Figure Skating

[healthnut]

The quarantine issues definitely present a problem with her getting back to Canada but Eteri, really?

Definitely check out Mikhail Kolyada’s new programs, he really brought it at test skates. 

[Darknight]

7 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

This is a bit conspiracy theorist of me but I really hope Zhenya is ok.

The latest Instagram picture patted by Eteri's team seems....distressing.

I hope someone told Med the truth if she's aiming for 2022. The whole thing is weird and awful. Her body can't handle Eteri's training. She's not going to make 2022 or win gold. There are too many talented young skaters ahead of her in Russia alone. If she took time off to work on her technique and heal I think she could've done better. Instead I believe her career ends here. No way will Eteri work with her and make sure she continues skating. She's preparing Anna, Kamilla, and Maya and Daria. I believe Trusova is a lock and so is Kamilla. That leaves one spot open for Russia 2022. I don't believe it will go to Med. 

 

Also, they made a big fuss about Alena leaving but made exceptions for Med

 

This really sounds like fed decision. If she stayed in Canada we wouldn't be here. State funded skating sounds good but they also control your career and funding. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Johnny Weir on week 1 of DWTS

 

[Mellowyellow]

4 hours ago, Darknight said:

I hope someone told Med the truth if she's aiming for 2022. The whole thing is weird and awful. Her body can't handle Eteri's training. She's not going to make 2022 or win gold. There are too many talented young skaters ahead of her in Russia alone. If she took time off to work on her technique and heal I think she could've done better. Instead I believe her career ends here. No way will Eteri work with her and make sure she continues skating. She's preparing Anna, Kamilla, and Maya and Daria. I believe Trusova is a lock and so is Kamilla. That leaves one spot open for Russia 2022. I don't believe it will go to Med. 

 

Also, they made a big fuss about Alena leaving but made exceptions for Med

 

This really sounds like fed decision. If she stayed in Canada we wouldn't be here. State funded skating sounds good but they also control your career and funding. 

If I felt that this was Zhenya's decision, albeit a misguided one, I wouldn't be so worried.

I don't think it's her decision. The message she left Tracy and Brian on Instagram was heartbreaking.

She's definitely not making the Olympic team so I'm at a loss to understand what is going on. Who orchestrated this? Tarasova? Rusfed? I'm not even sure Eteri wants to take Zhenya on so it's just freaking bizzare and depressing.

It's like watching an abuse victim being dragged back after escaping.

 

[Growsonwalls]

Brian's probably a nicer, more nurturing coach than Eteri but his track record for students with faulty technique continues to be very poor. He does extremely well with students who already had great technique. Yuna Kim, Yuzuru Hanyu, Javier Fernandez already had their jumps. They needed confidence, polish, support. But skaters like Adam Rippon, Med, or Jason Brown who struggle with technique probably were/are not right for him. 

[Darknight]

10 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

If I felt that this was Zhenya's decision, albeit a misguided one, I wouldn't be so worried.

I don't think it's her decision. The message she left Tracy and Brian on Instagram was heartbreaking.

She's definitely not making the Olympic team so I'm at a loss to understand what is going on. Who orchestrated this? Tarasova? Rusfed? I'm not even sure Eteri wants to take Zhenya on so it's just freaking bizzare and depressing.

It's like watching an abuse victim being dragged back after escaping.

 

Russia probably threatened to pull her funding. It a circus at this point and very calculated. CSKA is the top club in Russian. Yet, she regressed and Tarasova didn't seem to help her. The picture Eteri posted looks like a horror film. 

8 hours ago, Growsonwalls said:

Brian's probably a nicer, more nurturing coach than Eteri but his track record for students with faulty technique continues to be very poor. He does extremely well with students who already had great technique. Yuna Kim, Yuzuru Hanyu, Javier Fernandez already had their jumps. They needed confidence, polish, support. But skaters like Adam Rippon, Med, or Jason Brown who struggle with technique probably were/are not right for him. 

And Med needed a lot of work. Her technique is just so bad. She could've took the season off or two to rework her technique if she was in a different country but Russia. She should blame Eteri for her technique and the ISU for giving her brownie points. 

 

 

[Darknight]

Shout out to Liza for being 23 and killing it with a bunch of kids down her back landing quads and 3A. 

