Figure Skating Part XVIII

Link to prior thread:

New season starts today with the Tango Romantica at Lake Placid

McNamara/Carpenter and Parsons/Parsons will face off.

Who do you think is the hottest male ice dancer? I like Nikita K.

R3: Alex Shibutani

Katsalapov

Cizeron

Poje

Drodz

Buckland (the weakest of the two Brothers)

Zach Donohue, but he's kind of a goofball, but goofball with a bod.

Thanks OP. Do we know the results of Lake Placid ?

R7 I think they start at 5.25 PM local time

Thanks R8

I had to go to many sites to see where I could watch this event. Apparently this is the site that will be live streaming (according to the USFSA) but the Snap Shop Sports website is not fully safe. I can't believe they haven't updated their security standards in all this years.

I ain't buying their crap unless they update their cybersecurity.

IIRC from previous years, Lake Placid is also pretty crap in posting results and protocols.

Given it's the first event with the +/-5 system, the protocols could be interesting on those "middle of the road" teams like M/C and P/P

The entries for Asian Open scheduled for next week. Pretty weak field for a Challenger but it was kinda expected considering it's still early August (after a probably stressful Olympic season for many) and that it is in Asia

MEN

1tJordan DODDStAUSt1tttttttttttttttt t t

2tCharlton DOHERTYtAUSt1tttttttttttttttt t t

3tJames MINtAUSt1tttttttttttttttt t t

tttttt t t

4tChih-Sheng CHANGtTPEt2tttttttttttttttt t t

5tChih-I TSAOtTPEt2tttttttttttttttt t t

6tKwang Bom HANtPRKt3tttttttttttttttt t t

7tLeslie Man Cheuk IPtHKGt4tttttttttttttttt t t

8tKwun Hung LEUNGtHKGt4tttttttttttttttt t t

9tHarrison Jon-Yen WONGtHKGt4tttttttttttttttt t t

tttttttt t t 10tAlberto WIDJAJAtINAt5tttttttttttttttt t t

11tMitsuki SUMOTOtJPNt6tttttttttttttttt t t

12tSota YAMAMOTOtJPNt6tttttttttttttttt t t

13tSe Jong BYUNtKORt7tttttttttttttttt t t

14tSihyeong LEEtKORt7tttttttttttttttt t t

15tSunghoon PARKtKORt7tttttttttttttttt t t ttttttt t t

16tArtem LEZHEEVtRUSt8tttttttttttttttt t t

17tChadwick WANGtSGPt9tt

LADIES

1tHongyi CHENtCHNt1tttttttttttttttt t t

2tStephanie Yuung-Shuh CHANGtTPEt2tttttttttttttttt t t

3tAmy LINtTPEt2tttttttttttttttt t t

4tHiu Ching KWONGtHKGt3tttttttttttttttt t t

5tYi Christy LEUNGtHKGt3tttttttttttttttt t t

6tJoanna SOtHKGt3tttttttttttttttt t t tttttt t t

7tErika SANJAYAtINAt4tttttttttttttttt t t

8tYuna SHIRAIWAtJPNt5tttttttttttttttt t t

9tMako YAMASHITAtJPNt5tttttttttttttttt t t

10tEunsoo LIMtKORt6tttttttttttttttt t t

11tSeoyoung YOONtKORt6tttttttttttttttt t t

12tThita LAMSAMtTHAt7tttttttttttttttt t t

13tStarr ANDREWStUSAt8t

PAIRS

1tCheng PENG / Yang JINtCHNt1tttttttttttttttt t t

2tFeiyao TANG / Yongchao YANGtCHNt1tttttttttttttttt t t

3tTae Ok RYOM / Ju Sik KIMtPRKt2ttt

ICE DANCE

1tChantelle KERRY / Andrew DODDStAUSt1tttttttttttttttt t t

2tWanqi NING / Chao WANGtCHNt2tttttttttttttttt t t

3tShiyue WANG / Xinyu LIUtCHNt2tttttttttttttttt t t

4tYong Myong PHYO / Min CHOEtPRKt3tttttttttttttttt t t

5tMisato KOMATSUBARA / Tim KOLETOtJPNt4tttttttttttttttt t t

6tSuthatta YILANSUWAN / Karn LUANPREDAtTHAt5t tt (I cut and pasted from ISU website.....so I fear the formatting will be a mess!)

The Chinese girl of the second pair is not 15 according to the ISU website. Therefore, either ISU can't remember their own rules or China recently changed her date of birth

From twitter

1) Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter (USA) 73.50

2) Rachel Parsons/Michael Parsons (USA) 68.17

3) Haley Sales/Nicholas Wamsteeker (Canada) 56.23

4) Molly Lanahan/Dmitre Razgulajevs (Canada) 52.59

5) Emily Monaghan/Ilias Fourati (Hungary) 42.04

6) Shira Ichilov/Vadim Davidovich (Israel) 41.43

7) Elicia Reynolds/Stephen Reynolds (USA) 38.41

8) Nicole Takahashi/Oleg Altukhov (USA) 33.61

Those are some sad scores., but then again it's July. Mcnamara/Carpenter need to be having scores in the high 70s.

Not looking good for the Parsons--too bad he's too short for Eliana Pogrebinsky. She needs a partner and the Parsons need to break up the sibling act. The Shibs had to be pristine technically to get away with it.

Wonder if the Tango Romantica was a nail-in-the-coffin as far the ShibSibs were concernedin terms of competing this year? They finessed the rhumba pretty well last season, but not sure what they could have done with any dance with "romantica" in the title.

R14 Tango Romantica could have been a good excuse for the judges to dump them. I believe H/D would have passed them quite clearly (apart in case of Donohue's big mistakes). They could have kept the third place because everyone else seem to have retired or is sitting out.

The siblings doing Tango Romantica in 2010 season weren't doing particularly worse in that segment compared to Original and Free Dances apart from the Reeds who placed worst in the Tango at both Worlds (23-13-14) and Olympics (18-14-16). But neither of them were World podium contenders (Kerrs were Euro podium contenders though) unlike the Shibs who would have scrutinzed more.

Final Lake Placid

McNamara/Carpenter 185.12 (111.62 FD)

Parsons/Parsons 164.74 (96.57 FD) *Parsons boy fell

Sales/Wamsteeker 138.01

Glacier Falls SP (not international comp)

1 - 66.78 Ting CUI

2 - 65.80 Megan WESSENBERG

3 - 63.60 Alysa LIU

4 - 57.63 Ashley LIN

5 - 57.41 Akari NAKAHARA

6 - 56.45 Emmy MA

7 - 53.55 Angela WANG

8 - 53.22 Heidi MUNGER

9 - 50.48 Emily CHAN

10 - 50.09 Kelsey WONG

So Ting Cui's had another good showing. Angela Wang continues to not break through. Megan Wessenberg's an interesting one--no idea who she is, but she just outskated next-big-thing Alysa Liu.

I couldn't remember who Wessenberg is. She was 17th at National, she is 20. Her ISU bio says she is coached by Mark Mitchell

Who is Cizeron spinning with in his IG story, I can't quite tell or pause it at the right time, haha?

Is Alysa Liu short on cash or something? Why is she competing this weekend? Girl needs to take a break or she'll be burn out by the time the JGP starts.

This thread makes me want to dig out my skates, hike up my caftan, and find some ice. Or at least rip open a packet of Swiss Miss.

In the end Liu wins Glacier Fall

1 Alysa Liu 193.17 2 Ting Cui 186.80 3 Megan Wessenberg 171.41

great

Given his ice dancing career is going downhill, is Polizoakis placing himself to get a Parisien sugar daddy for the future? or, at least some a bit better than Johnny's ex

McNamara/Carpenter tango

Free Dance

Parsons Tango

Parsons' FD

His fall is at 3.35. Pretty random

Which brother/sister ice dance duo has the cutest guy?

And Alex, don't say yourself.

The always present involontariously hilarious "let's try and be sexy" moves...at one point Carpenter basically put his cheek over her tit during the TR

R30 present or also from the past?

My thoughts:

Both teams came more prepared than last year, even with the fall I thought the parsons were miles better than any outing they had last year.

Lorraine McNamara is still at that stage where she feels uncomfortable being touched like a woman. I wonder if she has a crush on her partner or she's just a big Lesb. It's interesting because both Quinn Carpenter and Michael Parsons are better skaters than their partners. Lorraine hunches and needs better control of her limbs, especially evident when she changes positions during the lifts. They have a pretty strong vehicle with their FD though.

Oh boy, Michael is kinda of a headcase, isn't he? I think he has fallen every time they skated as seniors. At least Rachel is skating with better carriage and femininity. Their semi spread eagle was really beautiful. She needs to lift him cuz' it's obvious that she could.

The McNamara/Carpenter's score look good for this stage of the season but I am still unsure how to read these new scores

Maybe the Bangkok Challenger next week will enlighten a bit (always keeping in mind it is difficult to compare scores from different panels, especially at Senior B level). Wang/Liu will be there and they were more or less at McNamara/Carpenter and Parsons level last season.

I love Wang and their spectacular lifts. I was very disappointed they were not getting better scores.

R33, I took McNamara's awkwardness as lack of security on her skates. The programs have a lot of potential, but she is not dancing it at this point. I prefer the Parsons as skaters, they have a lot of power in those edges, but Michael needs to stay on his feet.

There was a Glacier Falls skating rink in Anaheim when I was a kid. We used to go to public skating sessions in the 1970s. I only skated around in a circle along with most people. But the figure skaters stayed in the center doing their spins. I think Evy Scotvold may have coached there for a while. And at least one skater there made it to Nationals. The rink is long gone now. But I assume the current Glacier Falls competition, which is held in Anaheim, is named in honor of the old Glacier Falls rink. Some photos:

[R32] I would include past and present brother skaters. In answering my own query, I would pick Paul Duchenay.

If Marie France is not the choreographer of the Parsons FD she needs to sue. That is a huge rip-off.

the new season will be 3/4 of teams at Gadbois and the rest ripping Gadbois style off?

Alisa Liu is entered at Asian Open this week in Advanced Novice category

Sui/Han withdrawn from both their GPs

Answering my own question from R20. It was Cipres.

Do you have the video R43?

[quote]Alisa Liu is entered at Asian Open this week in Advanced Novice category

Why ??? She has competed almost in every Summer competition already.

Where are her parents ??

R45 I wouldn't surprised if she withdraws

Here you go, R44

Oh wait, Alysa Liu just posted from Thailand. So she is really competing at Asian Open

Zach Donohue is cute.

Thank you R47.

That was actually a pretty good spin. Those two would make a hot couple

My pleasure, R50! And yes, they look great spinning together and would also look amazing as an on ice or off ice couple!

Morgan is looking in the wrong (right) direction

Entries at Philapelphia International comp this week

Men

Yamato Rowe (PHI)

Micah Tang (TPE)

Yaroslav Paniot (UKR)

Timothy Dolensky (USA)

Patrick Frohling (USA)

Jimmy Ma (USA)

Camden Pulkinen (USA)

Andrew Torgashev (USA)

Ladies:

Isadora Williams (BRA)

Dimitra Korri (GRE)

Netta Schreiber (ISR)

Andrea Montesinos (MEX)

Sofia del Rio (MEX)

Maxine Marie Bautista (USA)

Karen Chen (USA)

Amber Glenn (USA)

Katie McBeath (USA)

Brynne McIsaac (USA)

Akari Nakahara (USA)

Rumours are that Gracie Gold hasn't got the triples back

They are starting to fill all these Pairs vacant spots. Hase/Seegert got Skate America and Internatiounaux de France going from 0 to 2 GP in one day.

R53 Dolensky needs a good showing in Philadelphia to get the Skate America host spot.

Entry list for NRW Ice Dance Trophy (next week in Germany):

1 Shari Koch / Christian Nüchtern (Germany) 2 Carolina Moscheni / Andrea Fabbri (Italy) 3 Katharina Müller / Tim Dieck (Germany) 4 Jasmine Tessari / Francesco Fioretti (Italy)

I didn't expect much given it's still early August in the post Olympic season but maybe a few second tier East European teams

I remember mentioning this a while back, but I really do like the fact that Solovyev likes posts like this one

Everyone likes me

I will also be a judge on Dancing with the Starts Junior on ABC this fall!

Alysa Liu SP today at Asian Open, Advance Novice

30.59 TES 19.66 PCS

First place

Sarah Honda (sister of Marin) is in second place with 26.82 TES and 18.54 PCS

A 3-2 combo?? Wait! Is she not old enough to compete in juniors?

It is encouraging that she got 60 pts for that water down program.

R59 yes, she's too young for Juniors internationally. She's doing Advance Novice there

The jump layout is 2A, 3F and 3Lz+2T

I think Novices can't do 3+3

Senior comp is starting on Saturday. The Parsons have been added to Ice Dance field. Pairs is down to 2 because ISU finally realised the girl from one Chinese team was not age eligible for Senior.

[quote]Rumours are that Gracie Gold hasn't got the triples back

I'm not surprised. But I still see her delusional fans posting on GS and FSU about how she's going to beat the Russian girls if she skates clean. Yeah, right...

Which site is more cringeworthy, GS or FSU?

FSU. It seems to skew older - lots of fraus still arguing about the results of some competition from the '80s. There are fewer posters, so the really obnoxious ones are harder to avoid. There's one jackass there who always writes these novel-length, smug, wanky posts. Get a blog honey, nobody wants to read all that shit!

R63 Ok. That explains a lot. I don't go there often but this has been my experience too, thought I was just there on bad days. And I'm pretty sure I know which poster you're talking about.

[quote] lots of fraus still arguing about the results of some competition from the '80s.

like 3 pages about 1980's Potzsch vs Lenz. All with comments from July 2018

Some more music choices recently announced

Dabin Choi

SP: "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" from Evita

FS: Carmen by Georges Bizet

(because we need Carmen. And another one I can't picture as Carmen anyway)

Eunsoo Lim

SP: Somewhere in Time OST (choreo by Jeff Buttle)

LP: Chicago OST (choreo by Akiko Suzuki)

Nam Nguyen is doing La La Land.....are we getting this year all the LLLs we avoided last season?

Moore-Towers/Marinaro

SP: The first time ever I saw your face (Leona Lewis' version)

FS: Pink Floyd medley

Marinaro is a hottie.

R66 I agree

In the FS Alysa Liu did a 3A+2T. She then tried another 3A but she fell and was called UR. 3Lo also called UR. But 3 Lz done solo and in a combo with a 3T

What's the status of Zueva? I see Scali has left Canton and moved to Chicago

Closet case Grant Hochstein officially announces retirement. Expected decision

FSU has a bunch of assholes for mods. They shamelessly play favorites with the posters.

Hochstein probably wants to break up with his girlfriend and save himself the embarrassment of coming out in public.

Here is the technical specialist in Men and Ladies at Asian Open tomorrow

Not very subtle camera angle and use of hashtag....

r72 Same with Goldenskate. It's ridiculous how far they go to protect the psycho Canadian fraus. The system automatically deletes posts that contain the word Chanflation

Philadelphia SP

!) Akari Nakahara (USA) 57.91

2) Amber Glenn (USA) 54.53

3) Katie McBeath (USA) 53.47

4) Brynne McIssac (USA) 50.03

5) Isadora Williams (BRA) 48.54

then various non entities from Mexico, Israel and Greece

Karen Chen withdrew.

Asian Open - Challenger Series

Ladies SP

1) Eunsoo Lim 68.09

2) Starr Andrews 62.60

3) Yi Christy Leung 57.99

4) Yuna Shiraiwa 54.47

5) Hongyi Chen 53.06

6) Mako Yamashita 50.97

etc

Men SP

1. Tsao (Taipei) 65.57

2.Byun (South Korea) 65.47

3. Sumoto (Japan) 63.65

4. Wong (Hong Kong) 58.78

5.Sunghoon Park (South Korea) 58.62

6. Yamamoto (Japan) 57.92

etc

PAIRS

1. Peng/Jin 71.54

2. Ryom/Kim 60.40

Rhythm Dance

1) Parsons/Parsons 64.47

2) Wang/Liu (tango on Pirates of the Carribean) 63.60

3) Komatsubara/Koleto 61.28

4) Ning/Wang 43.71

5) Kerry/Dodds 43.53

6) Phyo/Choe (North Korea) 34.82

Thoughts on Nathan's new FS? I like....

I don't love it but it is definitely not bad.

Let's see how it evolves. Last season I liked Chen's programs when he presented them in September but then by the end of the season they lost appeal to me when the focus switched to put all the quads

Here's Zagitova's Phantom...with 100 random music cuts

I like the last bit in Nathan's program with the arm movements...

Zagitova honestly looks like a different person, amazing how much she has grown since Worlds in March

yes, she is taller and with that hairstyle she looks different

Uno's new FS

I like Shoma a lot, but I'm freaking tired of Moonlight Sonata... after P/C last season I don't think it can be topped for me

Shomas ' short : in first 3 minutes nothing happens , nothing at all. what was that? P/c must be geniuses then :)

Philadelphia Summer International

Ladies total

1. Katie McBeath 153.67

2. Akari Nakahara 147.02

3. Brynne McIssac 146.26

4. Maxine Marine Bautista 128.62

5. Amber Glenn 122.78

ouch, headcase Glenn continues to strike

Men SP

1 Timothy Dolensky USA 68.26

2 Yaroslav Paniot UKR 67.87

3 Andrew Torgashev USA 67.67

4 Jimmy Ma USA 67.32

5 Camden Pulkinen USA 67.20

it is bloody close.

