Skate America 2019 Recap

Let's take a quick look back at last weekend's Skate America, shall we? 

MEN: 

I kind of felt like no one wanted to even try to challenge Nathan Chen. There were so many missed or popped quads in this discipline, it either makes you appreciate the first-ever pair of quad lutzes landed by Anna Shcherbakova all the more… or it makes you all the more worried for what the women’s event might become if there’s an onslaught of quad jumps.

Glad to see Keegan Messing representing as well as he did (3^rd in SP, 4^th overall), even if he wasn’t able to perform his free skate well enough to make the podium. 

On the other hand, it was rough to see Michal Brezina down in 11^th place overall when just a year ago he was having such a renaissance season (2 silvers on the GP circuit). Alexei Bychenko, too, was tough to watch. I’ve been a big fan of his efforts in recent years, but his free skate performance to Pirates of the Caribbean felt so laborious and tired to me, I was certain he’d recycled it from another season. (He didn’t.)

LADIES:

When Shcherbakova squeaked out a landing, then caught an edge and fell during her SP footwork, I’m sure a lot of people rolled their eyes and wondered what the ShcherbetHype was all about… but it all became clear about 24 hours later. What can you do with a competitor that lands TWO quad lutzes (and everything else she attempts, including six triples) but put her in 1^st? We’ll likely get a similar question at Skate Canada this coming week as Alexandra Trusova takes this ice in her senior GP debut.

Shcherbet’s historic performance all but stole the thunder from other medalists, both of whom had extremely impressive skates in their own right. USA’s Bradie Tennell (silver medalist) has two programs this season that showcase her very nicely, and she skated both of them virtually error-free in Las Vegas—but, alas, even her toughest triple-triple combos pale alongside quad-triple combos in terms of base value.

And Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (RUS), now putting the senior in seniors as a Russian woman competing at the ripe old (!!) age of nearly 23, could only snag bronze despite landing three triple axels at SkAM. In her case, lower-than-expected component scores were partially to blame. “She does a lot of posing (rather than complex transitions),” offered Johnny Weir during the NBC coverage. We’ll have to wait until her next GP event (Cup of China) to see if anything changes in terms of her choreography.

Pairs: 

Did anyone else feel like they were at U.S. Nationals when Denney/Frazier were completing their Lion King free skate? That’s how significant this virtually clean performance seemed to be from a team that has S T R U G G L E D with injuries, and the ability to gain any level of competitive consistency because of said injuries. Their bronze medal at SkAM—their first GP medal of any kind in three years— came behind the first GP silver medal for Pavliuchenko/Khodykin, and the first GP gold for Peng/Jin. 

Denney/Frazier will get a chance to gain more competitive traction at the GP France in a few weeks.

Dance: 

As with many of you, my predictions that come closest to accurate at SkAM were in ice dance… and even with that, I completely missed the mark for the bronze medal! No complaints on the actual results, though, as Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen delivered a very enjoyable pair of performances to earn their first-ever GP medal. (This is their first full season competing for Canada; from 2013-18 they represented Denmark.)

While Hubbell/Donohue came in 1^st at SkAM overall, Russia’s Stepanova/Bukin won the Free Dance. And while (as usual) I’m no expert on the technical differences between different teams/performances, here’s what leapt to mind as I sat down to string together a few feelings about H/D’s FD to music from the recent remake of A Star is Born…

(Hum the McDonalds jingle here)

Bah da bah bah bah… NOT loving it. (At least, not yet.)

I’ve been hot and cold on H/D programs throughout their partnership, and of course it’s early in the season so it may be subject to change anyway. But whether it’s the country groove of “Alibi” (the upbeat portion of the dance), the dialogue snippets from the film (never again, I always say about dialogue as I recall a certain FD to Ghost), or the lack of a gorgeous lift (or ANY lift) during the climactic moments of “Shallow”, I’m just not feeling much of their program in its current state. H/D are competing at Skate Canada this coming weekend, so perhaps we’ll all discuss this on Twitter again in a few days (as many of us did during SkAM).

One more thing about last weekend’s ice dance competition: what stood out for me, aside from those at the top, were Careirra/Ponomarenko’s Spanish-themed FD and Smart/Diaz’s circus-inspired one… the latter of which was charming and inventive (at least, to me), and didn’t get as much Twitter love as I thought it deserved. But it did generate a 4^th place finish, which is this Spanish team’s best GP result to date. (Maybe Diaz just needs a different costume to win over some fans?)