ISU Channel Replay of 2015 GPF | Golden Skate

ISU Channel Replay of 2015 GPF

apgold

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Country
United-States
In an attempt to escape from the craziness, I watched the Ladies FS video last night and had some thoughts.

The competitors were Evgenia, Satoko, Elena R, Ashley, Gracie and Mao. Those who are still competing have all changed coaches.

Evgenia: At 16, the obvious winner here when she was unstoppable. I do vastly prefer her post Eteri skating and uncluttered programs. She and Eteri seemed to have a really warm relationship here.

Ashley: Moulin Rouge 2.0, prior to her World Silver medal. I would argue that she was better technically here than at Worlds but it didn't have the same energy as at Worlds. I think she could've gotten the bronze here over Elena R. but her SP had her at a deficit. Ashley was at her peak this season, IMO.

Gracie: The choreo in this Firebird doesn't match the music signatures and not her best skate, having issues with 3 of her jumping passes. She and Frank were not warm and fuzzy. She has been through a lot in the last 4+ years and has come through.

Mao: Her Madame Butterfly - gorgeous costume and skating. She also had a few jumping issues, perhaps her age and injuries catching up. Not surprised she retired not too long after this.

Elena R: Oh that tacky Titanic program with the voiceovers. Jack! Jack! Still she loved skating to it and you can't fault her for that.

Satoko: Loved the "Un Sospiro" program and that vivid pink dress. One of her best choreographed programs and a well deserved silver. I'm glad Tiny Queen is still competing.

The Ladies SP and the Short Dance were also posted, but I haven't watched yet.

Curious to see what others think?
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
In an attempt to escape from the craziness, I watched the Ladies FS video last night and had some thoughts.

The competitors were Evgenia, Satoko, Elena R, Ashley, Gracie and Mao. Those who are still competing have all changed coaches.

Evgenia: At 16, the obvious winner here when she was unstoppable. I do vastly prefer her post Eteri skating and uncluttered programs. She and Eteri seemed to have a really warm relationship here.

Ashley: Moulin Rouge 2.0, prior to her World Silver medal. I would argue that she was better technically here than at Worlds but it didn't have the same energy as at Worlds. I think she could've gotten the bronze here over Elena R. but her SP had her at a deficit. Ashley was at her peak this season, IMO.

Gracie: The choreo in this Firebird doesn't match the music signatures and not her best skate, having issues with 3 of her jumping passes. She and Frank were not warm and fuzzy. She has been through a lot in the last 4+ years and has come through.

Mao: Her Madame Butterfly - gorgeous costume and skating. She also had a few jumping issues, perhaps her age and injuries catching up. Not surprised she retired not too long after this.

Elena R: Oh that tacky Titanic program with the voiceovers. Jack! Jack! Still she loved skating to it and you can't fault her for that.

Satoko: Loved the "Un Sospiro" program and that vivid pink dress. One of her best choreographed programs and a well deserved silver. I'm glad Tiny Queen is still competing.

The Ladies SP and the Short Dance were also posted, but I haven't watched yet.

Curious to see what others think?

I've never seen the ladies before. Satoko was - still is! - so adorable, she just grabs the heart.
 

AshWagsFan

Edges for days.
Final Flight
Joined
Oct 14, 2017
Country
United-States
In an attempt to escape from the craziness, I watched the Ladies FS video last night and had some thoughts.

The competitors were Evgenia, Satoko, Elena R, Ashley, Gracie and Mao. Those who are still competing have all changed coaches.

Evgenia: At 16, the obvious winner here when she was unstoppable. I do vastly prefer her post Eteri skating and uncluttered programs. She and Eteri seemed to have a really warm relationship here.

Ashley: Moulin Rouge 2.0, prior to her World Silver medal. I would argue that she was better technically here than at Worlds but it didn't have the same energy as at Worlds. I think she could've gotten the bronze here over Elena R. but her SP had her at a deficit. Ashley was at her peak this season, IMO.

Gracie: The choreo in this Firebird doesn't match the music signatures and not her best skate, having issues with 3 of her jumping passes. She and Frank were not warm and fuzzy. She has been through a lot in the last 4+ years and has come through.

Mao: Her Madame Butterfly - gorgeous costume and skating. She also had a few jumping issues, perhaps her age and injuries catching up. Not surprised she retired not too long after this.

