#kam o'shea

[austerlitzborodinoleipzig]

Favorite 2023/2024 Programs Pairs SP

Pairs event at Worlds was so fucking good even without the Russians. (You'll only see me saying this for pairs. This is the only discipline where Russians were legitimately above the rest). But this season did prove that the field can actually manage without them.

Have to say tho that most the programs aren't really good and we're desperately in need of some good Choreo which is too rare at this point (Cheng Peng save me!).

So here's list if my favourite programs from this season. Rankings are to be taken with a grain of salt.

Honorable mentions go to

Ghilardi/Ambrosini (The Ecstasy of Gold). Choreo did not left an imprint but I love the music choice the costumes and the general vibe. G/A had some great packaging this season.

Ariano Kent/Laliberté Laurent (500 miles). You just can't keep the Canadians away from Sadboi music and this baby pairs came out with the weepy ballad variant of 500 miles. It's an experience for sure.

7th - Yuna Nagaoka/Sumitada Moriguchi - Can’t Take My Eyes of You, by John Lloyd Young, choreo by Cathy Reed

Fun. Charming. Nice to watch. Nothing special but this is one of those feel good programs. The fact that YunaSumi for their first season together have better packaging than RikuRyu is nothing short of tragic.

6th - Anastasia Golubeva/Hektor Giotopoulos-Moore - Architect of the Mind, by Kerry Muzzey, choreo by Jonathan Guerreiro

Recycled from last year. I love the baby Australians so much and this routine show why. Ability to follow the relentless pace of the music. A sense of drama. Good unisson and well matched lines. I especially love the step sequence where their bodies unfurl to the swirls of the music a bit like an accordion. It scratches an itch. Love Nastya's lines and love Hektor's commitment to the performance.

5th - Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin - Stay, by Rihanna, choreo by Paul Bolle and Mark Pillay

Not the most original thing and Virtue/Moir did it better. But Hase/Volodin are not Tessa and Scott, nor do they need to be. It could be a bit bland and tbh if the team were only slightly less talented it would be.

But instead we have a nice, light, romantic program. It goes perfectly well with Minerva's softness. Volodin is very solid but non existent as a performer and that's ok ! They only have to move prettily to the music and it works for them.

4th - Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea - East of Eden, choreo by Drew Meekins

What good skating skills does to a motherfucker !!!

Even with the tech shortcomings (that throw jump is not even close to ready), when I saw them live in Angers this seasons they blew everyone put of the water with this SP. Skating skills are so rare among pairs skaters and it's so good to see them being rewarded by the judges for it. The sheer ice coverage the breath the ease of their skating is wonderful to see live. And East of Eden, overused as it is, is a perfect match for their brand. The music is suitably intense. Definitely one of the highlights of the season.

3rd - Cheng Peng/Lei Wang - The Storm Driven Sea, by Christopher Tin, choreo by Lori Nichols

Definitely the best choreo of the bunch, gets bumped from first place because Peng/Wang are a new pair and it shows. We sadly did not get the performance that short program deserved. The drama the position, the intensity... Unmatched.

Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps - Oxygen, by Cirque du Soleil choreo by Julie Marcotte

I HATED the music at the start of the season. The loud breathing triggered my misophonia and the vocals were grating.

I love it ! It's unlike anything else in the current pairs' field. Cirque du Soleil doesn't get more Québécois than that. The step sequence is fun. The lift rocks.

1st - Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel - I Love Rock and Roll, by Joan Jett, choreo by Luca Lanotte

Speaking of rock... Best short of the season hands down. Gorgeous lifts with hard and creative dismount? Check! Massive throw jump? Check! Big twist? Check! Great step sequence with loads of attitude? Check! Music that will make the audience loose it? You bet! Performance levels? Unmatched!

Of fucking course they judges hated it and they were robbed blind at worlds.

