Kat: You're In The Loop - we're here to discuss the ups, downs and sideways of the sport of figure skating, and maybe give you +5 GOE along the way. Let’s introduce this week's hosts.
Yogeeta: Hi, I’m Yogeeta and I barely got any sleep this weekend because timezones. My twitter handle is @liliorum.
Becs: Hi I’m Becs and I’m keeled over in relief that I don’t have to worry about surviving Japanese competitions for a whole nother month! My twitter handle is @becsfer
Kat: I’m Kat and I cannot believe that the GP Series is over already! Find me on twitter @kattwts
Kat: Alright so, the Grand Prix series is over, guys, and we survived.
Yogeeta: In my mind, it's not over until the Grand Prix Final, but...
Becs: True, but we went through the really grueling portion of it and we get a break for a week - which is all that matters.
Kat: I know, I just feel so exhausted for some reason, even after all of this.
Yogeeta: Because you haven't been sleeping!
Becs: We went to two Grand Prix and then all the next four were not in our timezone. I just realized that - what were we thinking?
Kat: I know, my sleep schedule has been so weird.
Yogeeta: This is why I slept through Cup of China.
Kat: Yeah, that was a smart move.
Yogeeta: We can't all love ourselves, Yogeeta.
Kat: We should probably mention that this is our recap of Rostelecom and NHK, the last two Grand Prix before the Grand Prix Final, which is coming up in two weeks in Torino. So, I guess let's just get started with the Pairs. We have our winners of the Pairs in Rostelecom, Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii [of Russia], Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov [of Russia], and Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nolan Seegert from Germany. And the winners of NHK Trophy were, of course, my loves, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong from China, and then Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro [from Canada] got silver, and third place was Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov from Russia.
Becs: Pairs this Grand Prix series is just kind of a wild chaotic unexpected mess, it's just...
Yogeeta: It's so weird, this entire Grand Prix...
Kat: Pairs is rough.
Becs: It's like predictable in some ways as for the winners, but for everything else, it's just kind of been a muddled, everyone trying to really cement themselves and get a lead in the general pack.
Kat: I just think that it's always interesting to see which teams end up capitalizing on the momentum, and which teams end up faltering. Because, if we're going to start getting into it, if we're going to talk about teams capitalizing, Boikova and Kozlovskii really saw that door open with [Natalia] Zabiiako and [Alexander] Enbert out and were like, "Hello! We are here!" They really capitalized at Rostelecom, and they skated really lights out. They were almost perfect, in both programs. So far, they're the only team this season besides Sui and Han to score over 80 in the Short Program. They just in general look so polished and confident in everything.
Yogeeta: And their two programs also work so well with them. I remember last season, I liked them as skaters but I wasn't really into them because I didn't really like their programs as much. But this season they have the complete package.
Becs: Last year I watched them at Skate Canada and was so impressed by their elements and their quality and their lines, but I was like, "Eh, their program is very bland Russian Pairs."
Kat: It's Russian. Very Russian.
Becs: It's good, but it's not really interesting. But I'm a sucker for a good “[James] Bond” Free Skate. I know there are a few issues, you could argue the music cuts aren't the best or something, but oh my God, they executed so well and get so into it, and they both perform the hell out of it.
Kat: It's like the good kind of drama that really allows them to bring out their personality, and I already love the “Spectre” soundtrack. In general, I think that this Free Skate is really doing it for them.
Yogeeta: It also really highlights all their great elements, like all their placements of their jumps. Boikova is stunning per usual, she makes every moment of this program count.
Kat: Yeah, and I love how enamored everyone is with them. They're just like really cute, dramatic kids. Like come on, Dima's reaction at the end of their Free Skate in Russia, on the ice he was fist-bumping in the air, and she was like, "Okay dude, what?" She was cringing.
Yogeeta: I love their dynamic.
Kat: And then in the Kiss and Cry, he starts standing up and waving to everyone before the scores even come out, and she's pulling him down, like, "Dude, sit down. The scores aren't even out. Dude, calm down."
Becs: We love that confidence though. But yeah, for what a young pair they are, they're so polished and so refined. They perform every moment and it's just great to see. Even their growth, like they skated well at Skate Canada when we saw them, but here they just completely brought down the house, it was incredible.
Kat: Yeah, and I'm just really impressed by their grit. There are some elements that she definitely fought on the throw landings, but still her running edge, keeping her leg up. Her running edge is so beautiful. And even on the side by side jumps, I did not think that he was going to be able to complete the combo, the triple-Toe-double-Toe-double-Toe because his axis was so off during the triple Toe, and he still managed to chuck those double toes on. So, so impressed by them, and I think that once we talk about Boikova and Kozlovskii and their insane (I don't even know if you would call it a rise? Like, yes rise in the standings in their performance, but definitely just overall perception). I think that now the Russian Federation has fully backed them, because if we go on to a little bit more of a sadder topic of how Tarasova and Morozov did -- which was really weird, that RusFed decided to put Boikova and Kozlovskii against Tarasova and Morozov in both of their Grand Prix this season. I don't know how smart of a move that was.
Becs: It wasn't that smart, but the Russian Fed loves to do their really passive, like that's their entire theme this Grand Prix series, the passive-aggressive matchups between the young blood and the old blood and was like, "We'll throw you to the wolves and you can battle it out."
Kat: Right, and so Tarasova and Morozov definitely were not as much of a hot disaster here as they were at Skate Canada, which was really sad because we saw them skate live there.
Becs: They didn't abort lifts, I was just happy. I actually got to see their lifts this time and they were beautiful and they're so hard. The balance on those is insane.
Kat: They even lost in PCS.
Yogeeta: That's what was really surprising.
Kat: Yeah, so having them skate better here and still losing out… they honestly performed at a decently adequate level. It's obviously not the best we've ever seen from them, but given how much they've been struggling, I was more just happy that they were standing at the end and looked generally okay.
Becs: Yeah, their main issues were just their side by side jumps and a few other small things. They performed pretty well, they executed a lot of the elements with a lot of quality. It's just, in comparison, they didn't perform quite as well, and some of their tech isn't quite as strong at the moment.
Yogeeta: It's really heartbreaking for me because honestly, I think their Free Skate is probably my favorite program of theirs. And to see that they've been struggling so much, did we sacrifice a good program for not as strong elements? But they did make the coaching change and they're re-learning a lot, so I'm hoping that this is just the temporary issues that they're having as they're re-learning and learning how to work with their new coaching team. I really hope that they take these next few weeks to figure something out so they can make a really strong case at Russian Nationals for themselves.
Kat: Yeah, I think that for some teams, missing out on the Grand Prix Final is more of a blessing just because you get that extra time to prepare for nationals, which is where matchups and politicking and momentum really become important, especially within domestic rivalries.
Becs: Especially with Russia, because they have the deepest Pairs field by far in the world.
Kat: Exactly, so it might be a little bit of a blessing in disguise, just because I'm sure that they're obviously shocked that they didn't even make the Grand Prix Final with Zabiiako and Enbert sitting out, who were probably one of their major domestic rivals last season. It'll really be interesting to see but it is really sad, and I hope this is just a short stumbling block where they're making some transitional moves. But also at Cup of Russia, we had the premiere of Kseniia Stolbova and Andrei Novoselov. I was really curious to see them because it's been a hot minute since we've seen Stolbova compete. I was pretty impressed in their Short Program. They had a lot of things that needed to be worked out with them, but she is still one of the best Pair girls ever. Her skating skills are still top-notch, she can still land those throws, and her death spirals look amazing. But ooh boy, that Free Skate was rough. Especially Andrei - probably a little strength training is needed. Maybe putting two lifts right at the end of the program was not the smartest move for them because they got base value on 1, and then completely aborted the last one. This is still their first outing, so there's obviously a lot of room to grow, and maybe put them into shape. I know she can do it.
Becs: We have faith in her.
Yogeeta: I trust Pairs ladies to do anything.
Becs: Shall we talk a little bit about NHK?
Kat: Yes. NHK Pairs. What do we want to talk about first?
Becs: Kat, this is your chance. Gush a little bit.
Yogeeta: Gush about Sui/Han.
Kat: If you insist! Sui and Han, we have a world record in the Short Program.
Becs: Woo!
