Kat: Becs, I don't know about how you but I have really not watched a lot of figure skating at all this season.
Becs: I think this is the least figure skating I've watched in like a decade, almost. Granted there hasn't been as much, but even considering I didn't watch a single program until Cup of China, that's like a solid 8 months that I didn't watch figure skating.
Kat: 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.
Tilda: Speaking of quirky, I want to give a shout out to [Elizaveta] Pasechnik and [Egor] Kolosovskii for their "Jungle Book" Rhythm Dance. That was a lot of fun! I have to admit, I went "Jungle Book!?!" when Ted announced it.
Kat: Yeah, it was really fun and they skated it really well too! And honestly, I am here for teams that go a little bit out of the box with the musical theme style.
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.
Niamh: When someone lands their jump, you expect to see some snow, but you're not supposed to see liquid water.
Kite: Like this is advanced snow.
Niamh: I was [talking] to the ones sitting beside me, I was like “We might as well be watching synchronized swimming.”
Evie: Polar ice cap synchronized swimming - coming to an Olympics near you!
Kite: …When I heard he was skating to Andrew Lloyd Webber, I was like oh, here we go again, and then it wasn't Phantom of the Opera. [Evie laughs.] I was so pleasantly surprised. I was like wow I almost forgot he had other music, that wasn't Phantom of the Opera [Hosts laugh.] because that's all that skaters ever skate to.
Evie: Skaters are finally delving into the extended catalog of Andrew Lloyd Webber [Sam laughs.]
Sam: We get Phantom. We get “Memories” from Cats.
Evie: Honestly, where is the Andrew Lloyd Webber School of Rock program already.
Sam: Give us some Jesus Christ Superstar, bring that back.
Kite: Only if there's the bright yellow pants. It has to be skated to in like banana pants.
Sam: Yes. Yellow pants are required.
Lae: So, all we've touched on so far have talked about banners that have been professionally printed and designed digitally, but do we have any advice on making handmade banners, such as what materials to use or is printing kind of the go-to?
Gabb: I use printed just because I have a degree for it. It's easier for me, I know how to work with printers. But you can easily just make handheld banners yourself using paper.
Kat: [laughs] Lae sitting outside the rink at ACI drawing Yuzu and Wakaba banners!
Becs: The 4am Wakaba banner sketching session!
Lae: Yeah, from experience, you can just buy an A3 size piece of card and buy some gold stickers and a permanent marker. Honestly, it's just the thinking and it's the design that goes into it.
Kat: It's the thought that counts!
Becs: Good costumes are such a draw in terms of just being like "Yes yes you are worthy!"
Gabb: Especially if they're sparkly!
Becs: Yes sparkles please!
Kat: Aka Ice Dance ladies.[Gabb: Yes!] 90% of the time deliver with their costumes.
Becs: Yes. One thing that is so beautiful about picking who you're going to photograph is ah Ice Dance ladies and ladies in general show up looking usually fabulous most practices even so...
Kat: And then you have the men with like 80% black costumes or monochrome.
Becs: Yeah it's tragic, it's a tragic contrast.
Tilda: It seems that was just the way he was because he also offered one of his past medals to Dick Button. [Karly: My dude!] in 1947, and Dick Button at that point came second but Salchow felt that he should have won and a lot of people agreed because people were super salty about judging here. [Salchow] was like, you should have won here -- have this medal!
Karly: Ulrich seems like a pretty respectful dude. You know, giving away his gold medal to who he thinks rightfully should have won. That takes some stripe of character.
Tilda: Right but it's also very savage if you're not competing.
Karly: That is also savage. He's like, I beat you but I'll give it to you.
Tilda: Yeah, at this competition with Dick Button, he wasn't even competing. It was like this other dude who won. Gerschwiler won and then Ulrich was like, no.
Karly: [laughs] “You did not win. Uh-uh, not on my watch.”
Tilda: It was like really savage.
Yogeeta: Peng and Jin's short is probably my favourite Short Program from the pairs from the entire season, and the fact that they were a fully rotated triple Sal away from getting bronze just causes my anxiety.
Kat: Listen, Sals are cursed for the Chinese pair girls.
Kite: They're cursed for everybody as we will talk about.
Yogeeta: Sals are snakes, we don't like them, they don't go here.
Kat: Yeah, I know. Although, I sacrificed something to the sal gods for Wenjing landing that Sal in the free, because I was like…
Yogeeta: Yeah, you sacrificed Yuzuru's Sal!
Kite: We really got to be more specific next time.