I feel like Evgenia would be more like Brian Orser as a coach, literally screaming and jumping by the boards for their skaters. 😂

Re: raising the age limit, I'm not against Russian dominance. If they're legit better, they're better. I'm against Russian dominance by poor technique, politics, and overlooking immature skating skills and performance.

Kosto will be the reigning GP final champ for another year. It is kind of funny.

0:00 Intro 0:25 Grand prix final cancellation, Beijing olympics 15:38 Galina stories 18:30 team tutberidz v omicron 23:00 ice dance (delayed showdown, on edge) 25:07 what if the olympics were postponed 32:03 Evgenia Medvedeva, types of coaches Propositions for isu rule change 37:15 age limit 45:00 technical and components judges 47:08 getting rid of transitions and interpretation 55:10 quads in the ladies' short, quad twist and throws korean ranking competition 58:17 quality elements, Eunsoo Lim, lack of projection 1:00:48 Yelim Kim, Young You, outdated packaging, too many national competitions, upcoming generation 1:12:20 Italy 1:13:28 Canadians 1:24:28 Stephen Gogolev, Cricket Club 1:32:14 Moment of the week

“Why was Maya dressed like she was Peter Pan in the schoolplay?” DEAD.

Evgenia medvedeva's announcement about retirement and her permanent back injury was so depressing. Yes, it was expected but it's just sad, knowing that she would probably have wanted to continued skating. She's literally 'broken'.

It sucks about the cancellation but it may help Eteri's skaters with not burning out. The intensity of their training with all the quads and competition, is probably unprecedented.

I think this was the most interesting show you've done. I'm very fascinated by the economics of figure skating as a sports entertainment industry. I know it's super nerdy but Dave I'd watch you and Jonathan talk about the cost benefit/deficit of figure skating economics and the pressure on the sport. Great discussion!!!! You two are so stinkin' smart!

21:38 “Maybe Russian vaccines: 60% effective Mishin’s mask: covers 40% of his chin *_100% safe_* ” 😂😂

Also Dave's favorite Yanochka Rudkovskaya spilled some tea in an interview saying 'accepting Trusova and Kostornaya to AoP was a strategic mistake' and that ''if Sasha did everything Plu told her to at the Worlds last year, she would have been the world champ' and more...😆 we need a special!

Yana has just added some fuel to that never-ending fire about Sasha's and Alena's transfers...

The federation really worked hard to make it happen, but the Japanese government said NO. Please don't blame JSF for the cancellation.

I completely agree that Sabovčík's quad was one of the best, if not the best of all. It's amazing how seeing all the quads together in one video really helps you see the different qualities of each skater's quad techniques. Thanks for the time it takes to put these videos together.

Thank you as always for your commentaries and videos! You channel is gold! Especially with this week’s cancellation of GPF I have been desperately in need for you guys!

About Korean Competition, Ranking Competition is for deciding who gets the ticket to 4 continent competition. and yes. And the Final National Competition is for deciding who gets the ticket to world championship. but when olympics season, who gets the ticket to the olympics is decided by Getting Sum Score of Ranking Competition total score and National Competition total score. and the highest 8(ladies, 4 for men) athletes will get the status of representative of Korea and they get subsidized by government and they are allowed to get training time in the ice rink where government operates.

I do not see any way the Chinese will change the scheduling of the Winter Olympics. A huge part of their image and brand is they have beaten this pandemic relative to other nations. They aren't backing down now - too much face could be lost.

Shoma said in an interview that he has no plans of retiring soon. Even asked Daisuke for advice for longevity in a fs career

Look forward to your informative discussion every Sunday! Thank you Dave and Jonathan!!

Thank you Dave and Jonathan for this excellent analysis of current events.

I kind of feel like if they're going to limit the technical content in the short program, they just go whole hog and make it a kind of compulsory program. Require a set of specific simpler skills that represent the valued basics they want to see developed in skating. Make them do relatively easy stuff but really focus the judging on perfect technique, who does the biggest most beautiful double axel or death drop, or flying sit spin. Even specific footwork/moves in the field they have to incorporate into the program. I would actually love to see what some of the Eteri girls would look like if they _had_ to do a classic layback position or traditional unassisted spiral.