Elena R: Oh that tacky Titanic program with the voiceovers. Jack! Jack! Still she loved skating to it and you can't fault her for that.

Satoko: Loved the "Un Sospiro" program and that vivid pink dress. One of her best choreographed programs and a well deserved silver. I'm glad Tiny Queen is still competing.

The Ladies SP and the Short Dance were also posted, but I haven't watched yet.

Curious to see what others think?

I 100% agree Wagner deserved the bronze medal here. Her free skate was way better than Radionova, and Radionova’s short was shaky and overscored imo. But it’s nice to look back and see all of these amazing skaters in one competition! 2015/2016 was one of my favorite seasons for ladies’ skating!
 

randomfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2014
Ashley: Moulin Rouge 2.0, prior to her World Silver medal. I would argue that she was better technically here than at Worlds but it didn't have the same energy as at Worlds. I think she could've gotten the bronze here over Elena R. but her SP had her at a deficit. Ashley was at her peak this season, IMO.

Finally someone who agrees with me on that! I know the Worlds performance had more impact since it was more prestigious, on home ice, and Ashley finally delivered when it counted. But Ashley was actually better at the GPF technically, and I feel like this performance is often overlooked despite the fact that she cleanly landed all her jumps (other than a UR 3S that wasn’t even disruptive).

Other Thoughts:

Elena’s “Terrible Titanic” (as I like to call it :biggrin:) program is still hilarious to this day. It’s so odd and yet so enjoyable to watch because she clearly loves performing it.

Lovely program from Satoko, and I remember this being the season when she became a lot more expressive in her skating. She always had the skating skills and the artistry, but her expression and delivery were rather muted in the previous seasons.
 

apgold

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Country
United-States
The ISU posted the pairs SP - I don't recall why they allowed 7 pairs to compete that year?

They were: Kavaguti/Smirnov, Stolbova/Klimov, the Knierims, Seguin/Bilodeau, Duhamel/Radford, Peng/Zhang and Yu/Jin.

I miss Stolbova when she was such a diva on the ice, lol.

It's interesting that 4.5 years later, none of these pairs are still intact or have retired. The Chinese switched partners after this season, IIRC. D/R and K/S retired, Charlie B, Chris K and Fedor K have also retired. Not sure what happened to Yu and Zhang, have they also retired?

Only Alexa is still training with her new partner (Brandon Frazier) and Peng/Jin are still competing. And no Savchenko/Massot or Sui/Han either, yet both pairs medaled at Worlds later that season.
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
The ISU posted the pairs SP - I don't recall why they allowed 7 pairs to compete that year? ...

The qualification criteria were modified for 2015 GPF because terrorism necessitated cancellation of the free skates and free dance at TEB.

... due to the fact that no Free Skating/Free Dance segments could be skated at the Grand Prix event in Bordeaux, any first Substitute Skater/Couple (placed 7th in the above-mentioned 2015/16 Grand Prix ranking) will be invited to join the qualified Skaters/Couples, provided that this/these Competitor(s) has/have skated the Short Program/Short Dance at the event in Bordeaux. Such additional Competitor(s) will be added to the qualified Competitors for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2015/16 and the warm-up groups will be adjusted accordingly once the number of participating Competitors is confirmed. ...

https://www.isu.org/figure-skating/...2015-16-3/15149-isu-communication-1980-1/file (Nov 23, 2015)​

The special rule related to TEB ended up affecting GPF qualification only for pairs.
Seguin/Bilodeau placed seventh in the GP series rankings, and they qualified for GPF because they had competed at TEB.

Rika Hongo, Han Yan, and Sinitsina/Katsalapov also placed seventh in the GP series rankings, but none of them had competed at TEB.
 

saturdaysun

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 13, 2018
I'm really enjoying this 2015 replays since I've never seen any of these in full before. So many fun revelations - I had no idea Evgenia ever competed against Mao, I think of them as such iconic figures of different generations. Mao's technical content was amazing! Sad she couldn't skate clean because with a 3A and a +3Lo combo she should be unbeatable. Satoko was getting lowballed in scoring even back then.

The 2015 ice dance GPF videos are also up and that was fun too. Almost seemed like 2019-20 with Chock/Bates on top among the Americans. I miss the Shibs so much. And Anna/Luca. But it illustrated again why ice dance is just convoluted to me. Couples making huge visible mistakes scoring higher than perfectly clean ones... I don't get it.