Kat: It was almost perfect, except for Allen missing up the spin.
Becs: Poor Allen.
Kat: Which they got a level 2 on. If there's anything that I trust with Sui and Han, it is them nitpicking every single detail and improving it for the next time, because that's what they do so well. In the last competition, they got a level down on their death spiral, and they got a level 3 and a V on their spins, so they worked on them. They're level 4's this time - well except for in the Free Skate, that death spiral level went down again.
Becs: I was really impressed by how much more polished this looked versus Cup of China, especially given how sick Wenjing was. Given that she was horrifically ill for a week and couldn't train at all, and they still looked this much better, it's incredible how fast they can improve a program.
Kat: And so that's why I am definitely not so worried as much as on the fluke fall on the triple Toe, because she said that she was holding back a little bit because her stamina was not up, she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to make it through the Free Skate. I have no issues with the triple Toe, it will probably be fine given that hopefully, she'll be injury and illness free for the next two weeks. But her triple Sal, guys, did we really just see Wenjing land two triple Sals in competition in a row?
Becs: I know!
Yogeeta: I can't believe it.
Becs: My shock, especially after the three T[oe] issues, like "Ahh!"
Kat: It was just amazing because obviously anybody that's been watching them for this long knows that this is her demon jump. I am so glad that the Sal is improving and I'm so happy that their pair spin is a level 4 now too. Like I said, they always pick things to work on and they always make the improvements that they need to make. So I am not so worried about them. In general, I think this is the best condition I've seen them at in a really long time. They've always had these struggles with injury, so I'm hoping that they just keep staying healthy and keep working consistently, not taking any big risks right now. If they maintain the condition that they're at, they should be at the top of the podium, no matter what competition, as of now.
Becs: So, moving on, we have a new favorite pair that we've adopted from NHK!
Yogeeta: I'm so excited!
Kat: I'm so excited to talk about them.
Yogeeta: This is me and Becs' time to talk about Pairs.
Becs: Yes, yes, this is where we get to really go off. Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara debuted and oh my god guys, they are so charming.
Yogeeta: They're so great, I love them.
Kat: They're so cute, they win for Kiss and Cry reactions.
Becs: Her unbridled joy in the way they just freaked out...they freaked out in the Short, but then also when they realized that they got the minimum TES for Worlds...
Kat: They've literally only been together since the summer because Riku and her previous partner Shoya Ichihashi split at the end of July, or at least that's when they announced their split. So there's no way they've been skating for more than four or five months. This is an extremely fast turn-around for them, and their elements look great. The twist is the one thing that needs a little bit more work, but the fact that they can land side-by-side jumps?
Yogeeta: They landed all their side-by-sides, I can't believe it.
Kat: And she has a throw triple Lutz.
Becs: Their tech potential is really good if they can get their twist and shape, and work a little bit on the complexity of their lifts.
Kat: And it honestly just encourages me that JSF is willing to put forward some funding to allow them to train overseas because they're being trained in Canada by Bruno Marcotte and Meagan Duhamel. That gives me a little bit more hope that JSF is like, "Oh, maybe we should actually invest in non-singles disciplines."
Becs: The fact that between like them having such a strong debut at home, which has got to be great for their confidence, but also the fact that they’re JSF and they're a new team, and they basically have so much potential along with Utashin [Utana Yoshida and Shingo Nishiyama] in Ice Dance, who were also only together for a few months and did so well. Like this is just so, it's so novel to be excited about non-singles disciplines in Japan.
Kat: I know!
Becs: But it's so great. Like this is what we've been hoping for years because Japan has so many talented skaters and then they just don't develop their other disciplines. So yes!
Yogeeta: I've also just really happy they had such a great debut at NHK. We all know when Japan hosts the competition, people show up, even for Pairs, like the audience was pretty packed. People got to see them, they got to know them, so I'm hoping that they'll get a lot of Japanese support, and also they'll be able to encourage other skaters that like, Hey, these other disciplines exist too. It's not just singles.”
Kat: I really hope that this is the start of just overall seeing a little bit more interest and coverage in their non-singles because Japan is filled to the brim with talented skaters and to see them all just bottlenecking in the singles is just... I feel like there's so much wasted talent, wasted potential.
Yogeeta: So many amazing skaters with great skating skills, just doing like singles when you could be putting those skating skills to work in Dance.
Becs: It's really, really promising. I just really hope they stayed together because Pairs and Japanese Pairs, you know? But they seem like they have a really good relationship like they look so solid and in sync for only having just gotten together.
Yogeeta: They look so happy together!
Kat: But Riku is also Sui/Han fan, and so she is a girl after my heart and she has good role models. She knows what good pair skating looks like, so she's aspiring to that level. I have a lot of faith in her motivation and in their ability to grow and also with that short bob cut, she looks like a baby Wenjing. Just when she flies out when she's just skating around the rank with her little bob cut like, it's literally the exact same hairstyle. I'm so, so charmed.
Becs: Really, really excited to see them at Four Continents and at Worlds. So fingers crossed, can't wait to see what their improvement looks like in another couple months.
Becs: All right. And now, we should move on to looking at the Grand Prix Final! We have qualified with 30 points Wenjing Sui and Cong Han from China, Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii from Russia with also 30 points, Cheng Peng and Yang Jin from China with 28 points, Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov with 26 points, Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro from Canada with 26 points, and Daria Pavliuchenko and Denis Khodykin with 26 points.
Kat: This is a very, very interesting field considering the only Pairs that are returning from last year's Grand Prix Final are Peng and Jin and Pavliuchenko and Khodykin and you know, the front runners for the Grand Prix Final are very, very different from last year as well. I think that no one is shocked that Sui/Han are the favorites to win. They've been to the Grand Prix Final three times prior, but they still have yet to win their first gold, so please let me have this.
Yogeeta: May this be the year that they actually win?
Becs: I would be shocked if they didn't like, honestly, I have literally no doubts that they will pull this off.
Kat: We'll see, because Boikova and Kozlovskii are the only team right now that has comparable scores, and they have been consistent, like I think that their consistency is what's giving them their momentum this season so far, because they have looked really solid, and they have great programs, and so their scoring potential is pretty high. I will say that since their second Grand Prix was in Russia, there is definitely the chance that their scores were a bit inflated, so we'll see if that they're able to make comparable scores with similar skates, like Grand Prix Final.
Becs: Yeah, it'll definitely be interesting, but basically in terms of who could do bronze, like it's definitely between both of these teams for gold and silver, but in terms of the bronze, it's literally like shrug emoji.
Yogeeta: Here's everybody else!
Becs: Any of these teams could do it. They all have really comparable scoring potential. Most of them have been really consistent.
Kat: I mean, obviously we weren't expecting Tarasova and Morozov not making it, so that was a shock. That's also probably what kind of putting more of the results up in the air too because they'd be fighting for gold.
Becs: It'll be interesting to see how all the different Russian teams pair off. I think Mishina and Galliamov have the advantage. They've beaten Pavliuchenko and Khodykin before.
Kat: They definitely have an edge because of their tech, because they're very, very consistent and they have that amazing triple Salchow-Euler-triple Salchow, that has looked incredible, so it's just a matter of how everyone performs on the day, honestly.
Becs: Which is a lot of the fields here.
Kat: I am very interested to see how Peng and Jin do, like in my heart, I would love for them to get bronze because they were like a surprise silver metal this last year, but their side by side jumps are always a huge question mark. I have no idea what is happening with her ankle, I have not heard any updates about it since Cup of China. They looked okay at Cup of China. It didn't seem like her injury was too aggravated if it's still bothering her, so I'm just curious to see because now they've had three to four weeks to prepare for the Grand Prix Final. They'd known that they were going to the Grand Prix Final for a while.
Becs: Other than Pavliuchenko and Khodykin, they've had the most time in between their Grand Prixs than anyone before Grand Prix Final, so hopefully they're in better shape and have had a little more time to really work on matters, because they were set back a lot by her ankle injury, but we'll see. It's pretty much just depending on whoever performs best, because as long as you're clean and you really performed the hell out of it and fight for it, basically anyone could get it.
Kat: I think that like Kirsten and Michael like getting second at both of their Grand Prixs, I don't even know if they were expecting that to be honest. Like they actually had some pretty tough fields to go up against, and they did pretty well, and with identical total scores, which is freaking hilarious.
