Figure Skating 2021

RUSSIA National Champions results

1. Anna Shcherbakova 264.10

2. Kamila Valieva 254.01

3. Alexandra Trusova 246.37

4. Daria Usacheva 230.56

5. Maiia Khromykh 211.91

6. Elizaveta Nugumanova 204.63

Men

1 Mikhail Kolyada 296.15

2 Makar Ignatov 265.37

3 Mark Kondratiuk 260.31

4 Andrei Mozalev 252.92

5 Alexander Samarin 251.38

6 Anton Shulepov 249.89

Pair

1 Tarasova/Morozov 228.23

2 Boikova/Kozlovskii 224.99

3 Pavliuchenko/Khodykin 221.39

4 Mishina/Galliamov 211.95

5 Panfilova/Rylov 207.03

6 Kadyrova/Balchenko 196.04

Ice Dance

1 Stepanova/Bukin 220.16

2 Zagorski/Guerreiro 210.94

3 Skoptcova/Aleshin 196.97

4 Shevchenko/Eremenko 194.29

5 Khudaiberdieva/Bazin 192.68

6 Morozov/Bagin 182.86

JAPAN

Ladies

1. Rika Kihira - 234.24

2. Kaori Sakamoto - 222.17

3. Satoko Miyahara - 209.75

4. Rino Matsuike - 204.74

5. Mai Mihara - 203.65

MEN

1. Yuzuru Hanyu 319.36

2. Shoma Uno 284.81

3. Yuma Kagiyama - 278.79

4. Keiji Tanaka - 238.83

5. Shun Sato - 236.52

6. Kazuki Tomono - 223.16

ICE DANCE

1 Komatsubara/Koleto 175.23

2 Muramoto/Takahashi 151.86

3 Fukase/Cho 145.18

4 Hirayama/Tateno 143.40

5 Yajima/Ikeda 118.87

I watched the Russian and Japanese Grand Prix events... I think those are different from the nationals though. The Russian girls are of course athletically gifted, but IMO they are so boring to watch. Every girl has the same combos, every girl arms over head on triple lutz. The Japanese still skate in an artistic way that I think is more fun to watch and more ballet-like and traditional.

Russian jumping bots are always boring.

Kihira today in the FS

Russianboat winner

Kolyada FS

Hanyu new FS

Takahashi in an old-fashioned classic by Zueva

I feel sorry for Shoma Uno. Hanyu will never retire. Her ego won't let her.

Uno moved to Lambiel's

Russia had a lot of skaters with Covid.

Kostornaia, Tuktamysheva, Medvedeva

Aliev, Savosin

Stephanova, Bukin, Katsalapov, Sinistina, Zagorski, Shpilevaya (who was hospitalized, when she went back to ice, she immediately got injured and then retired)

Morozov, Tarasova, Galliamov, Kozlovski

More on Russian skating and Corona.

R9 Puhlease, I don't feel sorry for that little goblin and his cheated jumps at all - he's been gifted many opportunities and candies, including an olympic silver medal.

such anger r13. wow!

R14 You would be too, if he stole your medal.

When does Hanyu hang it up, a little long in the tooth.

agree r16.

I only watch male figures skaters, the girls are so boring.

R16 R17 Why should he? He's still head and shoulders above most of the men, including his tech. Chen's layout is a little more difficult, but he's boring as fuck. I would rather watch Kolyada or Brown jump triples than Chen jump 8 quads.

Chen is going to win his gold and then retire and get his yale degree and be something relevant, that is how it was always supposed to be done.

R16 He's practically a toddler compared to meeee.

R20 Hopefully, it's not something relevant to figure skating because he's a snoozefest.

R20 How sweet, is this the song you sang to little Nathan to rock him to sleep, Mama C?

Kayne/O' Shea split. Finally. Will she now pick her new boytoy as skating partner? He recently split his partnership too

WTH is the issue with this thread? I have to find it by searching for it every time. Does Erna want to stop us discussing the Most Important Sport of All?

Figure Skater Yuzuru Hanyu Sets the Path for His Third Olympic Gold

Papadakis/Cizeron announced they won't go to Worlds if they are held

US team is

Tennell and Karen Chen (Glenn who finished second at Nats dumped to alternate).

Chen, Zhou and Brown

Knierim/Frazier (if ISU change the minimum TES requirements to allow them in as they've not competed internationally), Calalang/Johnson

The usual 3 dance teams

H/D have a good program again, wonder what kind of shot they have at World's with P/C out.

I enjoyed Ladies at US Nationals. It was actually a competition and Amber Glenn's FS was a great surprise.

[quote]then retire and get his yale degree and be something relevant, that is how it was always supposed to be done.

was SUPPOSED to be, yeah...

Alysa Liu got really tall and, um... bigger. She also got gorgeous and pretty, she has the charisma, but not sure if her jumps will survive puberty. Amber Glenn is meh. Bradie is a machine, and generally consistent and clean, but really lacking in charisma.

I really liked Alena Kostornaia the best among the russian girls, but doesnt look like she will survive puberty and now she got covid. People joke that asians look alike, but watch the russian nationals, the russian bots, you cant tell them apart.

[quote]but watch the russian nationals, the russian bots, you cant tell them apart.

R30 I agree. I watched the Russian Grand Prix event a few months ago and every girl looks exactly the same and skates the exact same program. It's soooo boring.

Poor Kostornaia 😕 She Is the most interesting Russian lady but I’m pretty sure we won’t see her alone. Is her cute coach gay ?

So American figure skating is basically Nathan Chen, everyone else is irrelevant.

Plushenko is just flat out attacking the judges for giving candies to coach Eteri's bots - after he stol... well, adopted two of the Eteri girls for himself, who hate each other so much they have separate coaching teams and separate skating times at Plushy's rink (Trusova and Kostornaia).

So much yummy drama in Russia... and the US has Chen, Trumpist Zhou, and Tom Z. I mean, come on... well, we do have Mariah, who slashed the Korean girl Eunsoo's calf, on purpose - and Bradie Tennell who charges rivals during practice, especially Japanese Rika Kihira, so I guess there's that. What's up with vicious American girls - first Tonya, now these two sociopaths. Must be something in the water...

The Sinnerman short program really is that good. Thank God Jason Brown is still skating, there's more to it than just quads.

Jason Brown looks like he's aged about 10 years

(R32) Are you talking about Hot Sergei (as he's known on the internet). I don't think so.

Regarding Jason Brown, it's embarrassing that he can't do quads when 15 year old girls from Russia are doing 3-4 quads per long program. It's time to retire, Jason.

I thought hot Sergei and Alena Kostornaia were dating? Never mind she's 15. (or at least "going to the mall" together)

What is he? 35?

r39 I mean it is Russia

What?? Hot Sergie is dating that twat Kostornaia??? But she is 15 going on 12!!!!

Ughh Sergie say it ain't so! Be gay please *cries*

No, he's not dating his students. Let's not spread false rumors. But here's his Instagram.

I'm out of the loop on skating, Mariah Bell's got a bit of Tonya Harding in her? Bradie plays mind games with competitors? There's hope for the sport yet.

Besides Nathan, there's ice dance. Madison v Madison. And if P/C don't do World's, the results aren't entirely predictable.

And, yeah, the Eteri Bots are a bore. Alysa Lui is still only 5 feet. She's more interesting to watch than she was, but the jumps are gone. I have a soft spot for Bradie--she's the stork of skating, she ain't graceful, but she can fly.

R42 Fuckable.

Will Uncle Jason and Uncle Yuzuru be there for Beijing? They'll both be 27 in December. Time for the old folks' home, at least for top level skaters. The nobodies like Valtter Virtanen (33) of Finland go on and on and on... But I think you need to be in a small fed - or content to be 17th - to do that. Four or five quads in a free skate ain't for the elders.

It's even worse for the girls.

And those 15 year olds are out of the sport by the time they are 17.

Quads are hard on the body. Anyone skating in their 30s isn't doing them. I kind of think everyone's skating right now because there's nothing else to do. Nathan and Karen Chen can train full-time without trading off college. They're just not missing much with classes on Zoom.

I think that Czech guy, Brezina, was still doing a quad sal in his early 30s? Did he finally quit? He was Nathan Chen's teammate at Raf's place - home of slasher Bell, who just crashed out of Nationals - didn't even get the pewter medal (4th place). Ha ha ha. Raf had no time for her and Adam Rippon was coaching and choreographing for her - though I don't know if he still does. Hate that big eared freckle-faced oaf.

Not fond of horseface giraffe Bradie either. American women skaters suck. Though I wish Karen Chen could get it together -- still, with the Russians and the Japanese in command, what's the point.

Carreira/Ponomarenko leave Shpilband

Czisny apparently tested positive and infected a few people. She doesn't believe in Covid. What a dumb bitch!

Jason Brown looks 10 years older, and Evan Bates looks 10 times queenier.

Has Evan come out yet?

Ummm, Evan is shacked up with his girlfriend/partner.

That's what they say, but that boy is GAY.

Jason Brown seems close to coming out. He made an instagram story/post about the subtext of his most recent program and it was like he was cracking open the door....

How smart do you think most figure skaters are? I hear that the ones who actually go to school are often overachievers, but I've also heard that some expend so much time and energy on skating they have very little education. Someone (a gymnast) in another thread said that swimmers are all idiots, if you have the experience to compare and contrast.

New pic of Paul Poirier: 🔥

Women can wear trousers in the Free Dance next season. They finally changed the rules.

Can men wear skirts?

It's only fair.

[quote] Can men wear skirts?