I don't get how insanely busy the programs of the Eteri girls get. The top men don't seem to have programs where they just rush through the movements. Do these girls actually get an advantage with a gazillion turns and transitions like that? They already have the jumps, why not focus more on the artistry and musicality.

Because Daniil doesn't know how to coreograph differently? Maybe they should hey different choreographers.

Meanwhile, Lim, Yamamoto, Peng/Jin and Wang/Liu won in Bangkog

Shoma's SP

Like it a lot better than Moonlight...

Like Shomo's short--even with the weird plucked-chicken feathers on his costume.

Nathan's the least fluid skater of the top men, but he's actually really musical--it's a funny combination, but I like that he continues to carve out a kind of Nathan style. He's also the one guy who looks better in a perm. He should stick to that and practice clothes.

Why have Sui/Han withdrawn from the GP--is it politics or is she injured again? A shame--my favorite pair, though Aliana and Bruno had an amazing LP last season.

I assume Papa Liu is trying to get Alysa as used to international competitions as possible.

I might like Zagitova as a skater with better choreography, but it's so cluttered that it;s hard for me to tell. She's definitely had a growth spurt, but she seems to be in much better shape than at Worlds. She's still really really young in that she just tries on different personae for her routines--and doesn't seem really invested in any of them. In that sense, weirdly enough, Nathan Chen is a more artistic skater.

Why am I not surprised to hear Gracie doesn't have her triples back . . . she's a head case and triples take commitment and focus.

Speaking of head cases--come on, Amber--you could get there--genuinely beautiful skater, but damn, no consistency. Well, I suppose the fact that she's delivered a couple of short programs is an improvement . . .

R88 Re Sui/Han

Apparently, she is just back on ice after the injury she had during Olympics but she still needs to avoid certain elements

Peng/Jin new FS (La vie en rose). I guess choreo is by Lori Nichols as usual for Chinese team

Wang/Liu Free Dance. They have beaten the Parsons (this time the main mistake was by Rachel rather than Michael. Hands down during the twizzles)

A short clip of Tennell's new short program with the 3 lutz - 3 loop combo

What competition is that R92?

Hmmm, that's intriguing--costume is more sophisticated, the music's not Disney and that triple combo was gorgeous.

R93 i think it is Dupage Open, one of the summer competition in US

Torgashev won Philadelphia International with Ma second and Dolenski third

So host pick at Skate America will be one between Ma, Rabbit and Dolensky? Or a second spot for Johnson?

Short Clips from Vincent Zhou's SP - Exogenesis by Muse... yay... another warhorse

we can't miss Vincent's insightful words

one of my best programs yet. Still a work in progress (and I know we chose a big pair of shoes to fill) but I look forward to what Lori and I can bring to the table with such a beautiful, nuanced piece of music, where every note means something. And of course, thank you so much, Lori, for your choreographic genius and unique sense of artistry.

Knierims

SP: Castle by Halsey (choreo Aljona Savchenko, Benoit Richaud)

FS: Wicked Game (choreo Aljona Savchenko, Benoit Richaud)

Lori's "unique sense of artistry"

Oh lord, the cartoon at R97 make young Vinnie seem a bit incelish...

There are Gay Games this week. First time with figure skating allowed by ISU without being at risk of suspension if you take part (thanks to French Fed which worked to convince them), not that some elite skaters wanted to take part anyway.

There is one skater who once finished 20th at US national …

Anyway, one guy got 0.25 for Interpretation. That's incredibly bitchy! I think the judge pushed the wrong button and wanted to give 2.25 (given the other PCS marks).

Yeah I wouldn't expect any of the elite athletes to participate in the Gay Games...

Hendrickx got a nice boyfriend given his ugly face

What's wrong with Uno's costumes ? I think from now I have to be prepared for those Hanyu-esque costumes every season. Seems like more and more male skaters dress like him in competitions.

Alina's SP music cuts and choreo are terrible, Alena Kortonaia's are even worse. I waited hopefully for her R&J program then Daniil came and got me hit in face with his trash work. Someone please ban him from making music. I'm serious.

I love Chen's FS music choice choreo is OK-ish. Hope he won't fuck it up like he did with his Nemesis last season. He's actually musical, it's fun to watch his performances when he doesn't focus on jumping quads.

I get a sense Gracie would withraw from GPs. I don't believe she's ready to come back. Tennell is in an ideal situation now. As long as she's consistent enough this season, I totally see US will back her to become a contender for Worlds podium.

Muramoto/Reed have split. And now Zueva is really left with only the Lithuanian Reed sister

Wow, Zueva sure taken a downward slide, even though she's produced both gold and bronze medalists.

Shame about Muramoto/Reed--I liked them as a team. They weren't the very best, but they were enjoyable to watch.

Stellato/Bartholomay got a second GP: they are assigned to Finland. They already had Rostelecom Cup

Lu/Mitrofanov are assigned to NHK. It's their first Senior GP

GRAND PRIX situation

ICE DANCE:

- 2 vacant spots because of Muramato/Reed split (NHK and Rostelecom)

- 1 vacant spot because of Min/Gamelin (Skate America)

- 4 host picks to be announced (Skate America, Finland, Rostelecom and France)

- 2 further vacancies may be announced soon (Rostelecom and Finland) because 2 teams are rumored to have split but not announced yet

PAIRS:

- Finland renounced to their host pick because of lack pairs. They gave it to Stellato/Bartholomey

- 2 splits (Seguin/Bilodeau and Esbrat/Novoselov) and 2 withdrawals (Yu/Zhang and Sui/Han) left 7 vacant spots

- Hase/Seegert get Skate America and France.

-Li/Xie get Finland

- Ruest/Wolfe get France

-Lu/Mitrofanov get NHK

- Stellato/Bartholomay get Finland because the organizers renounced to their host pick (there aren't Finnish pairs at the moment)

This leaves vacant

Skate America host pick

1 spot in Finland

1 spot in France (may be a host pick)

MEN:

2 vacant spots at Rostelecom Cup because Zandron switched country from Italy to Austria and Ten was killed

Host picks to be decided: 1 USA, 1 Canada, 1 Finland, 1 Japan, 1 France

WOMEN:

2 vacant spots (Skate America and Finland) because Rajcova withdrew from both.

Host picks to be decided: 1 USA, 1 Finland, 1 Japan, 1 Russia and 1 France

I think that's all.

They almost finished the available pairs...

the battle between Finnish ladies for the host pick may be bitchy....

WTF happened to Cup of China? It was always the shittiest event but wouldn't they move it to South Korea or some place?

R110 South Korea didn't accept it. It went to Helsinki in the end!

r110 Recently, the shittiest event has been the French GP. But China threw a fit over their short track skaters and suspended FS judges and told ISU to go and fuck themselves and withdrew organization of all events in both sports. (Officially of course they're focusing on preparing for Beijing2022.)

South Korea was offered, but their skating federation is in such a mess (embezzlement investigations, harassment investigations, the Fed president resigning etc) that there was no way they could handle an ad hoc GP.

Finland apparently said yes if they got the Olympic champions, which they did , and sold all the horrendously expensive good tickets within hours.

Hurtado/Khaliavin's new FD on the floor... I hope they shoot up to the top this season

R113 I hope they can at least raise at the top pf Spanish field even of Smart/Diaz are the Feds' darling

Thoughts on Miyahara's program? I love her skating, but combining tango and Vivaldi doesn't work for me...

Yeah, love Satoko's skating, too, but that program doesn't gel. Not sure what it's about. Might get a better idea of it later when she relaxes into it a little more.

I am surprised but i love it.. the last spin to vivaldi and then the ending pose to tango is fantastic. She nneds more choreo in the second part but anyway I love it. We will see if it will work in competitions

NRW Trophy

Tango Romantica

1) Muller/Dieck 64.02

2) Tessari/Fioretti 63.39

3) Koch/Nuchtern 62.84

4) Moscheni/Fabbri 55.87

Scores on the high side given the entries. Top 3 got scores similar to Wang/Liu and Parsons at Asian Open

Bradie Tennell's short. Don't know the music, but it doesn't sound like Disney. What do we think?

R119 who is the choreographer? Always Richaud? Scott Brown? Someone else?

R118

K/C got 4 key points out of 8 (3 by her and 1 by him); M/D got 2 Key points (both from Muller)+ 1 timing; T/F got 3 key points done (2 Tessari and1 Fioretti); M/F got only 1 key point (Fabbri)

The callers were Benjamin Blum (used to skate for Germany with an American girl in Junior but they never transitioned to Senior) and Candice Towler Green (British ice dancer who took part to some Junior Worlds but never made Senior British team in main competition)

Final result

1) Muller/Dieck 163.31 (comfortably ahead in PCS. Close in TES)

2) Tessari/Fioretti 157.9

3) Koch/Nuchtern 151.38 (only 4th in FD)

4) Moscheni/Fabbri 148.58

From another thread here that has discussion about skating said that this is Bradie's music for her short: Hi-Finesse - "Rebirth (featuring Natacha Atlas)." The poster there said, "Hi-Finesse makes all of that movie trailer music. At least one of her programs is by Benoit Richaud, but I'm not sure if both are.

I really like it, especially her beautiful opening triple combo, Lutz and loop - and I think she puts the same combo in her Romeo & Juliet mashup for her long.

Bradie's SP looks great. Her expression and presentation have really improved since last year. At 20, can she hang in there and keep improving for another 4 years? Ashley Wagner was in her mid-20s when she won her world silver, so it seems possible.

LOMBARDIA TROPHY ENTRIES

MEN

1 Jiri BELOHRADSKY CZE 1

2 Petr KOTLARIK CZE 1

3 Daniel Albert NAURITS EST 2

4 Luc ECONOMIDES FRA 3

5 Adrien TESSON FRA 3

6 Philip WARREN FRA 3

7 Harry MATTICK GBR 4

8 Matteo RIZZO ITA 5

9 Kazuki TOMONO JPN 6

10 Shoma UNO JPN 6

11 Igor REZNICHENKO POL 7

12 Jaeseok KYEONG KOR 8

13 June Hyoung LEE KOR 8

14 Dmitri ALIEV RUS 9

15 Matthew SAMUELS RSA 10

16 Timothy DOLENSKY USA 11

LADIES

1 Michaela Lucie HANZLIKOVA CZE 1

2 Klara STEPANOVA CZE 1

3 Eva Lotta KIIBUS EST 2

4 Kristina SHKULETA-GROMOVA EST 2

5 Viveca LINDFORS FIN 3

6 Sofia SULA FIN 3

7 Sandra RAMOND FRA 4

8 Lea SERNA FRA 4

9 Nathalie WEINZIERL GER 5

10 Fruzsina MEDGYESI HUN 6

11 Ivett TOTH HUN 6

12 Sara CONTI ITA 7

13 Micol CRISTINI ITA 7

14 Chenny PAOLUCCI ITA 7

15 Kaori SAKAMOTO JPN 8

16 Mako YAMASHITA JPN 8

17 Veronika SHEVELEVA KAZ 9

18 Elzbieta KROPA LTU 10

19 Greta MORKYTE LTU 10

20 Alisson Krystle PERTICHETO PHI 11

21 Boyoung KIM KOR 12

22 Antonina DUBININA SRB 13

23 Valentina MATOS ESP 14

24 Anita ÖSTLUND SWE 15

25 Zahra LARI UAE 16

26 Amber GLENN USA 17

PAIRS

1 Lana PETRANOVIC / Antonio SOUZA-KORDEIRU CRO 1

2 Coline KERIVEN / Antoine PIERRE FRA 2

3 Nicole DELLA MONICA / Matteo GUARISE ITA 3

4 Rebecca GHILARDI / Filippo AMBROSINI ITA 3

5 Aleksandra BOIKOVA / Dmitrii KOZLOVSKII RUS 4

6 Natalia ZABIIAKO / Alexander ENBERT RUS 4

7 Laura BARQUERO / Aritz MAESTU ESP 5

8 Nica DIGERNESS / Danny NEUDECKER USA 6

ICE DANCE

1 Katerina BUNINA / German FROLOV EST 1

2 Juulia TURKKILA / Matthias VERSLUIS FIN 2

3 Julia WAGRET / Pierre SOUQUET FRA 3

4 Robynne TWEEDALE / Joseph BUCKLAND GBR 4

5 Chiara CALDERONE / Pietro PAPETTI ITA 5

6 Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI ITA 5

7 Carolina MOSCHENI / Andrea FABBRI ITA 5

8 Jasmine TESSARI / Francesco FIORETTI ITA 5

9 Sara HURTADO / Kirill KHALIAVIN ESP 6

10 Victoria MANNI / Carlo ROETHLISBERGER SUI 7

11 Rachel PARSONS / Michael PARSONS USA 8

___

So no Kostner. Parsons are doing every competition in sight?

I guess Uno and Sakamoto should win it

Lombardia's what started putting Bradie Tennell on the map last year. See if it does the same for Amber Glenn--but Glenn is one of those head case skaters--beautiful skills, but falls apart. I think the Parsons are smart to compete like crazy and get those nerves under control. Right now they've been losing ground to the other young teams. They should go to Marina. She has room and she can handle sibling teams.

Bradie has better basics than Ashley ever did. She has a tough draw in the Grand Prix, otherwise, I'd put her down as a probably Grand Prix finalist, but maybe she'll do it anyway. Haven't seen her LP yet, but I like the SP. I think it will get better--she seemed to get a little tired in the middle, but I assume she'll build a little more stamina as the season goes on. Richaud does like those angular knee bend things, doesn't he? I think Bradie's in a good position for this season--down the line, she has Alysa Liu coming up the ranks. Wonder if Bradie will try training a triple axel to stay competitive with Liu and the Russians down the line? I can see her moving up--she was sixth at Worlds last year and that was with a poor draw in the starting order in the SP.

Bradie needs to at least double her speed into every jump, and the 3Lz3L looks a little spun/underrotated...more travel needed. But at least she doesn't look like she's performing as fairy #4 in a cheesy Christmas show.

When I saw Bradie in person (at Nationals), she was a noticeably fast skater with fast rotations, but she does seem slow in the SP--that's why I thought she needed more stamina/energy. It's a new combo, so maybe she's still a bit tentative as well.

Overall, there are some possibilities here and with Nathan Chen's SP. I suppose I should care about Vincent Zhou's, but he's a bit annoying at this point. Karen Chen needs to show she's not a head case.

Parsons should come third in Lombardia behind Guignard/Fabbri and Hurtado/Khaliavin. Other teams there aren't competitive.

Bradie's combo is HEAVILY underrotated. Her skating isn't comfortable to watch at all. Her SP is boring as usual. Ashley at least has charisma on ice, her skating isn't ideal but I can force myself to watch some good performaces of her, even enjoy it. Bradie always skates as if she were about to die by drowning. No artistry, no charisma.

How can you see that the combo is heavily underrotated? You can't tell from that video really

Everything is UR!

Actually, 'Shin', you're not wrong in the women's game. Unless it's a Tonya/Midori check-out a foot above the ice (which currently may only be Kaetlyn Osmond), you have to stare hard at the landing foot whether it's Eteribots or these mediocre American girls who are channeling Tonia Kwiatkowski. For Denise Bielmann's sake, learn to fucking jump.

Jason Brown finally cut off his ponytail. I like it.

Finally! Jason looks so much better without it

US skaters for Salt Lake City Challenger

Karen Chen

Courtney Hicks

Brynne Mcisaac

Akari Nakahara

Jimmy Ma

Vincent Zhou

Ashley Cain/Timothy Leduc

Audrey Lu/Misha Mitrofanov

Jessica Pfund/Joshua Santillan

Nadine Wang/Akira Spencer Howe

Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko

Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue

Karina Manta/Joseph Johnson

Who the hell Nadine Wang/Akira Spencer Howe are?

Zach could fall and still win with that competition. Wonder if Karen Chen will show up this time--and whose skates she'll be wearing.

Why was I thinking that both Nathan Chen and Bradie Tennell would be at Salt Lake City? Something about parents' weekend at Yale?

R132...lol...he looks like he's about to cry.

I guess I'm one of the few who didn't mind his ponytail. I thought he wore it well, but I guess everyone needs a change sometime.

R137 I think Chen is off to Yale immediately after Champs Camp

Yes, I expected Tennell to be there though

R137 Maybe you're thinking of Skate America, which Nathan was assigned to and which coincides with his October recess.

More GPs withdrawls

Hendrickx from both his events (Skate America and Finland)

Mansourova/Ceska out of Finland (well, they split but Czech Rep submitted them anyway in first place)

Ah, that's probably it. Between Salt Lake City, Skate America, and 4CC Anaheim, I got things mixed up.

Koch/Nochtern of Germany replace Mansour/Ceska at Finnish GP

Reynolds and Chartrand get Skate America vacant spots. USFSA skipped over Lim to go down the list with Chartrand. Wanting somebody sure to lose to US girls?

Helsinki vacant spot will go to a second Finnish lady. Peltonen vs Lindford round 1

Looks like Jimmy Ma is getting the final Skate America host pick. He has been invited to Champs Camp

Jimmy Ma should, at least, be entertaining. Bet he's a lot more fun that Vincent-the-ego.

Jimmy Ma is a little spitfire. He skates like he's great in bed. I bet he has two atrocious routines planned for this year chock full of bad taste and I will love every minute of them.

Anybody know if Kevin Bottom is still skating? What about Russ Minor?