 

And a Russian skater tested positive for COVID-19. No surprise here

[healthnut]

Brian Orser did talk to Phil Hersh about Medvedeva leaving:
Phil Hersh Interview  

[surreysmum]

6 hours ago, healthnut said:

Brian Orser did talk to Phil Hersh about Medvedeva leaving:
Phil Hersh Interview  

Classy as always, Brian.

[Growsonwalls]

I think if any of the Russians were to go to Orser Alena might be the best fit. Alena has very strong technique (she didn't actually train with Eteri for most of her career), but her body apparently has a lot of injuries and she's in a funk. Brian does best with those types of skaters -- strong technicians who need help with other aspects of competitive figure skating. But that's not really possible because of the pandemic so ... 

[SeanC]

18 hours ago, Growsonwalls said:

Brian's probably a nicer, more nurturing coach than Eteri but his track record for students with faulty technique continues to be very poor. He does extremely well with students who already had great technique. Yuna Kim, Yuzuru Hanyu, Javier Fernandez already had their jumps. They needed confidence, polish, support. But skaters like Adam Rippon, Med, or Jason Brown who struggle with technique probably were/are not right for him. 

I wouldn't describe Javier Fernandez as a skater who had great technique.  But regardless, he had rapid, huge improvement when he moved to Orser (that's why Hanyu went there).

Jason Brown has also had huge improvement since moving to the TCC, particularly in terms of jumping consistency.  His triple Axel was never particularly reliable to begin with and was failing badly in the 2017-18 season, in particular, but is the best it's ever looked now.

As far as Medvedeva goes, it took a while (as these things generally do) but she'd gotten pretty good jump-wise by 2019 Rostelecom (her peak event in the TCC period). 

Edited September 17, 2020 by SeanC

[displayname]

On 9/17/2020 at 6:30 AM, Mellowyellow said:

I don't think it's her decision. The message she left Tracy and Brian on Instagram was heartbreaking.

I can't say if it's her choice or not to go to Eteri. I do think she had no other option. She can't go back to Canada anytime soon, and she was already part of Sambo (she was never a member of TCC) - she probably just picked her old coach since the transfer window had already shut down by then. There was already related drama with changing clubs for Kostornaia earlier this year. Her new technique was already declining and the back issues were already flaring up again even during the short stay at Russia...

I'd say she wanted to return to TCC. But she can't, and therefore that post. Nothing deeper than that.

Keep in mind I am not 100% about how RusFed works.

On 9/17/2020 at 4:40 PM, Darknight said:

Yet, she regressed and Tarasova didn't seem to help her. The picture Eteri posted looks like a horror film. 

She got very little ice time there. It's not her club. Granted you can say TAT could have pulled some strings, I guess.

Again, keep in mind I am not 100% about how RusFed works. 

On 9/17/2020 at 7:44 AM, Growsonwalls said:

But skaters like Med

There were visible improvements with Med's technique, like her edges and her stroking, and her take off with the 2A and 3S. What she was struggling with was the back injury (chronic), and developing the muscle memory with the new technique. You could see her slip into her old habits all the time even during a performance, or step out of the jumps she'd improved because she couldn't control them. When it was clear she was nervous, or really focused on winning, there wasn't even a pretence to use the new technique, she straight up used the Eteri-style. 

21 hours ago, SeanC said:

His triple Axel was never particularly reliable to begin with and was failing badly in the 2017-18 season, in particular, but is the best it's ever looked now.

His 3A might have improved in consistency, but it's one of the worst looking things in his repertoire.

  

On 9/17/2020 at 4:56 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Johnny Weir on week 1 of DWTS

 

*insert all the facepalms here*

Edited September 18, 2020 by displayname

[Growsonwalls]

This sounds harsh but I don't think Jason Brown will ever have the technique to be a medal contender. Lovely skater, seems like a lovelier person, but it's painful to watch his jumps sometimes. When you compare his triple axel to Hanyu's ... I wish ice shows were more popular in the U.S. because I feel like he'd excel in that environment -- winning personality, a lot of charisma when he skates. But in international competitions I just don't see him becoming that competitive. 

ETA: I think Gracie Gold might have been a good fit with Orser. Gold learned all of her jumps and had great technique. She was an emotional wreck. Brian seems to do well with that type of skater. 

