Let's hear it for bromance, skating bonds and friendship

[Mrs. P]

Bumping this thread up...Maxim Trankov gives a shoutout to Florent Amodio for his birthday!

https://instagram.com/p/2j3-NRuVf_/?taken-by=xam_trankov

 

[Layback11]

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/420805158909421744/ Gracie and Elena-not sure if this is a one-time picture or an actual friendship but I love it! :dance:

 

[anyanka]

Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya! They were very fierce competitors but were also great friends. This is their joint interview at 2002 worlds, a month after both lost OGM to Sarah Hughes, when Ira beat Michelle for the first time at worlds and got her first title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy4HcfDyPpE

Here they are goofing off at Champions on Ice 2006: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/411375747183270168/

There were also a few pictures of them meeting up in Sochi, clearly they're still in contact. For all of the partisan rhetoric we heard (pro- both sides), it was nice to know they genuinely liked and respected one another, even today.

 

[Krunchii]

I actually have a lot of friendship anecdotes from following skaters over the years haha

I met Dylan Moscovitch and Kirsten Moore-Towers just a little over the year ago and asked I asked Dylan about skating friendships and he said everyone on the North American teams are all good friends. He said Team USA and Team Canada all know each other well and are supportive of each other. Another girl who was there asked "even Meryl?" and he laughed and said that Meryl is really nice! At 2014 WCs in the gala he jokingly picked up Mao Asada so I jokingly asked him for her number and he just laughed and told me that Mao is one of the sweetest girls he's ever met (and denied me her number :hopelessness, he also had nice things to say about Yuna as well.

Also I met Jeremy Abbott at Stars on Ice last week, he told me that he drove up from Michigan and was staying at Andrew Poje's place for the night! Patrick, Jeremy, Elladj Balde and Katilyn/Andrew I think all train in the same place and I've seen them take lots of photos on social media and come off as good friends.

Ashley Wagner, Marissa Castelli and Madison Chock are best friends too, they post about each other on social media all the time and cheer each other on a lot.

Yuna and Mao back in the day used to be really good friends, their moms would give each other food and they used to hang out at competitions with Takahiko Kozuka until the warring of fans made it awkward for them. Also I think at one point Patrick Chan went out and about in Paris with Takahiko Kozuka and acted as a translator for him.

 

[Maria Victoria]

Got this from matmuh's post in the Yuzuru fan thread:

Link to the video recently uploaded by Polina Edmunds of WC 2015 with many great bonding moments among skaters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSwpZI9PsiE. Yes it is a small world after all.

 

[Layback11]

I actually have a lot of friendship anecdotes from following skaters over the years haha

I met Dylan Moscovitch and Kirsten Moore-Towers just a little over the year ago and asked I asked Dylan about skating friendships and he said everyone on the North American teams are all good friends. He said Team USA and Team Canada all know each other well and are supportive of each other. Another girl who was there asked "even Meryl?" and he laughed and said that Meryl is really nice! At 2014 WCs in the gala he jokingly picked up Mao Asada so I jokingly asked him for her number and he just laughed and told me that Mao is one of the sweetest girls he's ever met (and denied me her number :hopelessness, he also had nice things to say about Yuna as well.

Also I met Jeremy Abbott at Stars on Ice last week, he told me that he drove up from Michigan and was staying at Andrew Poje's place for the night! Patrick, Jeremy, Elladj Balde and Katilyn/Andrew I think all train in the same place and I've seen them take lots of photos on social media and come off as good friends.

Ashley Wagner, Marissa Castelli and Madison Chock are best friends too, they post about each other on social media all the time and cheer each other on a lot.

Yuna and Mao back in the day used to be really good friends, their moms would give each other food and they used to hang out at competitions with Takahiko Kozuka until the warring of fans made it awkward for them. Also I think at one point Patrick Chan went out and about in Paris with Takahiko Kozuka and acted as a translator for him.

Awesome! Except for Ashley/Madison/Marissa, I had no idea any of these existed! I'm pretty sure Gracie and Maia are friends as well (they always tweet about rooming together at competitions), and obviously Adam and Ashley (one of the more famous ones), but other than that, I'm completely clueless.

 

[andromache]

Throwback time:

My favorite skating friendship has to be the one that blossomed between Katarina and Rosalynn while they toured together with Stars on Ice. I think Christine Brennan discusses it in one of her books, and Ros mentioned it during her TSL interview, I believe. I think we usually view the ladies as more cutthroat than the men, so it's really sweet that those two became close after their competitive careers/rivalry.

