstrate the challenges, so there's a real point of comparison for the viewer, an average driver new to the task. Because after 13 years of this plus all the other crazy programs he does, Andrew is not exactly a bog standard driver anymore. This seems to be the season of the nervous wreck. Not really anybody infuriatingly oblivious to how badly they suck like Dale or Kevin or Angelina. Shayne needs a neuropsychological evaluation. Something obviously happened to his brain when he was hit by that car.