Replay Lounge 2025 Skate America

[gsk8]

2025 Skate America is happening!

This is the place to dive deeper and continue conversations from the fast-paced competition threads!

Who impressed you the most? Any standout programs or surprises? How did your favorites do? Want to analyze scores? Share your thoughts!

Please remember to keep things friendly and respectful.

Have fun!

Japan's Miura and Kihara grab second consecutive Skate America title

2025 Skate America: Pairs' Figure Skating Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara grabbed their second consecutive Skate America Pairs' title on Saturday in

www.goldenskate.com

Kevin Aymoz captures first Grand Prix gold at Skate America

2025 Skate America: Men's Figure Skating Kevin Aymoz of France captured his first Grand Prix gold at 2025 Skate America on Saturday night in Lake Placid,

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USA's Chock and Bates win fifth Skate America gold

2025 Skate America: Ice Dance USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates won their fifth Skate America gold in Lake Placid, New York on Sunday afternoon. Marjorie

www.goldenskate.com

Alysa Liu closes strong; snags Skate America title

2025 Skate America: Women's Figure Skating USA's Alysa Liu rose from second to capture the gold in the Women's discipline at Skate America on

www.goldenskate.com

 

[4everchan]

I was at work.. .so I am watching the CBC archives.

Pairs :
Armenians : I don't know them very well. They look a bit slow but with good elements. Their packaging is dated. It will be interesting to see them develop as they are just joining the circuit.

Val and Max : welcome back. I love Max so much that I am happy to see them back. Same issues as always for many American teams : issues on throws and SBS jumps.

Olivia and Luke : same thing. Gosh, Luke is a very beautiful skater to watch. Again, I feel, like Max and Spencer, that he is stronger than his partner which is difficult for these teams if they want to achieve higher placements and scores.

Emily and Spencer, fiery but two mistakes. I felt they were well rewarded compared to other teams of similar level.

Kelly Ann and Loucas : very happy for them. It's only their second event of the season, being sidelined for so long with injury. Here, everything Is in the greens but such low GOE. When will the judges reward them ? I don't know but that's was a pretty good skate and they end up behind Emily and Spencer who had a fall and a very rough throw landing.

Anikka and Robert : very happy for them I like this team but they often have issues with landings... so this was not bad.

Georgians. Flamencolero programs shouldn't exist but they skated really really well. Their lift was NOT good, yet it received HUGE goe. I am not happy about this.

Riku Ryuichi : well they have surfed quite a long wave with being held up in some events. I say this as a huge fan of this team. I like their speed and fire. I have seen them live too and they are spectacular. But often, they do not pay a huge price for their mistakes. Tonight, the judges had no choice. There is not much one can do as a judge to held up a team with a SBS double jump ( well It has happened before with a team who ended up winning the Olympics... but I won't get into that).

I expect some movement, not necessarily at the top though, after the LPs.

Itt was a pleasant enough short program event despite the many mistakes.

 

[4everchan]

Men :

Won't comment much here. A few observations..

Jason : loved the costume, the steps and the final two spins. Wow. Too bad about the jump combo and I knew the axel was short (hooked) even without the replays... so it's going to be costly for him at this point in the sport if he has two big mistakes in a SP.

Tomono : I am crazy about his Crazy SP. I love him. Send him to the Olympics .. He is such a great performer and it's refreshing to get a program here with some humour and fun in it. Thank you.

Grassl : costly mistakes... playing with fire here... if you miss your quad lutz, why keep the loop in ? just put a triple lutz if you are going to change plans... of course, it's much easier for me to say this when I am on the couch, in my wool blanket, than in a competition . I just don't think I like either of his programs this year,

Nikolaj, I don't like the look of these jumps. Italians are both chasing the fancy quads here... risk versus reward... not sure what to think about this... even the spins are not good.

Gosh.. Kévin was good... but if he gets that emotional so early in the season, where will he be in February ? I understand his reaction though, considering his last competition was a disaster. Good for you Kévin

Misha : not my type of skater. Flying out there but too little outside of the jump for me to appreciate his skating.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Well, the coverage was terrible with the commercials on Peacock. No advance warning either. I dislike the scorebox NBC uses. At first, I thought we were not going to receive any commentating coverage because NBC came on late, after the intros and warm-ups. Tara's voice is so annoying most of the time. Johnny makes some good observations in between the overall NBC scripted hype and empty soundbites. NBC, Johnny, and Terry are completely protective of Tara, so she meanders on too much. But some of the over-chatter is because NBC thinks it's the way to cover figure skating. NOT!