You brought up a really interesting point about the future of the Olympics and I think the IOC knows it too - fwiw, they have begun to change the bidding procedures, they awarded the 2032 games to Brisbane without having a rival bid, I think it's the first time they awarded the games to a city so far in advance, and they are also entertaining multi city bids, like how the 2026 games will be. As for the popularity of the games, I read an article from the NBC CEO who claimed that regardless of declining ratings, those numbers still trump any other event on TV, save the super bowl, and that's why advertisers will always pay to be on there. Who knows how trustworthy that is though, could be PR BS, but just thought it was interesting. Great episode!

Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 0:25 GPF cancellation (I wonder if they will reschedule it) Although this is the most appropriate decision it does make you wonder how well everyone would have done respectively in each discipline. For the ladies the showdown was mainly between Anna and Kamila for the top spot and everyone else fighting 2nd to 6th place. I’m sure we would have seen a similar performance from Kamila here had the event happened. Not sure about Anna. I’m sure Elizaveta could have squeaked a personal best or close to it here. I’m not a fan of either Kamila programs this season, it seams to me that they are severely beneath her talent. I hope she continues to skate past this season and next season. She is nice to watch when she creates beautiful lines and movements. Kostornaia is the GPF champion another year in a row. I wonder how she would have faired here with really stiff competition. I think we all knew that even if Sakamoto skated cleanly it wouldn’t be enough to place higher than 6th. She is often underscored. I do love her skating but the programs are just…🤨. She should have gone back to the Celine Dion or No Roots for the short and the Piano for the long. I love her skating so much though! I do believe with the lack of the GPF it will give skaters some rest and time to rework their programs; get ready for nationals and ready for their next events. It is a bummer that we won’t see the event but it’s better that it would be cancelled and maybe rescheduled as this is a year that there is no WTT so they could quite possibly put the final in April. It sounds weird but it may be possible but you have to think about who will WANT to go to the final later in the season, people will be so tired after the Olympics and worlds. Will it be worth it honestly? 3:02 Worlds 2020 reference. “Doom and gloom” I’m pretty sure Kostornaia would have won worlds had it happened. Too bad we will never know who placed where and why. I was hoping they wouldn’t cancel it because they did Junior Worlds. It was a shame in my opinion. 4:38 2020 Olympics referenced 6:53 mask wearing discrepancies 8:13 ISU and long term planning No crowds again? 10:05 brief mention of Canada and the Korean Ranking Competition 13:24 new Covid variant, Omicron 15:08 Deers in Pennsylvania? Having Covid? 15:29 Jonathan’s new vase! Very elegant Mr. Beyer! I am very fond of vases as they are very stately and look rather nice in a space. I have a vase in my living room. I love vases. They look very elegant and beautiful. 16:59 Japan/GPF reschedulement possibility for the money perhaps. Not sure 18:36 Eteri losing money. 18:48 Potential placements of the ladies at the GPF (mine were Kamila, Anna, Elizaveta, Alena, Maiia, Kaori). 19:30 Tutberidze girls glam party. There were multiple posts on Instagram actually. 19:54 Tarasova and Morozov, could they have been 1st or 2nd here. I think 2nd based on the scores of Mishina and Galliamov and they beat them twice already this season. I would say for bronze between the Japanese team and Boikova/Kozlovskii 21:42 😂 22:17 Anna’s contract with a bank 22:27 Valieva bringing in the money with her sponsorships 23:10 rest for the ice dancers with the GPF being cancelled or postponed who knows really. 23:43 Smart/Diaz (On Edge show) 23:48 Hubbell/Donahue and Chock/Bates (On Edge Show) 25:08 What if the Olympics were postponed by a year. What would happen? Would everyone be shifted in each disciplines? Who is going to really at the end of this year going to retire honestly. If the Olympics get postponed should they wait to retire or not. That’s just a question I have honestly. Nervous breakdowns who will have them and why. 32:03 Evgenia Medvedeva. Really sad but honestly I foresaw this happening. Just too many injuries really. 37:15 Age limit increase. I have to agree with the ISU on this one. Not so much for the decision to change +3 -3 to +5 -5. But this I could see a MASSIVE change to FS. Will Eteri still dominate or will she have to find other areas to dominate in (maybe Ice dance or pairs. She’s trying with Tarasova and Morozov). 45:00 Texhnical vs Component judges. I think it’s always subjective really for components. It was either horrible or really amazing or somewhere in between. Trusova would fal under technical but as you rack up those points and build consistency like Anna your PCS gets higher even if you have mistakes. Is it fair, no. But it’s what is expected. Getting rid of the Transitions will only further deteriorate the sport in my opinion. Look at Trusovas program it only further explains why we need to keep transitions. Because as Dave has said before there aren’t any. 47:08 Transitions and Interpretation getting rid of from components. 55:10 Quads. Ladies can’t do them in the short. We don’t really see ANY quad throws or twists in a really long time probably since the last Olympics. 58:17 quality of the elements. Eunsoo Lim lack of projection. I have to agree to a certain extent. She has all the performance capability but I think she gets too nervous or is doubtful that she can do it. She’s very talented too bad it’s been a struggle. 1:00:48 Yelim Kim, You Young and the Korean ranking competition. Why they do this I don’t know. Seems quite odd. 1:34:23 End of Video 4CC team for Korea is out! Ladies will be You Young, Yelim Kim and Haein Lee Also Gogolev won the Skate Canada Challenge whilst Nam Nguyen struggled and placed 6th.

