Taeri: It seems like in every competition cycle there's a number of skaters, especially those from smaller federations, who talk about their financial struggles. There are just a lot of little things that factor into making the sport burdensome like travel, housing, and accommodation - not just for the skater but for their coaches and their families. We've looked into multiple ways that skaters fund their own careers and it honestly varies based on factors like a skaters federation, their world ranking, even their popularity to get booked for shows.
Evie: It's quite disheartening that we have to go through this, especially when the IJS is, if you read it, a quite solid system if you base it just solely off what's written in the handbooks. If it's applied effectively, it would be a really solid judging system but it's not being used to its full advantage because judges aren't applying it fairly.
Yogeeta: The answer is clearly that we need robot tech callers and robot judges.
Niamh: That's at the next Congress.
Evie: Listen, they have to argue about whether music can be brought on a USB to a competition - I think we're a couple of centuries away from robots at this point. Let's be honest.
Nina: So what's the most rewarding part of being a coach?
Brian: Just seeing it all come to fruition. There are some days when Tracy [Wilson] and I are out there and we've got all of these amazing athletes and it's just like a well-greased machine. All the parts are all moving smoothly and there's a nice harmony with the session. Everybody's got good energy and they're doing their things and we just stand back and we just watch it. And we go "Wow! This is good skating. We're really lucky." But you can't become complacent because as soon as that happens, the wheels fall off, so you have to keep it well-greased. And then there are days where it doesn't [work] and sometimes we just have to accept that too.
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.
Jason: Exactly. The fact that I left my costumes in Croatia and six weeks later realized. Like, had no idea, didn’t even while I was unpacking, didn’t think about it.
Kite: Do you think it affected your focus at all, going into Nationals?
Jason: No. I think at the beginning, it kind of freaked me out, just because I didn’t know what I was going to wear. But once I kind of had an outfit and practiced in something different, I felt more relaxed. It really wasn’t until I had a backup that I started to relax. And Tracy being so calm about the whole situation. [Kite: They’ve probably seen it before.] [Everyone Laughs] Yeah, they were like “Oh my God we’ve been through this with Javi, [Javier Fernández] [Kite and Gabb laugh.] Um, Jason, this is nothing,” and I was like “Okay.”
Karly: We've been knew we have no faith in men.
Evie: And it was just so crazy! The top ten were only separated by what? Like five points from each other?
Sam: Yeah like barely even that.
Evie: It was insane! And then in the Free Skate everyone kind of died so you know [laughter] parallels!.
Sam: The Free Skate sure did happen!
Karly: In the Free Skate, wasn't it only Roman who was clean?
Evie: He wasn't even clean though!
(Hosts laugh)
Tracy: I don’t know, I have no idea what my reputation is, but I’m pretty tough in terms of training because I think we’re so limited by what we think we can do. And, I literally, I mean, I commentated Rugby at the Olympics in Brazil in Rio, and I watched what those Rugby players deal with and how tired they get and they have to go and hit somebody and get hit. And I literally skated after Yuzu and said “Have you seen your Japanese Rugby team?” and he looked at me, and I said “Come on! You’re not going to be hit, and nobody's going to hit you! Come on, you’re not that tired.” [Laughter]
Lae: The purpose of this episode was to really try to have an in-depth look, a hopefully objective look, at the way this entire situation panned out and give a bit of background understanding based on research that we've done on both SafeSport, the response and the issues that have arisen out of this really unfortunate and tragic series of situations.
