Crystal Skate

It is yet uncertain whether Meryl Davis and Charlie White are just taking a break or will indeed withdraw from competitive life, but either way, they have had a long career in figure skating which deserves a shout out. Meryl Davis and Charlie White have basically known each other all their lives. They grew up in the same neighborhood and their parents have always been best friends, so teaming up at the age of 10 felt natural. Their climb to the top of the sport's rankings was gradual, which makes their career together even more worthy of admiration. Polovetsian Dances Photograph: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images Sport They appeared on both the national and international senior ice for the first time in 2006/2007 and immediately made themselves noticed when they were the only couple at the NHK Trophy to receive the highest levels for all their elements. Times were harder for skaters back then with three routines to prepare rather than two. Still, the old Compulsory Dance was h...

Figure skating is becoming more jaw-dropping with every edition of the Olympic Games. This time, the biggest surprise comes from the winners of the Bronze Medal, which have so far been skaters nobody expected on the podium. Will the Dance final follow this new trend or is this the one discipline where experience matters more? Tanja Kolbe/Stefano Caruso must have fallen in love with New York. Yesterday they paid it a tribute and today they skate on the soundtrack of Enchanted , the story of a fairytale princess who literally falls into our world and well, you know what happens afterwards. Taking a Disney theme is not something many skaters do despite the gorgeous music that comes with these movies, so we're glad to see these two haven't shied away from it. There are however some bits with just bird chirping which don't sound that pretty. As mistakes go, she stumbles during a transition. Their score: 76.13 . Overall: 130.56 . Alexandra Paul/Mitchell Islam skate on t...

Canadian friends versus American friends, French quirkiness versus Russian classics! This edition of the Olympics has four incredibly talented couples fighting for the podium and who will win which medal is anyone's guess. Cathy Reed/Chris Reed almost paint a picture of sparkling champagne and high society parties with their programme. Very good twizzles and great costumes! Their score: 52.29 . Pernelle Carron/Lloyd Jones take us to Broadway with a "delightful, delicious and delovely" routine. Unfortunately, as it's happened all season long, their twizzles are not entirely in synch. They get 58.25 points. Victoria Sinitsina/Ruslan Zhiganshin are bound on having fun today and pull off an amazing lift, in addition to an innovative twizzle position. They have however moments when they are not in synch. Their score: 58.01 . Tanja Kolbe/Stefano Caruso take a trip to New York in a pair of costumes that couldn't fit the theme more. The Finnstep however is ...

PAIRS Anastasia Martiusheva/Alexei Rogonov  have a beautiful choreography, but they need to work on their presentation, especially Anastasia. The side-by-side Double Axels were just Singles, the thrown Triple Flip failed and the thrown Triple Loop was double-footed. Their score: 96.40 . Overall: 145.37 Narumi Takahashi/Ryuichi Kihara  took out all the drama, patriotism and love out of Les Miserables . Technically, she singled the Double Toeloop and double-footed both thrown jumps. They obtained 86.59  points. Overall: 138.13 Paige Lawrence/Rudi Swiegers 's routine was beautifully structured, but would have been enhanced by more epic costumes. She fell on the Triple Toeloop, singled the Double Toeloop and fell again on the thrown Triple Lutz. The side-by-side spins were in sync, but too far way from each other. Their score: 100.77 . Overall: 153.55 Marissa Castelli/Simon Shnapir  aim to defy belief in their careers. Although he doubled the Triple Toeloop and s...

MEN Adam Rippon won the crowd over with his passionate interpretation of Carmen . The costume still looks a a bit odd, but the rest of the presentation was great. Technically, his quad was dodgy and he had a little stumble at the end. His score: 82.25 . Konstantiv Menshov had speed, charisma and some beautiful moments on ice, but fell on the Triple Lutz. He obtained 73.57  points. Max Aaron grabbed the ladies' attention with his Latino footwork, but lost control on the Triple Lutz. His score: 76.21 . Jeremy Abbott 's routine was charming and smooth. He double-footed the Quad Toeloop, but otherwise delivered a good skate. He obtained 78.78  points. Sergei Voronov looked dashing in his black and white costume. The programme itself benefited from difficult footwork and flawless technique. His score: 79.80 . Nobunari Oda truly made his homeland proud today. Skating on Cotton Club , he landed every jump and showed off his showman abilities. Excellent job! He obtain...

