Flutzes and Waxels Podcast: Recent Episodes
Flutzes and Waxels Podcast
A figure skating podcast to satisfy all of your skating news, analysis, and recap needs. Run by lifelong skaters and skating fans, Alicia and Mary. Get ready to jump right in to the nitty gritty details of what’s happened this week in figure skating. Get bonus content and support the work we do by joining our Patreon (link above).
We wrap up Junior Worlds with our favourite discipline and a really fun event - the junior dance! We discuss the many pattern dance interruptions that were assessed by this tech panel, how to balance skating with full speed and energy with not making major mistakes, and the nice balance we have of countries with lots of talent competing with each other, plus newer countries having teams that are competitive with the best junior teams. Plus, we take some time to discuss the newly released rules and requirements for dance next season, and announce an upcoming hiatus for the podcast.
We continue our discussion of Junior Worlds with the men's event and discuss how important international competitions are to skater development (and how many skaters seem to be currently feeling the lack of opportunities), the reasonable number of quads attempted in the free skate, and the countries with exciting competition brewing among their young men's skaters.
Next up we discuss the small pairs event, including the state of the pairs field for the upcoming season in general, what reforms could be made to encourage more pairs teams worldwide to develop and be able to compete somewhat regularly, and our hopes for a successful future career for all of the teams here, but particularly those already finding success in brand new partnerships.
This strange season wraps up with the Junior World Championships, and we begin our recaps with the women! We discuss how JGP spots for next season will be allocated (and whether there could be a better way to do it), whether tech minimums for the women need to be raised a bit next year, and when having one stand out quality can help you more in your scores than being consistently strong in all PCS categories.
We wrap up our discussion of Worlds with our favourite men's event of the season, and discuss the fantastic skating we saw here, some young teens with tons of untapped potential, the last-minute alternates who really capitalized on their sudden opportunity, and just how amazing our winner might be if he could get in three free skate combinations consistently.
This year's Worlds also had an exciting dance event, helped out by a very enthusiastic crowd. We discuss score ceilings in dance, wonder what next year's rhythm dance requirements will be (and whether there will actually be a pattern requirement), and hope for more weird and eccentric programs in a post-Olympic season.
After a tough women's event at the Olympics, we had a much more enjoyable time with the women's event at Worlds, and we discuss how thrilled we are to have a podium full of happy tears, the agony and the ecstasy of placements decided by just hundredths of points, and our hope that just about all the women who competed here will continue skating and competing for many years so we can continue to enjoy watching them develop.
This year's world championships were a strange one in many ways, but particularly in the pairs event. We discuss the opportunities and pressures faced by teams with a sudden chance to make it to the top of the podium, why referees should be empowered to do more in the case of a mid-program injury, and how much we hope that pairs skating worldwide will grow and thrive in the next quad after the inevitable splits and retirements that happen after an Olympics.
Figure skating at this Olympics concluded with the pairs, and it was just about everything we had hoped it would be! We discuss the many amazing skates from the top half of the field and the extremely close race for gold, the many promising young teams we hope to see competing in four years time, and how much we hope the legacy of amazing Chinese pair teams continues well into the future.
Olympic figure skating events wrap up with the pairs this time around, and we started off with a pretty fantastic short program. We discuss how much of a numbers game the free skate might be for the top teams, how much we've missed seeing the Chinese pairs this season, and how much we hope that this Olympics can end on a high note with a good free skate for the pairs.
The wrap up of the women's event at this Olympics was another tough one to experience, and we discuss some skaters who were able to overcome everything surrounding them and have a good skate, but how distressing it is that the entire event was so completely overshadowed by far too many failures from the powers that be.
We had a real bummer time talking about the women's event at the Olympics and everything surrounding it.
Somehow the Olympics are already more than halfway through, and while the skating continues, so does the doping scandal.Today, we break down the (somewhat disappointing) freedance, as well as the CAS ruling on the doping scandal. We discuss why panels should be harsher about stepsequence levels, the importance of a good stopwatch, and some lifts gone horribly awry, then wrap up with the breakdown of the CAS ruling and followup from other governing bodies.
The next event up at these Olympics is the ice dance, and we discuss a rhythm dance that was overshadowed for us by technical issues and doping drama. We discuss where the results were impacted by one major mistake versus overall lack of quality for some teams and whether nerves for both favourites and Olympic newcomers played into this event feeling bit messier than we had hoped, plus we discuss the newest updates on the doping controversy that seems to be completely taking over this Olympics.
After an incredible men's short program this week, we had high hopes and moderate expectations for the free. It didn't quite live up to our hopes, but we discuss highly engaging performers, costly popped jumps, and the risk versus reward of trying out your most difficult jumps on Olympic ice.
The document we discuss can be found here: https://www.isu.org/inside-isu/legal/disciplinary-decisions/538-case-2016-03-ms-yelim-kim/file
The individual events at this Olympics began with the men's short program, and we discuss some really fantastic skates (with some pretty high scoring to go along with them), a pretty shocking moment that prevented us from having quite the head-to-head match-up for gold that everyone had been expecting for the past few years, and who was able to build off the momentum of the very recently completed team event, and who struggled perhaps as a result of its' proximity to the individual competition.
The final day of the Olympic team event had its share of ups and downs, and we discuss some scary moments in pairs and why having a level 4 death spiral with good GOE can be so important to your overall placement and score, whether we'll see teams struggle or rise to the occasion after some exciting and disappointing results in dance, and hope that the young women competing under so much pressure at this Olympics have a team surrounding them to put everything into perspective, especially if things go awry.
Day two of the Olympic team event saw the field narrowed down to just five countries who will try to win the first figure skating medal of the 2022 Games! We discuss the women's short programs with the most impact on their countries placements in the event, a heartbreaking tie-breaker scenario for the final team to make the free skate, and the really rough turn around time for the men competing this Olympics, and why the team event should really be last rather than first.
We can't believe it is already here, but we are already diving into the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, starting off with day one of the team event. We discuss COVID complicating qualification for the free, why getting a first outing before the individual event could be a good thing or a bad thing for these skaters, and the likelihood of an intense battle for the top spot in the team event.
Only one continent was represented in pairs at Four Continents this year, and we discuss the very interesting battle between six up and coming North American teams, and between former partners, and hope that we see all of these partnerships continue to grow and improve next season. Plus, we briefly discuss our podcasting plans for the rapidly approaching 2022 Olympic Games!
The dance field at Four Continents this year was small and rather messy, and we discuss an alarming number of falls for a smaller dance event, our hope for up and coming teams from outside North America to be better appreciated in the future, and wonder what next season might hold for the North American teams here who weren't quite strong enough to make it to the Olympics.
There were some really great skates from the women at Four Continents, and we discuss whether it was a good idea to have the Korean Olympic team compete here so close to the Olympics, some lenient tech calling (and whether that's an indication of the calling we might see at the Olympics), and some exciting head-to-heads we're excited to see in coming seasons among the young Korean and Japanese women.
This weekend's Four Continents Championships was a bit of a smaller one due to the upcoming Olympics, but we begin our recaps with an interesting men's event! We discuss the many skaters likely ending their seasons here with a strong set of skates to set them up for next year, successes and failures in jump math, and why it was really unnecessary for Australia to leave their Olympic team selections so very down to the wire this year.
We wrap up this year's European Championships with the women, and discuss some very last minute Olympic spots that are still in question, some really joyful skates that could have been better rewarded in the scores, and what some skates here might indicate about how the Olympic team event could go down.
The pairs event at Europeans this year saw some inconsistent skating, and we discuss Olympic season score inflation which we hope can be addressed at the next Congress, whether a double twist has an unwarranted effect on PCS, and some young teams who we will hope will continue to skate together for many years to ensure a real future for the discipline outside of Russia.
Despite a number of withdrawals from the dance event at Europeans it was an interesting event, and we discuss the conclusion of the battle for the lone Spanish ice dance spot at the Olympics, teams we hope will finally make it to the Olympics versus those who unfortunately won't be able to go, and teams we hope are really finding their identity in terms of program style versus those still seemingly struggling to do so.
This week's European Championships had a very exciting and pretty well skated men's event, and we discuss the tough choice to make for the third man on the Russian Olympic team, some real jump math problems in the free skate, and some exciting young skaters making their debut at Europeans (though some due to unfortunate withdrawals).
We wrap up this weekend of skating with the US men and discuss some surprise podium placements and how it should have impacted the Olympic team selection, chaotic jumps at this event and the potential for more of them in the future internationally, and the many signs and indications that our eventual Olympic men's team should just not have come to nationals in the first place.
Next, we discuss the US women, including the front runners unable to compete due to COVID (and whether this competition was really necessary to determine Olympic spots), our opinions on how we might have had these standings turn out at the end of the day, and how this nationals tech calling might compare to that of an international panel.
There was a deep field in dance at US nationals, and some very interesting head-to-head match-ups, and we discuss why this year's patterns might make it slightly easier to do a half-junior, half-senior season, twizzle mistakes really determining the placements on the lower half of the podium, and how hard it is to give out late season international assignments when you have so many strong teams and only so many places (even in this Olympic year).
Next up, we move on to the US national championships and a pairs event which was very directly impacted by COVID. We discuss the difficulty of skating against a team unable to be in the competition for an Olympic spot, the likelihood of Olympic alternates being needed to fill in at the Games, and whether this event really needed to happen to decide on Olympic spots.
We wrap up Canadian nationals with the pairs, and the contentious decision made regarding the Olympic assignments. We discuss some season best performances (including from teams who just had interrupted training time due to COVID), how to keep developing young pair teams in Canada, and our hope (unfortunately unrealized) that the Olympic team decision was communicated clearly and compassionately to the team who was left out in the cold.
Next up we discuss the women's event, which has always been a bit of a weaker discipline for Canada, and we discuss the importance of sending out many more skaters (junior and senior) for tech minimums and competition experience, who we hope will continue to stick around in the Canadian skating world (as either skaters, coaches, or choreographers), and wonder just who the Olympic alternates will be since it hasn't been announced.
There were a lot of strong teams competing in the Canadian nationals dance event, and we discuss the impact of empty stands on the performance level the skaters were able to put out, our thoughts on changes we'd like to see in some lifts that we don't think quite work, and why last minute music changes need to come with substantial choreographic changes to be effective.
We begin our recap of the substantial amount of skating from this weekend with the Canadian men, and a discussion of the overall COVID testing situation at Canadian nationals. We discuss some young guys with lots of potential who really delivered here, missing skates and luggage leading to some nervous moments, and the tough decision making involved in deciding whether to try competing when you've just lost training time due to COVID.
We wrap up this week's competitions with the Russian national pairs event, which was a bit rougher than usual, but still one of our favourite events of the season. We discuss whether it might be a good idea for the European and Olympic teams to be different in an Olympic year (as many Four Continents countries do), some teams cleaning up their recurring mistakes while we see other teams making mistakes we had hoped they'd gotten over, and why Russia should add at least one extra flight at nationals to really showcase the incredible depth they have in pairs skating.
The men at Russian nationals were as unpredictable as ever, and we discuss why a short program strategy we've complained about for two seasons might have dashed a skater's hopes for an Olympic spot, how amazing it was that our winner was able to skate consistently under the extreme pressure of an Olympic season nationals, and whether results at Europeans could influence the federation to change the men's assignments for the Olympics.
Next up, we discuss the women's event at Russian nationals, which saw the gamut of withdrawals, great skates and nervous skates. We discuss some exciting junior programs that could have been more rewarded, the many quads attempted and landed and our concerns about their longevity among such young skaters, and the issues the federation runs into when successful juniors place ahead of age-eligible seniors at nationals, particularly in an Olympic year.
Next up, we move on to Russian nationals which were filled with drama, particularly in the dance event. We discuss why skipping an event is very likely better for your health and your career than competing while injured, whether skaters prohibited from going to the previous Olympics will be allowed to go this time around, and our general frustrations with judging this season (exacerbated by the usual extreme domestic scoring).
In this half of our Japanese nationals recap we cover both the dance and the men, and discuss a really difficult Olympic team decision in ice dance, our yearly plea for more Japanese singles skaters to try out pairs and/or dance, and whether anyone will ever actually be able to land a clean quad Axel in a program.
We're back after a bit of a break to discuss this holiday season's national championships, and what better way to start than with the women at Japanese nationals! We discuss what our strategy would be for picking a three-person Olympic team, heartbreak for our perpetual pewter medalist, and why Japanese TV's special graphics and program speed maps should be used at all ISU competitions.
Records were broken in the final Grand Prix event of the season for the women, and we discuss the scoring ceiling we are quickly approaching (and some of the many changes we'd like to see made to try to rectify it at the next ISU Congress), why competitive career longevity is so appreciated by not only fans but also other skaters, and some young skaters from smaller federations with lots of exciting potential for the future.
Some unfortunate withdrawals made this final Grand Prix dance event a bit of a smaller one, and we discuss why we shouldn't be so afraid of negative GOEs in ice dace scoring, why twizzle and lift issues in particular can be so costly to overall scores, and our confusion over the many mashups of totally unrelated music selections in this year's rhythm dances from a lot of teams.
The men wrap up the regular Grand Prix season with another event of great highs and lows and wild inconsistencies. We discuss skaters making improvements versus those making similar mistakes in multiple events, how consistency across both programs helped to prevent a Russian sweep of the gold medals here, and whether skating on the JGP would be a better way to ease into the pressures of an Olympic season for an inexperienced competitor.
This week saw the final Grand Prix event of the season, and we begin by discussing some amazing pairs skating (and some unfortunate issues in pairs elements). We express our hopes for this year's Russian Nationals in pairs, get excited over programs bringing more acrobatics into pairs skating, and lament the toll that the past year's struggles have caused for some strong experienced pair teams this Olympic season.