Men must wear full length trousers

Another new pic of Paul Poirier:

Jason Brown? Go home, Jason. Nobody likes you. You are an embarrassment to yourself and your country. Thank you.

French National Championships concluded today

The winners are Kevin Aymoz (284.50 score), Lea Serna (170.06), Cleo Hamon/ Denys Strekalin (172.55), Adelina Galyavieva/Louis Thauron (194.28).

First international competition of 2021 (only the 7th of the season) is taking place in Italy with the Egna Dance Trophy

Rhyrhm Dance result

1) Natalie TASCHLEROVA / Filip TASCHLER (CZECH REP) 72.11

2) Jennifer JANSE VAN RENSBURG / Benjamin STEFFAN (GERMANY )69.93

3) Carolina MOSCHENI / Francesco FIORETTI (ITALY) 63.05

4) Chiara CALDERONE / Francesco RIVA (ITALY) 58.37

Junior event is led by Loica DEMOUGEOT / Thèo LE MERCIER (FRANCE) with 68.61

R61 fuckable.

Yes, the Russian lady-bots are super boring. I watched Anna Shcherbakova program posted by R4 and it was dull. Her jumps, though, are very impressive and she's landing quads. The Russians are technically farther ahead of the rest of the world. Do any of the US women land quads? I lost interest in skating long ago as the new system became a point grab and made the programs predictable and boring.

The Russian women remind me of Evgeny Plushenko--great jumper but not a great skater. I like Hanyu because he's both. Chen is more of jumper, but he has worked on his artistry. The.artistry will just never be as natural for Chen as it is for Hanyu.

The new system totally ruined the sport. Sotnikova winning over Kim in Sochi was the final kiss of death. The Italian commentators were 100% right.

God, Italian is such a beautiful language.

Thanks for posting that, R66. I love those Italian commentators! The woman was asking why are they ruining our sport? I'd say it was already ruined. I trace the death of figure skating back to the 2002 Olympics where the cheating in the judging once again had a light shone on it with the pairs results controversy. The new point system and increased anonymity for the judges was the "answer" to the problem. Um, so ok, not more transparency? The sport has never been the same since.

Can we keep female figure skaters out of the discussion here, this is a gay men's forum after all, so nobody cares about the girls.

Well, this IS a figure skating thread, not just a male figure skating one. The American women have been irrelevant for many years, so there won't be much discussion about them, but there is just so much you can say about the male skaters' asses, other than ogling and wanting to eat them out.

R64, did you check out the other pic of Paul at R56?

EGNA DANCE TROPHY final results

Senior

1) Natalie TASCHLEROVA / Filip TASCHLER 178.48 (out of all potential FD choices, they went for a Tango for a sibling couple. But it doesn't look weird with their over the topness)

2) Jennifer JANSE VAN RENSBURG / Benjamin STEFFAN 168.43

3) Carolina MOSCHENI / Francesco FIORETTI 160.27

4) Chiara CALDERONE / Francesco RIVA 142.63

Junior

1) Loica DEMOUGEOT / Thèo LE MERCIER 165.40 (they don't have the trashy Carmen FD. Now they skate on Papa, Can You Hear Me?)

2) Marie DUPAYAGE / Thomas NABAIS 141.99

3) Denisa CIMLOVA / Vilem HLAVSA 136.07

4) Lou TERREAUX / Noè PERRON 129.31

5) Cèlina FRADJI / Jean-Hans FOURNEAUX 126.33

Carreira/Ponomarenko switched from Shpilband to Moir

Moir will buy them points, no worry.

I would like to have Scott Moir as my coach :)

When they announced they were leaving Igor, I thought C/P could have gone to Zueva. Zueva seems really "dead" right now in the ice dance world

What are C/P smoking? Scott Moir has zero experience as an elite coach.

[quote] Natalie TASCHLEROVA / Filip TASCHLER 178.48 (out of all potential FD choices, they went for a Tango for a sibling couple. But it doesn't look weird with their over the topness)"

their RD is also quite camp

ISU updated the process to obtain the minimum scores to qualify for 2021 World Championships because of lack of competitions this season.

They now allow for a video to be sent for evaluation. This will be used by Knierim/Frasier who didn't have an international score given they are a new team.

Any more word on Alissa Czisny, R50? How did you hear that she has covid? And who else did she infect?

Peter Oppegard is being investigated for biting a skater during practices, among other things

What's the latest on Moir and his fiancee? That's one awkward looking couple.

R81 Michelle Kwan’s brother in law! What a creep

Grant Hochstein and Caroline Zhang are expecting a baby

Does anyone remember Eliot Halverson?

[quote]“I identify as trans because the sex I was assigned at birth does not match my gender,” Halverson explained. “My gender is non-binary. For me, that is a fluid mix of being a man and woman. [Nonetheless,] I feel safe, happy and comfortable presenting as female. That is why my pronouns are she/her.”

Sounds a bit exhausting, if I may say so.

R85 it will be interesting to see how the figure skating world reacts to this. Certainly some jumps will be far easier for someone born male to accomplish, and some countries will embrace that.

R84 Congrats to Grant and his surrogate!

R86 What do you mean, how will the skating world react? She is essentially a 30 year old recreational skater - who would care if someone born male can jump a euler?

R88 she’s the first but she won’t be the last

Results from the Challenge Cup (Netherlands) today

1) Loena HENDRICKX BEL 69.77

2) Emmy MA TPE 65.25

3) Maé-Bérénice MEITÉ FRA 61.35

4) Lindsay VAN ZUNDERT NED 59.01

5) Emilea ZINGAS CYP 55.05

6) Nelli IOFFE ISR 54.81

7) Maia SØRENSEN DEN 54.28

8) Kristina ISAEV GER 54.28

9) Yasmine Kimiko YAMADA SUI 53.99

10) Anete LACE LAT 53.71

11) Jenni SAARINEN FIN 52.23

12) Regina SCHERMANN HUN 50.81

13) Andrea MONTESINOS CANTU MEX 49.29

14) Julia LANG HUN 48.17

15) Bernadett SZIGETI HUN 45.45

16) Viktotiia IUSHCHENKOVA ISR 42.84

17) Taylor MORRIS ISR 41.02

18) Victoria VELARDE PER 33.20

SHort Dance

1) Evgenia LOPAREVA / Geoffrey BRISSAUD FRA 65.68

2) Anna YANOVSKAYA / Adam LUKACS (HUN) 61.11

3) Chelsea VERHAEGH / Sherim VAN GEFFEN (NED) 53.32

Oppregard was busted with gay pornography in his luggage at customs en route to the Albertville Winter Games in1992. He married an Asian woman... isn’t that supposed to mean something?

Hendrickx won Challenge Cup with 204.68. Runner up was Emmy Ma (177.29). Wasn't she used to skate for US? Some girl representing Cyprus scored 171.30. French Meité was only 4th with 166.01 points.

Evgenia LOPAREVA / Geoffrey BRISSAUD won Ice Dance even with 165.51

Men and Pairs have SPs tomorrow. Sofia Trophy will also begin tomorrow (only Single competitions). These are the last international events before World Championships.

Canada team for Worlds

Keegan Messing

Madeline Schizas

Emily Bausback

Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro

Evelyn Walsh / Trennt Michaud

Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier

Laurence Fournier Beaudry / Nikolaj Sorensen

Marjorie Lajoie / Zachary Lagha

they cancel it or not?

Apparently this is old news, but it's news to me....Kurt Browning has separated (or is divorced- it's not clear) from his long time wife, Sonia Hernandez. This is according to a strange thread on FSU - one that has some actual gossip on it. Kurt is accused of being rather a hound dog in years past, most specifically that he had an affair with Katia Gordeeva after her husband Sergei died. (Apparently Kurt's wife had to fly down to where they were on tour with Stars on Ice to give him an ultimatum.) Now Kurt is hawking reverse mortgages on tv and is living with....Alissa Czisny. I remember that he had done some informal coaching for her while she was competing, which makes their relationship a little odd . They are living together up in Canada at the moment....

There are straight male horndog figure skaters?

Ha, R96! There are a few...

R97 Agreeeeed. Have I beeen forgoteeen soooo sooooon?

R95 wasn't Alissa rumored to be hooking up with Jason while he was coaching her (and still married to Yuka)?

David Pelletier is another example of a straight male figure skater who is a pussy hound.

He cheated on his first wife with Jamie Sale. That lead to a divorce. Then he got remarried to Jamie Sale and is rumored to have cheated on her, too (although she is also rumored to have cheated with hockey player Craig Simpson). Then Sale & Pelletier got divorced. Sale is now married to Craig Simpson and Pelletier is rumored to still be messing around with lots of women.

Men SP at Challenge Cup was a mess,

Kolyada leads with 84.99 (popped axel). Frangipani is right behind with 81.04. Ponsar third with 81.03 and a fall and Saio 4th with 2 falls (79.49). Then the Turkish guys, Kvitalashvili, a never heard before Spanish guy in the 69-71 range.

Pair male skaters are pussy hounds

R100, isn't Pelletier married to Katia Gordeeva now?

R91, the word at the rink where Oppegard coached in the 90s was that he's bisexual. This was back before he married Karen Kwan. Kwan and Oppegard filed for divorce a few years ago but are still technically married.

Yes, R95, I remember hearing those rumors about Alissa, but nothing was ever "confirmed." But I remember those adoring looks she was giving him around that time when they were in the "Kiss and Cry" area, and thirstily accepting his hugs of congratulations after her skate....

I would like to do Nathan Chen.

I like it better when they fall.

For the aficionados here, is there a budding Anna Pagorilaya in the mix we should keep our eyes on?