Edited September 18, 2020 by Growsonwalls

[SeanC]

18 hours ago, Growsonwalls said:

This sounds harsh but I don't think Jason Brown will ever have the technique to be a medal contender. Lovely skater, seems like a lovelier person, but it's painful to watch his jumps sometimes. When you compare his triple axel to Hanyu's ... I wish ice shows were more popular in the U.S. because I feel like he'd excel in that environment -- winning personality, a lot of charisma when he skates. But in international competitions I just don't see him becoming that competitive. 

Hanyu has the best triple Axel in the history of the sport, so that's a pretty high standard to compare him to.

Jason gets very high marks for his triples, hence why he's able to compete with skaters who have quads and win, though he does need a quad to be a contender for a World medal (barring a Milan-type splatfest).  We'll yet see, but he's rather late in his career to be learning them.  All the same, he wants to compete, regardless of whether he's a World medal contender, and we've seen he's well-positioned to win medals at the 4CC, Grand Prix and national levels.

[displayname]

8 minutes ago, SeanC said:

Hanyu has the best triple Axel in the history of the sport

Nah.

But in the context of Brown's, his axel quality actually was better before he went to Orser, the few times he landed a rotated one. You can see how much more forced the rotation is now in comparison even if it's more consistent.

Edited September 19, 2020 by displayname

[SeanC]

7 minutes ago, displayname said:

Nah

Obviously this is ultimately a subjective matter, his success rate is phenomenal  and for the intricacy of it nobody else comes close.  He can do a triple Axel from a dead stop (there's a great video somewhere of Mao Asada and [I think] Miki Ando seeing him demonstrate this at some gala event and they both look flabbergasted), and his standard approach includes both a back counter entry and often a twizzle out of it.  Hardly anybody else has ever even attempted that level of difficulty, let alone as successfully as Hanyu has.

Edited September 19, 2020 by SeanC

[displayname]

1 hour ago, SeanC said:

Obviously this is ultimately a subjective matter, his success rate is phenomenal  and for the intricacy of it nobody else comes close.

I don't see how success rate means it is the best ever? He does have a great 3A and does do transitions into it. It's inferior to Ito's/Yagudin's/Candeloro's/Petrenko's/Browning's though, and they probably would have had a hard time doing the kind of transitions he does into it because of how much more powerful their glide and vault into the jump usually was. Currently it's also inferior to Han Yan's in sheer jump quality.

Edited September 19, 2020 by displayname

[HartofDixie]

 

[halopub]

The USFS has been slow to upload it but watched the senior men short for the ISP Points Challenge on CBS Interactive.  I liked Jason Brown's choice of Sinnerman (23 min in), which I've been wanting Nathan to tackle since Nemesis. Didn't hate the music cut but was kind of bored. His multi-angle clip on Twitter felt more dynamic.

Nathan's mariachi short has so much potential. I can see where the choreo needs some sharpening and the facial expressions don't always work but this could be an excellent program.

Off to watch more of the programs. CBS has the skates here .

Edited to add: I liked Jason's long program but I'm less sure about Nathan's.  I did not anticipate Mariah going with an ABBA medley which kind of worked for me but would have liked cleaner editing to the music.

Edited September 22, 2020 by halopub
added thoughts

[SeanC]

On 9/19/2020 at 1:23 PM, displayname said:

He does have a great 3A and does do transitions into it. It's inferior to Ito's/Yagudin's/Candeloro's/Petrenko's/Browning's though, and they probably would have had a hard time doing the kind of transitions he does into it because of how much more powerful their glide and vault into the jump usually was. Currently it's also inferior to Han Yan's in sheer jump quality.

If Hanyu didn't do all the intricate transitions and just skated into the jump as most do, one imagines his triple Axel would be even bigger; that's only one aspect of it, and his Axel is the most technically difficult as a result of all the transitions.

Unrelatedly, the I.A.M. Live event included Marie-France talking about various technical upgrades various teams were attempting, such as Lajoie & Lagha working on new lefts (since for their first senior year they just used their various junior lifts).  They debuted one of them on the livestream, and this is another that they're working on off-ice for the free dance:

One tends to feel used to the crazy contortions and flexibility required for the partnered disciplines especially, but occasionally images like this remind me how much goes into preparing these elements.

Edited September 22, 2020 by SeanC

[SeanC]

And the first ISU competition of the season is underway at Nebelhorn, with a field of skaters from the Schengen area.

