British and Irish Figure skating 2021-2022

[La Rhumba]

Just heard from the Mother of a British Skater:

Hey, just a heads up FREEZE 5th Feb 9pm BBC3

New date.

Episode 1 of 4 x 45 min Episodes

Sheffield ice skater and reigning British champion PJ faces the fight of his life as he competes against the biggest names in global figure skating at the World Championships. In Oxford, a lift goes wrong for new Pairs team Harry and Lydia, and upcoming ice-dance talent Billy goes in search of a perfect partner.

 

[La Rhumba]

Loving the full details of Ep.2!

Episode 2​

Freeze Skating on the Edge
Episode 2 of 4

British Ice Skating makes a shock announcement that leaves the squad with even less time to prepare for the Skate Off – the first competition in which the entire squad skates against each other - with the victors winning the opportunity to qualify a place for Team GB at the Olympics.
In Nottingham, Kristen is on a comeback mission following a spinal injury that threatens to ruin her career. Opting for a strict physio regimen over spinal surgery, Kristen wants to show the skating world that she has what it takes to be the best female skater in Britain. Kristen meets with her spinal surgeon following an MRI for an update on the status of her injury. With a cash injection from her parents, Kristen travels to the elite IceLab training centre in Italy where Coach Ondrej puts her through her paces. In stark contrast to the UK, where rinks prioritise public sessions and elite skaters have to train at the most unsociable hours, IceLab is an elite-only facility where world-class skaters and medal-adorned coaches provide the best training environment one could possibly conceive. After losing sensation in her foot, Kristen never thought she would be able to land a triple combination jump – but Ondrej is set to prove her wrong.
Ice Dance duo Anthony and Eleanor are grafters with glittering dreams of making it on to the squad and eventually on to the no 1 podium. But first they have to impress the judges. Their chance comes when they are invited to submit footage of their latest routine. But for perfectionist Anthony, the pressure of making every moment count is overwhelming. Without the judges' endorsement the pair won’t be able to compete abroad or qualify the score they need to join the squad.
In Sheffield, injury threatens to derail Billy’s try-out with experienced American skater Kat. The pair are courted by Ice Dance royalty Christopher Dean, who is back in the UK and on the lookout for the next generation of talent. With Katarina prepared to switch to Team GB, Billy faces the
biggest decision of his life.

 

[La Rhumba]

Omg poor Harry.

Episode 3​

Freeze Skating on the Edge
Episode 3 of 4

After months of struggling with his Triple Axel, reigning champion PJ finally has a breakthrough. But there’s little time to celebrate as the British Ice Skating federation announces a Skate-Off to be held for all elite athletes. The event will see the country’s finest skaters vie for the chance to show they deserve top ranking. But the most glittering prize on offer is the chance to compete in Germany at the upcoming Olympic Qualifier. Only the winner of the Skate-Off will be given the golden opportunity to earn a Team GB spot in Beijing 2022. Hot on PJ’s heels is two-time British Champion Graham Newberry who has his eyes firmly focused on the podium. Primed for success by his father and coach, former Champion Christian Newberry, Graham is a force to be reckoned with. Where crowd-pleaser PJ brings charm and personality to the ice, Graham is known for his dramatic programmes that are designed to woo the judges. All eyes in the skating world will be glued to these two as they fight it out for the top spot.
After a year of intense training and physio, elite skater Kristen is ready to make her comeback after a spinal injury and the Skate-Off offers the perfect opportunity to prove her mettle. For this explosive athlete, admired for her strength and power across the ice, the balletic demands of the sport are harder to nail than the gravity-defying jumps, and Kristen would rather be channelling Nicki Minaj than a prima ballerina. Kristen’s main competition is someone who revels in the sequinned elegance of the sport and is famed for her grace and composure on the ice – Nina Povey.
This Nottingham-born skater has spent her life on the ice, and whilst the skating world agrees she has the talent to make it to the top, she has yet to realise her potential.
As the Skate-Off approaches new pair Harry and Lydia are stepping up their training in anticipation of making their debut in front of the British judging community – and first impressions are everything. Harry reveals the disturbing truth about his past experience with an abusive coach and injury once again threatens to derail the pair.

