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OriginalCyn

By OriginalCyn
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ChicksDigScars
ChicksDigScars

“I wish the Shibutanis were [in Milan] because last year I gave them my medal,” Donohue said, “and I don’t plan on doing that this year.” Uhhh..what? Yeah, and they gave you their National title

absnow54
absnow54

I get that figure skating is a jumping sport right now, and Alyssa Lui is the best chance for competing with the Russians, but damn, Mariah Bell’s free skate is the reason I find this sport so compell

Jeddah
Jeddah

I do love the Shibs, but it still would have been an obnoxious thing to say about any team, not just them. It implies that they didn’t earn their medal. That they didn’t work for it. That their two cl

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Good Queen Jane

Good Queen Jane

(edited)
2 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Lucky!!! How does one get to do that?

They sent an email to members of Friends of Figure Skating (a USFSA donor group) offering cardboard cutouts for a donation ($100 for front row/$65 for all others) to the Memorial Fund (a fund in honor of the 1961 US Worlds team who died in a plane crash on the way to the competition. The Fund gives financial support to competing skaters.). I travel with a group of skating fans who go to a lot of competitions ( I've been to 27 Nationals and 10 Worlds). A number of years ago, we bought matching blue scarves and wear them to competitions so our friends and families can locate us on tv. When we got the email, some of us decided to buy cutouts, all wearing our blue scarves. Here's an article that mentions us. (I'm not Claudyne). It was the cheapest way I have ever gone to Skate America.

4 hours ago, Jeddah said:

That’s awesome! Could you see yourself in the crowd? 

I was really disappointed that the people who always wear American flag outfits and sit in the front row did not have cardboard cutouts in the front row

I was surprised too that they weren't there, but the front row seats were very limited and went quick. We ordered ours within forty-eight hours of the email and couldn't get first row. We ended up in the second row on the aisle in the center. We got a lot of television time because when the skaters finished in the center of the ice, you could see us over their right shoulders.

We expect that no fans will be in allowed to attend Nationals in San Jose, so we intend to get cutouts there. As soon as I get the email, I'll post the link here.

Edited by Good Queen Jane
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Omeletsmom

Omeletsmom

What the hell were Hawayak/Baker skating to in the Free Dance? You cannot convince me that is an actual arrangement of Heart of Glass; they were just playing two songs at the same time. It was so distracting I could now really pay attention to the skating.  

Also, her costume looks like her partner was skating with bloody hands and smeared the blood all over her waist.

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healthnut

healthnut

U.S. Figure Skating just announced a new competition - The Las Vegas Invitational - which will air on NBC Sun., Nov. 15 from 4-6 p.m. ET. 

Two teams - Team Tara and Team Johnny - (Tara Lipinksi and Johnny Weir) will compete for $50,000 in prize money.

HomeLight and U.S. Figure Skating teamed up for the Las Vegas Invitational in order to create not only an additional competitive opportunity, but also to provide more funding for athletes whose prize money and appearance fee opportunities have been limited due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each team will be comprised of three ladies and three men from the U.S. who are senior eligible domestically. Each skater will perform a free skate with their scores being added together for a total team score. The team with the highest aggregate score after all team members have competed will be the winners. 

The event will be scored using the IJS, with one modification: both the ladies and men will be scored using the same components factor of 1.6 (men are typically scored with a factor of 2.0). As a result, the men’s scores will be lower than if the regular 2.0. component factor was used. By competing under the same component calculation factor, the ladies and men’s scores will carry the same weight in the composition of the overall team score.

Lipinski and Weir will “coach” their respective teams from the broadcast booth.

The teams for the Las Vegas Invitational are listed below.

Team Tara 
Starr Andrews, Nathan Chen, Alex Krasnozhon, Ilia Malinin, Audrey Shin, Bradie Tennell

Team Johnny 
Mariah Bell, Karen Chen, Tomoki Hiwatashi, Alysa Liu, Camden Pulkinen, Vincent Zhou

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healthnut

healthnut

11 hours ago, Mirabelle said:

So is it $50K for each skater on the team or is it $50K per team with the skaters splitting the money six ways?  I hope the losing team also gets some monetary compensation to make it worth their while or they all got some money for making an appearance.