R147 Kevin has just won the Colleggiate Champs title. Lol

Ma's SP is "Mi Gente" by J Balvin, Willy William & Beyoncé mixed with "Sahara Tango" by Sarah Louise Ings, choreo by Morozov. FS is done by Joshua Farris.

US International FS Classic (Salt Lake City) Challenger Series

Entries

MEN

1 Slavik HAYRAPETYAN ARM

2 Andrew DODDS AUS

3 Jordan DODDS AUS

4 Nam NGUYEN CAN

5 Chih-Sheng CHANG TPE

6 Micah TANG TPE

7 Michal BREZINA CZE

8 Harrison Jon-Yen WONG HKG

9 Hiroaki SATO JPN

10 Yamato ROWE PHI

11 Yaroslav PANIOT UKR

12 Jimmy MA USA

13Vincent ZHOU USA

LADIES

1 Isadora WILLIAMS BRA

2 Gabrielle DALEMAN CAN

3 Eliska BREZINOVA CZE

4 Yi Christy LEUNG HKG

5 Satoko MIYAHARA JPN

6 Yuna SHIRAIWA JPN

7 Andrea MONTESINOS CANTU MEX

8 Brooke TAMEPO NZL

9 Ye Lim KIM KOR

10 Eunsoo LIM KOR

11 Josefin TALJEGARD SWE

12 Karen CHEN USA

13 Courtney HICKS USA

14 Brynne MCISAAC USA

15 Akari NAKAHARA USA

PAIRS

1 Ekaterina ALEXANDROVSKAYA / Harley WINDSOR AUS

2 Camille RUEST / Andrew WOLFE CAN

3 Ashley CAIN / Timothy LEDUC USA

4 Audrey LU / Misha MITROFANOV USA

5 Jessica PFUND / Joshua SANTILLAN USA

6 Nadine WANG / Spencer Akira HOWE USA

ICE DANCE

1 Teodora MARKOVA / Simon DAZE BUL

2 Haley SALES / Nikolas WAMSTEEKER CAN

3 Marie-Jade LAURIAULT / Romain LE GAC FRA

4 Emily Lauren MONAGHAN / Ilias FOURATI HUN

5 Misato KOMATSUBARA / Tim KOLETO JPN

6 Christina CARREIRA / Anthony PONOMARENKO USA

7 Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE USA

8 Karina MANTA / Joseph JOHNSON USA

Jason Brown has cut his hair! At first I didn't like it, but it's growing on me.

There are 2 pairs ( Calalang/Johnson, Digerness/Neudeckeat) at USFSA Champs Camp. Possibly a skate off for the Skate America host spot

Others without a GP attending CC based on the group pic are Megan Wessenberg, Jimmy Ma, and Manta/Johnson, so they are those likely to get Skate America TBD spots.

Why is uno's brother everywhere with him? Is he a celebrity or what

r151 It's believed he's a celebrity wannabe and riding his brother's coattails. Or maybe the talkind/smiling guy that's supposed to gain Uno more popularity because Uno's not great at talking/smiling.

R152, I see thanks. Don't know much about them, but I guess it makes sense to have someone do the talking for shoma

So, closet case Grant has officially married his beard.

Joking aside, sad to see another one succumb to the eternal closet.

This photo with Grant and Jason is strangely eerie to me, like looking at an alternate reality of Grant's wedding, one where he's open, happy, and holding the man he loves.

I just got an email from Golden Skate that they're going to be charging $6 to access the competition on section of the forum this year. WTF? They're where I got all my free streams for events.

r155 Financial issues. They didn't meet their goal during the donation drive. Still hella cheaper than FSU.

r155 Does Goldenskate have direct streams or are you referring to streams posted by members in the threads? If it's the latter, I'm sure Planet Hanyu will have them too. They have streaming parties all the time and sections for fans of other skaters if you're not into Hanyu.

R157 thanks!

And if either or both the figure skating threads survive on DL (let's all get along now 'k?), maybe the links could be posted here?

Relax girls. those same streams get posted on twitter all the time.

R154 they look like two queens gossiping about the bridesmaids' dresses

to be absolved from previous sins, is everyone required to attend Pride at Skate Canada? a

And anyway, Redford bringing the medal is only a step shorter than Shibutanis bringing it everywhere.

Ah, if Shibs post another thing about Rich Crazy Asians, I will refuse to see the movie only because they have annoyed me so much with their over-promotion.

Hey I've got nothing against the Hanyu-stans hanyuing in their thread--*I* just don't want to read about it all the time, but I've no problem exchanging stream links. But maybe I'll cough up the $6 now that it's almost skating season again, though most of the event threads on GSU get kind of tedious thanks to the constant mindless posting during events by some of the more ardent fans. Fine when it's free, but actually paying for that . . . I find the posts over on the Edge usually more interesting.

No desire to see Crazy, Rich Asians--most rom-coms kind of bore me.

I usually post on the Hanyu thread but have a question on the 6 dollars for GS. I hardly go there but do have a username and password. I am thinking about paying the 6 dollars. What is it for exactly? The forums that must be paid for to view? Are we getting access to live streaming? I'll also post this in the other thread. Thanks for any help.

{R163} yes ,you have to pay to read what idiots from russia and canada have to say after and during competition (after paying you get acces to particular thread) for instance how much they re overscored blablabla

The idiot Americans, delusional about the talent level of their skaters, are the vast majority on GS, followed by the eternally thin-skinned Canadians with persecution complexes. Russians mostly stick to their own forums.

I don't think I want to spend $6 to hang out with the likes of "Canadianskaterguy" and Karne...or that pretentious twat who claims to be a choreographer, Bladesofpassion? Does he still post there?

Am I the only one who find some of the ChampCamps activities like team building, group learning experiences, etc a bit of a waste of time?

Why don't they simply do test skates like in Euro countries?

Yes, you re right..Many delusional users there. I also dont wanna spend time with those morons , reading their shit comments like "Medviedeva is best skater off "all by russians, "Nathna chen is so handsome" or "P/C are so overscored" by canadians

*Medviedeva is best skater of all time, sorry

karne is calm since Max Aaron retired and they have given a second GP to Brendan Kerry. But when ISU will set minimum TES for CHampionships, she will start to get anxious in her hope to get the Dodds (all of them) to achieve the standard

Thanks for explaining that 6 dollar stuff. I probably won't pay. I think I saw a link on the website for autumn classic for live streaming. So maybe the other events have a link on their websites as well to live stream. I rarely go to GS because I find the posts so boring.

[quote]And anyway, Redford bringing the medal is only a step shorter than Shibutanis bringing it everywhere.

In Eric's defense, at least he's parading around a GOLD medal, not some dinky bronze medal.

There's a window of time for Olympic medalists of all colors to display their medals and get their 15 minutes of fame/kudos...but if you're still parading around your silver or bronze medal months after the games, then that's just sad.

Olympic silver or bronze is, at best, a personal achievement. Beyond that, no one gives a shit unless you actually won the gold.

R171 I think parading a meaningless gold medal from the team event just because it's GOLD is worse than showing the medal you actually earned. It's like PDiddy going around calling himself an OGM. Eric is looking good but is he succumbing to Jude Law hair loss where he's just going to have a little soul patch of hair at the top of his head? Looks that way.

Ah, give Eric a break--skating with Megan is like skating with your gung-ho soccer mom--let him have his little moment.

So, GS--I think the main thing the competitive forum has are those threads with the streaming and upload links. They are good and they post new links from non YouTube sites, which is useful when the music copyright people go berserk on YouTube. It's harder to post a string of links here since they all have to be separate posts.

Well, I guess it would be absurd if PDiddy went around calling himself an OGM. Obviously meant chiddy.

Canadians think that aside from their home fellows everyone else on the rink is over scored. And don't forget how they invaded here during OG.

[quote]And don't forget how they invaded here during OG.

R175 How could you tell? Long love letters extolling V/M's perfect romance and their GOAT status? Collective relief that Chiddy finally got his gold? Complaints Eteribots were overscored and Osmond should have gotten silver?

Canadians are known for their general niceness, but it's total asshattery once they hit the ice. Virtue/Moir kind of rank as one of the most obnoxious comebacks of all time--mostly because their fans are so annoying and the way the Canadian federation kicked its other ice-dance teams to the curb. I respected the US Federation for letting chips fall where they may with the top three teams.

So will C/B beat H/B in this quad? I find Evan Bates so so so AWG.

C/B have the easiest GPs but it can be potentially dangerous if, given they just resumed training after her injury, end up losing to Stepanova in one of the 2

Kaetlyn Osmond will not compete during the 2018-19 season - OMG , how sad

Maybe Daleman will withdraw to concentrate on her photoshopping skills and Canada will show up at Worlds with Chartrand and Austman

Any announcement yet on the TBA ladies spot for Skate America? Is it Gracie Gold's to lose?

R182 I think they will decide after ChampsCamp that is taking place right now

They invited Megan Wessenberg (whoever she is) to attend them. And she has no GP assignment meaning they are considering her for that spot

Megan Wessenberg finished 17th at nationals last year. Seems like a strange choice, but maybe she improved a lot over the summer ala Bradie Tennell.

R181 Let us all now pray to the Skating Gods that this happens.

R184 She scored 171 points in one of the summer national competitions (Glacier Falls). I think they were going with Amber Glenn again but then she did that 68 points FS at Philadelphia International which is probably too embarrassing for everyone!

Those at ChampsCamp are

Nathan Chen (Skate America, France)

Vincent Zhou (with a new hairstyle**) (Skate America, NHK)

Jason Brown (Canada, France)

Alex Krasnozhon (Helsinki, Rostelecom)

Alex Johnson (NHK)

Jimmy Ma

:____

Bradie Tennell (Skate America, Rostelecom)

Karen Chen (Helsinki, Rostelecom)

Mariah Bell (Skate Canada, NHK)

Gracie Gold (Rostelecom)

Courtney Hicks (NHK)

Angela Wang (NHK)

Starr Andrews (Skate America)

Megan Wessenberg

------

Alexa Knierim/Chris Knierim (Skate America, NHK)

Ashley Cain/Timothy LeDuc (Skate America, Rostelecom)

Haven Denney/Brandon Frazier (Canada, France)

Tarah Kayne/Danny O’Shea (NHK, France)

Audrey Lu/Misha Mitrofanov, (NHK)

Deanna Stellato/Nathan Bartholomay. (Helsinki, Rostelecom)

Jessica Calalang/Brian Johnson

Nica Digerness/Danny Neudecker ___

Madison Hubbell/Zac Donohue (Skate America, Canada)

Madison Chock/Evan Bates (Helsinki, Rostelecom)

Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker (NHK, France)

Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko (Helsinki, Rostelecom)

Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter (Skate America, Helsinki)

Rachel Parsons/Michael Parsons (NHK, France)

Karina Manta/Jo Johnson

** here we go

USA assignments for September Challegers

US INTERNATIONAL CLASSIC

Karen Chen, Courtney Hicks, Brynne Mcisaac, Akari Nakahara

Vincent Zhou, Jimmy Ma

Cain/LeDuyc, Lui/Mitrofanov, Pfund/Santillan, Wang/Howe

Hubbell/Donohue, Carreira/Ponomarenko, Manta/Johnson

LOMBARDIA TROPHY

Amber Glenn

Tim Dolensky

Digerness/Neudecker

Parsons/Parsons

ONDREJ NEPELA

Katie McBeath, Megan Wessenberg

Sean Rabbitt

Cain/LeDuc, Stellato/Bartholomay

McNamara/Carpenter

AUTUMN CLASSIC

Starr Andrews, Emmy Ma, Bradie Tennell

Jason Brown

Calalang/Johnson, Denney/Frazier

Hawayek/Baker

So Amber Glenn has a chance to clean up her act at Lombardia, but she'll probably headcase her way out of it. And, damn, I was at Nationals last year and have no memory of Megan Wessenberg--there was a lot of splatting in the freeskate.

No sign of Polina Edmonds. Wonder if she's done or if she'll try a comeback post-college.

How do skaters like Katie McBeath and Sean Rabbitt get international assignments? Neither have shown much in the past, and they're both well into their mid to late 20s... it's not like they're giving some up and comers a chance to gain international experience? Did everyone else turn them down?

Katie McBeath (who I didn't know before....) won the Philadelphia competition this summer which is the only one counting for ISU as International among the US summer events. It was Amber to lose and she managed to lose it big way (FS with 4 single jump and one not even single...)

But McBeath was nothing to write about. She didn't fall but two triples were UR and half of the jumps had negative GOE

I guessed they would have got a Challenger. I am a bit surprised they are bothering to send them to Europe though. For ex there was room for Rabbitt at US International or Autumn Classic

Evan Bates is getting better looking with age. But I do have a thing for guys with dimples.

There is too much heterosexuality in Gadbois

Really R193?

I thought he was gay,...

R194 straight and trashy!

R195 , do we know he is straight for sure? he seems to give off a gay vibe...

R196 I can see why you got vibes...

but he is pretending to date the girl he is skating with.

At Gadbois there is a concentration of on-ice/off-ice couples: them, Chock/Bates, Lauriault/Legac, Soucisse/Firus, Fournier/Sorensen, Komatsubara/Koleto + Hubbell/Donohue-Smart/Diaz who have swapped each other off ice. well, maybe, it's not a Gadbois thing, it's just that all dancers are at Gadbois nowadays!

The Canadian ice dancer skating for Armenia is gay but he has retired at the end of the season

R197 Yes, I saw that ice dancer on Grindr in Milan...

R198 in one of his latest IG post he has used the hashtags #gay and #instagay. Not very subtle...

The girl he was skating with is still partner searching. I thought she would have found someone as skating for Armania means being guaranteed Euro and World slots as long as you want.

As for other split couples, Abachkina is apparently doing tryout with Drodz. I love just for the possible release drama involging France and Russia.

Polizoakis didn't find anyone and he is taking the whole season off. Unsurprisingly give he is only 1.70cm. A bit short for an ice dancer, he can't handle many girls

For the same reason, but from opposite perceptive, Progrebinsky is struggling finding a new male partner. She is 1.74 cm. Too tall

I thought Abachkina trying out with Drozd was just a rumor?

R200 but she has been in Russia for a couple of weeks in August...maybe that's why the rumour started

But I haven't checked if Drodz was taking one his many holidays during that period...

She is in Paris now according to her Insta stories...

Hubbell and Donohue are in NY for the next 2 days for the Traste of Tennis (Madison's instagram story).. I thought they had to be at Champs Camp?

R202 6 days ago he posted a pic of Spain, 5 days a pic of Russia, today a pic of Paris (I think an old pic). LOL!

I think ChampCamp finished yesterday. Maybe they cut some of the silly stuffs they do, even if I see pics of skaters playing with dogs....

oops.... that was meant to be *Taste of Tennis.

R201 I thought Drozd takes "going to ice dance competitions" as a kind of holiday

Kovtun is doing a Carmen ( Shchedrin's version) FS for next season.

Deniss and Stephane behind the scenes

Junior GP

Men Sp

1. Gogolev (Can) 77.67

2. Sumoto (Japan) 74.13

3. Grassl (Italy) 71.86

4. Savosin (Russia) 67.13

5. Torgashev (USA) 65.37

6. Dunk (USA) 63.08

Courtney Hicks have officially moved to Kori Ade. Her new FS is Pas de Deux from The Nutcracker, chores by Rohane Ward

Mariah Bell's SP is choreographed by Adam Rippon and the music is Love you more by Celine Dion. Argh

Did anyone tell reich-wing Courtney her composer and her choreographer are both homosexual?

Rhythm Dance at Junior GP this morning

1)Elizaveta KHUDAIBERDIEVA / Nikita NAZAROV 65.01

2) Elizaveta SHANAEVA / Devid NARYZHNYY 60.51

3) Eliana GROPMAN / Ian SOMERVILLE 60.37

4) Alicia FABBRI / Paul AYER 58.91

5) Loicia DEMOUGEOT / Theo LE MERCIER 55.94

etc

the leaders

isu kills ice dancing... non touch step sequnce in tango?? seriously?

Is Rohene Ward so desperate for work that he's doing choreo for Hicks now?

The Russian boy Devid something is GORGEOUS And yes, ISU must be nuts to require no holding during a Tango, maybe this is what these dickheads take as "real" Tango.

Devid Something

Gropman/Sommerville who look like two 14 years old trying doing Tango

Hubbell and Donohue are enjoying the high life in NYC at the Taste of Tennis... I find it interesting that they got sponsored by Voss. Good for them

Cizeron's butt ready for the new season

Bwahaha BUTT I was just about to post this R218, did you see that on the FSU thread

Yes. Also on FSU they focused on the butt

I can't get H/D, never.

They seem like V/M's American version, from figures to styles and the way they boast or sell themselves...

[R221] I agree. Their chemistry seems so forced.. Just like Canadian's.

JGP final ice dance result

1) Elizaveta KHUDAIBERDIEVA / Nikita NAZAROV (Russia) 160.24 (FS on something modern, last pieces was Nemesis by Clementine)

2) Elizaveta SHANAEVA / Devid NARYZHNYY (Russia) 152.42 (FS on Samson and Dalilah)

3) Eliana GROPMAN / Ian SOMERVILLE (USA) 148.96 (FS on Mozart, l'opera rock)

4) Alicia FABBRI / Paul AYER (Canada) 136.04 (FS on something in French)

5) Loicia DEMOUGEOT / Theo LE MERCIER (France) 133.80

etc

French couple on course for the trashy costumes award

My fave H/D program is not this year's whey were going for sexy, but the one from 2015-2016 season

[quote]I can't get H/D, never. They seem like V/M's American version...

