Replay Lounge 2025 Skate Canada

[sisinka]

Bradie Tenell - three videos - 3lutz + 3toeloop, 2axel (not showing landing leg in original video), 3loop. These videos are worse quality.

 

[sisinka]

Ami Nakai - Short Program - three videos - 3axel, 3lutz + 3toeloop, 3loop.

 

[sisinka]

Interesting debate about missed calls in Ladies Short Program.

Czech TV stations have commentator and usually also one guest from figure skating world. One of those is Mrs. Katerina Kamberska, member of Czech Figure Skating Federation, also ISU technical specialist. She mentioned underrotations in many jumps during ladies short program (which were not called in protocols).

Eurosport channel has Mr. Frantisek Pechar, coach of Peter Barna (1992 Olympic bronze medalist, 1992 European champion). He was visibly upset with underrotations not being called.

I would like to mention that single and pair figure skating progressed enormously in past 20 years. Today there are so many transitions, difficulty in spins and footwork. And it is incredibly difficult to put it all together. And it is so easy to make a mistake or lose concentration in such circumstances - which leads to bad landing / fall / underrotations.

From ladies short program in Canada, but from other events as well, I can clearly see that the number of underrotations in ladies skating increased visibly. I would even say that there is not one single lady who would always fully rotate all her jumps.

But let's realise that ladies are executing combination of two triple jumps....in the second half of the program. Program usually have no resting parts, being fulfilled with transitions. All skaters need to think to execute all features in spins, control blade for level in steps. This is very exhausting. And energy is something what you simply need for fully rotated jumps.

Taking all of this into account, skaters need much more energy and concentration for each program, compared to 20 years back.

That's my first note. Because I don't want skaters reading our poster's complains to think that this debate is "all negative" towards them. I don't think so at all. I believe we all want fair calling and judging.

Second thing is Technical panel with calls.
If nothing changed, I believe that they are working in a scheme - looking at normal speed...having suspicion of underrotation they mark the element for review. This is treacherous, because 1) some underrotations may not be seen from normal speed.
2) Camera's angle. Technical panel doesn't see video from the same camera we do as spectators.
3) Some skaters may execute certain jumps in place where it is not clearly seen from panel's camera. It is probably even intentional. Doing this skaters / coaches are certainly targeting view from Technical panel's camera, NOT TV broadcasting's camera. So we may indeed see what Technical panel can't.

I am glad that Technical panel gave more attention to make calls more right in Ladies Free Skate.

Posible solution?
As @Isk suggested 1) giving Technical panel a possibility to see from two cameras would help.
2) Review all jumps. Having computer program which would allow to cut pieces of program and send it to the panel, one Technical specialist could review elements during the program. So no time prolongation.

Overall I don't have problem with strict panel. I also do understand kind panel. But I would wish to all skaters being judged with the same strictness / kindness at one competition. It would be more healthy both for athletes and this beautiful sport.

 

[TontoK]

Interesting debate about missed calls in Ladies Short Program.

<snip>

Overall I don't have problem with strict panel. I also do understand kind panel. But I would wish to all skaters being judged with the same strictness / kindness at one competition. It would be more healthy both for athletes and this beautiful sport.

This is an interesting post. Thank you for sharing insights that would not ordinarily be accessible to many of us.

As for the final segment of your post: Wholeheartedly agree. I prefer a strict panel. I'll accept a loose panel. I cannot abide an inconsistent one.

 

[Diana Delafield]

I wish people in the women's part wouldn't go into endless debates about ur's, prerotations, etc. It makes me want to watch this discipline even less. I don't mind a bit of discussion, but to me it's just awful how detailed everything gets. Are you even watching the discipline for enjoyment, or just to prove how knowledgeable you are and your favourite got called and her competitior didn't? Why does this happen the most with the women's? It happens with the men too but to a much lesser extent, and doesn't put me off. Sorry. Rant over.

One of the several reasons why I pay very little attention to the singles events anymore.

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

To me, the main problem is that the skater is constantly turning from beginning to end.

She is turning when the notion first occurs to her that she should try a jump. She is turning as she approaches take-off, during take-off, while in the air, when she touches down, when her landing blade starts to bear weight, as she exits and starts thinking about the next element.

Assuming we have technology that can measure all this turning with great accuracy, from where to where should we count rotations?

Another factor is this, IMHO. How's this for a definition? Figure skating = what figure skaters do. Or at least what the best figure skaters do (who?)

I am the best figure skater. This is how I do a triple toeloop. There... as you can plainly see, it has 2 and a quarter revolutions in the air, just as my famous coach taught me. By definition, this is what we mean by a fully rotated triple toe-loop.

