Has the DL given up on figure skating?

Figure skating has given up on us, op..

Is there still bulge? I used to enjoy figure skater bulge.

Is there still ass? I used to enjoy figure skater ass.

It's not figure skating anymore.

Because Peacock’s coverage is ass, OP.

Are Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir still doing the coverage?

Skating has died. ABC/ESPN and Eurosport UK were the best at presenting figure skating events. Is it still popular in Asia and Europe? No one seems to be that into this here in America. We have no more stars. Did Nathan Chen get any endorsements after his OGM ?

Tara is nursing her newborn….well, her wet nurse is.

TERROR had a baby?

I see that she did, never mind. Via surrogate.

Hence the wet nurse joke

Read it and weep ;)

Johnny, Tara, and Ilia on NBC.

If she's happy, then more power to her.

People always bitched about the Russians dominating everything, and now that they're gone, nobody bothers watching.

R15, it’s not that, it’s problems with accessibility.

We want to show race car driving, Taylor/Kelce, and women's volleyball.

We need to arm them with AK-47s and provide targets.

When will the first trans woman compete in the Ladies' Competition and land a quad axel?

Tangent Warning: I went down a rabbit hole when the Nancy Kerrigan thread was active, and after an Oxana performance on YouTube, this freak of nature who looked like a CGI skeleton came up in a video 'short'. Seriously disturbing.

^R20 again, forgot to include link- you've been warned.

What freak?

Freakier than that guy who omits the link?

You link stinks freak.

As R16 said, the problem is that there is so little TV coverage of figure skating compared to a couple of decades ago. We figure skating fans can find ways to watch it, but the general public is no longer watching. There is very little coverage in both Canada and the U.S. Canadian TV didn't even cover Skate Canada this weekend for the first time ever.

That sucks because Piper Gilles and DL fave big butt Paul Poirier won the gold medal in Ice Dance. Hopefully there will be some TV coverage in Canada by the time of the Worlds in Montreal in March.

When you don't have a female skating star from the USA who is charismatic, so goes the sport. Isabelle DeVito or whatever her name is, is dull. Gracie Gold is still a bigger star, lol. Gracie could come in and finish 11th and she's still going to get the ink.

His butt doesn’t look very big.

Here's a better angle, R26:

Some more:

Ice dance is where it's at.

I never thought Gracie Gold was charismatic at all.

America hasn't had a charismatic female figure skater in many years. Maybe since Tonya Harding.

Since Dorothy Hamill ⛸️

What about Michelle Kwon?

Was she a known Kwantity?

She was not charismatic.

I think the scoring scandal at the 2002 Olympics really began the decline of interest in skating in the US.

Kwan was a beautiful skater and lots of people rooted for her. But there were other types of skaters to root for as well. Now it’s just the Russians and they’re all from the exact same club. That is boring as hell.

I lost interest after Dick Button retired coupled with the scoring system change. Im old and set in my ways. The scoring system especially put me off.

I almost hate to admit it, but lately the Russian drama has been the best part of figure skating.

And as I mentioned earlier, Peacock’s coverage of the Grand Prix is sorely lacking. I don’t expect we’ll see Johnny and Tara again until (maybe) the Grand Prix and the US and World championships.

DL has masculine gays now. We watch football and baseball.

I loved Button and Peggy Fleming. They obsessed over laybacks. I also liked Peter Carruthers. Susie Wynn and sometimes Tracy Wilson.

If it weren’t for Susie, I wouldn’t have known that Amber Corwin had cheated triple jumps.

I like the old way of keeping score much better. The new way is the biggest part of what drove me away. The past scoring was part of the fun. Knowing that judges could and would show favoritism so we could all discuss and boo and hiss was a huge part of the fun.

Peggy obsessed because her coach Carlo Fassi was obsessed with the layback. Fleming may have been the best ever at that spin.

It's so funny. I did a deep dive on Dorothy Hamill. Turns out her little routine Olympic exhibition is my favorite piece of skating. Silly I know. But these two minutes immediately point out what is wrong with skating today. Dorothy's exhibition is so free and fun yet she knows her figures so no matter what it retains some elegance. It also helps that she was so friggin cute and the audience would have sat there all day if she kept skating.

Kwan was reliable. Not the most exciting skater but steady. But she didn’t have a consistent triple-triple. She did have one for a couple of seasons but her hips were giving her trouble.

Kwan landed on her feet. Did well in college and grad school. Joined the State Dept. as of now she’s the US Ambassador to Belize. …tho she had a disasterous marriage—🧐

R47, tell us more about Kwan's marriage.

Google: nasty divorce battle

[quote]America hasn't had a charismatic female figure skater in many years. Maybe since Tonya Harding.

I would say Ashley Wagner was charismatic, although I didn't particularly enjoy her skating.

I always wondered why her marriage ended like that. She’s so private about everything. The frauen at Female Straight Universe used to write essays about the love lives of the girl skaters. Posting about gay skaters was verboten.

