Event: Golden Spin of Zagreb & GP Final

[allekha]

This weekend we have two events: Golden Spin of Zagreb, a Challenger series event, and the Grand Prix Final.

Schedule and how to watch

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm happy to see Jason and Mikhail in the lead at Golden Spin after the SP! Both of them are such graceful skaters. I think Mikhail's program was still missing a little something (though part of that might have been due to the camera work), but other than that, everything looked fine - hopefully he can carry that over into the free as well. If he does well here, it would probably give him a confidence boost going into Nationals, and he's my favorite of the Russian men. And I'm really liking this short for Jason now.

[allekha]

Just finished catching up on men's and women's SP.

Keegan Messing: Cute program, some parts seemed a little nervous while others were nice and loose. The spread eagle near the beginning was lovely. Props to whoever threw him the Woody doll.

Junhwan Cha: I forgot that he does a -3Lo combo since not a lot of men do them, so that was a nice surprise. I love clock motifs in skating and I love his step sequence. It's a lot of fun to watch.

Nathan Chen: Having fewer jumps in the SP compared to the FS seems to give him time to show off his dance training and he does more with his feet. There was a lot of energy in it - I felt like he was enjoying himself. Not a fan of his music, though.

Shoma Uno: I think the step sequence looked a bit better than it did at SCI (but that was after he'd had a nasty fall). I like Shoma, but his PCS confuse me sometimes even after seeing him live.

Sofia Samodurova has a pretty costume. I like the red edging on her skirt, and it moves nicely when she jumps.

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva: I'm not a fan of her programs, but I like just watching her skate. The more I see her jump axels, the more confused I get about her technique. It's like she's just making a lazy-looking turn, doesn't pull her arms back at all (they were in front of her torso when she was going into it!), and then bam, she's done 3.5 revolutions. (Sometimes a little wobbly, like today, but still.) How does she do it? And her last jump was timed absolutely perfectly.

Rika Kihira: Gorgeous little angel floating on the ice. I think this music is maybe a little too slow/gentle for her or this choreo, but either way - she had a lovely skate. And her smile afterward when she saw her scores was so cute.

Satoko Miyahara: Always a very lovely skater, but jump issues aside, I don't think she was quite on and with the music today :(

Kaori Sakamoto: An elegant skate for her. I still think the program is a bit generic and boring, but her costume really suits her (especially with her hair down). Nice save on her first spin.

[aratama]

Yeah, I have no hate for Shoma but him getting consistently higher IN/PE/CO scores than Nathan is pretty ridiculous. It's not a lot of points, but last season's GPF was veeeery close between them so tiny differences can become important. And I love Nathan's music! It's a lot of fun and suits his quick-on-his-feet, humorous style really well.

Tuk's 3A was UR so I'm fine with the scores there, but I keep seeing people justify the difference in GOE between her and Kihira as difference in prep time, and I don't really agree? They skate for about as long before jumping, Kihira is just better at hiding it, which I think has a lot to do with Tuk's rigid arms and the strange way she takes off into the jump. Mishin clearly knows what he's doing, but her arms are really, really strange. Mao's 3A arms were kind of weird too but I've never seen anyone do a 3A that way. I like Tuk a lot and hope she'll upgrade the other jumps in her SP, 3Lz and 3F-3T or even 3Lo-3T would stabilize her scores much more than the 3T-3T she does.

I would be so excited for Brezina and Tuk to medal, so I'm looking forward to the FS a lot.

[allekha]

TBH, I often haven't understood Nathan's PCS, either. Last season, I could never remember a single thing about his free program even seconds after I watched it, other than... he did jumps? His choreo sequence was spread eagles? (Even with his SP, as soon as I saw Kevin Aymoz's program with the same music, I wished Nathan had done something more like that in terms of choreo.) I do think his programs this year are doing a better job at displaying his dancing skills, though, and I don't know if he's actually doing less two-footed skating, but it sure feels like it. And he looks like he's having more fun when he's skating.

Yeah, I've seen speculation about whether some the GOE spreads on Elizaveta's 3A could be due to some judges not knowing what to think of her weird arms. When she landed the one at Skate Canada, it looked odd, but I swear she's using her arms even less as the season goes on. I read that she is supposed to have upgraded her free program layout... I guess we'll see tonight. Would definitely be nice if she could medal here.

[aratama]

Honestly PCS don't make sense and have never made sense as absolute values, and I'm a 6.0 fan by heart, so I'm satisfied as long as they make sense comparatively, I guess! And Nathan tends to lose his commitment to the choreography in the FS, the judges are incapable of adjusting PCS on a short notice so... My contention is only that if Shoma ends up winning by 0.5 PCS this time around, that makes very little sense.

Even with his SP, as soon as I saw Kevin Aymoz's program with the same music, I wished Nathan had done something more like that in terms of choreo.)

We have to agree to disagree! And judging from how many Nemesis-lite and Nemesis-inspired programs I'm seeing this season, choreographers must have quite liked it too.

[allekha]

First of all, I just read about what happened with Ashley Cain at Golden Spin, and a) I hope she is okay b) that is my nightmare with watching pairs c) why the hell did the officials not stop the music and send a medical team to make sure she was fine? This is not acceptable. She could have been seriously injured!

