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HELP

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The women at JNats SP were just *chef’s kiss*. Especially the last two groups. The joy on the faces of the top six skaters could melt even Eteri’s cold dead heart. Kaori has one of the best 3-3 in the world. She has so much height and distance and speed throughout. Wakaba was just fantastic. I almost cried three separate times during her step sequence and she looked so confident with her jumps. Mana’s 3A was gorgeous, and I’m so happy seeing her more and more consistent. Mai was just so good and I really don’t want her to be fourth again, but Satoko was also so so stunning and her layback spin is brilliant. And now Rino’s back in top form with her gorgeous floaty jumps. Anyways, I am so excited for the last group of the free skate. Who needs Russian Nationals when you can have skating skills and massive 3As in Japan? (and the men skate tomorrow omg the depth there too) 

in conclusion, Japanese Nationals are superior

bonus: mishin being an icon bc that was the best part of the russian men’s sp

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Well, the Gran Premio d’Italia was an event. I though Skate Canada was chaotic...

The women were fine, I guess. I’m happy to see Anna looking better, and Maiia pushing for the Olympic team, but they weren’t all that inspiring to me. Now, Loena and Mai were so much fun to watch! Both of them putting out two clean program was incredible to watch, and they all looked so happy! Satoko was gorgeous as always, and even though she had a few URs ignored in the SP, I was so happy to see her looking confident and finish fifth. Yelim Kim also did really well. Her 3Lz combo is HUGE, and she is another Korean woman with heaps of talent.

The men were traumatizing. The SP started off really well. I was happy to see Jun, Deniss, Daniel, and Boyang skate clean. I really like Jun’s SP, and his 4S was stunning. I also enjoyed Deniss and his Princess Mononoke program. Mikhail did well too, minus the 4T fall, and I started to get really excited for the potential in this event. Then came Yuma, who crumbled under pressure and turned into a sloppy mess. I was really worried for him going into the free, but he had a fantastic skate. I’ve never seen him so happy at the end of a program. He was a little cautious on the quad landings, but his 3As have turned into things of beauty. The last 3A into the choreo sequence was just incredible to watch. *chefs kiss* Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. Kazuki started out well, then devolved into an axelly mess. Deniss had two big errors to start out his program, and never really recovered. Misha did well, but I don’t like his SL program nearly as much as Nureyev, and so the whole thing fell a bit flat. Jun... poor Jun. He deserves +10 for his ina bauer, though. It is incredible. Daniel picked things back up with his FS, thank goodness. The music is odd, the choreo’s odd, and the jump technique is odd, but he landed his jumps and had the crowd behind him. And then came Boyang... and the competition ended on a bit of a thud. It was hard to see so many great skaters have one fantastic program and one disastrous one.

Are we halfway through the GP series already? It feels like both an eternity and not that long. I’m not ready for NHK.

Also, we officially have three skaters now qualified for the Final: Sui/Han, Hubbell/Donahue, and Nathan Chen. At NHK, Young You needs a silver or gold to make the Final (more likely with Sasha out), as does Daria. Kaori Sakamoto and Alysa Liu are long shots for the Final, and would need gold to make that happen. Miura/Kihara need a silver or gold to make the Final. Vincent Zhou needs to get on the podium, and Shoma Uno has to be in the top two. 

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The Skate Canada SP was waaaay better than SkAm, maybe because no one was skating with an injury? Although I’m pretty sure the women landed more triple axels than the men....

Nathan was either going to have a fantastic skate or another really bad one, and he decided to go towards fantastic. His 4Lz was a little shaky, but everything else looked good. I like the program, although the choreo isn’t as memorable as some of his other programs. There was a lot of two-foot skating as well, which is weird, since Nathan’s skating skills aren’t the best in the world but they’re good enough that he can handle more complex material. Although he did skate right after Jason, which doesn’t help.

Jason was AMAZING. He was on fire and deserves every single PCS and GOE point in the world. Sinnerman is a work of art, and he scored a 94 with no quad. That is true testament to his quality and magic and grace, and I am 100% fine with Jason Brown: Skate Canada silver medalist.

Keegan was also amazing. His knees are made of rubber, because how else does he save his wonky jumps? He has so much heart in his skating, and his k& c was SO FRIGGIN CUTE. Also, his spread eagle? *chef’s kiss* Gorgeous.

I’m glad to see Makar and Evgeni do well in the SP, although I know it won’t last in the free. Props to Evgeni’s crazy 4S save and Makar’s crazy 4Lo. Also, a moment of silence for our fallen man Roman, and Team Japan’s 3As at this event.

The women were absolutely bananas. And so was the PCS. 

 Mai Mihara was stunning, and underscored on PCS because she skated first :( I'm so glad to see her back and happy. Even though her jumps are tiny, they're rotated, and she still has lots of speed out of them. 

Karen was also stunning, although her combo was not. Her spirals are to die for, but her and the 3-3 are not friends this early in the season. 

 Wakaba! Wakaba! Wakaba! She looks so confident and happy! Not a fan of the program, but she skated so well! I can't wait for her free. One of the standouts for sure. 

Alysa was another standout. Even though the 3A was under, the rest of the program had so much speed and power and confidence. I love the music, and Alysa has really improved in skating skills and quality. 

Alena looked really hesitant on her jumps. They were all a little rusty, and she wasn't near her old level of performance. Also, the music was a weird cover and cut. At least she landed the 3A and looked happy at the end. 

Tuktamysheva is incredible, and I adore her so much. She really fought to get out that combo, and her 3A looked as good as ever. Her PCS was waaay too high. The only category she deserves above an 8.5 for is PE, which she is very good at, but her especially her SS mark should be way lower. She still deserves second place, just not so high a score. A 76, maybe? 

