Crystal Skate

Figure skating, for all its complexity, is a sport where most athletes play it safe. That's why when two ice-dancers dressed in bright colours emerged from France and skated on a routine they had come up with themselves, the judges were skeptic. Their discipline was, after all, renowned for its renditions of Romeo and Juliet  or The Swan Lake . So what impact could Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat could possibly have in their hilarious costumes and goofy attitudes? If only they had known... Nathalie and Fabian started skating together in 2000. They didn't get along from the very start and initially thought they were a bad fit. However, their relationship gradually evolved from necessity into a beautiful friendship and they discovered that it was the very things that they didn't have in common that made them a great couple. Their first Olympic Games, Turin 2006 Photograph: Getty Images Sport Their rise to fame was slow. For many years, they were only known as Fr...

Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev have had to withdraw due to an injury sustained by him. It's now up to Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat to prove that 'the experts' can hold their ground against younger skaters, such as Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte. Will they succeed? Find out: Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani  skate on music by Michael Buble and ace the twizzlers and the finnstep sequence. Their interpretation might not be spectacular, but they put on a great performance. Maia's blue dress is really beautiful! Their score: 63.55 . Watching Elena Ilinykh/Nikita Katsalapov  skate amid serious rumours of a break-up is awkward. You can spot some tension in there and a few fake smiles, but what really stands out is that they're simply no longer in sync. Nikita messes up the twizzles, making Elena bump into him, which is really a shame because their twizzles are the fastest we've seen this season. Whether we can blame that on the break-up or just plain ...

It's official! The 2014 Figure Skating World Championships have begun, and if previous competitions held in Japan show us anything, is that they're hosted by one of the greatest, if not the best audience in the world. As it usually happens in an Olympic season, most of the Olympic champions have decided to skip the Worlds, understandably so - after winning the most supreme of medals, they are entitled to a well deserved holiday. The only victor who will compete is Yuzuru Hanyu, probably because the Championships are held in his native country. The other notable absentees are either Olympic medalists (the same right to a holiday applies) or skaters for whom the Olympic Games were the final chapter in their skating careers. Patrick Chan and Brian Joubert are missing from the Men competition, with the Frenchman clearly retiring and the Canadian unsure about his future in figure skating. Another favourite of the audience who won't be attending is Florent Amodio due to lac...

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 ...

MEN Nan Song 's Guitar Concerto  on ice didn't go as planned here. He had a hand down on the Triple Axel and a faulty landing on the Triple Lutz. The costume he wore, although fit for the music, looked a bit too much like a pair of pajamas. His score: 71.36 Jason Brown proved why skating on music you like is a great advantage. His confident and passionate interpretation of Prince's song left no question about his abilities. Neither did his perfect jumps and incredibly difficult spins, most of which showcased his amazing flexibility. He obtained 84.77  points. Alexander Majorov  went back to roots with Korobushko , but was not his usual charismatic self here. He doubled the Quad Toeloop, landed the Triple Toeloop messily and fell on the Triple Axel. He was too slow throughout the first half of the routine to be able to do any of those jumps properly. His score: 59.72 Han Yan  needs to work on his facial expressions. The choreography was obviously comedic, but...

MEN Peter Liebers delivered an almost flawless programme. He had only two tiny mistakes on the second Triple Axel and on the Triple Flip. His interpretation was patched, showing only when he didn't have jumps to do. His score: 131.46 . Overall: 200.80 Nan Song has a bright future ahead of him. Technically his routine was almost perfect, although he lacked a quad jump. The silly mistake was tripping during one of the transitions. As for his presentation, he expressed the pain in Enio Moriccone's  The Mission  very well. He obtained  128.12  points. Overall:  196.80 Maxim Kovtun 's rendition of Tchaikovski's Piano Concerto no. 1  had something majestic about it. He only jumped two quads, not three as he had planned, which is still impressive. His score: 156.81 . Overall: 238.65 Han Yan  couldn't control the pressure all the way through. He had a dodgy landing on the Triple Axel and tripped out of the Triple Flip, ending up falling. These mistak...

MEN The first out of three Chinese skaters, Yi Wang  skated on A Beautiful Storm . Overall, it was a good, enjoyable skate, but he double-footed the Triple Axel and singled the second Triple Flip. His score: 63.27 . As beautiful as the music was, Peter Liebers'  routine lacked smoothness. The jumps were perfect though, except for the Triple Toeloop. He got 69.34  points. China's national champion, Nan Song , brought his inner rock star on ice, skating beautifully on Guitar Concerto . Unfortunately, his Quad Toeloop was messy and the Triple Toeloop ended up being a Single. His score: 68.68 . Maxim Kovtun  proves he's worth a lot to the Russian team with two perfectly landed quads and a 'spot on' interpretation. His silly fall at the end was a mistake that took us all by surprise. He got 81.84  points. Charming, funny and in perfect control of his elements, Han Yan  probably had the best skate he's had so far in his entire life. The music was Viper'...

This season was, above everything else, about change, whether we witnessed it happening or we wished we had. Two ice-dance couples in particular proved what a difference change (or lack of it) can make. Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat from France put on quite a Moulin Rouge show on ice. Being French definitely gave them the advantage of choosing a cultural-rich theme they probably grew up with. The music ( Gaite Parisienne  by Jacques Offenback; Sous le ciel du Paris  by Yves Montand) was delightful and the short dance was cheeky and very enjoyable (definitely top 5 best short dances of the season). The award for best performance has to go to Nathalie though because she played her role every second of the program, while Fabian often seemed a bit empty-eyed. As good as the short was, their long program was way below expectations. Fitted more for shows than competitions (especially if you're talking pre-Olympic season), the Rolling Stones Medley was nothing more than danci...

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...