I disagree. Zach is genuinely sexy, not like that witch-nosed, forced-orgasm-sex-face Scott Moir.

Just look at this beefcake. Yum!

Scott Moir is sexy. I wish he were mine.

Tessa

R224, that one is gorgeous.

I didn't really appreciate Hubbell-Donahue until I saw them live--they are gorgeous in person and have a ton of chemistry on ice. They do have a tendency to do the Gadbois mush, but they do it well.

I do think there's room though for some sort of break-out couple at the top--someone who's not doing Gadbois. I think the Gadbois dominance is a little bit of a reaction to the athleticism/speed of Davis/White. But I can see the pendulum swinging back after this quad. Right now, I think we'll have Papadakis/Cizeron sit on top for a while.

Merci for Guillaume's derriere! I would happily watch him walk down the street, much less skate.

He is pretty hot...

Ondrej Nepela entries.....who will be beaten by Sean Rabbitt? They have amassed a good number of non-entities after the top names

Manuel DRECHSLER

Luc MAIERHOFER

Albert MÜCK

Anton KARPUK

Jiri BELOHRADSKY

Morisi KVITELASHVILI

Graham NEWBERRY

Lap Kan YUEN

Alexander BOROVOJ

Andras CSERNOCH

Alexei BYCHENKO

Daniel SAMOHIN

Daniel GRASSL

Jari KESSLER

Keiji TANAKA

Krzysztof GALA

Alexey EROKHOV

Mikhail KOLYADA

Sergei VORONOV

Marco KLEPOCH

Michael NEUMAN

Burak DEMIRBOGA

Sean RABBITT

Pairs is really sad

Zoe JONES / Christopher BOYADJI

Rebecca GHILARDI / Filippo AMBROSINI

Lina KUDRIAVTSEVA / Ilia SPIRIDONOV

Ashley CAIN / Timothy LEDUC

Deanna STELLATO / Nathan BARTHOLOMAY

ICE DANCE

Anna KUBLIKOVA / Yuri HULITSKI

Juulia TURKKILA / Matthias VERSLUIS

Adelina GALAYAVIEVA / Louis THAURON

Elise MONTANIER / Laurent ABECASSIS

Katharina MÜLLER / Tim DIECK

Lilah FEAR / Lewis GIBSON

Robynne TWEEDALE / Joseph BUCKLAND

Shira ICHILOV / Vadim DAVIDOVICH

Jasmine TESSARI / Francesco FIORETTI

Natalia KALISZEK / Maksym SPODYRIEV

Betina POPOVA / Sergey MOZGOV

Victoria SINITSINA / Nikita KATSALAPOV

Tiffani ZAGORSKI / Jonathan GUERREIRO

Lorraine MCNAMARA / Quinn CARPENTER

The order among Russian couples is the thing to watch here. And how McNamara/Carpenter will be ranked vs them and the Polish duo

Ladies

Alisa TURCHINA

Hana CVIJANOVIC

Elizaveta UKOLOVA

Lutricia BOCK

Danielle HARRISON

Kristen SPOURS

Daria JAKAB

Rika KIHIRA

Rin NITAYA

Elizabet TURSYNBAEVA

Elzbieta GABRYSZAK

Dabin CHOI

Yujin CHOI

Stanislava KONSTANTINOVA

Polina TSURSKAYA

Alina ZAGITOVA

Ceciliane Mei Ling HARTMANNt

Silvia HUGEC

Nina LETENAYOVA

Nicole RAJICOVA (who withdrew from GPs. So I doubt she will show up at Nepela)

Sila SAYGI

Katie MCBEATH

Megan WESSENBERG

Another Michigan ice dance team bites the dust

There were already rumors. But not it is confirmed

Lewis/Bye won't skate this season.

She is taking the season off to understand if skating is what she wants to do

I am not sure what he will do. She says " I will always be your biggest cheerleader for whatever you do next"

Bye needs to come out. She probably did him a favor in the long run.

Finland host picks for Grand Prix:

Viveca Lindfors

Valtter Virtanen

Juulia Turkkila & Matthias Versluis (who?!)

They still have a Ladies spot to fill. I guess Emmi Peltonen ready for a bitch fight with Viveca "You better skate well at Olympics in the spot I earned for you" Lindfors.

Lituanian Reed and the Japanese team (Koleto and his beard, erm, wife) got a second GP (Rostelecom).

How tall is Bye? There's still that tall girl looking for a partner.

So, are the Chinese bothering with international competitions this season? Or are they in a major huff? Good news for Stellato--nice to have an international career after her late comeback, but pairs is looking limp.

Are the Americans even bothering with ladies this competition--McBeath and Wessenberg aren't even second-string.

R237

Bye is 170cm according to ISU bio

Re China Wang/Liu and Peng/Jin were sent to the Asian Open last month. No Chinese athletes in the other Challenger announced so far. But they usually do Finland Trophy, whose entry list is not available yet

On the other hand, North Korea is more active than usual (the standard was pretty low: seeing them once every 12 months). They have sent some athletes (including some ice dancers) to Asian Open in August and now they are sending a pair to Junior GP in Czech Republic.

Parsons are on the Nebelhorn entry list. That would be the 120th competion of the season for them.

Karen Chen withdraws from Salt Lake City challenger

Isn't this the second competition from which Chen's withdrawn? Is she injured or just flaking out of her career?

Any rumors apart that Gold can only do doubles?

I think Karen Chen also withdrew from the Philadelphia competition this summer

Ice Dance at Junior GP:

1) Shevchenko/Eremenko (Russia, from Stepanova-Bukin's coach) 64.26

2) Lajoie/Lagha (Canada, Gadbois) 63.95

3) Kuts/Mikhailov (Russia, coached by Rubleva/Shefer) 58.63

4) Campanini/Riva (Italy, coached by Mezzadri) 54.09

5) D'Alessandro/Waddell (Canada, coached by Hallam/Karam) 50.45

The leader

The Canadians

PCS marks

Austrian judge: Canada

Australian judge: Russia

French judge: Canada

German judge: tie

Israel judge Russia

Russian judge: Russia

Chinese judge:Canada

USA judge: Canada

Canadian judge: Canada

One way or the other it was close among the majority of judges (except Russian and Canadian judge). And the Australian judge particularly disliked Lajoie/Lagha . She tied them in PCS with the Italian couple who were at their first JGP.

What's wrong with Gadbois' standard of admission? I checked the GOEs and I thought that the judges were trying their best to push the CANs as usual.

Karen Chen is rumored to be injured. She's been spotted wearing a boot.

Ting Cui skated a nice short program at JGP, just a step out in the combo. She was very undermarked IMO. The entire JGP is being livestreamed on Youtube. Men are up in a couple of hours.

Oh, this morning in the Pairs SP at Junior Gp there was the little Russian bitchy girl who cheered in a OTT was last year at Junior Worlds because they got Silver and something like 3 falls...

The TES of the Bosnian girl....3.25 points

really...

she is below 2.0 in Performance, Interpretation and Transitions

Is Michelle Kwan a lesbian?

Cui can still finish third tomorrow. Apart from the 2 Russians (71 and 67 points), there is a big group of 6 athletes between 50 and 56 points. Everything can happen in FS

I doubt it R248. It's more common for these female figure skaters to be stunted in their love life because they spent their teens socially isolated, homeschooling and meeting very few men. I think that's why skaters like Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen had short-lived first marriages. They didn't know what good spouse material would be for them because they rarely interacted with peers.

They spent their teens trying not to date too many closet cases at the rink.

Stolbova on Klimov: "We have not even met since that time [spring when she got injured before Worlds], Fedor did not get in touch, there was no interest either in my state of health or in my future plans,", "After the incident, I was left alone with myself."

Pulkinen has won the Junior GP in Linz. A Japanese boy coached by Lambiel was second and a Russian third. Orzel dropped from 1 to 4th after a series of pops

Klimov sounds like a real asshole

[quote]I think that's why skaters like Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen had short-lived first marriages. They didn't know what good spouse material would be for them because they rarely interacted with peers.

Michelle's ex-husband, Clay Pell, pinged like crazy when he talked.

Karen Kwan, Michelle's sister, married Peter Oppegard--a widely rumored closet case who had a gay-lisp for days.

And now, Caroline Zhang just married Grant Hochstein, another fundie closet case.

I think the real conundrum here is what's with all these Asian women marrying closeted gay men?

Maybe their gaydar is just broken because they spent so many years at skating rinks full of closet cases. Not just Asian girls... check out Ashley Cain's bf.

A lot of first-gen. Chinese-American families are really puritanical. They don't want their daughters dating or having sex or anything, really, while they're teen-agers. Throw in something intensive like skating and, yep, no gaydar whatsoever.

Lots of Asian-Am women end up with starter marriages--short marriages to the first guy they sleep with as an unintentional way to get out of the house. Certainly no clue about whether the sex is good or if their partner's actually into them.

Rippon doing the Nivea shaving cream commercial. Or the beginning of a porn

Nice! I hope they fucked after filming.

Shevchenko/Eremenko (158.70) won Ice Dance in Linz by 5 points over Lajoie/Lagha (153.78).

Free Skating TES made the difference (49 for Russians to 44 for Canadians). They were still close in PCS (45.38 for Canadians, 45.30 for Russians)

___

Hubbell/Donohue are skating to Romeo+Juliet soundtrack in the FS. RD is something by Piazzolla.

Lojoie/Lagha got 0 points from the choreo step sequences. That's 3-4 points lost there (Russians got 3.71 for that)

Canadian judge more nationally biased than the Russian judge. French judge was the other one always in favor of Canadians.

The winners

R261 I watched L/L's FD, looks like MFD just choreoed P/C's Moonlight Sonata again to different music... And I sincerely suggest that P/C should leave Gadbois, getting rid of MFD's assembly line works plz. Maybe they can take Romain away with them, but no MFD.

Given all their teams now in Gadbois, I am almost surprised MFD hasn't choreographed the same program on the same music for someone else by mistake.

Cui finished 5th. Quite far from the podium (13 points). She started well but then she fell apart in the second half of FS. 2 pops and 2 falls. And an UR (but the panel was not generous, UR and downgradted jump called for almost everyone).

Kostornaia won with 203 points.

Kostornaia's FS was gorgeous--skates like a senior.

Kostornia is an incredible skater. Is she old enough for seniors?

It's a shame Ting Cui melted down in the second half after a promising start. She has the most potential of the age eligible US ladies, let's hope she can continue to develop consistency and mental toughness.

Weakish male field in Junior GP in Kaunas

Torgashev is second with a step out and a pop.

Men SP

1) Iakovlev (Russia) 70.35 (37 TES)

2) Torgashev (USA) 69.39 (highest PCS, as always problems with jumps...step out on the 3A and a pop)

3) Kishina (Japan) 68.98

4) Frangipane (Italy) 63.52

5) Phan (Canada) 63.35

6) An (South Korea) 61.61

7) Belohradisky (Czech) 60.23

8) Majorov's brother (Sweden) 59.14

Mikhael Kolayda, 2 months younger than Yuzuru, at age 23 -- will 2018-19 see him on any podiums? He's so cute - and I believe either rooms with or vacations with (or maybe just trains with) some guy named Artem - family? But in any case, I love to watch him (when the program suit - wasn't keen on Elvis.) Anyway, this coming season:

SP: Muse FS: Toreador (he didn't say it, but 99% it's music from Carmen)

And if you understand Russian, here's an 8 minute youtube about the new season and his programs - and if you don't, you can just admire his cuteness :) Or not -- if he isn't to your taste. I disagree with Tarasova that he skates like a girl, but at least she didn't call him fat, like she did Dmitri Aliev. Kolyada apparently had injuries that screwed up his quad toe and Salchow in the past -- and I was reading that Boyang's had repetitive ankle injuries. I really think they all are breaking their bodies for.... glory I guess, but how much do the middlers and even lower level ones get? and where do they get the money?

Anyway, go Carmen! The best skating music in the world :) Will Daleman's or Kolyada's be better? (and who else is doing it?) Does anybody know if the men will be doing their "test skates" when Med and the other senior women are, this week in Moscow?

[quote] Will Daleman's or Kolyada's be better? (and who else is doing it?)

Zagitova!

And Kovtun!!

Russia has the cutest male skaters in all disciplines.

R270 What about Guillaume then??!!

USFSA entries for Finlandia Trophy

Alexander Johnson

Angela Wang

Emmy Ma

Kayne/O'Shea

Lu/Mitrofanov

Hawayek/Baker

Men competition has Kolyada and Aliev. Then Cha, Rizzo, Kvitalashvili....Javier Raya is still competiting

Ladies event has Sotskova, Tursynbaeva...the Finnish battle between Lindfors and Peltonen...

Pairs include Tarasova/Morozov, Moore Towers/Marinaro, Della Monica/Guarise

Dance have Stepanova/Bukin...Soucisse/Firus...and Smart/Diaz vs Hurtado/Khaliavin....

I was really impressed with the two teams with sent to the JGP in Kaunas. But I got to say Andrew Lavrik, the coach of Brown and Brown (USA), seemed awfully familiar and awfully gay! Watch the Kiss and Cry and tell if anyone remembers his infamous ALS challenge...

Here he is, Andrew Lavrik in all his blue underwear glory.

Also, check curious Bro Zack Donohue casually living a Bro message on instagram.

zachtdonohue:

[quote]Funny as hell video dude.

Zack please, we all know you probably masturbated to that video at night.

While I expected Nguyen/Kolesnik to be at that level, I was surprised too by Brown/Brown as I didn't know them

And yes, as soon as I saw the Kiss and Cry, I wondered who was that Queen with them

Tweedale/Buckland replace Min/Gamelin at Skate America

8 judges (Israel, Belarus, Russia, Czech, Italy, Ukraine, Azerbajan) + the referee (Russia) called music requirement violation to Brown/Brown today.

Canada and US were the only judges not calling it.

But given that they have competed in Summer comps in US, no-one else alerted them they were at risk? Ok, not calling it on summer national events, but maybe giving a feedback that they were borderline.

Tomorrow Med will debut David Wilson’ “Doris Day goes watusi.”

After rewatching yesterday’s Russian test, yet again it proves they are trained monkeys. It’s sad that a former world champ and current Olympic silver needs to be taught how to figure skate.

Med's SP was terrible. I wonder what this means for Jason Brown? Will his David Wilson program be crap too?

I like to bash Wilson, because he deserves it, but I get the feeling he doesn’t have much to work with when it comes to Med.

Brown is good at hammy choreography, so it will be crap skated to the best of his ability. Very showgirl.

Medvideva has 3 lutzez in LP. Thats a joke?

Sorry, 2 . 3 overall . They know that they wont be called, so they wanna get the points

Jason Brown should have retired last year because there is no chance he makes it to worlds.

R284: In other words, Med isn’t changing . It’s all tricks for points.

R285 who do you think will be the third American man? Alex Krasnozhon?

Well I just watched the Medvedeva program after reading the post above. [bold]I loved it[/bold]!

I was not expecting her to be a different skater from one season to another. It will take another year /year and a half before we see real changes, but what I saw today was a good step into the right direction. She skates with more maturity.

Med's FS (I hate the music)

R288: It was the same sloppy crap. I really do want her to improve and become an actual figure skater. Of course, she will never be on the podium again if that happens. Interesting dilemma.

Kolyada's Carmen

Zag's FS (I hate the music)

Stepanova/Bukin Free Dance

Aliev

Those programs are such a bore

R295 Agree. I could barely stand watching them.

Anyone know how Joshua Farris is doing?

R297 Coaching and choreography

He is listed among Andrew Torgashew's coaches. And he did the FS for Jimmy Ma.

Thanks, R298. So disappointed that concussions stopped his career; I thought he was very talented. Hope he can help out Andrew Torgashev. I think he has great possibilities.

Sorry, off topic. I saw this on insta and couldn't resist. I guess baby Hanyu was already an aggressive little cunt. He spared the girls though.

Oops, wrong thread. Sorry!

Adam really dropped Ashley the moment he left to the Olympics. I wonder what former celebrity skater Ashley Wagner is doing now...

Ashley has moved to Boston to do...I don't know...pretending she has not retired yet

Ewww Boston, she could have moved to San Diego and gotten herself a sugar daddy. I hear the Irish are all drunks and difficult to talk to...

Stolbova confirms partnership with Andrei Novoselov.

Klimov announces retirement.

It's so weird with professional skating being nearly kaput--what does an Ashley Wagner do now? She's not going to choreograph when she can't remember her own routines. She's too much of a diva to be a coach yet. Her competitive career just kind of petered out without even a last visit to the Olympics. Maybe she goes back to school?

R300, Don't worry about it--as long as we're spared the psychological ins and outs of bracelets, it's okay. The early attitude doesn't surprise me at all--not after the mind-fuck Hanyu did on Nathan after his short at the Olympics.

Speaking of bracelet-wearers, Medvedeva's still got a ton of skating issues (she's never going to stretch her leg is she?), but she looks less hunched over than she did, so that's something. Oh, and no damned miming.

Ashley must live with major regret. Her not putting effort into skating killed any chance of earning a living.

Skate America host picks

Jimmy Ma

Megan Wessenberg

Nica Digerness/Danny Neudecker

Karina Manta/Joe Johnson

Maybe Ashley Wagner should go into porn...

