2025 World Championships Practice Reports | Page 13 | Golden Skate

2025 World Championships Practice Reports

No one is asking Jean Luc and Jackie ANY questions. I will try to come up with some if I watch any live practices tomorrow.
 
Ooh Gabby Izzo and Luc.
Jean Luc talking about Mr O’Shea’s fabulous partnering skills and skating skills.
This is the last group. They are marking a lot due to the lateness of the day.
 
Jackie mentions Gabby is fearless. They are skating POTO. Jean Luc is a fan. They are too close during their pairs spin which throws off their center of gravity.
 
Enjoyed seeing most of the pairs and Groups 2, 3, and 4 of the men. No women or ice dance.

Pairs were awesome. I felt like I watched a gold medal practice for the pairs, with all really bringing their A game. Riku and Ryuichi came out with their usual speed, fire, and intensity in their SP. I thought Deanna and Max looked really great, Super polished and confident. I think those were new costumes? The other Japanese pair (sorry, too tired to look up the names) is improving each time I see them. I will be holding my breath on the usual elements for Ellie and Danny, but their pairs moves are beautiful. Quite a few marked jumps and throws from everybody.

The standout on the men for me was Yuma. WOW! He looked great. He skated a flawless (at least it looked that way to me) SP. Beautiful jumps.and lines, great speed. He seemed to be emoting a little more and even smiled.

Made my day when Shoma appeared near the K& C area as they set up for some Fuji tv interviews. People started yelling and waving. Definitely missing him and feeling a tinge of sadness.

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Enjoyed seeing most of the pairs and Groups 2, 3, and 4 of the men. No women or ice dance.

Pairs were awesome. I felt like I watched a gold medal practice for the pairs, with all really bringing their A game. Riku and Ryuichi came out with their usual speed, fire, and intensity in their SP. I thought Deanna and Max looked really great, Super polished and confident. I think those were new costumes? The other Japanese pair (sorry, too tired to look up the names) is improving each time I see them. I will be holding my breath on the usual elements for Ellie and Danny, but their pairs moves are beautiful. Quite a few marked jumps and throws from everybody.

The standout on the men for me was Yuma. WOW! He looked great. He skated a flawless (at least it looked that way to me) SP. Beautiful jumps.and lines, great speed. He seemed to be emoting a little more and even smiled.

Made my day when Shoma appeared near the K& C area as they set up for some Fuji tv interviews. People started yelling and waving. Definitely missing him and feeling a tinge of sadness.

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Thank you very much for the practice reports! Glad to hear both Rikuryu and Deanna and Max are doing well! I always get worried about whether Ellie will land the throws or not...(and I admit this hinders my enjoyment of the team, even though I know they can be beautiful when they're on) All we can do is hope for the best for them...🤞

Also glad to hear that Yuma did a nice SP. He looked slightly shaky at the beginning of his free skate from the practice rink video, but he soon got into his program (with a break in the middle), and I don't think it was a bad practice session for him. Of course, seeing our little legend Shoma is always priceless. 🥰
 
The skaters names were listed a bit wrong on the screen- but Jean Luc was calling the correct names. I am not sure my commentary is correct - I am getting confused after hours of skating.
Sorry to anyone I got wrong.
thanks so much for all your reports - really appreciated reading your summaries, as I can't access the streams.
 
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Sorry not sorry if I missed your favorites and screwed up details - its hard being the only one commenting solo for 12 hours when I know darn well others are watching as well and leaving me with all the heavy lifting. After 12 hours, I just LOOOVE all the critiques too! I think I'll try the silent thing myself tomorrow and save my energy for the actual events. Good night
I´m sorry that you feel that way. We are really glad for all the effort you put in. I really I didn´t mean my comment earlier as critique but just more as helping out with information because I do not expect you to keep track of all skaters! But I will have that in mind that it can feel as critique in the future. Thinking about it, it was just a silly detail and it was no need for me to point that out.

And you are right, if it doesn´t feel good anymore to use your energy om practice, save yourself for the actual events. I might try to do a small summery of the practice from women MR yesterday based on the videos that Theskatingsession posted.
 
Okay, I´m off at work the next days, it´s currently 11 am here and it´s still 6 hours until the women SP starts. I will try to help out with some practice reports from yesterdays MR based on videos from Tony/Theskatingsession on IG, since MR practice isn´t streamed.

Be aware that not every clip shows the full run through with all the jumps.

I will start with women group 1 and post one and one group at once, I will just see how much I will be able to look into before I have to leave in 1 hour. I have an errand to run and i´m not sure how much time I will have after and before the women SP.


Group 1, women:
Run through MR at 14.10 - 14.45 local time.

Based on videos from Tony/Theskatingsession

1. Gozhva: SP: 2A - the clip isn´t long, doesn’t show the rest of the jumps, nice job with choreography
2. Mikutina: SP: 3Lz-3T, 2A, looks to be in great shape. Wonderful choreo
3. Ceder SP: 3F-2T, 2Lz, 2A, great ice coverage, lovely spins
4. Variakojyte SP: 3F-2T, spread eagle almost into 2A, no solo jump in the video, might have marked it?
5. Risa Gomez SP: 3Lz-2T, 3F, marks the axel (a bit crowded). Jumps look very solid.
6. Lovrencic: SP: 3F(ur?), 3Lz-2T, holds on the lutz but is able to a land a 2T on it, 2A - she really has cool choreography. Great power
 
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Group 2, women:
MR at 14.45 - 15.20