Becs: Literally, what kind of witchcraft. If you look at the scores too, if they stacked up against most of these, like those are consistent enough scores to potentially beat people.
Yogeeta: It'll be really hilarious if they get that same score at the Grand Prix Final.
Becs: That's just their official score for the season. We accept nothing else. [Hosts laugh]
-end segment-
START: Men
Yogeeta: Onto the men! At Rostelecom, we had Alexander Samarin of Russia in gold, Dmitri Aliev also of Russia with silver, and Makar Ignatov also of Russia in bronze. At NHK Trophy, we had Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan in gold, Kevin Aymoz of France in silver, and Roman Sadovsky of Canada in bronze.
Kat: Chaos reigns supreme in the men this season!
Yogeeta: Well, the chaos is reigning supreme everywhere.
Becs: The sheer amount of medalists in each event who did very well who are not making the Final - although Boyang [Jin] did sneak in, so good for him!
Kat: That's probably the wildest development I think of the season, is Boyang suddenly sneaking in.
Becs: Yes, but we'll get to that later. But like seriously, it's because the field right now is just so clearly Yuzu and Nathan-
Yogeeta: And then everyone else!
Becs: Battling it out and having like nervy meltdowns and then someone doing really unexpectedly well.
Kat: Although I'm going to be honest, if I had to pick between the field being chaos, or Yuzu being chaos, I would definitely pick the field. I think I've had enough of Yuzu chaos.
Becs: The fact that Yuzu was like the chill and predictable one other than some unexpected last-minute layout changes, it's good. I'll take it.
Kat: It's always good to have a level of unexpectedness.
Becs: I really like it because it's made men really exciting this year because you really have no idea what's going to happen. At the same time, I kind of missed when we had, you know,
Kat: Men who could land jumps consistently?
Becs: And like last year's Grand Prix Final when it was not like who's going to get bronze or who's going to get silver, but it’s literally like who's going to win because we have no idea. This is a good potential because if there's so much competition at the lower levels, you don't really push everyone to improve, so it's good. We're just in kind of a weird limbo where there's just a big gap between parts of the field and the rest, but it's still really exciting.
Yogeeta: Pretty large gap there.
Becs: All right, so I think one thing that was really fun about these events is that we had some utterly surprised bronze medalist with Roman and Makar just coming up nowhere and taking their opportunity.
Kat: So I was on vacation when Russian test skates happened, and so I remember when I sneaked into the chat during my vacation and seeing everyone yell about this Russian test skates boy, I had no idea who this person was until I watched Rostelecom.
Becs: I vaguely remember him from Juniors, but then he was off for a season just because of injury. So the fact that he came back this strong and he just showed up, I always love to see someone just really take a window of opportunity and just absolutely go for it and be like, listen, I'm here.
Kat: Because if there's anything, like the men's field is chaotic right now for sure, but none more so than the Russian men right now.
Yogeeta: Oh, Russian men.
Becs: Like it's chaotic, but last year was really depressing.
Kat: Right? Because no one was doing well.
Becs: No one. Dima was injured, [Mikhail Kolyada] was injured. I mean, Misha hasn't really skated this year, but at least he's taking steps to fix that now and recovering from the surgery.
Yogeeta: And Samarin was inconsistent.
Becs: Maxim Kovtun won nationals and then retired because he was so injured, it was just really depressing. Granted, I have issues with some of the Russian scoring and inflation and politicking, but it is nice to see the general competition in the field rising really well. It's a little more interesting.
Kat: It was very interesting watching Makar because like again, this was more or less my first impression of watching him, and I got a lot of Stephen Gogolev vibes from him, he is a real jumping machine. They're not the best technique-wise, but he can get them done.
Becs: He's really solid.
Yogeeta: He rotates really quickly in the air, which I think helps him a lot.
Kat: I got to say for a first impression, I remember being like, whoa, but definitely could use a lot more work in terms of the programs and like the skating, overall skating, but I'm interested to see how he'll play it though.
Becs: Like his scoring at NHK, he, unfortunately, didn't skate nearly as well at NHK, but as scoring at NHK made a lot more sense. 80 PCS in the Free versus like 72 ish at NHK.
Kat: Remember when he was leading the Short Program for so long at Rostelecom?
Becs: Oh my God, that was so bizarre.
Yogeeta: I remember waking up to go check in on Men's for Rostelecom, and I was like, “Who is this person who has been leading the Short since like a group ago?”
Becs: But it's really great to see someone have a really strong Senior debut at home, that I'm here for.
Kat: And I think given that he was skating back to back at NHK and he probably had it in his mind now, “Oh my god, I could have a chance of making the Final.” It's a possibility that got into his head a little bit, which is totally understandable, so I don't really fault him for that, but I think for him, he should be really, really proud of how well he did this season so far.
Yogeeta: Let's talk about that other surprise bronze medalist.
Becs: Yay, Roman!
Yogeeta: I might not like Roman's programs, but I really enjoy watching him skate.
Becs: He's a really pleasant skater to watch, he has really nice skills and basics.
Yogeeta: Yeah, he has great ice coverage, really nice skating skills, and he has like the best spins.
Becs: Oh, his spins are so great and honestly like when he lands jumps like they look nice and solid and he gets nice flow out of them.
Kat: He does, he really does. He gets really into it when the jumps go well, it's always nice to see the program open up.
Becs: And we haven't seen him skate this well in a really long time.
Yogeeta: I think the last time was maybe like Autumn Classic last season. I'm really excited for him because Canadian Nationals isn't super deep, but like him versus Nam versus Keegan - it'll be really interesting to watch there.
Becs: Yeah, I mean given that they only have one spot for men at a home Worlds, it's going to be like honestly, out of all the Canadian men, if Keegan didn't quite perform as well as potentially he could have, but I mean, I have faith that like by Nationals, Keegan could show up and skate stellar, because he's capable of really great skating. So Canadian Nationals is going to be pretty exciting because the Canadian men have done quite, quite well in the series so far. Even now I'm like, Nam did not podium at Rostelecom like we had maybe thought he might be able to, but he's still skated really well. He was still really solid, and he really performed. So I'm excited to see what Canadian Nationals look like and hopefully, they can all just put their best skate forward.
Kat: Some other highlights from Rostelecom, man, Shoma.
Yogeeta: Shoma at IDF was heartbreaking. He really needed those two weeks with Stephane. This clearly is not the best that he has ever done and nowhere lives up to the actual potential, but it's far in a way, like so much of an improvement over what he put out in France. It's not what's the skate he wanted, but I'm happy he was able to see that he can still perform.
Kat: I just hope that this inspires a permanent movement or at least like a wake-up call that he needs.
Becs: From his comments post-Rostelecom, he seemed to really indicate that he really understood the importance, like it’s clearly made such a difference with him to just have some sort of more present coach for even just the two weeks that he seems really decisive that like, I can't sit out the rest of the season coachless and I'm going to have to make a choice. And it sounds like Stephane will be with him at Nationals?
Yogeeta: Yeah he's going to be training with Stephane [Lambiel] until Nationals, and then afterward I think they're going to make a decision of whether Shoma is going to stick with him for the long term.
Becs: At least it seems very very clear to Shoma that he can't keep up this situation and it was really bad for him so hopefully he can get on track later. I'm a little worried just because Sota [Yamamoto] and Keiji [Tanaka], although he had a rough outing at Cup of China, and Yuma Kagiyama [Yogeeta: Yeah, looking at the Juniors] have been doing great. Luckily Japan has three spots for Worlds so it's not really a bloodbath like it was back 7 years ago.
Kat: But it is interesting to see the field open up a little bit in the Japanese men.
Becs: I'm excited because it used to be that Japanese Nationals was super predictable, so hopefully he can get it together. I'm worried about his jumps, it seems a little bit mental and a little bit a combination of sloppiness and lack of proper training. I miss when Shoma was up in the equation with Yuzu and Nathan and neck and neck versus the fact that now his scores have been so tragic.
Yogeeta: That was just last season, Becs!
Becs: There are still four months before Worlds so hopefully– I mean, Stephane wouldn’t be my pick for a coach in terms of jumps.