It appears she also has an infant —says Wiki

…she best Lipinski at parenthood ;)

What about female skates who marry gays?—allegedly

R53 ask Michelle’s sister Karen.

R54 here. Should have mentioned that Oppegard was busted with gay porn at an airport years ago when he was still married to Karen.

R55 Wiki says, as of 2017, they are estranged.

I’ll bet 🤠

This thread has me going down the rabbit hole of old Google newsgroups about skating. Sandra Loosemore, Janet, and Brian Orser obsessed Trudi, who was a college administrator in Binghamton NY. She loved Orser to death and would stalk him on the COI/SOI tours.

I met a woman at Skate America who had photos of Todd Eldredge in her wallet. She called Todd a “sex symbol for the thinking woman”, whatever that meant. I met a few second tier skaters at a couple of events. All seemed nice and well adjusted.

As others have said, it's the lack of TV coverage and promotion thereof. I'm a longtime, if fair weather, skating fan and didn't even know Skate America/Canada were happening. The dissolution of the NBC Sports channel was the death knell (see also: curling coverage, of which I'm also a fair weather fan). USA Network and NBC sometimes show repeats of skating events, but I clearly missed or couldn't find them. I tried Peacock's skating channel for Skate America ice dance and lasted about 15 minutes because it was unedited coverage. First the judges were announced, then five pairs skated out, waved at the audience, faffed around for a bit, then went off the ice, except for the first couple to compete. No commentators of any sort -- Terry, Tara, Johnny, Andrea, etc. -- so I turned it off. So I guess instead of TV promoting what few events it will air, we have to seek out the info ourselves. US Nationals are Jan. 22-28 in Columbus if you want to mark your calendars.

Fucking Peacock has their coverage of figure skating events on their platform for about 6 1/2 hours before they remove them. Quick, watch it while you can, then performances are available nowhere else ever again.

I do like the unedited, uncommentated coverage, but once it's off of Peacock, it disappears.

Michelle Kwan had near a Hanyu level fanbase. I don't know what everyone is talking about. People adored her skating.

But, she wasn't charismatic.

But her personality was reliable, non-threatening and young girls looked up to her. Nicole Bobek was charismatic. But she was also a flighty fuckup.

Nicole Bobek killed Carlo Fassi—just like what the jacuzzi did to Perry.

American advertisers were desperate to find that All-American girl who would lift the tv ratings and serve as an advertising icon. They thought maybe Kerrigan was it, but that fell through. So, they tried featuring skater like Bobek and Sasha Cohen ( who was guaranteed to fall at every major world competition). All they had were the Asians, Yamaguchi and Kwan, who raised ratings, but who were unacceptable as representatives of the All-American girl. So, after a few years of mediocre women's skating, they just gave up. Can't feature the men, because everyone thinks they are all gay. Besides, the dominant male was Nathan Chen, who was also unacceptable. So, can't sell products , no interest in telecasts. American advertisers were waiting ( and still are) for a skating Taylor Swift.

They should have embraced Tonya Harding, maybe the skating boom would have lasted a little longer.

Who else's knee could she have whacked?

R66, TERROR Lipinski's!

NBC will be broadcasting some of the Grand Prix this Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Are the Russians banned past the next OLYMPICS? Or will they be cheating up a storm in time for all those medals? Whatever happened to the team medals compromised by their cheating from Bejing?

The athletes can compete, but under a neutral flag. Big deal. So they can cheat and Russia will not be blamed. BTW, did the team figure skaters ever receive their medals from the last Olympics? IOC filled with cowards.

Nothing re those medals —2.5 years later

NBC is showing 90 minutes Skate France on Saturday morning. They’re repeating it on Sunday morning followed by FIVE hours of NASCAR. I guess NBC knows where its bread is buttered. To each their own and all, but yeesh.

I enjoy figure skating when it's on, but have a hard time understanding which jumps are which. Except for the triple axel (because of the forward entry).

R72, according to this link, November 4 is supposed to be Skate Canada highlights and then coverage of France on November 5:

Yuzuru Hanyu got married. To a woman! And he retired, which hasn't exactly helped figure skating. It's even faltering in Japan, post-Hanyu.

[quote] Yuzuru Hanyu got married. To a woman

Oh, please. He's gayer than a geisha's feather boa.

Did Stephane Lambiel design his wedding dress?

R77, no. Brian Boitano did.

Pro figure skating 1980-late 90's had so many great stars. The ISU saw the ratings and tried to keep the more self centered skaters (Kwan) to stay 'eligible' so they'd put her in any kind of pro-am they could find. Her lack of showmanship was obvious. She still wanted that Gold medal from the Ols so Kwan put down the pros and helped kill interest. Tara Lipinski got injured her first year as a pro - she couldn't spin those difficult triples and pared down her content - and really never commanded pro skating. The Michelle-Tara rivalry might have kept interest for years, but Tara was clearly afraid of going up aganist Michelle in the eligible pro-ams, so it all went ppfffttdd!

Why? WHYYYYYYYYYY?