Also, the fields at SkAm are okay to middling. So far, GP France and Skate Canada have been the best of a less than exciting GP series. Although pairs is my fave discipline, honestly, dance and men have been the most entertaining and captivating for a while. NBC has the headline ending disciplines as women and ice dance because Ilia is not there. The biggest U.S. stars at SkAm are Alysa Liu and Chock/ Bates. Jason Brown is a star, too, but this is his ginal season and he's not quite as strong as he has been. But he's clearly worked hard to be fit. Too bad about the stumble out on the second jump in thd combo which got downgraded. Maybe being too close to the boards is what caused the error. Otherwise, Jason looked good.

Boy, are the judges sending a message to Shaidorov to improve his presentation skills. The general consensus by snotty fans is that Shaidorov has empty programs. He is brilliant technically, though. I guess they may look for a different choreographer for him after this season, if he keeps getting such low scores with clean performances. I thought he deserved at least 91+.

I like Kazuki and he has wonderful programs, but in the sp, it's not as if he landed everything picture perfect 'without a foot wrong' like Johnny claimed. Some of Tomono's landings were slightly off-balance but he held it together. I guess he got away with it due to the 'crazy' music and off-kilter choreo theme.

Kevin Aymos' performance was the best emotionally and technically for me, despite the judges keeping his scores down behind Tomono because he didn't have two friggin' quads like Shaidorov and Tomono. I kinda half saw the rest of the men because of the turn-off coverage and commercials. It seems as if Daiwei Dai was being trained by Han Yan and then Han was pulled? Daiwei doesn't seem to be in good form ever since. Who knows what's going on with that. Chinese fed, as ever, are in love with Boyang Jin, and that's who they will send to the Olympics.

 

[noskates]

I raced home from my volunteer job, turned the TV on and the first thing I heard was Tara's voice. Disgust and dismay. Like I told El, if I never hear her say "grade of execution" again I'll live a happy life. She is sooo annoying, prattles on about nothing important or relative, and she's starting to have an affect on Johnny's broadcasting. I always counted on him to call out the technical stuff. I guess we're stuck with them for SKAm. Loved Jason's costume - beautiful Celtic ribbon effect on his shirt. But he has to skate clean without a quad. Shaiderov had a horrible practice yesterday - splats in between landing exciting combos but definitely having problems. It showed tonight. I think the reason Kevin was so emotional was because he's been struggling with that foot injury and probably was relieved to get through his SP as well as he did. And why can't the US ever find a lady pairs skater that can land a triple? I love watching Spencer and I really like their program but it just gets so repetitive to see the woman chronically miss the individual jumps. Was hoping a better result for them. Not too enthused about the top 3 pairs teams.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Same issues as always for many American teams : issues on throws and SBS jumps.

Same issues as always for many pairs teams across the board, not just U.S. pairs skaters. Alisa Efimova is Finnish-Russian and she learned to skate in Russia, where pairs skaters are known to be solid technicians, but few teams are completely infallible when it comes to sbs jumps. Alisa should seemingly have better technique, but she clearly opens up too much in the air, which makes it difficult to complete three rotations. Alisa has excellent consistency on throws. Even top pairs like Miura/ Kihara can and have made errors on throws and sbs jumps. Deanna and Max have struggled with sbs jumps, too. Laurin / Ethier are not rock solid. Problems with jumps and throws have creeped in at inopportune moments for Lia/ Trennt, too. Even Metelkina/ Berulava have occasionally been inconsistent with the jump elements. The Hungarian team, Pavlova/ Sviatchenko are probably the best technicians, but they have made rare jump mistakes, too. All pairs teams have weaknesses to overcome.

Yes, the sbs jumps often are an issue for Val Plazas, and a few other U.S. ladies. Emily Chan has trouble with her ankles, but she and Spencer skated a clean sp recently with a 71+ score. Alexa Knierim was good with jumps and throws, so was Chris until he got injured. Alexa and Brandon were wonderful with jumps, throws, and all pairs elements. Brandon & Haven were good, too, until Haven's knee injury. Jess Calalang & Brian Johnson had problems with sbs jumps, but they did skate some clean programs, and they were world class on everything else, especially their effortless triple twist. Chelsea Liu has had jump landing difficulties due to her long legs, but with her new partner, Bedard, she has been notching some clean programs. McBeath/ Parkman are very strong with jumps and throws. But it's not like strong teams never make mistakes. Ashley & Timothy were also very good with jumps and throws, as were Tarah & Danny.

Danny is now with Ellie Kam, and they are one of the best pairs teams in the world in terms of smooth, expressive movement quality, world class lifts, 3-twists, and death spirals. Ellie was new to learning triple jump elements for pairs when she partnered with Danny, so she had to learn under pressure and a huge microscope. She has mastered the triple salchow sbs jumps, and she is beginning to figure out throw landings with K/O having recently won the bronze medal over Lia/ Trennt at Skate Canada.

As well, two U.S. pairs teams hold World records for throws: Inoue/ Baldwin, first throw triple axel in competition (2006) performed clean on multiple occasions; Vise/Trent, first throw quad salchow in competition (2007 GP France).

Jean-Luc Baker was even questioned during a practice at SkAm regarding why U.S. pairs had issues, as if all pairs teams around the world don't have issues. He answered that pairs is a tough discipline, and that some teams in other countries (Russia, China, perhaps even Japan and South Korea) receive a lot of financial assistance from their gov'ts to focus on training. It is harder for skaters who have to work to pay for their training and thus have less time to focus exclusively on training. I would also say the lack of plentiful competitive opportunities makes it difficult to improve weaknesses, coupled with some skaters not having the best coaches. Historically, U.S. fed has paid more attention to developing singles skaters.

Ice dance in the U.S. became a dominant strength in large part due to Russian ice dance coaches emigrating to the U.S. and teaching a generation of young skaters. The same scenario did not happen for pairs skating in the U.S. Albeit, that there are some good pairs coaches in the U.S., but not to the prominent degree as there has been re the famous ice dance training centers in the U.S. and Canada.

In any case, even the ISU gives pairs skating short shrift. The best pairs training has been at centers in Europe, with huge influence from Russian coaches. Everybody wants to train with Dmitri Savin these days. Previously, it was Nina Mozer. Bruno Marcotte has had a modicum of influence, too, but Nagaoka/ Moriguchi recently left Marcotte for Savin.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Speaking of pairs, that 78+ for Metelkina/Berulava is such overkill. He is not good on the lifts, and they are not a complete package just because they can do the elements cleanly. They are such a selfish wannabe, 'Pick Me! Me, Me, Me' team. Always the overdone flashy shtick with this team. Underneath, there is no substance. That opening headstand move was borrowed from the Browns, who were inspired by the upside down moves Kaitlyn Weaver brilliantly choreographed for Flores/ Desyatov in their West Side Story FD and especially their Poor Things FD.

As much as I am not that enamored of Miura/ Kihara, I hope they come back to win against the overscored Metelkina/ Berulava.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Here, everything Is in the greens but such low GOE. When will the judges reward them ?

Laurin/ Ethier were not perfect on their jumps. Plus, as the commentators pointed out, they are very slow over the ice. They have nice long lines, and they can be competitive with second tier teams when they skate clean. But their scores are usually high 50s, low 60s. It looks like Kelly Ann has a leg wrap (or she did at SC), so she must be recovering from an injury.

In order to get better GOE, L/E would need to improve their speed, ice coverage, and up their level by refining and polishing their presentation and packaging overall. Every team has weaknesses they need to address to continue an upward trajectory, or to maintain their level if/ when they are lucky and skilled enough to reach the top.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

And why can't the US ever find a lady pairs skater that can land a triple?

Whoa! Gabby Izzo's strength as a pairs lady is landing triples. She was trained in the U.S. and Austria is lucky to have her. Deanna Stellato often lands triples; she was trained in the U.S., and Canada is lucky to have her.

Katie McBeath was a singles skater and she's a very good pairs skater now. She is pretty consistent with landing sbs triple jumps and throws. Nerves can cause her to make errors but she has good technique and consistency with her partner of two years (Daniil Parkman), and they have been doing well this season. Try doing what pairs skaters do under pressure.