[quote]Now Kurt is hawking reverse mortgages on tv

I'm surprised Kurt has to do t.v. commercials -- I thought he was a millionaire. Is he losing a lot of money in his divorce?

Does Browning have a day job? Coaching?

Jessica Calalang / Brian Johnson withdrew from Worlds for "personal reasons".. Cain/LeDuc will replace them.

42 entries for Ladies at World Championships. It will take forever. 7 groups

34 men

26 pairs

33 dance teams

Men entries

1 Slavik HAYRAPETYAN ARM

2 Maurizio ZANDRON AUT

3 Vladimir LITVINTSEV AZE

4 Konstantin MILYUKOV BLR

5 Larry LOUPOLOVER BUL

6 Keegan MESSING CAN

7 Boyang JIN CHN

8 Han YAN CHN

9 Michal BREZINA CZE

10 Aleksandr SELEVKO EST

11 Valtter VIRTANEN FIN

12 Kevin AYMOZ FRA

13 Morisi KVITELASHVILI GEO

14 Paul FENTZ GER

15 Peter James HALLAM GBR

16 Alexei BYCHENKO ISR

17 Daniel GRASSL ITA

18 Matteo RIZZO ITA

19 Yuzuru HANYU JPN

20 Yuma KAGIYAMA JPN

21 Shoma UNO JPN

22 Mikhail SHAIDOROV KAZ

23 Deniss VASILJEVS LAT

24 Donovan CARRILLO MEX

25 Junhwan CHA KOR

26 Mikhail KOLYADA FSR

27 Evgeni SEMENENKO FSR

28 Nikolaj MAJOROV SWE

29 Lukas BRITSCHGI SUI

30 Basar OKTAR TUR

31 Ivan SHMURATKO UKR

32 Jason BROWN USA

33 Nathan CHEN USA

34 Vincent ZHOU USA

Bychenko. Brezina. It feels like a decade ago. FSR is Russia.

Ladies

1 Anastasiya GALUSTYAN ARM

2 Kailani CRAINE AUS

3 Olga MIKUTINA AUT

4 Ekaterina RYABOVA AZE

5 Viktoriia SAFONOVA BLR

6 Loena HENDRICKX BEL

7 Alexandra FEIGIN BUL

8 Emily BAUSBACK CAN

9 Madeline SCHIZAS CAN

10 Hongyi CHEN CHN

11 Emmy MA TPE

12 Emilea ZINGAS CYP

13 Eliska BREZINOVA CZE

14 Eva-Lotta KIIBUS EST

15 Jenni SAARINEN FIN

16 Mae Berenice MEITE FRA

17 Alina URUSHADZE GEO

18 Nicole SCHOTT GER

19 Natasha MCKAY GBR

20 Yi Christy LEUNG HKG

21 Julia LANG HUN

22 Nelli IOFFE ISR

23 Lara Naki GUTMANN ITA

24 Rika KIHIRA JPN

25 Satoko MIYAHARA JPN

26 Kaori SAKAMOTO JPN

27 Angelina KUCHVALSKA LAT

28 Elzbieta KROPA LTU

29 Lindsay VAN ZUNDERT NED

30 Alisson Krystle PERTICHETO PHI

31 Ekaterina KURAKOVA POL

32 Yelim KIM KOR

33 Haein LEE KOR

34 Anna SHCHERBAKOVA FSR

35 Alexandra TRUSOVA FSR

36 Elizaveta TUKTAMYSHEVA FSR

37 Dasa GRM SLO

38 Josefin TALJEGARD SWE

39 Alexia PAGANINI SUI

40 Anastasiia ARKHIPOVA UKR

41 Karen CHEN USA

42 Bradie TENNELL USA

Will US ladies beat at least one Japanese and Korean girl? Or will they barely make top 10?

Pairs

1 Miriam ZIEGLER / Severin KIEFER AUT

2 Bogdana LUKASHEVICH / Alexander STEPANOV BLR

3 Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Michael MARINARO CAN

4 Evelyn WALSH / Trennt MICHAUD CAN

5 Cheng PENG / Yang JIN CHN

6 Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN CHN

7 Yuchen WANG / Yihang HUANG CHN

8 Lana PETRANOVIC / Antonio SOUZA KORDEIRU CRO

9 Elizaveta ZHUK / Martin BIDAR CZE

10 Cleo HAMON / Denys STREKALIN FRA

11 Coline KERIVEN / Noel-Antoine PIERRE FRA

12 Anastasiia METELKINA / Daniil PARKMAN GEO

13 Annika HOCKE / Robert KUNKEL GER

14 Zoe JONES / Christopher BOYADJI GBR

15 Ioulia CHTCHETININA / Mark MAGYAR HUN

16 Anna VERNIKOV / Evgeni KRASNOPOLSKI ISR

17 Nicole DELLA MONICA / Matteo GUARISE ITA

18 Rebecca GHILARDI / Filippo AMBROSINI ITA

19 Riku MIURA / Ryuichi KIHARA JPN

20 Daria DANILOVA / Michel TSIBA NED

21 Aleksandra BOIKOVA / Dmitrii KOZLOVSKII FSR

22 Anastasia MISHINA / Aleksandr GALLIAMOV FSR

23 Evgenia TARASOVA / Vladimir MOROZOV FSR

24 Sofiia HOLICHENKO / Artem DARENSKYI UKR

25 Ashley CAIN-GRIBBLE / Timothy LEDUC USA

26 Alexa KNIERIM / Brandon FRAZIER USA

Knierim/Frazier seem to have potential for good standings. Tarasova/Morozov have better than usual programs this season. Sui/Han have been untested outside China this season. Peng still can't jump.

No Papadakis/Cizeron in Dance. Will Sinitsina/Katsalapov (recovered from Covid) win? Or the US can take the title? Chock/Bates's FD is starting to bore me now after the big splash last season. Hubbell/Donohue's programs are better than last season's. But I still don't like them so much.

1 Tina GARABEDIAN / Simon PROULX SENECAL ARM

2 Holly HARRIS / Jason CHAN AUS

3 Ekaterina KUZNETSOVA / Oleksandr KOLOSOVSKYI AZE

4 Viktoria SEMENJUK / Ilya YUKHIMUK BLR

5 Mina ZDRAVKOVA / Christopher M. DAVIS BUL

6 Laurence FOURNIER BEAUDRY / Nikolaj SORENSEN CAN

7 Piper GILLES / Paul POIRIER CAN

8 Marjorie LAJOIE / Zachary LAGHA CAN

9 Shiyue WANG / Xinyu LIU CHN

10 Natalie TASCHLEROVA / Filip TASCHLER CZE

11 Juulia TURKKILA / Matthias VERSLUIS FIN

12 Adelina GALYAVIEVA / Louis THAURON FRA

13 Evgeniia LOPAREVA / Geoffrey BRISSAUD FRA

14 Katharina MUELLER / Tim DIECK GER

15 Lilah FEAR / Lewis GIBSON GBR

16 Anna YANOVSKAYA / Adam LUKACS HUN

17 Shira ICHILOV / Laurent ABECASSIS ISR

18 Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI ITA

19 Carolina MOSCHENI / Francesco FIORETTI ITA

20 Misato KOMATSUBARA / Tim KOLETO JPN

21 Allison REED / Saulius AMBRULEVICIUS LTU

22 Chelsea VERHAEGH / Sherim VAN GEFFEN NED

23 Natalia KALISZEK / Maksym SPODYRIEV POL

24 Yura MIN / Daniel EATON KOR

25 Victoria SINITSINA / Nikita KATSALAPOV FSR

26 Alexandra STEPANOVA / Ivan BUKIN FSR

27 Tiffani ZAGORSKI / Jonathan GUERREIRO FSR

28 Olivia SMART / Adrian DIAZ ESP

29 Yuliia ZHATA / Berk AKALIN TUR

30 Alexandra NAZAROVA / Maxim NIKITIN UKR

31 Madison CHOCK / Evan BATES USA

32 Kaitlin HAWAYEK / Jean-Luc BAKER USA

33 Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE USA

Amber Glenn is figure skating's openly pansexual hero!

Any word on why Papadakis/Cizeron aren't competing? Or Calalang/Johnson (other than the vague "personal reasons")?

R117 Papadakis/Cizeron said "We have never known such a long time without competition," "The series of cancellations provoked a climate of uncertainty and doubt that is difficult for all top-level athletes to manage", "The holding of the World Championships still being hypothetical, we need a more solid and concrete objective – the 2022 Olympic Games are our priority,"

which sounds to me as a "we have not trained well, we are out of shape and we would lose. So we skip it"

C/J's withdrawal is intriguing. USFSA specified the reasons are not Covid-related. If it was injury, I guess they would have mentioned it.

R118 Lol...hey trained a lot, they made even new programs, shor tto the Artist and new tango free , only they had no competitions, unlike others and they are scared to lose. First competition at worlds is a risk.

CBC Broadcast Schedule for Worlds:

Coverage on Saturday March 27 & Sunday March 28 with Gala coverage to follow on Saturday April 3.

Based on a video evaluation, Spain switched their Dance choice: Hurtado/Khaliavin will go to World Champs instead of Smart/Diaz

John Zimmerman suspended by SafeSport

"John Zimmerman IV is prohibited for two (2) years from participating, in any capacity, in any event, program, activity, or competition authorized by, organized by, or under the auspices of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), the National Governing Bodies recognized by the USOPC, a Local Affiliated Organization as defined by the Code, any High Performance Management Organization (HPMO), or at a facility under the jurisdiction of the same"

Reasons: Abuse of Process, Emotional Misconduct, Failure to Report

Silvia Fontana received a six months probation.