R75, Japan doesn't permit same-sex marriage, although in a recent case a court permitted the registration of a same-sex partnership. No one knows anything about Hanyu's marriage. Some Japanese stars have not only never named their spouses, they have prevented photographs of them from ever appearing.

None of the accounts mention " wife," merely " partner" or "spouse." He also doesn't refer to " wife."

Two-time Olympic men’s figure skater champion Hanyu Yuzuru broke the news on his official social media account that he is now married.

Hanyu, who is 28 and turned professional in July last year, put the word out about the happy development in his personal life on Aug. 4. He did not name his spouse, though.

“To all of you who have always supported me. I, Yuzuru Hanyu, have decided to enter the family register,” he wrote, posting an image of the document that records changes in a person’s circumstances, such as marriage. “I will continue to skate one by one, moment by moment, so that I can skate at my best from now on.”

Hanyu, a native of Sendai City, is regarded as one of the greatest ice skaters of all time. In 2014, he won gold at the Sochi Olympics and repeated the feat four years later at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

In February, he became the first skater to perform solo at the Tokyo Dome.

"Everybody's saying" Yuzuru's wife is Mayuko Suenobo, a 36 year old female violinist who accompanied him on ice with her violin in 2019 at an ice show. Her family is wealthy (from a different city) and there's controversy because Shinzo Abe knew her father, golfed with him, went to his funeral, etc.

Reba Hughes didn't help either. They all just became so fucking boring. skate, pickup speed, jump, rinse and repeat. The new scoring helped kill it. Plus,the lack of interesting, experienced, and media capable commentators helped the demise. We need Peggy's cuntiness.

Poor Reba. The most forgettable American Olympic gold winner in the sport’s history.

we used to die laughing. Reba Hughes was just the most boring.

America agrees.

The only reason to watch figure skating these days is to see the men's asses. Come to think of it, that has always been the only reason to watch. Even Johnny Weir.

I miss Javier's ass

R85 I thought it was Sarah Hughes. Is Reba a nickname?

oops - sorry. I just saw R87.

Sarah Hughes was both a skater and a judge? What a multi-talented individual.

I miss Brian Joubert’s ass…did he ever get married or anything?

Yes R92 she swore in LBJ on 11/22/63 after JFK was shot, and then won the Ols in 2002. Remarkable.

[quote]I miss Brian Joubert’s ass

Who doesn't?

The front is fine also.

Plushenko is doing ice shows in China (and Russia, of course).

Wonder how he's doing? He was a fixture in Japanese ice shows but haven't heard about him appearing in them lately. Maybe he aged out - or they decided it was bad politically to have him?

But yeah has there ever been a more boring skater than Sarah Hughes? I'd rather watch that Sasha girl choke and fall every time.

R96, that one isn't Brian Joubert -- someone mislabelled the photo.

R97, Plushenko has spoken out in favor of Vladimir Putin recently, so yeah, I imagine he's now limited as to which countries he can skate in.

Plushenko is one of the most brazenly pro-war athletes. He went to one of the big rallies...think it was the same one with Sinitsina/Katsalapov and Tarasova/Morozov wearing the Z on the uniforms. They should all be persona non grata at any international skating events forever.

Plushenko is also world class ugly.

Dear NBC, Please get your programming act together. I recorded what I thought was going to be Skate France today, but you showed Skate Canada. Just because they speak the same language (sorta) doesn’t mean they’re the same country. Merci a lot.

R102, I mentioned above at R74 that the NBC schedule at the link provided showed Skate Canada for November 4 and France for November 5.

NBC is showing the ISU Grand Prix China on Sunday from noon to 3p (Pacific time). Supposedly...

Are Papadakis and Cizeron still competing or are they holding off until the run-up to the 2026 Olympics? I will have a sad if they've retired.

Papa Papadakis?

Oleg Protopopov is dead …He and his wife perfected the death spiral and the first true overhead lifts.

Here’s their last world titile, right after winning Olympic Gold in Grenoble. But for the change to more athleticism, they would be at the top even today with their artistry.

I don't know DL, but I gave up on figure skating, there were "No more Michelle Kwans, Nancy Kerrigan" and the new scoring rules destroyed women's figure skating. It became all about jumping!!

I did like Nathan Chen's ass and I loved when Sacha Cohen fell all the time(that was fun). Winter Olympics, I attended Sarajevo, 1984, Albertville,1992 and Lillehammer, 1994( that was a party in itself).

[quote]I loved when Sacha Cohen fell all the time(that was fun)

This was the best.

One of my ice skating fan buddies used to call Sasha “Origami” because she folded so beautifully. Even her falls and stumbles were gorgeous…after all, she had lots of practice 🥴

I loved her skating so much, but once I realized she was incapable of skating both programs clean and I don’t mean perfect, just decently so, I got so sick of her.

Emanuel Sandhu was her brother from another mother…

If it wasn't for her falls Sasha would have been the most elegant skater ever. Not the best. The most elegant. She kept you on the edge of your seat though waiting for the inevitable fall.