This was such an interesting discussion. You guys always bring it. I would love to hear y'alls thoughts on music in figure skating. Like, what do you think is overused, underused, your all-time favorites, classic vs what's in vogue, bad music cuts, etc...I have a soft spot for East of Eden, Fantasie Impromptu, and Piano Concerto No. 2 lol

I think social media and advanced technology are killing the Olympic ratings. Now we don’t need to watch full scheduled events anymore, we can just see results on our phone at our convenience. We have access to wider forms of entertainment on our devices at our convenience, so scheduling a sit-down olympic watch on television is no longer a thing anymore. It’s killing cinema in the same way

Ahh I can’t wait to dig into this, so excited to do my chores for the night whilst listening to you guys!

Does anyone know if Javier's school is taking off? And I noticed Bruno (Masot) putting skaters on at an event not too long ago - does he have a school now?

Been looking forward to your commentary on this since last week, really glad you went into the economics of the olympics a bit.

This show was so informative - thanks for all the coverage! Also was nice to see how seriously you appear to be taking the pandemic.

re: Gaby and Guillaume removing boots in K&C. I noticed that Gaby has changed from Edea to Jackson boots.

Please understand that JSF had no choice than to cancel the GPF; the government issued a strict ban of travelers coming in from abroad, even Japanese citizens (which was recalled later).

I really really enjoyed this episode guys.

Cant they hold the final online? Like seriously. They should schedule the event in a ring in each county and have the judges score. Like we've already done the empty rings, we can go back to that if need be.

I'm in China right now. Trust me when I say the pandemic is not affecting daily life to the extent it is in many other countries. It has not been for a year at least. Things have felt completely "back to normal" for well over a year. It's probably one of the safest place to host the Olympics, health-wise. The Chinese government has maintained the strictest quarantine policy for international travelers, which probably was a contributor to the stability of the situation. It's adopted this almost paranoiac attitude, acting swiftly and enforcing blanket quarantine and mini-lockdowns whenever there's a single local case reported.

Thank guys for your always informative segments. Mixed with humor and key points. in the never ending soap opera saga of the world figure skating. Very concerned for the upcoming 2022 Olympics and wondering will it also be cancelled as well?

I agree that the main problem w/ korean ladies is the yuna-esk mimicking. You ask any of them about their program and it’s immediately called a yuna tribute. And while that’s cute, they definitelyyyyy need originality and more star power like yuna had. Yelim is my favorite tho i luvvv her liebestraum program!

With the GPF cancellation/postponement/whatever, everyone was talking about what this means for russian ladies etc etc whilst I'm out here so upset we're not going to see how Ice Dance plays out for the top 5 till the actual olympics! We may see P/C and S/K at Euros but none of the north american skaters will do 4CC and I wanted to see how H/D, C/B and G/P would all stack up against each other at the same competition! My favourite comment on On Edge was when Madi Hubbell said she wants to be Olympic champion... like honey, this is ice dance you are vying for the bronze medal!!

Happy Sunday! Love the sweaters. Thank you for another fantastic video :)

Dave, I'm both a tennis and a skating fan. I've had to put you on pause for a second to let you know that the tennis season in China is late is in the fall. The WTA, and not, so far, the ATP, have cancelled tournaments in China for the foreseeable future because of the situation with Peng, not Covid. They wouldn't make a call about Covid with 10 months to go before they need to worry.

Wonderfully informative, as usual! Thank you!

The korean skaters projection issue has more to do with how their coaches and athletes were trained as athlete first before performers meaning they put a lot of emphasis on technique first and foremost. I mean they have no problem in training those kpop stars kids in face projection at such a young age (some debut at 14/15/16). So no matter how conservative their culture is, it would not be a hassle as long as those coaches would impose the performing value too.

Dave you are so right about Canada as a federation! It so needs to be said!! We will miss Rod Black! Your impression is hilarious 😆

Coaches who have toned down the performer energy to devote their energy into boosting their students -- Brian Orser, Scott Moir, Patrice Lauzon

Why does Korea have ranking competitions? It’s overkill. They burn their skaters out.

According the PCS description on Wikipedia: Interpretation: This score reflects how well the judges feel that the skater is performing with their "soul" (whereas the Composition score is more about the choreography). Does the skater move in time to the music, or are all the movements just off by a beat or two? Does the skater reflect every little trill and ding with a corresponding skating move? If we keep the "Interpretation" mark perhaps is should be renamed "Musicality/Timing" and remove the part about soul. That would make it more distinctive from performance especially for ice dance.

Waiting for Eteri to cure Omicron… she cured deafness how hard can this be

Also can’t believe the Grand Prix final was canceled. Was ready for the empress to medal there. Also if the Olympics are postponed for 1 year. I think Gracie Gold will be even better by next year. But also that must be tough for skaters to wait another year especially if they were at their peak. And then next year what if they’re not even reaching the same scores for this year.

Great episode guys! I was thinking there wasn't much to discuss this week, but you certainly proved otherwise! I missed the pyramid! LOL.

There is some theory that it was Mishin behind Norway proposal. Considering all his pupils are advocating for raising age in recent interviews (Urmanov, Plushenko, Gulyakova) and Mishin himself refused to comment the proposal (and his camp will be the first and most evident beneficiar of it given that it affects mostly inside Russian competition) - it seems quite plausible.

About the IJS, I wouldn't change a thing right now. The major problem is not the system, it's how scores are awarded in competition. Actually, no, I'd propose one change: elements (spin positions, transitions, lifts, etc) cannot be repeated from previous season or at least between short and long programs, so skaters have to at least learn two sets of these elements. Some skaters have been doing the exact same elements for years, it's boring and it's easier, and scoring should reward skaters to try and master new elements.

It’s sad that the GP final was cancelled but I like when there is no competition and you can discuss other topics. Very interesting show, guys! ❤️

"Transitions" is already part of the TES for jumps, isn't it? "Creative/difficult entry; creative exit." I think it should eliminated as part of PCS. Make it explicitly part of GOE. I don't understand eliminating interpretation, however, unless it is made part of performance, explicitly.

So this might not be the same thing, but when I was a rower, immediately following a race, we can’t wait to get out of the shoes, the force we would use would make our feet burn. It might be similar to ice dance and you just need to give your feet some relief? I’ve seen Zach Donohue also do this in the k&c. Just a thought lol 😂

I want the Canadians to get behind Deanna and Max so hard! Deanna deserves ALL the flowers!!

I had to LOL when Jonathan said it takes him a while to recognize the Sambo70 girls with their hair down. They do have a lot of hair! Watching the BTS video of their hair/makeup session, Aliona seems to play the diva to the hilt. She really is stunning looking though, so she has the right to be. I'm disappointed about the GPF being cancelled, too but what can we do? At least Golden Spin will be entertaining, despite the withdrawal of Diana and Gleb. I was sure they would win gold. I stayed up last night until 1:30AM to watch the Korean ladies on KZfaq. There is a sameness about them and the programs and packaging is a bit dated, although their costumes are beautifully made. Too bad about Eunsoo placing so low - she is one of the few of them with the charisma and star quality.

Surprised to see the ISU bested by a low-built, slow-footed pangolin. They couldn’t contingency plan this 10 months ago? Japan has been touch and go all year. Osaka metro has a population of 19M. Why didn’t they just move the “final” to a more stable situation when they had the time...they seem sorta bad at their job.

Having the junior final towards the end of the season (but not too close to junior worlds) would be fine because they won't be dealing with a "come down from the high of Olympics." The senior final should be canceled, there's just no time.

Does Eteri get to keep the full 40% or is it split amongst all the coaches?

Who is the man in the thumbnail, pictured with the 4 dressed up Sambo70 girls? He looks familiar, but I can't figure it out... :/

To the topic of merging some of the Component marks, Dave I would love to see your “best of” series continue with some of the artistic marks as well. I know what I define as skating skills, but would like to see who you consider the best. Same with choreography (what a loaded topic it could be! Oh the tagging!!) Just an idea! Also- my first thought when GPF was cancelled was I wondered if we had seen Kostornaia in her final international competition. 😢

I highly doubt the Olympics will be cancelled but we'll have to wait and see what will happen.

Omg, Dave! That sweater! All of my favorite colors! Gorgeous! ❤️

"If Eteri were coached by Eteri in 2018, would she have ghosted her? And gone to Brian Orser? And maybe come back?" OMG I LAUGHED WAY TOO LOUD AT THIS. The look on Jonathan's face trying to wrap his mind around this! BTW I agree with you and totally expect Zhenya to eventually become a top coach, if not also a choreographer.

throw quad jumps in pairs are brutal. i remember yuko kavaguti landing in a painful heap on the ice after falling on a throw quad. quad jumps should be allowed but i feel sorry for women because they bear the brunt (literally and figurally) of any fall.

Looking at the IOC involvement in Peng situation you know they won’t let anything cancel the games. Not having a GPF dose make the Olympics more exciting. Great video.

I have to say. I miss Evgenia Medvedeva that she is going into retirement. I was not surprised about cancelling of the Grand Prix Final. I want to say that Japan was going on the safe side. They should have better safety plan or have a back up plan to be on the safe side. You also adding that some governments are not sending officials to the games.

Could they just hold the jr Grand Prix after worlds because I don’t see any of the seniors really wanting to do it

Parabéns!

I'm sorry to hear of the losses of your friends due to covid. I think it's very unlikely the Olympics would be canceled after all the preparations & $$$ spent.

Tiebreakers for the Spanish ice dancers are Finlandia, Europeans, and Spanish Nationals. Basically the competitions where they skate under the same judging panels.

Dave, you're in good company: the philosopher Wittgenstein said, "I don't care what I eat...as long as it's always the same." I think he spent years living on a couple cups of hot chocolate a day, Also, I think you're right about Covid feeling as serious now as ever...at least for me personally. I'm in Michigan and we're back to all ER's full of Covid patients. My brother passed away from Covid on the 14th of last month; he didn't get to the ER until he was in cardiac arrest and that's way too late. My mom, who has dementia, came up positive and is now in the hospital with her oxygen level at 80%. Our hurry to get back to normal as quickly as possible has a cost in human lives. Lastly, the Chopin competition jury has 18 members plus a chairperson: this year it took them 6 hours to decide the winner. That's why it's only held every 5 years...so many jurors to pay.

ive always been told performance is like choreography but mainly arms or movement not involving elements, the composition is how well the program is laid out ie matching the music or ice layout, and then interpretation is selling the program

If they rescheduled it, who knows how many of the 6 girls could be injured by then, and the ones who couldn't compete for a spot because of injury would probably be back by then. And even the World's after the Olympics is kind of anti climatic and not as well attended by top skaters as usual. I'm not sure their bodies could even hold up to having an extra long competitive season.