Audrey Shin of the U.S. was a singles skater. She knows how to land triples, often cleanly. It's just way harder to land in unison with a partner. Try doing it sometimes and then come back and beat down on U.S. pairs ladies, when all pairs teams, women and men, can and do make jump errors. Some teams even make lift errors and death spiral errors and the occasional snafu sbs spin errors.

Ashley Cain and Alexa Knierim were very strong with jumps and throws. Jess Calalang had sbs jump issues, but she could land throws, even crooked ones, like a cat. Her 3-twists were high, gorgeous, and effortless. Emily Chan can land sbs triples and she's good on throws usually. She and Spencer came back from NHK last weekend to short notice that they would compete at SkAm. In general, Emily struggles with ankle issues, but she can and has skated clean programs with Spencer. They have both struggled with injury, but both have said they feel fortunate for what they have been able to achieve. I hope they get to go to the Olympics, as this is likely their last season.

Val Plazas has consistently experienced sbs jump and throw jump issues, but she and Max are excellent with lifts. Alisa Efimova is Finnish/ Russian. She was trained in Russia, not the U.S. Her U.S. coaches are Russian, too. Go figure!

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

I've just started to watch and must already quit, but from the protocols, it seems that the judges were severe in Components?

 

[ladyjane]

Just watched the men's SP, maybe not the best ever. Still a lot of fun. And did I see Tenley Albright in the audience? Still interested in the sport, good for her!

Liam had a good skate in my view. It's been a while since I've seen him, and he has improved a lot. I wish I could say the same about about Corey whom I've also not seen in quite a while. His skating is as always fun to watch (the skating skills were good in the past too), but a double axel? Corey can do better than that. Daiwei is usually fun to watch, but also jumped a double axel and regettably had a fall which did jar. I love watching French skaters most of the time (they tend to be innovative and original) and Luc is no exception. Mostly little costly things that kept him low. Some skaters fall gracefully and rise in the same manner (Mikhail Kolyada used to be a Master of that particular skillset) and Tatsuya is one of those. And he didn't let the fall detract him either. Very nice! What can I say about Vladimir? Not my favourite, but not a bad skater either. I've seen him do better, but it wasn't bad at all. Jason is one of my favourite skaters, and despite a stupid stepout in the combination, he is still wonderful to watch. He never disappoints! Kazuki had the SP of his life. Wow. Really good, fun, humour and musicality. I always like watching him, but he took it up a notch today. Yay! Daniel can do better, but I like him for thinking to change a jump into a combination instead. Even if it meant I had to miss my favourite quad (the loop). Nikolaj must be very disappointed. When he lands his jumps correctly, I love his running edge after the landing. The only nice one was the 3A, but the jump I believe wasn't perfect. Too bad, because Tosca is a piece that does fit him well. I was so happy for Kevin. When it goes well, it really is fascinating to watch. And I think he is adoreable in carrying his emotions on his sleave. Mikhail was a bit of a downer. Sure, his jumps were fine and admireable, but that's all. I thought he was on the track to become more than just a jumper, but not today.

Let's see what happens tomorrow!

 

[paulusfr]

I thought Kazuki looked more relaxed in Canada. But maybe that’s for the better.
Memola's flutz was not called as usual. Not that there's any point in mentioning it at all.

I'm wondering if the are going to Junior Worlds this year. It seems they’re still eligible.
Their short program had nothing to do with Bolero, but again, the program does not affect the points.
For me, if I cringe at the program, it shouldn't get a high score for composition. For some reason, the judges' logic is different.

 

[throw_triple_flip]

Kind of curious about Memola's strategy, especially when you consider Italy's olympic selection criteria. A two (attempted) quad short program is scoring lower than a cleaner short with one quad and a triple triple. Could he have been really far ahead of his domestic rivals at this point if he'd not pushed the jump difficulty?

 

[throw_triple_flip]

Speaking of pairs, that 78+ for Metelkina/Berulava is such overkill. He is not good on the lifts, and they are not a complete package just because they can do the elements cleanly. They are such a selfish wannabe, 'Pick Me! Me, Me, Me' team. Always the overdone flashy shtick with this team. Underneath, there is no substance. That opening headstand move was borrowed from the Browns, who were inspired by the upside down moves Kaitlyn Weaver brilliantly choreographed for Flores/ Desyatov in their West Side Story FD and especially their Poor Things FD.