I guess Gracie not doing any triple was a correct rumour if they had to give Skate America to Megan Something

Gracie should do porn too...she and Ashley can do “Lesbians on Ice”...

I've never heard of some of the people getting GP assignments this season. I hope Shpilevaya and Smirnov get one. Their free dance is great and he's very cute.

R312 yes, I like their FS too from what I've seen from test skates videos

Aren't they the obvious pick up for Rostelecom host pick given the other assignments? Who are their contenders for that spot?

For some oldish low level skaters who decided to continue, this post Olympic year has become a sort of golden opportunity. There is a British skater making his GP debut at 29

Pairs have turned up in a sad affair with injuries and split. Almost everyone available got a GP.

But also in Ice Dance....2 GPs for Allison Reed, 2 GPs for Buckland Junior, a GP for Koch/Nucthern, Manta/Johnson (who were barely Challenger level competitors)

Ashley Wagner has a boyfriend now. Did she move to Boston to be closer to him?

Wagner's pretty and poised on camera, but between not winning any medals and the diva attitude, I think an on-camera career is also not an option (okay, other than porn).

I don't even remember Megan Wessenberg last year--I know more about the juniors than I do about her, but I guess she did well this summer? Whereas Amber Glenn, once again, imploded and Gracie Gold, presumably, under-delivered.

Wonder if Polina Edmonds is unofficially retired, or just not competing this year. Her feed doesn't show anything skating-related, but she looks seriously toned. She would have had to compete over the summer, though, to get any international spots and she obviously didn't do that.

I have a feeling Karen Chen is just going to fade away and reappear some years from now as a choreographer. In some ways, she's even more of a head case than Gracie Gold.

The third spot for the men is kind of interesting--Jason Brown or one of the young 'uns?

Pairs is in a state of collapse. Now is the time for a team that normally wouldn't have a shot to get out there and grab a medal or two. Wonder if the Knierems can skate clean?

Jason Brown FS: “Old Friends/Bookends/Hazy Shade of Winter” by Simon and Garfunkel

Choreo by Wilson

Vincent Zhou FS: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (soundtrack) by Tan Dun, Rising Sun by Kiyoshi Yoshida

Choreo by Buttle

Jason Brown--oh, dear--not what I'd call an inspiring music choice.

Zhou--whatever, dude.

Brown SP is "Love is a B****” by Two Feet. Done by Rohene Ward

R317 Wilson is often uninspiring

Oh well, we must wait to see what piece of crap Lori Nichols has delivered to Boyang this time

David Wilson has such old fashioned tastes... I think we need some new blood in the choreography world. Lori's even worse for me, though. I can't stand the slop she produces.

Interview with Stolbova translated on FSU

KS: Once Nina Mikhailovna Mozer came back from the Olympics we had a conversation about having to have a long break. That was the only thing we all 4 discussed - me, Fedor, Nina Mikhailovna and Vladislav Zhovnirski who, in fact, was our coach.

KS: At least half a year. When I realized that the decision was made by the 3 out of 4 I was confused: I didn't understand, was hurt, the freshly missed Olympics added up and all that together with being injured. I really didn't understand why couldn't we spend the next couple of months on mending my leg and work so hard that the beginning of the season would be a decent one, and not like previously. I told the team I can't finish my career in such a way, because I will be sorry later, I will feel I let down my relatives, my team, my federation and my fans. Hence my goal is to recover as fast as possible and keep skating. But I was told again that we all need a break.

Interviewer: Did you feel that moment you were a bother for your own coaches? That Zhovnirski and Mozer already have the progressing Zabijako/Enbert and you with your constant injuries are simply not needed anymore?

KS: Deep down I thought that. But such thoughts began long before that conversation.

KS: I spent 3 weeks in the cast, had physio which I was given and the leg became more or less ok. Then I had a short vacation because realized I was mentally spent. In April I was ready to work and wrote Fedor. I thought enough time to calm down and talk had passed. We met on the rink and I asked whether he changed his mind about half a year break. And is he sure he'll want to come back after. He answered indifferently he is not sure about anything and he is not changing his mind

KS: Actually no. Just at that point my brain started working and the emotions were off. I understand am not a very young girl, there are many injuries I suffered and one needs to understand for sure whether I'll be able to skate or not. It was my only hesitation. When the men at the age of 27 doesn't know what he wants, or a will to do something, what is there to discuss? Yes, guess I was the moving power, as some called me. But at that point I realized crystally clear I don't want to carry that weight. Especially as the person never asked how my foot was since February, whether I need any help or support.

KS: Not immediately. At the beginning of the summer I was in rehabilitation in New York with a doctor who worked with our team for many years. I got a lot of support from Tatiana Tarasova, who was in the USA as well at that point, who constantly told me that Klimov and I should not part. That everything that can be done to keep the pair should be done. Later Tatiana Anatolyevna went to Moscow and I started slowly practicing in Nikolai Morozov's rink. I was given a green light by the doctors, I could work full force. I then briefly saw Fedor in the USA. We just said hello. That was it. I learned later he sent Nikolai Morozov a message he thought about it and he doesn't want to skate anymore.

....

Int: What as going on the next season? You won the GPF in Barcelona with a brilliant skate, but your skipping the Nationals and the Europeans seemed like you were taken off so Volosozhar/Trankov would win both competitions effordlessly.

KS: There were some moments that didn't seem right. Right after the GPF the coaches said since all goes so well it would be a good idea to skip the nationals and work on the throw quad. I.e. it was obvious it was kind of a game. But I tried to stay out - it was hard enough for me as it was.

Int: You and Klimov always seemed very different. But that season it was obvious you lacked understanding.

KS: We never had it. We came to the practice, did our job and knew what we are doing and why.

So, is Gracie Gold done? USFS didn't give her its host pick at Skate America. Is it true that she'd only able to do double jumps?

Marchei/Hotarek split. He wants to retire. She wants to continue to 2022

The surprise here is that she wants to continue.

In the present Pairs situation it's a surprise that some of the retiring pairs don't take a look and decide to come back because there're medals lying around. Looks like Yu and Zhang might be splitting, btw.

SP Men Lombardia Trophy

1) Shoma Uno 104.15

2) Lazukin 87.92

3) Aliev 86.57

4) Rizzo 85.51

5) Tomono 75.47

6) Dolensky 71.06

LADIES SP

1) Tuktamysheva 65.69

2) Samudorova 64.05

3) Lidfords 62.68

4) Glenn 58.57

5) Yamashita 55.33

6) Toth 55.1

9) Sakamoto 49.91

PAIRS SP

1) zzzZabjako/Embert 72.50

2) Della Monica/Guarise 66.93

3) Boikova/Kozlovskii 65.21t

4) Digerness/Neudecker 53.90

5) Ghilardi/Ambrosini 48.48

6) Barquero/Maestu 45.94

4th is pretty good for Amber Glenn. Too bad she'll now implode in the LP as a result.

Wow that's a terrible score for Sakomoto, she had a lot of falls I guess?

Sakamotao fell on her combo and turned her solo jump into a double. It was an unusually rough outing for her.

Tango Romantina at Lombardia Trophy

1) Guignard/Fabbri 76.03

2) Parsons/Parsons 68.20

3) Hurtado/Khaliavin 65.03

4) Tessari/Fioretti 58.08

5) Turkkila/Verssluis 57.92

6) Tweedale/Buckland 57.16

7) Wagret/Souquet 54.39

8) Moscheni/Fabbri 54.30

rest below 50

They almost restrained themselves. Given the standards of Lombardia, I almost expected a world record for G / F

Didn't expect Parsons above H/K. Scored better than them also in PCS

R325

In the FS Glenn had 3 URs, 2 unclear edges, general negative GOEs on jumps...but at least she didn't fall

She dropped to 6th place

Tuktamysheva won with 206 points. Samodurova (184) and Yamashita (182) followed. Sakamoto raised to 4th place (180). Lindfors held 5th place by 0.something over Glenn (both 166)

Short Dance in Salt Lake City

1) Hubbell/Donohue 79.11

2) Carreira/Ponomarenko 68.61

3) Sales/Wamsteeker 54.11

4) Komatsabura/Koleto 53.42

5) Monaghan/Fourati 49.54

6) Manta/Johnson 49.01

7) Markova/Daze 47.45

Hubbell/Donohue were good?

Hubbell/Donohue

And this is Guignard/Fabbri at Lombardy

Lombardia Trophy Youtube Stream: Damn! Michael Parson is so hot.

The Parsons got 102 pts. but I have noticed that a few juniors have been awarded 100 pts marks so I can't tell if this is good or bad.

My god. Michael Parsons is beautiful. Please god let him be one of us. We need more hot gays.

OMG ridiculous scores for the 2nd tier Italian dance couple. 117 in the Free Skate. Not only were the Parsons intentionally held down, the Italians were no where near a 100pt Free Skate. Ridiculous scoring.

If Cappellini/Lanotte are gone, Guignard/Fabbri are top Italian team for the judges now

Why, did the Italians commit errors?

The Italians have excellent edges / basic skating, don't they?

R337, they are rather stiff and she doesn't have the best extensions. Second tier is the best description for them.

Isn't Lombardia always on the high side in terms of scores?

Referee today was Isabella Micheli from Italy

Skate Canada president, Leanna Caron, was the Technical Controller

Former 3d tier Italian ice dancer Fabrizio Pedrazzini was the Technical Specialist. Ukraine coach Maria Tumanovskaya was his assistant.

Judges were from Switzerland, Finland, Italy, Spain (she is a fan of Smart/Diaz more than H/K), Japan, Lithuania, USA (Sharon Rogers)

, Leanna Caron? That slut ? What is she still doing there, in isu as judge?

R340 this week Caron is acting as technical controller.

She supervision the technical panel calls (for ice dance, it's levels on the various elements and key points on RD). But if both specialists are on the same side, she can't over rule them. If the specialists are not in agreement, she is basically the tiebreaker.

At US International the Technical Controller for Ice Dance is David Molina (France). György Elek and Julia Rey are the callers. I remember Elek from some Euros of a decade ago. Rey used to dance with her brother and being mediocre at it

Specialists tend to be former skaters. Often, not very good at it

Yeah, i know , she is still a judge David Molina is a president of anythig?

R342 The problem is not when Caron is appointed at Lombardia where no Canadians are competing but when she nominates herself (given judges are nominated by Feds) at key competitions when Canadians are expected to be in a close run with main rivals.

If she needs the once every 3 year competition to be re-appointed (and she obviously isn't in danger to miss that requirement), she can submit herself to judge Cup of Tyrol or Enga Trophy rather than GP Final and Olympics....

Parsons skate already blocked. (Grrr). Tango Romantica is a natural for Hubbell/Donohue--all Zach needs to do is stay on his feet.

JGP Men's FS livestream

btw does anyone have the US Classic livestream? I cannot find it on youtube

Theres no US Classic on youtube- you have to paid, i think

118.31 for Hubbell/Donohue FS

Donohue got Level 3 for Twizzles. Hubbell only Level 2 for one foot step sequence. They have the combination lift which is worth many points

197.42 overall

Carreira/Ponomarenko 174 (105 FS)

Hurtado/Khaliavin FD

this is H/D FS

ok, the voice overs deserve a -1

TES 65.15

PCS 53. 16

Skating Skills 8.75

Transitions 8.7

Performance 8.75

Composition 9.0

Interepretation 9.10

Guignard-Fabbri FS

La La Land

TES 64.57

PCS 52.68

Skating Skills 8.60

Transitions 8.60

Performance 8.90

Composition 8.90

Interpretation 8.90

Don't like Madison/Zach's music

THe last 3rd of H/D's FS is somewhat of a let down, however their FS always get better as the year progresses. I just can't believe Guignard-Fabbri are going to be pushed as a top team. ugh

Oh that FS leaves me so confused--beautiful skating, interesting lifts--but the music's awful and what's with the dingy grey costume.?

We haven't seen C/B, H/B or the Canadians yet, right?

I think Chock/Bates aren't ready yet and won't do pre GP Challengers. Their FS will be : "Fever" by Elvis Presley and Michael Buble, "Burning Love" by Elvis Presley

Ouch

Hawayek/Baker were supposed to do Autumn Classic next week but they withdrew. They are scheduled for Finland Trophy

Weaver/Poje will do Autumn Classic next week. Gilles/Poirier will debut at Nebelhorn.

Papadakis/Cizeron will do as usual Masters of France at the end of September.

H/D s fd was terrible. what was that?They would use different music and noone could take a notice

And evgenia ,watch Satokos's FS and look how you have to move performing a tango

Re Guignard/Fabbri

I remember an old interview with Morozov when he said that they would have not be taken by any coaching team in Russia because of their physique. He wanted to be complimentary (they work hard to be at this level given their natural limit, etc) but I am not sure it came off as such.

He is just 1.65 cm.

Guignard doesn't look an ice princess on ice.....she usually looks like a waitress. I remember their Schindler's List when she was dressed like an hotel maid

Love Satoko's tango but how did she not get any under rotation calls?????

I actually really liked Guignard/Fabbri's free dance last year....

Yeap, Muse was better

Marco Fabbri is a cutie.

R361 I prefer his brother Andrea (who does ice dance with Guarise's girlfriend)

Lajoe/Lagha winning FD from JPG Richmond

Weaver/Poje still competing????????? Just, plz, don't use "Je suis malade" againnnnnnnn at the end of the season. I will be "malade" if seeing that program again. Anyway, I like Shiplevaya/Smirnov's new FD, too. It makes me feel like they're really ready to compete in senior. And Smirnov is growing more gorgeous than before!

Remember Weaver/Poje got shamelessly bumped up the second after Virtue/Moir won their gold medal and got bronze at Worlds.

Have Skate Canada instructed judges well this fall?

With W/P doing Challengers but not GPs and Giller/Poirier being the main Canadian in GP, I bet some judges are confused on who they are supposed to push this season

R366 So everytime when it comes to Canadians shit things appear, disgusting. R367 Maybe some judges can still use their score tables for VM with them when judging Canadians, so this won't confuse them much

Our friend Leanna Caron is doing the Referee in Paris event at Autumn Classic this week

It surprises me that Nathan Chen supposedly studied ballet for five years. I think I see more balletic-ness in Kolyada or Aliev or even our little Shomita. There's something about Nathan's landings that just disrupt the flow so much - but I think it varies somewhat, and occasionally he has a smooth landing with flow out. I hope he's working on that. It's not fun to watch.

wait, what??! Annabelle MOROZOV / Andrei BAGIN given Rostelecom host pick over Shpilevaya/Smirnov.....

Nathan Chen is more musical and has better posture than Kolyada, Aliev and midget Shoma.

R370 this is insane! What did S/S do to their skating committee to make it discard them like this??!!

If you say so - I hope to see it this season. Or just smoothed out landings and I'll be happy. (I realize Shoma has some landing issues too ahem - and Kolyada/Aliev struggle with consistency. Nathan definitely has his plusses but I haven't been impressed with his movement or flow (yet). I want to be though. Such a nice guy. Well, I guess they all are (now that Patrick Chan retired)

Nathan's not as flexible and fluid as some of the other men. His musicality is good, but the lack of flow is a problem and makes him look less musical than he actually is. He's skated to some extremely challenging music--jazz, Stravinsky--but he's not nearly as limber as Hanyu, Shomo, or even Jason Brown.

Also not an actor--so while he's on the music and understands it, he's not going to be playing a character. Don't ever expect a Charlie Chaplin program from him. I think it's not an accident that he gave his best performances last season in what were basically a version of practice clothes.

I watched Morozov/Bagin's test skate and it was dreadful - they fell twice and the program was nothing special. What the fuck is the point of a test skate then? Nikolai has that much political clout?

R375 it is said that the boy has a quite powerful background... I guess Nikolai is not that welcomed in Russia

yes, Bagin's grandfather is also a senior official in Russia Fed

i started to feel a little sorry for Bukin that it seems like he doesn't take any advantage of his father's Influence ( and he even allowed his son to pair with Stepanova I mean, Bukin deserves a better partner.

Allowed? Bukin’s parents were ecstatic when he paired up with Stepanova. She’s the only one who’s been able to get along with him. And he gets plenty of push, but it can get him only this far.

Bukin has an old women as his GF. She could be his mother

Like that macho man Evan and his Vera?

Well, at least Zagorki/Guerreiro withdrew from Nepela

Jonathan's mother, Svetlana Lapyna, is the assistant technical specialist there. And she will contribute to call elements of her son's internal rivals

Zagitova withdrew. I think she's going to have a rough season.

Pairs even at Nepela to be downgraded to International because of only 4 pairs left in the entry list

Zagitova had a growth spurt and imploded. I'm guessing, given what she said about staving off adolescence by not eating, that there's an eating disorder at work with all the issues that come with it. She may be yet another one-season wonder from Eteri.

Medvedeva is lucky--she's actually built in that weird way that means she's able to jump without starving herself.

I thought Bukin was dating Stepanova... I'm not a fan of Zagitova but I don't want to see that she ends up being another Lipniskaya.

R386 I got the impression he is dating his 50+ year old female coach

Stepanova on their off ice: "outside the rink we have completely separate lives".

R387 thanks I heard that there was something about dating between them maybe back when they were younger and this is what made me think that he maybe the pairing of them was a result of Bukin's insistence ( since he discarded Ilinykh because of her temper). And now I finally made all these dramas clear!

