Official Figure Skating Thread

[tafattsbarn]

Oh nice, i thought many a time that i should make this thread but i never had the energy for it lol. Good to see one up! 

 

I was wondering if any of you guys were at GP Helsinki? It was my first (big) figure skating event that i attended and i met so many amazing people (and the skating was solidly amazing!). I literally stayed all day for every event as to not miss anything :> 

 

Looking forward to streaming men's at Rostelecom cup this week (and any other events that fit my schedule!). 

[tafattsbarn]

Thanks for joining us

I wasn't at Helsinki, but maybe someone else here was? Nice to hear that you met many nice people.

 

Who is your favorite skater? I assume it's one in the men's discipline?

 

Yeah, men's is definitely my favourite discipline haha. 

 

Yuzuru Hanyu is definitely my all time favourite and the reason i started following skating (also the main reason i payed to go to GP Helsinki...), but recently i've really started to enjoy Junhwan Cha's skating. He has this amazing fluidity and he moves completely differently on the ice than most men, the exception might be Yuzu. I think it might be a TCC + maturity thing, since Javi had it too and it's only shown up in Jun lately. 

 

I really like Kolyada as well, and it's a shame that he's so inconsistent. Actually, i don't think there is any top man that i don't enjoy to some extent. Even Nathan Chen and Shoma Uno have things that i really enjoy about them (mind you, these are skaters i used to not be able to stand just a season or so ago). While in Helsinki Michal Brezina was really enjoyable as well, and i need to check him out and keep my eye on him haha. He's such a dad though lmao. 

 

I enjoy a lot of the lower ranked skaters as well as juniors too, but i don't follow them the same way that i do some of the top men and i even forget their names at times (until i see them again), so shame on me ;-; 

 

Other than that i like the Japanese ladies, with Kaori Sakamoto being my favourite girl. I'm not really into the russsian ladies, but props to them because they're often impressive technically. 

 

My favourite pair is the North Korean one (Tae Ok Ryom and Ju Sik Kim i think?) and for ice dance i enjoy Maia and Alex Shibutani. Although, there was this one russian ice dance team (Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin) at GP Helsinki that were really great ín the free dance. I know almost nothing about how ice dance or pairs is scored or what anything is called, but i usually enjoy watching it when i take my time to. 

[tafattsbarn]

Is anyone planning on rabbiting the competition today? More specifically the men's (i'm missing ladies TT)? I'm trying to figure out streams since i don't have a working vpn right now :/ 

 

If you know someone else that's rabbiting it then i would for anyone to share! 

[tafattsbarn]

I usually use this Tumblr to find unblocked streams! TSkate on Youtube also streams the ISU feed without commentary, usually. I don't see any scheduled for today, but that may not mean anything. Otherwise, because Alina is competing, Fanpage Zagitova or a zagitova might stream.

 

Thank you for the resources! I've been using the same stream for so long that i've forgotten where to find new ones TT Gotta get on getting my vpn subscription working again haha. 

[tafattsbarn]

I think Yuzuru's SP is in the running, LOL.

 

Men's was pretty much a disaster aside from first through third, but Kolyada was the worst to watch. :(

 

I'm so sad for Kolyada :( He's such a beautiful skater, but he gets into his own head too much :/ I really think he should get a sports psychologist if he doesn't already work with one. He's go so so much potential but it'll all be wasted if he can't get his confidence up and get out of his head more. 

 

Yuzuru was breathtaking. To think the program hasn't reached its full potential both excites and scares me :0 I can't wait to see even more progression! I think (if i calculated it right) the roof for points for the program is somewhere around 116.77 points which is insane '-'

[tafattsbarn]

Seeing Yuzuru in crutches at the medal ceremony was sad, but he was smiling and doing his "arigatou gozaimashita!", so that was positive. The other two guys were very considerate of him as well.

 

He looked relaxed, albeit a bit emotional (i don't blame him!). Hopefully he'll now have a good rest and comeback when he's ready (: 

Edited November 18, 2018 by tafattsbarn

[tafattsbarn]

God, time sure flies! OH is back just in time for the new season, how nice haha 

What are you guys looking forward to this coming season (in any discipline)? 

[tafattsbarn]

https://twitter.com/ISU_Figure/status/1184053760332570624

Wow, the isu is actually doing something good for once? Glad to know they are taking care of the one (1) braincell they have left ;-; 

No, for real though, this is great and will make the sport so much more accessible. Hopefully they will archive everything as well so that it stays on youtube. Credit where credit is due for once ISU ^-^ 

Edited October 15, 2019 by tafattsbarn

[tafattsbarn]

2 hours ago, Riserise said:

Wow! Thanks for posting.

And I agree with the first comment there. This is mostly due to Ted Barton.

Yeah, Ted definitely paved the way. Do you think it'll be a similar format as the JGPs? I can't decide if i would want commentary or not, hmm. 

[tafattsbarn]

11 minutes ago, Riserise said:

I think so. They might do everything as that in the beginning.

However, if they get a big name commentator, they might want to talk through it.

 

I got used to Ted though: quiet through the performance and then helping explain things as they happen.

Skate America: Pairs is on now

 

 

 

Yeay, it's on! Bless VPNs, the ISU stream is actually quite good. It looks like there's no commentary which is fine by me. 

 

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I wanted to leave this here in case someone is interested, there are some fanatsy skating going on (set up by fans!):

 

AnythingGOEs: https://anythinggoe.com/agoesfantasygpsa/

 

SkatingScores: https://skatingscores.com/fantasy/ 

reddit post as explainer: 

 

There's also this write up on nationalistic judging bias that has recently been shared (it's quite good actually, and they're going to discuss it further with more posts in the future): https://fsjudging.wordpress.com/2019/10/17/judging-bias-and-figure-skating-part-one-nationalistic-bias/ 

Reddit post about it: 

It's been posted on planethanyu.com and goldenskate as well so if you want further discussion by fans check there! 

[tafattsbarn]

3 hours ago, EyesOn said:

what a surprise on yt

Maybe I don't know much about figure skating but I really like watching it

I know, it's great right? It's geoblocked in some countries (including mine *sigh*), so if you or anyone need vpn recommendations just shout! 

I really enjoyed Young You's skating today. She has a wonderful presence and even though her jumps has some issues she still looks gorgeous on the ice. I was really happy to see Gabbie Daleman do so well here too, she's had some really tough couple of months lately (with her broken foot). 

Of course Rika Kihira was also beyond excellent. I'm so glad she could start the season with sucha  great skate despite being a little bit injured. Her technique is just to die for! 

[tafattsbarn]

9 hours ago, Riserise said:

Yeah, he was amazing. I'm glad he kepts his programs, as injury stopped him from doing his best on them last year.

Another thing about him, I notice Yuzuru always creates new fans. Many people like him, even if they never really watched figure skating before.

I put him on the front page now with a deserved Skate of the Week

Okay, so that's two for the badge

Yuzu deserves skate of the week, but i'm going to make an honorary mention of Nam Nguyen's free for skate of the week as well! He brought the arena down and skated the best he has in years. Truly an amazing comeback and i hope he can keep it up for the rest of the season (and beyond!)  

Anyways, back to Yuzu (lol)! It's true that he brings fans to the sport, i'm an example. I've never payed attention to or been very interested in figure skating before i saw his Chopin 3.0 at Pyeongchang 2018, but after that? There has been no going back. He completely mesmerized me. He's still my absolute favourite skater and i continue to be amazed by him and everything he does, but i've also gained an immense respect for the sport and all of its athletes. I follow all disciplines now (mens the closest in first and then ladies in second and ice dance + pairs in shared third place) and have favourites across the board. 

I even went to Helsinki GP in november last year. I admit that i probably wouldn't have traveled if Yuzu wasn't skating there, but i had the best time watching all events for three exhausting but fun days. Now i'm planning my next competition to be Worlds 2021, regardless if Yuzu is still competing or not (i really, really hope he still is!). 

Figure skating has become one of my biggest hobbies and the only sport i follow and am knowledgable about, and it's all because of Yuzu. 

Also, i'll support a Yuzu badge as well!