What is with ISU and not giving proper medical attention - athletes being allowed to compete on fevers and possible concussions, Daniel Samohin at Skate America last year crying for help in obvious pain and having to skate to the boards by himself... there needs to be a proper and followed protocol in place for these things. It makes me wonder what they actually do in the medical checks at competitions. (I also think ISU should do a better job in general at promoting research-based information on long-term athlete health - how to prevent injuries where possible, what safety equipment might be useful for practice, not starving your skaters.)

Anyway. Men's free skate. Shaky programs from everyone today, alas.

I think Sergei Voronov might have done the nicest-looking A-spin I can remember seeing. Usually they're kind of awkward. Glad he didn't actually run into the judges there - that was scarily close. His costume is a bit strange but has grown on me.

Junliet was great. The music cut is definitely in 'so weird it's actually good' territory, and he sells it. Some of his jumps were a little rough today, but a season's best! It will be really nice to see him improve as time goes on and I think he already has that 'it' factor going for him. Yay for his bronze medal!

Keegan Messing had such a high entrance to his flying sit spin, wow.

...I liked Nathan's SP better. He used to have more choreo in this program, what happened to it? Was it sacrificed for jumps, or was he thrown off by the music glitch at the start? Though it was good to see him improve on the shaky first half (after the great quad flip) and end strong.

[aratama]

He used to have more choreo in this program, what happened to it?

Not really. Maybe slightly at the start but then he also added an eagle going into the 4T combination and his stsq has improved significantly (he was getting level 2s at the start of the season) and in general this performance felt less rushed, like he had grown into it and gotten more used to the reduced time.

But then I think Junhwan has a lot of promise but still skates like a junior who needs to get some personality, so we'll probably never agree!

[allekha]

Huh, I could've sworn it was less empty at Skate America or something... maybe I'm mixing it up with his SP somewhere in my memory.

I do think Jun-hwan has still has some developing to do artistically and in terms of projecting to the audience, but he's only 17, so that's understandable. Something about him just clicks for me. It sounds like we have different tastes, but that's fine!

GPF pairs SP spoilers

[aratama]

I'm so tickled by Peng/Jin being in first place ♥ It's such a feisty SP with a lot of cute interactions between them, and they skated it so well! I'm glad there's been some adorable breakout new pairs teams post-Olympics, which I haven't really seen in the other disciplines...

Re: GPF pairs SP spoilers

[allekha]

It's a really cute program. I think my favorite moment is when they clap hands, but they had me smiling the whole way through.

[allekha]

The women were all great tonight - what an event.

Satoko Miyahara: I started off not really liking this program, but somehow every time she skates it, it grows on me more. She was on fire tonight - just mesmerizing. Her jumps will probably never be great, but her spins were beautiful and I don't know what else she had to do to get higher PCS than Zagitova.

Kaori Sakamoto: Fall aside, such a lovely performance from her - she has a good I-spin, and the way it was timed right on the piano! Bringing back spiral sequences! (Her spirals weren't the best, but it's nice to see.)

Alina Zagitova: Her choreo looks really awkward and frantic to me. I think she's doing the best she can with it, but she's having to whip through every movement even when it doesn't match the music and she looks like she's shoving through her crossovers. I wish she didn't look upset just for popping her loop, though, poor kid. And her nervous expressions beforehand :( I just wanted to hand her one of her pets to hug.

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva: She sure knows how to get a crowd screaming. I think I need a gif of her 3A (or maybe one of her clean ones) so I can stare at it for a while. The +2A SEQ confused me a bit, though... was that meant to be there?

Rika Kihira: Good for her going for the second 3A! She fought well for that first place. I really like her choreography, too, even if today it wasn't quite as effortless as it can be. Hoping she sticks around to skate more lovely programs, and that she can stabilize that axel.

[aratama]

I feel bad for Miyahara since she's such a hard-working, nice person and getting inconsistent calls on her jumps must be so frustrating and demotivating. :/ I honestly felt her calls were rather generous during the GPS, but judging from interviews her team seems to have felt she had fixed her jumps for good... and I can't blame them, based on the calling. And then this.

The top ladies' PCS are waaaaaay out of wack, Zagitova's TR and movements have been more and more labored this season and her winning the FS over Tuk based on PCS is pretty dumb. (But the Russian press needs to leave her alone.) Also, Tuk's 3Lz+3T has been SPOT ON since the test skates and she needs to bring it to the SP, dammit! (The sequence is intentional since she's using two 3T elsewhere and doesn't seem to like the loop much.)

[allekha]

She seems to be working hard to try and make them better, and improving her health in general so she doesn't get another hip fracture, but if the calls are frustrating for us fans.... I keep wishing she'd been allowed to learn to jump in her natural direction, so then maybe they wouldn't be so tiny and difficult for her. I guess we'll never know, though.

(Russian press 100% needs to leave Alina alone. And Evgenia. And Mikhail. Stop picking on athletes for clicks, journalists.) I don't like Alina's skating, but I feel like I haven't had the chance to like it because of her programs this year being badly choreographed and last year being mostly boring, and because her team doesn't want to fix her issues or take care of her health. She shouldn't be struggling with back crossovers. She seems like a very sweet girl who should have a better coach. And accurate tech calling, but that goes for everyone.

It looks like the SEQ has a higher base value than adding a 2T even with the 80% point value, so that makes more sense now.