START: Intro
Red: You're In The Loop - we're here to discuss the ups, downs and sideways of the sport of figure skating, and maybe give you +5 GOE along the way. Let’s introduce this week's hosts:
Yogeeta: Hi, I’m Yogeeta, your friendly neighborhood Rabbit queen who very much would like to find one streaming service that actually works on Rabbit. My Twitter handle is @liliorum.
Sam: Hey, I’m Sam, and while my fantasy team may have died, Satoko Miyahara brought me back from the grave. You can follow me on Twitter @quadlutze.
Red: Hi, I’m Red, and I’ve been dead for a while, but Nathan Chen brought me back to life. You can find my screaming on Twitter @ironicbirbb.
Yogeeta: Great. Let’s start this episode with this week’s figure skating news. So first, Carolina Kostner has unfortunately withdrawn from both her Grand Prix events due to a hip injury, which I’m very sad about. I’m going to miss seeing her elegant skating on the Grand Prix this season.
Sam: Also, in some sad news, Gabrielle Daleman has also withdrawn from Skate Canada to take a break from training due to her mental health. Larkyn Austman, also from Canada, withdrew because of a foot sprain.
Red: Rika Hongo has moved her training base to vancouver, Canada. She will be coached by Joanne Macleod, Megumu Seki and Neil Wilson. She will continue to represent Chukyo University despite the move abroad.
Yogeeta: In some exciting news, Yuna Kim will be skating at three of the stops of Javier Fernandez’s Revolution on Ice show. In some more exciting news, we’re now available on Spotify! We publish a weekly roundup of news stories you might have missed during the week and would like to catch up you can find them on our website at inthelopodcast.com.
-end segment- 2:07
START: Skate America 2018 - Pairs
Sam: First up in the first stop of the Grand Prix series, Skate America, held in Everett, Washington, was Pairs. The gold was Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morosov, silver Alisa Efimova and Alexander Korovin, and rounding out the podium, Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc. For me, personally, I have to say that Tarasova and Morosov kind of impressed me, in a way? Not completely. Their programs are so much better than anything they’ve ever had before, specifically the Free Skate. It’s just the perfect style for them because they’re not necessarily the best at projecting outwards. They just have these beautiful classic lines and the great technical ability, but it gets lost in the fact especially in programs like their Short Program where they’re putting on this fun program that requires you to engage with the audience. You’re just kinda sitting there like, “Well, that happened. That’s a really great throw. But you’re not giving me anything else. And it was nice to see Max[im Trankov]. Very nice to see Max.
Yogeeta: I agree, I like their Free Skate. I like it, I don’t love it. I think it’s much better than having to deal with Candyman again. But it doesn’t impress me emotionally. It very much gives me Savchenko and Massott throwback feelings to their Olympic Free Skate. And when I watch I’m like, “Oh I wish it was giving me the same kind of emotional impact that they had given me at the Olympics.” So it’s nice but I don’t feel much towards it and I really don’t know what else they can do to actually make me feel like I am emotionally connected to their skating,
Sam: They have to realize there’s music playing.
Red: Yeah. They always look like there’s skating to the formula and they don’t really care [about] anything else as long as they’re getting what they need to get the high score that..I don’t know, it’s just very formulaic there’s not a whole lot of emotion like all were saying.
Yogeeta: Hashtag skating while Russian.
Sam: Exactly. It’s super frustrating because, like I said, they have literally all of the technical ability to be the number one pair in the world. Easily. They have great skating skills, they have the jumps when they land them - unfortunately Evgenia did not land her jumps here very well. But then there’s just music playing and they’re like, “Oh, yeah that’s the music.” But you could put anything else over it and it wouldn’t change anything - especially, like I said, with their fun programs like the “Candyman.” The James Brown Short Program is much better than the “Candyman” in the face that they don’t look embarrassed doing it, but it’s still like why are we skating to this? You guys don’t seem to particularly care about it. It’s just kind of there.
Red: We don’t like to think about “Candyman.”
Sam: Yeah, no, we definitely don’t,
Yogeeta: Yeah let’s never watch that ever again.
Red: Let’s move on from “Candyman.”
Sam: Yeah, thankfully they have.
Red: Yes thankfully they have, but I think that’s just always going to be like that one thing that you associate them with and you’re just like “Oh no, y’all did that.”
Sam: Moving on to the silver Pair, Alisa Efimova and Alexander Korovin, it’s kind of a similar thing where they’re not as technically strong as Tarasova and Morosov. They’re just kind of solid. Like there’s nothing that really stands out. But that said, we’re skating to a cover of Imagine Dragons. Alright. I can deal with that. But we’re skating to a cover that doesn’t change anything other than the fact that there’s a different singer, and I don’t necessarily understand choices like that like why was this the particular version of this song you wanted to skate to? And it had nice moments, like the exit out of their lift was great. She continues to hold the edge out and circles around him as he’s standing stationary and doing this really cool choreographic flair, but other than that, you did the thing! I’m not really sure what you were saying with the thing you did, but you did it. Or “La Strada.” Okay, you’re skating to “La Strada” but are you skating to “La Strada” based on the movie, or are you skating to “La Strada” based off the program by Daisuke Takahashi? Can we just find what we need to say when we decide to do a program? They were nice, they were definitely nice, it’s just...alright.
Red: That’s how it is with most of the Russian pairs, I’ve noticed. And sometimes even Russian Ice Dance, it’s just formulaic. It’s just there. It happens. They did really well technically, but you never really feel anything from it.
Sam: In third, like I said, Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc, who impressed me a lot in the fact that their twist has gotten so much better. It was definitely their weakest element when Ashley came back to Pairs a couple years ago with him. She’s still a little bit tilted in the air, but they’re getting a lot more height on it, and she’s not crashing as much going down into the landing. Their Short Program, Yogeeta was saying she thought Tarasova and Morosov’s Free Program was of Savchenko and Massot, but for me Cain and LeDuc’s Short Program was like Savchenko and Massot - even down to the fact that she’s butt-smashing into him and they’re giving off the flapper aesthetic exactly like Savchenko and Massot’s Short Program from the Olympics last year, and then the season before that. The Free Skate was nice, if a bit snooze-y, but I appreciate the fact that they’re changing their style because they’ve been doing fun programs - like they’ve done the flapper aesthetic before with their Gatsby program last year, but their costumes weren’t that great. That’s the only real, major criticism I have.