We wrap up this week with the women's event, which was a bit of a messier one this week. We discuss the continued unfortunate correlation between free skate start order and high scores (and why it makes it so important to have a clean short program), the value of a nice triple-double combination, and the potential risks and rewards of changing programs mid-season when you have little time between competitions.
This week saw a bit of a messy dance event with some inconsistent scoring, and we discuss some really unfortunate falls, twizzle issues being scored generously, teams whose skates we enjoyed more here than in previous outings (but whose scores were disappointing), and more music edits we would suggest for some of the teams here.
There were some solid skates in the men's event this week, and we discuss some examples here of skaters without a quad in the short program being at the top of the rankings (with skaters attempting two finishing far below them), why when following our advice of skating 'easier but cleaner' you need to make sure that you actually do skate clean, and the confusing status of Olympic hopefuls from France and Russia.
This week's pairs event saw an interesting battle for the podium, and we discuss how some choices in the filming of this event makes it difficult to assess what issues might have arisen on certain lifts, how relieved we were to see some consistent throw triple flips in this event, and the difficult balance between getting competition experience and getting burnt out and injured.
We wrap up our NHK recap with the men's event, which was a bit better skated overall than some of the earlier Grand Prix events. We discuss the pros and cons of Olympic pressure spread out among a variety of skaters rather than focused on just one or two, why ending with weak spins can mar the overall impression of an otherwise strong program, and the lost experience for some young talented Japanese skaters who had to miss out on formative JGP experiences for the last two seasons.
There were some real highs and lows in the NHK pairs event, and we discuss some scary twist mistakes, the real potential to see a Japanese team at the Grand Prix Final this year (and even to see them make a big splash there), and why having a fun, playful program can really set you apart from other teams taking a more traditional approach to Olympic season programs.
The women's event at NHK was a greatly reduced one due to withdrawals (including one in the warm-up)but we saw some exciting skating here. We discuss why completely omitting a jumping pass in the free skate might not be the worst strategy in the world, why playing it a bit safe and avoiding injury might be one of the best ways to make it to the Olympics, and why excessive use of voice overs can feel condescending to an audience.
This week was the 2021 NHK Trophy, which had a number of withdrawals, but some interesting head-to-heads in the dance event. We discuss why in the current scoring system getting good GOEs is more important than getting your levels, changes to musical arrangements that we think would improve some of the programs here, and an increasingly interesting battle for the lone Olympic spot for Japan in dance.
We wrap up the third Grand Prix of the season with the women's event, and discuss whether there's any possibility of scoring changes being implemented at the next ISU Congress, skaters struggling with injury and those who are coming back strong from them, and why planning to do jumps anywhere close to the boards is just a bad idea in general.
This week saw a pretty solid dance event, and we discuss some lenient tech calling and judging across the event, some musical arrangements that don't make a ton of sense and could use some editing to be more effective, and why the filming at this event and overuse of extreme closeups was not only frustrating, but made it really hard to tell what was going on when things went wrong.
Though the men on the Grand Prix continue to be inconsistent, we saw some strong individual skates this week. We discuss Lutz setup time as a potential indicator of nerves, which Italian men are now falling prey to the curse of rough short programs, and why it's never a good idea to try to do the same jump three times in a row in a free program.
This week saw the first edition of the Gran Premio d'Italia, and we begin our recap with the pairs! We discuss a strong team who has been unfairly impacted by COVID travel restrictions (and whether they can turn that into an advantage), why a team who can get all of their levels can afford a jumping mistake or two, and our concerns about skaters who admitted to feeling ill at this event.
Men's figure skating is always inconsistent, and that continued in this week's Grand Prix event. We discuss our continued frustrations with numerous talented skaters not living up to their potential, plead once again with skaters to try to strategize to be cleaner with easier technical content, and advocate again for skaters to not risk skating while injured and causing potential long term damage, even if that means stopping in the middle of a program.
This week's Grand Prix dance event had some similar technical issues to last week, but a lot of fun programs, and in our recap we discuss just how vital it is to fake confidence in a dance program (especially if you're not) if you want to improve your scores, why we prefer retro music and dance styles in the rhythm dance to hip-hop generally speaking, and why even amazing choreography can't guarantee a good program if the skaters aren't really feeling the music and the style of performance they've been given.
This week's women's event at Skate Canada International was a high flying one. With a huge number of women attempting triple axels in competition, there we no shortage of things to talk about. We discuss the unfair disparity in the way start order impacts PCS, the risk versus reward of trying these exceptionally difficult elements in competition, and a return to form for some skaters we've been missing lately.
In our first breakdown of this weekend's Skate Canada International, we have strong opinions about this messy pairs event. We discuss chaotic, acrobatic programs, the potential skates needed to win the Olympics, PCS disparity, and we have lots to say about a contentious (and wrong) call on a lift, including all the rules actually laid out in the pairs technical handbook.
We wrap up recapping Skate America with the dance event, which was a bit of a disappointing one for us. We discuss rules for lifts, and a lift that wasn't quite what we expected it to be, why you should always choose the music for the pattern dance first when creating a Rhythm Dance, and why we are fully on board with a consistently harsh tech panel.
The women were much more consistent than the men at Skate America, and we discuss why fewer quads and triple Axels being attempted can allow for some more confident and clean skates, why we really hope that the next ISU Congress will really look at changing how judging is done, particularly for components, and why you should be very careful in using voice-overs in a program to avoid condescending to your audience.
We continue our discussion of the first Grand Prix of the season with the pairs event, and discuss our excitement over the potential rise of pairs skating in Japan in the future, lament that consistent struggles with a single element could potentially threaten the Olympic chances of any Russian pair, and shout out one of our favourite programs of this season and last that we haven't seen get much appreciation from judges or fans.
The senior Grand Prix is here, and we're back with full recaps of all the skaters in each discipline! We start with the men, who had a really rough short program and a number of guys skating injured, and discuss the huge risks that can come with trying to compete injured, the importance of careful editing and choreography to prepare an audience for a big musical transition, and how hard it must be to try and land multiple quads with the immense pressure of an Olympic season on you.
We wrap up our final JGP recap of the season with the men's and dance events in Linz, and discuss the trend of messy dance events we've been seeing this JGP season, some strong technical skating and performances in this men's event that really excited us, and discuss the importance of changing your competition mindset from getting dismayed over lost points on an element to focusing on thinking of places in a program where you can salvage those lost points, even if it's just a bit at a time.
We've finally caught up with the final JGP event of the season, and we start off this recap by discussing the very late announcement of how spots for the JGP Final are being decided, and our annoyance that the number of pairs who will be going has been cut down to just four. We also break down our thoughts about two very similar skaters at the top of the women's event and what small things differentiate them in the standings, and a really exciting pairs event with teams breaking technical barriers and showing some exciting potential for the discipline in countries outside of Russia.
We conclude our recap of Finlandia with the women and ice dance, and discuss some high scoring that will probably only get higher as the season goes on, skaters from smaller federations who had a great event here, and the ever tightening battle for the lone Spanish ice dance spot, plus we call on the ISU to make a real effort to condemn outward homophobia in figure skating.
We had a stacked field of entrants at Finlandia in the men's and pairs' events, and in this first part of our recap we discuss why it would never be our first choice to skate to music you know someone else is skating to, some inconsistent scoring of new pairs teams, and some possible indications of who might get the coveted Olympic spots for countries with multiple skaters trying to qualify for just one or two available spots.
This week's JGP featured a pretty enjoyable men's event and a pretty rough dance event, and we discuss the men who were able to make skating with multiple quads look easy and those who were able to perform to the fullest because they weren't including quads in their programs, and a whole bunch of silly mistakes and rule violations in the dance event that made it a bit of a tough one to watch.
This week was the penultimate JGP event in Poland, and we're still waiting to hear exactly how skaters will qualify for the JGP Final, but we have lots to say about the performances we most enjoyed from the women (whether or not they were attempting the most difficult jumps), a very strange throw technique from one of the Russian pairs, and our dismay over the very small pairs fields so far this JGP season.
We've finally caught up with this week's JGP, and we have plenty of thoughts about rules about touching the ice not being enforced and the reemergence of "dying on ice", how much we love watching the basic skating of Korean skaters on the JGP (whether the elements go well or not), and the new importance of having a strategy for how many quads/triple Axels to attempt in the women's event.
We conclude our recap of Nebelhorn and the allocation of the final Olympic spots with the women and dance, and discuss the tough spot the Italian women are in with qualifying for the Olympic team event but not the individual event, positive COVID tests once again impacting an Olympic qualifying event, and some exciting young dance teams who've qualified for the Olympics and who we hope will make a splash there.
With the conclusion of Nebelhorn, all spots for the 2022 Olympics have now been assigned, and we begin the episode with a discussion of what this means for the Olympic team event. We then discuss a pairs event that was pretty rough in spite of having some talented teams in attendance, the many second and third spots earned to the Olympics in the men's event (with only two countries earning their first Olympic spot here), and why the possibility of Sweden giving up its earned Olympic spots is so frustrating for the skaters and for us.
We wrap up discussing this weekend's events with the junior women and dance, and have a lot of thoughts about the high scoring we saw at this JGP. We discuss the continuous rhythm requirements for a free dance (and a program that probably violates them), why the prevalence of quads coming in to the women's free skates can take away from the ability of these skaters to fully perform at the level we know they're capable of, and why long interruptions within a competition like we saw with the Rhythm Dance can be really unfair to skaters, and potentially skew the results of an event.
This fourth JGP was a very high scoring event, but there was also a whole lot of great skating to discuss in the men's and pairs events! We discuss a really strong men's event where a decent skate that might have won in a different week could wind up off the podium, and some amazing pairs teams who are pushing the boundaries with side-by-side jump content and senior-ready pairs elements.
We wrap up our thoughts on this year's Autumn Classic with a disappointingly small men's event which had far too many withdrawals, and an exciting dance event with lots of implications for Spain's sole Olympic spot and the upcoming Canadian and US nationals, and discuss which programs will be most memorable to both devoted skating fans and a general Olympic viewing audience.
We were sad to miss being at Autumn Classic in person this season, but glad that it was able to go forward, and wind up with some very interesting results! We discuss whether our surprise winner of the women's event will be at Nebelhorn next week, the mini Canadian nationals events in the women and pairs, and where Japan's chances for an Olympic team medal might stand at the moment with newfound success in pairs.
This week marks the true start of the international senior season, with our first challenger, the Lombardia Trophy. With so many skaters and teams preparing to compete for an Olympic spot in 2 weeks, this was bound to be an interesting one. We discuss the skaters who are setting themselves up well to peak in two weeks, the big (or not so big) victories for the skaters who don't need to, and some crucial ice dance missteps that might make all the difference on the road to the Olympics.
This week on the JGP we had a full roster, including a full brigade of Russian skaters. We discuss the women and pairs, including what makes a good music choice for an angsty teen versus a sunshine kid, why team Georgia is gunning for the Olympic team event, the importance of a strong relationship in pairs, and some new favourites who are definitely ones to watch.
This week we saw our first JGP not only with all 4 disciplines, but also with the return of team Russia. In this first episode we break down the men and the dance and discuss why some of our favourite skaters wind up setting the bar very high for themselves, some really innovative but risky choreographic choices, how important it is to make the right music choices as a junior team, and why reading the handbook through can be the difference between a win and a silver medal.
We're back in Courchevel for week two of the JGP and have even more to say about how travel restrictions are impacting skaters and competitions, which teams have the best Blues free leg positioning, why quads might be inadvisable to try in August at altitude, and when a combination spin is no longer a combination spin.
The Olympic season has officially begun! We start off the season with a slightly smaller than normal JGP, and discuss why certain countries were missing here, why early season events at altitude can be a difficult watch, the importance of facial engagement with a performance, random voice-overs, copied choreography, Blues pattern free-leg positioning, and much more as we return to recapping events in what will hopefully be a more normal figure skating season.
We're back this week to talk about some Canadian junior dance (and some other disciplines too)! Skate Canada held a simulation this last week for junior skaters and we're excited to be back watching and discussing skating. We discuss technical difficulties in virtual competition being even more unfair than regular technical difficulties, why the men's event is currently less competitive than junior dance, why we wish dance teams weren't allowed to have a break between their two patterns of the Blues, and a choreographic sliding move that is kind of terrifying and we'd like to see abandoned.
The ISU just dropped a whole bunch of important documents, so we are here to discuss new rules, Grand Prix assignments, and some of the other stuff that has been going on in the skating world in the last little while! We discuss how much we wish that an ISU Congress had been able to happen this year or last, whether the Grand Prix (or the rest of the regular fall season) will be able to go on as normal, and question what is going on with some skaters missing from the Grand Prix lists and what certain federations were thinking when they created the Ice Dance assignment list.
This off season, we've got something special planned for our Patreon subscribers, and you won't want to miss it! We teased our new upcoming series of episodes on Patreon this weekend, but wanted to share what we're going to be doing this off season with all of our listeners. Listen in to our preview here, and you can catch the full series on our Patreon at patreon.com/flutzescast !
The men and dance teams at world Team Trophy didn't perform quite as well for the most part as they did at Worlds, but we find tons to discuss, including speculation on who might skate a disco rhythm dance next season, who might be in the fight for Canada's Olympic spots, and which French skaters are delivering the weird programs we always hope for from team France. Plus, since this is the last competition of the season, we talk a bit about what we'll be doing on the podcast this off season!
The last event of the season in complete, and in this first part of our World Team Trophy recap we discuss some pretty consistent pairs programs, some wild PCS variance between Worlds and this event for similarly skated programs, and why this was probably not the best time for a last minute program change. Plus, we talk a bit about the issues with holding this event so close to Worlds, with an audience, and with little enforcement of the ISU's own COVID guidelines.