 

[el henry]

Got this from matmuh's post in the Yuzuru fan thread:

Link to the video recently uploaded by Polina Edmunds of WC 2015 with many great bonding moments among skaters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSwpZI9PsiE. Yes it is a small world after all.

Nifty, I earlier posted the link in the Jason Brown fan fest. I wonder how many times this video has been posted in the various fan threads, as Polina captured so many different skaters!

 

[Mathman]

The famous foursome of Charlie White, Evan Bates, Trevor Young and Alex Shibutani were roommates at the University of Michigan. I think Jeremy Abbott and Alissa Czisny hang out whenever they can.

 

[Hyena]

Aw, I love that video! So many fun moments and friendships in there. Thought I have to admit, I would get really annoyed if I were on a plane with Polina and Jason. When on an international flight, I want to sleep, read, maybe watch a movie and that is IT.

 

[daphenaxa]

all of team France are good friends. During their last tour in April, Florent Amodio said that they were like "family". Especially Mae and Vanessa are really close, they celebrated Mae's 20th bday together with Morgan as well.
In the TSL interview of Nathalie Pechalat, she said she was very good friends with Madison and Evan, Anna and Luca, Kaitleen and Andrew and even Elena Ilinykh. Btw Nathalie was also the one that gave Navajo's number to Elena.

Team Russia seems to be quite close as well. It was quite known that Adelina and Liza were very good friends while juniors. I don't know if it is still the case. Elena is close with Elena I. and with Adelina. From what we saw at worlds she seems good friend with Liza too. Evgenia and Serafima are good friends as well.

I watched an interview of Javier recently where he said he was friend with Sergei Voronov and that he missed Florent Amodio (they were training together under Morozov).

From social media Li Zijun seems close to Park So Youn and Nam Ngyuen.

Also Stephane Lambiel is really close with Max and Tatiana. They even go on holidays to Mexico together lol

"original" Team Japon are all close as well.

In TSL also, Dylan Moscovitch said him and Lubov stayed at Patrick Chan's place when they met in Detroit because Lubov hadn't Canadian visa.

The cricket club people are the most famous friends

Lots of love all around

 

[lyndichee]

I think Jeremy Abbott and Alissa Czisny hang out whenever they can.

Yep, I had the chance to speak with Jeremy Abbott as well and he said he choreographed a show program for Alissa this year.

 

[Krunchii]

Team Russia seems to be quite close as well. It was quite known that Adelina and Liza were very good friends while juniors. I don't know if it is still the case. Elena is close with Elena I. and with Adelina. From what we saw at worlds she seems good friend with Liza too. Evgenia and Serafima are good friends as well.

From social media Li Zijun seems close to Park So Youn and Nam Ngyuen.

To add onto these, at Elena Radionova's birthday this year she was with Adelina and Elena I and Nicole Gosviani, here's the instagram picture she posted of them together

Also Misha Ge often chats with Zijun on instagram in Chinese, they're very friendly and poke fun at each other a lot, I might go dig up some later

 

[padme21]

Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and Javier Fernandez of Spain are great friends! They also so share the same coach and train in Canada.

 

[shiroKJ]

Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and Javier Fernandez of Spain are great friends! They also so share the same coach and train in Canada.

Correction, its Javier Fernandez of Japan and Yuzuru Hanyu of Spain

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Serafima and Evgenia are hilarious and really close friends. Have you seen the interview after WC starring the three medal winners and Evgenia's battle with chocolate?

Yulia and Elena Ilinykh are really close.

Ashley and Adam Rippon

 

[TheGrandSophy]

Oh cool! If only we had a "galmance" (is that even a thing?) version

No, because traditionally society has been able to discuss female friendship without resorting to made up words. Otoh, masculinity has been denigrated as so fragile that the use of the word friends may just crumble it to the ground. Just recently though, I have noticed 'gal pals' being featured in some contexts and I despaired.

On a sweeter note, the older Team Japan and Team France's interactions have always made me smile.

ETA: my moan wasn't aimed at you, but the stupidity of how masculinity is presented in the media.

 

[Mafke]

Friendship among skaters who compete with each other?

Jenny Kirk says ..... no.

http://trueslant.com/jenniferkirk/2009/07/20/why-skaters-arent-friends/#more-211

 

[sunnystars]

Friendship among skaters who compete with each other?

Jenny Kirk says ..... no.

http://trueslant.com/jenniferkirk/2009/07/20/why-skaters-arent-friends/#more-211

Guess she didn't pay enough attention to Team Japan's camaraderie back then

 

[Alchamei]

That Jenny Kirk article is definietly discusion worthy! Do you think she is right or not?