Figure skating, it apparently still owns my heart!
This season I'm actually watching figure skating as it happens.
I won't comment much on the Men SP at Cup of Russia, because I managed to miss half of it - not my fault, Eurosport didn't even list it in its program and I only caught part of the second warm-up group. The young Russian (Adian?) who pwned them all was impressive. And of course I still love Adam Rippon in his purple-haired, sparkly gay glory - too bad the quad lutz is eluding him, but oh my god, the choreo and his moves and his stunning layback spin!
I watched the men at TEB, too, and remember mostly this tiny baby Japanese kiddo who looks like an anime character (starts just like with Yuzuru - comes out of nowhere, is all tiny and innocent, then ends up winning everything). I also remember the blond young Russian boy, who Mishin coaches (and wow, Mishin hasn't changed over the past 10 years at all!). And I remember that Chan-flation is still a thing, apparently.
ANYWAY. The Ladies tonight at Cup of Russia/Rostelecom Cup. I am not a huge fan of Ladies' skating, the only ladies I was every a fan of were Maria Butyrskaya when I was a little girl, along with Mao Asada and Yuna Kim in recent history. (Yuna Kim, oh my, there's still no one who even comes freaking close.)
Anyways, today I was pleasantly surprised! I mostly watched this for Daša Grm, the Slovenian, because she sometimes trains with us. (The nerves really got the best of her here. She can do better, but she's not quite in the same league as some of the others.) I wasn't expecting to be entertained much. And in the first warm-up group, I really wasn't.
I loved the speed of Alaine Chartrand of Canada, though - she looked so DIFFERENT and I love that! Not quite your typical lady skater. She attacked it with the same speed and power that I love in Men's skating. Elena Medvedeva was a surprise, too - girl should have a cookie, but oh wow, was she elegant and mature on the ice, despite being barely 16! Rika Hongo blew my mind a little, despite not getting such high scores - that program was so much FUN! (And I loved the green of her dress.) I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed watching Polina Edmunds - I've only ever seen pictures of her and thought she looked like such a dorky teenager, but this performance to Bach was, again, strong and fast and elegant at the same time. Elena Radionova was very good, I guess, and fast, too, but the program sort of doesn't work for me as much as some of the others. And as for Sotnikova? Not impressed.
So yeah, it's going to be exciting tomorrow in the free skate. I'm glad to have found some ladies that are interesting to me on first glance. I had been thinking that Mao Asada's comback would be the only thing to keep me watching Ladies... but apparently there's a lot of young talent coming up! (Absolutely not feeling Gracie Gold. She's good and all, but meh, so boring.)
Figure skating rant over. I also watched some ice dance the other weekend and still find ice dance mostly boring. I'll have you know that when you're sharing ice with ice dancers, it's much more interesting. (And scary!!! I've shared session with the aforementioned Daša Grm, who's kind of an elite, and the other week we had a senior man doing triple-triples and huge 3As on the ice... but still I find the junior ice dancers the scariest! Legs sticking out in all directions, the flow of their program across the ice is always unpredictable to me, the twizzles with flying free legs are terrifying. Half of the time I'm expecting to get kicked in the head. The other half of the time I'm oggling the boy, because he's so handsome on the ice - an awkward dork off-ice, all smooth on the ice.)
I won't comment much on the Men SP at Cup of Russia, because I managed to miss half of it - not my fault, Eurosport didn't even list it in its program and I only caught part of the second warm-up group. The young Russian (Adian?) who pwned them all was impressive. And of course I still love Adam Rippon in his purple-haired, sparkly gay glory - too bad the quad lutz is eluding him, but oh my god, the choreo and his moves and his stunning layback spin!
I watched the men at TEB, too, and remember mostly this tiny baby Japanese kiddo who looks like an anime character (starts just like with Yuzuru - comes out of nowhere, is all tiny and innocent, then ends up winning everything). I also remember the blond young Russian boy, who Mishin coaches (and wow, Mishin hasn't changed over the past 10 years at all!). And I remember that Chan-flation is still a thing, apparently.
ANYWAY. The Ladies tonight at Cup of Russia/Rostelecom Cup. I am not a huge fan of Ladies' skating, the only ladies I was every a fan of were Maria Butyrskaya when I was a little girl, along with Mao Asada and Yuna Kim in recent history. (Yuna Kim, oh my, there's still no one who even comes freaking close.)
Anyways, today I was pleasantly surprised! I mostly watched this for Daša Grm, the Slovenian, because she sometimes trains with us. (The nerves really got the best of her here. She can do better, but she's not quite in the same league as some of the others.) I wasn't expecting to be entertained much. And in the first warm-up group, I really wasn't.
I loved the speed of Alaine Chartrand of Canada, though - she looked so DIFFERENT and I love that! Not quite your typical lady skater. She attacked it with the same speed and power that I love in Men's skating. Elena Medvedeva was a surprise, too - girl should have a cookie, but oh wow, was she elegant and mature on the ice, despite being barely 16! Rika Hongo blew my mind a little, despite not getting such high scores - that program was so much FUN! (And I loved the green of her dress.) I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed watching Polina Edmunds - I've only ever seen pictures of her and thought she looked like such a dorky teenager, but this performance to Bach was, again, strong and fast and elegant at the same time. Elena Radionova was very good, I guess, and fast, too, but the program sort of doesn't work for me as much as some of the others. And as for Sotnikova? Not impressed.
So yeah, it's going to be exciting tomorrow in the free skate. I'm glad to have found some ladies that are interesting to me on first glance. I had been thinking that Mao Asada's comback would be the only thing to keep me watching Ladies... but apparently there's a lot of young talent coming up! (Absolutely not feeling Gracie Gold. She's good and all, but meh, so boring.)
Figure skating rant over. I also watched some ice dance the other weekend and still find ice dance mostly boring. I'll have you know that when you're sharing ice with ice dancers, it's much more interesting. (And scary!!! I've shared session with the aforementioned Daša Grm, who's kind of an elite, and the other week we had a senior man doing triple-triples and huge 3As on the ice... but still I find the junior ice dancers the scariest! Legs sticking out in all directions, the flow of their program across the ice is always unpredictable to me, the twizzles with flying free legs are terrifying. Half of the time I'm expecting to get kicked in the head. The other half of the time I'm oggling the boy, because he's so handsome on the ice - an awkward dork off-ice, all smooth on the ice.)