2019-20 European Ladies’ Figure Skating

Challenge Cup is on time for getting minimum TES for worlds. So, if Viveca will be there (I hope because I'll be there too), she can get those points. I don't know anything of course about local practices with regard to points and competitions but if she's healthy she could be able to get her spot with a high enough SB. And wouldn't that be great? I'd love to see her again. Her bronze last year at Euros was such a nice surprise!

A clean skate by Alessia Tornaghi in the YOG team event:
https://youtu.be/kldfF07uIOI

DenissVFan said:

A clean skate by Alessia Tornaghi in the YOG team event:
https://youtu.be/kldfF07uIOI

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That was a wonderful skate.

DenissVFan said:

A clean skate by Alessia Tornaghi in the YOG team event:
https://youtu.be/kldfF07uIOI

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Good for her! Great skate. Hopefully she can repeat that performance at Euros.

DenissVFan said:

A clean skate by Alessia Tornaghi in the YOG team event:
https://youtu.be/kldfF07uIOI

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Italy may finally have someone to replace Carolina Kostner.

DenissVFan said:

A clean skate by Alessia Tornaghi in the YOG team event:
https://youtu.be/kldfF07uIOI

Click to expand...

Oh wow, really beautiful skating. She actually reminds me a lot of Carolina. Hope she will have a skate like that in Euros

So disappointed that Safonova didn’t do well in the sp. She is very good but I was afraid this would happen.

I think that Alessia Tornaghi was underscored in pcs. 6’s?? Seriously? Come on, judges.

But I still have Eva-Lotta, Paganini, Alina Urushadze and Schott to hope and pray for. I know that the Russian girls will go 1-2-3 no matter what so I’m not worried for them.

I'm furious and disappointed by NBC Gold coverage of this event. I'm guessing they're using the Italian tv feed? Suddenly, with the final groups, there are two Italian commentators who are talking the ENTIRE TIME. I'm not kidding, not a moment's silence. Sound quality has been adjusted so that their chatty jokey laughing endless voices are very loud, and a skater's program music is barely discernible. I've had to stop watching - I cannot see the skating through their non-stop talking, and trying to do so is giving me a headache.

Update: I couldn't stay away. Tried their livestream again, and it was a normal sort of commentary in Italian. A few minutes later, it was Paul Alster, British, who is restrained, appreciative, and knowledgeable. I'm supposing the feeds were just screwed up.

Bluediamonds09 said:

So disappointed that Safonova didn’t do well in the sp. She is very good but I was afraid this would happen.

I think that Alessia Tornaghi was underscored in pcs. 6’s?? Seriously? Come on, judges.

But I still have Eva-Lotta, Paganini, Alina Urushadze and Schott to hope and pray for. I know that the Russian girls will go 1-2-3 no matter what so I’m not worried for them.

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Alessia showed her best.
Go girl.

stream please!!

Bluediamonds09 said:

I think that Alessia Tornaghi was underscored in pcs. 6’s?? Seriously? Come on, judges.

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I completely agree!
In Lausanne she got 7's (in a junior competition) and here 6's. Nonsense.

Totally agree--utter nonsense--she is newer to the scene but her skating is beautiful... very underscored.

Last year's cut-off: 46.09; this year's cut-off: 51.77 (an increase of 5.68 points).

I am prefacing this by pointing out that I am a new fan of figure skating, and last set foot on an ice rink as a child, which was not a successful experience, so I know very little, but I do at least know what I enjoy. And I certainly enjoyed watching the Ladies SP at Euros today. Seeing skaters from smaller federations doing their best is really encouraging and awesome to watch, because there is a courage that it takes to go out and perform, knowing that some of the best skaters on the continent, and even the best in the world, are in the same competition as you, and these young women and teenage girls really truly gave it their best shot.

Valentina Matos got it off to a really good start - she skated clean, she had plenty of energy, and looked pretty happy when she finished. She set the tone for me, and while some of the skaters were definitely disappointed in themselves, many of them seemed pleased at the end of their routines. Little Nelli Ioffe did a great job, I thought, especially for her Euros debut at so young an age. She still has plenty of room to grow, and plenty of time in which to do it, so good luck to her - I hope to see her qualify for the FP in the future. Alessia Tornaghi was another youngster who was really super - she skated beautifully, and held onto that first place for so long. She set the bar very high early on, her StSq was really fantastic, and she must be thrilled to have made the top ten for the SP.

