2025 Cup of China: General Info and Pregame Chat | Page 3 | Golden Skate

2025 Cup of China: General Info and Pregame Chat

@ramurphy2005 God bless you for good news. Are you SURE about it?
I am so fed up with Chris's commentary. I was prepared to pay for Eurosport for this reason alone!

OK, I think it's time to clear something up.

The statement saying that Eurosport has the rights in Ireland was a typical case of the ISU not updating everything correctly.

For a start, Eurosport doesn't operate in the British Isles any more. It closed down at the end of February, and all the Eurosport content was transferred over to premium sports network TNT Sports. However, Eurosport lost the rights for the ISU events in the British Isles at the end of the 2022-23 Season. So, even if you did pay for TNT Sports, you wouldn't be getting the Senior GP Series, or Euros, or 4 Continents, or Worlds on there.

That said, as Eurosport has the pan-European rights to all Olympics up to and including the 2032 Summer Games, TNT Sports will be showing everything from Milano-Cortina. (Although, how they are going to do it with just 4 channels, I don't know! I would guess a lot of it will end up on their streaming service, Discovery+). So, they will be showing all the figure skating from it.

Since I have drifted onto the subject of the Olympics, the EBU have got a sub-contract to show all Olympics up and including the 2032 Summer Games, albeit not complete coverage. And that takes in RTÉ and the BBC. But, it remains to be seen if either will show the figure skating and, if they do, how much of it they show.

Anyway, getting back to immediate affairs, if you want to watch the Senior GP Series on Eurosport, the only way you can do it is if you have a satellite dish pointed to 19.2°E, where you can watch it for free on Eurosport 1 Deutschland (note: although ESP1 DE is free to air, ESP2 DE is a pay channel). However, it is not like the analogue days when you had the option to switch to an English language soundtrack. The digital version has only ever had just the German soundtrack.

From what I gather, you are able to switch to the English soundtrack on Eurosport Deutschland if you watch via Discovery+. HOWEVER, Discovery+ is very good at detecting where you are, even when using a VPN. To get the version that includes Eurosport Deutschland, you have to sign up to Discovery+ in Germany. And your account will only work in Germany. Which is not a lot of use for those who are on our wee rock in the Atlantic!

Oh, how I miss Eurosport Player, where you could use your account to view other countries' versions of Eurosport using a VPN.

Hope this clears everything up.

CaroLiza_fan
 
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It seems that Alysa Liu had to change her free skate for the Cup of China, since several Lady Gaga songs are banned there including Bloody Mary. So for this event, she’s going back to her last year’s program MacArthur Park.
No way. I saw this on twitter but it sounds just like ridicolous rumour to me. Chinese junior ice dance team uses Bloody Mary in their Wednesday free skate (Gao/Ji). They skated it at local comps with zero problems and even gained a junior grand prix spot. Mao Shimada skated to Americano (also banned song) at grand prix final in Beijing without any problem. Bjork is banned but Lopareva/Brissoud didn't changed their free dance at all for this comp. Alysa probably just decided to skate program that is more convenient to her.
 
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No way. I saw this on twitter but it sounds just like ridicolous rumour to me. Chinese junior ice dance team uses Bloody Mary in their Wednesday free skate (Gao/Ji). They skated it at local comps with zero problems and even gained a junior grand prix spot. Mao Shimada skated to Americano (also banned song) at grand prix final in Beijing without any problem. Bjork is banned but Lopareva/Brissoud didn't changed their free skate at all for this comp. Alysa probably just decided to skate program that is more convenient to her.
Thank you for clarifying, I didn‘t know Gao/Ji are skating to Bloody Mary, too… so this won‘t be the reason for the change.
 
Cup of China.jpg
2025 Cup of China is the second event of the 2025-26 ISU Grand Prix series and is scheduled to take place October 24-26, 2025, in Chongqing, China. The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series consists of six international senior invitational events and culminates with the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in December.

Competitors collect points in their individual Grand Prix events towards the qualification for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final. Only the top six skaters/teams in each discipline can qualify for the Final.

Skaters are seeded and invited to the six Grand Prix of Figure Skating events based on the results obtained at the 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships. Skaters/teams who have placed first through sixth in each of the four categories are seeded and assigned to two events. Skaters/teams who have placed seventh through 12th at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships are selected for two ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating events. Skaters with a top 24 Season Best Scores (from the 2024-25 season), as well as those placed in the top 24 of the ISU World Standings, can also be invited.

In order for a skater/team to be eligible to compete at an ISU Grand Prix event, a minimum total score must have been achieved in the 2024-25 or current 2025-26 season in an ISU event (Grand Prix, Junior Grand Prix, Championships) or a Challenger Series event. Exceptions apply to host country skaters, previously ranked skaters or split ranked couples who return with new partners.
The first time I glimpsed the logo for this competition, I thought it was a cartoon profile of a person with a large nose, smile, and closed eye. Or maybe a dolphin. I know what it is now, but I can*not* stop seeing that smiling profile :confused2::slink:)
 
Also, I don't think ISU would allow China to host events if it caused such repercussions for the athletes. As a world champion Alysa probably could choose her GP assigments herself, why would she even choose China if that would be an issue for her program.
Ordinarily, I'd agree with you. But given that Indonesia has banned Israeli gymnasts from competing in the ongoing World Championships, it seems unclear exactly what international governing bodies are willing to put up with from host nations.
 
Ordinarily, I'd agree with you. But given that Indonesia has banned Israeli gymnasts from competing in the ongoing World Championships, it seems unclear exactly what international governing bodies are willing to put up with from host nations.
They denied visas to Israeli athlethes. And in consequence IOC took actions by closing any option of hosting any games by Indonesia in the future and recommended to all international federations not to host any international sports events there. It's completely different caliber of a matter imo.
 
They denied visas to Israeli athlethes. And in consequence IOC took actions by closing any option of hosting any games by Indonesia in the future and recommended to all international federations not to host any international sports events there. It's completely different caliber of a matter imo.
Yes, but as you mention, that was action by the IOC. What did the Gym Fed do? I honestly don't know. Do we expect the ISU or IOC to take action because of Beijing? I doubt it in either case. And, to be honest, I'm not even sure that's why Alysa has changed her program. Could be she's made the switch permanent.
 
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