Speaking of your beginnings; were you ever recommended to go into Pairs? Did you ever think about going into Pairs?
Funny you should ask. No, not really - but I actually have done a little bit this year. I think it's two and a half months now where I've been trying a little bit and it's a lot harder. Mad respect to all Pairs skaters because they are insane!
Gabrielle: My costumes are actually hot pink and deep purple for the long.
So we'll be seeing that next week?
In two weeks in Kelowna, yes. The Short's actually a two-piece that Kaitlyn and I kind of put our thoughts into together. For the long, it's not exactly like "Carmen," it's the shape that it was today, but it goes ombré from deep to light purple.
Love a good ombré. I'm looking forward to the pairing with the eyeshadow. [Gabby laughs]
Zachary: In the Free, I looked at some pictures of Queen and I talked with the guy making the costumes. I said I wanted thunder, and some details so when people see me they see that I’m doing Queen.
I saw the lightning and thought it would be Flash Gordon!
Zachary: You know what - that’s because of the circle! If there was no circle and only the thunder it would be easier. I might take it off because of that reason, you’re not the only one who said that.
We'll see by Rostelecom [Cup] then if the circle is gone.
Zachary: Yes!
You've mentioned before that you improvise a lot as you develop your programs. Is that happening still?
Betina: Yes! I can't say it's my problem, but it's a problem for Sergey! [Laughs]
Sergey: A little bit - but now it's less!
Betina: Yes, now it's less because we have a lot of movements in the program so I can relax and go "Okay, I don't need to surprise you!" [Laughs]
Shiyue: She said "Oh, I have some ideas. Maybe you can do Charlie Chaplin and you can wear exactly the same costumes. That would be fun!" But in the beginning, [Xinyu] didn't really like the funny style.
Xinyu: Yeah, I don't like the funny style. Before in these 12 years that we've skated together, we've never skated in a funny style.
Shiyue: Yeah, because he likes cool [styles].
[All laugh]
The fourth Challenger Series event, the Ondrej Nepela Trophy, took place in Bratislava, Slovakia over the weekend. The event was streamed by the Slovakian Federation but most of the original feeds have been taken down due to copyright issues - you should be able to find most of the individual programmes reuploaded to Youtube. Protocols and score breakdowns can be found here.