Cohen graduated from Columbia—worked for Morgan Stanley and married up to a bigwig at MS. She sends her regards.

But she will be forever known as a choke artist.

Alexei Yagudin was the sexiest skater I have ever seen, strong and artistic. I couldn't take my eyes off of him.

Can anyone tell us how Poivier's cock's performance was during this dance?

R116, based on the bulge, do you think Paul Poirier is cut or uncut?

Yagudin is a homophobic douchebag.

Our hot beauty Paul Poirier just won gold at the Cup of China in Chongqing. With what's her name - Piper Gilles I think. The other Canadians were second, Americans third and fourth. The Chinese were last and next to last :(

Yags is an extravagant piece of shit.

"...Mr. Yagudin also supports inappropriate statements from his followers. Here is a comment to illustrate this: “I don’t get it why people are suddenly standing up for Brown. He’s a f*gg*t who can’t even jump triples” — Mr. Yagudin reacted to this with the emoji picturing applause..."

Tried to link article but it's got Russian in it - but you can search for "Remove Alexei Yagudin from commenting on the figure skating competitions" (change.org petition from 4 years ago)

R119, yeah, Gilles & Poirier won the gold, although the result was closer than usual between them and their teammates Lajoie & Lagha because Piper made a mistake on the twizzles in the Rhythm Dance. I hope to watch the competition later.

R120, that doesn't surprise me.. I seem to remember that Yagudin has a history of saying homophobic comments. I think it's happened more than once.

OP, if you want to talk about something why must you wait for someone else to start a thread?

But the story is that allegedly Yags and Rudy Galindo were briefly involved during their COI days. Yags was underage when they hooked up several times. The owners of COI AND Brian Boitano had to tell Rudy to leave him alone. Alexei Urmanov found out somehow and he told the bigwigs in the Russian skating federation and they were incensed. Some people say that it was the reason why Yagudin never won a national title for Russia. Not sure if it was known that Rudy was poz at the time. But Yags was also boning skate mattress Nicole Bobek at the same time. I can only imagine how frenzied things were when Rudy did disclose his HIV status. Yagudin is a big hypocrite.

Or he was angry and scared.

Hot photo of Paul Poirier:

Does anyone else follow The Skating Lesson?

I just hate it when Dave Lease allows Jonathan Beyer to get a word in edgewise.

Greatest male figure skater of all time.

I really want to see a trans skater shake up the women's division.

DICK Button!

Those rankings are so far fucking off—useless post.

The post isn't useless; you need to react and show why it is terrible. Otherwise, you have nothing to offer.

Some Canadian Acid Queen wrote up that list 😵‍💫

There’s your answer —written by someone on drugs who decided to rank skaters in reverse order of their skating years, and by how gay they were.

Emanuel Sandhu was the greatest but he always choked when it counted. Built more like an ice dancer than a singles skater. Never accepted responsibility for his mistakes. But gorgeous lines and extension…but a feckless head case of supernatural proportions.

Didn't make it on the list, R133?

It was good to see NBC broadcast the Dance event for a change this weekend. They showed the top Dance teams at Cup of China -- eg. Gilles/Poirier, Lajoie/Lagha, & Green/Parsons.

What do you make of Michael Parsons?

A) as an ice dancer?

B) his looks?

R126 I watch The Skating Lesson sometimes. This week I thought Dave and Jonathan would cover the Cup of China, but Dave was on with a 50-something year old ex figure skater (no Jonathan) and they barely touched on the competition. It was very long and meandered all over the place, a lot about the ancient days of Dorothy Hammill and, well, a whole litany of skaters from yesteryear - a lot about "figures" which Dave is now practicing himself, apparently.

Now that he's back into his own skating, there's just too much about it. And I really missed Jonathan, but even so, I think I might give up on them. Too much rambling.

I used to think ice dancing was corny. Now that (formerly)figure skating is nothing but preparing for the jumps I've come to appreciate the ice dancing more.

Michael Parsons is cute. Does he have an instagram page?

He’s 5’ 5” He can fit in your backpack

I found his Instagram page. Up until now I had no idea he existed…I haven’t followed skating since 2010.

Michael Parsons is cute, but yes, he is short. Here's the Ice Dance Podium from Cup of China. Paul Poirier is the tallest even though he is just around 5'8 and yet he is taller than both Michael Parsons and Zachary Lagha:

Thanks, NBC, for showing a lot of Cup of China! Still, only one pairs team made it to air? I realize she's 40, and that's of interest, but was the rest of the field so mediocre that you couldn't show the top three? (Are Sui and Han still competing?) See you Sunday is Espoo!

I thought ice dancers were supposed to be taller…

Yuzuru released a statement today that he is getting divorced...after 3 months. Says it's due to the media harassing and stalking his spouse. Asian idol culture is bizarre.

He has fulfilled his societal obligation. Now he's free so do whatever he wants.

They're already selling tickets for Boston worlds 2025. But they want you to request tickets without telling you exactly where you're going to sit.