We've discussed all the skating that happened at the World Championships, but we had a lot of concerns about how this event was run in the middle of a global pandemic that we felt needed to be addressed. We discuss the safety and effectiveness of the Worlds "bubble" and our concerns about negative ramifications we haven't even seen yet, and also discuss why the upcoming World Team Trophy is such a bad idea, and why the ISU needs to sort out the current confusion about which countries exactly have qualified their Olympic spots at Worlds versus Nebelhorn.
We wrap up the skating from Worlds with the men, who skated surprisingly better than we had expected! We discuss the dramatic showdown for gold that we were disappointed didn't quite happen, our sadness over China having only one spot qualified at a home Olympics, and why our favourite jump of the whole event might not be the same as everyone else's, and which was sorely underappreciated by the judges.
The ladies event was a frustrating one for many, including us, and we try to make sense of the judging and final placements. We talk a whole lot about PCS scoring and what could possibly be done to fix it, the underdogs who rose to the occasion and the favourites who struggled to skate their best, and try to imagine an event where everyone skated to their full potential.
The excitement of a pairs event can be a great or a terrifying thing, and this event had a bit of both. We discuss why making this the Olympic qualifying event was particularly unfair for the pairs competing here, defend our love for our new World champions and their programs, and wonder whether this will finally prompt Japan to start developing more pair teams to try to take advantage of their only team's newfound success.
We are back to discuss all the many happenings at the World Championships, which we still can't believe actually took place! We start with the dance, and discuss our relief at the tech panel being more restrained in handing out levels, why the way Olympic qualification spots are handed out could be so much improved, and gush over the teams who were finally properly rewarded for their great skating and programs, and defend to the teeth the teams who went unappreciated by the judges.
This weekend we settled in to watch the virtual Skate Canada Challenge, and we were (unsurprisingly) excited about the dance. We discuss both the junior and senior events, why repeat programs can be a benefit or a hindrance this season, why more judges should appreciate fun programs, and the programs we don't really understand but loved anyway.
This weekend we also watched the virtual Skate Canada Challenge, and we had a lot to say not only about the singles and pairs disciplines and the general state of Canadian skating, but also why it was necessary for Canadian nationals to be cancelled, and the many issues that come up with running and judging virtual events, and why these issues would be even larger on a global scale.
We wrap up US nationals with a really strongly skated men's event, and discuss why our opinions about skaters need to grow and mature along with them, why this might have been a better season to repeat programs rather than get new ones, and some really weird Axel technique.
We have a lot of (potentially controversial) thoughts about the dance event at US nationals, which featured some fantastic teams, but also some frustrating judging and tech calling. We discuss why levels are so vital in assessing a dance event, why the standard to achieve a level four should be continually evolving, and why federations should allow audiences to see lower level skaters online who usually aren't shown on the TV broadcast.
Next up is the pairs event, which featured some strong teams, but some inconsistent scoring which left us frustrated. We discuss the close race for potential Olympics spots next year, how much the success (or failure) of lifts can really impact the end opinion of a program, and why nationals scoring should still be consistent.
This week we cover the senior events at US Nationals, but before we begin our discussion of the ladies, we felt we needed to discuss the pseudo "bubble" situation, and why the set up used at this event is insufficient to totally ensure the safety of everyone involved. We also discuss some fantastic skating by the top ladies, how the front runners handled the pressure of this event, and why in this competition, the health and happiness of the skaters was the thing most at the front of our mind throughout.
And finally, we get to the dramatic men's event from Japan, but not before we take a look at what's going on in Japanese ice dance! We discuss some pretty good rhythm dances and free dance disasters, why a lack of jump combinations make us so frustrated, and speculate on whether we'll see some of these guys repeating their programs for the Olympic season, or still getting new ones for next year.
There was also a whole lot of skating in Japan this week, and we start our recap with the ladies event, which is always one of our favourites. We discuss some strong season debuts from the ladies training internationally, why a short program triple Axel might be too much of a risk in a field this large and deep, and the many young talented skaters who we really wish could have had a JGP season to really show off their skills.
The trend of skaters who might be injured or ill having inconsistent skates continues with the pairs at Russian Nationals, though even with some messy programs, there was a lot to be excited about. We discuss how much we hate unnecessary late start deductions, some very inconsistent GOE judging, and why we wish Russia would give up a few teams to skate for other countries so that all of their amazing teams could get lots of international competition opportunities.
The men at Russian Nationals were unpredictable as expected, and we discuss the skaters who were able to peak at maybe their most important competition (including a real surprise medalist!), some really shady and uncomfortable camera work, our uncertainty about who here was competing sick and/or injured, and our wish that more men would just try to skate clean and not try to throw out too many quad attempts that are likely to go awry.
The dance event at Russian Nationals was a bit of a messier one than we were expecting, and we break down the unusual number of errors by the top teams, our thoughts on rhythm dance music choices, and who is still in the fight for a coveted worlds top alternate spot (if worlds still happens and everyone is healthy - which is very much still in question).
We start our recap of this past week's bevy of skating content with the ladies at Russian Nationals, and a general discussion of our concerns for the health and safety of the skaters here and why much more needs to be done to try to preserve the health and well-being of athletes who are so often children. We also discuss the impact of injury and illness on a number of the skaters' performances, and why this whole event was a bit hard for us to enjoy.
The final stage of the Russian Cup was a smaller one than we anticipated but we discuss all of the events plus a whole lot of skating news. We discuss the recent cancellation of Europeans, a flood of COVID infections among Russian skaters, and how those factors might affect Russian nationals. Plus we go over some interesting junior fields and some senior skaters who made the push to qualify for nationals, and try to imagine what the junior and senior national fields might look like this season.
The ladies had the strongest event of NHK this year, and we discuss the cost-benefit analysis of putting triple Axels or quads into a program this season, our concerns about the consistency of PCS scoring across the field, and some strong junior skaters who have the potential to really push the top Japanese ladies.
The final Grand Prix event of the season is over, and in this episode we discuss the men (who were a bit of a mess) and the tiny ice dance field! We discuss how important it is to have time to gel and make your lifts look solid as a dance team, why a lot of the men competing are probably attempting too many quads for their readiness level, and the young guys who suffered from a quick turn-around time from their junior nationals and the lack of a JGP this season.
It's our 300th episode, and to celebrate we're discussing and gushing over the amazing pairs at Rostelecom! We speculate about an exciting future for all of these teams and potential quad twists in the mix, plus we delve deep into program choices and how we would compare how the music and choreography suits each pair and whether judges' program preference could make a difference in the standings at nationals.
We saw a fairly international field in the ice dance at Rostelecom, and we discuss the ever changing standings among the Russian teams, why a lot of the scoring was pretty outrageous, strange musical choices, and an emotional moment that was a reminder of what a strange, stressful year this has been for everyone.
The men at Rostelecom were the mixed bag we've come to expect from men's skating of late, but we discuss the excitement of a clean program, and how it can be a bit marred by silly mistakes, why choosing which quads to attempt and at which point in the program can be so vital to the overall result, a concerning lack of stamina from some skaters, and why wearing stirrup pants might be more trouble than they're worth.
This week's Russian skating event was slightly more international, and we discuss the ladies at the third Grand Prix event of the season! We discuss quad success rates across disciplines, what makes for an effective costume change, how COVID and competition have had a negative impact on a lot of the skaters, and why spin and step sequence levels were again a determining factor in this competition.
We wrap up stage four of the Russian Cup with the men's events, and then the thing keeping us going this year - Russian pairs! We discuss the relative merits of a short program quad flip, gush about Moskvina, her pairs, and her choreography, and marvel at the depth, quality, and ruthlessness of this pairs event and the many head to head battles to come in the next month and a half.
There were a lot of quads in the ladies and not quite as much competition in the dance at stage four of the Russian Cup, and in this part one of our recap we discuss our concerns about increased attention, COVID, and pressure on the very young junior ladies, our relief at seeing skaters not too upset over their mistakes, and why hiding your weak spots with choreography can only do so much in a tough senior ice dance field.
This year's Cup of China felt like a very odd Grand Prix event with very restricted fields, but we discuss all of the skaters in one place here, and discuss how our high standards for Chinese pairs match those we have for Russian pairs, the pressure the Chinese ladies must be feeling in trying to make it to a home Olympics, and how excited we are to see young men competing who look like they're having fun in their programs.
We conclude our recap of stage three of the Russian Cup with the men and pairs, and discuss scary pairs mistakes, why pairs is the one discipline where the domestic judging can be a little less over the top, and why with so many top skaters getting injured, Russia might have shot itself in the foot by requiring so many competitions to make it to nationals this year.
Due to the cancellation of Skate Canada International, this week we're taking a look back at the third stage of the Russian Cup, beginning with ladies and dance! We discuss how disappointing it is to see such small senior dance fields in Russia, why The Artist is not a musical (including by the ISU's definition), our frustration with coaches not supporting their skaters when they make mistakes, and why strong spins can overtake a triple axel, particularly when bonus points are involved.
Finally, we wrap up Skate America with the pairs event, which was a real fight for podium spots, and we discuss overly harsh tech calls, more awkward choreography, and how tough it might be for a new team outside of Europe to be able to go to Worlds (if it happens).
There was a lot of talent in the ice dance event, but we found ourselves frustrated with a number of issues, including over the top scoring, programs that don't live up to their full potential, and why we can't get behind age inappropriate choreography, even if it's not in a junior event.
The men's event was a bit hit or miss on the jumping front, but we discuss the programs we loved and were underwhelmed by, a great senior debut, the many spin issues across the field, and the great Quad Loop controversy of the competition.
In spite of all the COVID complications and other event cancellations, the first Grand Prix event of the season is here, and we start the episode by discussing the health and safety precautions and whether they're enough to allow other competitions to go forward. Plus, we discuss the ladies field, including under rotation call disparities, why online choreography can lead to empty programs, and an alarming number of popped loops.
The second Challenger of this strange season was a fairly small one, and we discuss the triumphant return of Loena Hendrickx, our concerns over the new q rotation rule, streaming quality issues, and our overarching questions about what events "count" (for records, minimums, and standing points)in this odd competition season.
The second stage of the Russian Cup was even more dramatic than the first, and we discuss egregious PCS scores deciding placements, the decimated senior dance field, and the ongoing petty drama between coaching teams. Plus, we discuss the recent news of Skate Canada International's cancellation, and touch on sexual abuse allegations involving the US pairs field.
With just three weeks to go until Skate America, Grand Prix assignments have finally been released! We still have questions though about why ice dancers are leaving Canada to go to foreign events, whether the differing health and safety precautions at the different events will be sufficient, and if the ISU has yet made plans for potential COVID impacted events in 2021. Plus, we discuss some of the skating that happened this weekend including some great performances in Japan, and our major concerns about Kevin Aymoz's new short program.
The first international competition of this strange season is here, and we discuss what was a bit of a rough outing for a lot of skaters at the Nebelhorn Trophy. We discuss how much of the struggles we saw were based on lack of training time or just internal pressure, why you probably shouldn't take too much influence directly from your favourite skaters if you want to stand out, and why skating to music you like in ice dance can save just about any program.
We're covering a new event during this strange season - the first event of the Russian Cup! We cover all levels and disciplines and discuss the ridiculous pairs fields (junior and senior), why the men just need to tone down the tech content already, and our first serious competition injury of the season.
We're finally back with a recap of new, live skating events! After a long slog of no skating, there were multiple events going on this weekend, and we discuss some of the new programs we saw at Dreams on Ice, I.AM Live, and of course the Russian Test Skates! We discuss our desire for full RD runthroughs at I.AM Live, the most exciting discipline in Russian skating (pairs, of course), and using this weird season to push skaters out of their comfort zone. Plus, we discuss our concerns with the elephant in the room - how health and safety precautions are being handled at skating events.
This episode is brought to you by InSkate! Check them out at inskate.co and use the promo code "flutzescast" for 50% off!
There was finally some real skating this week, so we're back to discuss the ins and outs of the 2020 Peggy Fleming Trophy, which was done virtually. We discuss scoring confusions and the programs we most enjoyed, plus a discussion of whether virtual competitions would work for regular season events, and what the ISU seems to be considering for the rest of the season going forward (and why we're quite concerned about it).
This episode is brought to you by InSkate! Check them out at inskate.co/flutzes_and_waxels
To follow last week's Waxies, this week we're taking a look at the online iteration of the official ISU Awards! We discuss the form it was intended to take and the form it ended up being, our most and least favourite categories included, and ponder just what the future of these awards might be.
This episode is brought to you by InSkate! Check them out at inskate.co/flutzes_and_waxels
This year, we're trying out something a little different, we're here with the first annual Waxie Awards, which recognizes all the things that don't matter at all in this season in figure skating! We brought back our internet friend and yours, Patrick! Who you may know as @team_pdd on twitter. A huge thank you to Patrick for joining us and helping us have a little fun on the show this week. We hope you'll laugh along with us as we nominate our favourite skaters, teams, and moments for silly awards. Join in on the fun by voting on our twitter, and help us choose who will win our Waxies!
This episode is brought to you by InSkate! Check them out at inskate.co/flutzes_and_waxels
This week, we're trying something different! We're recorded a full-length audio commentary track for the 2019 Rostelecom Rhythm Dance, where we discuss technical elements, little nitpicks to look out for, and how we assess skating quality - but this time accompanied by video! We hope that you watch along while you listen to us, and that we can help you learn a little something about how to be a better ice dance viewer.
