Yogeeta: 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. I’m Yogeeta and I slept through most of these events at Four Continents because time zones, and I like sleep. You can find me on Twitter @liliorum.
Kat: Hey, it’s Kat and I somehow always end up on episodes that require me to watch competitions on the other side of the world. You can find me on Twitter @kattwts.
Yogeeta: So, this is the 2020 Four Continents competition taking place in Seoul, South Korea. Kat: I always love Four Continents.
Yogeeta: It's probably my favorite competition.
Kat: It's definitely one of mine.
Yogeeta: Every season, I look back and I'm like, what competition did I enjoy the most? And 95% of the time it's Four Continents.
Kat: Yeah, which I don't understand why some skaters skip out on it all the time because it's such a great competition. So, what did we think about Four Continents this year?
Yogeeta: Well, let's talk about the sound quality, because... yikes.
Kat: Oh yeah. If you were watching on the official ISU stream, you might have noticed that especially in the earlier groups, there was some real issue going on with the audio mixing. There was echoing that was going on, and the audio just suddenly cutting out, which is really weird, or it seemed to have been connected to the mike for the commentator, so whenever the mike shut off, the audio just went out, so you couldn't hear any of the music, which was like, "Why are we watching figure skating without the music?"
Yogeeta: It was extremely weird. This wasn't just from the stream itself, the audio at the rink itself was pretty bad. According to Lynn, who was at the competition, she said that she could hear everything twice, and it was especially confusing when skaters used music with lyrics or fast songs. It was also kind of mixed, because the sound quality seemed okay on the long side, but was really bad on the short side.
Kat: I was actually watching a couple of fan cams of the competition, and some of the fan cams from the short side, it was a complete one second after the other, which is just incredibly distracting. I mean, as a spectator, it's just annoying, but I really feel bad for the skaters, it was probably super distracting for the skaters. Piper Gillies and Tim Koleto both tweeted about the audio issues in the rink.
Yogeeta: Yeah. I feel so bad, especially for the ice dancers, for the Rhythm Dance, where they have to have that strict timing for their pattern. Like if the music is all messed up, they can't focus on their timing and their pattern.
Kat: Yeah, and it also makes it harder for the judges to judge too. We'll get into this with the ice dance, but the tech panel may have cut the skaters a little bit of slack considering the audio issues that were going on in the rink, which is definitely not preferable, especially for the Rhythm Dance.
Yogeeta: In other audio issues, can we talk about the commentary at this competition?
Kat: Oh my gosh. I'm pretty sure that this was the same commentator for Euros, right?
Yogeeta: It was, yeah.
Kat: All I can remember from the Euros commentator feed was that it was just generally an offensive...it felt to me very much like a radio commentator, which, if you listen to radio commentary, they narrate everything that's going on in the scene, like every single second.
Yogeeta: But he didn't even narrate it correctly.
Kat: I know, but it was just stuff like, "Oh, they're skating to this, wearing this", and making comments about costumes, and "Oh, the audience is cheering," or, "Oh, the energy in the arena is really awkward," which is...why would you say that? I do not understand. He seems like the guy you have sitting next to the technical expert, you know what I mean? He introduces everyone, and then you actually have an expert come in. Do you remember the Olympic commentator was Belinda [Noonan] with this truly useless guy?
Yogeeta: It's fine, we got like 90% Belinda. It was fine. What's especially frustrated me about Paul was that in addition to his useless rambling, he was also very offensive to Junhwan Cha. In his Kiss and Cry, he had received a traditional Korean hat, and he was wearing it during the Kiss and Cry.
Kat: And called him "John Wan."
Yogeeta: Oh my God, don't even talk to me about his pronunciation. He just spoke at length about how terrible-looking this hat looked like on Jun, and how he should take it off, and he kept commentating about it for a solid minute.
Kat: Yeah, and then it fell off his head or something, and he said something like, "Oh, he must've gotten the memo." Just like, what?
Yogeeta: For me, that felt particularly offensive because Four Continents was in South Korea, you should at least do your research and know about the culture of the place where the competition is taking place.
Kat: Especially for a skater that's skating at home, too. He definitely made a lot of really poor commentator choices.
Yogeeta: He also spent an extraordinary amount of time just commenting on people's outfits and it kind of went from general commentary to being extremely rude.
Kat: I mean, if I had to pick between commentator and no commentator, I'd obviously pick no commentator, but if we're going to have a commentator, then you would at least expect them to have some working knowledge of figure skating and also some cultural context, and just generally having a filter for when's the right time to say what.
Yogeeta: Obviously, I do prefer no commentary and no speaking during programs, but if you are going to speak during programs, I think Belinda Noonan is the status quo for that, because during the Olympics, whenever she spoke during a program, it was because she was talking about the actual elements happening on the screen, and telling you why it was a good element or a bad element, and I honestly learned so much from figure skating from her. She exists, ISU. Hire her.
Kat: Yeah, and honestly Charlie and Tanith were good about it during US Nats as well. Yogeeta: They were great.
Kat: They also have gotten a lot better, especially in the past, I used to think Tanith talked way too much, but now, I think maybe NBC gave them the memo of just, "Hey, maybe just don't talk during the program and comment afterward," which, great. This is how we like it.
Yogeeta: Now that we've complained about all of the audio issues, let's actually talk about the event itself.
Kat: Yes, which honestly, as far as final results came down, and quality of skating, it was pretty decent.
Yogeeta: I'm honestly not mad about any of these podiums.
Kat: Yeah, I feel like this competition went very swimmingly. So, let's start with the pairs. In gold, we had Sui Wenjing and Han Cong from China, [in silver,] Peng Cheng and Jin Yang from China, and in bronze, we had Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro from Canada. Let's just start at the top, I supposed?
Yogeeta: I'll give you your time to shine.
Kat: Oh no, I want you to join in too. Sui and Han, of course, everyone knows are my faves, definitely had me a little bit worried after the Short Program with that mistake on their throw double flip, which apparently is because both hands slipped on her dress during the throw, and so, probably as a survival tactic so that she didn't risk injury, she just popped it in the air into a double. She said that the same problem occurred in Grand Prix Final, where just one hand slipped, and at Grand Prix Final, they had a mistake in their Short Program where she touched down with her hand on the throw triple flip, which had me really surprised because they almost never make mistakes on that throw. And she wanted to fix it after Grand Prix Final, but he said it was fine, and she was like, "Nope, we're definitely changing it now." She sounded so mad at the press conference.
Yogeeta: Honestly, you could still see it on her face after she landed the double flip that she was pissed.
Kat: Yeah, and then the Kiss and Cry too, when the score came up, I saw him put her hand on her hand, and she moved it away, I was like, "Oh shoot." Honestly, I always think their PCS is the top of the field, should be no competition for PCS when Sui and Han are competing with anyone. I think that their PCS was on the low side, because they didn't even hit 36, but I'm fine with it, because as much as they try to get it back, you could tell they were a little bit distracted by the mistake. But overall, I don't think that one mistake impacted the performance that much.