Translation of Yuzuru's announcement:

Thank you very much for your warm words, support and encouragement. I would like to inform you of a personal matter. I have married a civilian. We married each other out of sincere respect and with a determination to cherish each other. We have overcome many obstacles together while thinking about various things in order to protect each other. Throughout our lives, my partner has acted to protect and support me even when I have been unable to leave the house even once.

Currently, various media outlets are reporting slander, stalking, and unauthorized interviews and reports against my partner, her relatives, and related persons, as well as my relatives and related persons. Even in our living space, we are sometimes approached by suspicious vehicles or people wandering around, or suddenly approached by someone.

We have tried to protect each other from these situations, even though we are both worried about them. We have tried to protect each other from such situations, although we are both worried. However, due to my inexperience, it has been extremely difficult and unbearable to continue to protect my partner and myself as it is.

With the possibility that this situation will continue, and even if it improves temporarily, it may happen again, when I think about the future, I want my partner to be happy and to be happy without any limitations. I made the decision to divorce because I want my partner to be happy and to be happy without any restrictions. From now on, please refrain from slander, unauthorized interviewing, reporting, or any other disturbing behavior toward my partner, who is a civilian, her relatives, and related persons, as well as my relatives and related persons. I sincerely ask for your kind cooperation.

I will continue to move forward. Thank you for your continued support.

Yuzuru Hanyu

To the Media

Representative Director Michio Masaki President of team Sirius, Inc.

Today, Yuzuru Hanyu made an important decision. The circumstances leading up to this decision are as described in his comments.

We respectfully request that you refrain from further media coverage of this matter, as we understand the circumstances that have led to this situation, and the feelings of Yuzuru Hanyu, his spouse, and his family.

Thank you very much.

Does the spouse exist?

Rafa Nadal wishes he could get away with that.

How bad are the pairs teams that NBC won't show them? (One in China, none in Finland.) I don't watch the women, and most of the men are largely just jumping jacks these days with little artistry between jumps. Leaving pairs and ice dance. Thanks for showing Chock and Bates two weeks in a row and no other dancers, NBC. (Yes, I realize C&B won both times. Alas, their new Dali Time routine leaves me cold.) On to Japan!

I’d rather watch pears skating!

Me too, and probably most artistic& get better TV coverage.

Are the red pears team commies?

I saw Tara on Jennifer Hudson’s talk show this afternoon on my break.

Ice dance already poached most of pairs skating, with its fancy lifts, pairs spins and side by side skating. There’s no need for pairs anymore, most countries can’t even field a pair.

Maybe it's just too dangerous. I wish they'd bad boxing for that reason. Do they still let kids do it ("Golden Gloves" or something I think I remember back in the day). Sweden banned boxing in 1970!

*I wish they'd BAN boxing...

I'm still thinking about Yuzuru's divorce. Does it help his fanbase think he's hetero and that they have a chance with him?

It could be a brilliant business decision, this three month marriage to the violinist who was hounded nearly to death. (but when he's hounded he's butch enough to take it! never mind the pink ruffles and skirts)

Apparently the violinist isn’t the bride. She’s a non-celebrity

R151, yeah, I saw the new Free Dance by Chock & Bates on NBC this weekend and it doesn't do anything for me. Madison had a problem with her twizzles, which is unusual.

Fuck figure skating!

I did r161. Didn’t turn out well for me…

R158, that could be. He seems to be very aware of his fans and their obsessions and fantasies.

I liked Daisuki Takahashi better. A more emotional style of skating.

There is no indication that Hanyu is gay. Just Japanese.

Where is YouNah Kim these days? Still singing or skating, or both? I always thought she should be in North Korea as Kim Jung Ill's bride, to unite Korea as one and peace and harmony can abide. Trump could be the officiant.

Isn’t Hanyu close friends with Stephane Lambiel?

[quote] She’s a non-celebrity

Civilian!

[quote]How bad are the pairs teams that NBC won't show them?

As far as I can remember, NBC has shown the Canadian pair with the 40-year old woman (originally from the U.S.) twice this season. They have presumably broadcast this team twice because of the interest in her age combined with the fact that they have won 2 events this season.

Gee, NBC, I bet some of those 80s rhythm dances would have been fun to see in Japan. But thanks for showing a couple of the pairs at least. Is it too much to hope that all four formats will be more evenly represented at the finals?

R170, yeah, NBC always focuses more on the singles than on the dance & pairs. They did show the Free Dances of Fear & Gibson and Guignard & Fabbri. What did you think of the upset that F&G pulled over G&F? Were the marks justified?

Fear and Gibson were overscored. Their Rocky number is flashy with no substance.

Agreed, R172. F&G were fun to watch, but there wasn't a lot of there there. Very ice show (and nothing wrong with that). I miss Papadakis and Cizeron, sigh...

ISU Grand Prix Finals are Dec. 7-10. Let's hope NBC gives us more than three hours of coverage (and maybe Terry, Tara and Johnny will actually be there instead of commenting from their separate living rooms in their jammies.)

