But instead I’m in mourning. Was it only a year that Joshua Farris and Jason Brown were going to be the next great two and the next great rivalry? Like Evan and Johnny, except better, and more dignified. Now we’ve lost a skater who could’ve accomplished so much. You just hope this isn’t going to damage Joshua’s health permanently. Jason’s farewell to him on twitter yesterday was both heartwarming and heartbreaking.
gracie gold
2016 Worlds, Ladies
The ladies event at Worlds ended up being the one that caused me the most anxiety. With the other three, if I wasn’t completely indifferent to the results, I wasn’t seriously invested in any one thing happening. In the ladies, I desperately wanted Ashley Wagner to medal, even though I didn’t know if she could.
Four Continents and a Comeback
Poor Kaitlyn Weave & Andrew Pojé, not having a good weekend. First they had a disastrous free dance at Four Continents, something which might or might not damage their cred going into Worlds, and now they’ve only gotten two years as the Canadian #1s with Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir coming back! Those two were good enough when they exited the scene to still come back to it in the top tier, and even if Weaver & Pojé have become good enough to match them, will the judges be willing to think that? Although when it comes down to it, are Virtue & Moir themselves going to be able to match our new French ice dance overlords? That they’re going for their coaches indicates they want to, but can they keep up? I wonder what L’Equipe will end up printing if the two teams end up being each others main threats to that gold medal in Korea.
Not a good weekend for Madison Chock & Evan Bates either. Much of the things that left them being the Shibutanis are mistakes and level issues that could easily be reversed in Boston, but they couldn’t have liked getting lower PCS than them in the short, even by a fraction, and really, losing to them twice in a row just looks bad. Really, the only dance team it was a truly good weekend for were the Shibutanis. They’re starting to look like the the home team’s best hope for a medal at Worlds, and that is a very important thing to be in figure skating.
Especially since Gracie is still not giving much hope that she’ll be the one to put it together for the podium. And if Satoko Miyahara skates at Worlds the way she did here, it may be harder to unseat her from her place on it than it would be unseat Elena Radionova. The home audience may have to hope the latter makes a mistake or two and/or Ashley rotates all the things(I’ve even heard it suggested we should send Mirai to Worlds, but they can’t bump Gracie when she won Nationals, at this point leaving Ashley off the team would be even crazier than it would have been two years ago, and if they didn’t bump silver medalist Polina then, they certainly won’t now).
Even more worried about the American boys. They skate like that at Worlds, even if Adam Rippon, not the most reliable of guys either, puts it together that third spot will definitely be gone. Meanwhile, very impressed by Boyang Jin’s artistic improvement. He keeps going in that vein and we may eventually have yet another unbeatable-if-he-skates-clean guy!
Post-Nationals Thoughts
If one must get snowed in by a blizzard, it’s nice to have U.S. Nationals to watch while the snow’s coming down. Heck, it’s even thanks to it I was home to watch the short dance! Although at one point storm coverage on NBC pushed it to an obscure non-HD channel that didn’t display right on my TV, but generally I’m more put out by IceNetwork freezing up so much, or going to low quality, to the point the score tracker wasn’t readable. That was some tracker, though. The ISU would do well to adopt it for international competitions. It was also interesting to see for the first time how many non-jump elements also get flagged for review, although it seems that often works out in the skater’s favor-i.e., Nathan Chen’s final spin initially getting voided, then getting credited after all, which was vital at getting him that impressive 100 TES.
Christmas Weekend was Russian/Japanese Nationals Weekend!
And we come out of it almost with more questions than answers. Such as:
Grand Prix Prospects After Two Events
General thoughts post-JGP series
Although most of my current thoughts are a lot more on we’ve seen at the senior-level events.
If anyone is going to stop a Russian sweep of the ladies podium at Worlds this year, it’s probably going to be Mao Asada. Wow, did she ever come back. On the other hand, I’m actually not that worried about Patrick Chan skating less than well at the Japan Open; it’s hardly the first time that’s happened. Same goes for Ashley, and as for Gracie…well, we still don’t know about her anymore.
But now I wish even more Ashley had gotten a new long program, because she wasn’t the only one to keep her Moulin Rouge long, and meanwhile, it seems everyone else is skating to it too this year! I hate to say it, because I absolutely love the movie, but there’s too much of it.
At least there are even less threats coming up to Ashley and Gracie from the juniors. Really, this whole situation is just getting sad. Only Vivian Le even being a medal contender, or even finishing in the top 15 in the standings. At least things are looking slightly better in the men and ice dance, where I’m especially impressed with how good the Parsonses have gotten. I’m sorry Deniss Vasiljevs didn’t make the finale, though.
Speaking of American ice dance, THE SHIBUTANIS NEED A NEW COACH. We always had reason to worry about how Marina Zueva would manage things technically, and once her already perfected pair of teams moved on, we see: not well. I’m not sure which coaches would be the best solution at this point, but if this goes on much longer the judges are going to get fed up, and with Hubbell & Donohue and Hawayek & Baker(we can assume nothing from Finlandia, what with that fall) already nipping at their heels, to say nothing of any other junior teams that might break through, they aren’t even certain to make it to PyeongChang.
Although I was impressed by the two teams that beat them at Ondrej Nepala, and more than I thought I’d be. It seems especially that Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier are further venturing into the world of voids, and it’s always good to have a ridiculously voidy team about. And I’m seriously wondering how much further Penny Coomes & Nicholas Buckland can go, if they can avoid getting this season derailed the way last season was.
Happy Konstantin Menshov won today in Finland, too. I guess if he’s going to continue to be fun to watch, sure, he can stick around. But nonetheless I’m kind of really sad Adam didn’t win on National Coming Out Day, because that would’ve been really nice. But Menshov won fair and square; it’s not like he’s someone the judges do too many favors for.
A few Grand Prix thoughts
So assignments came out Monday, and we’ve had time to digest retirements, non-retirements, and Jeremy Abbott apparently not retiring but skipping the Grand Prix anyway(if it gets him to Boston, we should be glad for it). A few thoughts:
Of course the initial rosters and the final lineups for these events can often be very different, thanks to all the withdrawals that happen in the meantime, but it feels even more this year like multiple skaters on the roster won’t show up. We can’t even be completely sure yet that Patrick Chan and Mao Asada will, and even if they do, there are multiple older skaters I suspect will either decide to retire or just get injured. Perhaps the real intriguing entries are Kavaguti & Smirnov and Bobrova & Soloviev, who’ll be factors for gold at their events-if they show up, but who knows if they will.
Though even more eye-raising is the lack of Adelina Sotnikova. Haven’t seen any announcements about exactly what she’s up to at this point, but that she’s not on this roster does not look promising for her continuing her career…
Then there are the skaters you are really happy to see make the circuit. I’m especially happy about Laurence Fornier Beaudry & Nikolaj Sorenson making it in(have there been Danish skaters on the circuit before? I mean, ever?) On the other hand, tough breaks for quite a few skaters who only got one assignment, especially Sinitsina & Katsalapov and Coomes & Buckland, who really should’ve gotten two, although at least they’re more likely than not to pick up a second. Meanwhile, we’ve got poor Mirai, who’s been in this position before, and it took a while for her to get her second event that time.
Speaking of U.S. ladies, it seems the failure of the USFSA’s gamble on Liza T last year did not prevent them from attempting it again, apparently hoping Julia L doesn’t recover in time and Gracie has a clear path to gold at Skate America this year. Although given how inconsistent she’s been lately, perhaps we shouldn’t rely on that anyway. Poor Ashley has it much harder, going up against Liza T at her first event and Mao at her second, and at the latter especially that’s just for starters.
More Worlds Reactions
I can’t help but lament for lost chances on this one. Although in retrospect, it seems neither Weaver & Pojé nor Chock & Bates had a chance in the first place. I’ve already heard dark remarks made about an Italian referee for this one(although then why didn’t C&L medal?) but the truth is Papadakis & Cizeron not only took over earlier than even most of us anticipated, they deserved to as well, and when the deserving are the ones probably politickaly favored as well, there may be no hope for at least the next quaddrennium; I don’t see any other team winning either of the next two Worlds either.
This might have been the last chance too for at least Ashley, and maybe even Gracie. In theory their free scores should keep them in place as contenders next year, but in practice, Elena R isn’t likely to be sick at Worlds again, and I suspect Julia L will come back kicking next year, and Adelina S may also return. It’s going to be much harder to break a sweep in Boston than it was here. By 2017 who knows what affairs will look like. Ashley’s free skate here was inspiring and heartbreaking both.
At least we got the full complement of home singles skaters after all, and it’s even kind of ironic that after all that fretting about the American men, they’ll now probably be the only team in that field that numbers three; Spain has the right to send three men as well, but I’m not sure they can find three who can get the tech minimum. I’m actually less grieved about the loss of the third Japanese berth than I should be though; apart from Hanyu all the best Japanese men of the recent years except Kozuka have retired, who knows whether he would’ve made it next year anyway, and so far their replacements haven’t impressed me as much as Joshua and Jason. I have really high hopes for them once Joshua gets himself together and Jason gets the quad. I’m looking forward to seeing a new version of Johnny and Evan where(dare I say Jason is too?) both skaters are actually better than their predecessors, and there’s none of that silly sniping.
Actually, I kind of love the lack of animosity between all the skaters right now, and Hanyu even cheering on Javier they way he did(loved Javier’s reaction in general). It speaks of a confidence and maturity on everyone’s parts that I think all elite athletes could do with.
But what I’m really sorry for berthwise is the loss of the third Russian dance berth, with so many talented teams from that country that ought to be there. Russian Nationals is going to be a bloodbath next year. I don’t know if it can happen if Sinitsina & Katsalapov come back strong enough, or even if they don’t, but I really hope Stepanova & Bukin make it to Boston next year. Of the three teams this year, they were the ones who were truly beautiful.
Also, for next year, can we have everyone agree to a moratorium on Phantom of the Opera? Just for one season, what with the overload we had during this one? Pleeeaaasssseeee?
Actually missed the final group of the ladies
Icenetwork shorted out and wouldn’t reload, and it was too late at night to fight with it when I was struggling with the same problem that disrupted Liza T’s crazy run at the Bavarian Open this weekend(poor girl, but her pulling out was very understandable. Mishin actually talking about it may be unexpected, but he probably doesn’t want anyone to think she’s going to have any problems at Worlds). But looks like I didn’t miss that much, looking at the scores.. Except maybe Polina’s true coming out party, though you might say she only won because the better girls blew it. But it still counts, it’s still an ISU championship title, and you can bet the USFSA and NBC will never give up on her now. And honestly? Even under the circumstances, I would say she still has proved herself, and not even for the first time anymore. Maybe she’s a little arrogant, thinking she can take on the likes of Elena R and Liza T just yet, but if she keeps going, by 2018, who knows?
Who knows about Gracie either anymore. This was her last competition before Worlds, and she still has not had a good one. She might be able to turn it around and suddenly deliver in Shanghai, but after tonight? It looks like the skater with the most chance of disrupting a Russian sweep is Ashley, especially given she’s the only one so far who’s already disrupted one(I thought at the time Gracie would’ve done it had she skated at the GPF, but can’t be sure of that anymore)
Oh, and can Kailani Crane go to Worlds?
We Need More Fruit 