[erinaonice]

throws aren't throwing, jumps aren't jumping

but death spiral was gorgeous

[skate-the-onion]

World Championships + text post memes part 1/4 ( 1 2 3 4 )

[volchitsa-of-winterfell]

sorry but has ellie kam landed a throw triple jump like....ever. i'm SO morbidly curious as to what her practice stats look like for those even

[figureskatingfanblog]

Nice Triple Twist. Nice sbs Triple Sals. Fall from her on the Throw Triple Loop. Nice lift. Out of synch on the sbs, she turned in between the two jumps of that combo. Fall on the throw Triple Sal. Nice death spiral. Nice pairs spin. Nice lift, with a good entrance and exit. Lovely choreo sequence. Nice lift.

Such a shame about the two falls, because it was a lovely program for Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea. The throws are definitely their weakness, so that's something that they definitely need to drill on. Ellie is still relatively new to pairs, yes. That's the thing to work on over the off-season.

115.97, 180.41 and into third behind Pereira/Michaud and Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore.

[sarakiz]

photographing pairs remains the greatest possible stress test of human reflexes. fun thing to remember: you can always trust your shutter speed. men's free skate tomorrow!

[the-sound-of-her-wings]

Kam/O'Shea

Not gonna lie a personal favorite team.

Twist a little off

I have no idea how she stood up on that sal but good for her. It was so off in the air.

Fall on the throw triple sal

Those sbs spins were glorious

This program is just so fabulous. Even with errors it's just soo....

[delectablywaywardbeard-blog]

Pattinaggio di Figura, Ellie Kam e Danny O'Shea in Giappone

source

[figureskatingfanblog]

Nice Triple Twist. Gorgeous sbs Triple Sals. Fall on the throw Triple Loop. Nice lift. Fall from her on the sbs Triple Toes, she missed the combo, and it looked under. Fall from her on the throw Triple Sal. Nice death spiral. Nice pairs spin. Nice lift. Nice choreo sequence. Nice lift.

That was a bit of a rough program for Ellie Kam / Danny O'Shea. What they did do, they did really well, but there were three falls in that program.

123.19, 187.76, and into first ahead of Efimova/Mitrofanov, Plazas/Fernandez, and Liu/Nagy.

[figureskatingfanblog]

Nice Triple Twist. Nice sbs Triple Sals. Fall on the Throw Triple Loop. Nice sbs spins. Nice step sequence. Nice lift.

Okay WTF PEACOCK

Okay, that was a short interruption.

Nice death spiral.

It's such a shame on the fall because it was an otherwise lovely program from Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea.

64.44 and into second and the free behind Metelkina and Berulava and ahead of Peng/Wang.

[figureskatingfanblog]

Huge Triple Twist. Nice sbs Triple Sals. Fall on the throw Triple Loop. Solid sbs spins - a bit far apart in the start, but they got it back. Nice step sequence. Gorgeous lift. Very nice death spiral.

Ugh, such a shame about the mistake on the throw from Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea. That mistake will cost them, but it was such a good program otherwise.

64.51 and into first place ahead of McBeath/Parkman, Efimova/MItrofanov, and Liu/Nagy.

[figureskatingfanblog]

Huge Triple Twist. Nice sbs Triple Sals. Solid throw Double Loop. Nice step sequence. A bit out of synch on those sbs spins. Nice lift. Nice death spiral. 

Good program from Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea of the US! Very well done.

63.40 and into second place behind Pereira / Michaud and ahead of Gamez / Korovin.

[figureskatingfanblog]

Good Triple Twist. Nice sbs Triple Sals. Hand down on the throw Double Loop. Fall on the sbs from her, missed the combo. Nice lift. Solid death spiral. Nice pairs spin. A bit short on that throw Double Sal. Nice entry into that lift. Nice choreo sequence. Nice lift.

That was not a bad program from Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea. A couple of mistakes here, but overall, a solid job.

111.20, 168.69 and into first ahead of Zhang/Yang and Gamez/Korovin.

[figureskatingfanblog]

Rough catch on the Triple Twist, and she fell coming out of it. Nice sbs Triple Sals. Nice throw Double Loop. Out of synch on the sbs combo. Nice lift. Solid death spiral. Nice pairs spin. Fall on the throw Double Sal. Nice lift. Nice choreo sequence. Nice lift.