Yogeeta: This goes back to all of my issues with components because one mistake should not be affecting every single one of your component scores. And this wasn't even a major error. She popped it, she still ended it, it was fine, she moved on, they got positive GOE for that element.
Kat: I'm not going to die on a hill over their Short Program PCS, but their Free Skate, however. Even though she made the mistake on the triple Sal, I still think that they should have gotten higher than 72 PCS, because everything, their transitions, their skating skills, their performance, everything is at least a 9.5 in my book. And there were no significant errors. I was expecting a score that was similar to Cup of China, because they basically skated a similar program at Cup of China with the same mistake, and I think that they got 75, but I don't know what else you could expect from them because they skated perfectly at Worlds and got a 76, so who knows. And judge number 6 from South Africa, who gave Sui and Han a 7.5 in transition in the Free Skate, I don't get it. Anyways, they have a couple of weeks to prep for Worlds, and with everything going on in China health wise I just hope that they can stay healthy, and they're not gonna deal with any unforeseen circumstances. Just monitor everything and just do what they're doing and hopefully, everything will be okay. And they got all of their levels finally in the Free Skate, so hopefully, we can keep that going.
Yogeeta: Moving on to our silver medalist Peng and Jin, I absolutely adore Peng and Jin, I think they're my favorite pairs team. Obviously last season was their breakthrough season with their Short Program. That Short Program is probably one of my favorite pair Short Programs ever, but this season they have two similarly amazing programs, and especially their Free Skate, allows them to just perform so well. They're so good at taking on characters, and I'm glad that they realized that this is the type of performers they are and type of skaters, and have really worked at these programs to make them be more performative and express these characters so they could really showcase that this is where they stand within Chinese pairs because everyone's going to be comparing them to Sui and Han. I think they've really managed to find their sweet spot and stand out.
Kat: Yeah, I think that these programs work super well for them, and for me, I think that they definitely had their skates of the competition. They should have won the Short Program way ahead of Moore-Towers and Marinaro.
Yogeeta: Oh, hands down.
Kat: I'm more offended that Moore-Towers and Marinaro placed ahead of Peng and Jin more than the fact that they placed ahead of Sui and Han. They even placed ahead in PCS as well, and I don't agree with that, just because I thought that, especially in the Short Program, their choreo was so sharp, and despite the issues with the music, they did not make any serious mistakes. They have better skating skills I think, especially for comparing the two guys in the pairs. I just think that they're both way more natural as performers as well, they're much more balanced. Let's talk about the Free Skate, she landed the triple Sal.
Yogeeta: Oh my God, she landed it. I'm so proud.
Kat: It was just a little bit forward.
Yogeeta: It's fine, if she landed it, that's all that matters.
Kat: It's okay, that's all we care about.
Yogeeta: And apparently she had twisted her ankle, three days beforehand?
Kat: Yeah, she said that she twisted her ankle three days before the competition and that she only landed two sals the entire time in Korea. One during practice, then the one during competition. That's honestly so incredible, and I actually don't know which foot she had hurt.
Yogeeta: I hope it's not the same one as she hurt at [Skate America].
Kat: Yeah, I feel like it's probably that foot because I'm just thinking, she lands on that foot.
Yogeeta: And they're just going to have to constantly be in fear of Peng's ankle now like I am with Yuzu's.
Kat: I mean that's just Chinese pairs in general, you just fear all of the knee and foot injuries, honestly. So, onto our next pair, Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro. Okay, I thought it was really, really funny when Michael just slipped on nothing because it was the exact same kind of belly flop that he made during Grand Prix Final, but that was on a throw, but this time it just happened out of nowhere. I can't even tell which one is better. I think it's probably better if it doesn't happen on the throw because then you just get the -1 deduction and you don't get any negative GOEs anywhere.
Yogeeta: They had a strong performance in their short. I find their music very one-note, and it doesn't really tell any musical story, it doesn't have any highs or lows for me, so I really forget them immediately after I watch them.
Kat: I think that for them, it's just about keeping their performances consistent and getting the elements. And as upset as Kirsten seemed to be at the end of their Free Skate, I don't know if it was because she was upset at Michael for falling, but she also did make a mistake as well, so it's not like she was faultless. I think that they seem to always kind of fumble in the Free Skate especially if they do really well in the Short Program because if you remember last year at Four Continents where they were leading ahead of Sui and Han again, they were so close to winning Four Continents. If they didn't have that really scary lift where he almost dropped her, and I think they lost out by a tenth of a point. I think it's about just staying calm and keeping consistent after the Short Program, otherwise, they panic and things start to fall apart.
Kat: And I also wanted to talk quickly about [Jessica] Calalang and [Brian] Johnson, they've been really having a great season. They had a moment at US Nationals, where they placed first in the Free Skate and second overall to get the silver at Nationals, and they, unfortunately, didn't get the world spot that went to the Knierims and [Ashley] Cain-Gribble and [Timothy] LeDuc, but they got assigned Four Continents and they really proved themselves that that performance at Nationals wasn't just a one-off thing. It almost makes me wonder maybe if the US should have sent Calalang and Johnson to Worlds instead because they seem to have - they've been doing pretty well all season. They did pretty well at Skate America and Skate Canada, as well as national and as well as here, so it almost makes me wonder, I mean, they are alternatives for Worlds. It definitely doesn't make the US' chances of keeping their two spots any less probable if Calalang and Johnson went for sure.
Yogeeta: Yeah. I think the decision to send Cain-Gribble and LeDuc over Calalang and Johnson was the wrong decision because Cain-Gribble and LeDuc not been having a great season at all, but I do understand why the US sent them because they were the ones to get them to two spots to begin with last season. Ultimately, I guess we'll see how things work out, but props to Calalang and Johnson for just putting out two great programs here.
Kat: And of course, [Riku] Miura and [Ryuichi] Kihara, our favorite Japanese pair.
Yogeeta: This was their first major international competition. I don't think they did as well as we've seen them earlier this season, but honestly, I just care that a high potential Japanese pairs team even exists right now.
Kat: I think that they still have a ways to go, but I think that it just comes with more international competition. They just need the competition experience and thank goodness they met the TES minimum at NHK, so they'll be able to go to Worlds, and they've trained in Canada, so traveling to Montreal won't be nearly as taxing because they train in Toronto. The elements need some work, especially the twist and the side by side jumps, but you know, I care more about the twist because that's a bigger point-getter for pairs, and it's way harder to get a good twist.
Yogeeta: I really hope that JSF puts in the time and investment in them, and they really work on building out pairs because as we all know, Japanese singles [are] amazing. But pairs and ice dance are very small disciplines, and Japan has rarely had a big presence in those disciplines, and we're slowly seeing it, coming to see more presence in pairs and dance this season. Hopefully, the JSF will recognize that there is interest in both pairs and dance and will begin to put more effort and investing time into training skaters to become pairs and ice dancers as well.
Kat: All right, so looking forward to Worlds.