I haven’t watched an ice dancing competition in a couple of years but that Rocky performance was so not special. Slow and boring compared to years past.

I don’t think there are more than 20 regular posters to the dl

To R175, I would go with about 50 posters...On good days I can have about 6 multiple personalities while at work.

Per NBC's schedule, there will be only two hours of the Grand Prix final from Beijing, down from three for the Grand Prix Japan. So I'm guessing 45 minutes each for the men and women's singles and maybe just the winners of pairs and dance. Sigh...

Victor Voronov probably stopped coming here.

Daddy Terry Gannon needs to strip naked to get the ratings up.

One of my boy skater crushes from the early to mid 2000s was Kevin Van Der Perren of Belgium. He was so cute and a decent technical skater, though not very artistic. Recent photos of him show how hard he has hit the wall. When did he get so ugly and haggard?

R177, the TV coverage is even worse for Canada. Despite the fact that Canada has 3 dance teams and 2 pairs going to the GPF, it won't be broadcast on TV -- only online.

Are you all that technically challenged that you can’t learn to use VPNs and watch online? I haven’t watched NBC in years.

I've heard Dick Button's dick is cute as a button.

I'd kill for some skaters I would be interested in AND good commentary. I'd kill for some Button/Fleming coverage. Peg could be such a cunt and I loved it. I mean look at the drama that announcers of the past could add. You don't have this anymore. The commentators were half the fun.

Does Button have dementia or something?

I thought Button had died.

He’s 94 years old…so…I would not be surprised if he dies soon.

Button has lived a long life and made an impact in his day.

I agree with R184 -- it's a shame that we don't get as much expert skating commentary as we did in years past. It loses something when you just watch an event online.

LOL Jim and Dick turn a few tears from Dorothy into an international incident. I have to admit though I love Dorothy's determined stomp onto the ice. She was usually so demure.

So French Canadian hottie David Pelletier married Katie Gordeeva? She was one of his biggest critics during the pairs scandal at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Strange bedfellows indeed.

And fox John Zimmerman was basically blackballed, along with his wife Sylvia, for pressuring girls not to come forward with sexual assault allegations against someone at their rink! This sport is insane and top heavy with divas and pedophiles.

The last I heard about Ilia Kulik was coaching in Dallas but that was a few years ago.

Ilia never remarried?

Katia Gordeeva never commented on the SLC scandal, she is far too tactful. Scott Hamilton on the other hand would not stop his screeching.

That Crowd In the Dorothy video. Wow. Does skating draw that crowd anymore? Of course that's when people used to do stuff.

Ilia Malinin is adorable!

And setting records.

Malinin’s clearly got the technical skills, but I hope his artistry grows more than Nathan Chen’s did (which was not much). Jumping passes with some arm flailing in between is boring to watch (to me).

I had to laugh at NBC’s Grand Prix finals coverage — the leading men and women (fine), no ice dancers except Chock and Bates (which they’ve shown at least twice before this season, a routine that leaves me cold) and maybe 20 seconds for the pairs, mainly showing the very end of the winners’ routine. I was sure they’d show the Canadian pair with the woman who was skating when Tara L was (sorry, can’t remember her name), but I guess she and her partner came in third? And where was Terry Gannon? C’mon, NBC, do better!

R194: The only place that still draws skating crowds is Japan.

Katie was quoted in THE SECOND MARK as saying that Sale and Pelletier only deserved silver.

I guess she just likes his big horse dick then

Recent photos of him show him hitting a wall, I’m afraid, horse dick notwithstanding…

R196, Deanna Stellato, she's 40 years old!

R196, yeah, I think Chock & Bates have a very artistically disjointed Free Dance this year, and yet it's getting the biggest marks.

Guignard & Fabbri were 2nd and Gilles & Poirier were 3rd. Same top 3 as this year's Worlds. Looks like the judges intend to keep them in that order for now.

I refuse to believe Evan Bates is straight.

I want his tight little ass to take a kiss-and-cry seat on my face.

R202, although I don't care for his skating, I agree that Evan is kind of cute. And he is one of the tallest male ice dancers in the field right now.

He's also a big supporter and donor to Joe Biden, which is also a plus.

Shirtless pic below:

Evan has beauty, height, gayface, and an Asian girlfriend.

He always comes off as so dorky compared to her

His tit looks a little glandular in R203.

Weed smoker?

That Canadian couple were boring as fuck. Even their costumes were dull. Apparently they had been doing the same routine for an unusually long number of years. I was rooting for the Russians even though the one of them was a spoiled brat (I can’t remember her name).

I’m surprised Katerina married David P. She’s really bounced around through the years.

Evan is also smart. Graduated from U. of Michigan.

R206, unlikely. They have to do drug testing.

Wait until some guy transitions to female and decides to compete in the women's competition.

The person at r210s clip has been training and competing for more than a decade and still skates barely above beginner level.

Wow R210 s video. Sasha's gotten fat.

R208 meh—it would rank no better than fourth or fifth in the UC system.