Kat: I was just gonna say.
Yogeeta: I think Stephane is going to be a great coach to have just for the mental aptitude, which I think Shoma needs.
Becs: Yeah, fingers crossed things work on the trial and things will be better moving on. So we have Dima, who is still living this season, a blessing! It's great not to be injured, I love a non-injured Dima who's doing so much better.
Kat: I was really worried about him after last season.
Yogeeta: He's remembering his Axel’s, also really important.
Becs: Yes there are Axel’s present. His jumps math is still off. He needs to go to the Yuzuru Hanyu school of yolo layouts. I need Yuzu to hold a training seminar at the Final – not that he should have the time - but seriously if he could just give a quick PowerPoint about how to quickly calculate jump layouts...
Yogeeta: Maybe at the banquet, after it’s over he could put together this presentation.
Kat: But yeah I was just really happy for him that he made the podium and he is able to make the Grand Prix Final this time around. He looked so much better too than at Skate America. Skate America, he kind of had a rough skate.
Becs: In my opinion, I don’t think he was lowballed on PCS but I think in comparison to Samarin who beat him on PCS I would say he was lowballed in contrast. I think his PCS are roughly where they should be, it's just Samarin's were an easy 5 to 7 points higher than I would put them at. Anyway, really excited to see him in the Final so yay! He survived.
Yogeeta: A quick shoutout to Deniss [Vasiljevs] for skating a backup Short Program in Russia.
Becs: He did well, it was really nice. Deniss, he's still a little frustrating in that his jumps are not quite where one would hope, but he performs so well. His performance skills, his spins are incredible. It was great to see him have– compared to last season his Grand Prix's have been much more solid and he's placed really well. His "I love cheese" comment was the funniest thing in the entire Rostelecom.
Yogeeta: True highlight.
Kat: Hilarious.
Becs: He got a rat plushie and was just "I love cheese!" and Stephane hates cheese so it's even better knowing that background. We love cheeky students.
Yogeeta: Moving on to men at NHK. Let's talk about the one and only Yuzuru Hanyu.
Becs: He survived!
Yogeeta: He survived two competitions injury-free!
Becs: I have spent the last two Grand Prix's Yuzu has been assigned to almost sobbing in bed in a dull haze because he was so injured at each one.
Kat: Three years.
Becs: I think the entire mood, including Yuzu and all his team, were all so relieved that he's healthy and going to the GPF.
Kat: I was so happy that he was in such good spirits but it was really humanizing just to see how nervous he was here.
Becs: When he took his opening pose, he was trembling for “Origin.” He was trembling so badly and my heart just dropped.
Yogeeta: I saw he was trembling and I was like, I've never seen Hanyu be nervous like this.
Becs: I've seen him be nervous but I've never seen him - he was almost skittering across the ice out of his opening pose because he was shaking so hard.
Kat: And for him to still do so well with that kind of stress!
Becs: With that kind of pressure and anxiety. We all know, we love Yuzu but he is so superstitious. This has really been the year where he has been facing each demon head-on and ripping it to shreds.
Yogeeta: And he's been triumphing, it's been amazing to just watch him do this. He was so happy to be going to the GPF.
Becs: It's been so long, my lizard brain is still worried about his training into the GPF or something dumb like that.
Kat: Hearing him in the Kiss and Cry with Brian and Ghislain, he's like "Going to the Final!" He was so excited, it really feels like so long since we've seen him at GPF. The fact that he managed to make it through the Grand Prix intact, two working ankles, without any illnesses.
Yogeeta: And it's probably his best shape that he's been in for a while.
Becs: Origin [at NHK] was not quite as good as Skate Canada, but given the nerves and all the pressure he was under, he did amazingly.
Kat: Yeah and we talked about how nervous he was, all of us were, but the fact that he was able to improvise his layout. Let's talk about this a little bit, he popped his second planned quad toe-Euler-triple flip into a double and then improvised a quad toe-triple toe instead of his triple Axel triple toe, and then yolo'd a triple Axel-Euler-triple Sal. What even - on the fly! That is insane!
Yogeeta: Also that triple Axel-Euler-triple Salchow is probably his best Axel combo that he's done all season and I'm so blown away.
Kat: Judge 4 giving it a 0 GOE, like hello!? I was absolutely on the floor over that. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, we can see– so far the quad Loop is the jump that seems to be the least stable of the ones that he's putting out so far.
Yogeeta: We've seen a steady improvement across his three competitions.
Becs: So far it's a little fickle but it's looking better than it was early in the season. And then Kevin Aymoz made the GPF.
Yogeeta: I'm so happy for him, also the panning away from the Kiss and Cry just as he realized he made GPF.
Kat: I know, that was so bad, I was like “Go back!”
Becs: I need that reaction because he was in such shock. His Short Program, he skated really well here. His Free was kind of rough, and he really had to fight for everything. The landings and the axis of his jumps still terrify me but I am so impressed that he does not sacrifice the program or the choreography or the transitions at all, even if it would make his consistency much higher.
Kat: I'm so happy for him though. It'll be so great to watch him at the Final because he really deserves to be there.
Yogeeta: And he's commented that GPF wasn't even one of his goals for this season, so the fact that he made it is so mind-blowing for him.
Becs: And then we finally got to see Sota.
Kat: Sota!
Becs: Sota Yamamoto! I'm never not going to be bitter because he really deserved two Grand Prix's, especially in this field given how much potential there was for doing well given how well he's done. But it was great to see him finally. We saw him at U.S. Classic but to see him in a Grand Prix and at home, skating with his idol too, Yuzu.
Yogeeta: He didn't need to take as much inspiration from Yuzu this comp though, like the quad toe pops.
Kat: He's usually much more solid on them but I can understand being nervous here.
Becs: Yeah I think the nerves got to him.
Kat: In general though, I really love his range of motion like his upper body movement. Especially during his choreo sequence and his step sequence, he is so fast and he gets such great ice coverage. I could use a little bit more facial expression. It's very similar to the problem I have with Jun but he's so young that he can work on it. I'm just super happy that he was able to perform here and do pretty solidly.
Yogeeta: I'm really excited to see, as we've talked about, Men at Japanese Nationals because it's going to be a time.
Becs: It'll be really interesting to see how he does and Sota, in my opinion, is one of the most inspiring skaters in the men's field in terms of his pure grit and commitment to chasing his goals and dreams and getting better. Seeing him slowly get back his triple Axel and his quads has just been incredible to watch. On to the GPF, our qualifiers are Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan with 30 points, Nathan Chen from the U.S. with 30 points, Alexander Samarin from Russia with 28 points, Dmitri Aliev, also from Russia with 24 points, Kevin Aymoz from France with 24 points, and Boyang Jin from China with 20 points.
Kat: Sneaking his way in.
Yogeeta: Oh Boyang, he made it!
Kat: His hilarious post on social media where he was just like "Oh should I film a vlog this week or something?" and he's like "Alright, no, I'm not doing it" once he finds out he's going to GPF. And then someone from the official Cup of China account was like "Go get your visa.”
Becs: His visa woes are unmatched so hopefully this goes better.
Kat: And he's got about two weeks so hopefully...
Becs: Hopefully this is not another visa tragedy. But, in terms of match-ups, it's basically Yuzu versus Nathan for first and second. There's no contest - unless Nathan or Yuzu gets horribly ill in the next two weeks - it's them.
Kat: Considering the margins that they've both won their Grand Prix's...
Becs: They've both been beating their field by between 40 to 60 points, it's ridiculous. Yuzu is still the only man to have broken 300 points so that is definitely hefty. But also both Yuzu and Nathan can change their jump layouts to be considerably harder if they want to, depending on what the other one does. I'm pretty much convinced Yuzu is going to show up to Torino, do his weird taste the ice rituals and then decide his jump layouts.
Yogeeta: I actually disagree, I think Yuzu is going to stick to the program we've seen him do these past two comps and will actually try a new layout at Nationals.
Kat: I feel like Nathan definitely is a lot more finicky about what he brings to each competition. Yuzu has basically brought the same layout to his competitions and Nathan changes it up a little bit.
Becs: Very much changes his layout on the fly. It's going to be really interesting to see. I'm really glad that they both seem– well we haven't seen Nathan in quite some time yet but hopefully he's doing well. I'll be really happy to see how they face off against each other.