Dave and Jonathan entertaining us. It was epic this week!

Great discussion of PCS. I agree that transitions are in a sense double scored - because they also add to the GOE for jumps. And the fact that the range in all PCS is so small clearly is suspect. Just because someone has good skating skills does not mean they have good interpretation, etc. It is always so clear judges are scoring the skater not the SKATE.

Concerning Tutberidze's 40% - the flip side of that is the student's 60%. The Russians use some medieval guild like arrangements in their sports education, including some of the nomenclature. In some ways this is a symbiotic relationship. The school is motivated to give the best education possible to make the earning power of the student as high as possible. In addition, the school acts as an employment agency for the student to maximize earnings for both itself and the student. This is why you see the Team Tutberidze on tour in Russia, earning money, while most of skating is shut down last spring. Consider how much better higher education in the west would be if the income of colleges and universities was dependent on the success of their students. Instead of turning out debt burdened graduates, they would be actively seeking successful employment for their former students.

At 20:31 what does Jonathan mean by stupid shit? I was a toddler at the time so I have no idea what he's talking about, but so curious :D

I applied a few years ago to volunteer at the olympics in China and like a month ago or so, they send me an email saying that they already selected the volunteers that will be working and unfortunately due to the pandemic only nationals from China were selected, they also mention that only people from China or that is currently living in China is going to be able to attend the events to prevent traveling from other countries, but who knows how everything will develop in February.

For Dave and Jonathan's information: The British Championships were held last week, with none other than Victor Petrenko in the K&C with 2 skating brothers from your rink Dave! No mention. Plus, one of if not the biggest star of Tokyo Olympics was Tom Daley, voted recently British Athlete of the Games not only by fans but by his fellow Athletes. You know there's a whole world out here apart from what's happening in N.Am, Russia and Asia. It's called EUROPE!

A belated thought (I have many today, it seems): the Cricket Club is not the only one in crisis. I mean, apart from ice dance, what medal potential skaters other coaches in the west are teaching at the moment? There's Nathan (and Rafael has been banking his whole coaching career on him for how long?), Vincent (which coach can we credit for his..... success?), Shoma (can Lambiel deliver?), Yuzu (I'm not counting him out yet, the GPF cancellation plays in his favour). The men's podium is the only one with openings for Western coaches, really. Pairs in some competitions, but only Miura/Kihara stepping up? And then, which of these skaters will continue after the Olys? The Cricket Club doesn't seem to be investing in new talent any more than Rafael or the Granite Club or Colorado. Rafael happened to have inhereted Gogolev bc his parents concluded the CC didn't offer enough exclusive attention, it was a grudge and not necessarily a coaching upgrade. But if we look at the skaters coming up in Canada, US and Europe, they're almost all trained by coaches most people never heard of. Anyway, I'm not saying it's not a missed opportunity for all feds but Russia (Russians are doing it), because it is, these bigger clubs have more infrastructure to scout talent and not only develop them from juniors to seniors, but to give them a bigger platform to build their reputation. But maybe there's just no talent to scout and teaching Gogolev (and whatever he might become, or not) is the best any coach can aspire to at the moment.

Watch the summer Olympics wasn’t the same without the crowds (especially rhythmic gymnastics). I don’t China will want to postpone the games.

Your comments on Rod Black made me roar with laughter! We call him Captain Obvious. I can’t wait to see Nationals with ANYONE else in the booth with Tracy. It made me wild when he would interrupt her. We’re not alone in our dislike. I totally agree that Piper & Paul should have gone to the olympics with the Hitchcock program and I actually seem to have adjusted my memory to rewrite history; wishful thinking I suppose. As for Canadians getting behind our skaters who were born abroad, it would be lousy if we didn’t! 😁👍 It’s true that Keegan seems to have pure maple syrup in his veins. He does have a Canadian parent.

Great conversation 👌 as I am getting on a plane tomorrow to spend the week in st Paul MN with my professional skater! (Aka Timmy)I have plans to see at least 5 shows of Disney on Ice 🥰💫👩‍👦

Rod Black is out of there, praise the Goddess of Skating!

I sometimes wonder if Diana will get the Alina or the Adelina OGM treatment in Russia. Or did Adelina win her medal without signing the 40% deal?

Where is my lighter? Our mantra for this whole season.

@TSK: Have you guys read Katarina Witt's book "Only with passion"? It a great reading about the time and history of the sport we all love.

I just realized how much Jonathan looks like Ben Affleck.

I’ve been to Ontario and Quebec since the border reopened and both times I LOVED how they’re handling COVID compared to the US. Masks are still mandated at all indoor businesses/establishments, proof of vaccination is required for indoor dining, restaurants are required to take your phone number for contact tracing, etc.

Ty

I’m going to start timestamps in 45 minutes They have begun!

Sad that skate canada gave nam such low scores at challenge - even if the tech wasn't his best, the components were lower than at both GPs :(

Is it actually true that Tarasova and morozov have been trying to leave skating but have been stopped? They do look miserable on the ice and they haven’t really had one season where they’ve completely dominated. Can the federation actually stop their top skaters from leaving?

Hanyu has transitions into quads.

Regarding cancellation of Grand Prix final - I believe Japan closed borders to all foreigners very rapidly after omicron became public- that pretty much made the competition impossible best I can understand. Still I am sad.

does someone have a video of the lady korean skater that jonathan is a big fan of?

Jonathan - you're spot on about Keegan's music. I'd love to see Keegan skate to "Let it Be" by the Beatles for his Free. I think he could really do well with that.

It was inevitable that the GPF get cancelled, what with the new variant out and about. I don't blame Japan for staying on the safe side; they've had the Summer Olympics already. Had the GPF gone on, I thought the placements would be for the Men: 1) Nathan, 2) Yuma, 3)Vincent; Women: 1) Kamila, 2) Anna, 3) Empress Liza (Maiia could be 3rd as well); Pairs: 1& 2) Sui/Han or Mishina/Galliamov; 3) Tarasova/Morozov or Boikova/Kozlovskii; Ice Dance: 1) Papadakis/Cizeron; 2) Sinitsyna/Katsalapov; 3) any other team besides Hubbell/Donohue. It's too bad the GPF was cancelled, but in truth, this is no Olympic qualifier. Nationals are what the skaters are really going for in order to go for the Olympics and Worlds. This could be a blessing in disguise for some skaters. The Olympics has become less desirable to many countries around the world. By now, the IOC should be working on changing some, actually, many of the rules when it comes to finding a place to 'host' - or even just find one good place that can do it all instead, like one for the Summer Olympics and one for the Winter Olympics, in order to save money. As for Medvedeva retiring, I always thought of her as already retired. So is Alina Zagitova. I don't get why these skaters hold off on just admitting they are no longer competing and are retired. Honestly, what is the ISU even doing with these events? When Cup of China was cancelled, the location turned to Italy, and was held there. As for Beijing Olympics, I doubt China will cancel it. It's too close to opening, and they've worked too hard to promote it. The athletes have been waiting on this. Too much money has gone to this. The only thing the country will do is be hyper-vigilant about the new variant within the Olympic competition bubbles, as well as keep the numbers of spectators down, like in Japan. I haven't seen much of the Korean ranking competition, but I did see Cha Junhwan win as well as You Young in first place. Good for them, even with falls on their beginning jumps (You really needs to think about that 3A, whether to keep it or not, cuz she's always falling on it, too bad she's gone through puberty). Great episode, guys, it's a salve over the cancelled GPF meant for later this week!

I think his skates are just tied up so tight he has to remove them immediately.

Is Jonathan wearing a Nathan Chen top?

Plushenko is playing 5d chess