Replay Lounge 2026 Europeans: Recaps and Discussion

[gsk8]

The 2026 European Figure Skating Championships took place January 14-17, 2026, in Sheffield, UK.

Metelkina and Berulava win historic European gold

2026 European Figure Skating Championships: Pairs' Figure Skating Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava made history after becoming the first Pairs' team

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Estonia's Niina Petrokina defends European title in Sheffield

2026 European Figure Skating Championships: Women's Figure Skating Niina Petrokina of Estonia convincingly defended her European title in the Women's

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Nika Egadze grabs Georgia's first European men's gold

2026 European Figure Skating Championships: Men's Figure Skating Nika Egadze dominated the Men's event to win the gold, becoming the first man from

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Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron golden in European debut

2026 European Figure Skating Championships: Ice Dance France's Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron took the gold in Ice Dance in their

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Share your thoughts!

 

[Skating91]

The ISU can't allow that to happen again. The women's event was one of the worst sporting spectacles you will ever see (not just skating), no disrespect to skaters like Petrokina she was tremendous and world class, and Gubanova, Kahunen, Sauter showed their maximum so well done. Maybe drop the age limit for Europeans and include AIN skaters from Europe.

I will post videos later, but the tech panel arbitrarily punished skaters again. Gubanova yes had underrotations, and they found three of them. Hendrickx had a very clear underrotation on her opening lutz there is no call, not even a q. On the single 3F a very very clear hook two judges give it a 3. then on that 3 jump combo the lutz has a huge hook it's a huge underrotation they don't even give it a q, she then steps out with her free foot she has both skates down on the ice virtually stationary at this point then tries to turn it into a 1T (which was underrotated but not called), then adds a 2T where needs to put her hands on the ice to stop herself from falling completely to the ice. It seemed like she was holding up the weight of her body but not given a fall. Doesn't coming to a halt with both blades on the ice invalidate the rest of the combo? There's other jumps problematic too that weren't called like the double axel

 

[TallyT]

The women's event was one of the worst sporting spectacles you will ever see (not just skating),

I realise you are hyperboling, but if you really think that you must not watch much sport.... I mean I don't but I can think of far sorrier spectacles I have caught in passing.

 

[TT_Fin]

Short program mistakes cost a lot, there would have bee good chance to medal to Anastasia, Julia and maybe (even Iida) without those mistakes, especially Anastasia and Julia - but both programs counts. Niina was 100 % clean, but after that Sarina had 2nd best TES and Iida 3rd. Results are ok anyway. Sarina just needs to work with PCS, lovely girl and consistent but presentation is quite juniorish still. In couple of years she could be on the podium. Iida maybe suffers because of her size, and she has gone forward, but there is still room to work with presentation and ice cover. Is the ice cover easier for tall skaters? would be nice to have on the podium the cleanest skaters, not the ones who had less mistakes - I like all of those girls on the podium an overall, do not understand this wrong, and I like the podium - well would have liked it anyway, no matter who there is but I hope that the podium spot is deserved by what to you do yourself, not that others make even bigger mistakes. This whole ladies competition was Niina's show and then there were others. I have watched all in only men's SP and parts of women and pairs, and I probably wan't watch what I have missed.

Our commentators told Sarina has Viveca Lindfors on her coaching team, I checked and it is true. Viveca has disappeared from public view but as a curious person I made some detective work. She was coaching in Meyer-Virtanen team before, but now her name is mentioned as a "new coach on our team" in Swiss skating academy.

 

[dorispulaski]

Commentators, including, Chris, keep misreading IIDA as LIDA. I would really like the ISU to use a font with serifs, so this mistake would be less likely. She is a lovely skater.

Better yet, each skater's bio should include a .wav file of them pronouncing their name. It would save a lot of annoyance.

 

[Skating91]

Commentators, including, Chris, keep misreading IIDA as LIDA. I would really like the ISU to use a font with serifs, so this mistake would be less likely. She is a lovely skater.

Better yet, each skater's bio should include a .wav file of them pronouncing their name. It would save a lot of annoyance.

Or doing the minimal amount of research would be good too.

The commentary too was not up to scratch.

When Gubanova took to the ice, we must have had 2 or 3 cleanish performances in 2.5 hours I think it was. There might have been one 3-3 combo that entire time, one after another experienced skaters in their 20's falling apart on the ice, tripping up attempting simple content.

Nastya comes out lands every jumps, has a 3-3 combo, no interruptions to her program, yes there were some problems with the landings but nothing major compared to what we had just watched over the preceding 2.5 hours, yet those two commentators were just hounding her on every jump, just nitpicking her for no reason. It was like they had an agenda. It was the first virtually complete, uninterrupted performance in 2.5 hours with a 3-3 combo no less. Even the gold and silver medallist in the end were incapable of a 3-3 combo. Everything about it annoyed them though. Odd (or maybe not).

 

[dorispulaski]

The first good performance was Josefin's, although it did not have a 3-3.
It was not a great day of women's skating. Quite a few of these women have 3-3's, as they demonstrated during the SP:

https://results.isu.org/results/season2526/ec2026/FSKWSINGLES-----------QUAL000100--_JudgesDetailsperSkater.pdf

Some competitions are like that. I seem to remember a US pairs competition that was much worse, with a significant amount of blood on the ice a long while back. And the fs in US pairs this year was disappointing, too, though not as blood spattered.

 

[TT_Fin]

I hope Niina, if she skates like that, will get also in Olys and worlds what she deservers, without small fed's discount.

 

[Anna K.]

I hope Niina, if she skates like that, will get also in Olys and worlds what she deservers, without small fed's discount.

Her problem is not a small fed's discount. Her problem is the toepick that she needs to accelerate speed.
As of the date, Loena is the only European skater whose skating skills are compatible to those of the leading skaters from the 4CC hemisphere. I am saying this as someone who started a thread about the Skating Skills component

Anyway, Niina keeps improving. Her spins are now night and day compared to what they were. With time, her speed and power may also go up if she decides that she needs them. But as for the upcoming Olys, the maximum to hope for is a consistent Niina who stays on her feet when all medal contenders ahead of her fall. Not an impossible scenario btw.

 

[Anna K.]

Better yet, each skater's bio should include a .wav file of them pronouncing their name. It would save a lot of annoyance.

How about a video postcard? "Hello, I'm Iida Karhunen from Finland!" They could display those during the 6 minute warmup or elsewhere. Most arenas have those big video screens. So, why not use them?

Just brainstorming.

 

[Karoltyna]

I'm still bitter about how they hurt Queen Jos and I have the impression Katia is still paying for her splat in 2024 and that they would let her off the hook much sooner if she was from bigger fed, her skates deserved a score closer to 180 pts. At the same time I'm happy with the standings

 

[moonvine]

What on earth happened to Kevin? That was physically painful to watch.

 

[ladyjane]

Still missing out on the pairs (plan to watch later), but have watched all the men both Short and Free, as well as part of the RD (which this year just isn't grabbing me, I wish we could go back to the 70s and 80s) and the FD as well. My findings on the men (I can't mention everybody, just be assured I enjoyed the whole competition):

I was so impressed by Jari Kessler and Davide Lewton Brain. That's skating. They might not have all the jumps, but that glide, those movements....I love it. It pleased me greatly that Jari sat in first for quite a time. Adam Hagara was also a delight, especially in the Free. I have never seen him skate so well. And what a sportsman. Thomas-LLorenc is always fun to watch (it does help I am rather a fan of the Bee Gees). I felt Deniss should have got a lot more points, it's always a joy to watch him. The young Czech Georgii impressed me with his jumps. I am sure the other things will come later. Lucas can do better, but still had quite a good round. Poor Daniel. When you skate a programme about the election of a pope, you must look like one. Even the costume change looked awkward. I felt really sorry for him. I was so pleased for Matteo though. That he got a silver medal was extra, but his skate was just wonderful to behold. And I think an Olympic spot into the bargain. Do the Selevko brothers have to be cacti all the time? Wonderful shorts, not so good Frees. Really a shame. They also do it the other way round sometimes. Still, three Estonians next year (there is still a plus here). And Nika won deservedly. I wish he was more fun to watch though, even being a technical wizard. Still a shame about Kevin (what is this with Europeans, it's not the first time for this to happen).