It’s total prize money, so I imagine everyone gets something (albeit not a lot but more than they would have otherwise for sure), with the “winning” team getting a little more. Good call, @Good Queen Jane I’m sure they absolutely taped this after Skate America. 

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emmawoodhouse

emmawoodhouse

6 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Starr Andrews???  I wonder why they didn't get Amber Glenn.  Oh well...it's good to have this competition since we're not getting Skate Canada this year (or the event in France). Nice to see Ilia Malinin and Audrey Shin competing.

Amber can't skate a clean long program. Not that Starr's much better, but she had some name recognition. 

That's all I got. 😁

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andromeda331

andromeda331

It was great to see figure skating again. Mariah and Bradie were real good. I liked Karen's program too. So was Nathan of course. I liked Nathan's program too. I felt bad for male skater who had only found out a week before that he was going to compete. That's such a short amount of time to find out and prepare for. But he did much better then I thought he would. 

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annzeepark914

annzeepark914

Skate America weekend reminded me of the old days. Put everything on hold! I gotta watch my favorite sport. Back in the Dick Button days, this much skating time was normal. Speaking of DB, I can still "hear" him making comments when skaters did things that drove him nuts. "Hanging laundry" when a skater's arms kept flying up throughout the program. "Looks like a broken leg" when a layback spin was done improperly. I'd love to hear his comments re: current skaters' skills. A lot of skate fans thought he was too harsh. But at the next event, those skaters who were singled out returned with improved skating skills.

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annzeepark914

annzeepark914

16 hours ago, Growsonwalls said:

In some figure skating rumor mill news, there's a rumor floating around that Katia Gordeeva and David Pelletier got married this past weekend. 

Well, that's a shocker. I hope this marriage works out for Katia.

In other news, a cookbook featuring recipes donated by a wide variety of skaters is going on sale (no idea $) as a fundraiser for the 1961 team memorial. They provide a list of the skaters who donated: Chock & Bates, Natalia Mishkutenok, Caryn Kadavy, Elvis S. & wife, Nathan Barthalamay, Scott Hamilton, Kitty Caruthers, Carla Urbanski, and others. Reading the list was like old home week. Most I never heard of. Sorry I don't have all the info here.

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ChicksDigScars

ChicksDigScars

On 10/24/2020 at 11:58 PM, Chaser said:

Does anyone else struggle not to check out when they hear Hallelujah now? 

OMG. Yes. Plus you add the fact that you know who was skating to it. I thought that Hallelujah was joining Carmen on the STOP SKATING TO THESE SONGS list?

And I was disappointed to not see Chock and Bates, which meant that the Entitlement Twins cruised to the gold. The one good thing about their absence was that Ponomarenko and Carreira made the podium. And I had to LOL at Jean-Luc Baker exaggerating his wave to the cardboard crowd, playing up the act that the applause wasn't real. Hawayek and Baker did quite well for not training with the "cool kids" in Montreal. 

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annzeepark914

annzeepark914

2 hours ago, ChicksDigScars said:

And I was disappointed to not see Chock and Bates, which meant that the Entitlement Twins cruised to the gold. The one good thing about their absence was that Ponomarenko and Carreira made the podium. 

I'm just hoping that everything's ok with C/B (I'm a worrier!) Watching the twins crash around the rink at breakneck speed was not inspiring, IMO, but yes, it was great to see Carreira and Ponomarenko. Their style reminds me of his parents' skating (+ he looks so much like his mother). 

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Jeddah

Jeddah

8 hours ago, ChicksDigScars said:

OMG. Yes. Plus you add the fact that you know who was skating to it. I thought that Hallelujah was joining Carmen on the STOP SKATING TO THESE SONGS list?

I’m not ready to ban it yet, but I don’t understand why Hubbell and Donahue would choose it again. Did they forget they already skated to it? Who made this decision?

healthnut

healthnut

8 hours ago, Jeddah said:

I’m not ready to ban it yet, but I don’t understand why Hubbell and Donahue would choose it again. Did they forget they already skated to it? Who made this decision?