This episode is brought to you by InSkate! Check them out at inskate.co/flutzes_and_waxels
Links:
ISU Official Stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnVICTx0Ums Russian Channel 1 Youtube Stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvLUmoNAuBM Event Protocols: http://www.isuresults.com/results/season1920/gprus2019/FSKXICEDANCE----------QUAL000100--_JudgesDetailsperSkater.pdf
This week, we're back with our final list recapping the season: Senior Ice Dance! This was our most agreed upon list of the season, and we discuss how our favourite programs are assisted by strong music editing, the programs that gave us something we didn't even know we needed, and which teams might want to think about keeping their strongest programs for next season (or however much we get of it). This episode is brought to you by InSkate! Check them out at inskate.co/flutzes_and_waxels
Our last discipline to cover in our lists of our favourite programs is ice dance, but this year we couldn't restrict ourselves to just one list! We begin with our favourite Junior programs of the season, and discuss under-rewarded choreographic elements, why we love seeing more goth/emo programs in dance, and why it's okay (and important!) for Junior skaters to skate like the young exuberant people that they are. This episode is brought to you by InSkate! Check them out at inskate.co/flutzes_and_waxels
Our lists of the best pairs programs of the season continue to surprise us! We discuss the continuing dominance of the Russian pairs, why clean skates can be more important to your enjoyment of a pairs program than in other disciplines, and wonder what the future might hold for pairs skating, and whether some of the young teams on our list can keep the sport moving forward. This episode is brought to you by InSkate! Check them out at inskate.co/flutzes_and_waxels
We continue wrapping up our best programs of the season with the men, and again have very different lists! We discuss the programs that made us see skaters in a new light, why covers of pop songs can be risky to skate to, reiterate the value of field moves, and conclude with the least surprising number one program imaginable (but come on, it obviously deserves it). This episode is brought to you by InSkate! Check them out at inskate.co/flutzes_and_waxels
With the cancellation of the World Championships the skating season is abruptly over. But on the plus side, that means it's time for our season's best lists! We begin with our picks for the best ladies programs of the season, and discuss how much we've missed spirals, joyous junior skaters, and our childhood inspirational figures (who were ice dancers, of course). This episode is brought to you by InSkate! Check them out at https://inskate.co/flutzes_and_waxels
Junior dance has been what we've looked forward to all season, and the competition at Junior Worlds did not disappoint. We discuss our feelings about the podium, and why we might have preferred it to be closer in points, why we personally prefer precision over speed in dance (even if international judges might not seem to agree), and dive into the continuing battle for dominance among Canadian junior dancers, and whether Canada will have enough JGP spots next season.
The junior ladies field is often a bloodbath, and we recap the strong skaters fighting for the podium, and the fight to even make it to the free skate. The top few skates were so solid that we spent a lot of time discussing the relative merits of choreography, plus we discuss why it's a bad idea to put tons of media pressure on a 13 year old and whether the Japanese ladies can come back from a bit of a slump year like the men just did.
This was a bit of a rough competition for the junior pairs, including the usually solid Russian teams. We discuss an immensely costly spin mistake, whether it's a good idea for teams to train a backup plan for side-by-side jump issues, and some young teams with potential who are still working on incorporating the harder pairs elements.
We're back to recap the Junior World Championships, and we begin with the men, who have a history of being inconsistent, particularly at Worlds. We discuss an uncomfortable throwback to last year's Junior Worlds, our slight annoyance that even our winner wasn't fully clean, and speculate on what next season might look like for the top finishers here.
We wrap up Four Continents with the men's event which saw a number of strong skates. We discus the risk/reward of repeating programs, some skaters who had a great competition that we won't see at Worlds who wrapped up their season in a strong way, and our continued wait for the official Canadian World's assignments to be released.
The pairs field was small again this year at Four Continents, but there was a lot of excitement. We discuss the late withdrawals, a surprising number of unintentional double throws, the constant flux of the US pairs field, and go off on a tangent about whether base values should be modified to encourage skaters to try quad throws again.
Dance standings continued to be a bit unpredictable at Four Continents, and we discuss the continued importance of base value at the top and our excitement for the development of dance in the three continents outside of North America, plus some tangents on the importance of an arena that has had proper audio outfitting for figure skating and whether the base and GOE values for choreographic elements should be changed.
The top women brought out the big tricks at Four Continents, and we discuss the excitement of a warmup filled with triple Axel and quad attempts, how this competition seems to be one where skaters will try out new things feeling they have nothing to lose in doing so, and the continuing question of who'll get the two Canadian women's spots at Worlds.
We wrap up our Europeans recaps with the pairs, in which we discuss our frustration with Tarasova and Morozov's continuing struggles, whether Boikova and Kozlovskii can take the gold at Worlds, how exciting it is to see a team skate well in their home country, and our always increasing admiration for Zoe Jones.
The ladies event at Europeans saw great comeback skates and some mistakes from the top three, and we discuss the many skaters coming here straight from the Youth Olympics, how hard it is to keep switching between Junior and Senior programs, and why switching layouts and tech content is rarely successful for most skaters and should probably be avoided.
The men continue to be inconsistent at Europeans, and we discuss more boot problems, the race between the top two Italian skaters here, why throwing in lots of quads (especially at the last minute) is often a big mistake, and why Kevin Aymoz might have cracked under the pressure to fail to qualify for the free skate.
The dance event at Europeans was a wild one, and we try to explain for all those who have been asking just what happened during Papadakis and Cizeron's skate and why they wound up coming second to Sinitsina and Katsalapov. Plus we discuss the rest of the field including some exciting up-and-coming junior teams and the very close results of the Spanish dance battle.
We wrap up our US Nationals recaps with the pairs, where we saw a lot of strong skates. We discuss the difficult decision of who to send to Worlds, why unexpectedly winning as a fairly new team might not be the best thing for you, and why intentional pops can be a good strategy if your side-by-side jumps are too inconsistent.
The ladies at US Nationals had almost as strong an event as the men did, and we discuss why your favourite skate of the night doesn't need to be the winning one, the interesting choice still to be made about which skaters will get Junior Worlds spots, and the many skaters who made us get emotional with their skates here.
We continue our recaps with the US Nationals Dance event, which was a rather messy one. We discuss the many many slip ups at this event, including two major Finnstep keypoint issues for the top two teams, the dangers of getting a new program just for Nationals, intentional choreographic falls, and the subjectivity of judging and calling choreographic elements.
It was a busy week of skating between US Nationals and Europeans, but the US men skated so well we decided to start or weekend recaps with them! We discuss how impressive it is that Nathan Chen on an off day is still unbeatable, enthuse about the many great artistic skaters throughout this event who we enjoyed whether their jumps went well or not, and debate who the world team should be (not knowing that it was announced as we were recording).
After a break to attend Canadian Nationals, we return to the Youth Olympics to cover the events we didn't have time to last week. We discuss a number of up-and-coming ladies we're curious to see at Europeans, why speed and power are so important in junior ice dance, and our immense frustration over frequent falls by talented teams. Plus, we briefly discuss the team event, particularly as it pertains to the dance field, and imagine new team events for the senior skaters.
Finally, to wrap up our coverage of Canadian Nationals we discuss a little bit of everything that happened this week in the Novice and Junior events. We discuss our pattern dance nostalgia, confusion and frustration over Junior Worlds spots, the most successful double dippers competing in more than one event, and how we can better handle bad warm up injuries in the future to try to prevent skaters from competing with undiagnosed injuries.
We wrap up our recap of the senior events at Canadian nationals with the men, an event with results almost as unexpected as the ladies. We discuss the amount of attention paid to Nam and Keegan's bromance, the great audio mixing of Roman's free skate for arena speakers, and some really enjoyable skates that didn't make it into the top five.
The pairs event was a dramatic one in all the best ways, and we discuss last minute ice patches and warmup antics, a perfect example of how twist quality can set up a program for success or failure, and why we're so excited that Walsh and Michaud made Skate Canada hold off on assigning a second team to Worlds.
The ladies event at Canadian Nationals was quite a shocker! We had some amazing skates, some disappointments, and some sweet moments. We talk the good, the bad, and the discourse.
We're back home from the 2020 Canadian Nationals, and we're ready to break it all down! We started with our favourite, the dance, featuring Gilles and Poirier, Lajoie and Lagha, and Soucisse and Firus. We talk hair malfunctions, fluke falls, and wanting it too bad.
We're still in the midst of competition for the Youth Olympics, but we're here to discuss the two events that have completed - the pairs and men. We discuss our relief over Panfilova and Rylov's win, some frustrating commentary in the men's event, the danger of padded boards, the rise of team Georgia, and our excitement for the future of the many youngsters competing here.
In the second half of our Japanese Nationals recap, we have a lot to say about the current state of Japanese ice dance, plus we discuss our relief over Shoma Uno's renewed confidence, our excitement for the junior skaters here who were really pushing the top seniors, and why what Daisuke Takahashi is doing in his skating comeback is so important to give everyone in skating some perspective on what a lengthy skating career can look like if you still want to keep skating into your thirties.
This week we're going back in time to cover a competition we missed recapping over the holidays - Japanese Nationals! We begin with a discussion of the one and only current Japanese pair team, followed by the ladies, where we discuss the merits of tough Nationals scoring, the struggles of two former national champions, and the fantastic rise of two skaters to the podium who've struggled a bit with their consistency lately.
It's been a while since we've seen as strong a pairs field as this, and we take the time to discuss every single one of the amazing skates from the pairs at Russian Nationals! We discuss the impossible choice of who to send to Junior Worlds, why the Russian pairs standard and the international pairs standard are not the same at all, and fantasize about a competition where the best Russian pairs can all compete against the best of the rest of the world.
The men had a rough time of it at Russian Nationals, and we discuss the struggles everyone had putting two clean skates together, our concerns over the pressure put on a lot of the juniors skating senior, whether attempting quads is even worth it for some of these skaters, and whether the final standings came out the way they should have.
We continue our discussion of Russian Nationals with the ice dance, which was a mixed event. We discuss wobbly twizzles and being on the wrong side of uncontrolled speed, lament the lack of weird programs from the Russian teams this season, and laugh over awkward music choices that maybe should have been put through a translator and/or music editor.
We're back from our holidays to discuss the 2019 Russian Nationals, starting with one of the perennial highlights, the ladies! We discuss the continued fight for dominance between the top three finishers and what balance of triple Axels and quads might be needed for each of the three to win Worlds, plus we get excited over some young skaters who finished down the results list, lament the lack of a number of great skaters from years previous, and try to figure out what, if anything, can be done about broken boots at a competition.
The junior ladies have long been a highlight at the Final, and this year's crop were no exception. We discuss how to project confidence to help your GOEs, why you can still win in juniors or seniors without a quad or triple axel, and why criticizing young girls for not having it all at 13 or 14 is so frustrating and counter-productive for long and healthy skating careers.
The junior men at the Final had a very good JGP season, but saw some struggles in this last event. We discuss strategies for breaking in new boots, the best Kiss and Cry reactions of the event, and why getting a time deduction to make sure you get a level 4 on your last spin might be risky for your point total, but gets you total respect from us.
We've been excited about junior dance all season long, and the Final was a chance to see where the best all stack up against each other! We discuss the best Bonnie and Clyde programs of the season, how important good camera angles are to ice dance, and which teams are ready to make the push to the senior level and which could still use another junior season.
Junior pairs have long been dominated by great Russian teams, and this year's Final was no exception. We recap the slightly disappointing skates by the incoming favourites, a team with more difficult side-by-side jumps than the senior teams, and try to parse out just which teams will make it to Junior Worlds between all the amazing teams we saw here.
The ladies at the Final displayed an unprecedented level of technical difficulty, and we discuss why this change should be more shocking than it is, the short preparation time most of the skaters have to get ready for their national championships, and whether Trusova in particular can continue and even build on the level of technical difficulty she's currently attempting.
The pairs at the Grand Prix Final were a bit of a letdown, but between flukey skates, weird falls, and the mostly good short programs, there's lots to discuss. Plus, Sui and Han finally get their first Grand Prix title!
The men's event was more than a little contentious, but we break down the scores, the skates, and some of the fan reaction, but focus even more on the things we enjoyed most, including Grand Prix Final Bronze Medalist Kevin Aymoz!
The Grand Prix Final has already come and gone, and the season is already half-over. The Grand Prix final in Torino had nothing on the chaos of the 2006 Original Dance, but there was chaos nonetheless. We talk judging discrepancies, technical falls, and the perils of skating in the first flight.
Since there's a week off between the last Grand Prix event and the Grand Prix Final, we've decided to do a bit of a preview of all the exciting stuff coming to you next week. We discuss all competitors going, junior and senior, and try to predict who is most likely to podium, what the juniors have been doing to prepare in their time off, and just how many quads we're going to see next week - in both junior and senior, and in both men and ladies
We saw a lot of great skating from the pairs at NHK, and we discuss our awe over a brand new team we hope can change the course of Japanese pairs skating, just how easily you can lose levels in a death spiral, and what a rare skill it is to be able to do good side-by-side spins.
The ladies event at NHK confirmed the last entries to the GP Final, and we discuss who might amp up the tech content at the Final, why changing your program might hurt more than help if you're having trouble doing the jumps within it, and how excited we are to see Mako Yamashita's return to form after a troubled year.
The dancers ended this Grand Prix season pretty strongly with NHK, and we discuss whether a perfect score will happen in ice dance this season, the pros and cons of debuting a new Rhythm Dance in the middle of the season, and how hard it is to continue skating when your hair is in your face or your costume does something to throw you off balance.
The final GP men's event of the season was a wild one, a roller coaster of emotions with GP Final dreams made and crushed. We discuss the guys who fought hard (with varying degrees of success) for a chance to make it to the Final, our excitement for the surprise bronze medalist of the event, and our dismay over Jason Brown's continuing jump struggles.
