2022-23 The Skating Year in Review

[Skater Boy]

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times - it was the times. The "skating year" is over. I know many will have differing opinions but to those who love skating we will always find some joy in the year of skating. Chock and Bates finally claiming the ID title with the bitter sweetness of the much improved and surging Gilles and POrier only to be derailed by tragedy a fight with cancer. The ascension of the Japanese in Pairs. Kaori repeating her world title after an up and down season but with some differing styles of music. Great skating by Shomo and the rise of the young and brash challenger in Malinin. The Russians not competing for whatever reason and whatever your opinion had a huge impact on skating. Can we prove it no. But other than maybe men's and even then they could still affect placements. We saw he rise of the Italians and the story of the elderly being competitive in Deanna Stellato. We saw some promise in Europe other than Russia. Although to be fair had the Russians been skating there would have probably been an impact in the results.

While I give full credit to Chock and Bates for their fight and drive a s we all know it is more than that. It was a fairytale ending for them as they looked at one point at risk to be unceremonioussly kicked off the podium. Yes , they worked hard but we also know a lot of ice dance teams work hard. The italians not my cup of tea are sticking around . Technically they might be the best but they do not have the soul and passion of others. Then again beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I really liked GP's freedance. I am sad that it did not get a world title. I am curious though as next year worlds are in Montreal what will happen. The Brits, the Danadians cannot be forgotten. The third American team dealign with MH issues all were key factors.

You can see the quality of the top 2 teams. I might have switched the Italians and Canadians and hope that next year we might see the Canadians on the podium but it will be tough -tougher if the russians were allowed to compete. The Americans did well earning silver as they and Japan were the class of he field. And for some reason that bronze is wide open like last year. It came to my mind that nothing against the Japanese and Americans but they both now have world gold and yet a team like Tarasova and Morozov do not have a world title and if my recollection got the agonizing position of 4th and 2nd at the Olympics.

The US has promise in ladies including their consistent and strong Isabeau Levito. She is not outstanding as to style and kind of reminds me of the many good skaters from the US but not great like Kwan, Cohen et al. Ilia has been great for men's skating in the US along with Jason Brown who continues to entertain and be a top six force even without a single quad. He is still a rock for a spot for worlds with his beautiful skating which garners praise.

Canada continues to struggle. Keegan earned Canada its two men's spots and retired. Next year two lucky men from Canada will go to Worlds and most likely lose one spot. We may have seen the implosion of Roman Sadovsky but it seems he is resolved to continue and the light has dimmed on Steven Gogolov. Dance had great hope with Piper and Paul and the Danadians. AT least they won back the third spot as Canada has a wealth of ID talent.

Pairs continues to struggle. Teams with double jumps and twists were on the world stage. I dont think I saw in throw quads and the individual jumps did not include a lot of harder triples though I give credit were due with some of the combos.

Always love skating and regardless of your position on drugs, the war etc. There is an impact not having Russia compete. I hate politics - I miss good skating. I appreciate everyone did their best but I feel we are missing a bit.

hoping people stay healthy and bodies heal.

 

[yume]

I liked the fact that we could watch basically every Russian competitions, even the tiniest ones. It allowed me to discover or re-discover some interesting skaters. And i watched men events more than usual. Not just for the good looks but because they are not so bad. I really liked Matvei's and Semenenko's programs, the "twins" rivalry, the spectacular tie at nats. And I didn't know that there were so many competitions and that juniors and novices were competing so much. It's a well developped national circuit.

Looking at the results, what wasn't surprising was Japan replacing Russia at the top in ladies. Japanese ladies won almost all big competitions in juniors and seniors, leaving only a few to their competitors. The lack of complaints about a single country winning almost everything was also unsurprising. The most surprising is South Korea and especially those two skaters getting those big results in the 2nd part of the season. I expected USA in that position in seniors.

The most disappointing was seeing Lindsay Thorngren fall behind her main competitors and not being sent at any big comp after GPs. I had big expectations on her. Also, my girl Rino Matsuike keeping on her injuries streak.