Woah. Steady on. This is needlessly hostile/personal. Since when is it selfish to make yourself stand out to improve your chances of winning?
Even if the lift was shaky on the footwork, they kept it up and still managed to complete the requisite achieved level features. They were also the only team to land decent side by side jumps and the rest of the elements were done very well.. Even Jean Luc Baker was complementing the team's skating skills and speed in practice. Their presentation may not be to your taste but that doesn't make it bad or unworthy of a decent score.

And also- the world does not revolve around a split up ice dance team. They didn't invent the concept of upside down choreographic antics (which is really not unheard of in Pair skating). Why even bring them up?

 

[4everchan]

Laurin/ Ethier were not perfect on their jumps. Plus, as the commentators pointed out, they are very slow over the ice. They have nice long lines, and they can be competitive with second tier teams when they skate clean. But their scores are usually high 50s, low 60s. It looks like Kelly Ann has a leg wrap (or she did at SC), so she must be recovering from an injury.

In order to get better GOE, L/E would need to improve their speed, ice coverage, and up their level by refining and polishing their presentation and packaging overall. Every team has weaknesses they need to address to continue an upward trajectory, or to maintain their level if/ when they are lucky and skilled enough to reach the top.

Injury is part of the deal but the mistake on the jump was very small. She just tilted forward on landing. No touch down. I also have seen them skate in person quite a few times. They are not as slow as you say they are. They are a young team and need polishing. But in this SP, they were stronger and landed their elements, which was not the case of some other teams who also have speed and polishing issues.

 

[4everchan]

Same issues as always for many pairs teams across the board, not just U.S. pairs skaters. . Even top pairs like Miura/ Kihara can and have made errors on throws and sbs jumps. . Laurin / Ethier are not rock solid. Even Metelkina/ Berulava have occasionally been inconsistent with the jump elements.

Yes, the sbs jumps often are an issue for Val Plazas, and a few other U.S. ladies. Emily Chan has trouble with her ankles, but she and Spencer skated a clean sp recently with a 71+ score.

I cut a lot about your text because I only want to discuss what is happening at SKAM. No need to bring up the entire history of American pairs on here or even ice dance. The observation I made is that all 3 US teams have had issues in the SP on the same elements, and it seems to be a recurring problem. Does it happen to other teams ? Yes it does. But yesterday, it was striking to see it happen not to one, nor two but all three American teams. There is no denying that really.

 

[throw_triple_flip]

Did anyone else think that Miura and Kihara looked a little out of sorts in general here? Even before the jump error?

I saw some bananas comments under the youtube stream before catching up and assumed that Shaidrov had bombed but he got close to 90. Two superior component skaters with clean skates and decent jump tech are ahead of him.
What's the problem?


Also Kevin Aymoz was stand out fabulous. You know it's good when he starts sobbing!

 

[LazyFuzai]

Did anyone else think that Miura and Kihara looked a little out of sorts in general here? Even before the jump error?

I would say they look out of sort after.Their faces looked like they made a crime or lose Olympics.Most likely they are starting to feel the presure because if you look at the pairs this season its stack as fxxk.Lets say Sui/Han make it competetive for Olympics with Dudek/Deschamps as well and we have 5 contenders for gold medal.

 

[frompolandwithlove]

Help, I can't get over of how anti-climactic these new introductions are . Poor skaters are trotting like they are late for their own performance.

Also, are we going back to interviewing skaters right after their programs? I think I heard some lady asking them questions in the kiss&cry before scores were announced??

 

[discodisco]

Speaking of pairs, that 78+ for Metelkina/Berulava is such overkill. He is not good on the lifts, and they are not a complete package just because they can do the elements cleanly. They are such a selfish wannabe, 'Pick Me! Me, Me, Me' team. Always the overdone flashy shtick with this team. Underneath, there is no substance. That opening headstand move was borrowed from the Browns, who were inspired by the upside down moves Kaitlyn Weaver brilliantly choreographed for Flores/ Desyatov in their West Side Story FD and especially their Poor Things FD.

As much as I am not that enamored of Miura/ Kihara, I hope they come back to win against the overscored Metelkina/ Berulava.

Any solid reasons why they are not the whole package? I mean, they're not my favorite either, but they have excellent technical skills, they are very fast and precise, and they are working on committing to more unusual/complex choreography. What is it exactly that you feel, from a technical skating analysis, are they missing? And yes, I do think as well that 78 was too high