Yogeeta: We have a lot of interesting pairs matchups potentially will happen here, but the one everyone's talking about is how [Wenjing] Sui and [Cong] Han will do versus [Aleksandra] Boikova and [Dmitrii] Kozlovskii. Honestly, like in a head to head competition, I would 95% of the time, on the 5% that Sui and Han just mess up completely, give it to Sui and Han over Boikova and Kozlovskii, like their components should be way higher than - as much as I love Boikova and Kozlovskii, Sui and Hans' components really to me are the standard.
Kat: I think that the judges have made it clear that this is not going to be, I think everyone in the beginning of the season thought, oh, Sui and Han should win everything way ahead of everyone. I still think it's their competition to lose, but they definitely do have to be clean or close enough to clean if they want to assure that they'll get the title. If both pairs are clean, they will give it to Sui and Han. I am like 99% sure. But Boikova and Kozlovskii have definitely been improving on the PCS front. They got pretty high PCS at Europeans, which was higher than Sui and Han got here for an almost clean performance, but I mean, Boikova and Kozlovskii are Russian; Euros is very much like a pro-Russian affair, and they also skated last at Euros, so that also helps a lot. Sui and Han skated first in both groups.
Yogeeta: Yeah, and also just across the board here at Four Continents, not just in pairs, but in all the disciplines, we saw really low components where we would've thought otherwise, so this is just consistency between what we see every season when we compare scores from Europeans and Four Continents. Four Continents always gives the lower components, especially compared to the Russians at Europeans, so hopefully, we see less of that happening at Worlds.
Kat: And of course, who's gonna make the bronze? I mean, listen, Peng and Jin made silver at the Grand Prix Final, so who knows what's going to happen? I think that most likely if they were to make the podium, they'd get bronze. But who knows?
Yogeeta: Listen, in my heart, they are on the podium already. I still said that they should have been on the podium last season, but they've had such tremendous momentum this season. Gold and silver at the Grand Prix, silver at the Grand Prix Final. Now it's silver here. Honestly, they should just get silver at Worlds and continue the silver streak.
-end segment-
START: Ladies
Yogeeta: Well, let's move on to the ladies, where our podium was Rika Kihira of Japan in gold, Young You of South Korea in silver, and Bradie Tennell of the United States in bronze. Honestly, before we even talk about the ladies, I just want to call out that three skaters attempted triple Axels, and Kaori [Sakamoto] attempted a quad toe, so they are pushing the technical level here, and it's not just the Russians that are pulling out these amazing elements, like ladies from all over are working at it and trying their best to push the technical level. Honestly, some of them are succeeding, and the fact that they are even trying shows their tenacity and that they're not just going to fall behind the Russians, so I'm proud of them for just that.
Kat: So let's get to talking about the podium, Rika Kihira.
Yogeeta: The first lady to defend her Four Continents title, then win back to back golds, which I honestly was really surprised when I learned this.
Kat: Because everyone just skips Four Continents all the time.
Yogeeta: I was like, I'm sure Mao [Asada] won back to back, though she didn't. She's won it twice, but not back to back.
Kat: And her Lutz is back from the war finally, and it's still beautiful. I think that going into this, we all thought that this was her competition to lose and she had the base value advantage. I honestly thought personally, she could have been scored higher in the Short Program considering how complex that program is, and she skated it so well, but I'm not going to die on a hill about it. She did really, really well.
Yogeeta: I honestly think she came here and did her job and set herself up as a potential medalist at worlds, like given how Rika scored here, if Rika can get all three of her triple Axels at Worlds, she doesn't even need the quad salchow. She will be on the podium.
Kat: I agree. And I just keep going back and forth on whether or not she should go and do the quad salchow. I think it will ultimately depend on how she does in the Short Program. If she is behind, I think at the Grand Prix Final, because she was behind, she went for the quad salchow because I mean, she had nothing to lose really. But if she lands the triple Axel in the Short Program, she will be somewhere in the top three after the Short Program for sure, so I think it'll just depend on what the gap is.
Yogeeta: Regardless, I still don't like these programs for her.
Kat: The thing is that I think that the Short Program, ever since I saw it live at Skate Canada, it has really grown on me. The music is not really my taste, but the complexity of the choreography, like I remember moments from it at least. The free program is an issue with me only because I remember almost none of the choreography, like the "Beautiful Storm" was so iconic because the choreography was so memorable. I think that the Short Program is not the iconic status that "Beautiful Storm" is, but I still at least remember things from it, and so that at least triggers my memory in away.
Yogeeta: For her free, I think she's just trying to do too much in that free.
Kat: That Free Program is a lot.
Yogeeta: Regardless, I'm proud that she stepped up and under the pressure of defending her title did it again. So well deserved. Okay, Young You.
Kat: Your favorite, go off.
Yogeeta: First, I just need to say that Young You came into this competition, and I didn't really know what to expect. She's been giving like good performances all season, but she hasn't really managed to give the performance yet. And here she is under the home crowd, and I was so concerned about the pressure and her giving into the pressure and she's delivered. She landed an amazing triple Axel in her Free Skate. It was so beautiful.
Kat: Oh man. I'm so impressed that her consistency with the triple axle, just triple Axel consistency, in general, this season has been absolutely astounding.
Yogeeta: Yeah. She still needs to get it consistent to the point where she just lands it because while she's been rotating it, she's been having that landings like she did in the short, or stepping out, et cetera.
Kat: The one in the Free Skate though, such gorgeous speed and it was so huge. I do wish that it was less telegraphed and set up, but she's got time to work on the setup to it. So as long as she can land it, you know.
Yogeeta: Especially since this is her first season doing it in competition. I do want to call out that as much as I love her triple Axel, she has the technical skills down now, like she's always been probably one of the best technical jumper of the Korean ladies, and this has been true since her junior years, but I really think she needs to take some time and really work on her performance because I have the same issue with her performance that I have with Rika and that she basically has the same facial expressions throughout the entire program, and this was especially bad during her step sequence in her Free Skate because her Free Skate is to "Evita" and her step sequences is to "Buenos Aires", and if anyone knows that song, it's like upbeat and sassy and super fun. You could see her going through the motions of the choreo, but she's not performing it, like this was her opportunity to be sassy and fun in a really intricate and keep like program and she didn't really perform it the way I wish she could. And I know she can because she's done like five programs in the past. She did the Pirates of the Caribbean program, and I thought she performed that a lot better than she performed this program. I understand the pressure was so deep on her shoulders here, but I really want to see her work on improving her performance quality because once she has these triple Axels down, I know she's also training quads, she's going to be one of the top tier skaters.
Kat: I really, really hope so, but again, this is definitely just a growing season for her because this is her first senior season, so I'm just so proud that she was able to make the podium.
Yogeeta: She's the first Korean ladies since Yuna Kim to win a Four Continents medal.