Red: I really like Cain/LeDuc because they train 30 minutes away from where I’m from, so I’ve always had a soft spot for them. I think their Free Skate was cleaner and nicer than their Short Program, and I think it was one of the better performances I’ve seen from them. I know they’re a newer pair, and that they’ve only been together for a couple of seasons, so there’s not a whole large body of work behind them, but I think they did well with their Free Skate considering what the program was.
Sam: I have to admit that as I was listening to their Free I was like “Where’s the Evgenia [Medvedeva] cuts?” Because all I hear is Evgenia Medvedeva’s program to the same music still.
Red: Especially in the Pairs, there was a lot of music that I was like “Man this has been done before by such-and-such.” I mean, someone used the same music that Nathan was using for his Free Skate this season. It seemed like there was a lot of that in the Pairs.
Sam: Just off the podium were Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim, who many of you might have known made a big coaching change coming out of the Olympic season to go and work with Aljona Savchenko. Unfortunately, they have revealed here at Skate America that they are no longer working with her. We’re not necessarily sure why, there have been some rumours that it was because of training intensity, but as everything stands it does seem very amicable. That said, just based off the work that they’ve done so far, I think it was definitely a worthwhile idea to go out there and work with her, even if the end result wasn’t necessarily what they wanted. The programs that they have this year are easily, again like Tarasova/Morosov, easily the best of their career. Even if their Short Program to Halsey doesn’t necessarily work, especially when Alexa seems nervous like she did here. It’s a different style, which is exactly what you’re looking for after an Olympic season. You’re looking to push your boundaries and try something different and out yourself out of your comfort zone, even if it’s not necessarily something that you’re going to use going forward. The Free, for me, was lovely. I think it really has the potential to be something special, if they skated it clean. It builds in a really nice way that just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and faster. Especially at the end where they go to do the two throws back to back. If they landed those both, it would be really nice. The bad being here that Alexa’s jumps were off completely the entire time, and she had a really terrible fall on a triple toe, where she doubled it out and landed straight on her hip with a thud and it was deafening. It was the kind of issues where she was behind Chris when she was taking off and just completely slipped and wasn’t able to recover from that, both on the Salchows in the Short Program and the solo triple toes in the free. That said, even with the mistakes here, like I said, this whole season for them is about pushing forward and going through growing pains, and it’s not necessarily going to be all sunshines and roses and perfect right at the beginning of the season, so I’m looking forward to where they go from here and hoping that they continue to work with Benoit, who was their choreographer and Aljona’s choreographer with Bruno. And thankfully they had Mitch Moir there to be with them and help them with the boards, and Benoit was also there working with them during practices so they weren’t completely alone but hopefully they can get back home to Illinois and figure it out soon.
-end segment- 0:11:12
START: Men
Red: Okay, onto the Men’s. We had Nathan Chen win the gold medal, that was to be expected. In second with the silver we had Michal Brezina, which wasn’t really expected, so that was really neat. And then bronze medal was Sergei Voronov from Russia. He’s 31 and still doing this, I can’t believe it. Anyways, so going back to Nathan, I really liked his Short Program, and it actually had a somewhat decent costume considering his costumes the last few seasons but I didn’t really feel his free program yet. I think it has potential but I think he really needs to improve on it but, I don’t know, the music is just so one-note, I don’t know, what do y’all think?
Sam: For me, it’s not even necessarily something he’s doing, it’s just the music. I don’t necessarily think Woodkid is, like, the artist to pick for a figure skating program, ‘cause like you said there isn’t much variation with how their songs go, they just stay on the one tone, which makes it especially hard to, like, keep you engaged in the program. For things like a Free Skate where it’s like 4 minutes of trying to keep yourself enraptured by what the skater is doing, so even though Nathan’s doing all these really cool interesting moves, it’s not always, like, the best to listen to, I guess.
Red: Yeah, it’s hard to get into.
Sam: Yeah. I loved “Caravan” though! The little hops he does out, like, stuff like that is perfect, and he’s more engaged with it for sure. My one thing is I’m hopeful that it stays like it was here because he performed throughout, especially when he got into the step sequence and he had that big smile on his face and you could tell that this was something that he really wanted to skate to, but that also happened with “Nemesis” last year—
Red: “Nemesis,” yeah.
Sam: It was just a little bit disappointing to see it, as the Olympics started getting closer and closer, he started dipping more and more out of the program because he kinda tensed up and got a little bit too nervous so he wasn’t able to break free. But, yeah. Work on your spins a bit more, my dude, cut your hair, do a quad toe triple toe and we’ll be good.
Red: No. I disagree. I like the hair.
Sam: I find it a little bit distracting, not gonna lie.
Red: It is a little distracting, and I don’t think it fit with his costume for the Free Skate, but I really liked it with the Short Program, I thought it was really fun—the program is really light and bouncy and his hair was also light and bouncy.
[laughter]
Red: But one thing I will say that I liked that Nathan did here at Skate America was that he didn’t do as many difficult jumps and as a result was much cleaner than he usually is. He actually landed his triple axels, I was so happy I was, like, crying, I was just like “he did it!”
Sam: The one he did in the short was easily the best of his career. Like, it was really nice. And like I said, like, move on, do the quad toe triple toe and, like, pick between the Lutz and the flip for the short and we’ll be golden.
Red: But like, I was seeing, like, triples out of him that I don’t, not triple axels, and I was like “this is new” because I’m so used to him jumping all these quads! But I’m glad, because he was able to skate clean, so it didn’t detract from the performance like it does when he usually just, like, falls on a jump. But I really liked Caravan, I think it has a lot of potential, but I’m just afraid he’s going to do the same thing that he did with Nemesis and he’s just going to, you know, do it really well the first time and afterward it’s just bad. But I think it has, I’m hoping that it becomes what Nemesis had the potential to be and just becomes one of his greatest Short Programs of all time.
Sam: I do think that he grew a lot last season, like he’s even said he was so nervous going to the Olympics but that something snapped right before the Free Skate. I think this season that we’re going to see a new Nathan, one that has much less pressure put on him, and I think that’s going to be good for him overall.
Yogeeta: Something that seems quite unfair to me, though, is the inconsistent tech calling. Vincent rightfully got four underrotations for his Free Skate, but Nathan didn’t get any calls despite having underrotations for his quad Lutz and his triple axel.
