I can't say enough about how much I enjoy Christine Brennan's perspective on all of this.

Thanks for your comments Christine, I think you're very well-reasoned, and prudent in everything you say, which makes it a pleasure to hear! Nothing worse than commentators who over-exaggerrate, so I really value that, and I'm sure lots of other people do too! TSL peops, will we be getting a longer recap with just the two of you? I want more!

The Russian skaters only skate for the judges? Same could be said for Gracie Gold, who always seems to ignore the music she's performing to. Besides, skaters like Alexei Yagudin brought memorable routines like Winter, which was a real crowd-pleaser at the 2002 Olympics.

Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Gracie Gold - "we don't know this ppl, we can't judge." Russian athletes - "pumped with meldonium just like soviet army."

Great interview with Christine and she was able to give her perspective on the final group. I'm glad Dave chilled out and let her speak and articulate her thoughts. Really enjoyed this.

Loved seeing Ashley put it together with this program and winning that silver! I love her performance to this. I sent her a tweet last year about this program that if she nailed it she would be a world medalist no doubt. Such a well done program and I think it is better and more polished this year than it was last year so bravo to her for bringing it!

Best medicine for Gracie that will kick her butt better than any coach or sports psychologist is seeing Ashley win the Silver Medal!!!!! GO ASHLEY!!!

Really, really enjoyed this!! Thank you for bringing her back!!

I could listen to Christine's stories and perspective all day. Thank you for sharing this with us!

The difference between the good and the great skaters is that when they fall or make mistakes (and all skaters do) the great skaters recover from the error so quickly to make it seem so insignificant and then make the rest of the program so fabulous that you forget their ever was a mistake.

Thank you. I loveAshley too. BTW Arakawa was 24 at Torino. One thing is that I wanted her to comment on Satoko too, Yes, her jumps are small, but she has such a special quality in her skating. Toe always pointed, elegant arms, quick rootations. When you see Satoko live you can not help noticing these beautiful qualities!

as a brit I didn't know about Ashley and her comments in sochi. thanks to Christine for that insight and cheers to Ashley for saying it.

This interview was great. I agree with Christine on a lot of points - Gracie was way overscored (higher than Mao? come on...), Ashley definitely sensed that Gracie's performance didn't go too well (this was very audible in the building) and this served well for her, Evgenia was amazing and the program did make sense. I'm super happy for Ashley, but I don't think the judging was fair, Ashley did seem tight on at least two of the jumping passes and she slowed quite a bit towards the end. I can't wrap my head around how that performance was put over Satoko, Elena and Anna.

Very enjoyable interview & commentary! Thanks for doing this at 2:30am!!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE SKATING LESSON. I almost want more!! I feel like Dave and jenny should do their own coverage video,(not that I don't LOVE Christine too, but there were so many more ladies to cover!!

loved this interview and Christine Brennans commentary.

Christine and Dave, Gracie's popped jump was on the other side of the arena to her fall. And how could you not even mention Mao who brought the house down and was underscored?

I love you Christine Brennan! you are the best at writing on figure skating.

Looks like that Meldonium thing she said was just a fluke. LOVE Christine here!! If any of you are still upset over her remarks in that video, all of them go away here; she is clearly unbiased here and has fair judgment on all skaters.

I do think Ashley was slightly overscored in PCs. However, I feel she has been underscored in PCS for awhile. I do agree Mao should have been scored higher as Miyahara. However, I feel the placement was right for Ashley. I think Gracie should have placed in 5th or 6th.

People need to stop hating. Overall, I agree with the judges placements although not necessarily the marks. Medveva was clearly the winner. I was there and after she skated it was clear that no one was going to beat her. Gracie could have, they would have given it to her if she was clean, but I don't know if it would have necessary been deserved. IMHO there is still alot lacking in her skating. Yes, her jumps are impressive but she also leaves alot to be desired. She is another one that could also benefit from ballet lessons to improve her line. IMHO she was not better than Yuna to make a new world record but I always thought Yuna was overscored too. She always had power and great jumps but lacked pointed feet and a great line. She never was that artistic in comparison to Carlina, Mao and I wouldn't even try to compare her to Michelle Kwan. I am not the biggest fan of Medvedeva's skating. Agree that her line could be improved and some of the positions of her spins are horrendous (no one should be attempting those Sasha spins with the leg over their head except Sasha and arguably Julia Lipinskia) but her jumps were very smooth and overall it was a good and effortless performance. I do agree that some of the PCS scores were inflated but they usually aren't for the US skaters so I am fine with that. Let's just call it karma. The PCS scores for most of the ladies were too high. I would have had Mao in first for PCS, her skating in person is superior than all of the others skaters, even with the underrotations. I don't think those flaws effected the quality of that peformance. The worst for me in person was Radnianova. I found her skating skills to be horrible as well as that dress and that performance. I am glad everyone skated well after her. It would have been a shame for her to be the winner or on the podium with that peformance. Out of all of the Russian girls I find her most in jeopardy of staying on top in Russia. I always thought Pogoralaya was better than her and I never understood why Jenny and Dave never saw that. Anna has improved alot over the last couple of years and she was in impressive in person and skated very fast. She will only improve with all of that great Russian competition and if she can be relatively consistent and stay on her feet! she will always be a factor. So happy for Ashley and the Russian ladies. It would have been a shame for Gracie to be on the podium with that performance in comparison to the other ladies performances. Too bad for Satoko. Would have been fine with her on the podium in place of Anna but it was so close. This really was the best ladies competition I have ever seen. Here is how I would have judged the long 1. Medvedeva 2. Wagner 3. Miahara 4. Pogoralaya 5. Asada 6. Gold 7. Hongo 8. Radnianova

I got chills while Christine was talking about Ashley speaking out against the Russian anti-gay law. She definitely doesn't get enough credit for that.