Kat: Yes. And speaking of Yuna Kim, though, when the crowd saw Yana come out for the medal ceremony, oh my gosh. Like you could hear them scream and you can also see Young's reaction when she saw Yuna, it was just, it felt like such a full-circle moment, especially because I remember the first time I'd ever heard of Young You was when I saw this fluff piece or something, and she was talking about how like Yuna would give her tips on training or would help her and like talk to her because she's like one of her idols and it just really felt like a full-circle moment. This was like, I don't know how many years ago now, but it was really, really nice to see because Young is Yuna's legacy. It's the impact that she had on ladies’ figure skating in Korea.
Yogeeta: Speaking of legacies, I also just want to give a shout out to Yelim Kim and Eunsoo Lim, who also had two amazing performances here in South Korea and also under so much pressure to skate well at home. And all three of our Korean ladies truly delivered here.
Kat: I'm so sad that Eunsoo is not going to be at Worlds, but you know, at least now she's got some time basically to settle. And I know that the season must have been hard adjusting to a new coaching situation and she'll have a little bit of time now to regroup and get a new choreo, and I don't think that this is like a huge setback for her. Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, it makes me happy to see that there is competition for the top Korean ladies because the cream of the crop rises to the top. There are so many amazing Korean ladies.
Yogeeta: There are even more in junior, up and coming in juniors too, so Korean Nationals are going to be as terrifying as Japanese Nationals.
Kat: Do we want to talk about our bronze medalist? Yogeeta: Yes, Bradie Tennell.
Kat: She had two pretty strong skates, honestly, Bradie delivers when it counts. I don't think it's wrong to say that she's consistent.
Yogeeta: She is. I don't think I've seen her truly mess up in a while.
Kat: I mean, honestly, I don't think her skating is ever going to be my cup of tea truly, just because I tend to like long lyrical lines, which she's doesn't really have that going on, but I liked the Short Program more and more the more I see it, honestly, it's a little bit bizarre. The music is a little weird, and I kind of think that she needed something a little bit weird and different.
Yogeeta: She said in an interview that her Short Program is her favorite program she's ever done.
Kat: Honestly, and she skates like it is, so I'm not mad about it for sure. I think that because it's a little bit more bizarre and not like lyrical or typical.
Yogeeta: It helps her stand out.
Kat: It also gives her room to grow too.
Yogeeta: When I first saw her programs at the start of the season, I wasn't sure I felt about it. I do actually enjoy her Free Skate for her. I think she enjoys it. She performs well to it, which I think is really all that matters at the end of the day, but her Short Program is probably when I think it's probably become one of my favorite Short Programs of the season, which I honestly did not imagine that at the start of the season, because she just like enjoys it so much. She’s always smiling and she has interesting movements through it.
Yogeeta: I wish that through her free, which does kind of require that, she did actually hold some positions though because she is just going from movement to movement. She does it well but there are moments where I'm wishing like... just take the time to live in the moment because that's what this program is trying to sell.
Kat: And now some of our favorite non-podium people.
Yogeeta: Our favorite ladies.
Kat: Wakaba and Kaori, I guess we could talk about them in tandem. But Wakaba, I'm really proud of her because she did not give up and she went for that triple Axel and even though she fell, it was fully rotated. That's a win in my book, and she landed so many beautiful ones in the practices and during the warmup for the Free Skate even. You could tell from years and years that she's been training this for a while. Just from her double Axel you could tell that her triple Axel was gonna be huge.
Yogeeta: She has worlds to prove it, so I'm really excited to see it there.
Kat: I really hope that Worlds-- we're gonna have a Worlds moment for Wakaba. I honestly think that her PCS, especially her performance and interpretation, she just skates with so much passion and with her heart on her sleeve. Even though she doesn't have the most complex transitions especially in the Free Skate, I think that her performance and interpretation is honestly unparalleled. I honestly think that she has the best performance and interpretation in the entire ladies’ event. I think that this is another example where PCS-- we should be looking at PCS separately.
Yogeeta: Every component individually instead of the PCS corridor.
Kat: Yeah, exactly. I would be fine with Wakaba's transitions being high 7s low 8s. But honestly, performance and interpretation 9.5, 9.7. I said it. Especially in the Short Program. Let's talk about Kaori as well.
Yogeeta: Kaori, oh my God. Where did that quad toe even come from? We saw reports of the quad toe a week before Four Continents and I was like "What are you doing? Where did that come from? Why are you doing this?"
Kat: I remember hearing interviews earlier in the season about her trying quad toes but I thought it was one of those "oh, I"m training it in practice. I'm just trying it out, not like I'm seriously training it for competition" kind of thing so I kind of forgot about it because you know, people say these things in interviews all the time and then we don't see it in the competition. But then I heard practice reports of her actually trying it and now I'm just scared that she's gonna get injured. Please. We can't have both you and Mai out of commission.
Yogeeta: Shhh. We don't speak of Mai. She attempted in the free, she fell, it was downgraded. But honestly, I was so confused by where it even came from. I paid no attention to the rest of her program. I don't think she paid much attention to the rest of her program because she was extremely frazzled during her Free Skate. You could definitely see that she was not performing to the usual extent that she usually performs that program. Also, I am extremely concerned about her loop. She messed up her loop both in the short and the free. And the loop used to be her best jump. She's messed it up at past competitions and at those, I was like, the ice quality was bad. Maybe that's why she's messed it up. But she's messed it up at every single competition this season.
Kat: I agree. I don't know. Well, this is the end of the season for Kaori.
Yogeeta: She just put too much pressure on herself this season I feel, especially because of what's going on with Mai [Mihara].
Kat: I think that she's just sad that Mai is not training with her.
Yogeeta: Yeah. Everyone knows that they are super close, best friends and that they help each other during training. She even said that she's skating part of this season for Mai. She just put too much pressure on herself so hopefully next season Mai's back and we'll have happy Kaori back as well.
Kat: Okay we also need to give a huge shout out to Yelim Kim for finishing sixth here at Four Continents. She, honestly, had one of the best Free Skates that evening. She placed fourth [in the Free] and her only major issues were an underrotation and an unclear edge call. Other than that, she was just so beautiful, ethereal and magical and, again, she had a lot of pressure here skating at home in Korea. I think that she did absolutely amazing and, as sad as I am that Eunsoo didn't get selected for the Worlds team, I think that Yelin really proved to herself that her results at Korean Nationals weren't a fluke and that she was definitely the right choice to be picked for the Worlds team. Korea will be very well represented in the ladies event for sure, so I'm excited to see her there as well. And final shoutout I guess, for Karen. I was really really impressed by her Free Skate. I don't think that I've seen her skate that well in a really long time. I truly don't remember the last time I've seen her go for everything.
Yogeeta: Honestly it was probably Worlds 2017.
Kat: Probably. Because I don't think she popped anything here. She had a couple of under rotations either way but she at least went for everything. Because Karen always gets called. But in terms of just performance, I think that this was probably the best she's skated since Worlds 2017 when she got 4th. To me, it just seems like, maybe it was because the pressure's off? She's not going to Worlds, this is the end of the season for her.