When they used it before, it was for a rhythm dance, and I know some people consider that to be one of their best programs. This season is as good as any to repeat a song, I suppose. I think they are desperate to recapture that magic they had a few seasons ago. In their defense, there was a March in that rhythm dance, too, so it wasn’t all Hallelujah. 

emmawoodhouse

emmawoodhouse

(edited)
1 hour ago, Harry24 said:

Didn’t I hear during the broadcast that they’ve been on their own in the US because of COVID?  I’m not positive, but there was quite a bit of discussion about their doing their own choreography etc.

Yes, they apparently were in the States on their own for about six weeks. This was per Terry and Tanith. During that time, they created the free dance.

Edited by emmawoodhouse
Stupid autocorrect. It's were not we're
SeanC

SeanC

1 hour ago, Harry24 said:

Didn’t I hear during the broadcast that they’ve been on their own in the US because of COVID?  I’m not positive, but there was quite a bit of discussion about their doing their own choreography etc.

They were in Buffalo for a few months during the first wave of the pandemic, and worked with their coaches over video on choreography, etc.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/30154650/how-did-pairs-ice-dancers-prepare-skate-america-pandemic-easy

Matryoshka

Matryoshka

On 10/28/2020 at 2:28 PM, Omeletsmom said:

What the hell were Hawayak/Baker skating to in the Free Dance? You cannot convince me that is an actual arrangement of Heart of Glass; they were just playing two songs at the same time. It was so distracting I could now really pay attention to the skating.  

Also, her costume looks like her partner was skating with bloody hands and smeared the blood all over her waist.

Heh. I loved it; I thought it was amazing.

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wintrygal

wintrygal

On 10/20/2020 at 11:36 PM, Enero said:

As everyone will see I’m completely behind on FS news. With everything that’s been going on I haven’t been keeping up. Just a few comments. 

I’m stunned about the James/Cipres news. I was a fan. Loved them, but I’m disgusted by Cipres alleged actions. I feel terrible for Vanessa as this was her last chance to perhaps win an Olympic medal. She’s too old to start over with a new partner. So her career will remain just what it is and in part tarnished by her partner’s alleged actions. 

With the Grand Prix final being postponed, I don’t think a new date has been selected, and now with the cancellation of Skate Canada and Four Continents, this FS season looks to be turning into a bust. 

I was also shocked to read Medvedeva is back with Eteri. Considering how contentious their parting was I thought it’d be a cold day in hell before they reunited but COVID seems to be wrecking havoc on many situations. Her situation is unfortunate as well as her competitive career is more likely than not over. Very sad.

It’ll be interesting to see what the skating world looks like after the pandemic calms. I suspect many who were staples in the sport before all this happened will disappear into the ether and perhaps those who were up and coming phenoms will too. A lot can change in a year without the motivation that comes with competing, injury, growth spurts (for the tweens), aging (for the older competitors) etc., which can quickly change the game. 

Vanessa is currently doing Battle of the Blades here in Canada, she ended up in the skate off tonight against Eric Radford and his partner but the judges scores tied it, so they all got to stay, really fun to watch.

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Maelstrom

Maelstrom

Sooo.... anyone here in the US know if NBC is going to deign to show more than an hour of Cup of China on network, or is full coverage only for Peacock subscribers? Let the schedule scavenger hunt begin. *insert my annual rant about how much NBC sucks here*

Finally catching up on Skate America, and Keegan Messing looked great! He really impressed me - I never used to have much of an opinion about him one way or the other, but in the last few years he’s really come into his own. He was on his game here - his FS almost made me like Guns and Roses for a minute. So happy we got to see him shine.

(in other news, I still miss Jason 😢)

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annzeepark914

annzeepark914

17 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Finally catching up on Skate America, and Keegan Messing looked great! He really impressed me - I never used to have much of an opinion about him one way or the other, but in the last few years he’s really come into his own. He was on his game here - his FS almost made me like Guns and Roses for a minute. So happy we got to see him shine.

(in other news, I still miss Jason 😢)

Why is Keegan skating for Canada? He really did look good in his LP!! I liked how he'd turn around in the K&C to show support for his teammates.

ChicksDigScars

ChicksDigScars

On 10/31/2020 at 3:42 PM, Harry24 said:

Didn’t I hear during the broadcast that they’ve been on their own in the US because of COVID?  I’m not positive, but there was quite a bit of discussion about their doing their own choreography etc.