This is a bit off-topic but I think that while the skater follows a curve during their jump, the rotation completion starts from the tangent line of the curve (necessarily and easily derivable by any calculator nowadays!) when the body starts to take off and to put less weight on the blade (a heavy penalisation of prerotation would be to take the tangent line at the moment of the real take off...)

If a famous coach teaches cheating take off, those who follow their advices should be penalised following the rules. (Please don't provoke me with reminding that sort of behaviour after what I've heard and seen at the Chopin Competition a few days ago, I'm not over it at all. And eliminating the best before the last stage is worse than Figure Skating competitions where I've never seen the skater who skated best at Short Program sent beyond the Free Skate limit. One may argue that Piano isn't an Olympic Sport.) A 3T with a half turn prerotation (forward take off) is a downgrade (I didn't watch precisely her Free Skate, but I must say that Isabeau Levito took off from her Short Program Combo 3Lz BEFORE half a turn prerotation, therefore being liable only to -1 on the Grade of Execution) and if in addition this skater lacks a quarter turn rotation at landing, then this is a q.

 

[gsk8]

Malinin just broke the free skate score again!

https://results.isu.org/isujsstat/phsmfs.htm

 

[ladyjane]

Well, the men's FS was an experience again. A bit of menning going on compared to the SP but very, very watchable. So we start with Aleksa who showed me you don't have to be the best in the World to jump a glorious combination, a 3 loop - 3 loop. I know you might get better points for another one, but I just totally love this. Give me that combo any day. Vladimir showed again that he can do it, if with some mishaps. Still an SB for his total score. I really enjoyed Roman's skate, even if he had a fall. I love his movements. Tomoki did well too, fall or not. Redemption of a sort for Nika though. Showing us he can do more than moving from jump to jump. Stephen didn't do as well as yesterday, but boy does that bloke have a step sequence. I really adored it. It got a level 4 too, so I wasn't the only one who noticed the quality. Good for him! I missed Nikolaj's beautiful running edges, even if his skate wasn't that bad. I love Kevin's Bolero, mistakes and all. He really didn't deserve a better score, but at least he was laughing about it. I was impressed by Kao, who was so tired, he really looked exhausted in the second half. Some stamina problems but still managing to pull out a good skate. Alexandr was not a cactus today! His SP was better than his FS, but not by much. Very comparable. Poor Kazuki. He is such a beautiful skater but he often falls short on his FS. As he did today. I felt sorry for him, he was so upset and he had worked hard. But, it was right I think. You may not like the voice-overs but Ilia really has read some old Greek philosophers to make certain statements. His programme was almost flawless, and he didn't even need a quad axel to do that. The programme certainly is innovative.

What remained with me: seeing Roman and Stephen ending in 7th and 8th place very close together: 236.73 vs 236.48. Very exciting for Canadian Nationals!

 

[Blades of Passion]

I'll just start with the 3Lo. It's kind of time consuming to do them all.

Even if you for some reason refuse to believe that is a q (I'd actually go with an underrotation looking at it again but a q would be acceptable I suppose), does it deserve four 3's from the judges?

That's not where the jump landed. A landing is where weight is pressing into the ice. And yes this is one of the few jumps where she deserves good GOE. There's a decent amount of suspension in the air and good extension on the landing.

 

[sofiaidfan]

I risk be unpopular but Piper and Paul was best free dance today

 

[ladyjane]

Just watched the FD. Emily and Ian had a good FD, even if it seems a little slow. They rose a place I think? I like Leah and Artem's Napoleon FS, so I didn't get why they lost an element. Or did I see that wrongly in the Tech box? I just loved Jennifer and Benjamin. Usually good for something different, this time not so much different but very passionate and intense. Nice! Marie-Jade and Romain are so good in characterisation throughout a programme. I don't get their relatively low score. How can you not adore Hannah and Ye? Just getting better and better. I liked Katerina and Daniel, but the judges did not. I feel sad for them. I think Marjorie and Zachary skated last year's programme? But it was so good! So beautiful to watch. I liked Christina and Anthony too, so I get that it was close in the end. This time Marjorie and Zachary were better, but that doesn't mean Christina and Anthony were bad. They were lovely too. Allison and Saulius are also getting better and better. great FD, very fitting for them. I've seen it before of course but I think this was their best execution of it. Vincent is one of my favourite Piper and Paul programmes so I liked a re-imagining for the Olympic season. Sadly, the problem with a lift did jar a bit. So, they were second in the FD. Still won the competition, but it does illustrate: in ID even small mistakes can haunt you.