I'll be short about ID (not a fan of the RD this year, so I am going to skip that, even though I watched some):
I love that Whale FD by Laurence and Guillaume. It just sucks you in. So beautiful and lyrical. Charlene and Marco had a great FD as well, and they were so emotional. Good for them. Lilah and Lewis did make a mistake, so just couldn't remain in 2nd place. To be fair, I would have had Evgeniia and Geoffrey on the podium, they danced so well, but of course had to come back from a lower placement (and that's more difficult in ID). A pity about Allison and Saulius though. I wish Olivia and Tim could also score on the RD, that FD is just wonderful.

Pairs still to come.

 

[moonvine]

I was fascinated by Jari Kessler skating a piece about the life cycle of flamingoes. Had to go back for a rewatch.

 

[Zora]

The women's event was messy, but at least there were some good programs. I thought the men were awful artistically. There was not one free program I enjoyed. Most of them also skate so gangly, it's displeasing to watch. What's the use of jumps, spin levels, transitions, if nothing looks good. The only exceptions for me were Vasiljevs and Aleksandr Selevko, who still had some of the old aura of figure skating, and yet their programs weren't that great either.

 

[TT_Fin]

Our commentators said that there was very warm inside arena which affected a lot to skaters stamina. Well some did well, but it was more messy than usual, wasn't it? I think audience wore more clothes when men's SP was on and later not so much, so that maybe true. Quite many skaters looked very tired after, more tired than usual.

 

[lariko]

I'm not posting because I experience mostly negative emotions toward figure skating at this point. The positive moments for me in this tournament were Petrokina and Gubanova's free skates, Reshtenko's bronze, some acknowledgement of unfortunate Egadze's better qualities. 10x this last one for Pavlova/Svyatchenko. Kovalevs' skating made me appreciate their grit. I liked a lot of the dance and I hope FB/C stay on for a post-Olympic season so I can go see them skate live in GP. I will also buy GP's book once it's available in English to support her ability to tell her side of the story.

 

[yfan1]

I realise you are hyperboling, but if you really think that you must not watch much sport.... I mean I don't but I can think of far sorrier spectacles I have caught in passing.

Perhaps they have an agenda or a history of posting I'm simply not aware of...

... But I have to say, this has been the weakest quadrennial of skating I've watched. I really don't feel I liked anything this quadrennial, apart from Sui/Han's skating of their short program this season. And that's been about it, unless I really wish to be counting Malinin's overquadded layouts, which I don't particularly.

And yeah, much like @Zora, I'd be hard-pressed to find even one single good program among the men here. It's just difficult to watch that discipline, which I said before and you agreed - how fantastic was that 2016-17 season, and look where we are now...

 

[Anna K.]

I'm not posting because I experience mostly negative emotions toward figure skating at this point.

This attitude is massively underrated. It should receive more praise over there.

I mean, we all have our streaks of bitterness, and negativity, and discontent which is kind of normal. But keeping it to ourselves at times for not to ruin the party that other people are having - that choice should be praised more.

And there was quite a crowd of people in Sheffield who enjoyed the party and supported the athletes no matter what. Great audience, really It absolutely created that festival atmosphere of a special event that championships should always have.

 

[bartlebooth]

I just want to thank the Golden Skate members who were in the arena and provided us with their live reports. I enjoyed very much having first-hand impressions.
Thank you @Ichatdelune, @Ruthypegs, @augusztus and anybody else I could have forgotten. I hope you had a great time in Sheffield.