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.

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.

(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

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.

 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. 

 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. 

 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. 

 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! 

 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  

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 competitions. Now 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. Yale! And 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.