I guess it is linked to Morgan Cipres' thing

(R116) Amber Glenn is luckier than most of us. She got to have some of that Nathan Chen action.

Russian pairs skater Alexander Galliamov is a cutie and seems very sweet.

R122, here's the USA Today article by Christine Brennan on the 2-year suspension for John Zimmerman:

Zimmerman sure was good-looking in his prime.

'Tis a shame

[quote] Russian pairs skater Alexander Galliamov is a cutie and seems very sweet.

Galliamov looks half-Asian. He's probably got some mixed-ethnic Tatar-Slav roots.

[quote] The Florida state attorney’s office has filed a felony charge against French Olympic figure skater Morgan Ciprès for the transmission of material harmful to a minor by electronic device, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest, according to an attorney involved in the case and emails obtained by USA TODAY Sports. The charge is a 3rd degree felony and carries up to a 5-year prison sentence. Cipres, now 29, trained for several years in Florida, where, on Dec. 3, 2017, he allegedly direct messaged two photos of his penis on Instagram to a 13-year-old American female figure skater who trained at the same rink as Cipres in Wesley Chapel, Florida.

[quote] allegedly direct messaged two photos of his penis on Instagram

What a waste of cock pics. He should have uploaded them to DL instead. Would've spared him the potential 5-year stint in jail.

I knew that figure skating would become even more corrupt than ever now that Russians are dominating all the disciplines. They destroy everything they touch.

[quote] figure skating ... now that Russians are dominating ALL the disciplines.

R129, incorrect. They're only "dominating" ONE discipline (women's skate). They're definitely not "dominating" the men's category, or the ice dance category, or even the pairs category.

Browning is divorced, but doesn't want to make it publicly known. I think he's hawking reverse mortgages to support his sugar baby Czisny, who was still shitting in her diapers when he landed the first quad. Sonia is with a retired dancer/photographer who's her age.

Alissa Czisny is single for a reason: she's always chasing gay men and fawns over men old enough to be her dad. Jason D, Brian B, Scott H, and Kurt B. She may be beautiful on the outside but she is fucking toxic.

New article on Gilles & Poirier:

Worlds schedule (CET times)

Wednesday 24th:

10:00 - 16:00 / Ladies Short Program

18:30 - 22:50 / Pairs Short Program

Thursday 25th:

11:30 - 16:20 / Men Short Program

18:10 - 22:00 / Pairs Free Skating

Friday 26th:

10:45 - 16:00 / Ice Dance Rhythm Dance

18:00 - 22:00 / Ladies Free Skating

Saturday 27th:

11:00 - 15:00 / Men Free Skating

17:00 - 20:20 / Ice Dance Free Dance

Ukrainian pair tested positive to Covid before departing for Sweden

All skaters must arrive by today. Get tested again and stay in quarantine in their hotel room for 24 hours while they await result of the test.

Guy from Armenia tested positive before leaving for Stockholm

A skater tested positive in Stockholm. No name revealed. Possibly Safanova from Belarus as she disappeared from entry list this afternoon.

I liked the Skating Lesson's preview for Worlds. Did not care for Duhamel's skating but I like her insights. And I miss Dave's gossip page.

Is Poirer a gay?

Is the sky blue?

Sorry, R 137, she might have some good observations, but the upspeak makes her unlistenable.

R138 & R139, does Poirier have a boyfriend? He is so hot:

Draw for tomorrow's Pair Short Program

Warm-Up Group 1

Elizaveta ZHUK / Martin BIDAR

Bogdana LUKASHEVICH / Alexander STEPANOV

Alexa KNIERIM / Brandon FRAZIER

Anastasiia METELKINA / Daniil PARKMAN

Warm-Up Group 2

Lana PETRANOVIC / Antonio SOUZA KORDEIRU

Annika HOCKE / Robert KUNKEL

Anna VERNIKOV / Evgeni KRASNOPOLSKI

Riku MIURA / Ryuichi KIHARA

Warm-Up Group 3

Daria DANILOVA / Michel TSIBA

Coline KERIVEN / Noel-Antoine PIERRE

Ioulia CHTCHETININA / Mark MAGYAR

Cleo HAMON / Denys STREKALIN

Warm-Up Group 4

Rebecca GHILARDI / Filippo AMBROSINI

Evelyn WALSH / Trennt MICHAUD

Zoe JONES / Christopher BOYADJI

Ashley CAIN-GRIBBLE / Timothy LEDUC

Warm-Up Group 5

Anastasia MISHINA / Aleksandr GALLIAMOV

Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN

Miriam ZIEGLER / Severin KIEFER

Nicole DELLA MONICA / Matteo GUARISE

Warm-Up Group 6

Evgenia TARASOVA / Vladimir MOROZOV

Aleksandra BOIKOVA / Dmitrii KOZLOVSKII

Cheng PENG / Yang JIN

Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Michael MARINARO

Ladies SP is tomorrow morning Swedish time. It is going to run for 6 hours.

American women skaters are an embarrassment to the country.

r141 I don't see much there, that's disappointing

The Russians are strong but not unbeatable

R145, this is Paul's best asset:

Trusova (12th) and Miyahara (16th) bombed the SP

1) Shcherbakova 81

2) Kihira 79.08

3) Tuktamysheva 78.86

4) Karen Chen 74.40

5) Kim 73.63

6) Sakamoto 70.48

7) Tennell 69.87

8) Lee 68.94

9) Schizas 67.28

10) Hendrickx 67.28

11) Mikutina

12) Trusova

13) Ryabova

14) Saarinen

15) Taljegard

16) Miyahara

17) Feigin

18) Urushdaze

19) Kiibus

20) Schott

21) Brezinova

22) Chen

23) McKay

24) Van Zundert

rest of the field eliminated

Solid (new) SP for Boikova§/Kozlovskii who leads Pair event after SP (over 80 points)

Sui had some problems with the 3T and so Sui/Han are second (77.62)

Mishina/Galliamov are third (75.79)

Then some issues for all other top teams. Tarasova missed the side by side triple. Peng had a freak fall at the beginning and then hands down on the SBS jump. But they are still not out of the picture. Both with 71 points

Marinaro/Moore Towers were off. Lots of lost levels. Only 10th.

US teams weren't clean but their main rivals weren't either. So they are 6th and 7th which is good for them.

Surprise is the Japanese pair in 8th place.

Vincent Zhou in danger of not qualifying after falling twice and having multiple under rotations called. He also just looked...checked out.

Also the danger of American men not getting three spots after that performance.

I can't see Zhou making it now. Vasljevs boming was possibly his last hope and he didn't

Kvitivisheli could still theoretically fall three times to get Zhou in.

But yeah, they couldn't even throw him a bone and put him above the Estonian and get him 24th. Zhou definitely being sent a message.

Zhou missed qualifying by 2/10th of a point

Jason Brown is in 7th and Nathan Chen sits 3rd. As long as Chen is top 3 and Brown is top 10, the US will get 3 spots.

I tried watching the short program of Shcherbakova but got bored halfway through. The women just don't bring the magic like they used to.

Kihara was my favorite of the ladies' shorts, but she got the Japanese discount for underrotation.

Eteri figured out the winning formula R155 and my god it is brutal to watch. I hope Elizaveta Tuktamysheva gets a result at her advanced age but there is something so charmless about this era. And as R156 alluded to, I don't understand why Japan doesn't throw their weight around more for their ladies skaters.

So sad Sui and Han didn't win pairs. They are my favorite skaters in any discipline.

That Dmitrii Kozlovski kid in the young Russian couple is really cute, too.

sui and han didnt compete at all actually, MG many times. Anyway, one less Ur of Sui and they would have got gold.

In the K&C a pissed Boikova told the coaches "congratulations, now you have the world champion" after seeing the scores

Scherbakova is the most boring of the russian eteri bots Ive seen, sad to say. I just want Tukt to win it even if she is almost as graceless as surya bonaly, she has fire in her. I can get by with Kihira as well. Next year scher will be discarded and replaced by Kamila Valieva and some Sofia because that is how it works.

Nathan Chen is so unartistic and bland. His SP was supposed to be Spanish-inspired. And yet he came out in a BASIC white long-sleeve shirt & black pants, like he's going to Sunday brunch in Soho. YAWN. He puts zero effort into crafting any artistic image.

I hope Hanyu beats Chen's ass. At least Hanyu tries to experiment with artistic expression.

I laughed my ass off at Vincent bombing. I can't stand the little right-wing prick. This should inspire him to write reams of angsty poetry.

And I agree with R162 all the way wrt Chen. The PCS he gets are a fucking joke! It was super satisfying to see him knocked down a peg.

R163 Just say that you are happy that he fucked up, because it is the only way hanyu can win. Fanyus are such losers now . I don't give a fuck who will win, but fanyus should have so dignity.

Sinitsina/Katsalapov in first in the Ice Dance after the short. Looks like Russia may be doing more backdoor deals to get its ice dancers in first.

Mishina/Galliamov from Russia won pairs.

I bet Russia is setting itself up for three golds in 2022--ladies, pairs and ice dance.

I'm used to the backdoor deals but Sinitsina/Katsalapov bored me. At least give them better material.

I'm not a fanyu (I actually find Hanyu overrated), but I agree that Chen was massively overmarked in the SP. He skated quite badly and would've been buried if he weren't Nathan Chen. The night belonged to the top 2 Japanese man.

When Hanyu is on, he is the complete package of artistry and technical prowess. Chen is a jumper who has worked on his presentation. If both are on, Hanyu is the better of the two because he's more of a complete skater. I say this and I'm not a huge fan of either skater. I just appreciate what each brings to the ice.