That was not the best program from Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea. Too many mistakes here today, so I’m not sure that will be enough, but they have so much potential as a pair. 

118.26, 184.01 and into first place ahead of Baram/Tioumentsev and McBeath/Bartholomay.

[figureskatingfanblog]

Nice Triple Twist. Step out from her on the sbs Triple Sals. A bit forward on that throw Double Loop. Nice step sequence. Nice pairs spin. Beautiful lift. Nice death spiral.

Great program from Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea! They definitely need a triple throw, but that will come with time. Great job!

65.65 and into second place behind Chan/Howe and ahead of McBeath/Bartholomay.

[figureskatingfanblog]

2023/24 International Selection Pool

The International Selection Pool (ISP) includes junior- and senior-level athletes and teams who meet criteria approved by the U.S. Figure Skating International Committee. These athletes and teams are eligible to be considered for assignment to international competitions.    

List as of 8/13/2023

Men

William Annis

Lucas Broussard

Nicholas Brooks

Jason Brown

Lorenzo Elano

Goku Endo

Aleksandr Fegan

Kirk Haugeto

Jonathan Hildebrandt

Tomoki Hiwatashi

Liam Kapeikis

Lucius Kazanecki

Joseph Klein

Kai Kovar

Alexander Liu

Zachary LoPinto

Jimmy Ma

Ilia Malinin

Daniel Martynov

Samuel Mindra

Antonio Monaco

Daniil Murzin

Maxim Naumov

Nhat-Viet Nguyen

Yaroslav Paniot

Camden Pulkinen

Jacob Sanchez

Taira Shinohara

Beck Strommer

Andrew Torgashev

Michael Xie

Robert Yampolsky

Maxim Zharkov

Women

Starr Andrews

Sonia Baram

Mia Barghout

Juliana Barshay

Alena Budko

Annika Chao

Elsa Cheng

Ela Cui

Ting Cui

Sarah Everhardt

Alexa Gasparotto

Lilah Gibson

Amber Glenn

Gracie Gold

Hanna Harrell

Jill Heiner

Hannah Herrera

Sonja Hilmer

Logan Higase-Chen

Athena Huang

Jiaying Ellyse Johnson

Jessica Jurka

Mia Kalin

Ella Kim

Teryn Kim

Katie Krafchik

Josephine Lee

Michelle Lee

Soho Lee

Isabeau Levito

Elyce Lin-Gracey

Hannah Lofton

Cleo Park

Nicole Park

Maryn Pierce

Clare Seo

Katie Shen

Audrey Shin

Phoebe Stubblefield

Bradie Tennell

Lindsay Thorngren

Lindsay Wang

Wren Warne-Jacobsen

Sherry Zhang

Adele Zheng

Ava Ziegler

Pairs

Emily Chan and Spencer Howe

Olivia Flores and Luke Wang

Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea

Chelsea Liu and Balazs Nagy

Isabelle Martins and Ryan Bedard

Maria Mokhova and Ivan Mokhov

Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez

Anastasiia Smirnova and Danil Siianytsia

Naomi Williams and Lachlan Lewer

Adele Zheng and Andy Deng

Ice Dance

Kristina Bland and Matthew Sperry

Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville

Oona Brown and Gage Brown

Helena Carhart and Volodymyr Horovyi

Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko

Madison Chock and Evan Bates

Amy Cui and Kenny Ekchert

Julia Epps and Blake Gilman

Isabella Flores and Ivan Desyatov

Caroline Green and Michael Parsons

Jenna Hauer and Benjamin Starr

Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker

Olivia Ilin and Dylan Cain

Raffaella Koncius and Alexey Shchepetov

Anya Lavrova and Jonathan Rogers

Angela Ling and Caleb Wein

Lorraine McNamara and Anton Spiridonov

Caroline Mullen and Brendan Mullen

Leah Neset and Artem Markelov

Eva Pate and Logan Bye

Elliana Peal and Ethan Peal

Yahli Pedersen and Jeffrey Chen

Katarina Wolfkostin and Dmitry Tsarevski

Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik