Crystal Skate

Last night left us with the bitter taste of disappointment as we watched Javier Fernandez crash under the pressure of competing on home ice for the first time. But it also gave us hope that the Olympic champion, Yuzuru Hanyu, has put behind him the collision that cost him not only one, but two Grand Prix wins. The results aren't cemented though; anything can happen in figure skating and there's never a better time for anything to happen than right now. Takahito Mura  starts the competition as the underdog, but you wouldn't know it from his performance. The only mistake is singling out the triple Loop. His interpretation of Phantom of the Opera  is quite dull though; he needs to express the desperation of his character a bit more. His score: 157.02 . Overall: 235.37 . The medalists Photograph: David Ramos/ Getty Images Europe Javier Fernandez  is visibly more relaxed than yesterday. Still, he's not quite able to convey the carefree feeling of The Barber of Sevi...

Finally, we have arrived to the short programme Barcelona has been waiting for most impatiently: the men's. All of Spain will place their bets on Javier Fernandez, who has never before skated on homeland against such powerful rivals. Will that help or deter his performance? We wish him, and all the other skaters, the best of luck. Yuzuru Hanyu  seems to have recovered from the accident that made him skate first here, at a competition where he would normally skate last. His music is a frantic piano ballad by Chopin, but he manages to express every single change in the music. He loses his axis on the triple Lutz though, which prevents him from aligning the Toeloop right, which is why he falls. His score: 94.08 . Sergei Voronov  has nerves of steel, which is why he seems unaffected by Hanyu's amazing performance. Still, you can tell he's being extra careful with every move because he's slower than usually, too slow to match the rapid pace of  Danse Macabre . He gets 84...

Tatsuki Machida is fresh off his Skate America victory, but Denis Ten and Maxim Kovtun have a lot to prove, so anything can happen in the men's event. Here we go: Adam Rippon  is much better today than he was at Skate Canada. Tuxedo Junction  suits him perfectly, offering him the chance to go wild without losing charm. Just one question: where is the tuxedo? His score: 76.98 . Denis Ten's Butterfly Photograph: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images Europe Chafik Besseghier  is using last season's short routine and it is still as brilliant as ever. The graffiti-ed costume is still a masterpiece and the breakdown dance moves are still impressive. He's flawless on a technical level as well. He gets 78.22  points. Konstantin Menshov 's Rotten Romance  has an air of desperation and angst about it that the Russian sells very well. His stamina must be incredible because there's not a single moment of rest in the choreography, but he doesn't look exhausted. His score...

The poster for the 2014 Trophee Eric Bompard looks like the cover of a best-selling novel. It's by far the most stylish poster of the Grand Prix series, and why shouldn't it be? France has always been the place where beauty and elegance thrive. Thus it's the perfect venue for a figure skating competition to be held in. The poster also boasts with 'the best skaters in the world', which might be a bit far fetched as the only World champions supposed to compete in Bordeaux, Cappellini and Lanotte, withdrew a week ago. But this is ice skating and 'best in the world' doesn't just mean World title holders. The Poster Photograph: International Skating Union The category that gets the closest to the advertised 'créme de la créme' is the ladies'. Julia Lipnitskaia and Elena Radionova are both competing here - yey, I'm getting my wish of seeing them face each other! Consequently, Ashley Wagner might be scowling at her lucky stars because it...

Unexpected shifts of places are not uncommon in the men's competition, but they can still be shocking when they happen. So we're off with Machida, Abbott and Brown leading. Let's see how they, and other top contenders, do: It always baffles me that Russian young skaters, like Adian Pitkeev , choose extremely intense music to skate on instead of going for something that might be fun. The result is that they don't project towards the audience, but are rather closed on themselves, like they're focusing too hard to follow the choreography. Technically, he falls on the quad. His score: 135.94 . Overall: 212.07 . From left to right: Brown, Machida, Nguyen Photograph: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images North America Denis Ten  has stepped into a new musical territory with songs from New Impossibilities,  a musical project filled with Arabian rhythms. I'm sure this program will be a masterpiece by the end of the season, but right now, it looks as if he's not p...

There are 12 men competing at Skate America in the individual event. Three of them are looking to reinforce their worth, two hope they can redeem themselves and the rest are just here to gain some experience. Let's see how the best of them pull through: Artur Gachinski  still can't land his quads, which is just painful to watch because artistically, he's as good as ever. He's got Tatiana Tarasova on his side now so maybe she can fix him. His music is Cry Me a River  by Michael Buble. He gets 75.71  points. Nam Nguyen  seems to be having the time of his life here. His music choice, Sinnerman  by Nina Simone, is an incredibly tricky song to skate on because of the rapid changes in rhythm, but he never struggles with it. His ease reminds me of Patrick Chan in his earlier days. His score: 73.71 . Representing Russia's younger generation of skaters, Adian Pitkeev  skates on Rachmaninoff. He manages alright with only a minor mistake on his quad, but artis...

Chicago is less than a week away from hosting the 2014 Skate America and so it is time for me to start blogging again. Skate America will open the Grand Prix Series and as such it is the first truly important competition of the season. 2014/2015 will undoubtedly be the season a new generation of champions emerges, as many Olympic and World title holders have withdrawn from competitive ice. However, with the standards of the sport getting higher each year, it's become a lot less easy to predict who will climb the steps of the podiums. But before we get to the medal predictions, there's one thing we've got to mention first. This season is the first time we are able to hear lyrics in all the events. To that, I can only say it is high time that the ISU allowed it. The words are making it less difficult for skaters to tell a story, especially those who don't have a partner to share the storytelling with. They also help the public understand a routine a lot better and thu...

Tatsuki Machida achieved the impossible just two days ago and defeated the Olympic champion. But Yuzuru Hanyu is not a name easily forgotten and he is sure to give a good fight today, as will Javier Fernandez, his practice mate and Europe's record-breaker champion. What about Tomas Verner - does he have a real chance at the podium? Chafik Besseghier 's costume is epic, but his interpretation of an Ancient Egyptian, not so much. The programme is definitely energetic, but there's only one reference to Egyptian mythology, which is supposedly what this is about. Very good technically though and not exactly inexpressive. His score: 147.39 . Overall: 224.19 . Maxim Kovtun  knows that the key to presenting classical music is a sense of grandeur. Skating on Tchaikovski's Piano Concerto No. 1 , he replaces the first Quad with a parody of a jump, but gets back on track quickly. He gives off a vibe of urgency with this routine, which might as well be him trying to tell the sto...

DANCE Ksenia Monko/Kirill Khaliavin  had a little stumble during the step sequence, but were otherwise dynamic and pleasant to watch. Their score: 55.83 Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier  were fun and had great twizzles. The choice of costumes was very clever as it relates to the first song. They obtained 51.14  points. Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron 's flame was significantly less bright than in Paris. He messed up the twizzles and lost focus on the presentation from that moment on, then fell at the very end of the routine. Their score: 44.49 . Ekaterina Riazanova/Ilia Tkachenko  brought the atmosphere of Chicago  to Moscow. It was fast, very well presented and had complex steps. They obtained 58.59  points. Madison Chock/Evan Bates  dug their hands into the showmanship bucket, but didn't get the best out of it. The twizzles were fine, but the first song just didn't seem to get them in the mood. Their score: 57.80 Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje...

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...