Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani | Page 52 | Golden Skate

Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani

Tallorder

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2014
REPRESENT! :thumbs:

Very cool that Maia is helping raise the profile of ice dance. It's NOT just about the ladies' champion folks. The project highlights women athletes from soccer to surfing, ballet to yoga.
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Twitter - @TeamUSA has Olympic Fencing explained - by the @ShibSibs!
Team USA video on YouTube.

Twitter - @TeamUSA has Olympic Rugby explained - by the @ShibSibs!
Team USA video on YouTube.

:laugh: :rofl: :clap: :cool2: :clapper: Maia and Alex did a REALLY great job here - especially with explaining the specifics of the rules and equipment.


The ShibSibs "Olympic Sports Revealed" videos have their own playlist on the Team USA YouTube channel:

As of yesterday, the playlist has eight videos:
- Rhythmic gymnastics
- Wrestling
- Synchronized swimming
- Modern pentathlon
- Golf​
Plus those posted by musicfan and VIETgrl.

The Shibs really are on a roll of being recognized in cool :cool: ways.
The invitation from Coldplay; the Readers' Choice Award; and now the Team USA video series.

I would love to know whether Maia and Alex were involved in producing the Team USA videos. They certainly have the necessary research/writing/editing skills.
In any case, they did a great job with their on-camera roles :popcorn:.


On a smaller Olympic note, I was pleased that USFS (no dummies) had the Shibs lead off its series of tweets with good-luck mini-videos from skaters to Rio athletes.
The Shibs wished luck to the Team USA gymnasts.
 

Celine

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 30, 2013
The videos are fun and quite informative. I had no idea that modern pentathlon athletes had to ride a "random horse." Seeing Alex talk to the horse-on-the-stick toy seemed totally in character too :laugh:

Shibs on a roll for sure. In July, they also made a stunning appearance in a vlog from a major league Youtuber, MrBenBrown which to me was a WOW moment. I work in social media and MrBenBrown has over a half million subscribers and is big leagues. Go to 7 minute 29 second mark. He introduces them during what must have been one of the exclusive parties at Vidcon that they were all hanging out together at. :rock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVANF_cUOPk
 
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Celine

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 30, 2013

VIETgrlTerifa

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
It's been reported that the Shibs programs are:

SD: "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra/Jay-Z

FD: Evolution by various artist.

The FD and Jay-Z seem pretty vague as of right now, so we'll see.

Glad to see the Shibs challenging themselves with hip hop.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
It's been reported that the Shibs programs are:

SD: "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra/Jay-Z

FD: Evolution by various artist.

The FD and Jay-Z seem pretty vague as of right now, so we'll see.

Glad to see the Shibs challenging themselves with hip hop.

Yeah it's going to stand out cause I think the only other pairs as of now that is doing both is Hubbell/Donahue and Virtue and Moir. I feels theirs will be quite different...it should be interesting to watch!
 

lauravvv

Medalist
Joined
Jun 19, 2012
Country
Latvia
It's been reported that the Shibs programs are:

SD: "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra/Jay-Z

FD: Evolution by various artist.
Thanks, VIETgrlTerifa.


Yeah it's going to stand out cause I think the only other pairs as of now that is doing both is Hubbell/Donahue and Virtue and Moir. I feels theirs will be quite different...it should be interesting to watch!
What "both"? None of them are doing both swing and hip-hop. If you mean both blues and hip-hop, no one can choose whether to do the blues or not. Midnight blues is the compulsory pattern. The choice is only between swing and hi-hop as the second rhythm.
 
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Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
What "both"? None of them are doing both swing and hip-hop. If you mean both blues and hip-hop, no one can choose whether to do blues or not. Midnight blues is the compulsory pattern. The choice is only between swing and hi-hop as the second rhythm.

You're right. I do mean they're one of the few teams that chose to COMBINE the blues with hip-hop, that's what I probably meant by saying "both." I've been up since 5 a.m. and been working so I might not be at my brightest. :laugh:
 

lauravvv

Medalist
Joined
Jun 19, 2012
Country
Latvia
You're right. I do mean they're one of the few teams that chose to COMBINE the blues with hip-hop, that's what I probably meant by saying "both." I've been up since 5 a.m. and been working so I might not be at my brightest. :laugh:
Okay, understood :).
 

cathlen

Team Gorgeous Cacti!
Record Breaker
Joined
May 2, 2015
Country
Poland
Shibs are not listed for Nepela Memorial (instead C/B are), so there's only Finlandia left. Unless they're skipping Challengers entirely. I was hoping to see them before GP though...
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
And they are not at Finlandia either. This is really surprising, considering their past strategy to compete early and often.
 

VIETgrlTerifa

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I really wonder why they aren't doing any of the Challenger Series competitions before the GP series. I hope it wasn't because they had less-than-positive feedback in Champs' Camp and are retooling and changing their routines.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Yeah, there was that one season, 2012-2013, where they had to change from that Mary Poppins SD to the "Missing 2.0" one, and I'm not sure that was a great change.

They didn't do Senior Bs in either that year (2012) or the Olympic season and neither season was that great for them (great compared to their better seasons, of course, obviously making the Olympic team in the US field is no small task). Anyway, hoping maybe they're listed as a Sub at Ondrej and perhaps they will be switched (per USFSA, it's not official until it's on their assignment page).

ETA: The Shibutanis are listed as a sub at Finlandia. And right now Hubbell and Donahue are listed as the entry. Wouldn't be a stretch, if they were added. According to the announcement, each ISU country can entry up to two dance entries as long as there is "sufficient space."
 
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VIETgrlTerifa

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Yeah, there was that one season, 2012-2013, where they had to change from that Mary Poppins SD to the "Missing 2.0" one, and I'm not sure that was a great change.

They didn't do Senior Bs in either that year (2012) or the Olympic season and neither season was that great for them (great compared to their better seasons, of course, obviously making the Olympic team in the US field is no small task). Anyway, hoping maybe they're listed as a Sub at Ondrej and perhaps they will be switched (per USFSA, it's not official until it's on their assignment page).

ETA: The Shibutanis are listed as a sub at Finlandia. And right now Hubbell and Donahue are listed as the entry. Wouldn't be a stretch, if they were added. According to the announcement, each ISU country can entry up to two dance entries as long as there is "sufficient space."

Maybe now that V/M are no longer doing Finlandia, the Shibs would be more inclined to do go as they no longer have to worry about an early head-to-head. But that wouldn't have been a problem if they just did Nepela unless the USFS just really wanted C/B there and the Shibs wanted to avoid that. Going head-to-head against C/B did them no favors in the 2014-2015 season as that 11 point differential at Skate America was too hard for them to overcome for the entirety of that season.
 
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charmblade

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 11, 2014
Considering how much the early season feedback helped them last year turn Fix You from a bronze-medal-at-a-Senior B program to a silver-medal-at-Worlds program, they are surely aware of the need for early feedback. I too hope there is no bigger issue keeping them from competing at Senior Bs, but I trust Maia and Alex to do what they need to do. Selfishly, though, I really want to see their new programs.
 
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