2018 Skate America: Thoughts and Highlights?

Hi Folks!

Now that the competition is over, what were your favorite highlights of the event? Feel free to talk about costumes, elements, scores, etc. Everything goes!

We are also looking for those who have a bit of writing skillz! We'd love to see a paragraph of each discipline highlighting the top three along with your thoughts. The staff will be watching and someone may win a free season pass to the competition forums if you haven't already got one Get those creative and technical juices flowing and show us your journalistic abilities! One-liners are welcome, just keep out the snark level down

Also, take a look at our coverage features and video snippets from the event.

Cheers!

Ladies long program was super. The top three really put their foot in it. (In Southern USA slang, this is a compliment to a cook. This soup tastes so good you must have put your foot in it.)

Costumes? Gold, Satoko Miyahara little black dress. Silver, Alaine Chartrand purple dress.

In men's I was left feeling intrigued about the prospects for Vincent Zhou, Julian Yee, Nam Nguyen and Matteo Rizzo going forward into the season. And good on Michal Brezina!

Immensely proud of Julian Yee for his Grand Prix debut! Can't wait to see him skate at Rostelecom!

So happy Lorraine and Quinn did well! And Ashley and Tim medaled!!!!!!

Of course, I was cheering like crazy for Team Japan and Kaori and Satoko were so amazing. It's difficult to follow up a strong SP with a strong LP but both of them were not only good, they were GREAT! Kaori's expressions after a clean skate are so fun! You can read everything in her face.

Samodurova was a surprise for me as well. Her LP was another highlight to end the competition. Her LP is goofy, and what with all the finger-guns and winking, it could be a terrible program...BUT, she's 100% committed to this choreo. She believes it and is having a blast, so it makes me enjoy it too. After she was done I could see how nervous she must have been, but not a bit of it showed during her skate. I'll be cheering for her this season. :thumbsup:

All positive.
We decided to drive to Everett on the last moment on Saturday. Arrived at the arena 4pm when there were only three men left in free skate, including Nathan. It was not worth to pay $100 just for the three last men, so we got tickets for the evening session with short ladies and dance, and then for the Sunday session with long ladies and dance.
It didn't make sense to pay for better seats, as you could practically sit anywhere you wanted, especially on Sunday. We sat just next to the place where the skaters were entering the ice, which was also close to the TV commentators. Tara, Johnny and Tanith were in full view.
I gladly spoke to several ladies my age and plus, some of them might be possibly hiding here under their nicks. You know, we may argue online, but when skater fans meet in person everybody is nice to each other

I don't know why they chose Everett as the place. The town is not the most representative of America. In fact, I don't think it's even safe to walk one block from the arena at night. I found out it's not even safe to walk by yourself in the daylight! Probably because the venues in bigger cities would to be too expensive. Figure skating needs money, sponsors!! If they start organizing Skate America in towns like Everett then figure skating must be in big trouble.

Anyway, it was really fun. The skaters up close and personal, everybody nice, terrible food - all as usual on such occasions.

My wife and I met Natalia Kaliszek's parents - what a wonderful family! We got selfies with Natalia, lots of talk and laughing. The best family ever. And such a sweet and hard working girl. We are now hardcore fans.

My observation from short and long ladies in random order:
- Bradie. She was unknown last year, now she is facing expectations. With Mariah offering nothing but a nice smile, all American pride is on Bradie's shoulders now. And it showed today. And her beating Evgenia it's not a good sign for Evgenia.

- Leona Hendrix. No observations. She needs to work much harder to deserve observations.

- Alaine. What a comeback!! What a redemption! I was cheering for her with all my lungs. There was actually a large group of Canadians sitting right behind me cheering even louder. I looked back and spotted Kevin Reynolds just two rows above me. Went to him and got a selfie together - what a nice fellow! But Alaine was on fire. She may never win Olympics, in fact, not even a challenger, but what a fight! And what a spirit!
And after she was done and was ready to walk backstage that big group threw a donut to her. She deserved it!

- Marin and Polina. I feel sorry, really sorry. Polina cried like a baby walking backstage. Marin didn't look much better. I don't know what happened. Both had trouble finishing their routines. And it was really surprising for Marin, as she really rocked on short. Rafael was trying to send some energy to Marin, but I don't think Marin was motivated to even try.