The men's event at Rostelecom was kind of a crazy one. We discuss why some of these skaters need to go home and really practice their jump math, why Shoma Uno was very lucky not to get his last hail Mary jumping pass in the free skate invalidated, and wonder just what chaos could be in store for the men next week at NHK.
There were some great skates from the ladies at Rostelecom as well as some disappointments, and we discuss our relief that Medvedeva was able to have a strong Grand Prix event after her struggles last year, how Trusova has been able to successfully fight for her jumps after a mistake in a program, and why getting angry about a mistake is much better for you than just getting disappointed.
There were some strong free dances and a lot of rough rhythm dances at Rostelecom, and we get frustrated over Finnstep interruptions and twizzle connections, are relieved and optimistic about Gilles and Poirier avoiding major mistakes so far this season, and are very intrigued by the battles for the Spanish ice dance gold and the Russian ice dance bronze coming up this year.
The penultimate Grand Prix event of the season was a pretty strong one across all disciplines, but we begin with the pairs, a very exciting field with a few surprises thrown in. We discuss the overall state of Russian pairs and speculate as to what might happen for a number of teams at Europeans, advise some teams to visit seminars or other coaches to work on their twist technique, and get excited for the future of a number of young teams at this event.
We wrap up our Cup of China recap with our highlight - the pairs! We gush once again about Sui and Han and their amazing free skate, discuss what can be done to try to help Ryom and Kim to make it to more international competitions, and lament the varying levels of depth at the different Grand Prixs this season.
The men at Cup of China had their ups and downs, and we discuss the full event, including our excitement over the amazing comeback of Han Yan, the guys who we think need to take a bit of a break right now to come back stronger later, and why skaters at this level shouldn't try to rely too much on figure standing for their choreography.
We continue our Cup of China recap with the ladies, which had a whole bunch of last minute replacements to make for a bit of a rough event. We discuss why a successful program can be the worst thing for your focus on the jumps later on, the many skaters struggling with growth and Lutz technique, and how Tuktamysheva can improve her component scores.
Cup of China is back after a year off, and we begin our recap with dance, which went okay, but we still have things to gripe about. We discuss some kind tech calling on the Finnstep, the vast improvement the Chinese dance teams have made in the last few years, and why if we were in charge of the ISU, our first order of business would be to bring back the compulsory dance segment.
The dance event at this Grand Prix was an interesting one in a lot of ways, and we go into a lot of dance related tangents as we discuss the Finnstep's difficult key points and how they've changed, the skaters who need to fully commit to their costuming in the rhythm dance, and how in awe we are of Guignard and Fabbri for their set of skates here with his hand in a serious brace.
The ladies event at Grand Prix France was a mixed bag, but we were able to get excited about Kostornaia's win and a few other fun skates, and we discuss the struggles faced by a whole bunch of the skaters here due to injury, growth, and ice conditions, and the options skaters have when they're in a tough field like Russia or Japan and the jumps don't come as easily as they used to.
With the seeded pairs withdrawing, this was a wide open field for the remaining pairs, and we discuss how Russian pairs with amazing technical skills can stand out from a crowded field, the exciting race for the top of the US pairs podium, and how hard it can be to recover in the rest of a program if your twist isn't your strongest element.
The third Grand Prix event of the season had a whole lot of ups and downs, particularly in the men's event, and we discuss the emotional roller coaster the guys took us on across the two programs, why which warm up flight you're in really shouldn't affect your PCS as much as it does, and try to find any highlights from the event, or skaters who got through it unscathed.
The men were the headline event for many at Skate Canada, and we recap the many ups and downs of the competition, including some amazing skates under tough circumstances, the pressure of trying to make the final when it's in your home country, and why this event could be a harbinger of a great rivalry to come this season as long as everybody stays healthy.
The women's jumping revolution was more than present at Skate Canada, and we discuss what Trusova is amazing at (and what she can still work on), the skaters who are making triple Axels look easy, how the Russian ladies can keep motivated even if they're not currently on top, and why replacement rules for withdrawn skaters on the Grand Prix need to be updated ASAP.
There was a stacked pairs field at Skate Canada, and we recap all of it, including our excitement over the winners here (and their coach), why lifts in pairs should be thought of like spins in singles skating, and when a botched lift can be more excusable than a solo single toe.
Skate Canada was home to a wild, unpredictable dance event this year, and we break down just how Gilles and Poirier were able to defeat Hubbell and Donohue, how impossible it is to have two iconic programs in a row, and which teams might be able to make the final with two wins rather than one.
We wrap up our Skate America recaps with the men, and discuss our excitement over Nathan Chen's programs and technical abilities (and why you should be excited too), debate early season quad strategies for a variety of skaters, and despair for the guys who have made the final before, but whose hopes for this year were dashed at this event.
We continue our full break down of Skate America with the dance event, starting with the technical issue that shouldn't really have happened in the RD, and discuss some debuting programs we're not sure about, a great costume violation save, and what a perfect Smash rhythm dance could look like.
We continue our Skate America recap with the pairs, and discuss how easy it is for a wonky throw technique to lead to injuries, the importance of a relaxed facial expression for audience enjoyment, and the difficult balance after injury between being confident in your elements and risking injury again.
The Grand Prix season is officially here! We begin our Skate America recap with the ladies, and discuss how each of the Russian ladies handled the pressure placed on them here, our excitement over Wakaba Higuchi's clean short program, and why there was a wrong jump call on the official protocols that just never got fixed.
We wrap up our Finlandia recap with lots of excitement as we discuss Kostornaia's debut with amazing triple Axels and a super fun Twilight program, some successful skates by new seniors and up-and-coming ladies skaters, and try to figure out the case of the missing character steps in the dance event.
It's the last Challenger event before the start of the Grand Prix, and we take a look at the new and debuting pairs who are ready to take on the world, speculate on just what Shoma Uno's plans are for the upcoming season, and continue to be surprised and excited by the continued ventures of Sergei Voronov on competition ice.
The final JGP event of the season had some amazing skates and some surprise medalists, and we discuss the comfort of being able to compete in your home arena, how easy it is to make program mistakes due to internal expectations and competing back-to-back weekends, and how to try and deal with your skates coming undone mid-program.
There were two small invitationals this weekend, and we recap both the Japan Open and the brand new Shanghai Trophy in this episode. We discuss Trusova's insane technical content, our excitement over the new men's programs displayed at the Japan Open, and try to discuss as much as we can about the Shanghai Trophy in spite of many missing program videos.
More JGP finalists were decided in the ladies and dance events here, and we recap two really strong winning skates that made it to the final in both disciplines, the continuing Canadian ice dance pewter trend, and confusion over choreographic elements versus plain old choreography in the dance protocols.
We're coming to the close of the JGP season, and this event solidified the pairs JGP finalists and some for the men. We discuss how wide open the pairs field at the JGPF will be, especially for the Russian skaters, and we lament the close-to-clean men's programs that just didn't quite make it into the final this year.
The men at Nebelhorn were a bit of a mixed bag, and we discuss how some new seniors thrived while the others struggled a bit, but Nebelhorn also had the pairs event we've been waiting for, and we get excited over strong pairs from small federations and a couple of really strong skates that reminded us just how great pairs skating can be.
There was a lot of great skating this weekend at Nebelhorn, but also a lot of streaming issues. We discuss our excitement to actually see some of the programs that were lost or had audio issues from this event, and try to analyze just how cutthroat this season will be in ice dance with the depth we're currently seeing.
We also saw really tough fields in pairs and ladies, and in the second half of our JGP Gdansk recap we discuss a terrifying botched twist, gush at length over our favourite Russian pair, and defend the junior ladies against the internet haters.
The fifth JGP event in Gdansk was one of the toughest fields so far, and we discuss our awe over the excellent skates by the junior men, try to do JGP Final qualification math on the fly, and discuss the improvements we've seen from some of the top dance teams here over just a few weeks ago.
We continue recapping the weekend with the Ondrej Nepela Memorial, in spite of the less than stellar camera work at this event. We discuss devastating Zayak issues, the arrival of the ladies quad revolution, and some of our favourite crazy, out-there dance programs from this event.
We continue our discussion of the US International Classic with the ladies and ice dance events, and try to discuss some controversial program and costume choices. We go into a lengthy discussion of our issues with "Egyptian arms" programs and try to parse our complicated feelings about Schindler's List programs, while still trying to be able to enjoy the skating as much as we can at altitude.
This has been another weekend of skating insanity, and we begin our recaps with the men and pairs at the US International Classic. We discuss how hard it can be to get a good idea of a skaters actual readiness when they're skating at high altitude, how some of the men were able to rise to the occasion in spite of it, and how much we wish the pairs had just competed in Oakville rather than here.
We finally finish playing catch-up with last week's JGP event in Chelyabinsk and recap the men's and ice dance events. We discuss the many guys facing growth spurts, the breaking of the Canadian ice dance pewter curse, and the dominance the Russian skaters in all disciplines showed at this event.
The fourth JGP event in Chelyabinsk, Russia showed the dominance of Russian junior skating, particularly in the ladies and pairs events. We are forced to be a bit nitpicky about the top competitors who were all so good that we don't even really have much to critique at all, and we enthuse about a new pairs team from North Korea who blew us away with their unity.
There were other competitions than just the Autumn Classic happening this weekend, and in this episode we play catch-up with the Lombardia Trophy! We get excited about how strong the competition was in the ladies event, discuss the improvements we're seeing from the men here, and discuss awkward music choices and twizzle mind-melds in ice dance.
Finally, we wrap up with the men, AKA the Kevin Aymoz special, in which we try in vain to eloquently express our adoration for Kevin and his new programs, try to support all the young guys and new seniors with screams and burgeoning emotional over-investment, and guilt you into playing along at any and all competitions.
We continue our Autumn Classic recap with the ladies in which we lament missing seeing an amazing short program live for work, worry about the health and happiness of everyone, and also talk about some jumps and stuff.
We have returned home from Autumn Classic, so prepare yourself for a deluge of content! We begin with the small but mighty ice dance event, in which we get way too emotionally over-invested in literally every single team and talk probably far too much about voguing.
There was a ton of great skating at the third Junior Grand Prix event in Riga, Latvia, and we break down all three disciplines that competed! We discuss the rise of South Korean skating, the ridiculous expectations placed on the Russian ladies based on previous dominance, men's skaters with tons of potential who let inconsistency and spins get in the way of success, and the curse of the Canadian pewter ice dance medalists.
In part two of our JGP Lake Placid recap we discuss the ice dance and the men, and assess the quads that were attempted in the men's event, discuss our horror over witnessing a disastrous RD event live in the front row, and laugh over a teeny tiny Canadian flag at the men's medal ceremony.
We attended the second JGP event in Lake Placid and it was a big one! In part one we discuss the pairs and ladies events, including our frustration with some viewers overly criticizing junior skaters, our live in-arena thoughts on Alysa Liu's quad lutz, and our adoration for all Russian pairs skaters.
The 2019-2020 season is officially here! In this episode we recap the first junior grand prix event of the season and discuss the surprising lack of quads in the men's event, how altitude and immense pressure made for a tough ladies event, and music issues in the dance event due to audio issues, inappropriate choices for junior skaters, and music that doesn't follow the ISU's requirements.
It's the off season, but things are starting to happen in skating before the JGPs roll around, and in this episode we discuss a little bit of the skating we've seen in the last few weeks. We recap the 2019 Skate Ontario Minto Sectional competition, and get particularly excited about the Tea Time Foxtrot and junior ice dance, plus we recap last week's Skate Ontario Summer Stars fundraising gala and tell you a bit about our plans for our brand new Patreon!
As we approach the one year anniversary of Denis Ten's tragic and untimely death, we thought it would be fitting to remember him by rewatching some of the best programs of his career. We discuss our lists of the best programs Denis ever skated and remember his passion for skating and his country, the many ups and downs of his career, and the history he made in spite of many great obstacles. We hope you'll watch or rewatch his greatest moments for yourself, and join us in laughing and reminiscing about his amazing life and skating career.
The assignments for the 2019 Grand Prix Series are out, and we take a deep dive into the lists, and discuss last minute withdrawals shaking up the lists, potential skaters to fill the TBD spots, new team-ups, and the utterly insane ladies fields. There's a lot to unpack, and a lot to be excited for!
In our final episode recapping the best of the best in figure skating, we recap our top pairs programs from this past season.
We agree a lot, we talk about a lot of teams you may have never heard of and compliment a LOT of amazing programs. No matter what your favourite style of pairs skating is, there's probably a program on the list for you.
We had very different lists for each of our top ten ladies programs of the season and we discuss a ton of programs, including the skaters with two incredible programs we just couldn't decide between, how much choreography can be left out of a great program when the jumps aren't going well, and why skaters who put their absolute love of skating on full display are the best part of watching figure skating.
We continue our recap of our favourite programs of the last season with the men, and discuss how glad we were to have a tie for best program of the season, how amazing it is when a choreographer can create a program that fits their skater to a T, and get excited about what new programs some of our favourite skaters might have in store for us next season.
This season has been a wild ride. There were some seriously rough times this season in ice dance, but we like to focus on the positives. So, we started our best of the season lists with the ice dance, our favourite discipline, but also sometimes the most frustrating.
We each make a top 10, then aggregate the ranking to make one ultimate master list. Keep your eyes peeled on our twitter for the blog post with all the programs (plus some more that didn't quite make the cut).
Skating's off-season means it's time for our yearly trip to Stars on Ice Canada, and this year's Toronto show was full of nostalgia for us. We gush over the history of Canadian men's skating that is represented here, get excited about cheesy '90s dance numbers, and reminisce about the many skating shows of our childhood.
This week we spend TWO HOURS introducing our internet friend and yours, Patrick (@team_pdd) to the wacky world of ice dance, including all the rule changes for the upcoming season. We cover everything you need to know about the Finnstep, the basics of the Tea Time Foxtrot and the nitty gritty of ice dance rules. For all of you who don't quite know what's going on in ice dance, this episode is for you. We laugh, cry and gripe, plus we answer YOUR questions about all things ice dance!
It's the off-season, and we're trying some new things, starting with our first ever podcast guest! You likely know our guest Rob Colling by his Twitter handle, @skatingmusicguy, and he's here to join us for a lengthy discussion of the ins and outs of creating the music accompanying your favourite skating programs. We discuss some of the dos and don'ts for picking music that works well in an arena, how hard it is to find music that fits the many requirements for ice dance, and speculate on what music we might be hearing in the upcoming season's Rhythm Dance.
The season draws to a close with the World Team Trophy, and we test out a new way of recapping the event as we discuss Shoma Uno's crazy combination attempt, the increased jumping prowess on display in the ladies event, and other ways that a team competition could work and properly reflect strength across disciplines.
The depth in ice dance was insane at this year's World Championships, and we try to break down the minute differences that decided who was on the podium, how skaters from countries outside of the top ten at Worlds can break that barrier, and which teams need to break out of their comfort zone program-wise to continue to improve next season.
The ladies event at the World Championships was a dramatic one in a variety of ways, and we consider whether a new era of quads and triple Axels has emerged in ladies skating, why the Japanese ladies might have struggled to get on the podium at their home Worlds, and relate our excitement over strong comeback skates from a number of skaters with injuries and setbacks earlier in the season.
The pairs event at the World Championships was yet another small but mighty event, and we use this opportunity to gush more about Sui and Han, about our love for the best Russian and Chinese pairs skating has to offer, and speculate on how these teams can best pick their programs and music for next season.
The men closed out the competition at Worlds, and they did so with some fantastic skates, including consecutive world records. We discuss our awe with Nathan Chen's ability to balance school and skating, how many skaters struggles to perform at their peak through injury, and why not paying attention to jump math can turn an okay skate into a disastrous one.
We conclude our recap of the Junior World Championships with the ladies, and we discuss how the Russian ladies have a whole lot of jump math to do when adding in quads and difficult combinations, our heartbreak over +COMBOs by our favourites in the short program, and which skaters might benefit from a half junior/half senior season next year.
There was a somewhat small field of pairs at the Junior World Championships, but lots to get excited about as we gush about just how strong the Russian pairs are, and discuss some exciting young pairs from smaller federations, and why it's so important that these young teams stick together even through the hard times.
Junior men's events are always volatile, and this year's Junior World Championship was no different. We try to explain why the short programs can be so strong when the free skates are a mess, why attempting fewer quads might be the best strategy for junior men, and whether the ISU should consider limiting quad attempts for juniors.
We enjoyed ice dance the most out of all disciplines at the 2019 Junior World Championships, and we discuss one of our favourite dance programs of the season, our favourite male junior ice dancer, and discuss why the second half of the Argentine Tango pattern is so hard and can (literally) trip up so many teams.
There was a very small field at this pairs event, but loads to talk about as we gush some more about the genius of Sui and Han's free skate, lament the size of the pairs field here and potentially at Worlds, and discuss some of the many things that can go wrong in pairs skating (and our anxiety any time we watch a pairs competition live).
The men's event at Four Continents was one of the strongest of the season, and we discuss frustration over variations in tech calling, whether it's fair to have a free skate cutoff at this competition, and how different it is to skate on Olympic vs. NHL sized rinks.
This ice dance event was one of the toughest fields of the season, and we break down the level issues in Hubbell and Donohue's free dance, try to parse out how you can possibly judge between so many strong teams, and take a look at the developing ice dance scene in Asia and Australia.
There were lots of ups and downs in the Ladies event at the Four Continents Championships, and we break down Elizabet Tursynbaeva's quad Salchow, discuss the pros and cons of trying to add in difficult elements with varying success rates, and relay our dismay for the skaters in podium position whose free skates took them off the podium here.
There were a number of surprises in the ladies event here, and we speculate on the exciting futures of Lindfors and Paganini, which Russian ladies might make the world team, and discuss our fears about Zagitova's current jump layout and her confidence going forward.
There were a ton of amazing skates in dance at this year's European Championships, and we discuss how Papadakis and Cizeron have solidified their number one status, how Nikita Katsalapov has handled twizzle mistakes across the years, and speculate on which of these teams might be able to squeak into the top ten at Worlds.
The men were a volatile bunch at this European Championships, and we discuss the amazing career and influence of Javier Fernandez, our dismay at the inconsistency of the Russian men, and how excited we are for the future of men's skating in France and Italy.
The pairs event at this year's European Championships was small but mighty, and we discuss our love for James/Cipres and Tamara Moskvina, our excitement about pairs with tons of potential from small federations, and speculate about how many clean skates we might get to see at the World Championships.
We had a lot of favourites competing in the men's event at US Nationals this year, and we break down our feelings about Vincent Zhou's and Jason Brown's quad attempts, debate which men might be sent to Junior Worlds, and are left almost speechless by Nathan Chen's amazing performances.
The pairs were a volatile bunch here, and we discuss the lift struggles faced by many teams, the amazing comeback of Cain and LeDuc, and the difficult decision to send Kayne and O'Shea to Four Continents.
We continue our recap of US Nationals with the ice dance, the highlight event for us. We compare the strengths of the top two free dances here, gush over Christopher Dean's choreographic abilities, and try to guess how these teams might stack up against the Canadian teams at Four Continents next week.
We begin our recap of this crazy weekend of skating with the Ladies at US Nationals. We discuss how a clean triple Lutz could have changed the podium in many ways, the pressures now on Alysa Liu as the new reigning champion, and the one thing all skaters should start their daily warm-ups with.
This is recap 1 of 8 for this weekend, with more on their way soon!
We wrap up our Canadian Nationals recaps with the best discipline by far - the ice dance, junior and senior. We debate how the top three senior dance teams might fare at Four Continents and Worlds, describe our evolving reaction to Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen's free dance, and gush over the many amazing junior teams fighting for far too few spots at Junior Worlds.
Any time there's an incredibly talented youngster in an event, there's going to be some disagreement about the rankings. Gogolev competed at his second senior nationals and delivered a WHOLE LOT. None of our guys were perfect, but it really came down to who delivered the best freeskate. We also break down some impressive skates in the junior event, particularly from some of our favourites there, The Ice Dancers Who Can Jump.
The Canadian ladies can sometimes be a little underwhelming, and without Kaetly Osmond, this was a different nationals, BUT there were still some great skates and a whole lot of top juniors who have a whole lot of potential going forward. The problem, though, comes with the assignments for the second half of the season. We speculate RAMPANTLY about who will get those last 2 spots at worlds!
This was an intense week in figure skating. We break down the skates from our senior competitors (including some amazing up and comers). We also cover the ongoing controversy surrounding John Coughlin. *Note: We recorded this episode before the most recent article surrounding the allegations was released, and so there was no discussion of it. The first 10-15 minutes of this one are serious, folks.
This week, we're doing an overview of two recent National competitions - both the South Korean and Chinese National Championships. We discuss how difficult Korea's ranking competitions can be for the top skaters competing at Nationals, gush over new programs from the Chinese pairs, and take a look at some of the up-and-coming skaters from both countries.
The Japanese ladies had almost as strong a field as the Russian ladies, and we discuss the many amazing skates we saw at Japanese nationals this year. We discuss some amazing triple Axels, skaters struggling with injury or coaching changes, and how heartbreaking it is when a skater's best still isn't enough for the podium. Plus, we take a quick look at the Pairs event.
We begin our recap of this year's Japanese Nationals with the men, and discuss our favourite step sequence of the competition, the quad troubles a lot of the men were having, and which other skaters we would love to see make a come back. Plus, we take a quick look at the Ice Dance event.
And finally we recap the men of Russian Nationals, who had a very up and down event. We discuss our excitement over the return of Kovtun and his upcoming presence at Europeans, the ailments of both Voronov and Kolyada, and are cautiously optimistic about the future of some skaters who were only able to showcase one solid program at this competition.
We return from our Christmas break to discuss the rest of Russian Nationals, starting with the ice dance. We discuss how close we think it is between the top two teams, our disappointment that Zagorski/Guerreiro were never able to have a fully clean free dance, and which teams off of the podium we've excited to see do a Broadway themed RD next season.
Russia has a history of producing some of the best ever pairs skaters, and the entrants in this year's nationals fit right in. We revel in seeing teams finally skate up to their full potential, try to figure out what types of programs would work best for some up and coming teams, and go on a lengthy tangent about Tamara Moskvina's talent for unique and yet classical pairs choreography.
National championships season is starting, and what better way to start our full recaps of national competitions than with the Russian ladies! This was an amazing and exciting competition, and we break down how the competition's youngest skaters were able to dominate, discuss who might get the coveted spots to Europeans and Worlds, and admire just how strong all of the skaters in this competition are.
We rewind a bit to look back on last week's Challenger event, the Golden spin of Zagreb, and discuss why it's vitally important for the ISU to have a concussion protocol, how much more important GOE can be than levels in ice dance this year, and speculate on how Kolyada's health has impacted his skating this season. Plus, we take a look at the results of a few National competitions that have taken place in the last few weeks.
The junior pairs event at the Final was a preview of all the amazing teams to come at Russian nationals, and we discuss some of the best side by side jumps being done by pairs at any level here, our excitement at the potential future of some of the younger skaters in this event, and just what consequences a bad twist can have for a pairs skater.
The junior dance event at the Final was a nailbiter, and we discuss just how close the top four teams were to each other and the title, the relative difficulty of the Argentine Tango pattern to the Tango Romantica, and just how devastating a foot down in your pattern can be in a dance field this deep.
The junior men at the Grand Prix Final had a pretty strong event, and we discuss our sadness over Pulkinen's rough free skate, our awe seeing Gogolev's growth in competition over the years, and why Hiwatashi had one of our favourite jump elements of the entire Final.
The junior ladies were our most anticipated event of this Grand Prix Final, and they put on quite the show! We discuss our awe over the maturity of Kostornaia's skating, how little points a poor quad Lutz attempt can get you, and speculate on just who will be on the podium at Russian junior and senior nationals.
There were a lot of new faces at the Grand Prix Final in ice dance, which led to an exciting competition. We discuss our feelings about the changes made to Hubbell/Donohue's free dance, how Sinitsina/Katsalapov have been able to thrive this season, and how Stepanova/Bukin's Tango Romantica issues kept them from the podium here.
With Hanyu missing due to injury, the men at the Grand Prix Final were all in an exciting fight for the podium, and we break down Brezina's resurgence, Cha's amazing consistency, and question just what Uno can do to get his jumps under control and defeat the top men in the world.
The senior pairs at the Grand Prix final had a lot of ups and downs, and we break down how James/Cipres can avoid short program throw issues that have them coming from behind, why a double Salchow is the only thing keeping Peng/Jin from perfection, and how tough it is to be a Russian pair team under the pressure of expectation.
The Grand Prix season is over! In our first of eight recaps of the final, we break down an intense senior ladies field, and discuss the consistency of Samodurova, compare the jump exits of Kihira and Zagitova, and lament Miyahara's low PCS scores.
In this special preview episode we discuss both the Junior and Senior entrants in all four disciplines at the Grand Prix Final and break down the strength of the Russian junior skaters, how open some of the fields are in this post-Olympics season, and the pressure on the Canadian entrants skating at a home GPF.
The last ladies event of the Grand Prix was a tight one, and we break down the possible benefit of Rika Kihira having a not totally clean skate, our anguish over three different ladies who competed here and who were only alternates to the final, and we try to foresee how the rest of the season might go for the Japanese and Russian ladies who are not in the final.
The results were wild and unpredictable in this last Grand Prix pairs event, and we break down the struggles both James and Cipres and Boikova and Kozlovskii had trying to reach the final, debate what might happen with the rest of Ryom and Kim's season, and complain about yet another instance of things falling on the ice during a program this season.
The final men's event of the series was a dramatic one, and we break down the in-country battles between the French and Russian skaters here, how Jason Brown proves that an easier clean skate can still score big, and our awe that Nathan Chen can still skate at such a high level while studying full-time at Yale.
The final Grand Prix ice dance event was a stacked event with lots of ups and downs, and we break down just what makes Papadakis and Cizeron's elements so good, which teams are really taking advantage of their choreographic elements, and how improving your Tango Romantica levels can make all the difference in a tight competition.
We wrap up our discussion of Rostelecom with the men, including a lengthy discussion of Yuzuru Hanyu's injury and the importance of being patient in recovery, how the pressure to live up to expectations might have effected Mikhail Kolyada and Keegan Messing, and the excitement of a quad Axel attempt from Artur Dmitriev.
With the fifth grand prix competition completed, we begin our recap with a ladies field curtailed by withdrawals. We discuss how Samodurova and Yamashita handled the pressure of possibly making the final, our excitement that Eunsoo Lim is the first non Russian or Japanese lady on a grand prix podium, and discuss Gracie Gold's tough road to a comeback.
This was a bit of weaker ice dance field than some we've seen, and we gripe about Tango Romantica levels and pattern interruptions, before looking on the bright side to enthuse about our love for Stepanova/Bukin and Hurtado/Khaliavin's free dances, and how cool it is to see so many children of skaters competing against each other.
The pairs were a bit up and down, but we discuss confident skates from Tarasova/Morozov and Della Monica/Guarise, the resurgence of Ziegler/Kiefer with a strong final lift, and the struggles American pairs are having with their throw jumps this grand Prix season.
There were a number of pairs skating back-to-back events at NHK, but it was a much stronger event overall. We break down the classical Russian and classical Chinese pairs who booked their spots in the Final, the battle for the bronze and for side-by-side jumps, and our annoyance over Basic level death spirals in the short program.