R166, Russian ice dancers are usually pretty boring, even if they are technically masterful. I remember Grishuk/Platov boring the hell out of audiences in the 1990s. The won two Olympic golds and several World golds as well as just about every competition they entered, but they never, ever won over the crowd. Their programs always left you feeling flat and bored.

The ladies' final was one of the worst competitions I've seen in years. I hope the men are better tomorrow.

R167 I agree, Chen is overscored but Yuzuru is overrated. But still nobody says anything when yuzu's salchow gets massive goe for ugly landing.

R168 But hanyu's artistry is... cheap. I said it many times, his artistry comes from posing. He just looks nice, he has nice lines. And he is light on his feet. Nathan isn't.

The Ladies competition was awful.

"Trusova vaulted from 12th to her third with her impeccable program, in which she fell horribly twice, and screwed the pooch on two more landings."

Hendrickx skated well, but the taste level there is questionable. Chen skated fine, but she's boring.

Jumps need to be a -10. Cleanliness has to matter, and we can't have a system where skaters get more points for falling on overrotated jumps than doing doubles or "underrotating" by a 1/4 turn. Judges need to stop being anonymous, and put their names and countries in full view, so it's clearer who is doing what for cash.

The judging in the Rhythm Dance was alsmost shameless

Nathan Chen was sublime.

Kolyada and Semenenko (both slightly but not dramatically overmarked on components) added up to get Russia 3 slots at the Olympics in mens, meaning 12 slots across the disciplines.

The checks cashed.

lol hanyu overscored as fuck to give him 3th place

92(9.5 for performance ) for THAT performance is stupid, but of course hanyu deserved all mushrooms, only russians are overscored.

Kagyama takes Silver

Fuck...we're never going to stop having Nathan shoved down our throats now. I hope he gets his Oly medal and fucks off after that. He is so damn boring!

R178 Chen is boring but hanyu is infantile.

Hanyu wasn't good today. I wouldn't argue anyone who thought Uno should have been ahead of him, but I am also impressed the judges didn't inflate his PCS more and keep him second.

I have a soft spot for Keegan Messing. He's always fun to watch. His skating style looks so fluid & effortless.

Hanyu loses World Championship, but wins Best Costume Trophy.

I'm one of the people who said Chen was massively overscored in the SP, but today he definitely earned that win and then some. What an incredible performance.

R180, Hanyu was 4th in the long, behind Shoma. IMO he was scored exactly where deserved, 4th in long but 3rd overall on the strength of his excellent short.

R172 They dont even pretend...Russians were not THAT amazing. Most things they did were overscored just because they executed it.

Is there a live count on many countries Alison Reed skated for?

Chen's skate.

Hanyu's short program.

Which gay song will Fear/Gibson choose for the Olympic season's FD?

I see Spain is set to miss the second spot (by one position) again. So we will have some over the topness between Hurtado/Khaliavin and Smart/Diaz also for next season

Hanyus free is a snoozefest. Plain terrible. No transistions before 4 L , 4S, 4t3s, 4T3S . Step sequence- weak. Choreo seq- his old stuff which he did 745 times

The Brits vogued, r188. Just ahead of the Canadian Danish.

And now for russians everything +5goe for stepping on the ice

R187, thanks for posting Chen's free skate. That was a technical marvel. He really makes quads look effortless and easy. That same YouTube channel has Hanyu's free skate, too, which was riddled with errors. I haven't seen these guys skate back-to-back for at least a couple years. I was struck by how much faster Chen skates than Hanyu. Chen just flies across the ice. Chen has also worked on his presentation, and his triple axel looks 1000 times better than when he used to struggle with it earlier in his career.

bad twizzles and shaky lifts, he struggles with her position..massive goe anyway

Neither American pair had their best skate today, but wow for the +4s and +5s for that lackluster performance by the Soviets. Jayne Torvill could have possessed Maddy Hubbell today and they still wouldn't have won.

I enjoyed Chock/Bates and the Madonna FD...the rest was boring.

I am not complaining about Gilles/Poirier's score. They deserve it. Like they deserved higher scores in the past. But they didn't get them becase Skate Canada's internal ranking is strictly respected. Once they become the number 1 team, the scores automatically go up.

The Russians are making sure they get 3 Olympic gold medals (probably 4 if they're still doing that stupid team competition). They've got 12 slots across the disciplines. As R174 notes, the checks have been cashed. The Russians will try to get Kolyada on the podium as well, but it's a tougher sell and they know they can't put him in the gold position.

If Semenenko had skated for Estonia in the first warm up group, he would have got 73 PCS

PC without gold medal at olys will be a travesty. And such shit couple like russians with gold?

r200, Papadakis and Cizeron have already been robbed of one gold medal by thirsty national federation clout. It wouldn't be a shock if Russia buys another gold. As undeserving as Sinitsina/Katsalapolov are, they pale next to the bullshit that is Adelina Sotnikova, Olympic Champion.

R201 You mean last europeans? The same slut who sit at judges table in 2014 robbing yuna kim out of gold, was a judge year ago in dance competition. Ukrainian judge with glasses on, her husband is russian big fish

Alla SHEKHOVTSOVA

Actually she is associated with ice dance then ladies. She is Russian figure skating judge and ISU Technical Specialist and a former ISU Ice Dance Technical Committee member;a former ice dancer, the wife of Valentin Piseev who used to be the general director of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia. PC are done, she will arrange gold medal for russians.

I agree, R204. You could already see the setup in 2019 when the Russians finished second to Papadakis/Cizeron. They leaped over other teams like Hubbell/Donohue and Chock/Bates. I saw the game Russia was playing already. I'd be shocked if P/C won next year, but pleasantly so.

This phenomenon to me is what eventually ruined figure skating, and all the crazy "reforms" to the scoring system that didn't create more transparency but less, and now the cheating judges can hide and no one knows who they are.

S/K will win Olympics unless they make a clear big mistake judges can't ignore. Like in 2018 when they wanted to give it to P/C but Papadakis' dress debacle in the RD lost them a fatal level. Otherwise they had the numbers to win in 2018.

R197, it's great that Gilles & Poirier finally won a World medal.

I hope Poirier's ass is getting a celebratory workout:

The allocation of first bunch of Olympic spots have been released

MEN

Japan 3

USA 2

Russia 2

Italy 2

Canada 1

Korea 1

France 1

China 1

Georgia 1

Switzerland 1

Estonia 1

Belarus 1

Latvia 1

Czechia 1

Mexico 1

Ukraine 1

Sweden 1

Israel 1

Total: 24

Nebelhorn Trophy 2018 will assign the final 7 spots

USA, Russia, Canada, Korea, France can enter a skater at Nebelhorn Trophy Countries with 0 spots can enter a skater at Nebelhorn. All other countries can't enter a further skater

Ladies

Russia 3

Japan 3

USA 2

Korea 2

Belgium 1

Austria 1

Azerbajan 1

Canada 1

Estonia 1

Sweden 1

Netherlands 1

Bulgaria 1

Germany 1

Georgia 1

China 1

Czechia 1

Great Britain 1

Finland

Total: 24

Nebelhorn Trophy will assign the final 6 spots USA, Austria and Belgium can enter a akster at Nebelhorn. Countries with 0 spots can enter a skater at Nebelhorn. All other countries can't enter a further skater

PAIR

Russia 3

China 2

Canada 2

Italy 2

USA 2

Japan 1

Austria 1

Germany 1

Hungary 1

Czechia 1

Total: 16

3 spots will be allocated at Nebelhorn. China and Japan can enter a pair there. Countries with 0 spots can enter a pair at Nebelhorn. All other countries can't enter a further pair

DANCE

Russia 3

USA 3

Canada 3

Italy 1

Great Britain 1

Spain 1

China 1

Poland 1

Lithuania 1

France 1

Germany 1

Japan 1

Ukraine 1

Total: 19

4 spots will be allocated at Nebelhorn Trophy. Italy and Great Britain can enter a dance team there.

I'm sad about Yan Han. He did so much better than Boyang Jin yet he's the one who won't be able to go the Beijing Olympics.

His fed wanted him to be an ice dancer but he said no. Still, they desperately need a team. Wonder why he won't pull a Daisuke Takahashi and give it a go? He's a beautiful skater. On the small size, but then, not as small as Dai.

Oops... forgot China has Wang/Liu. And it's too late now for taking up ID for the '22 Olys anyway.

[quote]Papadakis' dress debacle in the RD lost them a fatal level.

Poor thing!!!

Ha!

I haven't followed Skating in awhile, and I don't even know who finished in the medals

But looking at the Olympic qualifying spots, China, Canada & USA did really poorly in singles skating.

USA Singles skating (especially the women) has been declining - and it would have been unheard of for the ladies to only get two Olympic berths

Looks like Gracie Gold will be retiring soon. No way she gets a spot

womens singles has been overtaken by Japan and Russia - leaving the USA in the dust

Been that way for the past 20 years!

All the tiny, athletic American girls whose parents have disposable income are in gymnastics.

R208 Why didn’t the US get 3 spots? I thought as long as two skaters had a combined placement that added up to 13 or less, they get 3 spots?

Only two American women were qualified for the free skate, r214 (which is also why the US men didn't qualify three automatically based off Chen and Brown). They are given the chance to get the third slot at Nebelhorn.

R215 - I don't know if it's a new rule or not, but even if your two skaters add up to 13 or less, you have to "prove" you have a third skater good enough for the Olympics. Like in the case of the US, they didn't have a third skater there (only K Chen & Tennell), so no technical proof of a viable third skater.