- Starr. I don't want to be mean, but I was surprised she was even there. She clearly doesn't belong to this level of competition yet.

- Sofia. She was so happy! In fact, the entire Russian group got crazy after her long. Not only Mishin, but the whole group, including gloomy looking Gennadi Karponosov. Gennadi was hanging at the place the entire time and if it were dark and I were alone I would be running in panic thinking it's a vampire. He literally looks like Nosferatu. But when Sofia finished her routine Gennadi was a happy young boy again.
The good thing about Gennadi is that he is bringing me memories of Natalia Linichuk and how gorgeous she was in her competitive years.

- Satoko and Kaori. Everybody said everything already here, so I am not going to add anything. They both got standing O from me. It was worth the drive just to see them.

So selfies with Natalia and Kevin, maybe meeting some GS members, good stuff.

Oh, bad thing - the skaters stayed at Delta, while I stayed at Courtyard, so I missed them. I was hoping to share the hotel with the skaters, that's why I reserved Courtyard, but it turned out the skaters went to the cheaper Delta. Well, the money again...

Interspectator said:

Of course, I was cheering like crazy for Team Japan and Kaori and Satoko were so amazing. It's difficult to follow up a strong SP with a strong LP but both of them were not only good, they were GREAT! Kaori's expressions after a clean skate are so fun! You can read everything in her face.

Samodurova was a surprise for me as well. Her LP was another highlight to end the competition. Her LP is goofy, and what with all the finger-guns and winking, it could be a terrible program...BUT, she's 100% committed to this choreo. She believes it and is having a blast, so it makes me enjoy it too. After she was done I could see how nervous she must have been, but not a bit of it showed during her skate. I'll be cheering for her this season. :thumbsup:

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Not every competition can be out of this world amazing or we would have nothing to compare. This event was ho hum. No real outstanding program or performance. The most exciting thing was the Knerims leaving Savchenko. I was looking for the coronation of Bradie Tennel but that didn't happen. I am happy Nathan won but his tech is sofar advanced. id o thinkjudges are way too generous with his pcs I know people will say you can't compare unless skaters are at the same event and same scoring system but if Javier should be insulted and Lambiel, Buttle and Chan should be outraged by the ridiculous scores for Chen pc wise. I am sorry but having overgrown hair does not make you artistic - I know some of the Japanese men have been able touse their hair somewhat but you need more than that. Let's hope Skate Canada has more intrigue .

Seemed like a relatively well attended event at least compared to recent years... with some good energy. Though I could be completely wrong though and the lighting, camera angles, etc could be altering my perception.

I really wish the ISU and the local federations would start looking for the places where fans will show up and then just stage events there every year. One of my biggest pet peeves with figure skating is that the events are moved every year which means local traditions are never developed and the PR and advertisement to do outreach has to be redone.

I was there all weekend!!! (Still here, technically.) I went with my friend. I'll probably write more when I'm reunited with my computer, but here's what I've got for now.

- we went to the autograph session for the US ladies and dance. I'm shy (and we had to move fast anyway, it was basically a conveyer belt) but got to meet them all. Karina and Joseph were the most exuberant, trying to connect with everyone. We were unable to meet the men and pairs. The line filled up quickly, and time ran out before many of the people waiting got a chance.

- at one practice, kaori and satoko collided. It was scary, but neither one was hurt. They were really sweet with each other, apologizing profusely.

- bradie nailed that 3/3 repeatedly in practice. That mistake in the sp was just unfortunate. She's more than capable.

- Megan wessenberg's sp was great. She really put herself into the performances, and I think she has a lot of potential.

- Julian was another stand out. Especially his exhibition. He's an amazing performer.

- satoko introduced kaori in Japanese for the exhibition, and said something that made kaori and others laugh. I want to know what she said, ugh!

Overall:

This was a very interesting look at the new IJS at a higher level event. It was rather noticeably, a strictly judged event as a whole. Lots of tech calls (a couple confused skaters in the KnC), GOE was fairly tame (which is good), and the scores were consequently nothing to shake a stick at. But that being said, there were still some great skates and highlights so early in the season.

MENS

Nathan Chen was unsurprisingly the winner here, but what surprised me was the level of charisma he has brought to his programs this year. The choreography is playful and interesting in his SP, great personality... his FS is beautiful and smooth through the first half and then he dials up the intensity - very interesting ChSp, and quite unlike the ChSps he's previously done (several skaters tend to repeat the same field moves year after year, so this was refreshing). Interesting to see that the judges, even on home ice, gave him tame PCS (90.94 for a clean FS, with 3 quads, on home ice) and went after his levels/GOE (I don't think people can really complain he got a bunch of World Champion/home ice freebies, and the panel was being fair if not a bit strict). He still pulled the highest total score this season (with dumbed down content and deductions at that). And of course, after Japan Open, it was a night and day improvement.

So thrilled for Brezina - back on the Grand Prix podium, with very solid skates, especially his short program! His first GP medal in 4 years, which is awesome for him at the twillight of his career.

Speaking of which, congrats to Voronov on his bronze at the age of 31! Not sure if that makes him the oldest male singles skater to medal on the Grand Prix but good for him! The skates were a bit scrappy, especially compared to Nepela, but he did enough to medal. Not sure why he's going for the lutz in the SP when his loop is way more consistent, but hey, choices! Also, a gorgeous 4T+3T (again, at the age of 31! - kinda like Oda at JO).

As much as I have a soft spot for Voronov, I have to say, IMO Zhou was rather robbed... that tech panel really seemed to go after him for everything. It's weird how he gets absolutely no help from his home judges (not that he should), but this was an exceptional amount of tech calls, some of which probably could have been benefit of the doubt for him. His programs are just okay for me but the artistry is improved (the SP especially is an improvement from last year). It's unfortunate because a bronze really could have boosted his confidence, and late start violation (when he's the first skater who has to go up after warm up, at that) costing a medal is really the worst. He's got more season though to clean up his URs and bounce back. URs aside, I still loved those quad lutz combos.

Have to commend Julian Yee for what was a sublime short program. Textbook quad salchow, and the choreo itself is beautiful. Too bad nerves and pressure likely got to him in the free skate, but that Short was a breakthrough and looking forward to seeing what he's got in the future. Potential star in the making. His artistry is miles better than last few seasons.

PAIRS

Tarasova/Morozov were obviously the winners but made a ton of errors along the way. The good news is that their freeskate is a welcome departure from the tackiness of Candyman and it's nice to see them get back to their classical lines and mature movements which suit them much more than trying to be quirky and sassy (which Evgenia can pull off, but Vladimir doesn't have the personality for). They are a strong threat to win Worlds this year, and with these programs I actually wouldn't mind that. But they've got to get their SBS jumps. Lots of errors and they're super fortunate to have faced no pressure from any other team here.

Efimova/Korovin did a nice job holding onto silver - they're a bit green (obviously), but they have an awesome twist, and beautiful lifts. SBS elements need work though.

To me, the Free skate of the night went to Cain/Leduc. So many lovely details. As much as I love the Knierims, Cain/LeDuc laid it down and handily beat them. I'm surprised that the tech panel went after their SBS jumps with such scrutiny on home ice, but that seems to be the case. I really think they should have come second overall, but a bronze is a great start to this season. They're my early pick for the National title.

Sad to see the Knierims struggle - I really am not a fan of their programs this year, but it's still early in the season. Nice to see them continuing though!

Shout out to Minerva Hase and Nolan Seegert for their fabulous 3rd place short program! It was nice to see a clean short program in the field (hah, and there's the snark!) in what was an incredibly sloppy short. Teams were for the most part more solid in the free though, and it's great to see many of them fare better.

DANCE

Hubbell and Donohue were obviously the class of the field but were a bit shakier than I expected them to be, particularly with the error in their Rhythm Dance at the very end, and some minor twizzle issues. Their levels were not quite up to snuff and they were outscored in BV by multiple teams. However, the performances themselves were sensational - especially love the attitude and sass in their RD. They'll be another threat for a World medal with these vehicles, but it'll be interesting to see how they do against Gilles/Poirier at Skate Canada, right after this Skate America win and not much time to make fixes.

Guignard and Fabbri were also very solid with high difficulty, strong elements, and great performances. They really remind me of Cappellini/Lanotte in that the size of him is rather slight for a male ice dancer - it does look a bit mismatched to me at times, but somehow they make it work. Congrats to them on a very well-skated silver.

