Andrew Torgashev

[el henry]

On Ice Perspectives filming and Andrew's skating: perfect together

I can't tell if this means he is keeping L'enfer for this year?

 

[Tav]

Pretty sure Andrew is keeping L'Enfer. His story with this reel said he's looking forward to next season, implying he's using it again and is excited about that.

 

[el henry]

Andrew is featured twice in selected photos from "Champs Camp" media day: one in silhouette draped in the flag and one staring at the camera.

Looking intense I must say. And his mother in the comments (Skating By Ilona)

 

[el henry]

Long post from Andrew, about skating ! (not always the case) on IG, along with photos and videos.

1. He won the Professional Skaters' Association award for best men's performance at 2024 US Nats! (first photo).

2. He was at Champs Camp after a ten year gap He is happy with his progress after injury. He wants to draw us in with L'Enfer (he does)

3. He was pleased to participate in "Skate for Ukraine", in honor of his mother's Ukrainian heritage and his grandfather who still lives in Odessa.

 

[skatingfan4ever]

It's a little embarrassing to admit that I didn't even know Andrew was competing at Cranberry until I read his IG post! I only have time for so many hobbies, and it's been the Summer Olympics lately, plus real life stuff. Anyway, Andrew's IG post got me excited for the season!

I found his Cranberry programs on YouTube (thankfully) and CAN'T WAIT to see them with professional cameras. L'Enfer we knew about, but he put the 4T back in and landed it! My honest reaction when Scheherazade started was, "I didn't think Andrew would ever do a warhorse" and I wasn't sure about it, but by the end it won me over (even though the video is far from ideal). Andrew has the right amount of passion in his skating for Scheherazade, which so few have. He is capable of matching the musical intensity with his body movement. He can skate up to this! This is the program I need to see professionally shot; I'm sure the details will look amazing!

Overall his jumps are looking very steady. With a couple less mistakes he may have finished higher but oh well. His 4T seems so much better than it was before. I guess he has abandoned the 4S for real now. The first four FS jumps were wonderful, then the last three were iffy. But the stamina will come, I'm sure. I am most happy that Andrew is happy with his progress.

His award is so deserved. I'm glad he could honor his Ukrainian heritage and had a meaningful experience doing so. His IG post was so heartwarming for me to read. My favorite line is, "My mission is to have the audience feel what I feel, freeze a moment of time just for the length of my skating." And it's followed by the funniest line, "To the skaters using the same piece this season , I look forward to competing with you " He was referring to L'Enfer, but at first I thought it was about Scheherazade, which is a more long-standing warhorse. I haven't been through the 2024/2025 Programs thread to check how many more of either selection there are this season.

I'm back, everyone!

 

[el henry]

Nice to see you back @skatingfan4ever , and thanks for posting Andrew's Cranberry Cup skates and your reactions, all great observations.

One minor point: I don't know if it is considered a warhorse, but I consider it a warhorse. Andrew has skated to Moulin Rouge and Roxaannnnne. For two years in a row. Of course he did a wonderful job interpreting and expressing, and I see and will expect the same for Scheherazade.

 

[Absurda]

Hi everyone! I'm glad to see you here. It means the season is coming

Andrew's IG post is unusual
I was so excited to read every part of it.

"Heartwarming" @skatingfan4ever thanks for this word for my vocabulary. I couldn't find any right one to describe my feelings

Happy to know Andrew stays injury-free. He aimed to train smart and he succeeds.

Scheherazade was really surprising It even took time to taste it for me (I'm not sure if this is correct in English ). But the program made me rewatch his performance again and again. And I've liked it. It's interesting program: music is changing and his movement is changing during the skate. Arrogance, something about love, anxiety, rage, sorrow... so this classic music is difficult and has a broad range of emotions. Also sure he can skate up to this.

I'm going to write some more thoughts later

 

[skatingfan4ever]

Nice to see you back @skatingfan4ever , and thanks for posting Andrew's Cranberry Cup skates and your reactions, all great observations.

One minor point: I don't know if it is considered a warhorse, but I consider it a warhorse. Andrew has skated to Moulin Rouge and Roxaannnnne. For two years in a row. Of course he did a wonderful job interpreting and expressing, and I see and will expect the same for Scheherazade.

Roxanne is definitely a warhorse for me, and I agree Andrew did a wonderful job with it. I remembered it after I posted, but it wasn't worth editing the post. I started following Andrew in 2023 and got the impression he was very picky about the music he skates to, so I didn't expect a warhorse like Scheherazade from him. But I must say I already like it A LOT! The music works with the way Andrew skates, with the rise and fall of the musical tension. One quick note - I love how Andrew's Scheherazade ends softly. So many Scheherazade programs end on the frantic crescendo and this one doesn't, which I found refreshing.

I do hope he'll have a good costume later in the season and doesn't skate Scheherazade in all black. I don't know what color he'll choose. I wouldn't have pictured a blue shirt with Void of Madness until he wore it, so we'll wait and see.

Hi everyone! I'm glad to see you here. It means the season is coming

Andrew's IG post is unusual
I was so excited to read every part of it.

"Heartwarming" @skatingfan4ever thanks for this word for my vocabulary. I couldn't find any right one to describe my feelings

Happy to know Andrew stays injury-free. He aimed to train smart and he succeeds.

Scheherazade was really surprising It even took time to taste it for me (I'm not sure if this is correct in English ). But the program made me rewatch his performance again and again. And I've liked it. It's interesting program: music is changing and his movement is changing during the skate. Arrogance, something about love, anxiety, rage, sorrow... so this classic music is difficult and has a broad range of emotions. Also sure he can skate up to this.

I'm going to write some more thoughts later

Andrew's IG post made me emotional, in a way, but not to tears. I just felt happy inside reading it, because Andrew's words are so happy. He doesn't post often on IG, and a lot of it isn't skating-related, and then here he wrote multiple paragraphs about skating with photos and video clips, surprising us. I forget sometimes how much he enjoys skating, but his post reminded me. I'm glad he loves skating, because I love watching him skate.

"Heartwarming" is an interesting word. It means something is "emotionally uplifting." But if you break the word apart and take it at face value, it implies that the person has a cold heart but the heartwarming thing changes that. I didn't have a cold heart before reading Andrew's post! But his post made me happy and was uplifting to me. English is an interesting language.

I like what you said about the music in Andrew's Scheherazade changing a lot and how Andrew's movement is changing accordingly during the skate. I agree completely! His program, both musically and in terms of movement, has variety and makes me listen to Scheherazade in a new way, even though it is commonly used music in figure skating. I am looking forward to seeing this program with better camera angles and video quality. Not to mention Andrew practicing it more and more to refine it.

 

[skatingfan4ever]

Is Andrew going to get another Challenger this season, or is Cranberry it? He did Lombardia last season and intended to do Golden Spin. Cranberry is so early in the season.

Also, I'm still hoping Andrew might get another GP. Daniel Grassl was added to NHK and I'm not a fan of his skating. Oh well.

 

[el henry]

We need to wait for each Challengers' list to see who is entered.

Certainly I would love to see Andrew assigned another GP Hopefully there are enough withdrawals to make that happen.

 

[skatingfan4ever]

Andrew is not skating at Lombardia this year. The US is sending Jimmy Ma, Ilia Malinin, and Daniel Martynov.

 

[el henry]

Andrew is on the entries for Nebelhorn

https://results.isu.org/events/csger2024_Men.htm

 

[skatingfan4ever]

Andrew is on the entries for Nebelhorn

https://results.isu.org/events/csger2024_Men.htm

Awesome! When I posted here about Lombardia, the entries for Nebelhorn weren't up yet.

I quickly read through the Cranberry competition thread and some people were disappointed in Andrew's performance, and Camden's and Tomoki's, and used the phrase "they struggle so much with consistency." Apparently I watched Andrew's programs with fan-colored glasses. My thoughts were along the lines of, "It's early August. Andrew landed both 4Ts and one of three 3As was nice. His programs have amazing potential. It's a nice outing to build from." It's noteworthy that he got 84 in the SP with a not-good 3A. His consistency on jumps overall seems better lately, to me. Then again, I like to look for the positive when I'm watching anyone's skating, plus I had already read Andrew's positive self-assessment of Cranberry on Instagram.

Do some fans expect skaters to be at Nathan Chen/Ilia Malinin levels of landing jumps in August? I don't. I would have liked Andrew to do better, but I don't find it useful to make pronouncements about the rest of the season at this point either. Men's is always a bit unpredictable, especially US Men beyond Ilia and Jason.

EDIT: Some people in the competition thread were referring to Andrew as Torgy. It's cute. I just call him Andrew or Andrew T.

 

[Absurda]

I quickly read through the Cranberry competition thread and some people were disappointed in Andrew's performance, and Camden's and Tomoki's, and used the phrase "they struggle so much with consistency." Apparently I watched Andrew's programs with fan-colored glasses. My thoughts were along the lines of, "It's early August. Andrew landed both 4Ts and one of three 3As was nice. His programs have amazing potential. It's a nice outing to build from." It's noteworthy that he got 84 in the SP with a not-good 3A. His consistency on jumps overall seems better lately, to me. Then again, I like to look for the positive when I'm watching anyone's skating, plus I had already read Andrew's positive self-assessment of Cranberry on Instagram.