Yogeeta: Yeah. I think she just wanted to give a performance she's proud of. She went back to one of her previous skates at U.S. Nationals which I honestly loved this Free Skate which is choreographed by her. Karen Chen, a woman of many talents.
Kat: She's got great skating skills, she's obviously got some of the best spins and I think that aesthetically, I really like her jumps. Especially her triple Lutz - her triple Lutz is so beautiful.
Yogeeta: Her triple Lutz is one of the best when she doesn't underrotate it.
Kat: The opening triple Lutz from the Free Skate was a beauty. It was her trademark basically. She's got that beautiful delay but unfortunately, it makes her prone to under rotations so hopefully in the off season, she'll keep working and I think that she's gonna keep going. This has to be a good way to end the season for her. It has to be encouraging.
Yogeeta: I will say that her components are a joke. If I had my way, Karen would have won components for the Free Skate but I don't have my way.
Kat: Alas.
-end segment-
START: Ice Dance
Kat: So, for ice dance, in gold we have Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S. For silver, we have Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier from Canada and in bronze, we have Madison Hubbel and Zach Donohue from the U.S. This was a bit of a messier ice dance event--I guess it's not as messy as it could have been.
Yogeeta: Nothing will ever be as messy as a stationary lift base. Kat: We will always have that.
Yogeeta: There were a lot of major errors that you probably didn't expect. Like, Hawayek/Baker's fall out of their lift. I don't think I've ever seen that happen.
Kat: There were just a lot of mistakes, especially when you think that ice dance is usually the cleanest event. There's usually not that many falls or mistakes. It definitely felt messy. I mean, in a way, a lot of the events this season have been messy, but still. I'm kind of tired of dumb mistakes happening in ice dance.
Yogeeta: When you have more mistakes happening in the Rhythm Dance than the men's short event, you know it's messy.
Kat: Yeah, we'll get to the men's Short Program for sure. So Chock/Bates. I'm not gonna go off on their Free Dance because I think that we've done it enough. I think we all know that this Free Dance is not really our cup of tea, right. But they performed cleaner than Hubbell and Donohue in the Free Dance. They had their lead over Piper and Paul from the Rhythm Dance which put them ahead even though Chock/Bates had that fluke fall in the Free Dance, which was a very surprising moment but it didn't happen during an element so they just got the -1 deduction and it didn't affect any of their elements which would have been way more disastrous.
Yogeeta: Because we've talked this season, I actually want to take the time to talk about dance scoring. Because at this rate, all that really matters is the country you skate for and who your coaches are.
Kat: It is political.
Yogeeta: It is all about politics. And when it comes to Chock/Bates, I will stand by their lifts until I die--they have the best lifts currently. But their other elements are pretty weak. Their twizzles are pretty slow, they have messy patterns and step sequences, which means like even if they hit all the key points for their patterns or all the turns they need for their step sequences, you expect them to get a low grade of execution because the edges weren't there. But they don't. They get really high scores. Really high GOE. I don't understand.
Kat: I think that in terms of scoring, not only is it the GOE, but it's also how much we can fluff up the components. Because they fell in their Free Dance--and technically, a program with a significant error is not supposed to get above a 9.5 in performance and interpretation. But they still got like a 9.75, so, i mean, the guidelines exist. If you've ever seen the judges do the scoring on their computer, there's not like a restriction or anything that prevents you from hitting the 9.5 or the 9.75 if there is like a fall deduction. You can still do it. It's almost just like a friendly suggestion. At that point it's like why do you even bother having the rule?
Yogeeta: It's only there for the skaters that you don't want to get high PCS.
Kat: Yeah. What is the point of having that rule if you're not going to enforce it first of all, or if you're not gonna manually have the restriction there? I think the same thing happened with Hawayek and Baker in the Short Program. I think that they have to change the judging software so that they physically cannot hit the 9.75 or the 9.5.
Yogeeta: Well, I just think having that rule is stupid. Whether you make a significant error or not does not always impact your components. You can have an error and still give the performance of your life.
Kat: I will say that that is true, but if we're going to have the rule, just create the restriction. And in dance, a fall is a significant error.
Yogeeta: Yes. And moving on to our silver medalists, Piper and Paul. Kat: They had two amazing performances.
Yogeeta: If I could I would have given them gold.
Kat: Yeah (laughs). I think that they had the best Free Dance for sure.
Yogeeta: They had my favorite Free Dance, they consistently have my favorite Free Dances and I would always, in my books, put them ahead of almost all other teams.
Kat: I think that I'm still stuck on so iconic and beautiful Vincent was that this program feels similar to Vincent but not quite iconic enough that I'm left feeling "aww, that was beautiful" but not caring it with me. I still think that they are continuously the most interesting team in ice dance.
Yogeeta: I also do love the new costumes.
Kat: Yes. The red is so much better than that nude.
Yogeeta: It's so striking against the ice. It's perfect. I can't wait to see it at Worlds. Okay, Hubbell and Donohue.
Kat: When are we going to see them stop making dumb mistakes? The thing is that you can either have bad material and skate it well or you could have good material and make a mistake on it. You can't have both at the same time. Because they don't have good material here. We've talked about this before so I'm not gonna go off on it too much. They don't have the best material and they still keep making dumb mistakes so it's like, at this point, the judges and the federation are clearly dropping them. It's clear that Chock/Bates are ahead of Hubbell and Donohue politically speaking. I mean, they went with Chock/Bates at U.S. Nationals, went with Chock/Bates at Grand Prix Final and went with Chock/Bates at Four Continents. So clearly, the federation is favouring Chock/Bates and now it seems that international judges are falling in line. Ever since Worlds last year, they've been going soft on Hubbell and Donohue.
Yogeeta: Yeah. I don't really think Hubbell and Donohue are ever in U.S. fed's good books. This was so apparent during the Olympic season where they were U.S. National champions but they were not chosen for the team event.
Kat: I mean, could you blame them? The problem was that they were not reliable. I always think back to 2017 Worlds where Zach fell. Like, literally 30 seconds before finishing the program, Zach fell, and they dropped down to 6th or 7th or something. And at the Olympics too, Zach had that slip and fell. Come on, guys. They are the best ice dancers from the U.S. I think, unquestionably. Honestly, I've always just liked their performance energy even if their lifts are not as complex, they have a better performance than Chock/Bates in my opinion. I need them to get away from this weird mushy program and stop making errors, for the love of God.
Yogeeta: Yeah. I really think after Worlds, they really need to take a step back and rethink what their strategy will be--because if they want to be the top U.S. team, they cannot continue with the type of styling of the programs and a lot of the choices they've been making. Choreographically, they really need to find something that will make them stand out and in a good way. Because right now, they are standing out in a bad way and it's not really helping their case.
Kat: Yeah. I mean, getting good programs is step one for me.
Yogeeta: I think so many ice dancers fall into this. We must skate about romantic programs. I don't think they should be skating to romantic programs. I think they can learn from the Shibs, who obviously couldn't skate to romantic programs and they turned out some of the most inspirational programs and some of the most fun programs of all the ice dance programs I've ever seen.