Sam: Yeah, which is especially jarring when you have someone like Vincent Zhou who is visibly underrotating his jumps, yes, but immediately getting called for them, when Nathan is also visibly underrotating his jumps - maybe it’s a bit more borderline, but you can still see it. It has all the tells where he’s leaning forward when he lands, and his free leg is coming out late, and it’s at an angle, and it seems a little bit tight, and it’s not getting very good flow out of them, but he’s not getting the same call. It’s a little frustrating for sure, but he skated clean besides the underrotations. It was a clean program and he was obviously going to get the higher PCS, there was no reason to drag Vincent down and let Nathan get away with it - not necessarily let Nathan get away with it - obviously it has nothing to do with Nathan if the judges call his jumps underrotated or not, but there was no reason not to, if that makes any sense.
Red: That was exciting, I think we saw a lot of good things from Nate this weekend, despite the underrotations.
Yogeeta: Okay, next onto the silver medalist, Michal Březina, and this is his first Grand Prix medal in four seasons, since Rostelecom 2014.
Sam: It’s nice to see him on a podium. I have to admit, especially since he was making Grand Prix podiums before, but I always remember him as the guy who came fourth at Worlds a million times, so it’s nice to say, like, “You actually got a medal this time, Břez!”, it’s great. Also, he skated to ACDC, how could you not love that?
Yogeeta: But please get a new Free Skate costume, my friend.
Sam: Oh yeah, it’s a repeat of his costume from last year, isn’t it?
Yogeeta: It is. It’s the same costume.
Sam: At least he’s not putting his hair in that mini ponytail anymore. We can be thankful for the small things.
Yogeeta: And he landed his quads!
Sam: Beautifully! That Sal was great.
Yogeeta: So beautiful.
Sam: And last, Sergei Voronov, who had a great Grand Prix season last year and really kinda came out of nowhere. It had been a while since he had skated that well - made the Grand Prix Final. Unfortunately, left off the Russian European team and Olympic team after a disappointing Free Skate at Russian Nationals, but he came back and decided “Hey! I’m going to do a quad loop!” and it’s pretty exciting. It’s nice to see other people, even when they’re older, try new things - even if his quad loop was definitely underrotated here and he does telegraph it pretty heavily, it’s very exciting to see a guy go out there and give it a shot.
Yogeeta: He’s thirty-one. What thirty-one year old is busy adding a brand new quad?
Sam: And a hard one. Most people don’t do quad loops.
Yogeeta: Let’s talk about some other standouts from the Men. First off, Julian Yee, thank you so much! I have absolutely never been more proud of a skater than I was after Julian’s Short Program. That was stunning, spectacular, I don’t know how many more words I can say, but it was a standout performance for me for all of the men in this competition. He is the first Malaysian skater to get a Grand Prix assignment - and he has two, we’re going to see him again at Rostelecom - and the first Malaysian skater to land that gorgeous quad Sal. Ah, I’m so excited for his future.
Red: It was really good to see a small fed skater come out and do that well, especially from Malaysia. I think he’s said before, when he first started skating there was literally one rink in the entire country, so to see him come out is really great.
Yogeeta: I don’t know if you guys are aware, but they did a documentary on him on the Olympic Channel before the Olympics and it talked about the struggles he faced, how he trained in a mall. He actually has a really great federation and they support him really well, but he struggled for the costs and everything.
Red: There’s just not a lot of financial support for him so seeing him being able to do all of this stuff despite that is really amazing.
Yogeeta: One thing that frustrates me a lot is small federation skaters do not get the PCS scores they deserve. Most of Julian’s PCS scores were in the 6s and in the 7s and he definitely put out a performance I think deserved - at the very least in Performance and Interpretation - in the 8s. I’m really frustrated with how PCS, in general, are scored. Honestly, they just need to do better.
Sam: Yeah, it’s definitely frustrating when you see somebody like Julian give his all and be incredible and have decent skating skills and then get a little bit buried in program components and be behind somebody like Vincent - which, not to bring Vincent down, but...doesn’t have the best skating skills, and probably isn’t giving as much of an outward, emotional performance as Julian did here - get ahead when maybe he shouldn’t.
Yogeeta: Also, what on earth was going on with the technical panel? They were calling flip edges everywhere.
Sam: Where they didn’t need to be!
Yogeeta: Yeah. Julian’s flip was given an unclear edge call and it looked perfectly fine to me. It looked inside, it was normal, and that unclear edge call made him go down from second to third.
Sam: Yeah which is really unfortunate. I think in the entire event, one person didn’t get a call on a flip, and it was Alexei Bychenko. And there were plenty of flips that were perfectly fine. Like, Nathan’s quad flip, I understand that can be a little bit borderline, but most of the time he’s okay. This is weird, guys - maybe we should relearn what a flip edge is? Or explain to everyone else what a flip edge is so we’re not calling every single jump in an entire event?
Yogeeta: Or maybe start looking at the Lutzes instead?
Sam: Yeah! Those too, that’d be great - let’s do both.
Red: Checking all those calls takes so much more time and they literally shortened the mens’ free skate in order to shorten the event, but then you’re taking more time doing all of these calls that probably don’t really need to be reviewed.
Sam: Yeah and then saying, hey, you’re wrong, but it’s like...were they? Was that edge wrong? Are we sure?
Yogeeta: Are we sure? Speaking of people who have lots of technical issues...Vincent.
Red: Yeah.
Yogeeta: Vincent did remarkably better here than he did at US Classic. Remarkably better. But he had an under-rotation call on nearly every jump.
Sam: It was justified. It wasn’t an under-rotation call where you’re scratching your head thinking, ‘mm, I don’t know about that,’ and then you see the replays and you’re like, ‘oh, okay.’ These were, I’m watching the program, I’m engaged in what’s going on, and I’m seeing you under-rotate every single jump. Every one! Especially in his short program, you could see every single jump - you’re twisting your boot around to get it around because you’re landing on the ice before you need to and not checking out soon enough. And it’s really upsetting when you see a skater like that, where, yeah we all know you have under-rotation issues - and he has said he is working very hard to fix them - but then you have a coach like Tom Zakrajsek, who is just calling foul everywhere and saying that the judging panel is wrong, and there’s no way, and they’re being too harsh. And it’s like, Tom...maybe take a step back, and instead of yelling at the judges who are just telling you what you need to work on, maybe own up to it, and just go back to the USOC and work on it and work on it and don’t say anything until it’s better. Because you’re not doing yourself any favors to just be railing against the system, when these are obvious issues that need to be solved.
Red: Well if separate tech panels are all giving the same exact rulings, that should tell you something about the jumps. Like, if they keep getting called under-rotated and it’s different tech panels every time, that means they’re probably all being under-rotated.
Yogeeta: Honestly, I wish that Vincent would get a different jump coach and not deal with Tom Z.