I am not sure if I liked the way Christine Brennan talked about non-American skaters. She totally trashed Elena Radionova as if there were nothing good at all about her performance, and then moved on to belittling Satoko Miyahara. She described Satoko's jumps by saying "It's just those little jumps...... a piece of paper... that's about as high as she gets... You can't even put a phone book..." A comment like that is not necessary, and is just mean spirited. What kind of "sports journalist" is she? Definitely not a classy one.

I was in the arena too and when I saw Frank with Gracie I knew something was wrong too.

Gracie should drop "father figure" Frank for straight shooting "mother figure" Traci Wilson instead.

Should Ashley Wagner retire leave almost on top? Or should she fight and try to compete in worlds next year?

I actually really love Christine.

In her column Christine said that Ashley proved that she is the second best in the world. By this reasoning Fernandez proved he is the best male skater in the world. We all know this is nonsense - Hanyu is the greatest skater that ever lived, but Fernandez had a great night. What Ashley proved is that she is capable of getting on the podium on a good night.

Too harsh on Radionova, Christine. This is a very poor example of sports journalism. I totally agree that the programs weren't the best and her dress was abysmal. But her skating was better than Gracie's for sure. I'm not gonna argue about the judging (pointless) or talk about Russophobia. I've come across it a a lot living in the states and being Russian. But it's not the point. My point is - when you're recorded and know that people are going to watch this video - try not to say crap about the skaters. Be a professional.

Oh my god! I noticed that talk with Frank and Gracie too, and wondered, ".... that's not what he usually says to skaters.." Wasn't he talk about how good the music of Firebird is or something near that? Frank apparently usually says this (2:40): kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i8hinNOqp77Fe2w.html Anyway, a bit off, but I was very disappointed about what Frank said about the incident between Denis and Yuzu. I understand, as Denis's coach, he had to defend Denis, but he didn't have to offend Yuzu.

I think of Medvedeva as virtually flawless but that is not the same as perfect. Mao Asada was perfect as Madame Butterfly in Boston. Yuzuru Hanyu is perfect most of the time he steps on the ice. So we're Michelle Kwan, Kristi Yamaguchi, Dorothy Hamill, and Peggy Fleming. Maybe Evgenia can be spoken of in those people's company someday but not now. There is a big difference between virtually flawless and perfect.

I hope there are people telling Gracie that it is okay that it didn't happen for her now. The sport and the world, with all the social media, has changed so much that it takes some athletes more time to mature. I think she just needs to live a little more, get a boyfriend or two, develop her emotions and view on life, so she can bring that back to the ice. When you grow up trying to be perfect, often looking perfect on the outside, there's only so far you can go. It's like she is a robot, not saying that to be mean, but she has lived her life for the sport--now she has to live for herself only. She can and should learn from Ashley.

Yeah, Miyahara's jumps are so low you can't put a piece of paper under them. Digital calipers don't have enough numbers after the dot to display the height of her jumps. If you put a nano coating on the ice Miyahara wouldn't be able to jump over that part. So desperate to dismiss her skate, even though it wasn't jumps that scored poorly.

The real podium should have been 1. Medvedeva 2. Pogorilaya 3. Miyahara And anyone that is half way honest will say the same thing. If Polina Edmunds and Karen Chen weren't such duds Ashley Wagner would have already been put to pasture. Instead she has a rocket put on her ass because Gold always screws up and she inherits her political push. The US girls development system is bone dry. The one half way decent but overrated prospect (Tessa Hong) has an ankle injury. Russia meanwhile has an army of girl prospects better than her. Propaganda, demonizing, etc isn't going to close that gap. And I am seeing that the bigger that gap gets, the more irrational the US skating establishment acts toward Russian skaters.

Something Christine nailed is just how awful Radionova's FS was...it really is a dreadful piece of music with some painfully bad "choreography" plastered on top of it. Seriously, if she wants to be competitive whatsoever, she has to work on actually holding some of her movements and integrating actual moments into her programs. As it stands now, she looks like a crack addict (especially in her free skates) frantically rushing across the ice with no regard for the music and basically blowing through her non-existent choreography toward the next jump. Puhlease! Get this girl some help for all our sakes. It's really painful to watch. Also, as Dave and Jenny have previously pointed out, the posture is ATROCIOUS.

still insufferable, and since it is an American woman that got grossly overscored to get a silver medal then all is fine in the best world possible. the PCS of Miyahara and Asada in that event were not fair at all.

Oh god, yes! Radionova's music is so awful!