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 (3rd in SP, 4th
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 11th 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 1st? 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 1st 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 4th 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?)
1 comment:
Great blog I enjoyed reeading
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