But Japan - their top two of three skaters (Sakamoto & Kihira) were less than 13, AND they had a third skater there (Miyahara) so voila, they get the three spots based on the performance of the top two because the proof was there.

There's one chance to get that third spot, like in the US case, and that's by sending a different skater to Nebelhorn in September, and that skater has to score high enough to "prove" they're good enough for the Olympics. (the US has to send a different man to Nebelhorn to get a third spot -- Russia has to do the same for its men but not women because there were three Russian women who made it into the free skate at Worlds... etc.....)

* oh that extra third skater who proves he or she is good enough for the Olys - they have to make it to the free skate, which Vincent Zhou did not - so that's why the US doesn't automatically get to send three men despite Nathan and Jason's placements being less than 14

Yes, there is this new rule explained by R217

It was introduced to prevent situations like Spain or Kazakhstan sending weak skaters (sorry, Javier Raya) to Olympics on the back of spots earned by Fernandez and Ten.

Did Calalang/Johnson ever say why they opted out of Worlds?

Which lady should USA send to Nebelhorn Trophy to qualify the last Olympic spot? Bell, Liu or Glenn? Is there anyone else?

Glenn (who I think is very close to a 3A) or Liu (unless she's lost her jumps).

Hate Slasher Bell. And she looks like Alfred E. Neuman.

The Korean fans let me down by not going after her with all their might - which is pretty amazing when activated.

Eh skating is on its way to becoming rhythmic gymnastics. A sport only russians care about.

And Japanese!

I am not sure Glenn is consistent enough. On normal day, she wouldn't have a problem to easily see off the competitions at the qualifying event. But when she is off, she sometimes bombs hard.

Which starters are openly gay besides Cizeron? Diversity is a mega trend currently. Wonder if it will play a role in the media coverage of the next winter’s Olympics....

Jason Brown makes it pretty clear what team he's on, although he has never come out "officially"...he really doesn't need to.

Thinking about Worlds, the openly gay ones....

Single: Aymoz from France? IIRC some months ago he posted a pic on social media suggesting he is with a guy

Pair: American Le Duc and Italian guy who finished #17

Dance: the British dancer who skated the Madonna Free Dance

R225, I think she's been learning how to be more consistent and confident. Nebelhorn is hers to get (at the very least, I have more faith she can get it done than Bell) and it'll be up to her to punch her own ticket for the Olympics.

R226, this particular flavor of diversity is not popular with most, if not all federations.

R227, it would help if some of the skaters in the glass closet officially came out the way that Cizeron, Rippon and Radford did.

As R228 said, there still aren't that many openly gay skaters. But as R229 says, officially coming out seems to be discouraged by skating federations. That probably explains why skaters like Brown, Poirier, etc. aren't officially out yet.

Usually people with some sort of fame don't come out until they have the safety of being in a relationship.

R226, American pairs skater Timothy LeDuc (skates with Ashley Cain-Gribble) is out. It's a coin toss whether they make it to the Olympics, though.

They are doing the World Team Trophy somewhere in Japan (Osaka?) next week

Line-up

Team Canada - CAN

Team Captain: Nam NGUYEN

Nam NGUYEN

Roman SADOVSKY

Gabrielle DALEMAN

Alison SCHUMACHER

Lori-Ann MATTE / Thierry FERLAND

Carolane SOUCISSE / Shane FIRUS

_____

Team France - FRA

Team Captain: Kevin AYMOZ

Kevin AYMOZ

Adam SIAO HIM FA

Maia MAZZARA

Lea SERNA

Cleo HAMON / Denys STREKALIN

Adelina GALYAVIEVA / Louis THAURON

___

Team Italy - ITA

Team Captain: Matteo GUARISE

Daniel GRASSL

Matteo RIZZO

Lara Naki GUTMANN

Ginevra Lavinia NEGRELLO

Nicole DELLA MONICA / Matteo GUARISE

Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI

___

Team Japan - JPN

Team Captain: Ryuichi KIHARA

Yuzuru HANYU

Shoma UNO

Rika KIHIRA

Kaori SAKAMOTO

Riku MIURA / Ryuichi KIHARA

Misato KOMATSUBARA / Tim KOLETO

___

Team Russia - RUS

Team Captain: Elizaveta TUKTAMYSHEVA

Mikhail KOLYADA

Evgeni SEMENENKO

Anna SHCHERBAKOVA

Elizaveta TUKTAMYSHEVA

Anastasia MISHINA / Aleksandr GALLIAMOV

Victoria SINITSINA / Nikita KATSALAPOV

__

Team United States of America - USA

Team Captain: Jason BROWN

Jason BROWN

Nathan CHEN

Karen CHEN

Bradie TENNELL

Alexa KNIERIM / Brandon FRAZIER

Kaitlin HAWAYEK / Jean-Luc BAKER

Team Trophy competition starts Thursday - there's a gala on Sunday.

Soon after there are two ice shows in Japan, both starring Yuzuru Hanyu. "Stars on Ice" 22-25 April in Yokohama -- and -- 28-30 in Hachinohe. Not sure if any foreign skaters will appear - I know Johnny Weir said he was sad he wouldn't be in Fantasy on Ice in Japan this year for the first time in ages (it's been cancelled)

* 28-30 April for Hachinohe. Shoma Uno and Yuma Kagiyama will be in Yokohama. Not sure about the rest of the cast.

Anyone know if Prism On Ice in Japan is a go?

These world team trophies or the Oly team even would be much more exciting if all of teams took the ice together. Last one standing wins.

I wish they would invite some of the small fed skaters to have their own team at WTT like Leona Hendrickx, Donovan Carrillo, the British ice dancers, etc.

R237, celebrity skater death match? All the pairs men would run the table.

I'd be more interested in R237 or R238's suggestions than the competition that's actually happening.

Rizzo has Covid19 and he is out from WTT. No replacement for Italy

I mean no replacement for Rizzo. Therefore Italy will have only one male skater in the event

109.65 for Chen. Hanyu with problems on the 3A second with 107.12 Jason Brown into third with 94.86, just ahead of Aymoz and Kolyada

Nam NGUYEN last with 66.89

Ladies have the 2 Russians in front. Then the Japanese girls with a solid Sakamoto and a disappointing Kihira. Tennell (67.40) and Karen Chen (62.48). Daleman is still quite behind in terms of competitive shape (57.22)

Dance was as usual. Sinitsina/Katsalapov, then Guignard/Fabbri and Haywayek/Baker. Only change compared to previous "historic" rankings: Soucisse/Firus have been dumped below Koleto and wife.

"Did anyone see Bradie almost hit Liza? Lol. Bulldozer Bradie back at it again"

From one of the forums. At least it wasn't Rika this time - or maybe she was targetting her as well but this poster missed it. Hope she crashes (herself) in the free.

The masks don't show the bitchface of Hawayek when she see their scores. Can Carreira/Ponomarenko pass H/B in the next quad?

R245, that might partly depend on how quickly they can resolve their citizenship issues. How about Green/Parsons? I remember them being a promising team a year or 2 ago, too.

R246 yes, I agree that if the US citizenship in time for 2026 is not on target, they wouldn't waste too much political weight behind them. Given they moved to train in Canada, would that put the task to get American citizenship more difficult? Which are the criteria?

Trouble is that we didn't see much from second tier US dancers this season. At Nationals, IIRC Green/Parson did well in the RD but had some mistakes in the FD. However, I agree that top 3 post 2022 should H/B, C/P and G/P in some order.

World Team Trophy finishes with

1) Russia

2) USA

3) Japan

4) Italy

5) France

6) Canada (with their B-C team)

Top 3 may be the top 3 in the Olympic team event too now that Japan found a more than decent pair.

Japan could have beaten Russia if Shoma Uno hadn't bombed - and maybe if Rika didn't hurt herself on day 1.

oops - could have beaten USA not Russia

Next season Rhythm Dance's pattern is on Midnight Blues.

The Rhythm should be on 2 of the following: Urban Dance Rhythms (such as hip hop, disco, swing, krump, popping, funk, etc.), jazz, reggae (reggaeton) and blues

Uhm, didn't they do this recently? I almost prefer to have the Ravensburger Waltz.

These choices smack of ISU trying to be modern and catchy without realizing that half of them will look cringeworthy.

R250 midnight blues? How boring, not very telegenic for the Olympics...

Apparently, Eric Radford may pair up with Vanessa James. Meagan Duhamel is pissed because he didn't ask her or consult with her. LOL!

R252, Meagan sounds pretty intense in that Instagram post. She writes at length about betrayal, wounds and scars.

R253 was their split amicable? If she doesn't want to un-retire, then why does she care that he un-retired to skate with another partner? Also, he's like a gazillion years old. What are his chances exactly? And Vanessa is not an Alena Savchenko.

Meagan Duhamel mentioned in her insta stories & in her recent post that there was some drama that happened when she tried coaching last season so she doesn't really feel able to do that right now.

And she won't be able to do shows without Eric. Wonder if she broke up with husband Bruno and now has to raise her new baby alone? Hope that's not the case but he's still coaching. Weird.

Another Canadian ice dancer about the Vanessa/Eric pairing: Kirsten Moore-Towers: "“i refuse to sit through a season of them competing I hate it here. also evelyn and trent deserve that oly spot” (says the woman (KMT) who dumped Dylan Moscovitch for Michael Marinaro)... and then Moscovitch dumped Luba Illyusheshkina after she quite Cirque du Soleil to skate with him....

It's a jungle out there on the ice.

* after she QUIT (not quite)

R250, in Lillehammer, the second of the compulsory dances (which they had back then) was set to the Blues, not sure if it was Midnight Blues though...the arrangements were some of my all-time favorite skating music, I especially liked Usova & Zhulin's. I even made a recording of it!