Zagorski/Guerreiro and McNamara/Carpenter was an interesting battle for bronze... Z/G's extended lifts almost cost them, but I did prefer them to M/C overall. M/C are a tad bland to me, but definitely have the technical goods and are bringing the levels, but Z/G's rhythm dance won me over... especially her crisp leg movements and tango flavour (the hair is a bit Run Lola Run for me though, lol).

Another highlight of the event were the Brits, Fear/Gibson - I didn't realize they'd been to Worlds a few times, and loved the personality in their Rhythm Dance and Free Dance.. they looked like they were performing instead of just competing which was great.

LADIES

What can I say... Satoko absolutely slayed. Sensational programs, especially her freeskate which is a potential masterpiece in the making for her (love the dress too). In love with both programs, but that free is marvellous. Her jumps are small still, but I'm noticing higher -3T combos, and notice the work she's put into getting more pop on those to ensure they're all the way around. Excellent spins too!

Great to see Kaori bounce back from early season jitters to claim silver again. Like Chen, she shook that off, and put herself as a contender. There is still something a bit clunky about her skating and arm movements, but her jumps were the best of the field and she's exhibiting much more maturity in these programs.

Samodurova was a delight to watch and so nice to see her personality in the free skate. Her jumps aren't as effortless as the other Russians but she got the job done. Skate America had some surprise 3rd place SPs, only to have these skaters surpassed in the freeskate, but good for her for holding her nerve and holding onto bronze. A skate like this at Rostelecom (especially on home ice) puts her in contention for a possible silver, so she might make the GPF depending on how the other skaters shape up this season.

Tennell was unfortunately buried by the combo error in the SP and there was no recovering from it (especially with Samo keeping it together in the free). And, similar to Chen/Zhou and Cain/Leduc, the tech panel wasn't giving her any home ice favours either to help her cause. A deserved 4th place, and a wonderful FS though. I personally disliked Cinderella last year and this R&J shows more fire and personality which is what was missing for me. Also, one more mention - while I'm not the hugest fan of Lecavelier's FS, the jumps were well-fought for, and her reaction was great to see - she's really grown up fast in just one season and was happy to see her so happy after!

Overall, Skate America has set the tone for how strictly the Grand Prix series will shape up... while some outlying judges are being generous, I'm noticing that the tech panel and most judges aren't playing around. It's really emphasized just how much power the technical panel has - particularly under this system where adding a < can cause a skater to lose out on a ton of BV and GOE (along with the deduction). Lots of low GOE (on flips in particular a crazy number of ! calls), lots of V spins and lowered levels too. It could be a one off in terms of strictness, but nobody can complain that Skate America was propping up their home skaters (in fact, seemed like the opposite in some cases). There were some early season nerves but also some strong skates (particularly Miyahara, Sakamoto, H/D's FD, and Chen).

lizardlass said:

I was there all weekend!!! (Still here, technically.) I went with my friend. I'll probably write more when I'm reunited with my computer, but here's what I've got for now.

- satoko introduced kaori in Japanese for the exhibition, and said something that made kaori and others laugh. I want to know what she said, ugh!

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The Japanese lady sitting next to me said that Satoko just introduced Kaori but added "Go Kaori!" At the end.

I haven't watched the ladies FS yet as it ( and the Gala) were in the middle of the night in Finnish time... but the other competitions I've watched and I liked the most
the SP of Satoko and Kaori, the FS of Ashley & Tim, the RD of Zagorski / Guerreiro (it was probably the only one here that I hadn't seen before) and the FD
of Charlene / Marco. I was surprised to see Nathan Chen skate so well even if he is studying full time. His SP is very interesting in my opinion.
The greatest performances for me were the SP and Gala performance of Satoko Miyahara. She is so good, all the steps, spins, presentation, so I don't mind
if her jumps are quite small as she is so small herself.

Great start to the new season! Really enjoyed everyone!

MEN

Nathan - Handling college and skating is very very tough, and people are questioning if he can do it especially Yale. So have to respect him to come out and putting on a very solid performance that showed to be fair why he is the World Champion, and one of the best.

I think it was smart of him to not throw all the quads and test the new judging system, and it paid off in spades and still the largest margin victory. But probably for the GPF, he might throw more, and knowing him, he probably wants to. He deserve higher PCs, but it is the first GP and it was a tough judging panel.

Also that 3Axel, which is his nemesis, was like butter. Very well done! He really worked hard on that and paying off.

