Crystal Skate

October 31, 2008: It's a few days before the start of the 2008 Cup of China and for Japanese superstar, Daisuke Takahashi, it's the day disaster strikes. He's just torn a ligament in his right leg, which will take him off the ice for the entire season. What's even worse is that this is the type of injury that might just abruptly end the career of one of the most promising skaters of the decade. Long before becoming a superstar, Daisuke began his life in the ice rink by choosing between hockey and figure skating. He became a senior skater at the age of 16, but couldn't cope with the pressure and didn't become Japan's National Champion until four seasons later. Phantom of the Opera Photograph: Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images Sport In 2005/2006, at the age of 19, he almost lost the National title, and the chance to participate at the Olympics, when it was accidentally given to Nobunari Oda due to a miscalculation. The error was corrected though and Daisu...

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 ...

After breaking his own record for a short programme score, Yuzuru Hanyu seems unstoppable in his quest to win the Olympic Gold Medal, but another record-breaker, Patrick Chan, is just a step behind the Japanese. On third and fourth, are Javier Fernandez and Daisuke Takahashi dueling for the Bronze or are their eyes set on a bigger prize? Zoltan Kelemen 's first presence in an Olympic final is nowhere near his best. He has three falls and a step-out of the Triple Axel. His score: 98.35 . Overall: 158.76 . Abzal Rakimgaliev 's re-enact of Once Upon a Time in America  comes in a somewhat curious costume (is that a scarf?), but seems awfully long. Technically, he has a couple of mistakes and a hand down. It's good to see Kazakhstan is pushing forward in figure skating. He gets 110.22 points. Overall: 174.40 . Viktor Romanenkov falls on the first Triple Axel and things go downhill from there. The story of Carmen  simply fades away in the light of such a mistake-filled ro...

With Evgeni Plushenko out of the way before his rivals even touched the ice, the way to the highest step of the Olympic Podium is wide open for Patrick Chan. But what about the other contenders? Daisuke Takahashi and Yuzuru Hanyu could each take the Olympic title to Japan, while Javier Fernandez will surely do his best to bring a medal to Europe. Jeremy Abbott 's programme is chaotic, but thank God he's alright. After that awful fall, to get up and skate perfectly, AND finish in time with the music, is just amazing. Judging this is going to be terribly hard, but right now I'm sure everyone's just happy he's fine. Lots to admire from this guy, who apparently doesn't give up no matter the obstacle. His score: 72.58 . Zoltan Kelemen seems affected by what happened to Abbott and can't get three rotations on the Triple Flip. He also puts a hand down on the Triple Lutz and rushes out of the spins. He gets 60.41 points. Victor Pfeifer jumps only a Single L...

Germany and Russia are famous in history for their rivalry. Tonight they're going to compete head to head, skate to skate in the most glamorous of sports for the biggest prize of all: an Olympic Gold Medal. There is hardly any difference in quality between Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov and Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy, so let's wish them good luck, knowing that whoever takes the title home, is fully worthy of it. The start of the competition is in good hands with Felicia Zhang/Nathan Bartholomay . Skating on Les Miserbales , they finish with no error and stand out with some amazing lifts. Their score: 110.31 . Overall: 137.86 . Paige Lawrence/Rudi Swiegers need a bit of help from the Wizard of Oz today, as their routine is peppered with flaws. They both mess up the second Triple Toeloop and she can't hold the landing of the thrown Triple Loop. They are lovely to watch, but could have interpreted the characters a bit more, maybe even have the Wicked Witch make an ...

The first act of the epic battle between Russia and Germany for the supreme gold medal is here. Both Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov and Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy know that while a short programme cannot get you a victory, it can sure make you lose it. They've got three and a half minutes to get the advantage and not a single second can be ignored. Maylin Wende/Daniel Wende 's November Rain is almost perfect. All the jumps are landed, the costumes are very beautiful, but she falls right after the death spiral. Sometimes luck will work against you in figure skating. In terms of interpretation, they could have turned the volume up on the sadness, but we'll forgive them as they were clearly too excited to be skating at the Olympics to pull off a tragic mask. Their score: 59.25 . It's all a bit too simple, too slow and too inexpressive for Julia Lavrentieva/Yuri Yudrik , but these are their first ever Olympic Games, so just being here is a success for them. She ...

He wouldn't be the first Olympic champion to try and score another gold medal, but could Evan Lysacek be the first one (at least in recent years) to actually achieve his goal? The American's plans to leave Sochi with a gold medal have been common knowledge for the past three seasons, when he constantly tried to come back on ice, but failed. In 2011/2012, he had some disagreements with the US Federation and in 2012/2013 he got injured right before Skate America. This was followed by a hernia surgery that prevented him from competing at the National Championships. Could fate be telling him something? Now that he's feeling a lot better, the big question for Lysacek is not whether he can perform at his best or not, but whether his best is still good enough. Lysacek's Olympic victory was so acclaimed not only for defeating Evgeni Plushenko, but also for lacking a quadruple jump, thus proving that technical elements do not make or break a programme. Four years later, the ...

It's time to dig into the Olympic season and what better way to do it then talk about Miki Ando's unexpected  (and somewhat shocking) announcement that she plans to compete at Sochi despite giving birth this very April? The Japanese skater, who has two World gold medals and three National ones, announced on Monday, July 15 that she is the proud single mother of a baby girl, news which immediately got categorized as s candalous  because apparently having children without a wedding band on your finger is something we have never heard of before. I would like to quickly get the news of her giving birth out of the picture by saying "Congratulations!" and stating that Miss Ando (like any other woman out there) should have the right to do whatever she wants with her private life without being attacked by the media because of something that stopped being Breaking News  hundreds of years ago.On the same show, she also said she plans to storm into Sochi, which is the real bi...