That's what they said during the broadcast. They haven't been with their "team" in Montreal due to COVID, and have been training on their own, and that they choreographed their own routine.  

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Darknight

Darknight

I recently watched videos of skaters Wow Russia's pairs look good to me. People are saying Trusova improved but I don't see it at all. Her whole program is a jump fest. Alena regressed. She always had good skating skills but I found her lacking in interpretation and listening to the music. Without her 3A she isn't competitive and is actually average. I'm not saying she is bad she is very good. Has very good technical elements and skills but I don't see the hype. Especially without her 3A. 

What the heck is with with Kamilla's costumes? 

The quad race keeps getting younger and younger huh. 9 and 10 year old learning quads. Especially without proper technique. I'm waiting for the isu to step in. This includes boys and girls. It's ridiculous how little people care about children's well being. 

 

Alysa Liu's technique was never going to last. USAFS did her no favors rushing her to do quads and 3a and hyping her up to be the next coming of skating prodigy.  The comments about her are sad but this is a common theme. USAFS hypes one skaters up then turns away when they come crashing down. Gracie, Nathan, now Liu. They never learn their lessons. 

 

P/C decided to skip everything this year. Good for them. I don't believe the federations or the ISU should hold in person competitions. Russia already had many of their skaters that are competing in the Russian Cup test positive. Health comes first. Covid-19 is nothing to joke around with. I doubt they'll be a Worlds and even the Olympics are in a rough spot. 

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Avaleigh

Avaleigh

12 hours ago, Darknight said:

People are saying Trusova improved but I don't see it at all. Her whole program is a jump fest. Alena regressed. She always had good skating skills but I found her lacking in interpretation and listening to the music. Without her 3A she isn't competitive and is actually average. I'm not saying she is bad she is very good. Has very good technical elements and skills but I don't see the hype. Especially without her 3A. 

What the heck is with with Kamilla's costumes? 

With Trusova, I thought I saw a *little* improvement in the short program but I basically agree with you. It seems like she only puts the work in on the jumps and even the jumps aren't super consistent. (I can't recall her ever skating a clean long as a senior.) Still, in a sport where you can fall twice and easily win as Trusova just did, I suppose it's ultimately worth it to try as many quads as possible. Even her spins are subpar compared to most of her competitors, but it doesn't matter because she can usually hit at least two quads. 

With Kostornaia, I think it's obvious that her skating skills are far better than most of the other Russian ladies. (Anna, Darya, Aliona, and Kamila are probably the best Russia has in terms of artistry.) I agree though that she really needs that triple axel to stay at or near the head of the pack. I think the other problem that's making her seem less special this year is that her programs aren't really jelling. Both programs feel uninspired and the overall energy is lacking. She also seemed a little unsteady and there were multiple points in both the short and long where she seemed off her game e.g. the struggle with the Biellmann.

I read somewhere that Kamila was supposed to be a bird in one program and a snake in the other. Not sure what the deal is but I agree that the dresses are odd.

Even though I know it's a looong shot, there is still part of me that's really rooting for Elizaveta to make that Olympic team. I feel like she has more of a chance than Evgenia and it would be nice if one of the "older" ladies could show the younger ones that they've still got it. 

healthnut

healthnut

On 11/13/2020 at 9:56 PM, Darknight said:

P/C decided to skip everything this year. Good for them.

They have no competitions to compete in, both of ones they could have done (Canada where they train or France where they were scheduled) were cancelled. 
 

Who saw the Team Johnny/Tara competition today? I can’t watch til it shows up on Peacock in a few days. 

MaryMitch

MaryMitch

(edited)
11 hours ago, healthnut said:

They have no competitions to compete in, both of ones they could have done (Canada where they train or France where they were scheduled) were cancelled. 
 

Who saw the Team Johnny/Tara competition today? I can’t watch til it shows up on Peacock in a few days. 

I did - basically each team had 3 men and 3 women competing, so we got to see 12 skates. All singles, long programs, I think all American skaters.  I think Terry said they split $50,000 which isn't much, but it did give them an opportunity to compete in a low pressure environment.

Oh, and Nathen landed a quad loop. Apparently he hadn't done that in some time. I'm not good at knowing the jumps by just watching them, but Tara and Johnny both whooped when that happened!

Edited by MaryMitch
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