What does Evan do for a living? Last I heard he was married to costume designer Vera Wang - and then another Asian lady with the catchy name of Dang Bodiratnangkura. Photo of Dang and Evan - and his effusive proclamations of love. Yes, Evan, we believe you're straight. Of course we do!

R214, he does whatever he wants,I imagine. The woman he married is the daughter of a real estate billionaire.

He does her hair and makeup..

New photo of Paul Poirier on vacation in Mexico:

Evan Likesadick always looks in need of a shower!

US Nationals are Jan. 25-28 on USA Network and NBC (but mostly USA). Worlds are late March.

Did Gracie Gold retire? I thought she had a book coming out. If she had no nerves, she could have won 2 Olympics, but sadly that was not the case.

For person who was missing Papadakis and Cizeron, this is recent.

Bless you, R221. I just love them. Elegant and hypnotic. And they skate with the music instead of putting in spins and tricks wherever just to score technical points. I hope they're still skating competitively.

They're not, R222. Just exhibitions.

Argh, R223... Why can't we have nice things?!?

NBC TV broadcast the Women's event from U.S. Nationals tonight.

Saturday will be the Dance event, and Sunday the Men. They will be broadcast on Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.

Isabeau flopped big time.

The non-binary chick won.

It's sad that USFS can only seem to get sponsors for the geriatric set now. Prevagen, Sunsweet prunes. You've got giant bottles of lotion and ads for a cancer hospital in the kiss and cry. The fanbase is dying, literally.

Get your wheels at Discount Tire, won't you? Maybe on your way back from your oncologist visit?

I've only watched the rhythm dance and pairs short, but There. Is. No. One. There. Maybe the audience is on a river cruise. Pitiful. Of course, there's not much to watch on the ice either. I can appreciate Chock/Bates' skills, but they've never done much for me. I would be fine with Parsons/Green doing their Martha Graham routine again, but I guess that's out. Malininn can jump/rack up points like no one else, but there's largely just a lot of arm flailing in between. I don't watch the women. On the plus side, it's nice to have Terrence, Tara and Johnny actually there and not just patched in from their living rooms.

Can someone explain why the pairs routines are so very similar? Futz around for a little bit, throw twist, side by side something, then he throws her a couple of times, some more footwork, big weird lift and fini. Nearly always in that order. WHY? I know they have to do all those elements, but why it nearly always the same? No wonder people are tuning out out of boring sameness. (Sidenote: Hello, Balasz Nagy...)

R227 & R228, figure skating seems to be struggling in North America right now, thus the sparsely populated arenas. At least the U.S. still has TV coverage for figure skating, unlike Canada which stopped its TV coverage this season.

Anthony Ponomarenko (son of Olympic champion ice dancers) has the most beautiful blue eyes.

Malinin.

Jason Brown

Congratulations to Camden Pulkinen for winning the bronze at Nationals. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on his twinky ass.

And Amber Glenn, landing a 3A and winning gold. She's 24. nice to have a grown woman win something.

The adorable Camden Pulkinen:

The culture has given up on figure skating.

The spectator crowd at Nationals was pathetic. Even for Ilya's skate, there were tons of empty seats. When NBC panned away before other performances, the arena was half empty.

In Columbus, Ohio, where there are so many other things to do...

The empty seats were the expensive ones that the public couldn't buy. Probably reserved for the mucky mucks.

The venue was full on Saturday night. Many people would probably have had to travel home on Sunday if they work the next day. Locals who are just casual fans might have preferred to watch football on Sunday.

That makes no sense.^

I had a ticket for the men's finals, but didn't go. I got up and it was raining pretty heavily and mixing with snow. I would have had to drive over two hrs in that, so I decided to watch on tv, which gave me a better view than from the seat that I had had.

From the WaPo:

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has granted requests by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union to suspend Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva for four years dating from before the 2022 Beijing Olympics, following her positive test for a banned substance. The ruling, announced Monday morning, likely overturns the Russian Olympic Committee’s gold medal-winning performance in the skating team event, which would allow medals to be awarded after being in limbo for almost two years.

ESPN article

Nice to see Vanessa James get an Olympic medal.

I've been to a couple of Winter Olympics figure skating events, and, alas, per R240, for something like skating the view is always better on TV. Especially now that we all have HD TV at home, and they've vastly improved the number of camera angles at the rinks. Yes, of course, it's great to actually be there in the venue, but unless you have a spendy front-row seat the skaters can be pretty distant and small. (Speaking of front-row seats, there used to be a group of four or five middle-aged women who always had front-row seats at the big events and wore the same jackets, sometimes printed with the US flag, sometimes just sparkly. I was looking for them at Nationals and saw just two women dressed alike sitting together down front, so maybe their numbers are dwindling just like the audience numbers.)

And speaking of camera angles, when did they start having an on-ice cameraperson filming the skaters as they skate off the ice after their performance? Nationals was the first time I'd seen that.

Good to see that Russia is finally being held accountable for doping, R241 & R242. Hope this means that they lose the gold. This should mean that the USA wins Gold in the 2022 Team Event, Japan the Silver and Canada the Bronze. It's a shame that the other athletes have had to wait nearly 2 years for this to be resolved.