 

[La Rhumba]

Episode 4​

Freeze Skating on the Edge
Episode 4 of 4

Up-and-coming skaters desperate to make the elite Performance Squad compete at the British Qualifiers. With anxiety sky-high, in a sport that demands perfection, the mounting pressure proves too much for some.
After narrowly missing out on making the squad last season – by a crushing 0.01 of a point – Emily Hayward is on a mission to ensure this year she makes the grade. Training in Sheffield alongside squad members like PJ and Nina has fired up determination in her that she hopes will see her through to success at the British Qualifiers. To compete with the elite squad Emily will have to nail her triple jumps but she suffers a setback when a training session goes wrong and Emily’s mental strength becomes her biggest asset.
Also hoping to earn a spot on the Performance Squad is twenty-year old skater Eleanor. Having just stepped up from the less pressurised Junior category, this will be Eleanor’s first competition as a fully-fledged Senior competitor. This is her chance to prove she can brazen it out with the big kids. But in a sport where mental resilience often proves more important than on-ice talent, Eleanor faces an internal battle that she must win before she steps onto the ice.
After failing to impress British Ice Skating judges, Ice Dance duo Anthony and Eleanor are back in action and more determined than ever to prove to the establishment they are capable of representing GB abroad. The British Qualifiers is their chance to set the record straight and earn enough points to unlock the door to the international circuit. Anthony learns a valuable lesson as he grapples with his perfectionist attitude and tries to tame his often-cruel inner voice.
Ranked number seven in the world, British Ice Dance duo Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson took the skating world by storm with their disco routine in the 2018-2019 season and represent Britain’s greatest hope for an Olympic medal in Beijing. The pair travel home from their elite training hub in Montreal and will unveil their brand-new programme at the British qualifiers.

_____________________

Interesting to hear about Eleanor & Anthony, and with respect to their student @Ruthypegs their perfectionism and ambition may outstrip their talent.

 

[La Rhumba]

I must say one half of the Olympic World Feed Commentary team, Olly Hogben has turned out to be a nice fella. He is en route to Beijing, got some free WiFi and realised a pile on was happening on his behalf, so sent me several messages. I will tune in and hear him and Belinda as I know Kat Downes on BBC will drive me to distraction.

 

[Ruthypegs]

Episode 4​

Freeze Skating on the Edge


Interesting to hear about Eleanor & Anthony, and with respect to their student @Ruthypegs their perfectionism and ambition may outstrip their talent.

I disagree - IMHO, Eleanor and Anthony are both very talented ice dancers - but their circumstances put them at a huge disadvantage compared to the other two top British teams.

Fear and Gibson and Fear and Waddell have far more practice/ice time available to them and they have at their disposal some of the best practice facilities in the world. In contrast, Anthony and Eleanor have to fit their training around public sessions/patch time at a public rink (which often has poorly maintained ice), and have to teach beginners like me/hold down other jobs in order to fund their skating.

 

[Ruthypegs]

The documentary about John Curry, "The Ice King" is now on Netflix, UK. It's definitely worth watching if you have a subscription.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Just letting you know that I have just posted a TV Schedule post in the "General Info" thread over in the Olympics forum.

https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/posts/2912811

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan

 

[La Rhumba]

Billy hopes to emulate coach Christropher Dean at future Winter Olympics

A TEENAGER from Royston is working with Christopher Dean with the aim of emulating the ice dancing legend and winning Wi... Local News Sport Barnsley South Yorkshire

www.barnsleychronicle.com

Interview with Junior icedancer Billy Wilson-French.

2026 Olympics is going to be a tough one for Team GB icedancers to qualify for! Lilah & Lewis and Sasha & George will still be competing. Hopefully we'll have 3 couples able to go. Current favourites for 3rd would be Phebe & James competing in Egna this weekend in the Junior event.

 

[La Rhumba]

Go to 3hr 16min 30secs for an interview with PJ Hallam and Eleanor Hayes about the new BBCThree show Freeze (not on tonight but 5th Feb). PJ says he'd love to join Cirque du Soleil or Holiday on Ice now he's retired from competition.

Toby Foster at Breakfast - 01/02/2022 - BBC Sounds

Toby wakes up South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire with topical chat and plenty of laughs.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

The other complication is BT Sport. BT want to exit TV broadcasting, and are trying to sell BT Sport before their content deal with ESPN runs out next month (when the deal ends, Disney plan to put the ESPN content onto Disney+. And no doubt the fans of these sports will cancel their BT Sport subscription. So, BT want out before that happens). DAZN have been in discussions about buying BT Sport for months, but the talks have got bogged down and have recently hit the rocks. And now Discovery has started discussions with BT.

Whilst it would be nice to have one subscription service that would show all the wintersports and motorbike racing that I follow, my concern is that BT Sport and Eurosport have different approaches to what they go for. BT Sport used to have a good mix, but has been shedding it's smaller sports in recent years to focus on paying silly money for mainstream sports. Eurosport has traditionally shunned mainstream sports and gone instead for smaller sports. If they were merged, I fear that a combined business would concentrate on the mainstream sports, as they are what brings in subscribers. And you know fine well that figure skating would be the first thing to go.

So, I hope DAZN and BT can sort out their differences and complete the deal. And then hopefully Discovery will let Eurosport carry on with the same approach they have always taken over the years, and not get tempted by the bright lights of mainstream sports.

CaroLiza_fan

BT held their board meeting yesterday, and the fate of BT Sport was decided.

BT are not selling their sport channels to DAZN. Instead they are forming a joint venture with Discovery, whereby BT Sport will be merged with Eurosport.

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-group-en...very-inc-to-create-new-sports--joint-venture/
https://media.discoverysports.com/p...rms-exclusive-discussions-with-bt-group-to-cr

I'm scared that having the rights to mainstream sports like football, rugby and cricket is going to change Eurosport. These are the sports that will pull in the most subscribers, so these are the sports that will be prioritised. And the minority sports that Eurosport has always specialised in will be pushed down the pecking order, if not off it.

The only reason we subscribed to BT Sport was to get the MotoGP. For 20 years, Eurosport had the pan-European rights to MotoGP. It was the jewel in their crown. But then the promotors of the sport decided to start selling the rights on a country-by-country basis rather than on a continental basis, to get in more money. Unfortunately, Eurosport decided to not put up much of a fight to keep the rights. And BT Sport won the rights in the British Isles.

Despite their long history together, Eurosport didn't see retaining MotoGP rights as a priority 10 years ago. And given that Eurosport have just lost the rights in the last country that they still had the MotoGP rights in, the Netherlands, it doesn't look like they have re-gained their interest in MotoGP.

So, if this joint venture decides to get rid of the MotoGP, or any of the other motorsports or winter sports that I currently watch on Eurosport, I will be very angry.

Even if these sports do stay, it is unlikely that we will have it as good as we have now.

As I mentioned in my previous post, BT paid silly money to get the rights to the Premier League and Champions League. And to recoup the money, BT Sport had to change from being free to BT broadband subscribers to being £20 a month on top of the broadband charges. Which means that a year of BT Sport costs £240.

And that's just in Standard Definition. If you want to watch BT Sport in High Definition, it is an extra £6.50 a month. Which brings the total to £318 for a year.

The full Discovery+ is currently £7 a month, or £60 for a year. In fact, until the end of the Olympics, they are doing an offer where you can buy a year's subscription for £30.

Somehow, I can't see the prices for Discovery+ staying that low once the content from BT Sport and HBO Max gets added.

Unless Discovery+ is transformed into a package service, with the mainstream sports being put into a separate package to the other sports, it looks like it will become very expensive for us to watch our favourite wintersports and motorsports legally.

And all because of silly money being spent on football rights. A sport I have no interest in whatsoever.

You can tell I'm not happy.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[La Rhumba]

Thank you for the update @CaroLiza_fan

Football skews everything! It does make me wonder about folk complaining about the BBC License Fee when you see the prices charged for subscription channels compared to what we get on BBC. Please fight for it if you believe in keeping the License Fee.

A local BBC London report with LilahandLewis. As usual in Olympic season, the fact checking is non existent, but until we get a diehard FS Fan reporter it will always be the same unfortunately.

https://twitter.com/lauren_k_moore/status/1488960652320325637?t=Y5h5d9sVA9k0Q1yZkNfanQ&s=19

 

[La Rhumba]

Disappointingly there is no No Commentary option on Eurosport Player On Demand which would be my preferred option. And unlike previous Olympics, no world feed commentary this time. Instead we have Chris Howarth and Louise Walden. The foghorn voice is already grating after one event. Why they don't use Marika Baranova who has a pleasant voice, is a former Olympian finishing 15th at Salt Lake City and a former Olympic Tech Spec, now Coach, I'll never know.

The ES Player has expanded with Olympic content. They even have the Montreal icedancer docu series On Edge on there, so they must have a tie up with the Olympic channel who made it.

Good Luck to Team GB skaters!

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Disappointingly there is no No Commentary option on Eurosport Player On Demand which would be my preferred option. And unlike previous Olympics, no world feed commentary this time. Instead we have Chris Howarth and Louise Walden. The foghorn voice is already grating after one event. Why they don't use Marika Baranova who has a pleasant voice, is a former Olympian finishing 15th at Salt Lake City and a former Olympic Tech Spec, now Coach, I'll never know.

On this video, the only the option is to listen to Chris and Louise:

https://www.eurosportplayer.com/olympics/videos/eurosport-1-british/short-program-e1-coverage

But on this video, you can choose from 10 different audio soundtracks, and the no commentary option is top of the list:

https://www.eurosportplayer.com/olympics/videos/eurosport/short-program-2161184

I had hoped that the English option on that video would be Belinda and Olly, but it is Chris and Louise.