Off to watch the pairs!
 

cathlen

Team Gorgeous Cacti!
Record Breaker
Joined
May 2, 2015
Country
Poland
I'm so glad they replay 2015 GPF! :cheer: Ok, off to watch Pairs LP live!
 

cathlen

Team Gorgeous Cacti!
Record Breaker
Joined
May 2, 2015
Country
Poland
Great, now I have feelings about Xiaoyu again :sad21:
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
The ISU posted the pairs SP - I don't recall why they allowed 7 pairs to compete that year?

They were: Kavaguti/Smirnoff, Stolbova/Klimov, the Knierims, Seguin/Bilodeau, Duhamel/Radford, Peng/Zhang and Yu/Jin.

I miss Stolbova when she was such a diva on the ice, lol.

It's interesting that 4.5 years later, none of these pairs are still intact or have retired. The Chinese switched partners after this season, IIRC. D/R and K/S retired, Charlie B, Chris K and Fedor K have also retired. Not sure what happened to Yu and Zhang, have they also retired?

Only Alexa is still training with her new partner (Brandon Frazier) and Peng/Jin are still competing. And no Savchenko/Massot or Sui/Han either, yet both pairs medaled at Worlds later that season.

Massot didn't get released from France early enough to be able to take part in the GP's. I think Sui/Han were injured.
Savchenko and Massot did qualify for the 2016 GPF but - alas - Aljona got injured at one of those GP's and so they couldn't participate at the Final. Their only GPF together was in 2017 - and that one they won.
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
Wanted to go and watch some of this GPF 2015 myself. Guess what: the videos of both the FS of the Pairs and the FD of the Dance Teams are blocked in my country, while you can still watch the Shorts of both. Thank you ISU. I haven't had any problems before, so this was rather a nasty surprise.
 

apgold

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Country
United-States
Wanted to go and watch some of this GPF 2015 myself. Guess what: the videos of both the FS of the Pairs and the FD of the Dance Teams are blocked in my country, while you can still watch the Shorts of both. Thank you ISU. I haven't had any problems before, so this was rather a nasty surprise.

Try downloading the Opera browser and set the VPN to a different country. I am able to watch in the US.
 

cathlen

Team Gorgeous Cacti!
Record Breaker
Joined
May 2, 2015
Country
Poland
The ISU posted the pairs SP - I don't recall why they allowed 7 pairs to compete that year?

They were: Kavaguti/Smirnov, Stolbova/Klimov, the Knierims, Seguin/Bilodeau, Duhamel/Radford, Peng/Zhang and Yu/Jin.

I miss Stolbova when she was such a diva on the ice, lol.

It's interesting that 4.5 years later, none of these pairs are still intact or have retired. The Chinese switched partners after this season, IIRC. D/R and K/S retired, Charlie B, Chris K and Fedor K have also retired. Not sure what happened to Yu and Zhang, have they also retired?

Only Alexa is still training with her new partner (Brandon Frazier) and Peng/Jin are still competing. And no Savchenko/Massot or Sui/Han either, yet both pairs medaled at Worlds later that season.

I was thinking the same, when I watched. None of the couples skate anymore and I miss them :sad21:
 

Vemvane

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 11, 2019
I've watched the women's SP and FP, and really enjoyed them both. Seeing little Satoko and Evgenia was wonderful, and I think that's the first video I've seen of Mao Asada. I always had this idea that she skated way before Evgenia, so it was educational to realise they overlapped. For someone as new to figure skating as I am, it's fantastic to have these official videos up and easily accessible on YouTube.

My overall impressions were that the technical standard for women's skating has undergone a dramatic increase in the last few years, between the jumps and the complexity of the footwork. There seems to me to be a lot more one foot skating, more complex entries into and exits out of jumps, and more choreography in general. Not so many spirals, though, and I think the spins are still much the same. My eye is completely out at the moment, though, for most details, and I am not an expert on edges and pre-rotation, so no comment there!

Evgenia was so impressive in her speed and lightness - she really rocketed around the rink, and she was very secure in her jump landings. I did notice that she had a bent arm in some of her tanos, which is not as pretty as the straighter arm in the tano, and I actually can't recall if she did any rippons; these days, rippons seem more common than tanos among the younger skaters. She was much heavier on the miming than she is now, but that has never bothered me; all the years I spent doing ballet make her gestures seem quite normal. Stage performance and all that. I do think she has improved in her ability to draw the audience in and emote on the ice, but, for me at least, she has always had a special quality as a performer and a story-teller.