What i hope for next season is an healthy Yuma Kagiyama so we will have a real battle at nats. Not just Shoma with already 30 points above the rest before starting his programs.
Also an healthy Rika Kihira who can come back where she belongs, at the top. Wakaba coming back and not getting injured for once.
Marin Honda giving us a beautiful (probably) last season.
Also healthy Ting Cui. I thought she had retired after all her injuries but i saw that she came back.
I hope a fantastic JGP season, can't wait for Thaïland JGP.

Best moments of the season: When @elektra blue and @balabam were turning up like this in threads.

 

[elektra blue]

I liked the fact that we could watch basically every Russian competitions, even the tiniest ones. It allowed me to discover or re-discover some interesting skaters. And i watched men events more than usual. Not just for the good looks but because they are not so bad. I really liked Matvei's and Semenenko's programs, the "twins" rivalry, the spectacular tie at nats. And I didn't know that there were so many competitions and that juniors and novices were competing so much. It's a well developped national circuit.

Looking at the results, what wasn't surprising was Japan replacing Russia at the top in ladies. Japanese ladies won almost all big competitions in juniors and seniors, leaving only a few to their competitors. The lack of complaints about a single country winning almost everything was also unsurprising. The most surprising is South Korea and especially those two skaters getting those big results in the 2nd part of the season. I expected USA in that position in seniors.

The most disappointing was seeing Lindsay Thorngren fall behind her main competitors and not being sent at any big comp after GPs. I had big expectations on her. Also, my girl Rino Matsuike keeping on her injuries streak.

What i hope for next season is an healthy Yuma Kagiyama so we will have a real battle at nats. Not just Shoma with already 30 points above the rest before starting his programs.
Also an healthy Rika Kihira who can come back where she belongs, at the top. Wakaba coming back and not getting injured for once.
Marin Honda giving us a beautiful (probably) last season.
Also healthy Ting Cui. I thought she had retired after all her injuries but i saw that she came back.
I hope a fantastic JGP season, can't wait for Thaïland JGP.

Best moments of the season: When @elektra blue and @balabam were turning up like this in threads.

doesn't @balabam look great in purple?

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Teams with double jumps and twists were on the world stage. I dont think I saw in throw quads

Throw quads have not been attempted since Duhamel/ Radford and James/ Cipres. Throw 3-axels not attempted since Savchenko/ Massot. Alexa & Chris Knierim possessed an amazing and consistent quad twist, but they purposely stopped including it when Alexa came back from her life-threatening illness. Tarasova/ Morosov also occasionally executed a pretty good quad twist. But quad twists have rarely been performed in recent years, despite Sui/ Han edging Tarasova/ Morosov for 2022 Olympic gold due to S/H's strategy of including a quad twist (in part to compensate for sbs jump weakness for Sui since her foot injury). BTW, it was two U.S. teams (not the Russians) who were the first to land in competition a throw 3-axel -- Inoue/ Baldwin in 2006; and a throw quad (salchow) -- Vise/ Trent in 2007.

As is well known, the ISU scoring rules do not give sufficient points to pairs teams who attempt quad elements, so the risk is not worth it. There has been discussion that the sport wished to pull back on quad throws and quad twists because of the high risk of injury, particularly during training phase. Pairs has been seen as already having very difficult elements.

The phenomenon of senior pairs teams doing double jumps for one of their jumping passes, became a trend after Peng/Jin, a highly regarded top pairs team, began performing double jumps one season, due to recovering from injury while competing. P/J did not seem to be harshly penalized, so other teams began emulating them for strategy-related and/ or consistency reasons.

We have moved into a new era in pairs skating, filled with fresh opportunities. I'm gonna bet that pairs will be more competitive this season, as teams jockey for position in the lead-up to the next Olympics. I feel this way, regardless of those who want to look down on the discipline sans the Russians.

ETA:
Some less experienced senior teams and newly paired senior teams have generally been known to compete double twists as a safety precaution when getting used to each other, or when still mastering the third revolution together. That's not new.