2017 Internationaux de France Roundup

Internationaux de France was yet another stop on the 2017-18 GP circuit that brought as many head-scratching moments as it did awe-inducing performances. In fact… since there isn’t much time left until Skate America (GP stop #6) gets started, I’m ditching the discipline-by-discipline approach this time. Instead:

THE AWE-INDUCING PERFORMANCES…

*  Misha Ge (UZB). “One more year,” he said. No quads, just a re-dedication to his love of the sport, we were told. What was underestimated: how much the sport would benefit from this decision. At an event where more men than ever seemed to come unglued at free skate time, Ge was serene, skated clean, and came away with something he never had before: a Grand Prix medal.

*  Yuna Shiraiwa (JPN). NHK left her in 8^th place, and IFP didn’t SEEM to demonstrate that much improvement if you go by her placement (6^th). But in a field of ladies’ short programs so troubled that some of us were left wondering if a curse had descended upon Grenoble, Shiraiwa’s rose enough above the fray for 3^rd place. Then she also managed to hang in with the powerhouses that emerged on day 2, only faltering a bit in the final minute of her FS. In a sea of incredible 200+ total scores, Shiraiwa sat just outside the pack with 193.18. Is she considered a serious contender for those 2 Japanese Olympic spots? She should be.

*  James/Cipres (FRA). Every time I see them take the ice this season I get a little more excited about their skating, and their PyeongChang prospects. This time the GP medal they won was silver, and the place they came in on the FS portion was 1^st (outskating the reigning World Bronze Medalists in the process).  Momentum much?

* Weaver/Poje (CAN). True, Papadakis/Cizeron (FRA) were nothing short of breathtaking yet again. But watching Wea/Po at this event felt a little bit like watching their career compressed into 2 days: a twizzle falter takes the otherwise-on-track-for-the-podium team down to 5^th, leaving them little option but to throw themselves into their Je Suis Malade FD and hope for the best…. And in the end, they still finish off the podium. But it must feel like the world is on their side for all the love they’ve been shown. Hopefully that’ll help.

THE HEAD-SCRATCHERS:

*  Many, if not most, of the quad-attempters. The early strategy talked about so frequently this season for USA’s Vincent Zhou seems to have spread to other camps, and that strategy is GO FOR ALL THE QUADS… and like spaghetti thrown against a wall, see what sticks. One little problem I have with this: skaters aren’t spaghetti. If they aren’t able to land the jump clean, I’m finding myself more eager to see their keister hit the ice than an awkward, pained attempt to keep on their feet that could very well result in an ankle injury similar to what Yuzuru Hanyu is recovering from right now. And this from the likes of Olympic medal contenders like Uno and Fernandez! Yikes! We get it, guys. Why try just one quad when you can try four? Eh, I can think of a couple reasons…

*  Meanwhile, over in the ladies side of things I see Elizaveta Tuktumysheva in a high-stakes battle of her own, not unlike the one being waged this season by USA’s Mirai Nagasu. Each is struggling to get back on their national podium after several years away from it. Each is potentially dealing with a deep pool of talented competition (though at times this GP season has tried to prove otherwise. Each has a “secret weapon” (commonly known as a triple axel) that could, if properly executed, get them the higher points they seek. But mar the jump, and the rest of the program runs the risk of having the life sucked out of it. Tukta suffered this fate in France. While she didn’t seem gutted by her performance (or lack thereof)—it’s not like she had a chance of making the Final—the wheels of Russian Nats outcomes had to be churning in her head.

* Nagasu might not have the fight for an Olympic spot that you might expect, however. Polina Edmunds received praise in Grenoble for “moving in the right direction” points-wise (finishing 16 points higher than at Finlandia Trophy), but still finished in the double digits placement wise (10^th).

*  The good news for Chock/Bates part 1: they were able to profit from Wea/Po’s mistake and finish 2^nd in France. Good news part 2: They’ve made the GPF for the fourth year in a row. The bad news: they are still Chock/Bates, and as Charlie White opined during Olympic Channel coverage last weekend… they just don’t seem to possess the je ne sai quoi to take them to the world podium. At least, not anymore. 

Finally, I’ll close with this note about 37 year-old British pairs skater Zoe Jones. I pointed her out in my preview post for one very obvious reason (her age). But even though she and partner Chris Boyadji struggled mightily in their GP debut, her efforts should be celebrated for a number of reasons:

1) Being a singles skater in the first act of her career, she took on a whole new, elite-level discipline of the sport incredibly late in the game. Most of the 30-something women we see competing pairs have been doing it for EONS. Not in this case.

2) Unlike 34 year-old Deanna Stellato of the U.S., she’s a mother of three—nine year-old twins and a four year old. I cannot even BEGIN to fathom competing at this level when you’re on to a whole other part of your existence (motherhood).

3) Something I learned from my FB/Twitter friend Linda Tannock McChlery (a former ladies champion for Scotland) was that Jones had the additional burden of competing in Grenoble while suffering from the flu! She and Boyadji got the GP assignment only a few weeks before it happened, and since (unfortunately) they weren’t able to secure a spot for the Olympics due to a subpar showing earlier in the season, one would reason there was little reason to knock themselves out trying to make the most of what might prove to be their only GP assignment ever. Yet that’s exactly what they—and especially SHE—did. What a story.