Crystal Skate

The pairs' final at Skate America 2018 begins with great hopes for two underdog pairs: Alisa Efimova & Alexander Korovin, and Minnerva Fabien Hase & Nolan Seegert. However, their rankings at the end of the short programme were as much a consequence of their own performance as they were of the failures of other pairs. If those pairs manage to outperform their previous routines, we will see a different podium at the end of tonight's competition. Evelyn Walsh & Trennt Michaud  start the event with a performance that is even worse than the one in the short. She falls on the side-by-side 3Toeloop and 3Salchow, then also falls on the throw 3Toeloop. There's a very dicey moment at the very end of a lift too, when she probably would have fallen again if he hadn't caught her. Score: 84.35 . Total: 129.06 . I thought Nica Digerness & Danny Neudecker  were going to skate to Frozen  because one of the songs is entitled Let It Go , so imagine my surprise to hear ...

The action in Osaka, Japan, took off earlier today (way earlier today - time differences are making me blog this closer to the free programmes than the short 😊 ) with the pairs' competition. Things kind of went according to predictions, at least as far as I'm concerned, but there were some routines I saw for the first time today and I'm excited to tell you all about them. I'll start with Julianne Seguin/Charlie Bilodeau , who skated to Lorde's version of  Everybody Wants to Rule the World . I love this song, which is why I'm very picky with the presentation for it. To me, it evokes a dark atmosphere that simply didn't come through in this interpretation. I did like their attempt at matching the landing of the throw twist to the sound of the shots in the song though. Unfortunately, Julianne singled out of the side-by-side 3Salchows. Their score: 63.98 . They finished on 5th place. Alexa Scimeca Knierim/Chris Knierim  skated to the romantic Come What May ...

The NHK Trophy 2015, held this year in Nagano, was supposed to bring the most anticipated pair duel on the ice: Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford versus Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov. However, due to an injury suffered by Tatiana, the Russian skaters had to withdraw. This leaves the Canadians' way to the gold medal absolutely unobstructed, but raises a question as to who will climb on the other two steps of the podium. Amani Fancy/Christopher Boyadji  skate to La Vie en Rose , but the presentation is missing a spark. The dark costumes don't help with the mood either. Technically, she puts a hand down on both jumps. Their score: 42.52 . Vera Bazarova/Andrei Deputat  seem stronger than I've ever seen them, to be honest. The music is Nocturne No. 2  by Chopin. Love the transition out of the thrown triple Loop and into the death spiral. They get 64.06  points. Jessica Calalang/Zack Sidhu 's choreography is very clever. It's a Man's, Man's World  is a song ful...

Figure skating is an ever-fighting battle - newbies fight to prove themselves and superstars fight to stay on top. Who will be victorious today? There is a lot of mystery in Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov 's The Man and the Shadow , and an aura of unease. Love the two original lifts, but they make quite a few mistakes: she steps out of the thrown triple Salchow and falls on the side-by-side one, the synchronised spins are not in sync and they finish behind the music. Their score: 125.65 . Overall: 189.06 . I'm not sure why Julianne Seguin/Charlie Bilodeau  are wearing dark blue for  A Whiter Shade of Pale , but the performance is so good, I don't really care. Love the difficult entries into their lifts. One error: they are out of unison on the side-by-side triple Toeloops. They get 124.64  points. Overall: 189.49 . The medalists Photograph: Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images Xuehan Wang/Lei Wang  are another pair specialising in difficult entries into lifts. I a...

Don't you just love that tinniest second before the boy throws the girl across the ice, when everybody in the audience gasps and holds their breath simultaneously? And then the girl lands perfectly, knee bent, free leg fully extended and the crowd erupts into cheers. Be ready for plenty of such moments - the pairs' short programme is about to begin. We see the consequence of last season's rule change immediately, as Jessica Pfund/Joshua Santillan  skate to Sara Bareille's Gravity . Lovely song, but the presentation is quite dull. There is also a shaking moment in the step sequence where he struggles to get up from a kneeling position. Still, overall, not bad. They get  50.20  points. Another relatively new pair to perform very well are Xuehan Wang/Lei Wang . Skating to Romance , the Chinese skaters ace every single element. Their score: 64.95 . I really love the way Kristina Astakhova/Alexei Rogonov  use words to set the scene for their programme. Really approp...

Many people confuse pair skating with ice dancing. Even though there are very few similarities between the two, they seem one and the same to the untrained eye. Perhaps it's because those unfamiliar with the sport can't understand the point of having two categories for couples. There is a point of course because pair skating is not dancing on ice. Pair skating contains a lot more elements that are significantly more difficult than dancing: jumps, throw jumps, death spirals, side-by-side spins, etc. In order to be able to perform them without costumes getting in their way, pair skaters have to wear aerodynamic clothes, which the ice dancers don't. Because of the restriction in length and shape, you'd think pair costumes are less fabulous. Not a chance! This season, especially, was full of gorgeous dresses paired with dashing attires for the boys. Ironically though, neither one of the best costumes of the season was a dress: The Russian pair skated to music from Cro...