Crystal Skate

The calm of the ice dance wasn't disturbed in the free skate. Luckily for this discipline, it is one of the most artistic, so it's often a lot of fans' favourite. So there's always drama even if there is no drama (I might have 'over-metaphored' here, but you get what I mean). Here is what happened to the top couples in Osaka. Penny Coomes/Nicholas Buckland  blew my mind with their extremely creative lifts. I'm not sure if some of them were not too long, but boy, were they extraordinary! As always with them though, they experienced trouble with the synchronicity in the step sequence. The song is called Battle Remembered . Unfortunately, they didn't match the technical prowess of other skaters and ended on 7th place overall. Free score: 92.51 . Total score: 158.15 . Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov  got the audience laughing thanks to Nikita's surprising fall. Luckily, it happened after the music ended, so they didn't get a deduction for it...

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...

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 Alexander Majorov never fails to find original stories for his programmes. Skating on Archangel  by T.J. Bergersen, he double-footed the Quad Toeloop, singled both Triple Lutzes and fell on the Triple Flip. His score: 120.90 . Overall: 180.62 Nan Song 's mission in France can be ticked as a success, although he could have used a bit more emotion in the interpretation. He also had a hand down on the Quad Toeloop and double-footed the Triple Loop. He obtained 133.37  points. Overall: 204.73 Michal Brezina  is once more battling his inconsistency demons. Although he did a tremendous job impersonating the infamous Sherlock Holmes , his jumps were rusty at best. He over-rotated the first Quad Salchow and completely failed the second, fell on the Triple Toeloop, singled the Triple Flip and Triple Salchow, and doubled the Triple Toeloop. His score: 134.31 . Overall: 206.22 Florent Amodio 's life might have lost a shade of pink after this performance. Although he stil...

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...

PAIRS With another failed lift and a couple of dodgy jumps, Margaret Purdy & Michael Marinaro 's Casablanca routine failed to impress. Their score: 91.89 . Overall: 131.39 Paige Lawrence & Rudi Swiegers had a couple of mistakes (she fell on the Triple Toeloop; they both singled the Double Axel combination), but nothing too disastrous. In terms of presentation, they could have sold that epic music a bit better. They got 106.88  points. Overall: 159.82 Mari Vartmann & Aaron Van Cleave 's jumps were a nightmare today (both the side-by-side and the thrown), which is probably why the interpretation was next to nonexistent. The side-by-side spins were also out of sync and quite slow. Their score: 94.51 . Overall: 149.59 Wenjing Sui & Han Cong premiered a Quad Twist today. Although Kalinka  seems an unusual choice for a Chinese couple, they presented it very well. The costumes were adorable. The only mistake was her fall at the end of the Axel. They got 124.75...

LADIES Veronik Mallet might be a new-face, but she's already got the grace of an experienced skater. Gorgeous costume and a good skate. It was such a shame that she fell on the Triple Flip. Her score: 50.71 . An original spin position gave Courtney Hick 's Soul Surfer  programme a bust after she doubled both the Toeloop and the Lutz. She received 50.70 points. Canada's star, Kaetlyn Osmond , might have had the groove, but she lost focus on the Double Axel. Kudos for the white gloves! Her score: 60.32 . Natalia Popova  finished a flawless programme, showcasing that Ukrainian skating talent we've been missing for a while now. She earned 52.36 points. What a performance for Amelie Lacoste ! She started with an amazing combination of Triple and Double Loop, and kept getting better and better. The Double Axel in particular was perfect. Enjoyable presentation as well. Her score: 59.13 . Christina Gao 's programme sure touched some hearts tonight. It was cla...

You simply cannot analyze this season and overlook the Olympic Champions who may be the first skaters in a while to have high chances of winning their second Olympic gold medal. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir had two beautiful routines this year that I simply can't go on without talking about. In the other corner we've got two Russians who switched to team Azerbaijan and whose debut was brave though a bit junior-ish. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir started the season with a waltz composed by Sir Anthony Hopkins ( And the Waltz Goes On ), showing us a side to the famous actor that few knew about. Tessa's two dresses for the waltz were absolutely gorgeous, even though the first one caused a few technical problems (remember Skate Canada where Scott got tangled into Tessa's dress?). The programme had a great flow to it, the choreography was very beautiful and the polka steps were so smooth it didn't bother us that they were performed on a waltz. But the real piece of re...

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...