The Joe Luis Arena might not have been blessed with the roar coming from a full ice-rink, but that didn't stop skaters from starting the Grand Prix 'marathon' at full speed. Here are the highlights of the first grand prix competition. MEN Tatsuki Machida   was the surprise of the event. Skating on the soundtrack of East of Eden , a 1955 film starring James Dean, he plummeted to the top after a flawless programme in the short, defeating his two more experienced countrymen, both of whom were favourites for the podium. The long programme featured Igor Stravinski's Firebird  and a tacky costume, but was otherwise delivered beautifully. His score: 91.18 (Short Programme), 174.20  (Long Programme), 265.38  (Overall). Jason Brown 's astonishment when he saw his SP score proves just how much talent this 19-year old has. He skated on Prince's The Question of U  and managed to finish the short on second place despite lacking a quadruple jump. Unfortunately, his...

What makes this year's WTT stand out (in the wrong way) are the big absentees: Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir, Meryl Davis/Charlie White and Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat (yeah, they're still one of the best couples even though they made a mess at Worlds). The ice-dance competition will suffer severely in quality due to these absences. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very much looking forward to it, but let's be honest: Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje are the only ones likely to be impeccable on ice, and if they don't take the gold medal, I'll eat my hat. So there's not much unpredictability there. Team France probably took the biggest hit. Besides Nathalie and Fabian, they also lost Florent Amodio, who is probably the most cheerful skater out there. As for the host team, Japan, there is no one registered in the pairs competition! Did anyone know you could do that in a World Team Trophy? Then again, I suppose Japan doesn't really have an option given tha...

Carmen, Notre-Dame de Paris, The Rolling Stones   and Man with a Harmonica  are just a few of the stories we'll see today in the Ice Dance Final. With skaters such as Virtue/Moir or Bobrova/Soloviev being in top form, it's almost impossible to predict who will win which medal. Colourful costumes for Cathy Reed/Chris Reed . Not a bad program, but not impressive either. They get 75.99 points. Overall: 129.94 . Julia Zlobina/ Alexei Sitnikov 's music (compositions by Goran Bregovic) is not everyone's favourite piece of cake, but the couple from Azerbaijan sell it well. They mess up the twizzles, but that last lift must have been on the border of what's aloud in competitions. Their score: 83.64 . Overall: 141.44 . Beautiful program for Isabella Tobias/Deividas Stagniunas . They get the first part of the twizzles wrong, but otherwise show lots of potential, and get 84.52 points. Overall: 141.64 . Sara Hurtado/Adria Diaz are the first to show us perfect twi...

Beautiful ladies in elegant dresses dancing with gentlemen wearing military uniforms and dinner jackets...well, not quite. Waltz and Polka might be the compulsory rhythms of the season, but originality is the middle name of ice dance. So take everything you know about ballrooms and throw it out the ice rink, for the dancers' short program is about to start. Impressive costumes, but not much more for Federica Testa/Lukas Csolley from Slovakia. They get 44.73 points. As expressive as always, Charlene Guinard/Marco Fabbri deliver an enjoyable program. When it comes to costumes, the Italian couple pays attention to the smallest of details. Their score: 57.89 . S iobhan Heekin-Canedy/Dmitri Dun 's program is a bit dull, but not bad technically. They get 59.20 points. The first original approach of the day is Isabella Tobias/Deividas Stagniunas ' Oklahoma  program. The twizzles were messy and they were too far away from each other in the polka sequence. As...