2025 John Nicks Pairs Challenge Senior SP

[BlissfulSynergy]

Why would judges be incentivized to overscore this team? Honest question. I would think that being from a small fed they would have the disadvantage.

Judges love the Russians' technical expertise. It is not a secret in this sport that Russian pairs teams have been favored in the marks. That's not a problem when they are accurately rewarded for tech prowess, but quite often, Russian pairs have been overscored on PCS, so I wasn't sure how this Russian-Armenian team would be perceived. I'm glad to see that I was right in my assessment of their sp performance.

IMO, the Russian-Uzbekistan team of Geynish/ Chigirev are a bit over-rated by international judges. They have nice long lines and generally excellent elements (albeit not always consistent), but they are very slow and not as dynamic and interesting as teams I have seen them placed well ahead of, e.g., at 2025 Worlds. G/C tend to score in low 6s, but still are given too much on pcs, IMO. Again, there's a long history of judges favoring Russian pairs. It's been quite obvious, politically. It does not matter which country recent Russian teams move to represent. The Russian-Georgian team of Metelkina/ Berulava are technically excellent and generally consistent with their elements, but they are often overscored on pcs, for another recent example.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

A great sp score for Gabby & Luc. Good luck to them! Honestly, Alisa/ Misha and Katie/ Daniil deserved to be scored higher. I disagree with a lot of the close 65 range scores, too.

Giving Deanna/Max a 70, and Alisa/ Misha a 66 is just wrong. Both teams performed well, with not a lot between them, except the rep standing for Deanna/ Max.

Oh, I see the close range 59 scores for Liu/ Bedard; Shin/ Nagy; and Gabby/ Luc. It must mean that L/B and S/N were downgraded on jump elements.

 

[nguyhm]

Spencer & Emily were great!
They skated their Nyah program from 2022, same costumes, but I think they have new, different SP this season.. still, it was nice to see it again. I wonder what they will skate to in the FP. So glad they did well.

I thought their short program was Lady Calyph - I could have sworn that I watched it earlier (may be from Summer Sizzler).

 

[elbkup]

I thought their short program was Lady Calyph - I could have sworn that I watched it earlier (may be from Summer Sizzler).

I think the sizzler piece was a former EX but I could be mistaken.. I really like them a lot!

 

[ramurphy2005]

I think the sizzler piece was a former EX but I could be mistaken.. I really like them a lot!

It was a new SP, but I don't know if they're going to stick with the old one they did for John Nicks, or work on the new one some more.

 

[elbkup]

It was a new SP, but I don't know if they're going to stick with the old one they did for John Nicks, or work on the new one some more.

Maybe they are trying out music, old and new, to gage what works for Spencer best. If so I expect they will settle soon. I read in another post (? Skate of Nations US Pairs thread?) that he spent a good part of the summer in military service (?) so has not had much ice practice time before the season started. If so fourth is not a bad result..