 

[discodisco]

Wow... Piper and Paul only won PCS by less than half a point. Interesting. They tied the Lithuanians for presentation, and the other categories are just barely ahead. Very very interesting

 

[snowball]

I have seen a lot of people ragging on Lajoie/Lagha's RD so maybe it's because I went in with low expectations but I actually think it's kinda great? Like yes, it's very obnoxious and OTT but in a fun way that makes them stand out. I think they're giving what the judges want from this theme, which is aggressive full-out energy that hypes up the crowd. The mistakes at the end were unfortunate but they had a later start to the season than they wanted and they've always been a team who peaks later in the season, I think it's going to be dynamite at Nationals.

OTOH I was extremely underwhelmed by Gilles/Poirier's RD. IMO they need to take Too Sexy out and replace it with a song that isn't being used better by multiple other teams, one at this very event... and it doesn't go with Supermodel. Why not use two RuPaul songs? Skated tentatively throughout, imo... hours later, I can't remember a single choreographic moment.

I like the rupaul song. I agree, why isn’t it all rupaul. It will probably look better as season progresses. It’s too bad teams are not ready for Grand Prix events. But I get they need to have a life also

 

[paulusfr]

I was pretty confident S/D would deliver this time. It's been such a long time since. They kinda had to bounce back.
Kam & O'Shea doing well makes things interesting in the race for a spot in the Team event. Now it's Alisa & Misha's turn.

On the Hase & Volodin's free program:
She is stunning in everything she does. And this is almost the first time I've seen that mistakes didn't ruin my impression of their performance.
They said they only had 10 days to prepare. Mistakes on the new stuff is hardly surprising. With the flip throw I guess timing was the issue. I understand why they include it - playing safe is unlikely to pay off. The other thing is jumping combination, they made it more difficult by matching the entry, and it's not working yet.

You can clearly see they're trying to channel Savchenko/Massot with this program. It depends so much on the vibe and matching the music. Unlike the program at Nebelhorn, in this comp I actually felt something, it looked better even with mistakes and through the TV, there was an attempt to "exude calmness", in the words of Daniel Weiss. But there are still ways to go. Would love for them to add a bit more inbetween details.

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

I wish Men would have been scored as near from fair as Women but alas...

 

[apgold]

What remained with me: seeing Roman and Stephen ending in 7th and 8th place very close together: 236.73 vs 236.48. Very exciting for Canadian Nationals!

Isn't that crazy that they were essentially tied in the end? I would've given Gogolev the edge after the SP but now they are neck and neck again. Plus Roman was the one who earned the spot to begin with. Too bad they don't have 2 spots because I think both deserve to go.

The men's FS was full of chaos as I thought it would. I'm sorry Kevin had many mistakes but he landed the quad toe and still sold the program. I really hope he gets it together for Skate America - I will be watching live in Lake Placid - he can just pretend he's in Allen, TX, lol. He had said he had an injury recently so he wasn't in top form. But nice to see him happy anyway.

Ilia is from another planet - he did not need to do all of those quads to win here but he made a statement with those scores.

 

[TontoK]

Ilia is from another planet - he did not need to do all of those quads to win here but he made a statement with those scores.

I'm not sure Ilia cared about this title as much as he viewed this event as a stepping stone - a progression - towards the Olympics. Skate Canada was a training run.

For certain, it's a dagger to his rivals. "Don't even think of coming at me." Psychological warfare.

 

[gsk8]

Men and Ice Dance Recaps and Quotes

Ilia Malinin seizes seventh Grand Prix gold in Saskatoon

2025 Skate Canada: Men USA's Ilia Malinin seized his seventh Grand Prix gold in the Men's figure skating event in Saskatoon after a record-breaking free

www.goldenskate.com

Gilles and Poirier win sixth consecutive Skate Canada International gold

2025 Skate Canada: Ice Dance Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada won their sixth consecutive Skate Canada International gold in Saskatoon on Sunday.

www.goldenskate.com

 

[viennaskater]

I'm not sure Ilia cared about this title as much as he viewed this event as a stepping stone - a progression - towards the Olympics. Skate Canada was a training run.

For certain, it's a dagger to his rivals. "Don't even think of coming at me." Psychological warfare.

He might just as well pick up his gold medal at Milan and not bother skating (only joking!)

Honestly, he is such a natural on the ice, you wonder if he's even human. Incredible.

 

[Karoltyna]

If a famous coach teaches cheating take off, those who follow their advices should be penalised following the rules. (Please don't provoke me with reminding that sort of behaviour after what I've heard and seen at the Chopin Competition a few days ago, I'm not over it at all. And eliminating the best before the last stage is worse than Figure Skating competitions where I've never seen the skater who skated best at Short Program sent beyond the Free Skate limit. One may argue that Piano isn't an Olympic Sport.)

I'm with you on this.

Now, I don't know what to think about this event. My boy is impressed by Saulison and says they should win this one - but he is (almost) 11 and he liked the robots. I do hope Ioulia recovers soon, it is so gutting when she is hard on herself.