The Pairs in Vancouver; Short Program review

Before I nod off, here’s my 2 cents on the Pairs’ Short program (in order of performance):

Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao, China
Music: “Who Wants to Live Forever” (Queen)… Costumes: pink/white/black themes (actually pretty in tune w/Valentine’s Day)

Performance: as wonderful as I’ve ever seen them skate. SBS triple toes were spot-on… ditto for triple twist… the throw triple loop was so frickin’ HUGE I feared for a moment that she’d opened it into a double! Aside from the skate-grabber position she takes on their death spiral (which is done for extra degree of difficulty, but I can’t stand when ANYONE does them this way), everything went very, very well.

Score: 76.66—new world record! 1st PLACE.

Caydee Denney/Jeremy Barrett, USA

Music: “Firebird” (Stravinsky)… Costumes: lots of red, lots of sparkle in a design on Barrett’s back, red extensions in Denney’s hair for this performance only

Performance: pretty good for them, with one major error: she doubled her SBS triple toe, meaning it will count as a double for both of them. Otherwise…throw triple lutz was very good (!), great unison on SBS spin… not nearly low enough to the ice on their death spiral. All in all a pretty good Olympic debut.

Score: 53.26. 14th PLACE.

Vera Bazarova/Yuri Larionov, Russia
Music: “Sadness” Costumes: She was in pale pink; he in black I think
Performance: SBS 3T completed but very out of unison… throw triple loop good…another sub-par death spiral. But I can see why they chose to show them… lots of potential here.

Score: 56.54 (found this out online; turned down volume when Dreamworks animated short came on… man, I’m tired of those already.) 12th PLACE.

Amanda Evora/Mark Ladwig, USA
Music: from the movie Love, Actually. Costumes: She in magenta; he in black w/teal shirt
Performance: SBS triple toes she hung on to hers.. throw triple loop from spread eagle(?) good… nicer death spiral than Denney/Barrett… their last spin seemed a little slow, but really nice job overall!

Score: 57.86; shattering their personal best and placing them above Denney/Barrett. Really exciting to see them do so well, especially when there was such a buzz about how they’d never fare as well here as Inoue/Baldwin might. (Of course, they still have a free skate to get through…) 10TH PLACE.

Anabelle Langlois/Cody Hay, Canada

Music:”Fascination” Costumes: I saw lots of aqua…
Performance: Good SBS triple toes… Double (not triple) twist… REALLY nice throw triple lutz… death spiral was meh… SBS spins OK but slow… clean performance!

Score: 64.20. Wow, pretty big numbers! And yep, they’re Canada’s SECOND best team… 7th PLACE.

Maria Mukhortova/Maxim Trankov, Russia
Music: “Appassionata” Costumes: Brownish/faun
Performance: nice triple twist… but BAAAD on the SBS triple toes (she put hand down; he wiped out completely)… throw triple loop fine; death spiral okay. He is devastated, it’s easy to see.

Score: 63.44, which Sandra immediately flags as higher than expected. Still… in 8th PLACE.

Tatiana Volosozhar/Stanislav Morozov, Ukraine

Music: Dreams Illusion mixed by DJI Costumes: Suffice to say THE WORST of this event. Electric blue spandex unitards for two. They look like rejects from Blades of Glory, and that’s saying something.

Performance: He falls out of SBS triple toes… nice throw triple loop… but at this point, don’t really care. He already looked very uncomfortable in that outfit; now at end of routine he looks like he’d rather be sitting home on the couch.

Score: not sure; wasn’t shown. But they end the night in 9TH PLACE.

Yuko Kavaguti/Alexander Smirnov, Russia:

Music: The Swan (Saint-Saens) Costumes:
he’s in white—a swan, natch.
Performance: everything looked great… SBS triple toes, the throw triple loop, the pairs spin… very good job.

Score: 74.16. 3rd PLACE.

Jessica Dube/Bryce Davison, Canada
Music: Requiem for a Dream Costumes: Black/silver/blue
Performance: triple twist was good, but she wiped out on SBS triple salchows… the throw was “shaky” (Sandra Bezic’s words)… a bobble on the footwork… nice pairs spin though.

Score: 65.36. 6th PLACE… and Sandra & Scott are scratching their heads at how they could be placed higher than their teammates Langlois/Hay…


Qing Pang/Jian Tong, China
Music: From The Pearl Fishers Costumes: various shades of blue
Performance: Great SBS triple toes, triple twist, throw triple loop… an ugh-inducing bladecatcher death spiral… great pairs spin at the end.

Score: 71.50… 4th PLACE.


Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang, China
Music: Piano Fantasy performed by Maksim Mrvica
Costumes: tattered looking black/white with accents of red and blue
Performance: all their elements were just fine… but I don’t connect with these two as I do the other Chinese pairs.

Score: 71.28… 5th PLACE.


Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy, Germany
Music: Send in the Clowns Costumes: grey/white clown cosumes
Performance: awesome throw triple flip… great SBS jumps… very nice speed on spins.

Score: 75.96. 2nd PLACE.


New analysis tomorrow… for the FREE SKATE!