Highlight so far, Alexia Paganini of the USA Switzerland, leading after the short program:

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by SeanC

[emmawoodhouse]

No fans will be in attendance at Skate America.

https://www.usfigureskating.org/event/2020-skate-america

[surreysmum]

Almost official, but not quite (reported in Russian news source TASS): Sotskova has received a 10-year ban for a forged document in relation to a doping violation.  (She retired earlier this year).

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1098595/sotskova-10-year-ban-forged-document

 

[Jaded]

On 9/22/2020 at 2:56 PM, halopub said:

The USFS has been slow to upload it but watched the senior men short for the ISP Points Challenge on CBS Interactive.  I liked Jason Brown's choice of Sinnerman (23 min in), which I've been wanting Nathan to tackle since Nemesis. Didn't hate the music cut but was kind of bored. His multi-angle clip on Twitter felt more dynamic.

Nathan's mariachi short has so much potential. I can see where the choreo needs some sharpening and the facial expressions don't always work but this could be an excellent program.

Off to watch more of the programs. CBS has the skates here .

I was planning on watching the videos you linked to over the weekend but found that they were gone by late Friday evening. I had the tab open for a couple days and then had to restart my computer so when my browser opened that page again it was bare.

[halopub]

14 hours ago, Jaded said:

I was planning on watching the videos you linked to over the weekend but found that they were gone by late Friday evening. I had the tab open for a couple days and then had to restart my computer so when my browser opened that page again it was bare.

Try the first two links, which still work for me. I expect USFS to keep up their page of links for a bit. 

[healthnut]

On 9/28/2020 at 6:14 AM, Jaded said:

I was planning on watching the videos you linked to over the weekend but found that they were gone by late Friday evening. I had the tab open for a couple days and then had to restart my computer so when my browser opened that page again it was bare.

You can find them here (US Figure Skating Fan Zone).

Thoughts from the challenge:

Jason Brown - love both of his programs, especially the short. It was dark and camera wasn’t great so I can’t wait to see this at a competition. Presumably, Skate Canada. 
Alexa/Brandon - good lord was he always this checked out in the face? I never noticed before when he was skating with Hayven but it is so distracting. They have potential they need more time together for sure. 
Calalang & Johnson - they look strong, if they skate clean, they will be hard to beat

Cain/Leduc - hate her short program costume, I guess she’s going for some kind of dominatrix look since they are skating to music from 50 shades but I don’t like it. Their long program is fine, nothing special, to Rachmaninov which we’ve all heard a million times. They have a rougher quality to their skating as opposed to the other top two teams.

Kayne/O’Shea - snoozeville

Mariah - I think her long program has potential, I really like the Winner Takes it All part, some of the other selections I didn’t feel were as cohesive  

Bradie - for whatever reason has gone back to the lutz/loop combo for whatever reason and it was equally unsuccessful.

 

[Good Queen Jane]

Grand Prix Final have been postponed. No surprise, really.

[andromeda331]

3 hours ago, Good Queen Jane said:

Grand Prix Final have been postponed. No surprise, really.

Yeah, no surprise but it still stinks.

[surreysmum]

Participant lists for the various Grand Prix events are posted:

https://www.ifsmagazine.com/2020-grand-prix-series/?fbclid=IwAR1zvwvRsSnXnc8rCQVo-r1cRdWjoW8cZRbYN0IMf41d9ANA6DE_hbqwW7A

There is no pair competition at NHK, but otherwise there are fields for all disciplines at all events, though some are decidedly weak, while others look to provide opportunities for break-out second tier performers not normally assigned to GP, if they can bring it on the day. A lot of the competitor lists look like mini-nationals with a few international guests. 

No details here about broadcast or streaming. I'm hoping against hope that there will be non-geoblocked ISU streams for all the events. More likely, any such streams will be blocked from countries where the ISU has a contract with a TV network.

 

 

[emmawoodhouse]

Is NBC Sports Gold still a thing, or might they show the GP on Peacock? 

[displayname]

What do we think of Kevin Aymoz's SP?

 

Edited October 3, 2020 by displayname

[healthnut]

I've seen a lot on twitter pretty upset about his (Kevin Amoyz) costume. They are comparing it to Dom & Shab from 2010.

