2020 Europeans: Ladies' Free Skate

I was absolutely delighted seeing Alyona winning, and despite her technical issues in some of her jumps I can't help loving Anna's skating more and more she's so ethereal. Love both of them. Such a shame they couldn't deliver her best skates and had falls.
Trusova is starting to worry me, she looked she was going to dominate ladies but she looks she's falling apart little by little.

Smoru Redi said:

I was absolutely delighted seeing Alyona winning, and despite her technical issues in some of her jumps I can't help loving Anna's skating more and more she's so ethereal. Love both of them. Such a shame they couldn't deliver her best skates and had falls.
Trusova is starting to worry me, she looked she was going to dominate ladies but she looks she's falling apart little by little.

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Sasha is fine, she's been nailing quads and triple axels like it is nothing today in training.
She has admitted she's been struggling mentally and it's not surprising.

lariko said:

I know, but as far as my own personal justification goes, I sort of feel that her brand of fragile grace allows for it, while Kostornaya’s cold perfection doesn’t.

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I know she gave us reasons to, but how did we come to expect perfection from a 16 years old?

LenaRadiFan said:

However, the highlight of the evening to me was definitely Alexia

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Yes! Alexia was the star of the night, like while Alessia (Tornaghi) was the star in the SP, skating at noon and finishing just out of the 1st group

Well ... the 3A were great even with mistakes ... but for me I really like de ladies in 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th place ere a great surprise

I don't know how many of you watched the English commentary of the championship, but can I please get off my chest that this commentator (still trying to figure out the name) was cringeworthy?

I mean, mixing up names happens, but he did it several times, and then that neverending confusion story with Kiibus vs Oslund, I mean wtf?
For people who didn't watch it with that commentary:

When Eva Lotta Kiibus had that nasty fall in warm-up he said it was Anita Oslund, whileas Eva even got the facecam afterwards - including that pain expression on her face - and she even skated directly afterwards as first of the round!
And then when Anita started, he misanounced her wrongly as Kiibus (she already skated, my friend?!), then corrected himself, and then continued to talk about 'Anitas' bad fall. I guess nobody dared to correct him at this point??

I get that they look similar with both being blond and having red lipstick, but Eva had a glowing red skirt and Anitas skirt clearly was black. Someone give that guy some lessons in names and faces.

Also, his commentary was super boring and just a better version of spoken subtitles, really. Most of the time just mentioning the obvious without more input..."XYZ doing a triple lutz here" or "she fell on that one..." (oh, you don't say^^)

...also felt like he didn't really have a lot of technical input or empathy?

Sometimes, he even sounded sarcastic to me when he mentioned that one of the skaters didn't have the best performance. Edit: Oh, and some unnecessary weird comments on fan's costumes. They're showing their love, it should be appreciated instead of getting a weird comment...!

But maybe that's just me being spoiled by listening to commentary from Chris Howarth @the Grand Prix!

Most embarrassing was when he mistook I believe a 3Lz for a 3F, and then when it came on the screen he was like "Oh wow! It was a 3Lz even."

Mishaminion said:

Sasha is fine, she's been nailing quads and triple axels like it is nothing today in training.
She has admitted she's been struggling mentally and it's not surprising.

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And that's the point of falling apart. Just as all the others before they were gone. Doing fine in practice but couldn't do it in competition.

I finally got to catch up with Europeans. I'm so glad I got to watch full programs not just individual videos.

My impression with the three Russian girls was that they were tired. It's been an extremely full past month or two, and the stress and adrenalin of competition on top of the physical and mental challenges, plus their need for perfection, can only add to the fatigue. I feel sad that they each are so hard on themselves (Kostornaia would give herself a "C"? Come on!!). I understand how it is to be a perfectionist, and even more so at their age. But unfortunately, it seems they've been taught to be ashamed when they fall. That makes me angry.

Alexia Paganini was the one who dazzled with her free skate. Very very happy for her. She's really made progress the last couple of years and is a beautiful skater. I really loved all of Emmi Peltonen's comments. She zeroed right in on the things that IMO make watching figure skating enjoyable.