yuzuangel

Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier (Canada) source Piper Gilles used to compete for the United States but switched to Canada to partner with Paul Poirier. They won 3rd at this year's Autumn Classic International. Piper has an older brother who competes in Ice Dance and a twin sister who competes in singles, and Paul has siblings who play hockey. Short Dance: Bossa Cubana Gopher Mambo Free Dance: "Stolen Hearts," the theme from Perry Mason by Fred Steiner Smokey Sax This season's results: Competition Placement Cup of Russia 4th Last season's results: Competition Placement World Championships 8th Four Continents 6th Skate Canada 3rd Trophée de France 3rd Shiyue Wang / Xinyu Liu (China) source Shiyue and Xinyu are this year's Asian Winter Games champions and Cup of Nice silver medalists. They also placed 7th at this year's Finlandia Trophy. Shiyue started skating when she was 6 and Xinyu started skating at 4 years old. They began training together in 2013 and represented China at Worlds last year, where they placed high enough to quality one dance team to the Pyeongchang Olympics. They then represented China at the World Team Trophy shortly afterwards. Shiyue and Xinyu's choreographers include Pasquale Camerlengo and Anjelika Krylova. Short Dance: Rhumba: Despacito Free Dance: Over My Shoulder Happy Ending This season's results: Competition Placement Cup of China 6th Last Season's Results: Competition Placement Worlds 16th Four Continents 7th Cup of China 6th Skate Canada 9th Isabella Tobias / Ilia Tkachenko (Israel) source Isabella used to compete for Georgia and Lithuania. She also danced for seven years with the American School of Ballet. Ilia used to compete for Russia. They teamed up in 2014 to compete for Israel. Isabella represented Lithuania with partner Deividas Stagniūnas in 2014 at the Sochi Olympics, where she placed 17th. With her old partner, they also won a bronze medal at Skate America in 2011. In 2017, Isabella got married to Samuel Lites, who plays hockey for the NHL Detroit Red Wings. With his old partner Ekaterina Riazanova, Ilia won silver at the 2010 Trophée Eric Bompard and bronze at 2012 Skate Canada. Short Dance: Shape of You by Ed Sheeran She Will Be Loved by Rhythms Delmundo Fire Ball by Pitbull Free Dance: Samson et Delilah by Camille Saint-Saens Last Season's Results: Competition Placement World Championships 12th Europeans 4th Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte (Italy) source Anna and Luca are the 2014 World Champions, only the second team from Italy to win the World Championships in ice dance. In the same year, they also won the European Championships. They also competed at Worlds seven other times and won three more silver medals at Europeans and one bronze. In 2015, Cappellini married pair skater Ondrej Hotarek, who skates with Valentina Marchei. Anna and Luca competed at the 2014 Sochi Olympics for Italy, placing 6th. They are the six-time reigning Italian national champions. They are also this year's Minsk Arena Ice Star champions. Short Dance: Kaboom performed by Ursula 1000 Skip to the Bip performed by Club des Belugas 1008 Samba Free Dance: La Vita e Bella (soundtrack) by Nicola Piovani This season's results: Competition Placement NHK Trophy 3rd Last Season's Results: Competition Placement World Championships 6th Europeans 2nd NHK Trophy 3rd Skate Canada 4th Kana Muramoto / Chris Reed (Japan) source Kana and Chris are the 2016 and 2017 Japanese national champions. They are also the 2017 Asian Winter Games silver medalists. Kana started skating in 1998 and competed in singles up throughout the 2013-2014 season before switching to ice dance. As a singles skater, she won the silver medal at the 2011 Triglav Trophy. Chris used to compete in ice dance with his sister Cathy Reed, and they were seven-time Japanese national champions. Chris also competed with Cathy for Japan at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, placing 17th, and the 2014 Sochi Olympics, placing 21st. Kana and Chris teamed up in 2015 and train in Michigan with coaches Marina Zueva, Oleg Epstein, and Massimo Scali. They competed at the 2017 Nebelhorn Trophy and won the silver medal, securing a spot for at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and a tentative spot for Japan in the Team Event. They also won the bronze medal at this year's US Classic International. Short Dance: Cha Cha: I Like It Like That by Pete Rodriguez Rhumba: Mondo Bongo by Joe Strummer Samba: Batucada de Sambrasil by Estudios Talkback Free Dance: The Last Emperor (soundtrack) by Ryuichi Sakamoto Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence by Ruyichi Sakamoto This season's results: Competition Placement NHK Trophy 9th Last Season's Results: Competition Placement World Championships 23th Four Continents 9th Skate Canada 4th Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov (Russia) source With former partner Ruslan Zhiganshin, Victoria was the 2012 World Junior Champion. With former partner Elena Ilinykh, Nikita was the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist and Olympic gold medallist in the team event. Victoria and Nikita teamed up in 2014, and their former partners teamed up as well. Victoria's father and aunt both competed as gymnasts. Nikita started off skating in men's singles, but struggled with jumps and turned to ice dance. Victoria and Nikita are the reigning Russian Championships bronze medalists. They are also this year's Minsk Arena Ice Star bronze medalists. Free Dance: Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 18 by Sergei Rachmaninov This season's results: Competition Placement NHK Trophy 4th Last Season's Results: Competition Placement World Championships 10th NHK Trophy 5th Cup of China 4th Tiffany Zagorski / Jonathan Guerreiro (Russia) source Jonathan is a two-time World Junior medalist with his former partners Ekaterina Riazanova and Ekaterina Pushkash. Tiffany is originally British and first moved to France to skate for France before teaming up with Jonathan and moving to Russia to skate for Russia. She received Russian citizenship in 2015. In 2012, Tiffany acted in a French comedy detective film as a "Je fais le mort" in the role of a figure skater. Jonathan was born in Austrlia, and his mother once competed in Ice Dance for the Soviet Union. They were once coached by Alexander Zhulin, but switched coaches in May 2017 to Elena Kustarova and Svetlana Alexeeva. They placed 2nd at this year's Ice Star in Minsk, Belarus. Short Dance: Samba: Hip Hip Chin Chin performed by Club des Belugas Rhumba: Volveras performed by Gloria Estefan Samba: Batucada Brasiliera performed by Samba Brazilian Batucada Band Free Dance: Exogenesis Symphony Part III by Muse Exogenesis Symphony Part II by Muse Ruled by Secrecy by Muse This season's results: Competition Placement Cup of China 4th Last Season's Results: Competition Placement Cup of Russia 5th Kaitlin Hawayek / Jean-Luc Baker (United States) source Kaitlin and Jean-Luc are the 2014 World Junior Champions and the 2013 Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalists. Kaitlin also has two brothers who play hockey. They teamed together in 2012 after both Jean-Luc and Kaitlin first competed in singles. Jean-Luc is also interested in martial arts and has a black belt in taekwondo. In 2015, Jean-Luc suffered a concussion after Kaitlin accidentally hit him with her swinging arm and was off the ice for two weeks. Jean-Luc's mother competed in ice dance at the Olympics representing Great Britain, and his father competed in pairs internationally. They are this year's US Classic International silver medalists. Short Dance: Samba: Get Busy by Sean Paul Rhumba: Soha Mil Paso by Isabelle & Felicien Samba: Fire Ball by Pitbull Free Dance: Liebestraum arranged by Maxime Rodriguez This season's results: Competition Placement Skate Canada 4th Last Season's Results: Competition Placement Skate Canada 6th NHK Trophy 4th Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani (United States) source Maia and Alex Shibutani are three-time World medalists (silver in 2016, bronze in 2011 and 2017). They are also the 2016 Four Continents champions and four-time Grand Prix series champions. They are also the 2016 and 2017 U.S. national champions. They competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics and placed 9th. They are coached by Marina Zueva and her group in Canton, Michigan. The siblings enjoy taking part in choreographing their own programs and regularly blog/vlog for the USFS. They won the only medal for the United States at the 2017 World Championships. This season's results: Competition Placement Cup of Russia 1st Last Season's Results: Competition Placement World Championships 3rd Four Continents 2nd Grand Prix Final 3rd Skate America 1st Cup of China 1st Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons (United States) source The Parsons swept the junior circuit last year and are the reigning World Junior champions and Junior Grand Prix Final champions. They also won gold at four Junior Grand Prix events and six other Junior Grand Prix circuit medals in total. They are this year's Ondrej Nepela Trophy silver medalists. Rachel teamed up with her older brother Michael in 2010. This is their first year on the senior circuit. Short Dance: Rhumba: Mambo Molly by Mambo Molly Slow Rhumba: Everybody'S Got To Learn Sometime by Zuchero Mambo: Congo Crazed by Mambo Molly Free Dance: Ghost Dances: La Partida by Victor Jara Sikuriadas by Inti Illimani Quiaquenpita by Inti Illimani This season's results: Competition Placement Cup of Russia 7th

Next up, the sixth and last event before the Grand Prix Final: Skate America! Country Entries Canada Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier China Shiyue Wang / Xinyu Liu Israel Isabella Tobias / Ilia Tkachenko Italy Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte Japan Kana Muramoto / Chris Reed Russia Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov Tiffani Zahorski / Jonathan Guerreiro United States Kaitlin Hawayek / Jean-Luc Baker Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons

Yeah, definitely seems like ladies event has more politics involved. In hindsight I'm not that surprised, since the BV for most of the ladies are pretty close together...it comes down to GOE/PCS for them.

Yeah, I was surprised too. But it seems that way, at least in GOE.

I collected some of the scoring data on this site. The results aren't exactly shocking, but you guys might find them interesting... So basically "differential" is defined as how much extra GOE/PCS per element (jump, spin, stsq, chsq for GOE, and each of the PCS categories for PCS) a judge would give to a skater. I describe it in more detail here: https://bunniko.blogspot.com/2017/11/figure-skating-scores-judging-and.html Some things I found interesting (although perhaps not so surprising): 1. Feds with one skater to push tend to go all out on that skater, i.e. Spain and Italy. 2. The women seem have more variance in scores than men. 3. Japan definitely seems to push their skaters the least compared to the other top federations.

Wow, only seems like yesterday when she was just 16 and winning her first Worlds. Happy Birthday, Evgenia!

welll, i gotta say, it's old news but i'm surprised she's writing (wrote?) a book, lol.

Oh, got it. Thanks

Is it just me or does ISU make it VERY obscure who each of the judges are despite it now being NOT anonymous judging? Like I can't find a list of the jugdes names' for ACI, does anyone have that? and even when they have names, it takes another step of googling to see where they're from?

Oh, my mistake, I misread the tiebreaking criteria. It's combined score rather than highest score, so yes Polina needs 209+. Which is possible, for sure, but not guaranteed. Ashley, however, as long as she doesn't win the competition, will have a tough time beating Wakaba in a tiebreaker, since her score was 183.94 at Skate Canada. So it won't be hard to beat Ashley in a tiebreaker if she places 2nd. So basically it hinges on someone who isn't Polina or Ashley winning, and Polina not scoring above 209. The only skaters who can realistically win are Karen, Gabby, and Satton. Gabby is inconsistent but can do it...Karen has a good record skating in front of a home crowd at Nationals, so it might be possible for her to do it again, and she'll get a push because it's SA. Satton...well. But it's a slim chance.

Wakaba still has a chance ... if one of Karen, Gabby, or Satton wins Skate America ... And she has the highest combined total of her, Polina, and Ashley Wagner (the latter of whom won't be hard to beat, but Polina can't score above 212).

Get well soon, Gracie.

Haha I don't get the deal with applying to colleges...it's what most 17 year olds do and he's like, for sure going to get into all of them I'm guessing, which takes the pressure off a little Also there have been skaters who've taken college classes part time or have skated while studying full time so...it doesn't really mean anything. He can also always postpone matriculation.

The most serious time I sprained my ankle, it was doing trampoline tricks...and it didn't heal for a year I also sprained it a lot playing tennis but those were more mild sprains, I think. I was also a teenager so my body healed faster, I definitely do not think I will heal that fast anymore...but Yuzu is young though and has the best nutrition and care

aerodynamics?

I think the way he writes it is neater

Haha I like the way he writes kanji...it seems very...masculine to me

that's frustrating. I want to say that there's a way to improve at skating without a coach but unfortunately I really don't think so if you want to do jumps and spins and stuff. It's really the most frustrating thing about this sport and it sucks, a lot. But I do think going, skating, getting used to the speed and your skates will be beneficial as well, and maybe you can take videos and post them and someone who knows how to skate can give you pointers online too?

Sorry, some were mentioning quints. So I thought we were talking about our fantasies

All your stories about skating make me want to go skate It's been almost a year since I started skating more seriously, and if I look at it that way, I can definitely see improvement, even though it doesn't feel like it on a day by day basis I can still only do four jumps -- waltz jump, toe loop, salchow, and loop -- and I haven't even attempted the flip or lutz yet! But I think I'm at a point where the jumps/spins I'm attempting are already a lot harder than my current skating skills level so I need to work on those first. So when I started, I could do two foot spins (about 6 revolutions), waltz "jumps", "toe loops", and "salchows". I put them in quotes because my waltz jumps were both incorrect and smaller than hops (my friend was like "nice footwork sequence!"), my toe loops were actually toe waltz jumps, and I don't remember what my salchows were like because I just started on them. I couldn't do clockwise backward crossovers or correct forward crossovers. A toe waltz jump is when you tap directly behind you, foot not turned out and tap not back and across the takeoff foot. So basically, WRONG. I had a coach who I probably took lessons with less than 10 times total, and in hindsight he was pretty bad, but he tricked me because he constantly talked about how great of a coach he was. Curses! He didn't correct my bad technique even just doing waltz jumps and singles, and it took me many months to fix them, whereas for a jump like the salchow that I had only just started, I was able to get that almost immediately after I started practicing it with my current coach. So, I have to say, having a good coach who doesn't brush everything off with "That's correct, you'll get it soon -- just practice!" is important. Some things obviously just require practice but there's no way you're doing (insert ANY move here) correctly the first time, so if he's not correcting your body alignment, knee action, timing, setup, air position, landing, etc. multiple times, then he's probably just not noticing them. Or maybe I'm just bitter because it took me at least three months or more reworking the waltz jump and toe loop, when it took me maybe a month to get the sal and one month to get the loop, both new jumps. At one point I literally only worked on my toe loop for a long time. I think in another year's time a realistic goal for me would be to get all of my singles except the axel and the basic spins (upright/scratch spin, sit spin, camel). I would be perfectly fine with that. I can do the sit spin now (again, after losing it for a few weeks). That was a struggle but nothing compares to the struggle of centering the upright spin.... I'd also like to get maybe one backspin but I haven't started that. It feels like starting from complete scratch (no pun intended...*groan*). And of course, I need to work on basic skating skills. While a bit dull sometimes, there's nothing like gliding on a backwards edge on newly sharpened skates and just chilling. Sometimes I wonder at night how one can do any of these crazy things balancing on a thin, thin blade on ice. I still have no idea how it works!