Megan was probably the cause of the coaching drama herself, whether she realizes it or not. She comes off as a self-righteous whiner who is the wronged victim in every situation. It's certainly not Eric's fault if she failed as a coach. They broke up 3 years ago, he's not indebted to her for life.

The Skating Lesson reposted/shared her post (R252 above) on their Facebook page.

One of the comments underneath asks '...Ok but... what was Eric expected to do if she could no longer compete?...'

to which Meagan herself replied 'I never said i wasn’t interested in coming back to competition. Nor was I asked.

[quote] and then Moscovitch dumped Luba Illyusheshkina after she quite Cirque du Soleil to skate with him....

wasn't Bilodeau to dumped Liubov in that way after barely a year?

I remember that Moscovitch retired in 2018. Liubov started to work to Cirque du Soleil. After the Olympics Bilodeau dumped Julienne Seguin. The following year Bilodeau/Liubov pairing emerged...and then he changed his mind and retired

Does Vanessa still have her Canadian citizenship?

R261, yes, I think Vanessa still has Canadian citizenship. And I think she's been released by France.

So it's confirmed that James/Radford are going to represent Canada this season, coached by Julie Marcotte...the sister of Duhamel's husband Bruno? Isn't that going to be awkward? LOL. Maybe that's why she was going on about personal and professional betrayal.

There are so many more women wanting to skate in pairs and ID that the relatively low number of men available makes them act like assholes. Not only sexual abuse like Coughlin but just willy-nilly dumping and switching -- not that women can't occasionally do some dumping themselves (KMT/Dylan)

Vanessa: "Our goal is to get to the Olympics" (also some footage of Vanessa and Eric practicing)

The new James & Radford partnership and ensuing drama just made a boring pairs field much more interesting next season.

Stars On Ice show set to start today in Yokohama (4 shows ending Sunday). Then for 3 days (April 28-30): Hachinohe. Saw a photo of people lined up to get tickets.

Yuzu, Shoma, Yuma, Keiji, Shun Sato, Kazuki Tomono – Rika, Kaori, Mai, Yuhana Yokoi, Yako Yamashita, Rino Matsuike – Team Koko – a few more singles. Not any foreign skaters listed.

Oh and Wakaba Higuchi - maybe with the 3A?

Is Satoko yesterday's news?

[quote]The new James & Radford partnership and ensuing drama just made a boring pairs field much more interesting next season.

Agreed. This certainly spices up the pairs field, particularly in Canada. And there's lots of drama involved:

- Meghan is upset

- Kirsten is mad

- M-T & M and W &M now have a tougher fight for their Olympic spots

- some figure skating fans are still mad at Vanessa for what she may have known about Morgan Cipres, etc.

Vanessa totally supports Cipres, playing dumb won't make this go away. Me-again Duhamel needs to just STFU. Eric is too hot for her anyways.

Eric and Meagan weren't really a great couple, aesthetically, and she's feisty and athletic but not very artistic. Not sure about him - but he composes and choreographs for other couples, including one he's putting in danger of an Oly spot I believe, so I assume he's on the artistic side. Plays the piano, iirc.

Meagan's a jock type who does physical training classes - maybe she can do that, though I wonder what kind of disaster caused her to say coaching skating didn't work out for her. I think she does online physical training and exercise classes now.

Apparently she rubbed everyone the wrong way and the rink banned her from coaching there again. She should stick to being a vegan-nut.

Duhamel/Radford were the anti-PCS pair among those at the top.

I am not sure what James/Radford can do. The pairs around the low end of the top 10 at Worlds are almost as geriatric (Della Monica/Guarise, Ziegler/Kiefer). So they can beat them. However, coming back for a 7-8th place is not probably what they have in mind.

Paul Poirier posted a new photo of his big quad muscles: 🔥

R274 In that pic, I finally see his appeal

Duhamel was on Skating Lesson thing. Her version is that Radford was planning ice shows with her while doing try-outs with James at the same time. Julie Marcotte (her sister in law) knew as she was coaching J/R but she didn't say anything until last week.

What happened to Morgan Cipres? That was one hot ass.

R277 He is hiding in France because he sent dick pics to an underage girl. His coach (Zimmerman) is suspended by Safe Sport for allegedly having tried to cover it up. His other other coach (Silvia Fontana) has been reprimanded by SS for the same reason.

The girl was 13 years old. Cipres has been charged in december 2020 by Florida authorities but he was already back in France.

russians know how it really looked like, i dlike to know circumstances

r279 So it was resolved or is he hiding away in france?

He’s a fugitive of the US but France doesn’t extradite. He posts on Instagram and seems to not have a care in the world. The whole situation was bizarre with that third coach Vinny Dispenza (sp?) allegedly goading the girl to get the photo from Cipres but he wasn’t disciplined.

r282 WTF is france's issue not extraditing pedos?

I find it extremely hard to believe that that dick pic was an isolated incident. There's probably much more to the story than we will ever know.

The outrage is that Morgan didn't share thise pics with us.

R283 take care of american pedos, like nicholson, ok? you think only poles and french are pedohiles?

Allged Rippon jerk off leak.

Adam's a bottom. That dick will go to waste.

So did this Vinny Dispenza get the girl to ask for a dick pic from Cipres so he could see it or what? I'm so confused. What was this guy's role in all this?

[QUOTE] On Dec. 3, 2017, Cipres allegedly direct messaged two photos of his penis on Instagram to the girl, who skated at the same rink as Cipres in Wesley Chapel, Fla. USA Today Sports has reviewed those messages, which were sent from what appears to be Cipres’ verified account. The girl and her parents said a fourth adult also was involved in the alleged incident. Vinny Dispenza, another coach at the AdventHealth Center Ice rink, allegedly told the girl and another underage girl, whose family could not be reached for comment, to message Cipres asking him to send the photos to the girls in exchange for the promise of a pizza from Dispenza. The girl also said that Dispenza told her she would never skate again if she said something.

From what I understand, Dispenza pressured the girls to get dick pics from Cipres and later threatened them not to tell anyone. Zimmerman and Fontana tried to persuade the main girl not to press charges and they also didn’t report the incident to SafeSport. Zimmerman has been suspended, Fontana is on probation. But Dispenza is still teaching at the same rink. I wonder if Dispenza had a thing for Cipres and this was the way he got dick pics? Skeevy and suspicious all around.

I once randomly met John Zimmerman after an ice show (the Tom Collins one) once, twenty years ago or so. He came up to me in the parking lot of the arena. He had just started skating with Stephanie Stiegler. Stiegler’s younger siblings were a kids pair skating team who had just performed in the ice show as a sort of hometown spotlight. Zimmerman asked if I could do a favor and ask the kids for an autograph to help encourage them. He was a total hunk, very handsome, exceedingly polite and had a slight Southern accent that accentuated his golden looks. Such a shame about this incident.

If SafeSport confirms the suspension for Zimmerman, I wonder if they will try to move their coaching base to Europe as Fontana is Italian and the majority of their skaters were French (Aymoz, Meite).

In Europe they are even more careless than US in this aspect. Germany is still letting Fajfr coach.

Meet Dispenza...the first woman listed is also called Dispenza. Is she the sister or the wife?

I think wife and skating partner. Looks like they were ice dancers on the national level ten years ago. I also found a gofundme for them when she went through some major health issues.

I think I read on one of the frau skating boards that it is his sister, R293, but I am not 100% sure.

R274 I love her bitchface and use of the word betrayal.

THIS SPORT IS UGLY NOW. WHERE IS JANET LYNN? HER GRACE AND SMILE LIT UP ARENAS. NOW THERE ARE ROBOTIC RUSSIAN CONTORINISTS WHO HAVE NO JOY, OR COMMUNICATION WITH AN AUDIENCE. THE SAME FOR JAPANESE WOMEN. WHERE IS THERE ANYONE LIKE JOHN CURRY? THE 1ST WORLD PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP IS ON YT IN ITS ENTIRIETY, AND EVEN THOUGH PEGGY FLEMING DID JUST AN AXEL IN HER LONG PROGRAM, THE EXPRESSION AND MOOD SHE CREATED WAS EXTRAORDINARY. ROBIN COUSINS MIXED ATHLETICISM AND STYLE AND LINE PERFECTLY. AND THE LAYBACK OF DOROTHY HAMILL -- THE HIDEOUS CRETINS SKATING TODAY COULD NEVER MATCH HER SPEED OR CENTERING.

Bill Taylor, is that you?

R296 The ISU judging system favors ugly skater and skaters with unproportional or underdeveloped oldies by now.

Also, skating skills are pretty much meaningless by now. Used to be important for figures. But now Eteri’s bots easily get 9’s for skating skills while doing their gymnastic routines….Artistic marks are pretty much irrelevant if the skater does enough quads…

Trusova left Plushenko to go back to Eteri Tutberidze

Tarasova/Morozov leaves Zueva (who has not seen in months anyway) to be coached by Trankov and Tutberidze (who has never done Pair. I think)

Plushenko's collapse is complete!

Paul Poirier posted another photo of his leg muscles:

R302 Onlyfans next, please

R296 How about one of the most beautiful skaters ever, Chen Lu, who couldn't do triples?

The changes that I would like to see are:

1. Ladies restricted to doubles and men restricted to triples.

2. New scoring.

3. Cut the long program to 3 minutes.

4. ESPN or another company livestream ALL competitors with NO commentators talking after the music starts through the end of the performance.

The sport is not going to regress back to doubles for ladies and triples for men. You can just watch ice shows if you don't want to see real athletes, R304. Or old videos from the last century. The sport has moved on.

