Replay Lounge 2026 Europeans: Recaps and Discussion

[augusztus]

Thanks and you're welcome @bartlebooth

My main takeaway is what a pleasure it was to attend my first live competition in 10 years, and have the chance to really appreciate the sport and the athletes in person. I had so many WOW moments. And all very well organised, friendly staff, supportive audience, and great atmosphere in the arena.

On the ice, I want to thank literally all the skaters, seeing their effort in person is very humbling - and specifically, after seeing them IRL, I have a new found love for Lopareva/Brissaud, Demougeot/le Mercier, Turkilla/Versluis, Hendrickx, Gubanova, Petrokina, Kurakova, and Taljegard. I liked far more than just them lol, but they provided my biggest highlights, amongst many.

 

[Ruthypegs]

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.

The audience at Sheffield were fantastic. They kept quiet and attentive whilst the skaters were skating their programmes - apart from cheering and applauding elements/performances, or cheering on skaters after a mishap.

It was a truly great atmosphere - almost as good as the one at Kaunas in 2024 (which was really special).

 

[Ruthypegs]

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.

You're so welcome, @bartlebooth - I wish I could have reported more, but am not tech savvy enough, (and also was transfixed by the skating).

 

[TallyT]

... 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.

Oh I agree that the sport is in bit of a slump at the minute.

 

[CelticRose22]

Really enjoyed attending the championships this week - the first major event I have attended since the last Euros in Sheffield in 2012. Only attended 2 days then but was there all week this year.

As ever the Skating was a mixture of good and bad as to be expected at a major championships.

1 or 2 minor gripes regarding the venue but nothing major to report. Decent attendance overall and really picked up as the week went on and the crowd were excellent; generous & warm to all competitors but of course extra loud for the Brits.

 

[TontoK]

So, I have a question about Deniss' step sequence.

The internet says, and I believe it because the internet would never lie, that his step sequence was "ended" or "interrupted" with his spread eagle in the middle. It was, so it is claimed. scored a L1.

OK, fine, if that's the rule, then that's the rule. But here's my confusion. Why doesn't the same rule apply when Ilia inserts a backflip in the middle of his steps? The rules must be applied consistently.

PS. I bring this up as a big supporter of Ilia's brand of skating, and a lukewarm observer of Dennis. Still fair is fair, and this seems to me, to not be consistent.

 

[saine]

So, I have a question about Deniss' step sequence.

The internet says, and I believe it because the internet would never lie, that his step sequence was "ended" or "interrupted" with his spread eagle in the middle. It was, so it is claimed. scored a L1.

OK, fine, if that's the rule, then that's the rule. But here's my confusion. Why doesn't the same rule apply when Ilia inserts a backflip in the middle of his steps? The rules must be applied consistently.

PS. I bring this up as a big supporter of Ilia's brand of skating, and a lukewarm observer of Dennis. Still fair is fair, and this seems to me, to not be consistent.

Jackie Wong looked at Deniss' step sequence in the FS and noted that there were wrong/flat edges and hurried clusters. I'm lousy at judging edges, I'll defer to him.


Also based on this interview, Deniss is recovering from injury. He had issues with the sit spin in the short to the point where it was invalid, so I think it could've effected how he did on the step sequence too.

 

[Anna K.]

You might think that you saw Deniss' free program skated for the first time in a competition.

This is not true. What you saw was the first full run-through on ice of Deniss' new program. According to the interview (I don't remember if it was the one that I linked in Deniss' Fan Fest thread or in the interview that I could not post because it had geo restrictions), he had only done the choreography on the floor before.
When the journalist asked how did it feel, Deniss replied that it felt like he had to have it all in his head and that he kept thinking what to do next all the time. Eventually, he was thinking so hard that his head ached in the end.
I'm guessing that Deniss' head was already aching badly when he did his step sequence because he was late on music which rarely happens. Actually, I suspect that he skipped a feature or two

I liked the idea of program though and the result was his SB anyway, so... I'm looking forward to this program getting polished

 

[TT_Fin]

The audience at Sheffield were fantastic. They kept quiet and attentive whilst the skaters were skating their programmes - apart from cheering and applauding elements/performances, or cheering on skaters after a mishap.

It was a truly great atmosphere - almost as good as the one at Kaunas in 2023 (which was really special).

Kaunas (which was really special) was 2024. 2023 was Finland.

 

[Ruthypegs]

Kaunas (which was really special) was 2024. 2023 was Finland.

Yes, thank you @TT_Fin - you're right - I've lost track - post now corrected

 

[Anna K.]