Pairs at Autumn Classic

1) James/Cipres 73.81

2) Moore-Towers/Marinaro 64.73

3) Denney/Frazier 61.91

4) Calalang/Johnson 50.25

5) Matte/Ferland 46.66

Glad James/Cipres decided to stick around--only real class in the field. At this rate, the Knierems are going to medal outside the U.S.

Pairs SP at Nepela

1) Cain/LeDuc 65.68

2) Kudriavtseva/Spiridonov 62.69

3) Stellato/Bartholomay 59.60

4) Ghilardi/Ambrosini 53.09

the gay quota in the Nepela Pairs event is at least at 50%

Ladies SP Results, Autumn Classic: 1tEvgenia MEDVEDEVA RUSt70.98t36.78t t34.20t8.60t8.30t8.35t8.75t8.75t0.00t#13 2tBradie TENNELL USAt69.26t37.38t t31.88t7.85t7.80t8.10t8.10t8.00t0.00t#8 3tMae Berenice MEITE FRAt58.23t28.83t t29.40t7.35t7.35t7.25t7.40t7.40t0.00t#14 4tWakaba HIGUCHI JPNt57.54t28.22t t29.32t7.70t7.05t7.05t7.45t7.40t0.00t#17 5tStarr ANDREWS USAt56.70t30.10t t26.60t6.55t6.40t6.60t7.00t6.70t0.00t#18 6tKailani CRAINE AUSt56.20t31.36t t24.84t6.00t5.75t6.50t6.35t6.45t0.00t#2 7tAlexia PAGANINI SUIt56.07t29.79t t26.28t6.60t6.30t6.60t6.65t6.70t0.00t#12 8tBrooklee HAN AUSt54.05t28.65t t25.40t6.05t6.15t6.60t6.40t6.55t0.00t#6 9tAlicia PINEAULT CANt52.47t27.39t t26.08t6.50t6.25t6.55t6.55t6.75t1.00t#11 10tEliska BREZINOVA CZEt51.86t30.22t t21.64t5.90t5.20t5.40t5.25t5.30t0.00t

Sorry, let's try that again: 1tEvgenia MEDVEDEVA RUS

2tBradie TENNELL USA

3tMae Berenice MEITE FRA

4tWakaba HIGUCHI JPN

5tStarr ANDREWS USA

6tKailani CRAINE AUS

7tAlexia PAGANINI SUI

8tBrooklee HAN AUS

9tAlicia PINEAULT CAN

10tEliska BREZINOVA CZE

Whoa, is it just me or was Bradie Tennell's SP more interesting than Evgenia's? Evgenia's been struck by a case of the Canadian blands--let's pick obvious music and then do the most obvious thing to it. It looked like a Katelyn Osmond routine.

Starr Andrews is improving, but still a lot of two-footed skating and, of course, a couple of screw-ups--she barely saved that one jump.

Higuchi is stubby--it's not fair, but it gets in the way of my enjoying her skating, but I liked her program.

Glad Meite's in the mix--I enjoy her skating.

But, damn, Bradie Tennell's in the game. Nice to see two American skaters in a single competition who don't fall apart under pressure.

Bradie did have the better program and performance than Medvedeva. Should have been above her, but that's judging for you

Of course Bradie had bette rprogram then Evgenia. Evgenia moves like Osmond sometimes ..

Some Med's fan call her new hairstyle makes her look like a "Russian Audrey Hepburn"... Oh gosh it's just as ridiculous as Osmond's fan calling her fat black duck program the "real ballet".

Usa and Canadian judges out Bradie third in PCS behind Meite which is kinda unexpected to me

Canadian judge managed to rank Moore Towers / Marinaro above J/C in interpretation

Hungarian lady didn't like Cain/LeDuc. Put them third in PCS at Nepela

Kakazh judge didn't like Stellato/Bartholomey. Scored them lower PCS than the third tier Italian pair

Russians were good, right? Coz I kinda liked it

Sinistina/Katsalapov 75.96

Mcnamara/Carpenter 70.36

Popova/Mozgov 67.65

Galayvieva/Thauron 62.37

Tessari/Fioretti 61.05

Tukkila/Versluis 60.61

Tweedale/Buckland 59.61

Fear/Gibson 59.34

Muller/Dieck 55.86

Autumn Classic Rhythm Dance

Weaver/Poje 76.53

Smart Diaz 67.35

Soucisse/Firus 65.38

Wang/Liu 63.57

Chen/Sun 56.87

Lanaghan/Razgulajevs 53.01

Markova/Daze 43.26

Autumn Classic mens short program live on Youtube right now.

Brown leading so far with 88.something

The commentators are so sweet and positive about everyone that I'm really missing bitchy Dick Button.

That's a good outing for McNamra/Carpenter. They confirmed the PCS they got at Lake Placid this summer

Sinistina/Katsalapov were ranked 1 by all judges in PCS

McN/C were ranked second by USA, Germany, Great Britain and Slovakia

Israel and Russia put Popova/Mozgov second.

Belarus tied P/M and McN/C.

German judge put Tweedale/Buckland third and Muller/Dieck 4th in PCS, above P/M (5th)

British judge was the only one placing Fear/Gibson over Tweedale/Buckland in PCS

If Tennell delivers an LP on par with her SP, she should get second and deserve first. Medved's short makes me realize just how much her scores have depended on piling on elements--her more streamlined program shows her lack of line, elegance and power--the point-piling clutter protects her and the other Eteri-bots. Osmond's boring, but she has power and the Japanese girls all have better skating skills.

Tennell cracks me up--she was so not on the radar last year that American fans kind of resented her--but she's still here and getting better at the ancient age of 20. You go, girl.

Me too R408. With the sport being so oriented to teen girls, I have a soft spot for female skaters who blossom in their 20s.

I will blossom in my 40s

Oh Carolina, I expect to see you on ice in your Depends.

PAIRS

Autumn Classic

1) James/Cipres 210.21

2) Moore-Towers/Marinaro 176.32

3) Denney/Frazier 164.43

4) Calalang/Johnson 150.63

5) Matte/Ferland 121.44

NEPELA

1) Cain/LeDuc 181.56

2) Stellato/Bartholomay 174.78

3) Kudriavtseva/Spiridonov 157.12

4) Ghilardi/Ambrosini 155.02

Sadly no World Standing points for Nepela competitors

So who's left from last year who's ahead of James/Cipres? Morozov/Tarasova? It's a really anything-can-happen year for pairs. I'm glad James/Cipres stuck around, I like their skating a lot, even if they should have used the Chris Isaacs version of "Wicked Games".

Wonder how the itty-bitty pair from North Korea will do.

R413 Sui/Han may show up in second part of the city

North Korean pair was heavily beaten by Peng/Jin at Asian Open. But that was the once in season competition in which Peng stayed on her feet

I hope Sui/Han show up. Love their skating, but she's been so injured that I wonder about their shelf life, even if they are fairly young.

R145 apparently S/H got new programs by Lori earlier this month.

The new Chinese pair (the one with the single girl) debuted at a national competition last week and they are not ready yet. Far behind P/J but also Wang/Wang

They have reaised the number of Pairs making the FS at Worlds from 16 to 20...but they may not need them so much now....

Tennell wins over Medvedeva

And Eteri whispers "I told you this would happen..."

R416 I don't know why S/H are so obsessed with Lori's choreo... or say the whole Chinese team... It seems that Lori does a wholesale choreography for them - very rough and unpleasant to watch

Thank God R417

That was a non-tango from Medvedeva

Although I don't really like Bradie's LP as much as her short

Some random news:

Yura Min has teamed up with Daniel Eaton.

Joti Polizoakis is trying with Vivienne Schott

Torn/Partnen withdraws from Helsinki GP. They are replaced by Tessari/Fioretti. I guess it was a Finnish attempt to find someone who can be beaten by Turkkila/Versluis

French host picks for their GP: Kevin Aymoz, Lea Serna and Adelina Galayavieva/Louis Thauron (who had a decent debut today). Second pair spot still to be filled

Well, damn, there goes Bradie. Her LP isn't as finished as her SP--some of the music cuts are iffy--and she clearly got tired midway, but she won fair and square. So nice to see an American woman just go out and win an international competition.

Medved's LP was another Osmond-lite. Why oh why would you try to emulate Osmond, who's strong and buoyant, but not that interesting a skater?

I like Hanyu's SP--and, not surprisingly, he skates it beautifully, though a lot of his jumps are pretty tilt-a-whirl. He's got the reflexes of a cat.

[quote]Starr Andrews is improving, but still a lot of two-footed skating and, of course, a couple of screw-ups--she barely saved that one jump.

Really? To me, it looks like she's regressing.

Her jumps aren't as springy anymore and are often times under-rotated, her basic stroking over the ice is slow and labored (lots of hunched over back-pumping), and she looked totally winded and tired in the last 1/4 of her program--she literally fell during her ending pose!

It just seems like everything in her skating is getting sloppier.

It's obvious her body is changing on her. She's not rail thin anymore, which I'm sure helped her crank out those triple-triples.

Hopefully, she can weather the puberty monster...but she never really had clean, solid basics to begin with, which doesn't bode well.

Nepela Ladies

1) Rika Kihira 218.16 (2 3As)

2) Elizabet Tursynbaeva 192.30 (one fall, maybe UR)

3) Stanislava Konstantinova 180.02

4) Polina Tsurskaya 154.61 (disastrous)

5) Katie McBeath 154.56

6) Yujin Choi 150.14

7) Megan Wessenberg 143.47 (big fall, she hit her head on ice mid way the FS. She went on and looked ok)

ok, there is a Free Dance (Fear/Gibson) on a Donna Summer/September (Wind and Fire) mix

The twizzles are on "On the radio" chorus

Loved Cha's SP and skating, music cuts and all

Muller/Dieck's FD starts with a voiceover staying "look around, everyone of us will die of cancer"??!

The Donna Summer FD by British duo scored 99 points. They are in the lead (158). Last group now on the ice.

weak TES for Adelina GALAYAVIEVA / Louis THAURON. They plummeted behind the 2 British and the Finnish teams

Victoria SINITSINA / Nikita KATSALAPOVt196.42 (56 PCS in FS)

Lorraine MCNAMARA / Quinn CARPENTERt178.64

Betina POPOVA / Sergey MOZGOVt170.47

Jasmine TESSARI / Francesco FIORETTIt159.21

Lilah FEAR / Lewis GIBSONt158.85

Robynne TWEEDALE / Joseph BUCKLANDt 153.59

Juulia TURKKILA / Matthias VERSLUISt150.66

Adelina GALAYAVIEVA / Louis THAURONt149.68

Katharina MÜLLER / Tim DIECKt141.03

Anna KUBLIKOVA / Yuri HULITSKIt129.49

haha i think they want to make up some threats for pc in europe...

Nepela looked more generous than Lombardia in Ice Dance

3 teams competed in both ... Looking at FS

Tessari/Fioretti went from 89.62 points last week to 98.16 today

Tweedle/Buckland went from 88.84 to 93.98

Turkilla/Versluis went from 86.52 to 90.05

Fear-Gibson FS

Choreo by Romain Haguenauer

In Canada

Weaver/Poje 197.27

Smart/Diaz 171.41

Soucisse/Firus 166.24

Wang/Liu 165.06

Chen/Sun 148.74

Lanaghan/Razgulajevs 138.97

Markova/Daze 106.13

R423, I thought Starr's spins looked good and she was more on her edges, but you're probably right about the jumps. She was a tiny little thing last year--4'8", so puberty's going to hit hard and her basic technique just isn't all that.

I suddenly realise that Wang/Liu are now at Gadbois, too... No wonder their FD is another "I'm trying the best to copy something old and I don't know what I'm doing" style.

Is Kevin Aymoz the new Misha Ge when it comes to drama!!!!!! in his programs?

Didier waited until last week to give Aymoz the final host pick at French GP....as they had anybody else to fill that spot.

He also didn't give him the Euro spot he deserved last year.

Not sure what he has done to him

Kevin Aymoz is way more talented than Mishe Ge. He's a true artist and beats Jason Brown and Hanyu in that department.

^I think some of the stuff in his program was a little bit over the top...

Some programs to be debuted at Nebelhorn this weekend

Loena: SP It's All Coming Back To Me Now by Celine Dion . FS Differente by Gotan Project . Both choreos by Adam Solya

Chartrand: SP Paint It Black (Westworld soundtrack) by Ramin Djawadi FS Sunset Boulevard by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Choreos: Wilson

Bell SP To Love You More by Celine Dion FS The Piano/ Experience by Ludovico Einaudi. SP choreo by Adam Rippon. FS by Shae-Lynn Bourne

Majorov: SP Bang Bang by Asaf Avidan. FS Tina by Randy Edelman/ Saint James Infirmary by Hugh Laurie/ Cuban Pete by Jim Carrey. Choreos: his mother and Marica Sandström Lindh

Virtanen: SP Milonga de mis amores by Pedro Laurenz. FS yes, La Strada again

Knierims SP Castle by Halsy FS Wicked Game by James Vincent McMorrow . Choreos by Richaud

Gilles/Poirier RD Tango: Angelica's Tango by Piernicola Di Muro FD Vincent (Starry Starry Night) by Don MacLean, Govardo. Choreos by Carol Lane

Koch/Nucthern FD: Notre Dame de Paris.

Nazarova/Nikitin RD Cell Block Tango/All That Jazz (Chicago) FD: Charlie Chaplin. Choreo by Bourzat

I don't like Kevin Aymoz's skating at all. He always looks sloppy. Misha at least had beautiful lines and posture.

Celine Dion--ugh.

Aren't James/Cipres also skating to Wicked Game as well as the Knierems. What a weird FS to share. This year's Moulin Rouge.

Adam Rippon's trying his hand at choreography--well, maybe Bell can finally get a program she can skate consistently.

Gilles/Poirier is the most interesting debut of the bunch. I'm rooting for them to make it to the Grand Prix this year in all their drama-kid weirdness.

Amy Lin's choreo is also by Rippon (with Nadia Kanaeva). And I don't think he's just now "trying his hand at choreography", he's done programs for at least Mirai and Ashley and himself several years ago.

R442 yes, on James/Cipres

And Seguin/Bilodeau were supposed to do too it before their split

The Nebelhorn live stream should appear at this link when it is time

P/C s Fd is Rachel Yamagata. Dont know the lady

Nebelhorn

Ladies: Zagitova leads with 79 points

Hedricxk, Mihara and Bell all in 70-71 range

Honda flopped

TANGO ROMANTICA

1) Gilles/Poirier 77.40

2) Parsons/Parsons 70.02

3) Carreira/Ponomarenko 69.56

4) Koch/Nüchtern 60.11

5) Muller/Dieck 57.82

6) Fear/Gibson 57.30

7) Urban/Steffan 56.91

8) Kaliszek/Spodyriev (new definition of deep V, she fell on the twizzles) 54.54

9) Nazarova/Nikitin 43.52 (big fall in the middle of the pattern)

German judge gave alla Components to Parasons over Carreira/Ponomarenko

US judge (Sharon Rogers) gave SS (by 0.5) and Composition to Parsons. Interpretation (by 0.5) and Transitions to C/P. Tie in Performance

Hungarian judge: tie in Composition. Everything else to Parsons (even Interpretation by 0.75)

Balkov from Ukraine: Interpretation and Transitions to Parsons. Tie in the other 3

Polish judge: SS to Parsons, Transitions and Performance to C/P. Composition and Interpretation tied

Canadian judge: tie in SS, everything else to C/P (usually by 0.5)

Hungarian liked the Parsons very much. Almost tied them with Gilles/Poirier in PCS

Balkov scored Nazarova/Nikitin like they were doing their top outing . He even has a +3 for an eement in which some others scored -3

I'm surprised the incest Troll is not here to call out the Parsons. Did it die when the Shibs unofficially retired?

R448 maybe because the Parsons usually give the impression of poor Parsons boy trying to lift a truckdriver rather than an incest couple

Gilles/Poirier

The Deep V

1 Knierim/Knierim 61.73

2 Hase/Seegert 58.27

3 Stellato/Bartholomay 58.19

4 Efimova/Korovin 56.42

5 Walsh/Michaud 51.85

6 Lu/Mitrofanov 49.47

7 Petranovic/Souza-Kordeiru 49.28

8 Ghilardi/Ambrosini 47.71

9 Chtchetinina/Akulov 40.93

Loved the Polish Ice Dance couple. The slap at the beginning of the program could be heard.

The Knierems--well that was a mess--but the costumes are so awe-ful that I barely noticed the falling and lack of synchronization.

Zagitova--Phantom, ugh. And what a terrible music cut--felt like half an LP, it was weird when she just sort of stopped and the applause started.

Parsons--liked the dance, but it's funny how careful sibling pairs are to never-ever-ever make eye contact. Cuz that makes all the difference, right? His scruff helps a little.

Gilles/Poirier--thank God someone's not part of the Marie-France swoopy brigade. She's still stiff and he's still better. Oh well. At least I feel like they're having a good time when they skate. I like watching them.

Marin Honda's become the little engine who wouldn't. Tons of talent, but seeming lack of commitment.

I can't believe Adam gave Mariah such a cheesy program. Twentysomethings with the musical taste of a middle-aged suburban frau.

I actually think this is Mariah's best program to date. Not so much because of the music, but the choreography and her interpretation of the music is fantastic.

Who was the truck driver that finished in front of her ??

Man, some truly terrible music among the ladies--Zags, Hendrickx, Bell, Miyahara not one good piece of music among the lot--ranging from insipid to overwrought with no stops in-between.