The men at NHK had a really rough week, and we break down all of the pops, falls, and under-rotations. We cover Shoma Uno's continued struggles with his combinations, the great consistency of Sergei Voronov, and discuss the strategy of including multiple quads in this new scoring system.
With the withdrawal of Papadakis and Cizeron, this dance event was wide open, and we break down the continuing Tango Romantica issues faced by the majority of teams, the continued rise of Fear and Gibson, and discuss just how difficult Christopher Dean's choreography is.
We begin our recap of NHK 2018 with the strongest ladies event so far on the Grand Prix. We speculate on how Rika Kihira might handle the pressure of her next event, what Mai Mihara can do to make the leap onto the Japanese national podium, and what we can hope for from the rest of Alena Leonova's season.
Our final recap for GP Helsinki is the ice dance, and we have a lot to talk about. We discuss our excitement over Stepanova and Bukin's new free dance, Mary's love of Mozart and her childhood dream skating music, and of course Guignard and Fabbri's time violation and music issue in the RD (and a request to the ISU to give everyone an official statement about it).
The pairs at the first GP Helsinki were kind of a mess. Was it the ice? Just a bad day? Who knows entirely? We sure don't. There were definitely some highlights, but mostly we just hope for better skates for everyone going forward.
The ladies were definitely a mixed batch. There weren't a ton of amazing skates, but definitely a lot of good ones, but these ladies really shouldn't go for that 3Lo+3T combo in the short program...
This men's event had it all! The good, the bad and the ugly. We finally got to see Hanyu's 4T+3A sequence, we had great skates from Michal Brezina and Junhwan Cha, but a lot of the other guys struggled. Not quite Cup of Disaster, but this weekend was a rough one.
The Skate Canada men's event was a really exciting one, and we have lots to say about different skaters' quad success rates, our excitement at seeing so many skaters have a strong short program, and why Kevin Aymoz was dramatically under appreciated by the crowd and the judges.
The pairs event at Skate Canada was much stronger at the top than last week's event, and we discuss how much we loved all of the top four teams, how James and Cipres might be able to avoid a time violation in the free skate, and our annoyance with falls receiving positive GOE and what could be done about it.
We continue our Skate Canada recap with our impressions of seeing the dance event live, including our dismay at how little the teams practiced their Tango Romantica patterns, our horror over the number of falls, and our impressions of which programs were most enjoyed by the audience at Place Bell.
We're home from Skate Canada, and have tons to discuss after watching all of the practices and events live in person! We start with the ladies, and discuss all the skaters here coming off of injury, the most consistent jumper of the competition, and our annoyance with audience members leaving before the best skates of the ladies event.
Our last discipline to cover from Skate America is the Pairs event, and we break down the emergence of new teams in the post-Olympic season, the difficulty teams are having with new lift levels, and how important it is for a team and their coach to be in sync with each others' priorities.
There was a smaller field in the Skate America Ladies event than we had hoped for, but we discuss some really amazing programs, some disastrous ones, and how tough it is to regain confidence after a bad skate, particularly when skaters have back-to-back competitions.
We continue our recap of the first Grand Prix of the season with the Men's event at Skate America, and discuss how ill fitting costumes can detract from the effect of detailed movements in a program, why under rotated jumps are more costly this season than before, and recap some Kiss and Cry etiquette.
The Grand Prix is officially here, and we break down the entirety of the first Ice Dance event of the series, including controversial skate colours, problematic and confusing voice overs, and the genius of Christopher Dean's choreography.
The Junior Grand Prix season has come to an end, and we recap the emotional final competition, including how much stress skaters close to making the final are under, how hard it is to skate fast while in hold, and Alexandra Trusova's history-making freeskate.
We conclude our Finlandia recap with the Men and Ice Dance, and discuss random confetti explosions (and how to deal with them), the importance of long limbs in the Tango Romantica, and the spin issues being had by a number of Cricket Club skaters, culminating in a dramatic butt-spin.
We recap the last Challenger event before the Grand Prix, and discuss how hard it is to skate while sick, our excitement over Finland's female skaters, and a long digression on the literary themes of The Great Gatsby, and why it's so hard to portray them in a skating program.
It's the penultimate JGP event, and we had a lot of fantastic skates and JGP Final entrants to discuss. We break down all three disciplines and discuss how such young skaters can stand up to the pressure of expectation, the steady improvement in competition level from the junior men, and the impact a foggy arena could have on a dance team's confidence.
The Japan Open is a weird competition, and this year's edition featured some ambitious program debuts, some rough skates from veterans, and a fantastic skate from a retired competitor who we'd love to see make a comeback.
We finish our recap of JGP Ostrava with a discussion of some rare mistakes from Alena Kostornaia, how excited we are to see a non-Russian pair in the final, and a break down of the JGP finalists and alternates for pairs this season.
We break down the fifth Junior Grand Prix event by discussing how long it might be before we'll know which Junior men have made it into the final, how simplicity and consistency can be a winning strategy, and our excitement over an up-and-coming Canadian dance team.
We complete our recap of the 2018 Nebelhorn Trophy with the Mens and Ice Dance events, and break down the insane difficulty of a triple Lutz - triple Flip combination, show an example of why knee-slides in a twizzle sequence are a bad idea, and question the tradition of only white or nude skates for women.
In the first half of our #InternationalPodcastDay Nebelhorn Trophy recap, we break down a super tough ladies field, including Zagitova, and discuss extensively her PCS, plus start speculating which Japanese ladies will make it to worlds. We also break down a great pairs event, including some amazing young Russians.
We push through rough video quality and YouTube music blocks to recap the entirety of the Ondrej Nepela Trophy, including strange timing deductions, a couple of gorgeous triple axels, and dying on ice.
We wrap up our in person coverage of the 2018 Autumn Classic with the smaller disciplines, and discuss how harrowing watching pairs in person is, odd ice dance calling and judging, and us trying not to get too emotional during Weaver and Poje's free dance.
We have reached the 100th episode of the podcast! How fitting that it's about an event we attended, and the season debut of Yuzuru Hanyu! We discuss the jumping history that we almost witnessed, parse the musical structure and storytelling of Junhwan Cha's freeskate, and puzzle over the many many spin issues in this event.
Our first in-person competition of the season was the 2018 Autumn Classic International, so we have a lot of thoughts about all of the disciplines! We start with the ladies, and break down Evgenia Medvedeva's new look and attitude under Brian Orser, our love of Shae-Lynn Bourne's choreography, and the confidence and intensity of Bradie Tennell.
We complete our wrap-up of this crazy weekend of figure skating with the pairs and ladies events at JGP Richmond, including the importance of maintaining a good interpersonal relationship with your pairs partner, the quad arms race among the Russian junior ladies, and which pair team might sneak in to make the JGP final at the next and last JGP pairs event.
The third competition taking place on this busy weekend of figure skating was the fourth JGP event in Richmond, BC. We break down the Ice Dance and Men's events, including the pressures of winning your first ever JGP event, the strength of this competition's free dance event, and how hard it is to develop unison as a new junior dance team.
We continue our discussion of this weekend's second competition with the Pairs and Ladies events, including our nervousness about lifts at altitude, our love for everything Satoko Miyahara does, and why consistently finishing in fourth place can be a good thing.
We break down the Ice Dance and Men's events of the second competition of the weekend, including the maturity needed to properly portray the Tango Romantica, the prevalence of Leonardo DiCaprio's voice in skating programs, and how hard it is to skate a program full of quads cleanly at altitude.
To wrap up our Lombardia recap of the Ice Dance and Men's events, we break down the importance and difficulty of free-leg extension in the Tango Romantica, our awe at the structure of Shoma Uno's freeskate, and why a waxel can be of the utmost importance in a freeskate.
It's a busy weekend of figure skating, but we're watching all of it! We begin recapping the Lombardia Trophy with pairs and ladies, and discuss a new darker look for Zabiiako and Enbert, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva's joy of skating, and why we're not concerned about a rough short program from Kaori Sakamoto.
We break down all three disciplines of the third Junior Grand Prix event in Kaunas, including Trusova's quad insanity, Torgashev's narrow victory and Final chances, and revel in a young sibling team who has all of our favourite tricks up their sleeves.
We continue to break down the second Junior Grand Prix event of the season with pairs and ladies, including the cutthroat competition to earn a second JGP assignment, a preponderance of step sequence falls by Russian pairs, and the importance of fully understanding the context of the piece of music you're skating to.
There were lots of streaming issues for the second Junior Grand Prix event of the season, but we try to discuss what we can about the men and ice dance despite the stream's video and audio issues. We discuss the rules for new choreographic elements in ice dance, how Stephane Lambiel choreographs for different skaters, and how Russian ice dancers seem to be moving in a modern dance direction.
We continue recapping the first Junior Grand Prix event of the skating season with a break down of the men's and ice dance events. We discuss the difficulty of skating clean in a Junior men's event, how costume and makeup can impact your presentation, and bring out the shame bell for the first time to lament anthem issues and refereeing toys on the ice.
The first Junior Grand Prix event of the skating season has just completed, and we're here to break it all down! We discuss Russian dominance in pairs and ladies, the importance of choreographing to fit a specific skater, and how much a young skater can change from one season to the next in the Junior ranks.
The new figure skating season has begun! We begin with a discussion of Denis Ten's legacy and his sad passing, and follow with a breakdown of the first Challenger event of the season, looking at how the new judging rules are being implemented, the many new changes to ice dance, and the readiness of skaters' new programs this early in August.
The 2018 Grand Prix series assignments have been announced, and we break down the newly formed Grand Prix Finland, possibilities for various TBD spots, and the many many fascinating head-to-head match ups coming our way this Grand Prix season.
We're back for part two of our breakdown of the 2018 ISU Congress, including discussions of how much limiting quad repetitions might affect men's skating, the pros and cons of judging GOE and PCS separately, and how ice dance is changing, and will continue to change in the future.
The 2018 ISU Congress has concluded, and we've waded through all of the documents to break down the details for you of all the figure skating related proposals. We discuss how to best ensure effective judging, how to balance TES and PCS in men's skating, and how to manage an online skating music library in part one of our ISU Congress recap!
We catch up on discussing some skating related shows this week, by breaking down the Canadian Stars on Ice tour and the figure skaters on the latest season of Dancing With the Stars. We get nostalgic about Elvis Stojko and Jeff Buttle, debate who the better dancer was on DWTS, and discuss the portrayal of Tonya Harding's redemption arc on the show.
In our last best of list, we break down this season's toughest category, the ladies. There were so many exceptional ladies this season, it was hard to choose the best. We make hard choices and share with you the programs we'll be re-watching in years to come.
For our next season's best list we take a look at the men. We break down our highlights from a somewhat rough season for the men, and discuss one of our favourite programs across all disciplines, some of the best choreographers currently working in skating, and how to judge the effectiveness of repeated programs in different seasons.
In our second best of the 2017/18 season wrap-up episodes, we break down our favourite ice dance programs of the season. We try to figure out just how Marie-France Dubreuil is able to choreograph successfully for so many different teams, and debate the merits of Latin short dances which are generic versus very specific in the image they're trying to portray.
In the first of our year-end season's best lists, we break down our favourite pairs' programs of the 2017/18 season. We both have very different lists, which results in some debate about the merits of a few teams' short and free programs, and a very surprising first place program.
In our last competition recap of the season, we break down the roller coaster of a men's event at the world championships, including the last skates of some of our favourite skaters, the emergence of other new exciting skaters, and the risk/reward factor of performing 5+ quads in a free skate.
The 2018 World Championships had a very strongly skated ice dance event, and we break down the many up and coming teams jockeying for position in the top ten, possible retirements and how they might affect the standings in countries like the US and Russia, and whether any team can come close to challenging Papadakis and Cizeron for gold.
The ladies event at the 2018 World Championships was an unpredictable one, and we discuss our surprise at who was (and wasn't) on the podium, whether the many underrotations calls were fair, and the unpredictability of the ladies field in the next few seasons to come.
We are overwhelmed by the strength of pairs as an overall discipline in our recap of their last competition of the season, and we delve into how difficult it now is to get into the top ten and gain a country three spots at worlds, why more teams should make it to the freeskate, and our awe that there seems to be no age limit for skaters who want to keep competing in pairs.
The men's event was full of ups and downs at the Junior World Championships, and we delve into the struggle for consistency among the junior men, our great disappointment when in-competition injuries derail opportunities for skaters, and the importance of field moves for developing skaters to make their performances more engaging.
Continuing our coverage of the Junior World Championships we break down the ladies event, including Alexandra Trusova's history making quads. We revel in the insane talent of the top ladies here and discuss the possible future prevalence of quads and triple axels, who might be moving into the senior ranks, and how these young skaters can handle the transition through puberty into a successful senior skating career.
The pairs event saw a Russian sweep at these Junior World Championships, and we discuss the very young ages of most of the skaters in this event, how to differentiate between all of the fantastic Russian teams, and how to encourage the growth of pairs skating in new countries at the junior level when there are so few opportunities for young pairs skaters to compete.
In our first breakdown of the 2018 Junior World Championships we delve into the fantastic growth of ice dance in the junior ranks, and debate our favourite Russian ice dance styles, which teams are ready to make the move to senior, and just what judges are looking for in junior skaters.
The Olympics are over, and we decided to take some time to review some of the performances from the Gala and wrap up the Olympics as a whole. Plus we preview the next competition coming up, the 2018 Junior World Championships.
The final competition segment for figure skating was the ladies freeskate, and it was a roller coaster of emotions. We discuss the devastation of perfection not being quite enough, the difficulties of holding up under Olympic pressure, and the strong technical proficiency that's now necessary to contend with the best ladies skaters in the world.