Red: Especially for Vincent, who’s a skater who definitely relies more on his technical than his PCS. You need to have a good jump coach if you’re going to rely on your technicals.
Sam: And even then, it’s not like his programs are bad. I’m not necessarily a big fan of his “Exogenesis” short program, just because I think that is Jeremy Abbott’s music and nobody else should be skating to it, but the free program is really nice. Yeah, I’m looking for some banging on some drums a la Boyang, but the step sequence at the end was really nice. I liked it - it was engaging. He is obviously trying - it’s not like he’s just phoning it in and just doing jumps. There is some effort there. It’s not always perfect because like we said, his skating skills are not the best, so maybe take some time. Lower your technical content for a little bit and work on your skating skills. And when your jumps are where they need to be to be able to pull off all of that work, bring it back. It’s okay. You have four years. You’re young. Do the work now so you can be exceptional later.
Yogeeta: Especially since he is still skating right off from a back injury.
Sam: And knee problem - his knee was screwed up at Worlds. Take the rest while you can. It doesn’t come very often.
Yogeeta: Lower the technical content, my dude. Improve your skating skills, improve your choreography, improve your execution. And then you can up your content again.
Sam: And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. You’re still better off doing things great instead of doing things okay.
Red: I was also distracted by the fact that Vincent used music Boyang used just last season. I was like, this sounds super familiar, and then I placed it and I was like he did this last season why are you doing the same exact thing. I was just like, whatever - I don’t know, that was just me. I was a little picky.
Yogeeta: There’s so much other Chinese music out there - do we need to skate to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”? Is this the only generic Chinese music they have?
Red: I will say one thing - just with this men’s event this year, you could tell that the whole going from 4 and a half minutes to 4 minutes in the free skate was a lot for a lot of them. I saw, I think Alexei was panting a lot right after he finished skating, there were a lot of skaters that were just panting as soon as they finished because they’re having to cram all these jumps into such a short amount of time.
Sam: I’m not as critical as everybody else is on it being such a crime that it happened, I think it’s just a learning curve. They want to keep doing all of the technical content they did before, so they’re not willing to sacrifice the fact that maybe their stamina is just not up to it yet. Once we get into the swing of things, it becomes a norm that skaters are growing up doing, instead of “we’re changing this now and you have to learn how to deal with it”. It’s not going to be as much of an issue of seeing all of these skaters falling over or Yuzuru [Hanyu] at 2012 Worlds needing an inhaler in the kiss and cry.
Yogeeta: We’re just going to see that happen to Yuzuru all over again this season, then.
Sam: Well, we already have. He’ll get there. They’ll all get there eventually, it’s just - you’ve got to get used to it and it’s early. By the end of the season, they’ll be hopefully fine.
Yogeeta: Some other shoutouts from this competition, Alexei’s [Bychenko] step sequence in his “Dracula” Free Skate is amazing. I love it.
Sam: The blood on the costume is a nice Alexander Majorov tribute. For those who don’t know, Majorov had a pretty bad nosebleed at Rostelecom Cup in 2016.
Yogeeta: Also, shoutout to Matteo Rizzo for landing his first quad toe in competition. Once again, thank you Jimmy Ma for taking us to the club.
-end segment- 0:26:20
START: Ice Dance
Yogeeta: Next, let’s move on to Ice Dance. Our medalists here with the gold, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue. In silver, we have Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri. And in bronze, we have Tiffani Zagorski and Jonathan Guerreiro. Hubbell and Donohue, my favorite team! Did you hear the sarcasm in that voice?
Red: They’re the top American team right now since the Shibs [Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani] are sitting out a season and [Madison] Chock and [Evan] Bates are out for at least their first Grand Prix event, but I don’t know, I’ve never really been impressed by their skating. It just seems very… You know, it’s there.
Yogeeta: I found their tango to be pretty generic. I love the music they chose, but I felt very little actual emotional connection from them and they didn’t seem like they were dancing a tango.
Sam: The problem with tangos is that it requires you to look at each other. (Hosts laugh). There wasn’t a lot of that going on. I’ve watched enough Dancing with the Stars that I at least got the base of that down. For me, I have always liked Madi and Zach in that you can see their potential. They’re great skaters. A couple of years ago, when they hadn’t finally gotten up to the level where they were actually competing for major medals, the thing that made them special was that they were connected with each other. They would look at each other and you could feel an on-ice chemistry between them, but since the end of last season a lot of that’s been gone and it’s really disappointing. I’m not really sure what they were thinking skating to “Romeo and Juliet”. I don’t know what their thought process was behind that. If you’re choosing a program that’s built on natural romantic chemistry and you no longer have that natural romantic chemistry, what exactly are you left with? Why are we making this choice?
Red: That’s something that really paid off last season. That was something that commentators were commenting on, they were like, “Wow, look at them, they’ve got this chemistry.” And they did that - I don’t know how to describe it other than “sexy” - program last season, they were all over each other, you could feel it. I do agree with that, but I don’t feel it this season.
Yogeeta: It’s very much been their style. They very much have done a lot of those sexy, romantic programs. They’re very strong ice dancers individually, they have great skating skills, great edgework, but I feel like they just don’t work well together in a romantic sense. They should take this opportunity to diversify and try a program that they’ve never done before in a different style. It might be a struggle for them in the beginning, but it will make them better performers and better skaters and make me potentially actually like them. Romeo and Juliet is a terrible choice.
Sam: It just feels uninspired, which unfortunately sometimes is the tale of their career. They make one really good choice and then they don’t know what to do with it and then they take two steps backward. You’re left sitting there like, “Everything about your partnership should work. Everything is written there on paper, you guys just have to figure it out.” Sometimes it feels like they don’t know what to do with it and it’s disappointing, especially now when they’re in a position to be like, “We’re number two in the world. We’re solidly number two in the world, that’s what every judge has told us, let’s take it and run with it.” It feels like they were just like, “Alright, we’re here now, let’s keep going forward”, when there are other teams like [Alexandra] Stepanova and [Ivan] Bukin who really came running out of the gate like, “We’re here now. Alright, Hubbell and Donohue, what are you going to do about that?”.
Yogeeta: Yeah. I think in general Romeo and Juliet programs - their music cut isn’t really good. I never want to hear a Romeo and Juliet voiceover that isn’t “Juliet” [Referring to Junhwan Cha’s voiceover] ever again.
Sam: Skaters out there, voiceover is for camp and very Russian programs. It’s not for you when you’re trying to be serious. It doesn’t work as well.