[doodlebug]

3 hours ago, healthnut said:

I've seen a lot on twitter pretty upset about his (Kevin Amoyz) costume. They are comparing it to Dom & Shab from 2010.

I don't think it's as bad as Dom and Shab, but it ain't good.  Very tone deaf, though not as in-your-face cartoonish as Dom and Shab.

[HartofDixie]

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/10/02/olympic-figure-skater-retires-following-allegations-he-sent-lewd-photos-to-13-year-old-girl/24635366/

[emmawoodhouse]

As I said on the figure skating boards when the news broke a few days ago, good riddance. 

[Darknight]

On 10/4/2020 at 10:35 PM, HartofDixie said:

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/10/02/olympic-figure-skater-retires-following-allegations-he-sent-lewd-photos-to-13-year-old-girl/24635366/

I only feel bad for Vanessa. Sucks to end your career this way. He should be arrested. 

Edited October 7, 2020 by Darknight

[healthnut]

I feel bad for Vanessa, too. They finally get to place in their careers when they are contenders and he ruins it. At 33, it’s not like she’s going to find another partner. 

[Avaleigh]

1 hour ago, healthnut said:

I feel bad for Vanessa, too. They finally get to place in their careers when they are contenders and he ruins it. At 33, it’s not like she’s going to find another partner. 

I have sympathy for Vanessa too. They had a realistic chance for a medal (IIRC 2019 was their best season) and now it's over through no fault of her own. 

I certainly hope that Morgan won't be allowed to coach now that he's officially retired. (No doubt there are people who believe he's been unfairly treated.) Silvia and John should definitely be held accountable for their part in all this.

[Jeddah]

I don’t feel bad for Vanessa. People at their rink knew before the 2018 Olympics. She had to have known, and she stayed him with him anyway.

[healthnut]

2nd ISP competition is up. Of note, is Hubbell & Donohue making their debut and Alyssa Liu finishing 4th,

ISP Competitions

[Good Queen Jane]

As speculated by @emmawoodhouse above, figure skating coverage is moving from NBC Sports Gold to Peacock Premium. This is the notice I just got:

FIGURE SKATING PASS UPDATE

We want you to hear it from us first – the Figure Skating Pass content moves to Peacock Premium for the 2020-21 season. Follow your favorite athletes all season long with Peacock Premium. You can also stream hundreds of movies and thousands of episodes all in one subscription.

Due to this platform change, we will not auto-renew your NBC Sports Gold subscription.

As a 2019-20 Figure Skating Pass subscriber, you’ll continue to have access to over 350 hours of on-demand replays from past competitions, including the 2020 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the 2019-20 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating and the 2019 World Figure Skating Championships, on NBC Sports Gold through December 31, 2020.

[emmawoodhouse]

Not surprised they went this route. I get Peacock Premium as part of my Xfinity package, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to access it. I hope I can work this out before Skate America. 😕

Edited October 7, 2020 by emmawoodhouse

[justmehere]

I have Cox, which also includes Peacock Premium. If you have a voice-activated remote, you might be able to say "Peacock" into it (holding down the mic button) and have the access come up. Otherwise, it's available under my On Demand menu. 

Great news to have the season on this platform.

[emmawoodhouse]

I activated Peacock using the voice remote. It looks like the free platform. There's no gateway to go to Premium. Sigh.

[peachmangosteen]

I'm happy about that since Peacock premium is only 4.99. Is there any info on what events exactly they'll be airing and if they'll be live?

[emmawoodhouse]

Read the link in the bio. It looks like they're covering everything between Peacock, NBCSN, and NBC.

 

[Good Queen Jane]

Here's the schedule.

[displayname]

7 minutes ago, Good Queen Jane said:

Here's the schedule.

Says 2019-20 season for me?

[peachmangosteen]

15 hours ago, emmawoodhouse said:

Read the link in the bio. It looks like they're covering everything between Peacock, NBCSN, and NBC.

The link in the bio just takes me back to their instagram.

10 minutes ago, Good Queen Jane said:

Here's the schedule.

That seems to be last year's schedule since it says Skate America is starting October 19th and it doesn't start until October 23rd this year.

[emmawoodhouse]

6 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

The link in the bio just takes me back to their instagram.

Click on the picture of Mariah in the gallery. It's linked to the schedule.