So, I have a question about Deniss' step sequence.

If it makes you feel better, Stephane had the same question and delivered it to the ref (Latvian television caught a glimpse of it; I posted a link in Deniss' fanfest thread).

 

[Arriba627]

I enjoyed the performances of Deniss and Matteo. Felt very bad to see Kevin implode. The ladies event seemed very weak, and for me there weren't any memorable programs. Always enjoy pairs. Juulia & Mattias and Charlene & Marco were my faves in dance.

The audience was really great and seemed so into it and appreciative. I would love to attend a competition there and hope maybe they will hold a GP event there in the future.

 

[dorispulaski]

The British federation used to hold a fall GP type competition, last in 1990/1991.

They could resurrect Skate Electric (St. Ivel's)!

St. Ivel International - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Ruthypegs]

The British federation used to hold a fall GP type competition, last in 1990/1991.

They could resurrect Skate Electric (St. Ivel's)!

St. Ivel International - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

They held two new events at IceSheffield in August/September last year, which I think they're planning to run again - the Robin Cousins Cup (singles and pairs) and the Bolero Cup (ice dance).

[Unfortunately, they didn't really publicise either event, so the audience numbers were tiny.]

Hopefully, they can learn from this, though, and build the events in future.

 

[Mathman]

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.

This is so true. It constantly surprises me to read post after post, from figure skating fans, along the lines of, "Figure skating is a horrible, unwatchable faux sport -- how can anyone possibly like it?"

 

[chepe]

This is so true. It constantly surprises me to read post after post, from figure skating fans, along the lines of, "Figure skating is a horrible, unwatchable faux sport -- how can anyone possibly like it?"

Of all the sports I have followed casually - I think boxing has the most toxic fanbase. Anyone who is depressed over fan culture of their favourite sport, should follow little boxing to cheer themselves up. Backstabbing when somebody has a bad match or unexpected loss is insane, complaints about boring and unwatchable fights outnumber positive commentary by about 20 to 1, and if you think ice dance judges are corrupt, they got nothing on boxing referees...

Anyway, about the Euros - men's event was not that interesting. Some good performances, but not very memorable. Kevin Didn't watch pairs. Women had better programs on the whole than men, but technical level was not very high. SP was okay, but FS had only few well skated programs, of which Niina was fortuously one. Taljegård, Karhunen, Sauter stood out positively.

My feeling about ice dance was about same as last year: deserving winner but I couldn't get myself very excited, and the score was overblown. The program was beautiful, but felt somewhat stale. G/F redeemed themselves somewhat from the robots, it was not the most original or interesting FD but showcased their strengths. Brits had weak FS and shouldn't have podiumed. The program is actually better than last years' boring Beyonce medley, which felt like it was generated by AI. But they didn't perform it well and wouldn't have medalled without home field advantage (But they got weird high scores last year too, so maybe I'm just an idiot).

 

[Anna K.]

My feeling about ice dance was about same as last year: deserving winner but I couldn't get myself very excited, and the score was overblown. The program was beautiful, but felt somewhat stale. G/F redeemed themselves somewhat from the robots, it was not the most original or interesting FD but showcased their strengths. Brits had weak FS and shouldn't have podiumed. The program is actually better than last years' boring Beyonce medley, which felt like it was generated by AI. But they didn't perform it well and wouldn't have medalled without home field advantage (But they got weird high scores last year too, so maybe I'm just an idiot).

What do you think about Smart/Dieck?

 

[chepe]

What do you think about Smart/Dieck?

Hmm..well I like them a lot, but I wasn't really feeling their RD. It wasn't bad (and at least it wasn't Ricky Martin) but felt bit simple. Their good chemistry helps selling it tho. Dune II, OTOH, I'm digging it. It wasn't as good as the first, but given that same can be said about the movie, I take it as clever meta commentary

I thought Georgians were noticeably better than last year. Finnish teams seemed bit rusty. I continue to adore L/B, their chemistry is so weird, but I'm buying whatever they're selling.

 

[Anna K.]

Talking about Smart/Dieck, here is Olivia telling about her home European Championships (she's from Sheffield):

 

[Mathman]

OK, so they just showed the top men and dance performances on U.S. network TV this afternoon. I didn't get to see the entire competition all up and down the line, but for me the long programs by Rizzo and by Fear & Gibson (= costume award -- too bad about the twizzles) ) and Guignard & Fabri (costume award #2) stood out.

Egadze made up for a PCS deficit by his "I can do this" panache. Fournier-Beaudry & Cizeron deserved their commanding scores.