Comments on Honda think there were boot problems. Either that or she's out of shape, she just kind of sat down on the double axel for no real obvious reason.

It's weird, I'm now looking forward to Nathan Chen and P/C just because they tend to have better music choices.

So far, Bradie Tennell's the only one who's clearly moved upward in the top 10, but there's probably some Russian infant I didn't see.

Rika Kihira won at Nepela with two landed triple axels. If she can keep that up, I'd think she could be top ten? She's been given a second GP (NHK). Was already at the French one. This is her first senior season I think.

Tukmamysheva or whatever won at Lombardia but a pretty weak field and she's got hella competition in Russia - Kaori Sakamoto was there but off the podium (she may be fading in a cutthroat Japanese field).

Kihira also landed a 3A-3T, first ever for a woman (except for Midori Ito in a practice session.)

Rika's also working on quads (or at least one). Here's a video of her quad toe loop. I think she's trying to get ready for the onslaught when both Trusova and Kostornaia age up to seniors next year. I think it may be a bloodbath for the ladies, including some current big names. Make hay while the sun shines, girls.

Zagitova 238.43

Mihara 209.22

Hendrickx 204.16

Bell 188.97

Lin 181.21

Honda 17889

Chartrand

3 falls

4 Under rotations

1 unclear edge

At Masters of France Aymoz has beaten Ponsart by 10 points in the SP (Tesson is actually second). Besseghier withdrew

They apparently live-streamed the whole event except for Papadakis/Cizeron's RD. They apparently asked audience not to take videos. Aere they so late in preparation that we can't see a video of their tango?

They were scored 14 points ahead of Laurialt/Legac. L/L are 10 points above Galyavieva/Thauron

Gilles/Poirier 194.12

Parsons/Parsons 180.95

Carreira/Ponomarenko 177.49

Fear/Gibson 160.61

Koch/Nuchtern 152.68

Urban/Steffan 150.73

Kaliszek/Spodyriev 141.63

Nazarova/Nikitin 127.59

116.72 FD for G/P (-1 deduction for an extended lift). Good outing for Parsosns. I wasn't unsure about their prospects of beating C/P.

Fear/Gibson improved from last week score at Nepela thanks to their Disco FS scoreing 103 points.

Is someone interested in the battle of German teams for the Euro spot? Erm maybe not.

Nazarova/Nikitin were totally off. They missed an element also today

Eh, I forgot about Rika Kihara, but, of course, she's a contender with jumps like that.

It's going to be brutal next season.

Gilles/Poirier FD

In the comments of Rika's latest skate, someone said, "Can't wait until her 4S is "perfect" and she's ready to add that into competition, because once she does she'll be unbeatable!" - so that would mean she could possibly have a quad toe and a quad sal! Trusova has three quads - toe, sal, Lutz. Can either of them bring a quad to ladies seniors? and are there even more girls working on them? Or will it be like the men's who backed off - if you don't need them to win, why risk it?

I don't think choosing Rachel Yamagata sounds like a good taste after searching for her online... And it's said that Lambiel is PC's choreographer... I doubt that even more...

Gilles/Poirier FD--is amazingly straightforward for them--and what gorgeous, unusual lifts. This could be a breakthrough season for them.

Rachael Yamagata is Starbucks pop music.

Piper and Paul have a great program. The music is awesome. Hopefully I'll get to see them at the Grand Prix Final

Final Pairs standings at Nebelhorn

1 Efimova/Korovin 178.94

2 Knierim/Knierim 177.22

3 Stellato/Bartholomay 174.91

4 Hase/Seegert 161.61

5 Lu/Mitrofanov 157.22

6 Ghilardi/Ambrosini 155.39

7 Walsh/Michaud 153.71

8 Petranovic/Souza-Kordeiru 144.02

9 Chtchetinina/Akulov 126.17

What's up with Hawayek/Baker? They have withdrawn also from Finland Trophy (next week). They already withdrew from US International.

[r470] Yeah, what's up with Hawayek/Baker? Anyone?

This won't be a surprise to those that closely follow, but Karina Manta just officially came out in an IG post.

I don't even know who Karina Manta is

She skates with a gay guy and they are the host pick of Skate America because of lack of alternatives. They usually lose to third tier Euro teams

Paul Poirier has always had a beautiful body, especially his butt.

R473, I checked him out ( the guy she skates with).. He is cute

[R472] Karina is a U.S. ice dancer with Joe Johnson.

I've never heard of an out lesbian in skating. I've also never heard of Karina Manta.

Yeah, me either--was she at US Nationals last year?

Manta and her partner finished 7th at Nationals in 2016, 8th in 2017, and 9th in 2018. Seems like they are getting pushed down the ranks by the young teams coming up from Juniors. But her partner is pretty damn cute.

r477 A lesbian figure skater? Who could even imagine!

So when are all the closeted gay boys in skating going to come out?

Yeah yeah, they're all gay, but technically only Adam Rippon has officially come out within the last 10 years.

Oh, and Timothy LeDuc. So two US skaters out in the last 10 years.

Did I miss anyone?

Nope. No other gays.

Eric Radford, Javier Raya, Jorik Hendrickx, Joti the ice dancer...

So Polina Edmonds hasn't retired yet. Said she's taking the year off, but will competing the year after. Boy that injury was badly timed--she would have had a shot placing well at Worlds and, after Gracie's implosion, a shot at the U.S. title the following year.

R483...probably praying the gay away as we speak so he can get it up long enough to impregnate his "wife."

Peter Oppegard no doubt taught him how to do that very well.

A fan I know, from China, told me that she didn't like PC anymore because they didn't greet the Shibs at the Olympic ceremony when we talked about ice dance... And I was like: "I thought it's a universal truth that all the Shibs' ice dance counterparts didn't like them."

R487--Like we give a crap!

Now that we're fashion models and hobnobbing with Youtube's Asian elite, you all are ants to us. ANTS!

Tarasova/Morozov are doing SP on Lenny Kravitz

SP Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz

FS The Winter by Balmorhea

R495 they changed their SP music

No Lenny anymore? They haven't updated their ISU bio yet. They will debut this week at Finlandia Trophy

Entries in Finland

PAIRS

1 Ekaterina ALEXANDROVSKAYA / Harley WINDSOR AUS 1

2 Miriam ZIEGLER / Severin KIEFER AUT 2

3 Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Michael MARINARO CAN 3

4 Zoe JONES / Christopher BOYADJI GBR 4

5 Nicole DELLA MONICA / Matteo GUARISE ITA 5

6 Miu SUZAKI / Ryuichi KIHARA JPN 6

7 Aleksandra BOIKOVA / Dmitrii KOZLOVSKII RUS 7

8 Evgenia TARASOVA / Vladimir MOROZOV RUS 7

9 Laura BARQUERO / Aritz MAESTU ESP 8

10 Tarah KAYNE / Danny O'SHEA USA 9

11 Jessica PFUND / Joshua SANTILLAN USA 9

ICE DANCE

Mina ZDRAVKOVA / Christopher M. DAVIS BUL

Carolane SOUCISSE / Shane FIRUS CAN

Juulia TURKKILA / Matthias VERSLUIS FIN

Marie-Jade LAURIAULT / Romain LE GAC FRA

Emily Lauren MONAGHAN / Ilias FOURATI HUN

Anna YANOVSKAYA / Adam LUKACS HUN

Shira ICHILOV / Vadim DAVIDOVICH ISR

Chiara CALDERONE / Pietro PAPETTI ITA

Sofia EVDOKIMOVA / Egor BAZIN RUS

Alexandra STEPANOVA / Ivan BUKIN RUS

Anastasia SHPILEVAYA / Grigory SMIRNOV RUS

Olivia SMART / Adrian DIAZ ESP

Actually Della Monica/Guarise and the British pair withdrew. But we have another Russian team added: Daria PAVLIUCHENKO / Denis KHODYKIN

No American ice dance team in Finland? So strange since we have so many teams up for international competition.

R494 Hawayek/Baker were supposed to go there but they withdrew

Parsons already did 3 Challengers (Asian, Lombardia, Nebelhorn) + Lake Placid International

McNamara Carpenter did Nepela + Lake Placid

Carreira/Ponomarenko did Nebelhorn last week

Manta/Johnson did US International along Hubbell/Donohue

Chock/Bates have not competed yet but they started preparations late because she had surgery after Worlds

Interesting to see Pavliuchenko/Khodykin added to the roster. This will be their senior debut and it's not exactly an easy one for them given Tarasova/Moroz AND Boikova/Kozlovski will be in attendance (B/K is the team P/K will be fighting for that Russian No.3 spot with). They'll be wanting to beat Windsor/Alexandrovskaya too....

R496 Alexandowskaya/Windsor did pretty badly in the North American challenger , didn't they? or am I mistaken them with someone else? But they should/could have improved. Moore Towers/Marinaro didn't really impress at Autumn Classic

I suppose Kayne/O'Shea can aim to score in the 170s like the other US top teams seen so far

Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov have been added to Christmas on Ice 2018 (Dec 14-16 at Kose Shin Yokohama Skate Center).

Other cast members so far: Stephane Lambiel, Shizuka Arakawa, Kanako Murakami, Akiko Suzuki, Ilia Kulik, Tanith Belbin (White)/Ben Agosto, Meryl Davis/Charlie White, Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje, and Elladj Balde. Belbin/Agosto are actually listed separately and not as a pair unlike the other dance and pairs skaters. I’m assuming that was just an oversight. No word yet on what programs will be performed.

I'm so jealous of how many great ice shows Japan gets.

R477 she came out as bi not gay. Still waiting for that lesbian figure skater.

[R497] I mentioned Alexandrovskaya/Windsor by name because they beat Pavliuchenko/Khodykin at the Junior Grand Prix Final last year. They had a pair of very rough skates at US Classic but if they pull themselves together they could be contenders. Also it's kind of personal for the younger Russian Teams...they got a lot of shit from Rus Fed after A/W took the gold at the JGPF.

JGP Ljubljana

Junior Ladies SP:

1 Tomoe KAWABATA (JPN) 66.85 TES: 38.64 PCS: 28.21

2 Anna TARUSINA (RUS) 65.74 TES: 38.20 PCS: 27.54

3 Anastasia TARAKANOVA (RUS) 63.98 TES: 35.89 PCS: 28.09

4 Haein LEE (KOR) 63.01 TES: 36.89 PCS: 26.12

5 Rion SUMIYOSHI (JPN) 59.80 TES: 33.78 PCS: 26.02

Junior Men SP:

1 Petr GUMENNIK (RUS) 77.33 TES: 43.78 PCS: 33.55

2 Mark GORODNITSKY (ISR) 74.66 TES: 42.02 PCS: 32.64

3 Tomoki HIWATASHI (USA) 74.17 TES: 39.7 PCS: 34.43

4 Koshiro SHIMADA (JPN) 73.48 TES: 39.45 PCS: 34.03

5 Conrad ORZEL (CAN) 73.24 TES: 40.05 PCS: 33.19

Our beautiful boy Orzel just can't quite get there, can he? Isn't he old for juniors - 18? And big (at least 6 feet). Stop growing you gorgeous boy !!!

But for fanyus to coo over: When asked on instagram live about skaters he respects Conrad Orzel answered “I respect Yuzu, a lot. I was always a huge fan of him” On the programs he watch on youtube “I watch a lot of Yuzuru Hanyu, his long program at Helsinki is probably one of my favorite” What do you think about Yuzuru? “I think he’s the king”

I don't know if it matters but his birthday is July 11 which means, I think, if he wanted to, he could stay in juniors one more year. And who else called Yuzu "king" -- our own troll-fave Daisuke Takahashi, who I think also has a competition this weekend? Some Japanese sectional or regional or something? Surely 'somebody' here must know (or care?) I think they're televising the thing just because of him (or maybe they always do.) This year is shaping up to be quite interesting.

BTW, Dmitriev, the guy aiming for 4A (to beat Yuzu?), has a Russian competition soon, 3rd stage of Russian Cup (16–20 October), which is before Yuzuru's Finland GP comp in November. And Keegan Messing is at Skate Canada before Yuzu's GP too. -- I think I'm worrying too much about this 4A race which may not even be a race - I know not why... Well, other than to try to block out all political talk.

If Dmitriev did land the 4A at that Russian thing, would it officially count as the first, since it's such a dinky affair?

Oops I got lost - I thought I was posting on Yuzuru's thread. Sorry !!!!

Did you just call Daisuke Takahashi a troll ???? Have we come to this? These Hanyu trolls are getting worst with every passing competition and have no respect for past champions.

We need to talk about men's tights. I don't care if you are some dirt poor skater from Ukraine. You never [bold]EVER[/bold] wear pants that are not well adjusted around the crotch area. It looks gross! Whenever I see this it makes me suspect the coach.

No no - I called him our "troll-FAVE" because there's a troll in the other thread we call "Daitroll" because we believe she's a Dai uber-fan. So I meant Dai was the troll's favorite -- not that Dai was a troll. Sorry again. I'm really off the reservation today.

[quote]Paul Poirier has always had a beautiful body, especially his butt.

I agree, R474.

I've had a crush on Paul Poirier since he was 18 when I saw him at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Here's a hot photo from last year:

Go Tomoki!

[R506] Exactlry, our hanyu trolls like [R507} lost contact with reality and they think they re funny. They love Daisuke themselves but they cannot say it , lol and they re tryin to make me believe it that i love him , jesus . Someone here has boring life

Daisuke will debut this weekend at regional championships

[R511} Yeah , we know that , hanyu trolls cannot stop talking about on the other thread. They cannot wait. if they havent post it so so often , i even wouldnt know hahah

This is the latest news footage of Takahashi from yesterday. No quads but you can see a 3A. I'm more concerned about the David Wilson choreography. All of Wilson's programs seem uninspired so far this season.

He looks like Neymar

R513. I'm not a Dai fan but I am very interested to see what he does. David Wilson. Ugh. Why do i feel Dai's performance will be bleh because of Wilson choreography?

The official TV Tokyo Figure Skating account has been tweeting photos of the Japan Open skaters (Fernandez, Abbott, Vasiļjevs, Lambiel etc.) with the station’s official mascot, a perpetually surprised banana named “Nanana.”

The title of Tatsuki Machida’s Carnival on Ice program is “La condition humaine: Mahler, Adagietto.” Music is Mahler’s “Symphony No.5 in C-Sharp Minor, Adagietto” by the Berlin Philharmonic. A lengthy exposition of the program has been added to Machida’s official page, opening with the famous line by writer Takeshi Kaiko (inspired by the supposed words of Martin Luther): “Even if you knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, you would still plant your apple tree." This final program will be Machida’s “ultimate hymn to humanity.” tatsuki-machida. com/skating/24_humaine. html (His Japan Open program is “Double Bill: As Long As There’s Music.” No comprehensive treatise at present.)

For nerds and masochists, Machida’s academic CV is also listed on his official page and has a link to one of his research papers: “A study on the applicability of copyright law protection in artistic sports.” The paper is in Japanese, but it has an English abstract.

BOIKOVA /KOZLOVSKII solid again. They area ahead of Moore Towers/Marinaro in SP

PAVLIUCHENKO / KHODYKIN are in a tight fight with Ausssies and Austrians. Low PCS for the P/K

Kayne/OShea disappointing.

Oh lord R516 - I just thought Vincent Zhou was pretentious. But if he does it justice, I guess, go for it. I hope he's not going to skate to the entire Mahler symphony lol.

Oh Dear, these costumes

Kolyada's first quad looked perfect in the air during his short, but then he fell--what happened--he had this great vertical. Not a Queen fan, but Kolyada's a beautiful skater. Much prefer him to the Eteri Bots over in Ladies.

Surprisingly I don't dislike the program. I just question if they can feel the music. Tarazova/Morozov are in need of a few contemporary music classes and an acting class in order to become the pair that could win the Olympics.

I thought it sounded like Queen too but Kolyada's short is Muse ("I Belong to You (+Mon Cœur S'ouvre a ta Voix) by Muse (band).

I like Queen btw but anyway, I do like Kolyada - he has a great presence. Reminds me of someone with ballet training. I read somewhere he used to have a Biellman. Maybe he still does but I don't think he uses it very often. Come to think of it, I don't think it's in either of Hanyu's programs either. Sorry to get off on that...

Maybe if you don't have much personality, the answer is wacky outfits (Tarasova/Morozov)? I like them though and the discipline seems to be clearing out a bit.

R474, here's an interview with a twinky 19-year old Paul Poirier.

You can hear him speak French :)

R523 Lovely face but that French Canadian accent…

TV Tokyo lists today’s Japan Open broadcast as 18:30-19:00, but that should be 18:30-21:00.

For updates and photos from Kinki regionals, check Fuji TV’s official FS twitter: @online_on_ice

Kazuki Tomono is skating first on Sunday at 15:06:30. Takahashi is seventh at 15:44:00. Thankfully, only 10 senior men will be competing on Sunday while there are 29 senior ladies and 48 Junior ladies (who start at 16:15 today).