I'm happiest for Vincent, Karen and Wakaba.

Without Valieva's points, I think Russia would still get the bronze, but I guess they could disqualify Russia altogether. And in that case, I'm also really happy for poor Roman Sadovsky.

R246, yeah, hopefully Canada will get the bronze. I felt sorry for Roman Sadovsky too. He didn't perform well since he was nervous about having to replace Keegan Messing who was held up by Covid testing. If Canada gets the bronze than our hottie Paul Poirier will become an Olympic medalist, too.

Russia does not accept results of investigation. Surprise.

This is a shameless plug for Jordan Pierre-Gilles. He's handsome and I would guess currently available to the right, um, person. And yes, he does racing instead of figures, but whatever.

I used to LOVE pairs skating! Lloyd Eisler and Isabelle Brasseur were so great - he was this super tall guy who looked like Frankenstein, and she was a little bitty thing; he would FLING her across the ice - it would take your breath away - and she always landed perfectly. And they did insane lifts too. Despite all their hype, I was never much of a Torvill and Dean fan, but I LOVED Paul Martini and Barbara Underwood - they had so much chemistry. I still watch their "Unchained Melody" routine from time to time.

Ice dancing did ruin pairs - nothing to see there.

R250, I always enjoyed Germany's Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot. Again, she was a wee thing and he a seemingly massive oak tree who would hurl her through the air and she'd land like a cat. Also loved China's Sui and Han. She looked like she would cut a bitch without a second thought. (I'm sure she's a lovely person, of course.)

Sui and Han have a cute older brother/little sister relationship. Here's an old but adorable interview.

So Jackie Wong, online skating journalist or whatever, says the ISU has spoken. Russia demoted from gold to bronze after Valieva's points taken away. Team Event from Olympics: Gold USA (yay Vincent & Karen!), Silver Japan, Bronze Russia or whatever they called themselves.

Euros changed too: Gold Scherbakova, Silver Trusova, Bronze Hendrickx. (before all this shit happened, it was Gold Valieva - so Loena got a new medal!)

R253, Skate Canada is considering appealing the ISU decision to give Russia the bronze over Canada. Lots of people are pointing out that the ISU has made a mistake in its mathematical calculations of the reapportioned results.

Here's the Skate Canada response:

Christine Brennan:

Canada deserves the bronze. After Valieva is disqualified, every lady is moved up 2 points, for long and short. This gives Canada 55 and Russia 54 total points.

ISU is a shitfest.

Christine Brennan article:

I hope Canada wins their appeal! May be the only major medals Roman or Maddie ever get.

True, R258. Roman and Maddie are not likely to ever get on the World or Olympic podium by themselves.

In any event, it is important that the ISU resolve this issue in a way that holds Russia accountable for its conduct. Hopefully USA & Japan will be backing Canada on this.

The U.S. already has…

Canada should get bronze, but in no way does Roman deserve an Olympic medal for those terrible performances. I don't believe in participation medals. The team competition was just a bad idea since its inception and I wish they would do away with it.

Hard to believe this is THIRTY FOUR years ago..!

Hottie Paul Poirier & his partner just won the Ice Dance title at 4 Continents.

TV Heads Up: NBC is broadcasting 4 Conts later today (Sunday) from 12-2 PM EST.

^ It wasn't hard to win. Three of their biggest competitors weren't at Four Continents.

True, R264. But it still gives Gilles & Poirier more momentum going into Worlds than they had at this time last year when they had to withdraw.

Btw, I like Paul's new blue shirt in the Free Dance.

New photo of Paul Poirier shirtless, posted by his boyfriend:

[...]

R267, yeah, Paul is famous for his great ass muscles. I have tickets for the World Championships in Canada next month, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in person. 🍑

R268, I am so envious. I have to work that week :( Plus, it's in the great city of Montreal. You'll find a lot of hot French Canadian boys.

New Paul Poirier photo shoot:

Skating. Figure skating.

Worlds in nine days -- March 18-24.

OMG. Shoma vs Ilia?

I like the sweet shy Japanese over the cocky Russian-American, but he'll probably win with tech. We'll see. Ice is slippery.

Isabeau's chance to shine - after dimming somewhat. Oh and Amber Glenn!!!!!!!!!! Represent! (mature women skaters)

Go Roman, redeem yourself!

[quote]Go Roman, redeem yourself!

Roman Sadovsky has a nice body, but yeah, he really needs to get his consistency together if he wants to advance up the standings.

Here's how you can watch/stream Worlds this week in the US. It's split about 50:50 between USA and Peacock, with some NBC thrown in.

So happy that Loena Hendrickx executed the short program so well. She’s such an exciting, dynamic skater to watch and she seems to have gained extra confidence after winning the European championship.

Is Loena still wearing those buttocks-revealing thongs? Thicc girl - for a figure skater, anyway, since Russia has set the skeletal standard before disappearing from the scene due to a doping scandal.