Hello jolly folks of Golden Skate. Mango is back from the deep freezer. Just thawing out now.
So let us a do a quick GPF recap.
Julianne & Charlie: That SP was...nope. Something went wrong between Challenge and GPF. They'll get used to it again. Didn't get in enough time with it, I am guessing. It's hard to change a program and compete with it so soon, eh? The FS was better though still not their best. It saved their butts from finishing last, though. They need to work on their SBS jumps. I wonder how much of that is affected by how late Charlie started to train figure skating seriously. Well, there's no where to go but up for these two. Stay healthy, crush it for the 2nd half of the season. Rostelecom & GPF are in the past.
Meagan & Eric: They've realized that falling on the throw 3A is costing them huge amounts of points. Meagan put out a
request for opinions about whether they should keep the throw 3A or do a throw 3F which may even get them positive GOEs. Elvis Stojko has also commented. From Meagan's social media it seems like they didn't have time to effectively implement changes they made after NHK. But now with time before Nationals they can decided. What do you guys think? The hole they got into with the SP was too deep for them to dig themselves out of with the FS. I think I'd rather see them be safe and consistent (those PCS will suffer more otherwise), and put the throw 3A in exhibitions (like they did the throw 2A during Stars on Ice 2016), coming back to it early in the Olympic season if it works out in the ~8 months of exhibitions they'll do.
The one thing I love about these two is that they don't stop thinking of their competitive skating while doing all the show stuff. Here they are practising side by side 3Lz because Meagan will have none of those errors:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOCi6vIgz1d/
Kaetlyn Osmond: Wow. National records for the SP and total score. The highest score ever by a Canadian lady. Kaetlyn is breathing rarefied air. The PCS suggest the judges are considering her as a serious contender. If it were not for the doubled triples and the singled 2T in the FS Ms. Osmond would be on the podium. She did look a little spent in the choreographic sequence of the FS. Considering she finally landed that pesky 3Lo it's fair to say she's working on her problem areas. With more time and effort we may see a better performance at Nationals. She's a lock for the national title.
One of our
estemeed posters suggested that Kaetlyn should be skating to Turandot instead of La Bohème. Elena Radionova chose that music so it would have been quiet dull to have two programs to the same music. Even within Canada Jones/Reagan are skating to it. Kaetlyn clearly enjoys skating to La Bohème. Her PCS even with errors suggests that the judges liked the program too. An esteemed poster was also waiting for Kaetlyn to score over 200 points outside of Canada. She did just that. Maybe some esteemed posters will start respecting this young lady eventually...
Patrick Chan: Three hurdles down, a few more to go. A clean SP, with level 4 step sequence, and a clean 4S. He needed less than a quarter to hit 100 points in the SP. Maybe he'll find the change in PyeongChang. The pressure to land the 4S was big and distracting. He told Marina in the kiss and cry he focused so much on it that he's neglected training the 4T. So it's back to Canton to train the 4T, 4S, and 3A. Patrick's also got to train his mind to keep calm during situations like this. Apart from those falls I think he held up well - Worlds 2016 Chiddy would be popping jumps but GPF 2016 Chiddy kept it together despite the errors. There were also no angry outbursts or arrogant comments. I doubt that's enough to placate his detractors but for Patrick it's a start. Working on becoming clutch will do him wonders as the Olympics get closer.
Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir: A new level of comfort in their performance. There were no nervy twizzles. No major misteps. They were confident and calm. Scott's sangfroid in dealing with the FD music issue was admirable. I have noticed Scott is more assured now. I think it's the effect of their training - the run throughs between Skate Canada & NHK appear to have brought out this certainty. And they are happy. With their skating, their choreo, their training situation. They are friends with their rivals, and you can see that. It's not some kind of effort made for TV cameras. I want to give thanks to David Wilson for his involvement. They recruited him to choreograph an exhibit for them which they performed in the summer. The last lift in the SD was in that exhibit. But that program helped them develop a relationship with him and Marie-France as choreographers. So thanks David. And of course, to the Gadbois team. Now if Scott could stop looking like a blueberry maybe we could all be satisfied.
Special shout out to Keegan Messing who won the bronze medal at Golden Spin of Zagreb. And to Roman and Nic for placing 7th and 11th respectively.
Medals count
15 gold, 10 silvers, 12 bronze = 37 medals in total
: 
