Crystal Skate

Gilles and Poirier's spectacular curve lift The biggest news of the Internationaux de France was without a doubt that Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron were participating. The French couple had to withdraw from the NHK Trophy due to an injury, which scared a lot of their fans. Hopefully, their presence here meant that Guillaume is feeling much better. The rhythmic dance saw Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov and Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier behind the French in podium placements, something that didn't seem likely to change at the start of the final. The first couple was French - Adelina Galyavieva/Louis Thauron  - and told us a French tale - Amelie . The choreography played a lot on the idea of getting lost and found. She was super expressive, stealing the attention from him, which might have been planned, given that this was the story of one of the most famous French female characters. Score: 90.84  -> 146.05 . The next skaters were Allison Reed/Saulius A...

The winner, after a shaky short programme, was Nathan Chen The results of the men's short programme left a lot of figure skater fans baffled, particularly those like me, who didn't watch it. The standings at the start of the final had Jason Brown first, Alexander Samarin second, Nathan Chen third, Boyang Jin seventh and Dmitri Aliev ninth. There might be others who surprised you, but these were the names that stood out to me the most. The final therefore started with all possibilities widely open. We were off to a rocky start with Daniel Samohin 's rendition of Once Upon a Time in Mexico . The Israeli fell on a 3Salchow and both 3Axels before losing control of the change combination spin. He couldn't find it in him to mask the disappointment, so the presentation got worse the more errors he made. Score: 133.66  -> 205.99 . Keiji Tanaka  followed in Daniel's footsteps - he stepped out of three jumps (4Salchow, 3Axel and 3Lutz) as well as tripled out of th...

Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker took the gold for USA The ice dance competition was the land of opportunity in Hiroshima. All the skaters were couples that had never really been in the spotlight before. The short ended with Russia and USA in podium positions, but so close to one another, no one was safe. The event started with the host's Misato Komatsubara/Tim Koleto . The two skated to Une histoire d'amour  and made no errors. My favourite thing about their choreography was how it put each of them individually in the spotlight, particularly in the mid-line step sequence - you don't often see this in ice dance. Score: 94.87  -> 154.27 . Alexandra Nazarova/Maxim Nikitin  followed with a crazy balance on their curve lift, but the first positions of the twizzles not in sync. They wore very glitzy costumes that matched the Charlie Chaplin theme, but I found her boots too chunky-looking. Score: 93.02  -> 153.22 . Troubles with the twizzles continued ...

Italy's Matteo Rizzo was the underdog of the night The men's final might not have been the main event of the competition in Hiroshima (see the ladies' for that), but there were still some amazing skaters - rising stars, solid veterans or established prodigies - to look forward to. June Hyoung Lee  started the event with a couple of big mistakes - a fall on the 3Axel, another on the 2Loop and a hand down on the 3Salchow. The music was Piano Concerto Number 2  by Rachmaninoff. Score: 122.10  -> 188.26 . Kevin Reynolds  has a lot of fans in Japan, and they cheered him on, despite his doubling out of the 3Axel and 4Toeloop, as well as stepping out of the 3Lutz. Kevin has had a bad Grand Prix experience all season long, and the performance in Hiroshima was unfortunately not an exception. Score: 121.53  -> 182.67 . Hiroaki Sato  received loads of support as well, but he would have also probably liked to do much better. He doubled out of a 3Toeloo...

The winner: Rika Kihira Japan's greatest stakes were in the ladies' competition, where they knew they had the power to even take all the steps of the podium. However, there were some pretty strong rivals to defeat in order to get there. Australia's Kailani Craine  was not one of said rivals. She fell on the 3Lutz, but otherwise held herself together despite looking exhausted and nervous. Loved the showgirl attitude which shone throughout the choreography and her presentation. Score: 96.01  -> 154.22 . Mae Berenice Meite  had had a nightmare in the short programme, but picked herself up in the final. Her only mistake was a fall on a 2Loop. I'm not sure the music she chose fits her - she's a very powerful skater and the music just didn't seem to match her style. Score: 112.09  -> 162.58 . Courtney Hicks  had reasons to be proud of herself. Her only mistakes were doubling out of a 3Salchow and 3Lutz, but she kept the distraught facial expression on...

Alexa Scimeca Knierim & Chris Knierim were the biggest fighters of the day The pairs' final showcased a lot of strong couples and complex, difficult routines. Unlike the ice dance, some of the skaters we expect to compete for some of the most important titles at the end of the season were present. Natalia Zabiiako/Alexander Enbert  fit into this category. One of the most interesting battles, which we might see at the Grand Prix Final, will be between them and their co-nationals, Tarasova/Morozov. Until then though, they won the NHK Trophy with a sad love story and a single mistake of not jumping the 3Salchows in sync. Their score was 140.66  for the free and 214.14  in total. I am still surprised by the silver medalists, Cheng Peng/Yang Jin . I remember when they were first paired up and they were so awkward many people didn't give them much time together. Well, those people were wrong! Their relationship has grown a lot and her confidence is glowing these da...