Red: I think for Hubbell and Donohue, they really do have that opportunity - especially with how empty the Ice Dance field is right now - to make a move for the very top, but with these performances, I don’t see them being able to do that. They have to improve from this or they won’t be able to do that.
Yogeeta: They definitely need to take this opportunity, seize it and hold it, because the Shibs are coming back next season. If they want to remain the top US Ice Dance team, they have to prove that they deserve to be the top US Ice Dance team. Moving on to our silver medalists, the Italians Charlene and Marco. Charlene and Marco are the top Italian Ice Dance team now that Anna [Cappellini] and Luca [Lanotte] have retired, which - saying those words makes me so sad (Red: Yeah). I really liked their Rhythm Dance. It was really nice. It was generic, but it was nice. I want to see them do more with it, but we’ll see what happens as the season progresses. I did really like their Free Dance and coming from me, who hates La La Land programs with a passion… I actually really enjoyed it and the cuts that they had. It was a very well done program.
Sam: You could tell that they wanted to skate to it, which - they admitted freely that they wanted to do it last year but decided not to, because Chock and Bates had originally said they were, and they were like, “We’re not going to do the same.” So when they announced this season that they were finally skating to “La La Land”, they were like, “Nobody else can skate to it, guys, we get it now.” It was really nice. I enjoyed that about that. You could feel that they were really passionate about it and it really suits them. I never particularly found them that engaging - they did that one, ah… What were they skating to when they had the piano dress? Does anybody else remember that? It was two years ago, for their Free Dance she was wearing a piano dress and he had a matching shirt.
Yogeeta: I remember this, but I can’t remember what the program was.
Sam: They would do weird stuff like that or when they did their “Schindler’s List” program and they were wearing literal dirty costumes and it was too real, guys, don’t be so literal with it, please. Don’t skate to “Schindler’s List” and do Holocaust programs if you can avoid it, but when you do them, don’t dress like you’re covered in ash. So they’ve never necessarily been the team for me, but this is nice. I enjoyed them a lot.
Red: One thing I’ll say about them is that I’m not usually huge into La La Land programs, just because they happen a lot, I don’t know, I’ve never been into them, but I actually really liked their program. I thought it was really good.
Yogeeta: In bronze, we have Tiffani Zagorski and Jonathan Guerreiro, who I’ve always been a fan of. They’ve been the quirky Russian Ice Dance team. I love her hair, her hair is fabulous. They were the first team to hit all key elements in the second half of the Tango Romantica pattern, so go them!
Sam: That pattern is so difficult. I do not envy any of these teams. It just goes on forever and it’s so intricate, so for them to be able to get a level 4 - and then later on, [Lorraine] McNamara and [Quinn] Carpenter to get a level 4 on both sets of it - is very, very impressive this early in the season.
Yogeeta: It blows my mind. Their Free Dance is to “Blues for Klook” and they haven’t had much time to practice because Tiffani was injured, so I was very impressed with their showing here. I especially love their straight line lift in their Free Dance.
Red: I think for Zagorski and Guerreiro - a lot of Russian Dance teams will just go to the formula, but I think they actually have some passion for what they’re doing and so I don’t get that same vibe from them.
Yogeeta: They’re a quirky team. I’ve followed them for a few seasons and I think they’ve always been on the edge of being a top Russian Ice Dance team, so I’d love to see them actually break into being one of the top teams.
Sam: They have a nice opportunity now that [Ekaterina] Bobrova and [Dmitri] Soloviev are not competing, so of the main senior Russian teams, it’s really just them and Stepanova and Bukin, so we’ll see who comes up from the Junior ranks. I believe the [2018] Junior World champions are Seniors now, so it’ll be interesting. I think they have a good shot at being the solid number two team for right now.
Yogeeta: An additional shoutout. Fear and Gibson’s free dance was amazing. (Sam: I really liked it) I don’t even care what score they got, it was great. It was so entertaining. It was super fun. They messed up their twizzles. I personally don’t like teams that don’t have great twizzles but I didn’t even care, it was great.
Sam: Like who cares about a twizzle when you’re giving me the earth, wind and fire? It’s all I need, you’ve given me everything, thanks guys!
Yogeeta: Also their choreographic slide element was probably my favourite of all the slides.
Sam: Yep, I agree. A lot of them are a little bit unoriginal where it’s like ‘oh we have to do this thing now’ whereas they were just like super engaging and great.
Yogeeta: So yeah I’m super excited to see how they improve as the season goes and they’re one of my new favourites.
Red: So I really liked Manta and Johnson’s free dance. It was sassy and it looked like they were having a blast while they were doing so it was super duper fun to watch. It really makes you wish the US field wasn’t so saturated with ice dance teams because I’d really like to get to see more of them at the international level but the US is just so saturated with the ice dance teams - like Japan is in the ladies division and like Russia… I just wish I could give them all the spots, that’s like...my wish (laughs).
Sam: Yeah it’s so nice to see that they were able to get two international assignments this year because that free dance...it’s such a crowd pleaser and it’s so fun and they are icons and I just love them to pieces
Yogeeta: Yeah they’re great, they have such great acrobatic elements too. Like their lifts are phenomenal - I think they have some of my favourite lifts of all of the ice dancers with fantastic entries and exits. It’s great.
Sam: Thank you Christopher Dean for choreographing this iconic program.
-end segment- 36:50
START: Ladies
Sam: And moving onto our last event, we’ve got the ladies. In first place, queen of my life, Satoko Miyahara. In second place, actual sunshine Kaori Sakamoto. And in third, rounding out the program, was Sofia Samodurova. Guys...what is there to say about Satoko Miyahara?
Yogeeta: Satoko Miyahara is a goddess.
Sam: The personification of everything good skating is.
Red: You know that part in Mean Girls when they go off about Regina George and how great she is? That’s how I feel about Satoko, just like… she’s great (laughs).
Sam: She’s perfect--she’s everything-- okay, she’s not perfect, even I have to admit, her jumps are not the best but they’re improving (Yogeeta: Yes!). They look ten times better than they did at US Classic, they look five million times better than they did at The Ice. She’s not slipping on the takeoff of her lutz anymore, she landed a Salchow?? Like, we are living.
Yogeeta: Like god bless Ghislain [Briand] for all of his magic jump training. I love him I love her, I love everything.
Sam: The programs are so good. The short program is...a Michelle [Kwan] program come to life once again. It’s got the spiral into the twizzles right back into her layback spin at the end. The choreographic jump she does going back with her arms flourishing out before her double Axel like, everything is just perfect and beautiful and great. The tango for Invierno Porteno she’s doing for her free program is just so nuanced and intricate. The cut of the music is excellent and she understands it perfectly and I could talk about her forever.
Yogeeta: Satoko Miyahara just gave us a masterclass on figure skating at Skate America. And she said she still has stuff to work on. This was perfection to me so I don’t even know what more she can do but she’s definitely going to improve every time that we see her in the future and every time we’re just going to be like “wow, you’re perfect.”
Sam: Even when she doesn’t hit her jumps I think she’s perfect, I could watch her forever and ever.
Yogeeta: And ever, I could watch her forever. Just always watch Satoko Miyahara.
Red: Didn’t they use her for the textbook, basically, for some of the jumps or something?
Sam: Oh no, it was her layback spin.
Red: Yes, her layback spin, that’s what it was. I know they use some of her elements for examples for other skaters so that just shows you how good she is right there.
Yogeeta: Yes, her layback spin is perfection. The judge that gave her +2 on her layback spin in the short program, we need to talk.
Sam: We also need to talk about the fact she did not receive any 9s in components in her short program or the free skate, which was a choice.
Yogeeta: I will say they were lenient on her in her free skate on some of her jumps. Some of them did look a little under-rotated but she didn’t get any under-rotations called.
Sam: Uh yeah, the second lutz was for sure under. The Flip I believe was close but they definitely should’ve checked her edge on that. That said, I can’t help but think that it’s more unfortunate when a skater with bad tech gets robbed in PCS than it is when a skater with good tech gets… where am I going with this? It’s just so unfair to see somebody who does everything right choreographically and performance-wise and to see them not get the marks they deserve… (sighs) drives me nuts.
Yogeeta: She should be getting 9s in performance and composition and interpretation. She should be getting 10s, to be honest.
Sam: Oh easily, easily. 9.5 should be where you start with her. That’s the base, that’s where she is all of the time and you go down from there. That’s her wheelhouse. Her skating, her edge quality is so great - she can be a little bit slow - but just her pure stroking is beautiful, her skating skills are there too… I don’t know, I just love her, I literally get lost for words thinking about her because I could talk about every little bit of everything she does and point out why this is textbook--
Yogeeta: One thing I should mention is that her spiral sequence in her free skate is absolute perfection (Sam: Oh yep). Like I could watch that on repeat for hours.
Red: I mean I’m not a huge ladies stan, I don’t watch the ladies a whole lot but I really do like watching Satoko skate. I actually feel emotions from her which is amazing, like there are so many skaters out there that can’t do that anymore and it’s sad, but I really do enjoy watching her skate, even though I don’t watch ladies as much as I do the mens.
Yogeeta: If there’s one lady you should be watching, Red--
Red: It should be Satoko! (laughs)
Yogeeta: So you’re doing the right thing
I did see the entire ladies event for Skate America but I don’t know, if I had to pick I usually watch the mens. But I do enjoy watching her skate. Something about the Japanese ladies - so many of them are just so good at conveying emotion, being smooth, being graceful. I just-I really appreciate that
Yogeeta: If only they got scored for that.
Red: Oh, I wish!
Yogeeta: Let’s move onto the other queen of Japan, Kaori Sakamoto. I love Kaori, she has some of the best technical skills of all the Japanese ladies. Like where Satoko is the best in program components, I think Kaori is the best technical jumper of all the Japanese ladies.
Sam: Her 2A-3T-2T is money. I could watch her jump that all day.
Yogeeta: I just have so much concerns about her packaging. Her short program felt like a junior program to me, it doesn’t seem like it’s pushing her forwards as a skater. Like she did it, she did it well and it was amazing but at the same time, it doesn’t seem like anything new for her and it honestly feels like a step back for her, program-wise.
Sam: Yeah the issue is that she’s not a light, delicate skater and it’s a light, delicate program. She’s powerful and barrels forward when she’s on the ice. You can visibly see her speed as she’s hustling back from each corner into jumps. And it’s like “okay, so we’ve got this great, powerful skater and we’re putting her in this light princess type program.” And it’s like “maybe that’s not the direction we should be heading.” And I kind of feel the same way about her Piano free skate - it’s not as bad because that program does build pretty effectively but she’s not the light and delicate type, she’s the forceful, in-your-face type with the way she skates. And she’s so expressive - especially when she’s doing well, that smile is just radiating and she’s pure sunshine, and I wish they could find something that fits that. I think somebody like Shae-Lynn Bourne would do wonders for her.
Yogeeta: Please give me a Shae-Lynn Bourne program for Kaori. I would die. I would pay Shae-Lynn money to choreograph a program for Kaori.
Sam: We will help with the fees if you want to hop over to Canada Kaori, we got you
Red: We’re starting a GoFundMe (laughs) (Yogeeta: Immediately!) to send Kaori to Canada to get a Shae-Lynn Bourne program.
Yogeeta: I will say I do disagree about her free skate. I think her free skate fits her very well. It does build and I think it showcases more of her maturity. And she is a powerful skater but her jumps, she lands them so softly I think this program very much emphasises that she’s such a good jumper and how her landings are so exquisite.
Red: I love watching her skate because she always looks like she’s having the time of her life out there. I don’t know, something about skaters enjoying what they’re doing while they’re performing just brings a whole other element to a program and she always seems like she’s truly enjoying skating and being out there.
Sam: What I will say is girl, just hold your spiral positions just a tad bit longer to really emphasise your extension going out into them. It seems like something really small but just that extra millisecond does wonders for the overall effect of those moves.
Yogeeta: She was rightfully called on her flutz in the free and I’m happy they actually called it and didn’t miscall her flip again because her flip is exquisite.
Sam: That was a choice. Again, ISU, what happened with flips? Are we okay? Is everybody sure what a flip is?
Yogeeta: Once again, I just, 67 PCS - please explain to me. ISU, I need an essay explaining to me exactly why she only got 67.
Red: You know those tests you take in school where it’s like you put your answer and then you explain why, I think the ISU needs to start having an explain why section for a lot of their scores.
Yogeeta: Here’s a score, here’s a 4 paragraph essay as to why you gave her this score.
Sam: Yeah, exactly. Give them the guidelines for PCS and GOE and have them mark off exactly what they saw in each jump that we’re like “Yes, this is a +4. Explain.” Or with Hubbell and Donohue’s twizzles, in the Rhythm Dance the second set was completely off (Yogeeta: It was!) but it got really high GOE! Explain, judges - explain!
Red: There’s just no accountability there, and that makes it just… ugh.
