Crystal Skate

Bradie Tennell took home a surprising bronze medal The ladies' competition in Grenoble started as most do these days - with Japanese and Russian skaters going against each other for the top three positions. At the end of the short programme, Japan was winning (by less than a point), but the possibility to see Russia on the podium in the form of Evgenia Medvedeva was very much real. Stanislava Konstantinova  began the event with a flawless performance of Anna Karenina . I loved the costume, the way her hair matched the era the story is from and the neckline detail that made her look as if she was wearing a pearl necklace. Score: 134.76  -> 189.67 . Laurine Lecavelier  followed with a sexier routine, set to I'll Take Care of You . Her performance was for the most part alright despite doubling out of both the 3Flip and Salchow, but then at the very end, she fell on the 3Loop. Score: 105.58  -> 157.24 Laurine Lecavelier of France I thought Matilda Al...

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...