Excellent programs for him. A different style to the others. Enjoyed the new movements. Shae really knows Nathan. The Caravan and Nemesis programs are so him and modern and adventurous that works with interesting moves.

Juilen - A good start. I was hoping he could medal, but he probably got nervous at the free program. He has a good programs for his debut and enjoyed his performance. Hope he can fix those problems but has something solid to build on.

Michal - Still got it in him. Really happy for him after all these years. Raf really has done great with him. I hope he found his stride like Kostner now. That 4S is beauitful.

Vincent - His presentation is a lot better than last year, and can see, he is working hard. But I really dont think Tom Z is doing a good job with him on a technical basis. Underrotation has always been an ongoing problem with him. And now with the rule change, the problem is magnifying.

Also, Vincent does not need this full load of quads and should go back to basic to make sure he rotates all his jumps. Before going into a full load of quads. He doesnt even need it at the moment. He is chasing other people when he should work on himself first.

Men:
The highlight for me was Julian and his fantastic SP performance. So bad that he couldn't do the same in LP but he will do better next time. Go Malaysia!

Ladies:
The top 3 skated very well with no obvious mistakes in both programs. Well deserved medals. Sad for Marin and Polina. They skated so well in SP, but i think that the harsh calls somehow killed their confidence. Speaking about calls, i find it very unfair from TP to basically murder the scores of some but let others who have the same (even worse) landings have all their points. Totally unfair.

I didn't watch dance and pairs.

NaVi said:

Seemed like a relatively well attended event at least compared to recent years... with some good energy. Though I could be completely wrong though and the lighting, camera angles, etc could be altering my perception.

I really wish the ISU and the local federations would start looking for the places where fans will show up and then just stage events there every year. One of my biggest pet peeves with figure skating is that the events are moved every year which means local traditions are never developed and the PR and advertisement to do outreach has to be redone.

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Word! I was really wondering why it wasn't held in Seattle, where even the upper seats might have been sold

^ They do have an existing relationship with the Everett Arena it was held in.

Seattle is probably considerably more expensive. Hotel rooms can go for like 250+ a night these days.

Noxchild said:

Word! I was really wondering why it wasn't held in Seattle, where even the upper seats might have been sold

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Seattle is 15 minutes drive from Everett.

Manitou said:

Polina cried like a baby walking backstage.

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Oh, it's so so sad. Poor Polina. It's so heartbreaking reading this... Poor, poor Polya...

Men:
- Nathan Chen was amazing. Last year, he was more of a jumping beam still, but this year he is a whole bunch of awesome performer. Yale is doing wonders
- Julian. We grew to think of Malaysia as one of those countries who are invited to FS competitions out of courtesy, and I am very happy for Julian proving that theory entirely wrong. What an incredible SP, and even though he kind of melt down in FS, that looked more like nerves than lack of skills. This guy can become a threat. Go small feds!
- Voronov. He is cute and he is 31. I'm happy he still skates, someone got to show those kids how grown ups do it!
- 5 minutes to cry in the corner: Jimmy Ma =(((

Ladies:
- Satoko and Kaori - they both have different styles, but both slayed and it was amazing.
- Samodurova. It is her first senior season, and after two amazing skates by japanese girls, and a clean-ish skate from Bradie, I kind of expected she would make mistakes, and judges would happily have an american lady on podium. But she clung to that #3 and put out a perfect skate. This is a very good start for her, and hopefully she will keep skating like that the whole season.
- Laurine putting out a clean FS and all happy about it <3
- 5 minutes to cry in the corner: Polina Tsurskaya

Pairs:
- Tarasova and Morosov are not really a highlight, they literally had no competition here. Finally they have somwhat good programs and packaging - well, could be better, but if we think of Candyman...
- Minerva Hase and Nolan Seegert. That SP. This pair has a lot of potential, and i hope to see more of them.
- Cain / Leduc. I've been following them for a while now - maybe not top in tech, and always leaving behind a lot of points by making small mistakes - but they always have great programs with many interesting finds and details. Very happy to see them medal.
- 5 minutes to cry in the corner: SBS jumps.

Dance
I have no clue about dance, I just watch them for aesthetic purposes =) All the teams were great

Special highlight: Gala
Lots of fun and entretaining numbers. Special bonus for Jimmy and Julien doing backflip entries, but then "nah, I shouldnt do this, lemme do a normal jump".

Hubbell and Donahue have skills.:luv17: