Crystal Skate

Mako Yamashita, the girl who almost defeated two Russian powerhouses The first leg of the ladies' competition might have turned some worlds upside down, but you never say it's done until it's done in figure skating. Starting off well in the short programme is one thing, but maintaining positions after the free skate is the real test. And so, here is how the skaters did in Laval yesterday. The first skater was Daria Panenkova  from Russia. She skated to Lara Fabian's You're Not From Here , and unfortunately finished behind the music. Not a lot of speed for Daria, but she did end most of her jumps beautifully. Score: 117.13  -> 168.54 . Yura Matsuda  had better presentation skills than the Russian, but the technical content is not at the same level yet. Even though she made no mistakes, she had too many doubles in her routine compared to Daria. Score: 104.24  -> 157.59 . Alaine Chartrand  brought the arena to their feet with her rendition of Sunset Bo

The ice-dance podium The Rhythmic Dance left us all with bright hopes for this season, as couples who have been in the shadows until now took the first step to making a name for themselves. However, it was the final that validated those newly formed reputations as the future of ice dance. We were off to a good start with  Carolane Soucisse & Sha ne Firus  from Canada. Skating to Earned It  and Dirty Diana , they stayed perfectly in sync with the music throughout the routine, which made all their transitions and elements really good. The only tiny problem happened during the second position of the twizzles, when Shane struggled with balance. Score: 99.64  -> 156.74 . Haley Sales & Nikolas Wamsteeker  also used contemporary music, but with Celine Dion behind the microphone, theirs was a more romantic routine. They had a bit of trouble with synchronicity during the second part of the twizzles. Also, apart from the last one, none of their lifts were what I would call pi

Determined to win - Japan's Shoma Uno The men's short programme left us all in awe. The host's Keegan Messing defeated Japan's super star, Shoma Uno, who is exactly 0.01 points ahead of South Korea's newbie, Junhwan Cha. Hold onto your hats. This final is by no means already settled. Jason Brown   is first to skate with a medley from Simon and Garfunkel. He still doesn't land a quad, as he doubles out of the Salchow. I have to say, and this is just personal opinion, I don't feel his new programmes are as spectacular as some of his old routines. Score: 158.51  -> 234.97 . Kevin Aymoz 's expression stays the same throughout the routine, but it's a testament of his fabulous presentation skills. Very expansive, open movements and lots of displays of flexibility. Making no mistakes sure helps. Score: 151.26  -> 230.09 . Roman Sadosky  steps out of the 4Toeloop and 3Toeloop, falls on the 3Axel and double-foots the 2Axel. Some of his spin p

Evelyn Walsh & Trennt Michaud of Canada Photo: Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images North America The current ranking of the pairs' event sees France on first place, China on second and Canada on third. While the results seem pretty solid at the moment, some of the pairs in the top five are known to sometimes struggle with consistency. If the same thing will happen here, we might see a different podium at the end of the competition. Haven Denney & Brandon Frazier  start the event. Unfortunately, they are still struggling with the quality of the jumps. Haven in particular has a tough time singling out of the side-by-side 3Salchows, putting a hand on the ice and doubling out of both combo jumps. Score: 114.91  -> 170.22 . Camille Ruest & Andrew Wolfe  keep their smiles throughout the routine despite the mistakes. She falls on the throw 3Loop and 3Salchow, as well as double-foots the landing of the side-by-side 3Salchows. He singles out of the same 3Salchows. Score: 10

Looking confident - Elizaveta Tuktamusheva of Russia Grand Prix events are always good at shaking the ice and turning expectations upside down, and that's pretty much what happened during the ladies' short programme. Was the biggest news of the night Evgenia Medvedeva finishing on 7th place or Elizabeta Tuktamysheva finishing in 1st? At 21, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva  is already a Russian veteran, which is crazy. Maybe it's for that reason (belonging to the 'older' generation) that many people have written her off. So she thought she'd write herself back into the story by starting to jump 3Axels. Boy, was it worth it! She jumped it, she landed it, it was glorious. Score: 74.22 . Wakaba Higuchi 's short routine has the potential of being one of the most interesting ones of the season. However, I feel there's a long way to go until that point. As so many skaters, she struggles with looking relaxed while there are still jumps to be done, and that r

In my opinion, the scene stealers of the day were Spain's Smart & Diaz The top 5 ice dance couples at the end of the Rhythmic Dance were not quite whom I expected. The big disappointment for me were Gilles & Poirier finishing just outside of this group, but the exciting part is having two couples I haven't seen much before in it. Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue  are slowly, but surely heading towards the Grand Prix Final. They finished the Rhythmic in first place after winning the gold at Skate America exactly one week ago. They changed their costumes, or at least Madison did (sorry, can't remember his tango outfit very well 😅, and I have to say, I like the new red dress more. Score: 80.49 . Victoria Sinitsina & Nikita Katsalapov  came second, with an intense and sharp tango set to  Verano Porteno . Really good rotational lift, with the girl starting very high and then making her way down all the way to the ice. Score: 74.66 . In my opinion, Ol

France's James & Cipres during their backwards outside death spiral The second leg of the Grand Prix Series is here. Held in Laval, Quebec, Canada, this competition is going to bring more new skaters to the ice, but also a few skaters we saw last week at Skate America. As in Everett, the pairs start the event with their short programme. The favourites for the gold would have to be France's James/Cipres, but the hosts are likely keeping their fingers crossed for their own Moore-Towers/Marinaro. Who will come on third? Well, that door is currently wide open. Evelyn Walsh & Trennt Michaud  are the first pair. Their performance at Skate America last week was not memorable at all, but this is quite the improvement. The only mistake is not syncing the side-by-side spins. Score: 59.59 . Camille Ruest & Andrew Wolfe  skate to Wild Horses , performed by Alicia Keys and Adam Levine. She puts a hand down on the side-by-side 3Toeloops and falls on the throw 3Loop. Th

Canada's Nam Nguyen performed much better home than he did at Skate America Photo: Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images North America Guess who miscalculated the time difference between Lavac, Quebec, Canada and London, United Kingdom? Yep, yours truly. Long story short, the men's short programme is the first competition I'm commenting on because I tuned in for the pairs' about 10 minutes before it ended. Oh well, I'll watch that one after. Roman Sadovsky  is the first skater to go out. He puts a hand down on the 4Salchow and falls on the 3Axel. However, he also lands a 4Toeloop, which shows a lot of potential. He does finish behind the music this time. Score: 67.72 . Kevin Aymoz 's routine is so much fun! He skates to Horns by Brye Fox. Great idea to sync the spins to the softer parts of the song. His face isn't relaxed enough to interpret the music during the tougher elements, but he'll learn that in time. He over-rotates the 3Axel. Score: 78.83 . B