Kat: This is a great segue into another team, that honestly, they don't skate to romantic programs. Let's talk about Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu because they are a team, in my opinion, that exemplifies how you can skate Ice Dance without being overly heterosexual.
Yogeeta: Praise be, praise be.
Kat: Yes, first of all I'm so proud of them because this is definitely the highest place that a Chinese Ice Dance has ever gotten at Four Continents.
Yogeeta: I'm honestly so impressed with how well they did here, they got a 119 in the Free Dance, which was 8 points ahead of their previous season's best from earlier this season.
Kat: I think they only broke a 100 for the first time last season too, so they've been showing some really steady improvement. They probably have my favorite pair of programs from all of the Ice Dance teams. Maybe second to Stepanova and Bukin, but especially their Rhythm Dance is so unique and fun and perfect for them, because they are kind of goofballs.
Yogeeta: I'm so happy that they decided "Yes we're goofy, we're weird, let's just play into it".
Kat: They absolutely deserved the scores that they got here and I'm really proud of the way that they've improved so much in the past season, they're not making as many mistakes.
Yogeeta: I would've scored them a lot higher in performance and interpretation, but obviously the PCS corridor.
Kat: Especially in the Rhythm Dance, their Rhythm Dance performance is a ten in my book. I think that they're so much fun and I'm so entertained by the silliness and the goofiness.
Yogeeta: I'm so happy that they basically placed fourth in both the Rhythm Dance and the Free Dance, it was amazing to watch.
Kat: They got so many level 4s in the Free Dance, I was so happy with them. Their twizzles are one of the last elements they have in their Free Dance and they used to sometimes make silly mistakes on the twizzles or something but they actually both got level 4s, all of their lifts got level 4s, they even got a level 3 on their diagonal steps. They actually beat Hubbell and Donohue in base value because of Zach's mess up on the twizzles.
Yogeeta: I'm so impressed with how quickly these scores have increased over the past two seasons, and it's showing really good momentum that they can soon start winning medals on the Grand Prix.
Kat: And they placed ahead of two Canadian teams too.
Yogeeta: And they placed ahead of Hawayek and Baker.
Kat: And three other Gadbois teams.
Yogeeta: We can see how Gadbois politicking is looking for Worlds.
Kat: I think that they deserve it though. We talk about teams getting politicking based on who their coaches are, but I honestly think that these guys deserve it.
Yogeeta: They've put in the hard work and effort to really improve. Kat: And get programs that suit them.
Yogeeta: And get programs that are unique to the dance, like as you said, they're not doing romance, they're having fun and they're having really interesting– they're honestly setting themselves apart by doing this.
Kat: Looking forward to Worlds, honestly, this might be a really interesting competition considering what went down at Euros and now what's going on with the American teams. I think that the podium is not necessarily set in stone anymore.
Yogeeta: Previously to this, I could've told you the exact placement of everyone on the podium and right now I cannot, and this is good, it's unusual for Dance. I also can't tell you who will actually get bronze, which is also unusual for Dance.
Kat: Between Grand Prix Final, Euros, and Four Continents, the podiums have been so crazy. It's so hard to say exactly what's going to happen at Worlds, especially politically behind the scenes what's going on with the French federation as well. It's going to be a showdown between the French, the Russians, the Americans, and that's it. And Piper and Paul actually, don't count them out. Don't forget that this is Canada's Worlds.
Yogeeta: If I were to give you a prediction, it would probably be Papadakis and Cizeron, Sinitsina and Katsalapov, and Chock and Bates, just based on the scores they've been getting this season. But Stepanova and Bukin and Piper and Paul, potentially, if they skate the best skates of their life in the Rhythm Dance and the Free Dance, could also make it to bronze.
Kat: It's basically going to be a repeat of Grand Prix Final, because that's exactly who was at Grand Prix Final. Two Russians, two Americans, French, and Piper and Paul.
Yogeeta: It does make me sad because I love Guignard and Fabbri, but if things were actually scored based on how well you performed your technical elements they would be much higher on this list but alas, politicking.
Kat: Yeah, unfortunately, politicking plays a huge role in it. Who knows, they have been shown to do really well, especially in the Rhythm Dance, so if they create enough of a lead against some other teams and place in the final flight, which is a big deal – placing in the final group of the Free Dance. We don't know what could happen then with PCS and all that.
Yogeeta: Basically what we're saying is that, for once, we have no clue what's actually going to happen to Dance at Worlds.
-end segment-
START: Men
Yogeeta: Moving on, let's talk about the event everyone was waiting for, the men. We had Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan in gold, Jason Brown of the United States in silver, and Yuma Kagiyama of Japan in bronze. First, let's just say this was probably the best men's Short event I had seen in years.
Kat: How many people skated clean in the Short Program? Yogeeta: Thirteen
Kat: That is wild, thirteen.
Yogeeta: The top thirteen skaters were either clear, or had an under rotation, or a flip error, or an edge call, but other than that there were no falls in the top thirteen men. I just want to give a call out to something that was true across this competition, but especially true with the men, that components are a joke.
Kat: If only we could get rid of the PCS corridor somehow or some way.
Yogeeta: For me, one of the biggest grievances was Tomoki Hiwatashi's transition score because he got a 7.46, compared to Boyang Jin, who got a 8.0. No offense to Boyang but Tomoki does more transitions in the first minute of his program than Boyang does in the entirety of his program.
Kat: Tomoki has some of the coolest transitions into his jumps. Yogeeta: He does a Russian split into his triple Sal.
Kat: Yeah and a cantilever into his triple loop.
Yogeeta: Who does that? No one does that.
Kat: What's the point in separating out PCS if you can't have more variation. At that point you might as well just give one score for the PCS.
Yogeeta: Moving on from the annoyances of PCS corridor, let's talk about our favorite skaters. Kat: Our favorite chaotic, recycling genius.
Yogeeta: The one and only Yuzuru Hanyu. He got his super slam and honestly that's all that matters.
Kat: At the end of the day he won everything. I think it is worth having a meaningful discussion because it's really funny that everyone found out through the ISU website and everyone thought it was a glitch but no he really did decide to go back to “Chopin” for the fourth time and "Seimei" for the third time.
Yogeeta: When I first saw that I was like "Why" but that was more of my gut reaction to him recycling again. And then after I thought about it, it really made sense because one, “Otonal” and “Origin” were not giving him the scoring potential he needed and two, he never really felt super comfortable with those programs, especially after he came out with the interview saying that he felt he had to live up to the potential of those programs because they were tricky programs and he wasn't really skating for himself there. He was putting himself under a lot more mental pressure to skate to his programs well, and going back to "Chopin" and "Seimei" really let him focus on himself.