Something was wrong with Andrew's 3A at Cranberry I was a bit upset. He missed too much score because of these mistakes.
But his 3As were so good and so reliable in previous seasons. And it's actually only August now.
I'm sure they will bring back consistency with 3A.
I try to be less critical of Andrew's skates. But this is a fight for the Olympics.
But actually the most important thing is that he stays injured free. When he is healthy, he is capable to land all of his jumps. We saw it.

I'm in a positive mood about Nebelhorn.
Go Andrew!
And I wish he keeps taking care of himself

 

[Absurda]

One quick note - I love how Andrew's Scheherazade ends softly. So many Scheherazade programs end on the frantic crescendo and this one doesn't, which I found refreshing.

I agree.

Love all the spins in this program.
The way they are placed after the border between crescendo and softening of the music. In the middle of the program and also at the end. It works beautifully, effectively, dramatically and emphasizes the spins.
The more I watch, the more I like certain moments and the program as a whole.

 

[Absurda]

And it's followed by the funniest line, "To the skaters using the same piece this season , I look forward to competing with you " He was referring to L'Enfer, but at first I thought it was about Scheherazade, which is a more long-standing warhorse. I haven't been through the 2024/2025 Programs thread to check how many more of either selection there are this season.

I've seen on Instagram two teaser videos of programs to L'enfer. By Nika Egadze (choreo. Daniil Gleikhengauz) and by Davide Lewton Brain (choreo. Kevin Aymoz)

 

[skatingfan4ever]

I am wondering if it's worth it to pay for the Nebelhorn livestream. I paid for Challenge Cup and Andrew's programs ended up on YouTube. I did not pay for Lombardia but YouTube came through. Not sure if Cranberry had a livestream but, again, they were put on YouTube. @el henry, have you paid for streams ever? I ask because I know you enjoy several skaters. I am not against paid streams (I pay for Peacock after all), but for Challengers if the programs will be on YouTube even temporarily it seems like a waste of money to me. Thoughts?

 

[el henry]

Hello @skatingfan4ever I have not paid for livestreams of Challengers. Like you, I am not "ethically" opposed, but they are almost never in my time zone and sometimes the quality is really sketchy (and you can't tell ahead of time).

If Andrew, Jason, Donovan and Kévin were entered in an East Coast comp, with Anthony Paradis in juniors, I guess I might consider it.

 

[skatingfan4ever]

Scheherazade at Nebelhorn

• Dark purple shirt
• Popped 4T; he told GS after the SP that he was struggling with it all week
• 3A+2A in 2nd half, along with 3Lz+Eu+3S and 3F+2T (2T could become 3T if the 4T goes as planned, or maybe not)
• All the Axels looked okay but not ideal
• The program is lovely and needs more mileage and better stream quality

I did not get to see his SP (no one uploaded it) but apparently there was no sound on the stream. People were complaining about it in the competition thread. Andrew reposted an IG story showing his 3A where someone wrote, "With or without sound, good or bad day, it's always a pleasure to watch your skating." From the SP protocol, he had a downgraded 3T as the first element and so the 3T in the combo was invalid. I would love to know what that looked like. It must have been bad, to have a downgraded 3T put on the protocol when he'd planned a 4T. Regardless, he moved up from 14th to 9th with the 6th-best FS. His Total Score was around 207. Max Naumov also had a rough competition and finished 11th with 199. I'm sure no one predicted the standings after the SP, with the leader at 83 points. The men menned at Nebelhorn. Hopefully Andrew will never score 63 in the SP again. And hopefully he'll figure out his 4T struggles.

EDIT: He got credit for a 3F, with negative GOE, and an invalid 3T, so his combo spot got him only 3.71. His quad attempt was evaluated as a downgraded 3T, plus negative GOE, which got him only 0.65.

 

[el henry]

I admit, I am hesitant to watch the SP even if I found it because of the score. It is one thing to watch a bad (for Andrew) skate in real time, it is another thing to watch knowing the outcome.

I think Scheherazade is a great fit for Andrew. It challenges him to do something fully flowing (I know that is not a very good technical term ) without relying on pop music he knows for inspiration. He is still recovering and did not put the quads in the program. I think the "front" will look better when he goes back to his jumps and of course the back and the step sequence looks wonderful.

I read some complaints about his costume and I am. I think the purple shirt looks great and fits the music.