Kinki schedule:

JGP Ljubljana

Junior Ice Dance (RD): 1 Avonley NGUYEN / Vadym KOLESNIK (USA) 65.41 TES: 35.21 PCS: 30.20

2 Sofia SHEVCHENKO / Igor EREMENKO (RUS) 63.79 TES: 33.04 PCS: 30.75

3 Polina IVANENKO / Daniil KARPOV (RUS) 59.78 TES: 31.06 PCS: 28.72

4 Darya POPOVA / Volodymyr BYELIKOV (UKR) 57.11 TES: 29.97 PCS: 27.14

5 Ellie FISHER / Simon-Pierre MALETTE-PAQUETTE (CAN) 57.08 TES: 30.57 PCS: 26.51

Junior Men (Final): 1 Petr GUMENNIK (RUS) 219.25

2 Tomoki HIWATASHI (USA) 215.16

3 Koshiro SHIMADA (JPN) 212.95

4 Conrad ORZEL (CAN) 212.94

5 Artur DANIELIAN (RUS) 210.49

Only the JGP Armenian Cup left. Current standings for the junior men with the tie breaking scores:

Nathan splatfest.

Regarding the Quebecois accent, even the French have a hard time understanding what the hell Quebec people are saying. They require subtitles whenever they watch Quebecois shows.

What's the scoop on Paul? Straight boy?

At the Japan Open, Oda skated a clean program and has the third highest FS score in the world right now, just a point below Kolyada: 4T-3T, 3A-Eu-3S, 3A, 3Lz, 3Lo, 3F-3T, 2A

1. Uno 186.69 2. Oda 176.95 3. Fernandez 157.86 4. Chen 144.96 5. Vasiļjevs 129.32 6. Abbott 124.06 5.

Current Standings

1. Japan 363.64 2. Europe 287.18 3. North America 269.02 TV Tokyo mascot Nanana's skating was also spectacular.

R527, Paul is French Canadian, yes, but he's totally fluent in English. He grew up speaking both languages. Btw, he's Franco-Ontarian, not Quebecois.

I don't think Paul is straight. He pings, and he doesn't seem to have a girlfriend. Anyone know?

R527, Paul is French Canadian, but he's Franco-Ontarian, not Quebecois. He's totally fluent in English, because he grew up in Ontario speaking both languages.

I don't think Paul is a straight boy. He pings, and he doesn't seem to have a girlfriend, despite being very cute & talented. Anyone know?

3 American men making the JGPF. Well that is surprising.

Ice Dance will be really exiting for the US with the Greens, Avonley / Vadym, and the Browns with so much talent.

I still say the Greens are an Olympic gold medalist level skaters but Avonley/Vadym are not too shaby.

Japan Open Ladies: 1. Zagitova 159.18 2. Sakamoto 130.28 3. Miyahara 127.99 4. Tennell 126.86 5. Bell 120.57 6. Sotskova 111.78

Final Standing: 1. Japan 621.91 2. Europe 558.14 3. North America 516.45

Fans report Zagitova’s jumps looked even better than in Nebelhorn, although the Carmen program is not as well-liked as the Don Quixote program. Also, stuffed animals of her dog Masaru are being sold at the arena. Expensive.

Bychenko has withdrawn from FS in Finland.

Well, his 14 TES in SP was quite stunning

Stepanova/Bukin just scored 79.16

Highest Rhythm Dance score of the season so far

36.42 PCS

.....

Referee stopped the program mid way because something fell on the ice and they had to clean it

More than 2 minutes stop

lol. then there was a bird in the rink!

Shpilevaya/Smirnov (64) outscore Evdomikova/Bukin (61)

S/S deserved the Rostelecom Cup host pick.

IS there any stream from Finland?

72.61 for Smart/Diaz

R538 I can't find any for free this morning , sadly

Smart/Diaz are 5 points above their Autumn Classic score

Also Soucisse/Firus interrupted. Again something is fallen on the ice from the roof. She looks like a middle age woman more than a 20something.

They score 70.79. 5 points more than at Autumn Classic.

Turkilla/Versluis 62.46 (SB also for them, 2 points more than at Nepela)

Laurialt/Legac 69.29

Both Stepanova and Bukin got level 1 for twizzles. The only other level 1 given today was to the girl of the Bulgarian couple. Everybody else got at least level 3 (Finnish boy, Israeli girl, Bulgarian boy and the 2 weak Hungarians as Level 3 while everybody else in Level 4)

Stream for finlandia trophy

R543 Many thanks!

The third tier skater was online on grindr this morning...I guess you can consider it as a preparation training for tonight's FS

Stream form Finlandia stopped, they changed it to some Russia Cup, fantastic

Justice4Pairs ignored even by illegal streams

They deceded to not show it , coz its pointless. :) Even they know how bad they re :P

they are back to Pairs

Moore Towers/Marinaro lead with 193 points

We are in the middle of a Nutcracker with Boikova/Kozlovskii

Final standings at Finland Trophy

1) Tarasova/Morozov (his first SBS was two footed, I think. In the SBS 3 jumps combo she barely made the second jump) 198.98 (season debut)

2) Moore Towers/Marinaro 193.93 SB (win FS)

3) Boikova/Kozlovskii 188.54

4) Ziegler/Kiefer 176.09 (season debut)

5) Pavliuchenko/Khodykin 175.05 (season debut)

6) Alexandrovskaya/Windsor 162.78 SB

7) Kayne/OShea 162.03 (season debut)

8) Barquero/Maestu 152.94 SB

9) Pfund/Santillan 136.91 (season debut)

10) Suzuki/Khiara 132.59 (season debut)

JGP Ljubljana

Junior Ladies (Final):

1 Anastasia TARAKANOVA (RUS) 190.05

2 Anna TARUSINA (RUS) 188.24

3 Haein LEE (KOR) 180.48

4 Rion SUMIYOSHI (JPN) 171.65

5 Tomoe KAWABATA (JPN) 167.49

Dance still going.

Other news:

Nobunari Oda’s (who’s been retired from competition for five years, has three small children, and a fulltime TV job that requires constant domestic & international travel) FS score from the Japan Open beat all scores from Finlandia. Top scorer was Kolyada with 165.38.

Judges Scores for Japan Open: jsfresults. com/InterNational/2018-2019/japanopen/

Wakaba Higuchi now has an official page: wakabahiguchi. com

Uno’s brother (the 16-year old “model”) is publishing a book about Shoma for charity. No word on which charity.

I don’t know if this means anything, but Kana Muramoto’s IG is now private and the change was made recently. New partner?

Kolyada wins Finland Trophy. Not his best day. Too many doubles towards the end of the program.

Cha fell on the 3A and on the final spin

Kolyada 250.58

Cha 239.19

Kvitelashvili 231.19

Nadeau 227.76

Aliev 224.95

Rizzo 217.68

Erokhov 214.59

Britschgi 206.76

Yamamoto 206.76

Hino 205.15

Majorov 202.55

everybody else below 200

Oda's FS score beated the total score of 6 skaters in Finland. And he wasn't far off from Alex Johnson and Sondre Boe's total scores either.

R553 Ouch. So are you meeting the Grindr skater later tonight?

[quote]The third tier skater was online on grindr this morning...

What's his name?

R555 The Norwegian one

Sondre is a known slut, I'm surprised you didin't see Alexander Johnson on Grindr.

This thread is a nice distraction from everything that is happening in the real world but I just can't get excited for skating. Maybe when Trump is gone I'll go back to enjoying skating.

At least Rizzo is turning into a handsome young man. In a season or two he'll be a total hottie.

[quote]I don't think Paul is straight. He pings...

Pinging tells you nothing!

I love fishy clams, I do.

R557 his description in the profile is "boyfriend material".....

[quote]Maybe when Trump is gone I'll go back to enjoying skating.

You're going to wait that long to enjoy skating again?

[quote]You're going to wait that long to enjoy skating again?

*cries*

Marinaro gay or straight ?

Marinaro is cute, isn't he, R562?

Nice Italian-Canadian boy, I assume.

Seems to be straight, but don't think there's much info about him available.

R557 His brother is much better looking (if he's legal). But Sondre is only 20?!

yes, he is only 20

He was still doing Jr Worlds in 2017. Because he can't do the 3A and therefore the minimum TES for Worlds is difficult for him to achieve

How come the Nordic countries aren't stronger in figure skating?

In the early days of figure skating they used to have stronger skaters from Scandinavia.

These days they never make the top tier in the World.

[R563] I really like Marinaro

R565 I guess Sondre can always fall back on his YouTube career.

JGP Ljubljana

Junior Ice Dance (Final):

1 Avonley NGUYEN / Vadym KOLESNIK (USA) 165.63

2 Sofia SHEVCHENKO / Igor EREMENKO (RUS) 161.67

3 Polina IVANENKO / Daniil KARPOV (RUS) 151.69

4 Darya POPOVA / Volodymyr BYELIKOV (UKR) 141.77

5 Ellie FISHER / Simon-Pierre MALETTE-PAQUETTE (CAN) 141.60

R567, Marinaro seems like a nice, down to earth guy.

And he has a nice butt:

R566 Sweden wouldn't even their their male skater go to the Olympics even though he qualified.

R566 Swedish Olympic Committee has this rule that basically says that they do charity only once in your career. So if you aren't particularly good, they allow you to go to Olympics once and not the second time.

It should have been R570

R569 I agree 😀

I find Marinaro sexy too.

He has/had a girlfriend during Olympics.

He is gay friendly.

I find Bukin to be really fuckable.. Those nipples in RD were +5.0 GOE.

Trump is one of the reasons I follow figure skating--I need the escapism and I can watch it in short bursts.

Damn, I didn't know Paul Poirier was anything, but gay--that's what I get for hanging out here. I thought he was in glass-closet territory like Cizeron.

Don't have a good feeling about Nathan Chen this season. He was so focused on the Olympics. It wasn't really in his plan to have to keep skating competitively when he hit college. He's such a technical skater that I don't see how he can keep up the conditioning/training while at Yale to skate the way he needs to win. He needs to like skating better if he's going to stay on top.

Well, interesting season so far--not predictable. Really liking Kolyada--I appreciate that he never ignores the placement of his hands and arms--lot of ballet training there.

[quote]Damn, I didn't know Paul Poirier was anything, but gay--that's what I get for hanging out here. I thought he was in glass-closet territory like Cizeron.

I don't think Poirier has ever talked about his personal life. Have you ever read anything?

And how come Cizeron isn't officially out?

Wait wait! Cizeron is not out ??

No haven't read anything--think it's probably G/P's taste in programs--a bit camp.

I'm sure Cizeron's not officially out because dance pairs are supposed to sell the possibility of romance. Think of the issues sibling teams get or the way the coverage of Davis/White ignored White's relationship with Tanith Belbin.

Or the tedious posts about how Virtue/Moir were totally doing it because they did a steamy Moulin Rouge routine.

There have already been snipes about P/C not being "traditional" enough--code for Guillaume not being sufficiently muy macho.

[quote]No haven't read anything--think it's probably G/P's taste in programs--a bit camp.

G&P are getting good reviews so far for their new Vincent Free Dance.

Love their free dance this year--it's a change for them. I also liked their other ones just because they do their own thing--whereas Weaver/Poje's forgettable even when they win. Used to feel that way about Hubbell/Donohue until I saw them in person--they have a lot of presence on the ice.

G/P FDs is good? Couple tricks , nice lifts and thats it...I cannot see how people say that they do their own thing . Because they use original music and costumes, I suppose. Their skating is mediocre,. I like paul, he is great skater but with her ...

[quote]whereas Weaver/Poje's forgettable even when they win.

I was kind of hoping that Weaver/Poje would retire and let G&P have the stage.

W&P have been around for ever and are getting on.

Piper's definitely the weaker partner and it does hold G/P back, but I still find them an interesting team--interesting music choices, interpretations of the assigned dance, some unusual lifts and movements, good musicality. The opening move of their FD this year is distinctive. Are they P/C (another team with a noticeably stronger male)? No, and I think they won't be dethroning the French or H/D if Zach stays on his feet, but I like the flavor G/P bring to ice dance.

W/P were so kicked around when Virtue/Moir returned that I felt sorry for them, but that, alas, doesn't make them an interesting team.

Not sure why H/D thought Romeo and Juliet was a good choice for them--Madison Hubbell does not project fragile, young vulnerable flower.

R584, Gilles & Poirier could move into the top 5 this year.

They finished 6th at Worlds, and Cappelini & Lanotte have retired, so that opens up another slot.

Plus, they almost beat Chock & Bates last year and could overtake them.

Maybe, but seems like there's a strong Stepanova/Bukin push and the Canadians, at least last year, put all their weight behind Weaver/Poje. Still, I do see a strong program from G/P, so maybe.

Wonder what shape Chock/Bates are in with Chock's injuries? And I'm still wondering if Hawayek/Baker have another program in them--they have that one beautiful FS, but everything else is just sort of there . . . maybe the Parsons sense that there's still an opening for them, which is why they've been so aggressively competing this season.

Zags' Carmen leaves me cold. More busy-busy choreography, no interpretation, no elegance. Such a contrast to Kolyada, who stumbled and doubled, but actually interpreted the music.

Satoko Miyahara managed a triple about six inches off the ground. I'm not sure whether to be appalled or amazed. I can't remember seeing a lower triple.

Kinki regionals so far

Daisuke Takahashi 77.28 Yu Nakamura 71.99 Kazuki Tomono 79.94

That should be 70.94 for Tomono. Three men left to skate.

Thanks for the update R588 R589. It's exciting to have someone return after four years - and I'm not even really a fan. But it's interesting to see where this will go. Will Oda return? He's pretty amazing, considering, but I also like him as a tv star commentator.

Kinki Regionals

Men (SP):

1 Daisuke Tahakashi 77.28 TES: 37.71 PCS: 39.57 (3A, 3F-3T, 3Lz)

2 Yu Nakamura: 71.99 TES: 39.32 PCS: 32.67 (3A, 3Lo, 3Lz3T)

3 Kazuki Tomono 70.94 TES: 37.43 PCS: 35.51 Ded: 2.00 (4S, 3F-3T, 3A)

Taichi Honda 63.67 TES: 31.42 PCS: 32.25

Kazuki Kushida 62.23 TES: 35.89 PCS: 28.34 Ded: 2.00

Taichiro Yamakuma 60.69 TES: 31.11 PCS: 30.58 Ded: 1.00

Jyunsuke Tokikuni 59.50 TES: 31.58 PCS: 27.92

Junya Watanabe 58.09 TES: 28.67 PCS: 30.42 Ded: 1.00

Keiichiro Sasahara 57.21 TES: 28.13 PCS: 30.08 Ded: 1.00

Shinichi Yamada 44.58 TES: 21.66 PCS: 23.92 Ded: 1.00

Judge's scores Takahashi's 3F+3T underrotated, but still shows better to do a fairly clean program with triples than quads with falls (Tomono). Take note, Jason.

Isn't Daisuke Tahakashi risking injury by skating at his age?

He was already having problems with his jumps before he retired.

R590 His TV career is doing well. (He's a regular on one of my favorite shows and it's not sports-related.) He also has three small children. He might not be willing to sacrifice his.job and family time.

R593 He thinks it's worth the risk because competing is what he truly loves. Oda is just a year younger and jumping quads, although quads were always a problem for Takahashi. But he recently said he was going to set those jumps aside for now after finding training more difficult than expected.

Finland Trophy Ladies

1) Tukta 202.85 2) Tursy 200.74 3) Lindfors 187.19 4) Kostantinova 187.13 5) Peltonen 172.02 6) Mallet 170.68. 8) Angela Wang 160.99 9) Pooja Kalyan 156.05

ice Dance

1) Stepanova/Bukin 200.78 (121.62 in FD)

2) Smart/Diaz 180.07 SB (9 points higher than at Autumn Classic)

3) Lauriault/Legac 175.46

4) Soucisse/Firus 172.27 SB (6 points higher than at Autumn Classic)

5) Shpilevaya/Smirnov 167.94

6) Turkilla/Versluis 163.49 SB (13 points higher than their Nepela score)

7) Evdokimova/Bazin 159.67

8) Yanovskaya/Lukacs 140.25

9) Ichilov/Davidovich 130.6

10) Monaghan/Fourati 126.44 (same score at US International)

11) Zdravkova/Davis 103.85

Stepanova/Bukin's score is the highest so far this season

121 now is not like 121 back then. It is like 109 then

P.cS Even 108, I suppose. Now max for FD is 137.8 , for short is 91.5

top scores of the early season (only Seniors)

Stepanova/Bukin 200.78 (Finland Trophy)

Hubbell/Donohue. 197.42 (US International)

Weaver/Poje 197.22 (Autumn Classic)

Sinistina/Katslapov 196.42 (Nepela)

Gilles/Poirier 194.12 (Nebelhorn)

Guignard/Fabbri 193.28 (Lombardia)

Parsons/Parsosn 180.95 (Nebelhorn)

Smart/Diaz 180.07 (Finland)

McNamara/Carpenter 178.64 (Nepela)

Carreira/Ponomarenko 177.49 (Nebelhorn

Lauriault/Legac 175.46 (Finland)

Soucisse/Firus 172.27 (Finland)

Popova/Mozgov 170.47 (Nepal)

Hurtado/Khaliavin 169.47 (Lombardia)

Shpilevaya/Smirnov 167.94 (Finland)

Wang/Liu 165.06 (Autumn Classic)

Turkilla/Versluis 163.4 (Finland)

Fear/Gibson 160.61 (Nebelhorn)

Evdokimova/Bazin 159.67 (Finland)

Tessari/Fioretti 159.21 (Nepela)

Komatsbura/Koleto 154.75 (Asian Open)

Tweedle/Buckland 153.59 (Nepela)

Koch/Nuchtern 152.68 (Nebelhorn)

Urban/Steffen 150.73 (Nebelhorn)

S/B FD

3 judges called for Music requirements violation