Yogeeta: Well actually I think we just solved it, instead of them assigning scores, they do checkboxes and then the computer generates the score based on the checkboxes. Sam and I could talk about Japanese Ladies for an entire podcast.
Sam: Give me the ability and I will monologue.
Yogeeta: Like we just have an entire separate podcast called “Japanese Ladies” and we could just talk about them for hours. And we have in bronze Sofia Samadurova, who’s making her Grand Prix debut here with a bronze medal at Skate America - Congratulations to her. I applaud her mental fortitude. She had to perform first in the Short, and then she performed last in the Free - having to go after Kaori Sakamoto and Satoko Miyahara [who] gave two stunning, masterful performances.
Sam: That said, do we really need a “Burlesque” for a sixteen-year-old?
Yogeeta: No. The answer is no, and she needs better packaging.
Sam: I do like the dress though, I think that looks very nice on her. It’s definitely not for a “Burlesque” program, but it works for a “Burlesque” program for a sixteen-year-old. If we’re going to do it, at least get a nice, age-appropriate dress that works.
Yogeeta: This is true. I thought her Short Program was nice. But that was it, it was nice. I think she definitely needs to work on her performance and her maturity.
Sam: Yeah, she’s another one that’s just very solid at what she does but maybe not necessarily a stand-out. She did what she needed to do here, and was able to get on a podium at her second major Senior competition - and that’s really great. Especially after a great early season last year where she won two Junior Grand Prix’s, and made it to the Final. So it’s nice to see her continuing her early season success. There are obvious moments where she’s trying to bring out and project, especially in the “Burlesque” program, she has a lovely smile and she’s obviously trying to move her body in a way that is projecting what her face can’t. I think the issue is that she needs to focus on the jumps right now, especially when she’s trying the Tano, which isn’t necessarily the best, aesthetically pleasing Tano position. As I have said before, you want your arm straight up so your center of gravity is off, whereas she’s kind of doing the hook kind of Tano. There’s definitely an attempt, it’s just not hitting all the key points, and that’s hard to do. The reason why skaters, like Satoko, who can perform throughout an entire program and never let up are exceptional is because it’s hard.
Red: I definitely liked her skating a lot more than some of the other Russian skaters I’ve seen in the past. You can tell that she really does enjoy what she does. She ended both of her performances with a huge smile, so that was really nice to see. But I still think there’s some of that in there, like what you usually see from a lot of these Russian skaters is just “We go out, we do our job, we get it done.” You know? It doesn’t feel as passionate. But I still think she did a really good job.
Yogeeta: Yeah, and I definitely fell like she’s trying and I hope to see her improve. I think she does have potential, and I really just want to see another top Russian Lady that’s not from Eteri [Tutberidze].
Sam: Yep, agreed.
Yogeeta: So two of our Japanese Ladies shined today but, unfortunately, Marin Honda did not.
Red: I was so sad. Marin is one of my favorite Japanese Ladies. Like I told y’all that I don’t really watch Ladies, but I love watching Marin when she’s having a good day. But when she’s not… Oh man, it hurts.
Sam: Yeah, and unfortunately she did tell Japanese press that she had a right foot injury and that it was hard for her to land her jumps confidently, so maybe that had something to do with it, but it just wasn’t here today. She went for her triple Lutz-triple toe combo and everything after that was just rocky. She had an underrotation call on five of her seven jumps, and one was completely downgraded.
Yogeeta: Yeah it’s really sad because Marin has some of the best edge work of all of the Ladies. Her edges give me life, and the fact that she got the second lowest Skating Skills score in her Short Program blows my mind and I want to know what the judges are seeing because we’re clearly watching two different programs.
Sam: It’s the type of skater. The issue with judging Skating Skills over a computer screen or a TV is that you can’t always judge things like speed very well, but edge depth is something that you can. And for her it’s obvious, it’s natural, and it’s smooth like butter and it’s just… what’s going on here?
Red: Like I said, I love watching her skate, she has some really strong Skating Skills and she’s so entertaining to watch. I just wish that she could fix some of those tech elements with the underrotations. I just really hope that she can come back stronger later on in the season. I know she was having issues this Free Skate.
Sam: What I will say is that I want her to work with Ashley Wagner for like two days on how to perform her Short Program, because she’s very smiley and she’s doing her usual kind of cutesy thing and that’s not what this program is for, Marin. This program is gritty, and like edgy. But like not in a biker bar edgy, which is what she was going for with the leather - it’s like a ripped jeans and t-shirt, like a white t-shirt, kind of edgy. Like the color red she has for this dress works perfectly, but it needs to be stripped of all the embellishments. Maybe do like an off the shoulder kind of thing, make the skirt a little bit shorter but keep the asymmetrical cut of it, and then get the sass out and it would be an incredible program. It still is an incredible program, and she’s doing a really good job, but she's not pushing her boundaries performative wise yet and I want to see that from her.
Red: Yeah, I definitely think that she was probably given that program on purpose to push her out of her comfort zone, and I think she did good but she needs to work on being out of her comfort zone.
Yogeeta: Yeah, I definitely also think she really needs to work on her nerves. This happened all throughout last season, the second she fell she just fell apart for the rest of the program. When she skates clean, she’s great, nothing can stop her. But the second she makes a mistake it’s just downhill, and this is a mental battle that she needs to face. And when she does she’ll definitely enter the ranks of the top of the top Japanese Ladies-
Sam: Not even just the Japanese Ladies, but there’s no question that she has the talent and ability to be on a World podium.
Red: Definitely.
Yogeeta: Yes, I agree. But for now, she’s just going to be skirting that edge because she doesn’t have that mental fortitude yet.
Red: But she’s young, she’s got time.
Yogeeta: So I definitely hope that this is something that she and her coaches are working on.
Sam: Definitely. She’s another one, like the Knierim’s, where it’s going to take some time. She’s reworking her entire repertoire and moving over and changing her living situation. It’s not always going to be sunshine and roses with her when you’re completely overhauling your skating like that.
Red: I almost wish that Nathan was still at Lakewood so he could give her some tips on mental fortitude since he literally went through that last season. Sorry, here I am bringing up Nathan again.
Sam: It’s okay, we talked about Yuzu like four times. (hosts laugh)
Yogeeta: Well this is also something like Ashley Wagner [Red: That’s true.] could definitely help with if she was still there at Lakewood as well. Just call up Ashley and ask her to come by for like a week.
Sam: Or even Adam [Rippon]! Adam had to go through a lot. There are lots of resources she has there, or maybe even get a high-performance coach that can help her, be there with her and talk her through - or like a sports psychologist, that’s the word I’m looking for. Get a sports psychologist and have somebody there to talk to you and work through all of it.