Kat: That's what matters. I had the same reaction as you. My initial reaction was just like "Oh no, "Seimei" is going to be shortened by 30 seconds, that perfect program is going to be shortened by 30 seconds". They changed a couple of– he definitely had to change his jump layout because they took out a jump prior to the 2019 season. And we've seen it before, especially in Ice Dance, where once they made a lot of changes to the requirements in the Free, skaters who returned to those programs end up having a really tough time adjusting to it because the muscle memory that you think you have, going back to a repeat program ends up not being as solid as you might think just because of all the changes you made to it. So that's the part that I was personally afraid of, as a fan– I was obviously disappointed that he didn't come to the realization that maybe he shouldn't have recycled his tribute programs during the off-season. And because I don't know how much longer Yuzu will be skating, I selfishly want to see new content for him because as an artist I think he has so much more to give the world. But ultimately, just hearing his interviews and how much he put the thought into changing and going back to his programs, I don't think he did it as a cop out, I think he ended up, like you said, realizing that he needed to skate for himself. Just hearing that made me realize, "Oh ok, I should not be selfish about what I'm expecting him to put out," I think that it's important for him to reinvigorate his love for skating, these are basically his emotional safe space, emotional comfort programs, and if it means going back to it just for these two competitions because the season is basically done soon, if it just means that then I'm not going to complain about seeing "Seimei" at Worlds.
Yogeeta: We know that he's going to have new programs next season. He said that he came to the realization that he didn't want to do Origin or Otonal after Medalists On Ice and he wanted to get new programs but it was just too short of a timeline so he swapped back.
Kat: You can't get new programs in a month and a half, especially right before Worlds, that's not possible.
Yogeeta: I'm happy he's back in a mentality where he is happy to skate, and he's putting out programs that he's proud of, and I'm also happy knowing that he himself said he wants new programs. We'll see what comes next season.
Kat: That at least calms my soul a little bit because the idea of getting new Yuzu programs is always so exciting because I think he has so much more to offer as an artist, and I just selfishly want to see as much new content from him as I possibly can because I truly don't know how long he'll be around for, and every time he skates is magic so if every time he gave us a new program it would be really really wonderful.
Yogeeta: It wouldn't be "Chopin" if he didn't put out a new Short Program world record.
Kat: Yes, my gosh. Again, not going to die on the hill of him getting a 48 PCS but at the same time, what else do you want? What else could you want from a program?
Yogeeta: His Short program here was probably the best I've ever seen him skate since the Olympics.
Kat: I don't think it had the Olympic moment, obviously the Olympics is such a unique special circumstances and given the context of what was going on with him at the time, that was such a moment for him but just on the pure skating terms, I can see why a lot of people would think that was his best skate. But again, I'm so sentimentally attached to seeing that program from the Olympics that I can't really distinguish them in my head truly, because they're all slightly different as well.
Yogeeta: I think it's nice that we can look at these different programs and see that it isn't just the same performance over and over again. And he spoke about how skating to "Chopin" is like fine wine.
Kat: That's definitely not what you would call a lazy skate, the fact that he actually did bring it back and kind of refine it a little bit too, I think that he did bring something new to it too. He kind of changed around the choreo a little bit so it was closer to some of the earlier iterations not from the Olympic season. But I will say that I do miss the quad toe-triple toe right on the music, you know what I'm talking about? From the 3.0 version, but I'm not mad about it either, I love the step sequence as always. It's such a perfect program.
Yogeeta: Let's talk about his Free, where he only landed one quad.
Kat: Well, ok, I mean he didn't land it perfectly but I still count the quad Lutz. It wasn't perfect but it's still landed.
Yogeeta: He only landed one quad cleanly, shall I restate that phrase.
Kat: Again, he did have to change the Free Skate a lot because of the 30 seconds, and he also had to take out a jump. I was expecting the Free Skate to be a little rough around the edges.
Yogeeta: Yeah I agree. Can we talk about his insane triple Axel into his triple flip?
Kat: If we're going to talk transitions, that is a 10 in transitions by the way.
Yogeeta: We're going to use the triple Axel as a transition into your triple flip.
Kat: I could tell he was probably a little bit salty about not reaching 300 but at the same time, I think this is at least going to give him motivation for Worlds. I think there's still room to grow it.
Yogeeta: What makes me actually laugh is that he would've reached 300 if he didn't get the edge call on his flip.
Kat: Oh my God.
Yogeeta: But also, what were his components.
Kat: The fact that he got an 8.75 in interpretation offends me to my deepest core, in the Free Skate. How dare you give anything less than a 9.75, honestly, in interpretation to “Seimei".
Yogeeta: He embodies this program, even if it was this imperfect, even if he made a bunch of jumping errors, who cares? He embodies this program in ways that nobody else can ever embody any of their programs. Honestly, even with the errors with the jumps, I wouldn't have given this program any lower than like a 94 in components just because of how he skated it.
Kat: The step sequence though.
Yogeeta: The step sequence was glorious. I've missed that step sequence so much. Let's talk about Jason.
Kat: Honestly, he was another one that I think should have gotten higher PCS. If Jason scores around Yuzu's components, that does not offend me at all. But I think that they both should have scored at least three to four points higher.
Yogeeta: Jason's Free is really like - this is his program. He puts his heart and soul on the ice every time he skates it and I want him to 95-96 in components for this program.
Kat: He has just such beautiful skating - just pure skating - that is, if you just ignore the jumps, you just want to watch him skate. It's the same with Yuzu, and those are the skaters that I tend to connect with more - the ones where I can ignore the jumps and just love to watch them skate. Satoko [Miyahara]'s the same way, Alena [Kostornaia]. But again, judges and components, as we went off on before, so we're not going to go too hard on them again. But I hope that this is setting him up really well for Worlds.
Yogeeta: Jason has amazing control of his body, he has probably the best lines of all the men. Kat: And he got all of his levels!
Yogeeta: I'm so proud of him! He won a silver here without a quad, continuing to prove that you don't need a quad. I think that Jason, as much as he wants the quad and I'm happy that he keeps going for the quad because he wants it, not because he thinks he needs it because he's been proving consistently that he doesn't need this quad to be a major contender. I'm just really proud of the work that he's put out here at Four Continents. Moving onto our bronze medallist, Yuma Kagiyama. [Kat: Yuma!] I'm just like speechless.
Kat: Honestly, he had me worried at Junior Grand Prix Final but I think that JGPF was a fluke.
Yogeeta: He put out three season bests here. Did you know that now he has the sixth-highest seasons best [total score] of all the men?
Kat: Okay, honestly, I would not be surprised if, for whatever reason, they just send Yuma to both Junior and Senior Worlds. I do believe that he would have the shot at the [Senior World] podium, it's unquestionable. And he made the podium at Four Continents.
Yogeeta: I'm just so impressed with him. He is a Junior, currently, but his skating skills exceed that of so many of the current Senior men. He just zooms across the ice. His landings are so good. His quad toe has been really solid this season so I have no worries about that. His triple Axel is a bit messy but when he lands it, it's excellent.
Kat: I think that was the only jump he really messed up, right?
Yogeeta: Yeah, he messed up with the triple Axel in his Free. He had his first fully clean Short - I think he had an edge call in the Short too, but - jump-wise, no issues, and he scored 91 and I was so proud. But Yuma, your Lutz edge, we need to work on that. That's like the one major issue with Yuma, his Lutz edge.