Elena Radionova was also very fast, and she had so much fun with that Titanic programme, a bit like Aliona with Twilight. I wish that she were still skating competitively, because she was fun to watch, with so much joie de vivre, but it is what it is. Satoko was a delight, and I loved her Spanish short programme and the way she played to the judges. Also, wow, the PCS on her free! Her amazement just left me grinning from ear to ear, she was so happy. Mao had a good SP, and then things just didn't work out in the free, but I now want to go find more Mao videos, to see her at her best.

Ashley had some very powerful-looking jumps in both her skates, and I did enjoy her Moulin Rouge. She was getting right into the character of Satine, and, oh, how nice to have a Moulin Rouge that does not use Roxanne. I cannot for the life of me remember Gracie's SP right now, and her Firebird falls short, for me, especially in comparison to Anna Shcherbakova's. Which is unfair of me, but the contrast between the two programmes is pretty glaring, as Anna's really hits the musical accents, whilst Gracie's doesn't. Not Gracie's fault, more a choreographical issue, but there were still moments where she was just off in timing. The three wobbly jumping passes obviously don't help with the impression either, though she stayed on her feet! That said, had she been clean, I think it would have been very fun to watch and perform.

I really enjoyed the skates, and the diversity of choreography, interpretation, and skating styles that all six of these young women brought. There was a lot to appreciate, and as a fan of Evgenia in particular, it was really interesting to look back and see how she was skating five years ago, and think of how her skating has changed in the intervening seasons. I am going to be scrolling back through the ISU videos to see what other gems they may have uploaded in the last couple of months.
 

apgold

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Country
United-States
Lastly, the men's SP and FS were posted over the weekend. The top 3 wound up getting Olympic medals in 2018 (Yuzu, Javi and Shoma), in a slightly different order. The rest of the field was Patrick, Boyang and Daisuke Murakami (remember him?). Half of this field has retired. Also of note, Nathan Chen won the JGPF that year.

The Top 3 also had some of my favorite programs for them, both SP and FS. In 2015 most of the men were only doing 4S or 4T. Only Boyang was doing the 4Lz.

Yuzu's Chopin SP is a masterpiece and I can see why he brought it back so many times. I also love Semei, one of his most memorable free programs. He managed to break the record in the FS doing only 3 quads. He got so emotional when he broke the record, it was really cute as was his cheering for Javi.

Javi: I miss him. Malaguena and Guys and Dolls are also great vehicles for him. GAD is one of my favorite men's programs and such a good character piece for Javi. I remember seeing him win Worlds with this in Boston and how amazing the energy of the crowd was when he finished. I don't always love David Wilson's work but he struck gold here.

Shoma: He looked like a baby here but his skating was beyond his 17 years. Sacred Spirit (aka Techno Harmonicas) was such an unusual choice but it worked for him. And I loved his "Nessun Dorma" (or Nessun Shoma, lol), even with the green costume, which was skated without error.

Patrick and Boyang wound up tying in the end but Patrick placed 4th (due to higher PCS?). Patrick had a terrible short (with that Buble Mack the Knife program, ugh) but redeemed himself in the free. Boyang looked like a baby here too. He had improved on the PCS over the past few years but it was glaring here the gap between his technical talent and presentation.

I liked Daisuke's skating here but he was no match for the rest of the field. I felt he suffered from the same Frank syndrome that Gracie had. They tried to package him into something that he wasn't.
 

kolyadafan2002

Fan of Kolyada
Final Flight
Joined
Jun 6, 2019
Lastly, the men's SP and FS were posted over the weekend. The top 3 wound up getting Olympic medals in 2018 (Yuzu, Javi and Shoma), in a slightly different order. The rest of the field was Patrick, Boyang and Daisuke Murakami (remember him?). Half of this field has retired. Also of note, Nathan Chen won the JGPF that year.

The Top 3 also had some of my favorite programs for them, both SP and FS. In 2015 most of the men were only doing 4S or 4T. Only Boyang was doing the 4Lz.

Yuzu's Chopin SP is a masterpiece and I can see why he brought it back so many times. I also love Semei, one of his most memorable free programs. He managed to break the record in the FS doing only 3 quads. He got so emotional when he broke the record, it was really cute as was his cheering for Javi.

Javi: I miss him. Malaguena and Guys and Dolls are also great vehicles for him. GAD is one of my favorite men's programs and such a good character piece for Javi. I remember seeing him win Worlds with this in Boston and how amazing the energy of the crowd was when he finished. I don't always love David Wilson's work but he struck gold here.

Shoma: He looked like a baby here but his skating was beyond his 17 years. Sacred Spirit (aka Techno Harmonicas) was such an unusual choice but it worked for him. And I loved his "Nessun Dorma" (or Nessun Shoma, lol), even with the green costume, which was skated without error.

Patrick and Boyang wound up tying in the end but Patrick placed 4th (due to higher PCS?). Patrick had a terrible short (with that Buble Mack the Knife program, ugh) but redeemed himself in the free. Boyang looked like a baby here too. He had improved on the PCS over the past few years but it was glaring here the gap between his technical talent and presentation.

I liked Daisuke's skating here but he was no match for the rest of the field. I felt he suffered from the same Frank syndrome that Gracie had. They tried to package him into something that he wasn't.

For me, Malenguena was Javi's best SP and Chopin Hanyu's best (although I prefer his 2014 sp that he did in Olympics, Chopin was masterpeice)
This was my favorite FS from Patrick, and all the technical he laid out he did to high quality par the 3A (Even the popped 4T was good quality 3T).

Shoma's choreography in the FS was simple compared to what he does now, however everything he did was nice. His arms could be worked on though.

Boyang jumped as high as the barrier, but his current choreography is much improved.

I like Daisuke, but I couldn't connect with this program choreographically. It didn't have the factor which made me compelled to watch
 

Seven Sisters

Medalist
Joined
Jul 17, 2018
I watched the SD competition and was struck by the fact that only one team (Hubbell/Donohue) was with Gadbois, which then just beginning its rise to the top of the dance world. Each dance team at the GPF had its own unique coaching team. I appreciated that diversity!
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
Lastly, the men's SP and FS were posted over the weekend. The top 3 wound up getting Olympic medals in 2018 (Yuzu, Javi and Shoma), in a slightly different order. The rest of the field was Patrick, Boyang and Daisuke Murakami (remember him?). Half of this field has retired. Also of note, Nathan Chen won the JGPF that year.

The Top 3 also had some of my favorite programs for them, both SP and FS. In 2015 most of the men were only doing 4S or 4T. Only Boyang was doing the 4Lz.

Yuzu's Chopin SP is a masterpiece and I can see why he brought it back so many times. I also love Semei, one of his most memorable free programs. He managed to break the record in the FS doing only 3 quads. He got so emotional when he broke the record, it was really cute as was his cheering for Javi.

Javi: I miss him. Malaguena and Guys and Dolls are also great vehicles for him. GAD is one of my favorite men's programs and such a good character piece for Javi. I remember seeing him win Worlds with this in Boston and how amazing the energy of the crowd was when he finished. I don't always love David Wilson's work but he struck gold here.

Shoma: He looked like a baby here but his skating was beyond his 17 years. Sacred Spirit (aka Techno Harmonicas) was such an unusual choice but it worked for him. And I loved his "Nessun Dorma" (or Nessun Shoma, lol), even with the green costume, which was skated without error.

Patrick and Boyang wound up tying in the end but Patrick placed 4th (due to higher PCS?). Patrick had a terrible short (with that Buble Mack the Knife program, ugh) but redeemed himself in the free. Boyang looked like a baby here too. He had improved on the PCS over the past few years but it was glaring here the gap between his technical talent and presentation.

I liked Daisuke's skating here but he was no match for the rest of the field. I felt he suffered from the same Frank syndrome that Gracie had. They tried to package him into something that he wasn't.

It was one of those magical competitions... I begin to see what it was about Patrick when I watched the free. And Yuzu, Javi and Shoma showed why IMO that quad was on the way to becoming one of the best and most legendary in mens' skating.
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
Mao: Her Madame Butterfly - gorgeous costume and skating. She also had a few jumping issues, perhaps her age and injuries catching up. Not surprised she retired not too long after this.

It was a sad season for me, especially after watching how great she was at the Japan Open a few months earlier. At that time, most of us thought the rest of the field was going to fight for silver at Worlds, but Mao was unable to find that form again.
 
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