Yogeeta: Let’s move on to Bradie Tennell, who did not have her best showing here after a successful showing at Autumn Classic a few weeks ago. I applaud her for her decision to try to increase her technical score, but adding the triple Lutz-triple loop combo is not the way to go, my friend.
Sam: The issue with her triple Lutz-triple loop isn’t necessarily that you shouldn’t try new things, it’s that it’s not a good combo for her. She tends to land super heavy and bear down on her skate when she’s trying to spring back up for the loop, and that spring isn’t there and you’re just looking at her stall on the ice for a bit. The thing with triple Lutz-triple loops is that all loop combos are pre-rotated in the second half, but there’s always a level of acceptability for it to be necessary to be able to get up into the air. Hers is passed that edge, where she’s pre-rotating it too much and unable to generate the momentum to lift up, and then she’s also underrotating when she comes back down. So it’s not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing or technically correct way to go, and she had lots of issues with underrotations here, so that’s just kind of like compounded on it all, even though she’s trying to add on and do two Lutzes, and do two triple-triple’s. It’s just not all working yet.
Red: When it comes to Bradie, she tries to skate to these songs that have a lot of passion and energy, like her Short Program this season is like that. But she just can’t seem to carry it. I can’t feel any of the emotions from the songs that she skates to carried over into her movements. It’s just kind of disappointing to watch because you do expect those kinds of emotions to be reflected in the movements, but to me, her movements are very blocky, they don’t feel as graceful as a lot of the other skaters.
Yogeeta: Yeah, she’s very stiff when she skates, and she doesn’t really hold herself. She doesn’t extend as well, she doesn’t hold her positions so it makes it seem like she’s just going through the movements and not really performing as well. I also don’t think her costumes are helping. I thought her costumes at Autumn Classic were better, I don’t know why she changed them.
Sam: My main issue with Bradie when it comes to performance is a similar issue I have with Hubbell and Donohue at this point. It’s that she doesn’t to know why she’s skating to the music, or that it was particularly inspiring for her. It definitely seems like it was told to her by a choreographer or a coach that this is what she was skating to. I think it would it really benefit her to find somebody that could work with her on a weekly basis and explore different opportunities and figure out what exactly it is that she wants to skate to. Whether it’s at the beginning of each season and like make a list of all the things that she wants to do and have her choreographer make a list of the things he or she thinks would be good for her, and mix and match and get her to a place where she’s taking ownership of what she’s doing. And then have that person be able to consistently work on her and get her to a point where she learns how to be more fluid in her movement and [not be] so rigid. Because she is flexible, you can see it in her spin positions. She just hasn’t been able to learn how to cross that over into her basic choreography.
Red: She just needs to work on her Performance Components. She’s very consistent in her jumps for the most part, I mean obviously she does have some tech issues, but she’s pretty consistent. She just can’t carry the song, and then they keep giving her these passionate songs and I’m like… come on, y’all.
Yogeeta: I will say that her “Romeo and Juliet” cut isn’t the worst cut I’ve ever heard. But I definitely don’t feel any of the passion that you need to perform to “Romeo and Juliet.”
Sam: Yeah, for all intents and purposes, it’s a fine program. There’s nothing wrong with it. There’s much higher quality than what she was skating to last year, and you can see that even in the way that she’s carrying it. It’s just not there yet, and she has the ability to get there. I don’t think she’s a lost cause, I think she definitely has potential, she just needs to find the right person to help bring it out.
Red: Shoutout to Megan Wessenberg. This was a great Grand Prix debut for especially because she was really unknown internationally before this. I had never seen her skate before but she really impressed me. I was just kind of like “Where was US Figure Skating hiding her?” She came out and did really well, especially with the state of the US Ladies right now, like where was she? I just really liked her performances, they just surprised me.
Yogeeta: She seems like she really enjoys skating, I love seeing people be happy.
Sam: She’s very fast. She really motors it into all of her jumps and that triple toe-triple toe is just money. It’s so nice. Especially the one in the short program, it was just done so well. She’s got great height and distance on it, which I believe is new. I don’t think she had a triple-triple last year, because I do remember her from Nationals. This was really impressive, it was nice to see somebody else to skate internationally.
Red: And she just seemed really happy the whole time. Like I said before, I love seeing skaters happy when they skate because it makes me feel happy.
Sam: Also we just want to say that we hope Loena Hendrickx is okay, she unfortunately had to withdraw after the Short Program due to illness.
-end segment- 59:26
START: Shoutout Of The Week
Yogeeta: So Shoutout Of The Week goes to Fanasty Skating, which is US Figure Skating’s yearly Grand Prix Fantasy Skating where you pick your teams and hope that they do well, and the winner with the most points gets tickets to US Nationals. So, my team is dead.
Red: Mine is too.
Yogeeta: I think all of our teams are dead. But it was fun while it lasted,
Red: Shoutout to everyone whose teams are dead.
Sam: Shoutout to everyone who successfully picked some good teams though. You did a great job.
Yogeeta: I will say that I at least continue to have faith in Satoko Miyahara, and I picked her as my Ladies choice.
Red: I did too. I did really well on the A picks, but B and C were… they were messy.
Sam: I did [well] in Dance. Everything else was questionable. I got Tarasova/Morosov, I got Nathan, I got Hubbell/Donohue, and after that it’s just a sharp cliff down for Morisi [Kvitelashvili].
Red: I picked Kevin [Reynolds]. Mistakes were made.
Sam: I had Loena! I had Loena!
Yogeeta: I had Loena too.
Red: I did too.
Sam: I had Loena, Marin and Bradie. From my A pick for Bradie, B pick Marin and my C pick was Loena. Great time!
-end segment- 1:00:48
START: Outro
Yogeeta: Thank you for listening, we hope to see you again for our next episode which will be about Skate Canada!
Sam: If you want to get in touch with us, then please feel free to contact us via our website inthelopodcast.com or on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook. You can find our episodes on Youtube, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify.
Red: If you enjoy the show, and want to help support the team, then please consider making a donation to us on our ko-fi page, and we’d like to give a huge thank you to all the listeners who have contributed to our team thus far.
Yogeeta: You can find the links to all our social media pages and our ko-fi on the website.
Sam: If you’re listening on iTunes, please consider leaving a rating and a review if you enjoyed the show. Thanks for listening, this has been
Yogeeta: Yogeeta,
Sam: Sam,
Red: And Red.
All hosts: Bye!