Kat: But I think that he's a solid favorite now for winning the Junior World title.
Yogeeta: 100%. He did have some unfortunate errors at Junior Grand Prix Final, but with his showing at Nationals, at the Youth Olympic Games, and now here, he's made himself a solid contender. These programs have only helped to improve his components to the point that they're significantly higher than the majority of the other Junior men. Okay, let's talk about some of our other favorite men.
Kat: Boyang [Jin]! Honestly, considering what a mess Boyang usually is in the first half of the season, this is okay for me. He didn't fall, at least! He popped twice, which made me sad, but at least his quad Lutz is back.
Yogeeta: Oh, blessed be, blessed be. [Kat: Blessed be] He landed the quad Lutz-triple Toe in the Short - I don't care if it wasn't clean, he landed it. He landed it and that's all the matters.
Kat: And he got all of his levels in the Free Skate which is really good for him because usually, the step sequence has me worried. But he got all of his levels!
Yogeeta: Four Continents is usually Boyang's best competition.
Kat: Yeah, but I think that Boyang, in particular, his performance has grown so much in the past season. I think that these two programs are great, especially the Free Skate - the second half of it really comes alive, I think.
Yogeeta: Yeah, I love the step sequence. It's probably one of my favorite step sequences this season. It really shows off his ability to perform. I will say that the first half of his program is still pretty empty because he's focusing on the jumps, he's focusing on trying to get the quads.
Kat: I'd say that after the first half of the program, he does include a couple more transitions into the next jumping segments. The program really builds beautifully, in my opinion. Man, I just love Boyang so much and I just want the best for him because I know he's got a lot of pressure on him. And, of course, Jun Hwan Cha.
Yogeeta: Jun, oh my God. Jun was under so much pressure, I think he was probably the Korean skater under the most pressure in this event.
Kat: He did so well here, oh my God, in his Short Program and his Free. His Free Skate, oh my God, was so amazing. I do not care about the underrotations at all.
Yogeeta: Who cares about the underrotations? That program made me cry.
Kat: Just the second half of that program, where he does the Ina Bauer. It's just such a beautiful layback and he holds it and then does the spiral.
Yogeeta: That's such a powerful moment in the program. Honestly, I don't remember the jumps but I remember that moment.
Kat: Right on the music, and the thing is, is that he does it with his arms outstretched and right on the ebb of the music as well. It's just perfectly musical as well, it's not just on the music, it's with the music. It's just such a good moment.
Yogeeta: You can really tell that he is really performing with the music and he really put his heart out in that program. This is definitely the best performance he's given all season. After the Grand Prix Final last season he kind of ended up in this slump and was underrotating everything and was having a lot of issues, and that continued on to early this season. But he seemed to hit a reset point at Korean Nationals and I'm so happy it wasn't a fluke and that we see Jun really stepping up to the plate now.
Kat: His music, in particular, is extremely fast-paced and I can't imagine what it must have sounded like in the rink because it already naturally has an echoey quality to it because it's got the emphasis and repeat notes. So it must have sounded so bizarre. The fact that he was able to still have great performance despite the echoey music - that's pretty impressive. And another thing that I really appreciate about this program is that it has such clear musical accents here and there, that he uses to his advantage not only for the choreography, like the Ina Bauer. But he lands his jumps on the music as well, so they make his jumps more memorable as well and they make them part of the program and I really appreciate that about the program. It's wonderful. So, like in many other disciplines, Four Continents was kind of a showdown for the Canadian Men, who have only one spot, unfortunately, at their home Worlds, to see who would be placed on the Worlds team. Roman Sadovsky is the reigning National Champion but, unfortunately, he didn't really do that great in the Short Program which really sucks for him because it really hurt him since the majority of the men did so well. So he placed so low in the standings that there was no way he would be able to recover with the Free. And Keegan [Messing] has also been having an overall rougher season, in light of what happened in his personal life with his brother, and so I actually think that Skate Canada made the right decision - they announced that they were sending Nam [Nguyen] to Worlds. He did place the highest here and I think that they made the right choice because he's been having the better season and been scoring well and I think that Keegan could probably use the time off to prepare for next season and, [with Roman], this is only his third Senior season so he's got time to grow and mature. He might be really intimidated just going out at Worlds at home being the only Canadian man, so I think that Nam might be the best option.
Yogeeta: Just a few quick shout outs, I want to give a shout out to Kazuki Tomono, who gave two excellent programs here. He was the first alternate for Japan and came to Four Continents because Shoma [Uno] decided to sit out this competition and I don't think I've seen him skate this well since Worlds 2018.
Kat: Honestly, I'm so heartened by seeing the future of Japanese men because we've got Shun [Sato] and Yuma in the Junior ranks and we've got Kazuki here. So we've kind of got our veterans in Yuzuru and Shoma but then we definitely who's coming up and who's ready to come in and take the mantle, so it's just really nice to see in general.
Yogeeta: Also, Kazuki landed all of his quads and I've never been prouder of him. [Kat: Woo!] Also shout out to Han Yan because he was great.
Kat: Yes! Oh my God, best skating skills in the business. I just love watching him skate so much. I'm so happy he'll be at Worlds.
Yogeeta: Speaking of Worlds-
Kat: Obviously, we're going to have the showdown between Yuzu and Nathan - and I suppose Shoma too. We haven't seen Shoma since Nationals, but he really did well there so you never know. And then we've got the battle for bronze. There's a long laundry list-
Yogeeta: A long list of people who could make bronze. Kat: It just ultimately depends on the day.
Yogeeta: It's the day, who can land jumps - there's so many people who could take bronze at Worlds, it's kind of crazy.
Kat: There's a lot that could happen because men, traditionally, are a hot mess.
Yogeeta: The men were not as much of a hot mess than they could have been at Four Continents so I will applaud them of that. They're definitely going to be a crazy hot mess at Worlds.
-end segment-
START: Shout Out of the Week and Outro
Kat: Our shout of the week is to our fabulous photographer Lynn (@lynneposts) for braving the travel to Korea and taking so many beautiful photos for us. And Gabb (@tegomass) for helping to edit and upload everything because editing and uploading is no easy task either. You can see them all on our Twitter.
Yogeeta: And for writing amazing captions as well.
Kat: Very difficult. Thank you both, you guys are awesome.
Yogeeta: Thank you for listening, we hope to see you again for our next episode! Thanks to our transcribing and quality control team, Evie for editing, and Gabb for graphic design.
Kat: 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.
Yogeeta: 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. You can find the links to all our social media pages and our ko-fi on the website.
Kat: Also we have merch now! So if you’d like to contribute that way, you can check out our merch on Redbubble. All the links will be on our website as well.
Yogeeta: If you’re listening on iTunes, please consider leaving a rating and a review if you enjoyed the show. Thanks for listening, this has been Yogeeta,
Kat: And Kat. Bye!