I like Kamila lot. She has loads of natural talent. Her spins and flexibility are incredible. She's a solid performer and has good jumps, although her combos are a little wonky. She creates beautiful moments in her programs thanks to her flexibility, so Dani G actually did something right! Her PCS was still too high, but she was nice to watch and I'm glad that she landed her 3A. But her costume... can she skate in some gorgeous black lace creation, instead if a salmon-colored burlap sack? Blech. 

Sui and Han OGM 2022! They are gorgeous in so many ways, and had a really solid SP. I'm happy to see Sui is healthy and they're not too hindered by injury. 

James and Radord seem really disconnected to me, especially Eric. He looks very flat and distracted while skating, and never interacts with Vanessa. I'm glad MT/M are ahead of them, and had a much better skate here than at Finlandia. 

Pavliuchenko/Khodykin were HILARIOUS. The program was literally ever single Italian stereotype ever. They skated well, but I'll just leave you with this.

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Thoughts on Courchevel 1

The first JGP event was a hot mess, as usual. Especially the junior men. The women actually did pretty well, for the most part. Ahsun Yun and Seoyeon Ji both won the costume competition. They were both so well-dressed. I really liked Ahsun’s FS to The Mummy. It was a good but unique choice, and she had a fantastic skate after a rough short. Kaiya Ruiter surprised me. She’s quite juniorish, but in a good way. She’s a solid performer and held up really well under pressure, so hopefully she can lead Canadian women’s skating over the next few years. Clare Seo and Lindsay Thorngren are so different: Clare’s very artistic with solid skating skills, while Linday’s more technically minded. But they both did really well here. Clare got nailed with a few URs, and Lindsay really delivered with her jumps to get the gold medal. But they’re both really talented and I’m excited to see where they go. 

The men were... pretty much a disaster, as I feared. The last two skates in the free were particularly rough. It’s probably because Courchevel is like a zillion miles above sea level and everyone was exhausted. Ilia Malinin had a fantastic short (although that cover of Billie Jean needs to die) and a spectacular morning practice, landing 4 different types of quads. His free was not nearly as solid: a fall on a quad sal, a popped quad toe, and a popped triple loop off of a triple lutz. He looked so tired. Corey Circelli started off well in the short, but his free skate was hard to watch. Lots of falls. I am happy for Francois Pitot and Lucas Broussard. Both of them don’t have the huge tech content of a lot of the Russian and Japanese men, so they managed to rise to the occasion here with solid skates to take JGP medals.

Also, shoutout to Katarina Wolfkostin and Jeffrey Chen, who dominated ice dance

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“not ready to face all the retirements after beijing 2022 and the breaks that some of them may not come back from”

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2021-2022 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Assignments

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The second Junior Grand Prix event, which was scheduled for August 25-28 in Edmonton, Canada, has been cancelled by Skate Canada. The event will subsequently be moved to Courchevel, and happen back-to-back with the first JGP event. The pairs section of the second JGP will now happen in Gdansk, the sixth JGP event, due to a lack of practice space in Courchevel.

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Yuma Kagiyama’s 4Lo from his Instagram story, 6/14/21 (fully rotated!!!)

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The ISU has published the tech minimums for the 2021-22 season

ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2022:

MEN 34.00/64.00 

LADIES 30.00/51.00 

PAIR SKATING 27.00/44.00 

ICE DANCE 33.00/47.00 

ISU European, ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2022 and Olympic Winter Games 2022:

MEN 28.00/46.00 

LADIES 23.00/40.00 

PAIR SKATING 25.00/42.00 

ICE DANCE 28.00/44.00

ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2022: 

JUNIOR MEN 23.00/42.00 

JUNIOR LADIES 23.00/38.00 

JUNIOR PAIR SKATING 23.00/34.00 

JUNIOR ICE DANCE 23.00/37.00

The draws for the GP events will be done as last season, with the SP being done by reverse of world rankings and the free being done by reverse of SP order. The JGP events will have a draw for the SP and follow the same procedure for the FS. The GP assignments are rumored to be out in late June.

The ISU also published the full calendar for the 2021-22 season.

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“i love nathan and yuzuru’s sportsmanship its so nice to see even after media keeps pitting them against each other”

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The participants for Dreams on Ice 2021 have been announced. This famous ice show in Japan usually features several new programs from its skaters and will take place July 9-11.

Yuzuru Hanyu ,Yuma Kagiyama, Keiji Tanaka, Shun Sato, Kazuki Tomono, Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda, Kao Miura, Sena Miyake,  Rika Kihira, Kaori Sakamoto, Wakaba Higuchi, Satoko Miyahara, Mana Kawabe, Mai Mihara, Yuhana Yokoi, Hana Yoshida, Rino Matsuike, Ayumu Shibayama

Interestingly, Yuzuru Hanyu will skate here and Shoma Uno will not. This unofficially confirms for me that Yuzuru will not be going back to Canada this year, simply because I don’t think Yuzuru would risk international travel for an ice show. Yuzuru has been absent from DOI for the past few years, so it will be interesting so see him back. Perhaps he will perform his new short program?

*The cast list is preliminary and could very well change

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I feel like he’s going to have this gorgeous, clean skate with the 4A at the Olympics, win his third gold medal, and then retire. 

So…

Does anyone else get the feeling that Yuzuru is gonna land the 4A and then immediately retire?

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Happy birthday to our World silver and gold medalists!

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Jason Brown’s 2021-22 programs will be his Sinnerman short program from this season and his Schindler’s List free skate from last season.

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Yuzuru skating to Blinding Lights by the Weeknd is something I never thought I needed but now I can’t get enough of.

Yuzuru's opening for Stars on Ice 2021!

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Shoma Uno’s new free program will be to Bolero, and will be choreographed by Stephane Lambiel.

Runthrough