Yasmine Kimiko Yamada was a joy to watch, and Olga Mikutina has improved so much since the JGP at the start of this season. She's much more comfortable with the elements, and so can put more energy into performing the programme; I think she's also skating faster. I also really liked Linnea Ceder's SP, and Ekaterina Kurakova is just the bubbliest, sweetest thing on the ice. I am going to whine some more about the fact that I think the judges could have given her more for her performance, as 6.25 feels ungenerous for someone whom I personally feel has plenty of personality and charm when she's skating. In my entirely uneducated opinion, the judges had stuck her in a PCS box of 6s and low 7s and didn't feel like using the full range of marks the way they could have. (Watching a dressage competition, and listening to one of the commentators, himself a dressage judge, complain that the judges were being too conservative and not using the full range of marks they could have has been a formative experience in how I approach the qualitative aspects of scoring )

While speaking of horsey things, when the commentator mentioned that Lea Serna likes horse riding, I had to message a French equestrian friend who also likes ice skating with the news that another one has joined the fold, along with Yulia Lipnitskaia and Aliona Kostornaia. I did enjoy Lea's skate very much as well - she's very elegant and poised, and a lovely spinner - but oh my gosh, Mae Berenice Meite deserved to be the highest placed of all the French skaters. What an awesome performance! I loved everything about it, from the costume (such amazing colours), to her vibrant energy and the audience's response. So much fun to watch.

Emmi Peltonen was also a delight to watch, really polished, plus clean as a whistle, and that smile on her face at the end, when she knew that she had skated clean and done so well, was so uplifting. She seemed to have really powerful jumps, and on one of them, she had such an impressively deep knee bend on landing. One of the memorable ladies in red for me today, along with both Ekaterinas (Ryabova and Kurakova) and Alexia Paganini. I did groan when Ekaterina Ryabova's music turned out to be Roxane, which at this point I would be happy to never hear again, but, music aside, that was a super skate from her. Alexia Paganini, though, ended the SP on a very high note - she was on fire today, getting all those level 4s on spins and her StSq, and that wink at the end of her programme made me laugh.

I am really, really looking forward to the free skate tomorrow. All these skaters are so talented, and it was a real pleasure to watch them perform. I have found some skaters who are new to me, and enjoyed watching the ones I already knew. Best of luck to them all in the free!

TT_Fin said:

At the moment Viveca is still announced to compete at Challenge Cup, Haag at the end of the Febryary and after that Coupe du Printemps, Kockelscheuer in the middle of March. Challenge Cup is the only situation for her to give the proof for WC. Is it too late? She needs to get the best SB of Finnish ladies to get the spot, according to local rules.

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And now her name is not any more on the local federation's list.

Why is there controversy about something Anna Kuzmenko’s mom said about Kanysheva? Was it something mean she said?
Speaking of Kuzmenko, is she competing at all the rest of the season? I would love to see a new face at the top of French figure skating. Kuzmenko or Maia Mazzara.

Bluediamonds09 said:

Why is there controversy about something Anna Kuzmenko’s mom said about Kanysheva? Was it something mean she said?
Speaking of Kuzmenko, is she competing at all the rest of the season? I would love to see a new face at the top of French figure skating. Kuzmenko or Maia Mazzara.

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If I understand correctly, Kuzmenko's mom said that no one at the Snow Leopards rink knew that Kanysheva was injured back in November of 2018. If this is true, I guess people are wondering why she hid it and continued to train/how her coaches didn't notice or if the injury actually occurred when she said it did and not later when she started training under Eteri.

Bluediamonds09 said:

Speaking of Kuzmenko, is she competing at all the rest of the season? I would love to see a new face at the top of French figure skating. Kuzmenko or Maia Mazzara.

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Kuzmenko is reportedly having a severe back injury that makes her comeback unsure.

I've mentioned this before a few times(here's one), but there really needs to be a pan-European competition for novices and juniors. The big problem is that Russia would dominate far more than they already dominate senior Europeans because no one is able to develop juniors like they are. It's actually easier for other countries to collectively compete at the higher levels than the lower levels.

The most palpable way to fix that problem is just limit entries limit entries to 1 per country.

There'a already the bi-yearly European Youth Olympic Winter Festival but something needs to be done yearly and for novices too. There's no need to repeat EYOF though so the EYOF winners should be deemed the European Junior champions.

NaVi said:

I've mentioned this before a few times(here's one), but there really needs to be a pan-European competition for novices and juniors. The big problem is that Russia would dominate far more than they already dominate senior Europeans because no one is able to develop juniors like they are. It's actually easier for other countries to collectively compete at the higher levels than the lower levels.

The most palpable way to fix that problem is just limit entries limit entries to 1 per country.

There'a already the bi-yearly European Youth Olympic Winter Festival but something needs to be done yearly and for novices too. There's no need to repeat EYOF though so the EYOF winners should be deemed the European Junior champions.

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There is already Four Countries Championship for Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. Some other countries can do the same, for the start.