Kat: It's been a while since they've competed against each other with both being healthy.
Becs: And then we have this complete...
Kat: "What?" for bronze.
Yogeeta: What's gonna happen with the bronze?
Becs: I love that this is so exciting but also what is going to happen?
Yogeeta: Any of these men can make bronze. Any of these men can make the case to be bronze at this competition and it's both amazing but also what is going on with the men.
Kat: Nathan is the only returning [skater] from last year's GPF and Yuzu technically did qualify but then withdrew. But the field is completely different from last year's. It's a wild ride for that third spot.
Becs: It's going to be interesting and none of these men have a particular reputation for being incredibly consistent, especially this time of year. Boyang gets more and more consistent so he might be able to pull it together.
Kat: I'm very happy that Boyang is a peak later in the season kind of guy.
Becs: Samarin has some of the highest tech ceilings and he also gets very generous PCS and GOE but I'm interested to see how that's going to look outside of Russia. Russia still goes very hard in politicking but it might be more reasonable.
Yogeeta: I'm very interested to see Samarin versus Dima lineup here.
Kat: Judging from Rostelecom it's looking like RusFed is backing Samarin and we know that RusFed is looking for a top guy.
Yogeeta: I will be very interested to see how an uninjured Dima in his third competition out will do because he has been improving steadily throughout his competitions this season.
Becs: It’ll be interesting, and even Kevin - if Kevin skates really well, and everyone else dies on their quads. Kevin is not the most consistent skater on his jumps but even he could have a really good showing. I’m not really necessarily hoping for him to medal but men have been so unpredictable this year apart from the top 1 or 2 men that I’m not making any sound predictions in any way. I’m just really happy we have such an exciting field with a lot of people who haven't been to the Final or haven't been to the Final in a while.
-end segment-
START: Ice Dance
Becs: For the Ice Dance podiums - at Rostelecom, taking gold we have Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia. In silver, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada, and in bronze Sara Hurtado and Kiril Khaliavin of Spain. At NHK Trophy, we had Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France in gold. Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin from Russia in silver, and Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri from Italy taking the bronze.
Kat: So, where should we start?
Becs: I mean, Ice Dance remains the most predictable in some ways but also this has still been, not necessarily for medalists, but overall, a little bit more unpredictable or a little more interesting in some of the progressions we’ve seen in certain teams and how other teams have struggled.
Kat: I think it’s that the field looked so different last year because there were so many teams missing, and so a lot of teams were able to capitalize and push up through the gaps a little bit. And now the top teams are back, it’s much harder understandably for there to be shifting of ranking in Ice Dance, just because there's so much embedded politicking in the scores. In general, Ice Dancers don’t mess up nearly as much.
Becs: Speaking of our world record holders, who got new world records at NHK, Papadakis and Cizeron. It’s interesting because they got such astronomic scores but their programs definitely have room to grow.
Kat: Papadakis and Cizeron, of the top teams currently, or the teams who are at the Grand Prix Final, have the best programs, even if some of their programs aren’t necessarily for me or my favorite of them. I absolutely love their Rhythm Dance. I feel like some of the top teams this season have really been slacking on their programs so comparatively I’m like, “I’ll take it.”
Becs: Honestly, their still such incredible skaters and their programs are really good, and people harp on them a lot, but their Rhythm Dance is what I wanted from this team. It’s so campy, it’s so fun. Yeah, they need to work on the timing a bit...
Kat: This program is what I feel like they’re like in real life.
Becs: They have really fantastic personalities and I like that they finally took the dare to do a Rhythm Dance that really shows it. So many teams this year for the Rhythm Dance really phoned it in or did some kind of antiquated vintage bland thing and Papadakis and Cizeron just delivered.
Kat: Honestly, I love this Rhythm Dance a lot. I was super excited when I first heard that they were doing Fame, but that being said…
Becs: That being said, there were some interesting things that went on here.
Kat: That doesn’t mean we are going to overlook some of the scoring that went on here. This is the first Rhythm Dance over 90 points, but wow, there are some things we need to talk about. The twizzles are probably the most egregious. Guillaume literally missed a rotation in the first set and still the lowest GOE on their protocol was the 3 that a couple of judges gave them on the twizzles.
Yogeeta: I think what was even more egregious for me is that when they did their Finnstep, they only got 2 of the key points, but afterward it went up to them getting all 4 key points after it was reevaluated by the tech panel, and I was like “No. You missed the timing and a bunch of other things. You guys should have gotten a level 2 there.”
Kat: And their stationary lift also went from level 3 during the program to level 4 by the time I checked the protocol, and got all 4/5 GOE by the end so it’s like hmmm.
Becs: It’s just frustrating because they are so good and they need to work on their pattern and they need to work on some of their elements, but they don’t need that kind of bump to win by a margin.
Kat: Again, it’s just frustrating because we do care about their scoring, and how crazy inflated their scores are, but it’s sad a lot of the discussion of great this program is, and how it brings out their fun side. It kind of gets lost because everyone’s so mad at the scores all the time.
Yogeeta: I appreciate Papadakis and Cizeron. I’m sure most people know I’m not their biggest fan, but I agree that they’re the top skaters in their field. They don’t need the judges to do this, they’d still win these competitions.
Becs: Yeah, it just makes people frustrated and bitter, which is really unfortunate because they have such good programs this year. If we want to talk about the Free Dance which is definitely a much more polarising program; I will defend this program to the death, because I am the sort of person who spends all my spare income going to really eccentric, bizarre, minimalistic modern dance things. The fact that they, one, took the challenge to skate to spoken word poetry that is really hard to work with. They worked really hard on doing interesting lifts. This program is so raw and minimalistic and beautiful and different.
Kat: There are things that I appreciate about this program, even if the program itself is not really to my taste.
Becs: I guess I get frustrated with - as someone who likes modern dance a lot, this is an extremely different program than the ones they’ve done in prior years, in terms of challenging, and how hard the cut is to skate to. From everyone I’ve talked to, it has a much stronger impact live, so I’m excited to see it at Worlds if it already gives me chills. A lot of people are like oh my god, it’s voiceover, and people are so anti-voiceover after last year, but there is an abrupt, jarring voiceover the way [Madison] Hubbel and [Zachary] Donohue chuck one in their program, and this. I would not classify this a voiceover, it’s the core thread of their program. It’s not a jarring interruption, it’s literally what their entire program is entirely built on, so I don't get that discontent from someone’s talking, because it’s such a salient thread running through the entire program that it draws you into their world. Moving onto other people who got to the final, we have Piper and Paul, who finally qualified.
Kat: It’s been a hot minute for them too.
Yogeeta: I was so happy that they made it, but [claps] please work on your Finnstep levels.
Becs: They’ve done the Finnstep beautiful, they’re an older team. Someone of these teams like [Lilah] Fear and [Lewis] Gibson have not been competing long enough to have had to do Finnstep before. I feel like every single year we do this, and look sadly at protocols like “Drill your pattern, drill your pattern.”
Kat: And, this is not like the Tango Romantica, which is notoriously one of the most difficult, with two sections.
Becs: They made it through both the Grand Prixs, without any heart-breaking performances. They tend to be a little shaky sometimes on the Grand Prix. It was just really great to see them. Their scores have been - they have been competing really solidly. They’ve been really strong technically.
Kat: It’s great for them to get in, after just missing out last season. This season is also a lot more competitive, so kudos.
Becs: Congratulations! So, another team that we are very fond of - Guignard and Fabbri.
Kat: Fond of, but also sad about.
Becs: It was kind of a hard competition to watch. There were kind of two issues - one was they had a last-minute change of their Rhythm Dance to “Grease.”
Yogeeta: Their previous Rhythm Dance was great. I don’t understand why they changed it. Especially, if you had to change it, fine, but why would you do it at your Grand Prix event? Why not wait until [Nationals]?
Becs: Change it between Grand Prix Final to Europeans, or something, then you have a lot of time.
Yogeeta: This timing was so weird to me. IDF was just two weeks ago. You did not have time to go and make a new program and have it perfected by your second Grand Prix event in the span of two weeks.
Kat: It just looks very very rough right now, which is understandable if they’ve basically only had two weeks to drill it.
Becs: The problem with Ice Dance is - yeah, with Singles you can kind of just copy a layout, and it’s hard to change a program - but Ice Dance you have to be perfect.
Kat: Especially considering they are very much a technical team. They’re amazing, but the reason why they’ve done so well is that they’re such great skaters, and Rhythm Dance is very much about how good are you as a skater. So, the Rhythm Dance is their strength, and messing with that definitely wasn’t a smart move for them, at least from my perspective.
Yogeeta: No, not at all.
Becs: Also, the fact that they did “Grease.” [Olivia] Smart and [Adrian] Diaz have such an incredible “Grease” program and it’s just going to bite very harsh comparisons just on the whole performance side because you might be the best technician but still. Also, they struggled a bit. They had a deduction because of a technical fall in their Free, which was really unusual for them. He’s recovering from injury, so I’m still just shocked they’re doing so well.
Kat: This was definitely the lowest Free Dance score they’ve gotten in a while. They usually score up in the 120s.
Becs: They looked shocked by it.
Kat: They were behind Fear and Gibson in the Free Dance.
Becs: Which is insane, normally, given their technical level - the technical gap between these two teams.
Yogeeta: Unfortunately, they won’t be making it to the Grand Prix Final, but hopefully they will take this time between now and Nats and Euros to figure out what exactly they’re doing with their programs, and hopefully Marco’s hand will heal, so they’ll actually be at full strength once Europeans happen.
Becs: Alright. Kat. It’s time to talk about the loves of our lives.
Kat: Time to talk about Stepanova and Bukin.
Becs: NHK was really fun, because there were a lot of teams from Skate America, and we all got to see these teams five weeks ago, in person, so seeing their improvement was really fun.
Kat: Especially because these guys had the most time to fix up any issues from Skate America until now because they got the first and the last Grand Prix. They definitely looked a lot sharper here than at Skate America. [Laughs] These guys and their almost costume violations in the Rhythm Dance. Kudos to Sasha’s composure under pressure. She saved her hairpin, she saved the tassels that nearly fell out.
Becs: The fact that she got the levels while dealing with that whilst obviously in like distress, and still sold it.
Yogeeta: After the Rhythm Dance though, she looked so mad.
Kat: She was like why me? Why again?
Becs: They looked in great shape, which was lovely.
Kat: They had tough competition at both of their Grand Prixs, it was going to be a tough ask for them to beat Hubbel and Donohue at home, and it was obviously going to be a tough ask for them to beat Papadakis and Cizeron, so I’m pretty sure they were expecting to just perform solidly and qualify for the Grand Prix Final. Hopefully, at the Grand Prix Final, we’ll be able to see the Rhythm Dance without any mishaps or anything. It kind of reminds me of how we had to wait - last year, they had the bird issue or the confetti issue at Finlandia [Trophy] and we had to wait until [GP] Helsinki to see their Rhythm Dance performed to its max potential. It’ll be fun.
Becs: It’ll be worth the wait. We also have our loves [Shiyue] Wang and [Xinyu] Liu, who have done so well this Grand Prix series.
Yogeeta: They have done so well this season, and they have two amazing programs.
Becs: They have 3 - shame on NHK for not inviting them to the gala.
Yogeeta: You are right. You are right.
Kat: Honestly, when I first heard they were doing “Chaplin” and “Black Swan,”
Becs: Those are like the most tired programs. I see them in Singles too much. I’m not excited. But, theirs are so good.
Kat: It’s a testament to the fact - especially for “Chaplin” - there’s a lot of commitment that has to be had to be able to pull off “Chaplin,” and they really commit the entire time with the facial expressions. They don’t lose steam and I think losing steam is what would make this program suffer, but they really commit to it the entire time.
Becs: They even commit to the “Black Swan.” Xinyu’s eyeshadow, man. Everyone should take note and follow. This is the sort of makeup that you should be doing. I appreciate also Adrian’s commitment to the clown makeup.
Kat: We appreciate men in eyeliner and eyeshadow.
Becs: Yes. Moving on, one interesting part of NHK was we got to see [Lorraine] McNamara and [Quinn] Carpenter for the first time since they had to withdraw from IDF from injury. You could clearly tell that they had issues with injury, and were just trying to get out there and get some traction with their programs. It was rough to see, because they had not the best showing, especially given what they’re capable of.
Kat: They finished last here. They’re usually much more polished and so much cleaner but I can’t even blame them because of the lack of training time, especially since it is already so late into the season, and everyone’s been drilling and improving since their last competitions, I can’t really blame them for looking so rough here.
Becs: We also had [Christina] Carreira and [Anthony] Ponomarenko who, unlike a lot of the teams we saw from Skate America, had a rougher outing here. [Yogeeta: Yeah] Anthony missed the leg grab on the rotational lift and it was kind of a disaster.
Yogeeta: I really love their Free Dance so I'm really interested to see how this is going to play out for US Nationals with the second, mid-tier teams because, obviously, we have McNamara and Carpenter, who are still recovering from this injury - I don't know if they'll be fully recovered for Nationals. CPom, they're usually pretty polished so this seemed like more of an unusual mistake for them.
Becs: We'll see. I mean, Nationals is going to be interesting because [Kaitlin] Hawayek and [Jean-Luc] Baker have also struggled and [Caroline] Green and [Michael] Parsons are a new team. So it's going to be interesting, seeing the battle for bronze - and the potato [pewter] medal! Since we get potato medals at Nationals! Looking forward to our qualifiers at the Grand Prix Final-
Yogeeta: We have Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France with 30 points, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia with 30 points, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada with 28 points, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the US with 28 points, Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin of Russia with 26 points, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the US with 26 points.
Kat: Anyway, I think gold is pretty much a lock here, right?
Becs: Papadakis and Cizeron would literally have to trip all over both of their programs to not get gold. And then next, we have Sinitsina and Katsalapov who are probably going to be silver. Their programs are definitely weaker this year and they've looked a little more vulnerable but still I think they have the benefit of clout and backing.
Kat: They have RusFed backing as of late.
Becs: Which is a very powerful element.
Kat: Yes, especially since Zhulin is their coach. But we have seen them falter in the past, especially Nikita's twizzles - that second set, where they have the arms outstretched. I always think he's going to topple over because you can see his arms wobbling up and down, whereas if you look at Vika she looks totally stable. Her arms do not shift in position or wobble up and down at all.
Becs: I've actually been really impressed with how much Vika has improved.
Kat: It's a shame that their programs, in general, are a little bit weaker this season but I still think technique-wise they're probably second to Papadakis and Cizeron overall. Their Rhythm Dance score is so far the second-best we've seen but I think that their Free Dance will be a little bit more up in the air.
Becs: I think some of the most interesting showdowns are going to be between the two top Russians pairs and the two American pairs.
Kat: It's going to be Papadakis and Cizeron and then a Russian and an American team.
Becs: Much as I would love Piper and Paul... It would make me so happy, but-
Yogeeta: Listen, there is the probability that it could potentially happen.
Becs: Honestly, I'm kind of excited this year. For instance, one, Hubbell and Donohue were at Skate Canada. They've had the most time to rework their programs out of anyone, because most of these teams - Chock and Bates had a bit more, but most of these teams have either just competed at NHK or at Rostelecom. But Hubbell and Donohue have had a while, and also Zach was very ill during Skate Canada.
Kat: For both of them he was pretty rough.
Becs: Yeah, for both of them. So it's kind of understandable that the performance might have suffered a bit and hopefully, they've reworked their programs as best they can. It's just going to be interested to see because Chock and Bates' scoring has been surprising this season. I think the US federation has probably decided to back them a little more than they were when they weren't sure whether or not they were injured last season.
Kat: In my dreams, Stepanova and Bukin make the podium, in third. But I don't know if we'll see two Russian teams on the podium.
Yogeeta: Honestly, I can't make any real predictions of who's going to get silver or bronze here. Anything can happen.
Kat: No, you can't! It's so interesting because the Free Dance scores, for the most part, barring Papadakis and Cizeron, have all been roughly around the 124 to 126 range. And none of them had perfect levels - none of them. So it's going to be interesting.
Becs: Basically, this is just me, as usual, collapsing on the ground and begging everyone to please drill - especially the Rhythm Dance and their patterns - and work on their levels. Because as much as levels still don't make quite as much of the decisive factors I would wish...
Kat: One of these days we will have that discussing again on whether or not lower-level elements should be able to get +5s and +4s - but we'll save that for another time.
-end segment-
START: Ladies
Kat: So, for the Ladies podium at Rostelecom we had Alexandra Trusova [of Russia] in gold, Evgenia Medvedeva [of Russia] in silver, and Mariah Bell [of the US] in bronze. And at NHK, we had Alena Kostornaia [of Russia] in gold, Rika Kihira [of Japan] in silver, and Alina Zagitova [of Russia] in bronze. So I think that there were a lot of redemptive skates by way of the second Grand Prix was much better than the first.
Becs: Yeah, in quite a lot of ways. So we had Evgenia who completely came out and absolutely threw down at Rostelecom. She hasn't skated two programs that well back to back in a very long time - arguably, maybe since the Olympics.
Yogeeta: I think it has been since the Olympics.
Becs: She really was like, "Listen, I am here." And she made some smart choices regarding her layout too - that helped so much.
Yogeeta: Getting rid of the Lutz in the Short Program for the loop was the best decision she has ever made.
Kat: Her edge jumps are so much better than any of her toe jumps, so I'm so glad that the loop is in instead of the Lutz now.
Yogeeta: It's just so important that she was able to get this done at Rostelecom because, especially after what happened Skate Canada, she needed this to prove to herself and her own confidence that she can still remain competitive in this field.
Kat: And that she made the right choice as well. I think that, given how uneven her performances have been since she started training overseas, there's definitely a little bit of self-doubt that naturally would seep in like, "Is this the right choice?" And I think that she really needed a performance like this to validate that "Yes, I've made the right choice. I'm going to continue with this." Because what broke my heart most when I saw her at Skate Canada was that it almost looked like she was defeated like, "I don't know how I did this." It was just really great to see that she was able to wash those doubts away.
Becs: Yeah, she did such a turnaround and it was fantastic. Also, continuing in the vein of people who had much better second Grand Prixs - and even just better competitions - Mako Yamashita. We were so happy because we all saw her at Skate America. [Kat: It was rough] It was hard because we had seen her last season at Skate Canada too live and she was incredible there. Seeing her struggle so much was really hard at Skate America so coming back and watching her really throw down and skate cleanly and solidly - that's got to be amazing for her confidence because she hasn't had that good of a skate in over a year.
Kat: I think that she really needed that for her own confidence too, especially because Nationals is less than a month away now. So being able to put it together now so close to Nationals is really good for her.
Yogeeta: Also shout out to Yuhana Yokoi. Firstly, she was at Rostelecom and NHK - so shout out to her doing this back to back. But also, she didn't have that great of a Short Program at NHK and she turned it around in that Free and skated her life out. I'm so proud of her.
Becs: I have been ridiculously fond of her ever since she was a Junior. Literally the moment that I found out that her hobby was gardening there was no going back.
Yogeeta: She spoke to you.
Kat: Your daughter!
Becs: But yeah, it was really good to see her skate so solidly. Especially since, normally, if you have grueling back-to-back Grand Prixs, you often perform a little worse in the second one, as opposed to better. So seeing that improvement at home with the pressure, I'm just so happy for her and hopefully this is a good mark of an upward trend. Another salient narrative that emerged from these Grand Prixs was a strong running thread of consistency. Alena, Rika, and Alexandra all really held up well to a lot of pressure and medalled very highly, either winning or getting silver at their Grand Prixs.
Kat: Alena - are we going to talk about how amazing she is? Especially at NHK, oh my God, that triple Axel.
Becs: Her world record Short Program, while I did keel over at the scores in general, she was so stellar.
Kat: That triple Axel with those transitions and with the distance that she gets on them - oh my God. It is just so wild to me how many triple Axels we're seeing this season.
Becs: Really good triple Axels!
Kat: Not just like a "We land this and get it done," but between Alena and Rika both at the same competition, landing such beautiful triple Axels - I was like, "Oh man."
Yogeeta: I still think Young [You] probably has my favorite triple Axel that we've seen this season.
Becs: Young, when she lands it, is gorgeous and also [Elizaveta Tuktamysheva's] is looking so much more solid too. So they're all just absolutely slaying it.
Kat: I think it's a matter of those three - Alena, Rika, and Young - all have different things about their triple Axels that I like. So I can't even pick a favorite. Alena has the best transitions and the best distance, Rika rotates so fast and she gets the rotations so clearly in the air and her landings look so confident. Young has a little bit longer of a set-up, but her landing has so much flow and speed out of it. The amount of quality that we're seeing in the triple Axels just feels like an abundance of riches.
Becs: I know, and also Liza's looks so much easier this season in general.
Kat: And it looks like she just hops into the air and gets into the rotations so quickly!
Becs: Especially given the dicey quality of some of the Ladies quads, it's heartening that the triple Axels, in general, when people actually do them, tend to be like chefs kiss. They're just gorgeous. I think the showdown [at NHK] was definitely between Alena and Rika and to me Alena completely did win the Short, no question. The Free, I'm a little dubious about. Rika skated cleaner than Alena and the fact that her technical element score was so much lower...
Kat: It was a little bit dubious.
Becs: Like I'm kind of okay with them getting about equal on the PCS. They basically were equivalent there which I'm fine with. I have more issues with Alina's scoring in that regard. But it was just kind of frustrating to see.
Kat: She would have won either way and because Alena also has other tech issues as well that got overlooked is the main issue because she has a very clear flutz. So that's one of the more egregious problems I see. It's especially glaring because I think that Rika is one of the few skaters that has such a solid technique on every single jump.
Becs: It's a little frustrating, yeah, but at least they both qualified, in the end. But basically, I'm a little frustrated on how much lower Rika's GOE was in comparison to Alena, given how well Rika also skated.
Kat: I'm really glad that she made the smart move to not go for the quad Sal, because I don't think it would have been worth it. She was going to make the Grand Prix [Final] as long as she was top four and she just did her normal layout. It's so close to the Grand Prix Final that I would not want her to risk that injury.
Yogeeta: I think she'll probably risk it at Grand Prix Final though.
Kat: Yeah. In general, with the scoring, I think the podium is exactly correct but the scoring felt a little wonky - especially when you look at Alina's scores as well. Alina also scored over 150 [in the Free].
Yogeeta: I think that's also what upset me more, not with Alena but with Alina and Rika's Free Skate scores being so close.
Kat: It's so funny though because the three podium girls all got 150 in their Free Skate and then the next girl was like at 130.
Becs: And the thing with Alina is that she was very much quite business in just trying to get the jumps done for most of the Free Skate, but given the Short she had and how far back she was, I don't blame her. She kind of just had to get her jumps done and make sure she skated cleanly. People always write off Alina and I appreciate the hell out of her grit and staying power because she managed to get through a horrible season last year, in terms of her injury. She's looking more solid, she's looking healthier, the field has gotten so much more deep with Trusova, Kostornaia, and Shecherbakova all going Senior - so her results haven't been quite as good this season as they were last season. She's getting more bronzes and silvers rather than just winning things but she's looking really good. I do think the fact that she won PCS-
Yogeeta: She won PCS in both the Short and the Free.
Kat: More glaring in the Short, considering the mistakes she made.
Becs: At least with the Free, she was clearly not as into the performance until she got the jumps done but she skated really well but for the Short, that doesn't make sense to me. If I look at it, I'm just like "Okay." I was really happy though to see her come back and skate such a good Free after that Short Program and a letdown. Moving on, we have to talk about Satoko a bit.
Kat: Go, Becs. You can be sad for us all.
Becs: Because she is like... Ugh! I know I turn into like a classical Greek widow, beating my breast, ragging my clothes and screaming the moment her PCS comes up but I looked at her protocols from Rostelecom and Satoko is not 3.5 points above Sasha and almost 4 points below Zhenya, as a skater in components.
Kat: If Alina and Zhenya are 9 to 9.5's type of skaters, Satoko should be a 12.
Yogeeta: Satoko's a 12!
Becs: So it's frustrating, I don't think there are any other skaters that I go blank with rage the moment I see their PCS. Anyway, she had to do back to back GPs for the first time, so that was a struggle. I'm glad she's changed to Lee [Barkell], I think in the long run it'll probably pay off but I'm a little side-eyeing their choice to drastically rework her jump tech in the middle of the Grand Prix Series because it's costing her a lot and it probably would have been better to move to him earlier and work on it or get through the season and then work on it.
Yogeeta: Well I feel like they're probably like, "We need to get her ready for Nats, at this point," and wanted to at least try it out because I feel like they probably didn't have as much hope that she would make Grand Prix Final, given the fields, unfortunately.
Becs: I don't know, man. But yeah, it was really sad seeing her struggle so much, like it was just unfortunate because she skated beautifully in a lot of aspects but there were just too many technical issues that held her back, given the strength of the field and how well everyone skated.
Yogeeta: Okay, let's take a quick look at the Grand Prix Final. So for our qualifiers, we have Alena Kostornaia of Russia with 30 points, Alexandra Trusova of Russia with 30 points, Anna Shecherbakova of Russia with 30 points, Rika Kihira of Japan with 26 points, Alina Zagitova of Russia with 24 points, and Bradie Tennell of the US with 22 points. So, who is surprised at our top three qualifiers for Ladies at the Grand Prix Final?
Becs: I mean, no one. Although, to be honest, I am very glad that Anna Shecherbakova did so well this season. Really, our surprise person is dear Bradie Tennell, who managed to sneak in.
Kat: Who was very much a "Let's see how everyone else does before we can see if she qualifies." I think she definitely got kind of lucky in that regard but kudos to her, honestly.
Yogeeta: Yeah, she's the first US lady since 2015 to make the Grand Prix Final.
Kat: Especially since she had back-to-back Grand Prixs too, at the beginning of the season.
Becs: Which is super impressive. Also, she had an incorrect call, I forget exactly what it was, but one of her jumps got called as a double instead of a triple in Skate America and she didn't manage to contest it in time. So the fact that she still won the tiebreaker and made it into the Final - because we were all really sad if that was going to be the reason that she didn't make it into the Final, because of the tech panel messing up. So thank God that didn't actually end up screwing her over. But looking forward to the actual matchups, it's going to be a really intense Final. This is going to be the event of the Final.
Kat: We don't know what's going to happen. Literally, anyone - there's a lot more variance in who's going to win that title, I think.
Yogeeta: Alena is leading the qualifiers over Sasha, which was my biggest surprise. But also the quality of her components is really whats getting her there. I'm really hoping that Alena pulls out the win here.
Becs: And then you have all the games - Sasha posted that she's training the triple Axel and if Sasha can somehow stuff a triple Axel or two into her Free Skate and Short Program... I'm not optimistic that it's going to properly happen and Sasha, out of almost anyone, tends to be the most up and down in terms of flubbing her jumps a little more. Luckily, she has so many potentially high scoring jumps that it doesn't usually tend to impede her too much but that wasn't necessarily facing off against this entire field so it'll be interesting. And one thing that probably concerns me the most about this Final is, given the heavy Russian presence versus Rika, who is probably the strongest contender for, say, silver or gold at the Final - the Russian fed was kind of unnervingly blatant in their politicking this Grand Prix season. And it came down to just really inconsistent narratives with Lutz edges, but they blatantly complained about Anna Shcherbakova's quad Lutz edge calls at Cup of China really opening and also post-NHK, they claimed that the reason Rika didn't include a triple Lutz into her program was not because of injury, because she's been pretty much injured and struggling to manage that all of this Grand Prix Series, but because her edge was wrong.
Yogeeta: Of everyone in this field, Rika's the only one with a clean Lutz.
Kat: There are many Japanese skaters that have issues with their Lutzes.
Becs: Right, but Rika is not one of them!
Kat: I don't know if this is just a power move because Rika right now is the only clear threat to any of the Russian Ladies, especially because she's the only Japanese lady that made Grand Prix Final. But the sheer irony of it kind of boggles my mind a little bit.
Becs: It's just disconcerting considering the trends in Ladies judging in general and I hope at the Final we can have more of a clear-cut competition.
Yogeeta: You have more hope than I do, Becs.
Becs: Well these are all incredible skaters. We have such a good lineup at the Final, especially the people like Alena, Sasha, Rika, and even Alina, who are in contention for gold and silver. The things they are capable of technically and artistically are really impressive so the fact that there is such blatant politicking going on in advance to shape the narrative and to pressure the calls is... We were lucky, I think, to have relatively strict panels at both IDF and Cup of China. So I hope that returns for Grand Prix Final, although I'm not terribly optimistic. But it was really refreshing to see fairly strict Ladies calling.
Yogeeta: I am interested to see if these comments will actually incentivize Rika to up her layout.
Becs: Yeah, it will be really interesting to see if she decides to include the quad Sal. I would not be at all surprised because it seemed like she ended up ditching it at the last minute at NHK but she was drilling it in practice.
Yogeeta: And I also trust that Rika would not put a jump in her layout that she isn't 90% confident that she can land it.
Kat: Yeah, it might have just been a strategic move at NHK, to take it out for the reasons I stated before but, if she did put it in at Grand Prix Final, then I would not question her judgment there.
Becs: Right, and I think the last key point that's going to be really interesting to see given that, sadly, we only have three spots for Russian Ladies at Worlds, seeing how the four Russian Ladies stack up against each other going into Russian Nationals - which will still have even fiercer competition with the people who couldn't make it to the Final, it's going to be really interesting. It's basically like the pregame for Russian Nats.
Kat: Oh boy... It's just interesting because, yeah, Rika and Alina are the only returning competitors to this Grand Prix Final.
Yogeeta: Well that's because the other three of them were at the Junior Grand Prix Final last year!
Kat: And they were all top qualifiers to their Senior Grand Prix Final.
Becs: Alina was literally the mom taking cute photos at their victory ceremony the last Grand Prix Final, and now she's going to be fighting neck in neck with them. It's kind of wild.
-end segment-
START: Shout Out of the Week
Yogeeta: So, our shout out of the week goes to Ryoga Morimoto, who is my new son. I love him.
Kat: Our Mozart dubstep remix king!
Becs: His performance quality of that outsold probably 95% of the Senior Men's field, in my opinion. It was incredible!
Yogeeta: I love and appreciate our future 2030 Olympic Gold Medallist, Ryoga Morimoto.
Becs: I know we're doing a recap of competitions and trying to encourage you to watch them but if you watch any program, if you need your dose of serotonin for the month - go watch that on loop like three times. You will not regret it!
Kat: Literally opening the whole gala with that too. JSF made such a smart move.
Yogeeta: Also just a shout out to JSF in general for always including their Novice and Junior champions to these galas because it's such a great opportunity for these younger skaters to actually perform to such a large audience because this is the one time that people are probably paying attention.
Becs: Like the first time I saw Rika and Shun Sato was at a gala for World Team Trophy back in 2017 because they invited them which I was like "This is brilliant!" Because it's so tangible what a fantastic experience that is for them and the fact that they invited Utana [Yoshida] and Shingo [Nishiyama] and got them some exposure for Japanese Ice Dance like yes please, keep it up! Invite them to everything, this is the way it should be!
Kat: Yes!
Becs: Thank you for listening, we hope to see you again for our next episode! Thanks so much to our transcribing and quality control team for keeping us in check, Evie for being our fabulous editor, and Gabb for being our brilliant graphic designer.
Yogeeta: If you want to get in touch with us, then please feel free to contact us via our website inthelopodcast.com or on Twitter. You can find our episodes on Youtube, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify.
Becs: Yes, please consider giving us feedback. We absolutely adore and appreciate it and take it all into consideration, so thank you.
Kat: If you enjoy the show and want to help support the team, then please consider making a donation to us on our ko-fi page, and we’d like to give a huge thank you to all the listeners who have contributed to our team thus far.
Becs: You can find the links to all our social media pages and our ko-fi on the website. If you’re listening on iTunes, please consider leaving a rating and a review if you enjoyed the show - it really, really helps us. Thank you for listening, this has been Becs,
Yogeeta: Yogeeta,
Kat: And Kat.
Yogeeta: Bye!
Kat: Bye!