1. Sakamoto: 2A, 3Lz, 3F-3T, clean performance
2. Feigin: SP: 3T-3T (q?), 3Lo with stumble, I really like her SP and dress this year
3.Schizas: SP in red dress to Lion King. Very solid 3Lz-3T, great speed out of the 2A, no solo jump in the video.
I like her dress but doesn’t fit the program.
4.Chiba: SP: 3Lz-3T, 2A, 3F
5. Higuchi. SP: 2A, 3Lz-3T, 3F
 
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Group 3, women:

MR, 15:30 - 16:05

1.Yun: SP: 3Lz-3T, 2A, no clip of solo jump
2. Schild: SP: Marks first jump (combo?), 2A, no clip of solo jump
3. Gubanova: SP: 3F-3T, 2A, video ends
4. Samodelkina: SP: 3Lz(ur<?)-3T, axis very off in lutz but she manage so save it and add the triple, 2A, she really has some nice spin variations, 3F
5. Kim: SP: 2A, 3Lz-3T, 3F, so solid
6. Lee: SP: 3Lz-3T, 2A, video ends
 
Jackie talking about Annika and Robert’s jump problems. He says Robert has on and off back pain and she has a foot issue that kept them out of Euros. Lost momentum from last year but bring a fun energy to their skating.
Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel? They were at Euros. They placed 8th there.
 
Group 4 women:

MR, 16:05-16.40

1. Selmekova: SP: Marks lutz take off, 3F(ur?), 2A nice flow
2. Sueleymanova: SP: 3Lz-2T, 3Lo (ur?), 2A,
3. Petrokina: SP: 2A; 3Lz-3T, 3F, looks solid
4. Seniuk: SP: Clip shows end of program? 3Lz, steps
5. Kurakova: 3Loq?, 2A(ur?), she takes a break, looks a little frustrated?, video ends

I will have to leave now for a bit. Might switch into the PR stream later, or finish the MR reports from women.
 
Hello i´m back. Looks like practice today isn´t streamed at PR?
It is being streamed, but unfortunately only on Peacock. The streams will be uploaded to the USFS Youtube page without geo-blocking after they conclude. I'm following along and taking notes, for all of those who can't watch.
 
You're doing practice notes again? Yes! Women's practice features commentary from Jean-Luc Baker and Polina Edmunds Bast, so if you want to hear all about nerdy things like energy management and power pulls, be sure to tune in! Since today is a long day and people may not have time to tune into the stream, I'm doing more detailed notes from the stream. I was going to do everything in one big post, but since only US locals or those with a VPN can watch, I'll post my notes after every ice cut.

G1

Ooh, Nargiz starts us out with The Hanging Tree, one of my guilty favourite warhorses! She's marking her jumps, but she's one to keep an eye on - she has some really cool choreo moves in both programs. Up next, we have Julija Lovrencic, who has the techno/robot/ice princess/Matrix costume with a Kanye West (obligatory ew) step sequence. She, too, is marking jumps, as Polina explains it's a good strategy to save the adrenaline spike for competition for some skaters. As Vanesa Selmekova takes to the ice, we enter into a discussion of trying to go clean and being reserved with performance or doing the opposite - Polina thinks it depends on the skater, but obviously clean GOE is the best strategy. Vanesa does a lovely 3Lz+3T and 3F - she looks ready to go. Anastasia Gozhva follows - Polina and Jean-Luc talk about the fear of being tired really affecting skaters (and honestly all athletes, I was notorious for saving my energy instead of going all-out). Poor Anastasia has a bit of a rough run-through, with multiple falls. Meda Variakojyte is next - she's the youngest competitor at Worlds, she just managed to sneak in based on the age rules. She lands a nice 3F. Polina and Jean-Luc reflect on how amazing Boston will be, shouting out the loyal fans. Jean-Luc also has a funny anecdote about being at Saitama Worlds, where they had to go up 15 stairs to get to the rink. He didn't want to do it to save his legs, and Kaitlyn roasted him and said "If you can't go up 15 stairs, you can't skate a free dance" LOL.


G2

Another great story - Jean-Luc would talk to the audience during practice sessions when he didn't have music on that he knew to calm down and ask them questions like "what are you knitting?" or "what are you eating?" and he would end up with freshly-knitted socks or a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos on the ice at the end of the event from the people he harassed during practice :LOL:. Polina, on the other hand, had a lovely touching story about getting a necklace from a fan and an emotional interaction between the two of them. Linnea Ceder starts out strong - a nice 3+2 combination and does a good job holding space and choreography. Xiangyi An does a nice 3Lo, 2A, and 3Sq+3Tq in her near-full program runthrough as Polina talks about how difficult spins are and Xiangyi does a change-of-direction spin in the far corner - an interesting placement. Mia Risa Gomez has a new dress for her Metamorphosis program, stepping out of a huge 3Lz and marking her 3T+3T combo. Ahsun Yun pops her opening combo to a 1Lz, but our commentators point out her lovely use of hands and arms and she nails a 3F+3T in the second half. Sofia Samodelkina does a solid 3Lz+3T, a very nice 2A, and a 3F. Jean-Luc highlights her great weight transfer and upper body placement and posture during her steps. They also talk about the need for all of the little details, like the toe point, which are both exhausting and crucial. We then go into an interesting little discussions surrounding the differences between ice dance and singles - Polina explains that most singles skaters only focus on the jumps, and can let go once all of the jumps are done, whereas ice dancers are so focused and dialed in the entire program - every little detail is so important and they can only stop performing after they get the scores. They also talk about how tired they both were after a program - jelly legs during the bows, cramping feet in the k&c, and so on.
 
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