Records were made and then broken in the 2018 Olympic ladies short program, and we discuss the confidence of the Russian ladies, a couple of personal best skates vying for the podium, and the battle to even make it into the free skate.
It was a record breaking free dance at the 2018 Olympics, with two amazing programs setting records by Virtue and Moir and Papadakis and Cizeron. We break down the difference between their programs, the overall strength of ice dance this season, and what might happen at this year's post-Olympics World Championships.
The short dance at the 2018 Olympics was a dramatic nail-biter, and we grouse about avoiding wardrobe malfunctions, how pattern dances are assessed, and judges saving room in the PCS as we recap the entire event.
The men's freeskate was a dramatic night of skating, and we were relieved that it was a stronger night of skating than in Sochi. We break down the amazing comeback skates, the night's small mistakes, and the fantastic podium that we saw from the men's Olympic freeskate.
The men's short program at the 2018 Olympics was a roller coaster, with both miraculous and disastrous skates. We break down as many of the men's short programs as we can before the free skate starts, and worry over whether it will be a cleaner free skate than we saw in Sochi.
Two Olympic events down, three to go! The pairs are all finished competing at this year's Olympics, and it certainly ended on a high for Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot, Wenjing Sui and Cong Han, and Meagan Duhamel and Erice Radford. There were happy tears, probably some sad tears and a whole lot of personal bests.
So that pairs short program was amazing! The Olympics are in full swing and everyone is now in the running. We have almost only good things to say about the pairs before they take the ice for their freeskate! Here's hoping those are as good as these were.
Team Canada took Gold in a dramatic Day 3 of figure skating's team event at the Olympics, and we debate whether the Canadian men's gold medal curse is gone, how much impact a big jump like a triple axel can have on a program, and whether Virtue and Moir's new lift variation is any less scandalous than the previous one.
Day 2 of figure skating's team event at the Olympics determined which countries will be fighting for the medals, and we break down all of the skates in dance, ladies, and pairs, including the relative PCS of the top ladies, strict technical calls in the dance, and how you can prepare to deal with a costume malfunction on Olympic ice.
The Olympics are finally here! We break down all of the skates from day 1 of the team event (including all of the men and pairs) and discuss the extreme pressures of the Olympics, the strategies countries might use for day 2 of the team event, and a reminder from the Olympic audience that pairs figure skating is a pretty amazing thing to watch.
In our last episode before the Olympics officially begin, we preview all of the figure skating events by breaking down our podium predictions and trying to figure out how different countries will strategize with their skaters in the team event. Plus, we finally discuss the situation with the Russian athletes and the mess that the IOC and Russia are currently in.
The men's event at Four Continents had the strongest field as a whole, and we discuss the Olympic podium worthy skates by the top two men, the flood of skaters who might be retiring after this event, and the emergence of skating in Mexico, in our last competition recap before the Olympic games begin in February!
The pairs field at Four Continents was small, but exciting. We get excited about the first ISU senior international medal for North Korea, the potential of the new US pairs, and the strengthening of the pairs discipline in Asia outside of China.
The Japanese ladies conquered the podium at Four Continents and we break down their dominance at this event, as well as the resurgence of the South Korean ladies, the potential of the up and coming Canadian ladies, and the struggles of some skaters before their upcoming Olympic debut.
It was a field of a lot of newcomers in the dance event at Four Continents, and we discuss the surprise medalists, the growth of ice dance in Asia, and the insane depth of the current American ice dance field.
We wrap up our Europeans recap with the dance, which had one of the deepest fields of the whole competition. We have fantasies about perfect scores at the Olympics, discuss the growth of dance in countries like Spain and Poland, and wait impatiently for the IOC to say definitively which Russian skaters will be going to the Olympics.
The European Championships are always an interesting event. Headlined this year once again by Javier Fernandez, the men were overall pretty strong and are definitely starting to look ready to step up for the Olympics, which are only about 3 weeks away now!
In what was one of the most shocking events of the season, we have a new UNDEFEATED Russian lady battling for the number one spot at the Olympics. What was almost certainly Medvedeva's title will not be hers without a fight as Alina Zagitova steps up to the plate with technical mastery! The drama is unfolding and we are WAY TOO EXCITED for these Olympics!
With only 3 weeks to the Olympics, it is becoming less and less clear which teams stand the most chance of an Olympic medal, much less the OGM. Will one of these Russians take it? Will they even get to go? Will James and Cipres be real contenders? Nobody knows and only time will tell!
This is an emotional one folks. Grab the tissues as we discuss Virtue and Moir's LAST NATIONALS. Also one of our favourite teams step up and take a surprise medal and our favourite new team skate some of the best programs of their lives!
This year's 2018 ladies event was a little shocking, we're excited and sad big surprise, it's an Olympic season nationals). Also Ted Barton learned that we call them Ladies, not Girls, which was a personal highlight from the Dailymotion stream!
It's Canadian Nationals week! What could we possibly want more than 7 solid Canadian pairs? Plus title number 7 for Duhamel and Radford. This has been an emotional week, and mostly for good and/or bitersweet emotions. Settle in for some true north skating as we break down the whole lot.
So. Many. Emotions. This week has been bittersweet. So many staples in Canadian skating are moving on. This record setting/matching nationals for Patrick Chan (with 10 titles) will be his last. We're emotional for him and also so many of our favourite skaters who exceeded and/or failed to meet our hopes and expectations.
In the conclusion of what has been a roller coaster ride of emotions at US Nationals, we break down the Ice Dance, the event which has probably made us the happiest in the result, although we're not sure how many of you were expecting this outcome, though we were at least hoping for it. What does this mean for a Marie France sweep of the Olympic podium in Peyongchang? We hope only the best!
The men's free skate at US nationals was a dramatic and contentious one. We break down what a tough decision the selection committee had on choosing the Olympic team, and consider the relative merits of a clean skate, a consistent season, and a strong nationals.
There was a dynamic fight for three Olympic spots in the ladies event at US Nationals, and we break down the contentious decision made by the selection committee. Plus, we delve into what effect nationals inflation, under-rotation issues, and "Body of Work" had on the results and international assignments decided by this competition.
In our first breakdown of the US national championships, we reveal breaking news of the US pairs' international assignments, and discuss myriad side-by-side jump issues and the impact of a quad twist on the results of this event.
In our last 2017 catch-up episode, we recap the Japanese nationals ice dance field and the growth of the discipline in Japan. Then, we break down the top men and discuss the wealth of strong jumpers, the importance of a single toe, and speculate about Yuzuru Hanyu's physiotherapy situation in Toronto.
This year's Japanese nationals is a big one. With 30 ladies skaters and almost as many men, there's a lot to get through, but we tackle the best of the best from the ladies event and manage to get through a bunch of them. First though, we had to tackle the pairs event.
The Russian ladies are always exciting, maybe now more than ever. With a huge number of their top international competitors finishing outside the top 10 here, and with so many of these ladies under 16, what does that mean for Russian skating today?
Russian Nationals are always an exciting event, usually with a whole lot of upheval. There were a whole lot of highs and a whole lot of lows this year. Follow along with us as we break them all down!
Our Russian Nationals coverage continues with the ice dance as we discuss a mid-program withdrawal, the importance of pattern dances in a team's development, and a whole lot of botched twizzles, in what was a very up and down event.
We begin our coverage of this season's national competitions with the pairs at Russian Nationals. Listen in as we gush over the top teams' crosscuts and skating skills, the potential of the current crop of junior pairs, and a set of fantastic side by side spins.
We saved the best for last! The Junior Ladies had a fantastic event at the Grand Prix Final and we revel in our awe of these young dynamos and discuss the technical breakthroughs being made and the Hunger Games qualities of the ladies field in Russia.
We get a bit of a case of the giggles in our recap of the Junior Ice Dance event at the Grand Prix Final as we break down the evolution of the judging of pattern dances and the relative merits of the Cha Cha Slide as a song.
We continue to be excited by the pairs discipline all the way down to the junior ranks in this episode, as we marvel over the strength of Russian and Chinese pairs techniques, imagine great future careers for all of the young athletes in this event, and fantasize about a Mozer/Moskvina coaching team-up.
The Junior Grand Prix Final was almost as exciting as the seniors this year, and though the men were probably the least exciting of the bunch, they still gave us an interesting and exciting event. Keep your eyes peeled for these young guys in the future.
All of the events at this year's Grand Prix final were exciting, but the showdown in the pairs was a fun one, and the outcome was not exactly what we expected.
The ultimate ice dance showdown! Not only was this the first matchup of the season between Virtue/Moir and Papadakis/Cizeron, this was also a mini US nationals, of sorts. This was a close one, with an interesting result.
With Evgenia Medvedeva missing, this was a nail-biter of a competition for the ladies at the Grand Prix Final. We discuss the importance of the triple-triple, the depth of the Russian ladies, and how this field compares with the up-and-comers in the Junior ladies at the Final.
It was an unusual field of men at the Grand Prix Final this year, and we break down the quad wars, the fight for the podium at US Nationals, and Shoma Uno's free leg issues.
Before breaking down the ice dance event at Skate America, we delve into the breaking news about Russian participation in the Olympic games and what it might mean for figure skating. Then, we discuss the strict levels evaluation in this event and how to balance being accurate and nitpicking when judging ice dance.
The men's event at Skate America was a bit of a rough one to sit through. We delve deep into skating while injured, the state of Canadian men's figure skating, and how to deal with dead flies on the ice.
The ladies at Skate America shook things up on the podium in interesting ways, and we discuss the comebacks, the withdrawals, and the many nationals battles to come in the next month.
The grand prix in Japan is always a fun one. The crowd in Japan is always a great one, and the Pairs event this year was no exception, especially with the strength of pairs right now.
What is going on this Grand Prix season? Who's going to make it into the final after this showing? Time to break down the results of the ladies event and speculate about Skate America and the final.
With only one more stop on the Grand Prix circuit before the final, we break down the craziness that is ice dance. Who's got the best shot at winning the final? We speculate and break down what these results mean for our teams.
It's the second to last stop on the Grand Prix before the final. Did the men deliver? We break down the good, the bad, and the ugly from the men.
In the second to last stop on the Grand Prix, we break down the results of the pairs event and who is most likely to make the final at this point in the season.
Our first Skate America episode is the Pairs. We recap the least traumatic event of the weekend, and we break it down, skate by skate.
The ladies at this year's NHK Trophy provided an interesting insight into the potential future of ladies skating, this season and beyond. The return of Satoko Miyahara adds another element of suspense in the selection of the Japanese ladies skating team.
The ice dance event at NHK Trophy was another exciting and odd one. We break down the results, who's likely to make the GPF and where we think the season is headed.
This is the first episode of our updated format. In an attempt to make the exporting process faster, we're bringing you four episodes for each event. The men's event at NHK this year was odd, with Hanyu withdrawing at the last minute, the event was pretty wide open, and though the results were not what we expected, that only added to the excitement.
Our (very much delayed) Cup of China episode. We talk Hanyu's injury at NHK, the results of the events at CoC and who's likely to make the GPF.
This week was our second Grand Prix of Figure Skating competition. This time in Regina Saskatchewan, Skate Canada International featured a number of showdowns with some very high highs and some very low lows. Our frustration in the Canadian broadcast network responsible is palpable, but our excitement for the season ahead has not been tempered (too much). This is a big one, so settle in.
The senior Grand Prix series is here! We discuss every entrant in all four disciplines at Rostelecom (and whether they skated as well as we predicted), plus inappropriate lyrics for skating, whether it's a better strategy to skate clean with easier jumps, or throw in all the quads you can, how a fall should affect PCS, and lots more. Join us for Hanyu vs. Chen, Medvedeva vs. Kostner, and Russia vs. the world in pairs and dance in this exciting start to the Grand Prix season!
In this episode we circle back to the fourth Junior Grand Prix competition in Minsk, Belarus to discuss the strength of the junior ladies, and also engage in a lengthy discussion on body image issues in figure skating.
The 2017 Finlandia Trophy was one of three events this past weekend, and the competition was tough. Our thoughts on the outcomes, the trajectories and the long term plan of the skaters here.
The 2017 edition of the Japan Open provided some interesting head-to-head match-ups between skaters early on in the season. We break down all of the new programs and come-back skates from this event.
Nebelhorn Trophy 2017 was the final qualifying event for the 2018 Winter Olympics. We discuss the skating, the qualifiers, what that means for the team event and what the qualification of North Korean skaters mean for the politics of the region. It's a long one, so settle in.
This week on top of the Autumn Classic International, was Ondrej Nepola trophy, which featured some strong skater, particularly from Russia and the USA, andincluded Evgenia Medvedeva's debut of her programs in competition.
This year's Autumn Classic was full of huge names, including 3 world champions and a variety of world medalists. This challenger series event is a huge start to the season for a lot of our top skaters.
This week's 2nd episode is about the Lombardia Trophy 2017. The combined first week of the real start of the senior season had some huge highs, including some incredible scores, and we break it all down.
We recap the first of this week's 2 Challenger series competitions, the US international classic in Salt Lake City. Highlights include Nathan Chen, Marin Honda, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro, and Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and Chris Knierim, among others.
We dive into the field at the third Junior Grand Prix event in Riga, Latvia including the debut of junior pairs.
This week we have a bonus episode, with the premiere of I, Tonya at TIFF. Was it good? Bad? Funny? What we expected and what we got. What we thought of the movie as a film as well as as a piece of skating media.
In our second episode, we break down the second Junior Grand Prix competition of 2017 in Salzburg, Austria, and discuss some sad retirement news.
In the first ever episode of Flutzes and Waxels we dive deep into the first Junior Grand Prix event of the 2017-2018 season.