catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-03-23 07:01 pm
Entry tags:

[figure skating] worlds is cancelled

Worlds is over but Worlds is also cancelled. Any Worlds that makes Shoma Uno cry is not a Worlds I want to be part of. Any Worlds that puts Vincent Zhou, trump supporter, in front of Shoma Uno and like fifty other skaters I'd rather see with bronze is a Bad Worlds. Japan being the host didn't help team Japan at all despite having several medal favorites. The only Japanese medalist was Yuzuru.

Other than bronze, I'm fine with the podium. Nathan really brought everything and deserved the title, and Yuzuru came back from injury with two great performances. They were amazing to watch back-to-back!

I'm so heartbroken for Shoma though and a little worried. He and Yuzuru both looked off, but Shoma especially, and it was really strange. It could have just been nerves getting to him in the end, which is rare but happens to everyone. Either way I'm really sad that it took a huge hit to Shoma's self-esteem based on what he's said about himself when interviewed right afterwards. Hopefully today he's less hard on himself and he takes his accomplishments from this season to heart, because he has a lot to be proud of.

I'm so glad this competition is done though. I've never seen something go from looking so good to being so terrible.
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-03-06 10:08 am
Entry tags:

[figure skating]: wjc and universiade

I'm sad I can't watch the World Junior Championships and Universiade live other than today because I'm going on a trip. There's a lot of skaters I love competing and I won't get to see them compete again this season.

I never really watched juniors before this past season and ended up watching it for the Grand Prix Final because it was made so accessible comparatively. It's really hard to watch most competitions, but the junior Grand Prix Final was streamed on the ISU's youtube page for it. The ISU is also streaming the World Junior Championships for free. Might as well take advantage and these skaters are the future so it's interesting to see who is coming up.

It's also a good preparation for Worlds in two weeks which will be...something. I really really really hope it's better than last year's Worlds, which was horrible to watch. It was literally just...pain pain pain pain anxiety and like two people did well. The competitions up to this point are kind of...I don't know what it means for Worlds in terms of men (ladies did great so it'll be a really good competition to watch.) Like, men during Europeans were not great except for Javier, who isn't competing, and a few others who weren't on the podium. But the men at Four Continents were amazing and it was one of the cleanest men's competitions I've see this season (maybe THE cleanest men's competition?).

So we'll see
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-02-10 07:23 pm

[figure skating]: four continents the four continenting

In keeping with the apparent need to make this competition as dramatic as possible, ice dance (the last discipline) ended with a huge upset that confused literally everyone watching including the skaters. I almost never watch ice dance live because I don't know a thing, but this was at a reasonable time and it is interesting, so I watched.

Long story short, going into the free program two American teams, Hubbell/Donohue and Chock/Bates, were really really close for first and second. In the free skate everyone in their group performed amazingly. Chock/Bates were in first, with Hubbell/Donohue as the last skaters. At the end of H/D's skate the tech box in the upper left hand corner shows that their technical score is about even with C/B, so it could literally go either way and is pretty much down to performance component scores (the more subjective shit.)

But the scores took forever to come out. A really awkwardly long amount of time, and when they did they were low enough to put H/D in fourth. The arena was shocked (you could hear it), the other skaters were shocked, and everyone watching not in the arena was shocked. Their technical score had dropped a full 7 points, which isn't really common in ice dance. It's common in the other three disciplines because jumps, in review, can have a lot of errors, but jumps don't exist in ice dance. Points are usually lost based on level of difficulty. However, H/D lost points for a whole element. A stationary spin done at the beginning of the program was downgraded because they traveled while doing it. RIP.

The gala is later and I hope I can watch it. Everyone needs to have fun after that what-the-fuck of a competition. The weirdest part is, despite all that stress and up-and-down the podiums are pretty much a step above what you'd expect.
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-02-10 10:03 am

[figure skating]: MORE SCREAMING WTF WTF

The best thing ever happened last night and I'm still in awe: despite everything, Shoma Uno won Four Continents gold and broke the free skate world record for highest score. It's his first gold medal at a major international event in his senior career and I'm so proud!

Shoma has had the "silver" curse -- basically, no matter what big competition he's at and no matter who's there, he's ended up with silver, and this year he wanted to make a huge effort to get gold. He got injured in December and apparently re-injured his ankle twice in the past few weeks. His short program was watered down and not great as a result, and he was angry enough about it that he said he was going to attack the free skate. Practice reports didn't seem encouraging and he had ~8 points to make up to get into first. He did that easily with an amazing free skate and I'm so, so proud of him. He achieved what he set out to do.

And it wasn't an easy field. The men, especially the last two groups, were amazing. Usually the men's events have a lot of falling because of quads, but this time around people were on their game. It's the first time in a while (ever since I've started watching seriously, I thin?) that I've seen a men's competition be that good. Keegan Messing did well. Jason Brown attempted his quad and wasn't successful but the rest of his program was amazing, and he really is incredibly skilled at everything. The jumps are his only issue. Vincent didn't choke internationally (he got bronze.) Junhwan did well despite falling in the placements and I always love his free program (JUNLIET!) and it's so good to see Boyang back and doing well! Boyang got silver, anad this is the best he's been all season by a long shot!

Some salt
Read more... )

Anyway, I'm really glad everyone did well! It makes things really interesting going into worlds, for both the men and the ladies. And I'm glad there was no Kaori-level disappointments where a PCs point cost someone the podium. There are only two events left: ice dance free and the gala. I hope I can watch the gala but it's always a pain to find the streams and it runs late.

This event has been a wild ride from start to finish. I'm glad it's almost over.
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-02-09 12:36 pm

[figure skating]: JUSTICE FOR KAORI

(I’m typing this on mobile so there might be typos.) Okay before the salt and sadness let’s talk about the good: the ladies did really really well. I’m impressed by everyone and overall it was a really good competition. Rika won! She came back from fifth to first with her free, which is incredible. It’s easy for her to gain points with the triple axel, but it’s hard to do one, and she usually always manages to nail at least one in the free. I admire her because there were several competitions this season where she had to come from behind to win or get on the podium and she’s really good at it. I also love her free program! The music is good the choreography is great the content is great Rika is pretty much always on her game with it. One day I hope she manages to skate both her short and free clean because she would probably break a world record with it. So far she hasn’t but there’s still worlds.

Mariah also has a free program I love. It’s so pretty! Mai Mihara did amazing in her free program as well and performed her heart out after a bad short. The last group in general was really good. And then...

There is Kaori. My biggest issue with the competition so far (and I hope the only one but I have a bad feeling about men’s.) I love Kaori. I love her free program. It’s beautiful and she skates it so well. It’s an emotional performance and the quality of her elements is amazing. She does not, however, get the performance scores she deserves. They are too low.

This happened in the short program where she was second to Bradie by not a lot, and in the free she was less than a point off silver and bronze. The silver medalist fell and was ahead of her. But that isn’t the problem. Kaori made one mistake (popping an axel) but the rest of her program was amazing. And she still got scored one point off the podium, despite the performance, with too low PCs and everyone agree she was lowballed.

When I say everyone I mean it. The expert twitter account that follows competition scoring in real time agreed. Most of twitter agreed. The CROWD agreed. You know a bad decision was made when the crowd has a bad reaction when the scores are read out, and the crowd’s reaction to Kaori’s score was really bad. It felt like all the cheer was sucked out of the arena even just watching from the live stream. And Kaori’s reaction was devastating — SHES really expressive and honest off ice and she started sobbing when she realized she wasn’t going to medal. BY LESS THAN ONE POINT! ITS FRUSTRATING! I feel horrible for her especially because the program was so beautiful.

There was also some shit in ice dance which is...unfortunate.

This makes me worry for the men, who already had their own shenanigans going on. Even without that I’m worried because I want Shoma to medal and it would be so sad if he didn’t. But even if he doesn’t, if someone is shafted because of bad scoring and it costs them a medal I will be very angry. I won’t be awake (just like I wasn’t awake for ladies and had to wake up to that news and then watch the replays) so I hope I wake up to good news. Prayer circle for Shoma and for anyone who isn’t in first right now. I FEAR
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-02-08 02:31 pm

[figure skating]: four continents men's short

So I said I was going to be asleep for the men's short and I was, but I woke up at exactly the time Shoma was up to skate and ended up watching. No idea how that happened, I didn't set an alarm and didn't know what time he was skating...anyway, some salt under the cut along with some praise:

Read more... )

Men's free skates I'm looking forward to tomorrow night:

Shoma - this makes me incredibly anxious as it always does
Boyang - I hope he keeps the confidence he seems to have now
Junhwan - JUNLIET!! ALWAYS FUN TO WATCH!
Jason - he's such a beautiful skater
Tomoki - he's really done well this season and is so expressive
Kazuki - RIVERDANCE !!!!
Donovan - I've never seen his free before but based on the short I'm excited!
Nam - I hate the music choice (sorry I just hate La La Land) but I really like him skating to it

Tonight is ladies, though. Free skates I'm looking forward to from the ladies:

Kaori - I love her so much and her free is beautiful. I think she can win! She's the defending champion too so that would be nice.
Rika - she does the coming back from behind thing a lot and if she nails her two triple axels she'll probably win, something I wouldn't mind either because I love her too. I also love her free program so much!
Mariah - another beautiful free program, I want her to get the performance scores she deserves!
Ting - I saw her free done perfectly at Nationals and it was lovely, so it would be great to see it here like that too.
Eunsoo- she has a fun free program
Yelim - I'm really curious about her after seeing her in the Junior Grand Prix Final
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-02-07 09:27 pm

[figure skating] four continents part 1

Four Continents started today with the Ladies Short and the Men's Short is...in a few minutes but going past midnight so I'm not staying up for that. I might stay up for the free on Saturday even though it's also really late but...we'll see.

The ladies did really well! Kaori Sakamoto -- AAA I LOVE HER SO MUCH SHE WAS SO GOOD! I think she should've been in first but...what can you did. Mariah Bell also did amazingly, and was scored too low, but both of them are still in the top three and not behind by much, especially Kaori. I have every bit of faith Kaori can do well in the free -- her free program is beautiful. And Rika -- I think every competition Rika has a mistake either in the short or the free on her triple axel. I've never seen her hit it in both programs which is a shame, because I want to see what happens when she does. But when she doesn't hit it in the short, she usually comes back in the free, so she's not out of it yet.

Very nervous for the men. Shoma sprained his ankle -- TWO MORE TIMES since Nationals!! I don't even know how this is possible, but somehow he seems 100% happier before this competition than he was before the Grand Prix Final or any of his Grand Prix competitions, despite not being injured. I think whatever realization he had at JP Nationals is carrying over here and I hope that he can be happy even if he doesn't get the gold he's been wanting all season. And, not gonna lie, I think he won't unless he skates perfectly and the others don't. He watered down his program content because of the injury, and while it's still difficult, I know that some of the other skaters have more difficult planned program content -- Boyang Jin and Vincent Zhou specifically. And...well...I'm fine with Boyang winning, he's great and he's the defending champion and he had his own confidence issues early this season. But Vincent above Shoma is something I cannot live with ever at all. I am still mad about Vincent over Jason Brown at Nationals.

Jason is gonna be there! Junhwan Cha is also there and I hope he does really well!

Team Japan in general has been pretty chaotic. Kaori started things off by saying she'd give her life for success at this competition. Rika is wearing mismatched skates (one gold blade and one silver) because one of her boots was worn down, *and* she dislocated a finger on Tuesday. Shoma has his sprained ankle. I hope the others aren't hiding some strange issue that will throw a wrench in things.

Here's hoping I wake up to good news with the men. As far as I know, most of them have been doing relatively well in practice.
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-01-27 07:29 pm
Entry tags:

[figure skating]: thank god that's over

 Nathan Chen is National Champion, Jason Brown is bronze, we won't talk about the other one! It was really fun to watch but I'm glad all those competitions are done and there's a week's break between these and the next ones because that was...a lot of skating. A LOT. It's still technically not done, there's a gala skate for Nationals in half an hour but I don't think there's a way to see it because the US is shit so...it's effectively over. 

In two weeks is Four Continents which will be 300% more stress because Shoma Uno is gonna be there. He's my favorite, but he's also coming off an injury that is apparently worse than he thought. AND he wants to be better this season, which means that his confidence was a lot lower up until JP Nationals (when he was injured, but ironically he did better and he said it made his confidence come back.) Shoma is frustrated with always getting silver and I would LOVE to see him get gold at either Four Continents or Worlds (or both!) but the injury is going to be a challenge if it isn't better. Then there's the fact that Nathan Chen, who did the free skate to end all free skates at Nationals, is going to be at 4CCs and has beaten Shoma multiple times. And then he and Yuzuru will be at Worlds, and Shoma has never beaten Yuzuru either. I also like Nathan and Yuzuru, I just want Shoma to be able to reach his goals because yeah, coming in second all the time is frustrating. 

Nathan has a lot of different quads that he can land cleanly, though, and Shoma and Yuzuru both don't have as much I don't think. Nathan has the quad lutz which is lit, and Shoma and Yuzuru don't as far as I know. I think there was more variety last year and the year before, but this year things have been toned down (for everyone, but for Nathan 'toned down' means like...only four quads and not five.) All of this is not even factoring the other men's skaters I enjoy, including Boyang Jin who could definitely also make things difficult (he beat Shoma last year at 4CCs RIP) if he manages to get his confidence back, since it was not in a good place earlier this season, but he did amazingly at Chinese Nationals. 

I want many things for many people. THIS DOESN'T EVEN COUNT THE LADIES! TBH I don't really know what I want from them either because I want many of them to do well but it's hard to tell on any given day who's gonna come out on top. Like Rika Kihira and Satoko Miyahara did really well this season, but Kaori did better than Satoko in the Grand Prix Final and won Nationals. Similarly, Alina was expected to do well, but Elizaveta and Sofia both have also done well, and Sofia became European Champion over Alina. And US ladies KJFLKADSJFKLSDJFADSDSA idk about all that. Not that the European ladies matter for Four Continents, because they're not going to be there. 

This is a lot of rambling to say I'm not ready for Four Continents. 
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-01-26 07:33 am

[figure skating] *INCOHERENT SCREAMING*

 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS MENS AND LADIES AND PAIRS ARE OVER AND I'M SCREAMINF OH MY GOD I AM SO HAPPY WITH THE GOLD MEDALISTS 

Sofia Samodurova for ladies gold (in her first year as a senior!), Javier Fernandez for men's gold (HIS SEVENTH IN A ROW) (AND IT'S HIS LAST COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE) and Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres for pairs gold (MANY TEARS THEY'RE SO GOOD) 

Mens and Ladies definitely had unexpected things happening, though. For mens, it was unexpected that Matteo and probably Alexander would end up on the podium, but Mikhail Kolyada (who was expected) had a really bad free skate after an amazing short and I think he injured himself? I hope not...Also really good was Kevin Aymoz in 4th -- his short especially. And Javier killed it of course! On only three weeks of training! Matteo skated to Queen so A+++ 

Ladies: Alina Zagitova was definitely the favorite, and I think it was expected that the podium would be all Russian (Alina, Sofia, Stanislava) but that did not happen. Stanislava had a really bad short program, Alina had a really bad long program (she's been having issues with it all season) and Sofia killed both programs. Viveca Lindfors from Finland was third with a program to Les Mis! 

Carmen programs should be cancelled. All three people, all from Russia (Alina, Mikhail, and Maxim Kovtun), who performed it for their free skate had disaster. 

The slow burn horror at knowing that Alexander Samarin could medal and possibly even win was fun to watch on Twitter. I don't really like him either RIP his free program bothers me so much because he isn't the person for it at all. (It's a Greatest Showman program) 

That was fun to watch though. Also fun to watch was the US ladies free skate! Alysa Liu won Nationals at 13 years old, becoming the youngest woman to win it ever, with three triple axels across both programs. My slight salt with the podium here is that I wish Mariah was silver over Bradie based solely on their free skates (I like them both), since they both had really good short programs but Mariah had a better free imo. 

US everything else is today (and the men's free tomorrow) so that should be fun! I imagine Nathan Chen is going to get gold, but we'll see. 
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-01-25 08:55 am
Entry tags:

[figure skating]: EEEEE

 JAVIER FERNANDEZ FOR GOLD 2K19!!! 

It was really fun to watch the men and pairs and US ladies. Everyone feels like they improved from the beginning of the season and is bringing their best, which is cool to watch. Mikhail Kolyada FINALLY killed his short program! I'm so happy for him! Kevin Aymoz was really fun to watch (he did a cartwheel in his step sequence) and Javier was so good! A bit badly judged, but he is determined to win.

US pairs and ladies short: pairs is...eeeeeehhhh the politics surrounding the pairs competition was not great, if only because people made some shitty decisions. Ladies was better in that no one made any stupid decisions as far as I know, and they did really well. Mariah Bell's short program is really fun to watch, Alysa Liu did that triple axel and is probably going to be on the podium even though she's not eligible for senior anything else for forever because she's 13. If she keeps it up, she could do a lot for US ladies because...well...compared to the top countries they haven't really had anyone able to challenge. 

Three more days (including today.) It's been weird watching figure skating from early morning to late at night because the events are scheduled like that. 
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2019-01-23 08:02 am
Entry tags:

[figure skating] IT'S TIME

 It's time for two big events in one weekend! The European Championships (which I am watching as we speak) and the US National Championships of figure skating. TIME TO CRY! TIME TO WATCH FIGURE SKATING ALL DAY! The events range from like 3am - 11:45pm because both events are in wildly different time zones. The benefit is that they never overlap.

The stress level for these competitions is really low compared to everything else this season (except Canadian Nationals last weekend, which also had low stress levels.) As some of you may know, Shoma Uno is my favorite figure skater and he's not here. A few of my other favorite skaters, whether they be from these countries or not, are also not here. The ones who are here are people I think will do well unless something goes terrible wrong. Things don't often go terribly wrong with the people who are skating this weekend (knock on wood.) 

These events do determine who goes to future events though, so there is at least a tiny amount of stress. 
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2018-12-24 10:28 am

(no subject)

 SHOMA WHYYYYYYYYYY

I ADMIRE HIM BUT ALSO HE GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK AND EVERYONE WHO I WAS SEEING TWEET ABOUT IT ON TWITTER. He injured his ankle before the short and managed to pull off a great performance, then COULDN'T WALK yesterday and couldn't really jump in practice this morning but then went and killed his free program and won nationals. THEN HE SAID THAT THE INJURY GAVE HIM THE CONFIDENCE HE WAS MISSING. CAn we...do the confidence but minus injuries next time? That seems to be a theme of this year with the Olympic medalists t b h they all need rest. 
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2018-12-20 10:32 am

[fic meta - revival series] figure skating order

 Thinking about my figure skating fics: I’ve never paid attention to nationals before (aside from US nationals in 2014 and 2018) so I didn’t realize that Japanese Nationals had 29 men competing…which is a lot…that’s like 5 groups of people (Russia had 3 if I’m doing my math right.) That means the whole thing is 4+ hours long, and I never thought about where Chuuya would’ve been injured during that whole time. 
 
In a lot of competitions the skaters who have the best results from previous competitions are in the final group, but for this one it’s a completely random draw. So in theory Chuuya could’ve been the first skater or the last one, but I had him skating right after Dazai. Which actually, luckily for my fic, isn’t impossible because in this year’s nationals, Shoma Uno, Keiji Tanaka, and Daisuke Takahashi all drew the same group (Group 4) and they are 3 of the 5/6 skaters from Japan who people have been watching internationally all season. A few people are also predicting that those three might make up the podium (or at least, Daisuke and Shoma will.) 
 
This doesn’t change anything about the fic other than me thinking about where in a four hour competition would Chuuya injure himself. The only big injury I saw this season happened to the last skaters. If I had to pick, Chuuya probably would’ve fallen in the second half of the four hour time period, but not in the last group. 
 
This also makes me think about what position Chuuya prefers to skate in. On the one hand, if you skate at the beginning of your group, you don’t have to go in after someone who had an amazing skate that throws you off. But then you have to wait to see if anyone manages to beat your score. If you go at the end, you know where you stand right away. 
 
He probably prefers to skate later, but not directly after someone really good. So he would want to skate after Dazai but he wouldn’t want to be the next skater after Dazai. He wouldn’t mind being last as long as the person before him wasn’t amazing. 
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2018-12-09 11:45 am

(no subject)

 Small post but you can see how I feel about the men's grand prix final here, and the ladies grand prix final here. Tldr; really proud of everyone, ladies was incredible to watch, mens put the fear in my heart. (Ladies did too much there were less falls.) 
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2018-12-08 11:06 pm

(no subject)

 LADIES OH MY GOD 

RIKA KIHIRA WON! I WANTED HER TO WIN AND SHE WON AND SHE DID SO WELL FOR HER FIRST GRAND PRIX FKADJLFJLSFJA I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS! SHE WAS SO STRONG! I'm really happy with the ladies overall and they really put down amazing programs! 
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2018-12-08 08:25 am

(no subject)

 One down, three to go! Mens is over and I'm happy because it's the podium I wanted! Nathan Chen has gold, Shoma Uno silver, and Junhwan Cha bronze.

It would have been nice for Shoma to get gold since he gets silver at every major competition no matter who's there, but I think he's adjusting to a new mindset. He did get over his anxiety from the short program to succeed in the free which is great! Junhwan made history as the first South Korean man to qualify for and medal at a Grand Prix Final! Considering he wasn't originally assigned to the Grand Prix in a way that would've allowed him to qualify, that's awesome! And Nathan is doing finals at Yale and still got gold. Need me some of that energy! 

The ladies are later so no rest yet. 
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2018-12-07 10:19 am

Grand Prix Final Day 1

 Everyone on Twitter is probably going to hate me for constantly tweeting about figure skating, and I haven't even watched any of the senior events because they're broadcast so late! I'll have to catch up later today but I saw the results, and I did watch the juniors. Highlights, even without watching everything: 
  • The ISU provided/is providing a free live stream of all the junior events, so I got to watch juniors for the first time! The commentary was actually really informative, especially surrounding pairs, and encouraging. The highlight was in the ladies short, Alena Kostornaia had an amazing program
  • RIKA KIHIRA BROKE A WORLD RECORD! The previous world record for best short program score (under the new system) was set by Alina Zagitova, but now Rika holds it. I actually did watch her program since everyone was talking about it, and it was amazing. I love seeing skater's faces when they are happy with the results, too. She looked so happy! 
Worrying things going into the free skate: 
  • all the men are worrying 
  • I want Shoma to win and Shoma is doing the thing where his short skate wasn't good so it all depends on the free skate 
  • all of the men did that though
  • I want Rika to do well in the free skate too and her program is super difficult  
catsbythegreat: (Default)
2018-12-05 09:14 am
Entry tags:

on the taking-down of figure skating videos

x-post from here 

The news that a bunch of figure skating videos are being taken down from YouTube really saddens me, and I wish whoever is responsible (and maybe it’s multiple people) would realize the impact it has on the sport. 

The way people watch things is changing and has been changing for some time. I became a figure skating fan through a YouTube video of Johnny Weir skating to Poker Face, and I was able to further my like of figure skating by finding and watch more videos of programs and competitions. I was able to watch the US National Championships the following year because I was home and we had access to NBC, which broadcasts the figure skating competitions here in the US. But that isn’t always the case. 

In grad school I didn’t have good access to a TV or the time to sit down and watch competitions live, because they’re long. The times where I’ve had work are also times where I haven’t been able to watch the competitions live. I was lucky to be able to see the Olympics live this past year, but in 2014 that wasn’t the case except for the men’s short and women’s team events. 

Consider this: drawing attention to a sport requires the participation of young people. Figure skating is a young sport – the participants are young, often younger than me (I’m 26) and a lot of the fans watching them are also young. But young people don’t have access to cable or televisions, or can’t pay for live-streaming often. And with figure skating, unlike a lot of other sports, it’s very hard to go to a live event. Live events take place all over, are in different places each year, and are expensive. 

The ones who can afford those things will spend money. There are fans who go to the live events, there are people who pay for cable. I’m lucky in that I was able to split an NBC Gold pass for this season, and that pass allows for replays when I can’t sit down to watch the stream live. But that only accounts for this season. 

It’s really hard to find videos from past Olympics. It’s almost impossible for me to find videos of performances from anyone other than the gold, silver, and bronze medalists in the past two Olympics. Videos from past competitions attached to news sites go down. NBC, who has the rights to the Olympic footage in the states, doesn’t have accessible videos from the Winter Olympics anymore (or if they do I sure as hell can’t find and play them.) 

YouTube has been the place for me to go to watch programs from the past or even entire chunks of competition because it’s hard to access them elsewhere. I’ve learned a lot about my favorite skaters that way, have gained new favorites by being able to watch a skater’s previous programs, and I’ve been able to see the progression of figure skating from years ago to now. Going back to the beginning, I’ve seen pretty much all of Johnny Weir’s career and love him as a skater, and I never saw a competition with him in it in real time. 

People can’t support a sport they can’t watch. Figure skating will not gain new fans, and therefore won’t see any profit in viewership or money or whatever other measurements are important, if people can’t follow what’s going on. Old skaters and significant events in the sport will be forgotten if they’re not accessible online, because even if people who saw them talk about them, no one will be able to watch what they’re referencing. 

There has to be a solution other than getting rid of everything and not having an alternative to find that content. Movies and TV shows have various streaming sites, and certain TV shows are actually up for free, legally, for whatever reason. I think it’s worth it to consider the benefits of allowing figure skating footage online to be accessed by all. 

People will watch, they’ll be drawn in, and they’ll want more. And when they want more, they’ll look at who can provide them with the most up-to-date content, and use that place. It’s a win for everyone. 

catsbythegreat: (Default)
2018-12-04 06:17 pm

(no subject)

x-post from my skating tumblr, figured might as well since the GPF is SOON! 

The Grand Prix Final is in one week and a bit! This is the first year I’ve been able to follow the Grand Prix series as it happens as a whole despite having actively been following figure skating since 2014, so I’m pretty excited about it. 

For anyone who hasn’t been following the whole thing or who were a bit confused at the beginning like I was: the Grand Prix series, in a nutshell, is a series of six events taking place over the course of six weeks, after which the top 6 skaters in each discipline – mens, ladies, pairs, and ice dance – advance to the final. 

I’m just going to talk about men’s and ladies’ since that’s what I’ve been following most closely. These are the people who are going and some highlights from their Grand Prix competitionsNow let’s get into what I’m looking forward to: 

The Men

I’m gonna come right out and say it: my favorite skater out of everyone right now is Shoma Uno, and when I say everyone I mean every skater, not just the ones in this series. I really want him to win since he tends to come in second or third at most events, usually behind Yuzuru Hanyu. He hasn’t been the most consistent this season, but he’s had plenty of time since his last competition (NHK Trophy) to the final to improve on his two programs, and I’m hoping for the best. 

I’ll be very interested to see what happens with Nathan Chen! I like him, and I’m pretty shaken that he’s been attending Yale while competing this season. YaleAnd he’s being tele-coached. So far it looks like it’s working since he won gold at both of his events. I really like his programs, too, and I think he’s Shoma’s biggest competition. 

Not to say that the others aren’t. They’re all really, really good. Junhwan Cha is the youngest here and I really love his style of skating and would love to see him on the podium. His Romeo & Juliet free program is very dramatic, which means it’s a lot of fun to watch. Sergei Voronov and Michal Brezina are both having a really successful comeback and that determination seems like it’ll take them a long way. 

Keegan Messing is someone who I find has a very unique style. He has a lot of character which counts for a lot. He’s also replacing Yuzuru Hanyu, who withdrew due to injury. I’m sad about that, but I’m happy that Yuzuru is making the healthy decision to recover properly. It’ll also be nice for Canada to have someone in the men’s competition since the Final is being held in Vancouver. 

No matter what it’ll be very well-rounded. Everyone skating here has a different style and is from a different country, and the age-spread is very wide. Those differences, I think, will be a lot of fun to watch. 

The Ladies

The past six competitions (especially the last one this past weekend) have been really nerve-wracking to watch because the ladies have been on fire, and it’ll just be more intense now that the top six are going to be competing directly against each other. All six competitors (and all of the alternates) are from either Russia or Japan, which speaks to how much talent those two countries have for ladies figure skating. 

I could not tell you who will win looking at the list of women who are competing. I am a huge fan of three of them and their programs: Rika Kihira, Kaori Sakamoto, and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. Rika and Elizaveta both have triple axels on their side. Rika and Kaori have beautiful programs, and Elizaveta has a ton of personality. 

I will say I very much want Rika to take gold, since she originally only had one Grand Prix assignment and ended up with two, both of which she won. That and, as I said, her programs are beautiful. I love watching her! 

The other three are extremely talented as well. Alina Zagitova is, very obviously, a favorite to win considering she’s the Olympic gold medalist, but she really does have some stiff competition. She also hasn’t had a perfect season even though she’s won gold at both of her events, but that is kind of true for all of the medalists. It seems like a transition season in some ways. 

Sophia Samodurova isn’t someone I’d seen before, but I really enjoy her style. Satoko Miyahara, if I had to describe my impression of her skating in one word, is a lovely skater. She’s put out stunning programs this season. 

The Take-Away

I really can’t wait, but also I can. It was stressful enough waiting to see who would qualify for the final in the first place, and the Final will be horrifically stressful because I want most of these people to win. Now that all of these people are in one place…it definitely will be hard to watch, but in the best way possible.