There are 4 Senior B events on this weekend, and there are skaters that I have adopted competing in a couple of them. So, I am concentrating of those events, and will start into the Olympics after the weekend.

By the way, the Interclub portion of the Reykjavik International Games was held today, and there was a good contingent of skaters from the Basingstoke club taking part. And one of them, Ava Mae WILSON, is coming home with the Intermediate Novice Gold Medal.

I'm not sure where the Basingstoke girls in Chicks and Cubs finished up, because the results pages for those segments are still showing the start order, and there was no results table shown on screen at the end of the segments.

Edward APPLEBY and Alana PANG kick off their campaigns tomorrow. Both of them will be the last skater to go in their respective Junior SP. (In Ed's case, he is the only skater to go!)

And I'm sure you already know that Natalia PALLU NEVES / Jayin PANESAR and Phebe BEKKER / James HERNANDEZ are in action in Junior Short Dance tomorrow at the Egna Ice Dance Trophy. Natalia and Jayin are first to skate, while Phebe and James are in the final group.

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan

 

[teainamug]

Episode 4​

Freeze Skating on the Edge


Interesting to hear about Eleanor & Anthony, and with respect to their student @Ruthypegs their perfectionism and ambition may outstrip their talent.

I disagree - IMHO, Eleanor and Anthony are both very talented ice dancers - but their circumstances put them at a huge disadvantage compared to the other two top British teams.

Fear and Gibson and Fear and Waddell have far more practice/ice time available to them and they have at their disposal some of the best practice facilities in the world. In contrast, Anthony and Eleanor have to fit their training around public sessions/patch time at a public rink (which often has poorly maintained ice), and have to teach beginners like me/hold down other jobs in order to fund their skating.

I agree. Lilah and Sasha have a budget at their disposal which gives them the opportunity to have training perfection. Anthony and Eleanor are a couple of working class kids who coach in order to fund themselves. Their training is far from perfect and like so many GB skaters, they most probably will never get the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Don’t get me wrong the Fear sisters are great athletes and deserve to be where they are but it is just such a shame that other teams are compared to them and written off when there is no level playing field out there.

 

[La Rhumba]

On this video, the only the option is to listen to Chris and Louise:

https://www.eurosportplayer.com/olympics/videos/eurosport-1-british/short-program-e1-coverage

But on this video, you can choose from 10 different audio soundtracks, and the no commentary option is top of the list:

https://www.eurosportplayer.com/olympics/videos/eurosport/short-program-2161184

I had hoped that the English option on that video would be Belinda and Olly, but it is Chris and Louise.

That second one was the video I watched yesterday, and I just tried it again, "Ambient Sound" cuts off the foghorn! Thank you @CaroLiza_fan as it looks like we don't have many favourable options. Other Skating fans on twitter who stayed up to watch the Team Event on BBC were disappointed when they cut away to other sports in the middle of it. I asked Olly who is taking the world feed as it's no longer on Eurosport Player and this was his reply:

"I believe we're going out in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, so I think that if you can access the CBC player then you'll probably hear us there!"

Though an Aussie friend tells me he is blagging a bit with the technical knowledge but very good pronunciations of names, and Belinda is the main voice, but still would be nice to hear them.

Cheers for the Senior B update also. I was very sad Ashlie & Atl didn’t take part in the Advanced Novice at Egna, one last International outing in that category, especially as their Coaches are going over with Natalia & Jayin. I watched it and was an enjoyable competition and Ash & Atl definitely would've been on the Podium, and they actually showed the medal ceremonies for Novices which is practically unheard of, so I could've recorded and uploaded to YouTube, but they are busy training to be ready for Juniors!

Praying for Jayin's Twizzles in 10 mins time! Sadly the daily videos aren't archived and you can't rewind, so if you can't watch live, you miss it, I'm afraid which is such a shame.

 

[La Rhumba]

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

 

[La Rhumba]

BBC London News Report on #LilahandLewis with their first Coach at #AllyPally Karen Quinn. ⛸

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

 

[DSQ]

Sorry I’ve been away so long!

Has anyone finished watching Freeze? I just binged the whole thing and I have feelings.

It’s a shame the none of the Dundee skaters seem to be involved because it would’ve been very interesting to see their point of view as the top rink in the country.

 

[Intheknow]

It’s a shame the none of the Dundee skaters seem to be involved because it would’ve been very interesting to see their point of view as the top rink in the country.

The next few episodes in the works will have them involved.