Chen Lu had everything up to triple Lutz. Her Lillehammer program was by far, more triple laden than Nancy or Oksana.

R305 It has lost it's artistry. It's about tiny juiced up Russian girls performing gymnastic moves.

R304 My ideas for improving the sport:

1. Introduce minimal age of 18 or minimal BMI of 18 for the senior ladies. This would mean GAME OVER for Eteri and her bots.

2. Lower the base value AND GOE for quads so that a clean and captivating Jason could beat a messy and uninspired Chen.

3. Having figures to test skating skills so that skaters like Trusova or Tuktamysheva have no chance of winning until they improve.

Tbh, I wouldn’t mind if they just reintroduced the 6.0 system. That system was more holistic, easy to understand and produced engaging competitions and attractive, well-rounded champions that people loved. It’s no coincidence that the ISU judging system came up with the demise of figure skating.

R307 BTW, how come there are no serious doping rumors about Eteri? Isn’t it incredible that she can mass-produce skater after skater who are the most consistent competitors around (but only for a short time before they get replaced)? And with each new year, the new batch is already much improved technically compared the the previous generation? And when the bots leave her, their consistency falls apart and they don’t manage to perform such complex programs anymore? Eteri is from Russian after all….

The sport was always a balance between more athletic skaters who could do the big jumps/tricks and more artistic skaters. The Battle of the Brians in 1988 is a perfect example. Boitano had to work on his artistry over the years but he was a great technician. Orser ironically came on the scene as a jumper (he outskated Scott Hamilton at the 1984 Olympics but they had figures back then, which killed Orser's overall score), but he always had that artistic flair. On the night of the free skate in 1988, Orser skated well, but Boitano out-jumped him and had worked enough on his presentation that he was rewarded. Still, the win came down to one tenth of one point and it was for technical merit. After that outcome, the ISU changed the tiebreak to be the artistic score.

The 1998 Nagano ladies competition is another one. Jumping bean Tara Lipinski beat more artistic Michelle Kwan. That one was a surprise. The judges usually went for the more artistic skater, but Tara had a very high technical skate compared to Kwan and I think swayed the judges into giving her higher artistic marks than she deserved. Also, Tara is lucky it wasn't under the current system because she always under-rotated her jumps.

R308, I like some of your ideas but they'll never lower the base and GOE for quads. That part of the system was "reformed" after Pluskenko lost to Evan Lysacek in 2010. The Russians went ballistic that Plushenko lost to someone who didn't do a quad, ignoring the fact that Plushenko was sloppy and was outskated in just about every category and Lysacek's jumps were much cleaner than Plushenko's and he did more of them. But to the Russians, Plushkenko landed a quad or two, so in their minds that trumped everything else. But the new system was supposed to reward a more complete skater, which Lysacek was compared to jump-bot Plushenko who would stink of the ice when not jumping. Russia fought like hell to get the quad higher rated and of course won that battle. I think the Russian mafia must be holding guns to the heads of the leaders of the ISU given all the cheating they get away with. Adalina Sotnikova anyone?

Eteri's skaters win because she makes them do tons of runthroughs and because of the internal competition. Every day they are at the rink with the other strongest skaters, fighting to be on top. Then you go to an ISU competition with all the mediocre girls from the US, Europe, etc. There is less pressure than they have in training. When they go to other coaches, that motivation is lost. They're not doping. Do you assume the US gymnastics team does too?

R311 But why can’t anybody come close to replicate Eteri’s system if organisation and mindset were everything? Most Russian coaches make ample use of intimidation and pressure as far as I know. If they want more internal competitions, coaches could collaborate to have their skaters go against each other. I bet Trusova hates to loose against her (former) teammates no matter if she practices with Plushenko or Eteri. There is just a overall intense and cut-throat competition in Russian ladies’ skating, they all know what it takes to make the podium there. And Tursynbayeva trains for like three months with Eteri and suddenly makes the world podium? Just because she got used to the internal competition and does more runthroughs than in her expensive stay with Orser? And why couldn’t Russia make the same system work for their men‘s skating?

Japan has tons of hardworking girls taking up skating and it offers them best financial opportunities, much better than Russia. Yet they are far behind.

I don’t follow Gymnastics. But doesn’t the US offer the best financial opportunities by far? And there is proven systematic doping in Russian which is why the country is banned from many competitions in many sports which is not the case at all for the US.

Eteri judges the girls - maybe not every day but often - against each other. Like internal competitions many times per month. She has six top girls and only three can go to Beijing but those three will probably be on the podium, especially since Rika looks to have a serious back injury.

So what's the ranking? 1 Valieva, 2 Shcherbakova, 3 Trusova (on tech alone), 4 Kostornaia (if she has her 3A back), 5 Usacheva, 6 Khromykh (just a guess - could change any time due to injury or failing tech)

If one falters, there's another right there to take her place. Ladies skating is hunger games.

But why doesn't this work for male skaters? (Eteri says they're too sensitive to handle the system - Shoma Uno said it was way too hard so fuck that, not that he's the best example of determination)

Oh... credit to Dave Lease and Jonathan Beyer for details in R313 - they ranked the top six on their show today, and they said Tuktamysheva is screwed. (I think she was anyway, even if Trusova and Kosto had stayed with Plushenko)

I could get behind an 18 age limit for the girls, let's see if these jumping bean bitches can do those quads as adults.

R313 Eteri‘s technique doesn’t work for men because it relies on tiny, stick-thin torsos. Young jumping beans in men’s skating who loose their jumps later (e.g. Nam Nguyen) are pretty rare. Most men have proper technique compared to the women.

R315 These girl’s won‘t do quads anymore once they have developed hips, busts etc. Eteri‘s girls have never outlasted an Olympic cycle.

R313 I think Shcherb‘s jumps will be on their last legs if at all in Beijing. And I say that as someone who likes her. She will end career soon or will have to relearn the technique with someone else than Eteri.

Can height ruin your quads? I want my pretty Conrad Orsel back. And Roman Sadovsky is a lovely skater but so damned inconsistent.

Well they all are except Chen (especially) and Hanyu (at least compared to the rest of the splatfest boys). Though maybe Mishin can fix Kolyada?

*oops: "Orzel" (I was thinking of his coach Orser - at least I think he's still in Toronto)

How tall is Orser's "former?" prodigy Gogolev? I want to see his parents! That kid had all the quads at 12 - now he's a big fat zero. The only male Eteri girl?

Eteri’s girls today look super malnourished. Alena Kostornaia lost a ton of weight after she gained her hips. Eteri is being positioned as the dame of womens figure skating, like the rich woman head in Rhuthmic Gymnastics. Russia will be winning everything from now on, like they do in RG, and they will be manipulating rules to favor the strengths of their team (like what they did in RG where they stopped favoring jumps and athleticism when they had contortionist-like women). Which means, people just stop caring, because no one cares about RG.

The truth is, figure skating is probably done in the USA, it is very expensive, nobody gets a college scholarship, the badass girls are currently doing gymnastics, there isnt any cool factor at all anymore. Girls also need to be as skinny as the rigid Russians, yet not be too muscular. Who wants that with the current body positivity movement. Gracie Gold’s struggles have been well publicized. It will be a bunch of tiny asian-descent skaters from richer families who will be interested before it dies finally. Because the white girls get hips quickly and they have no Eteri figure mentally abusing them to stop eating.

And Eteri feeding the girls Meldonium and preventing them from drinking water during comps -- wonder how they swallow the pills? oh... injections. Ever notice how there's a Russian doctor among the coaches on the sidelines when Russians are at big international comps?

I noticed the girl who won the world championship looked super malnourished, like there was definitely an eating issue.

I don't want to see figure eights come back. You end up with skaters like Trixi Schuba winning.

[quote]The truth is, figure skating is probably done in the USA

Do you mean in the Ladies discipline? Because USA is still doing well in Men and Dance.

Figure skating in North America isn't as popular as in Japan or Russia. Even with Nathan Chen, they're lacking personality . I can't tell apart from Bradie or Mariah or Amber. We need a hot mess like Tonya or Nicole to come back and shake it up. Make Figure Skating Great Again!

I went to Skate America in 2019. Scherbakova looking disturbingly thin. I don't know how she has the energy to train, no less compete. The more I learn about skating, the less I want to support it.

It's fair to say the hey day of figure skating has passed in the USA.

Not for me bitch!

R325 I think USA needs a champion with good body, open personality and some sex appeal. Nathan Chen doesn’t have it at all. Gracie Gold had potential and definitely got a huge push but her mentality was too weak.

R326 I always wonder how Eteri’s girls have enough energy to do their complex programs and difficult jumping layout with great consistency. If you are malnourished, both strength and concentration should be negative affected. And these girls don’t look very muscular.

r329 I mean russia routinely gets busted for doping. I'm curious how much figure skating tests, if russia has any say probably not much.

"I always wonder how Eteri’s girls have enough energy to do their complex programs and difficult jumping layout with great consistency."

I think that's where the drugs and the rinkside doctor factor in.

Alena Kostornaia training with Plushenko last year. She looked normal.

This is alena kostornaia now back with eteri

R333 Pretty girl, but her head looks too big for her body. She reminds me of Julia Lipnitskaia pre Oly 2014 built-wise.

In other news, Stars On Ice is back this fall. Is that the best they can do??

When I was younger i used to go and skate with my friends at Schneider Arena in Providence, RI. My first set of skates were figure skates - hated the hell out of those. Until I was given a pair of hockey skates. I absolutely loved those skates.

And the funny I could ice skate, but roller skating was completely out of the question.