Niamh: 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.
Gina: Hi I’m Gina and I’m at the point in my baby adult skating career where watching figure skating is an exercise in counting how many times I would have tripped and fallen on my face. You can find me on Twitter @4ATwizzles.
Niamh: Hello, I’m Niamh and I’ve been a mess at trying to follow US nationals, European Championships and studying all at the same time. I’ve never used so many window screens in my life. You can find me on Twitter @rivrdance.
Evie: Hi I’m Evie and I am still completely in shock from the Dance results at this competition, like seriously guys what the hell happened. You can find me on Twitter @doubleflutz. [Singing] Europeans, it's the championship time.
Gina: That happened.
Evie: I have no sleep schedule. This whole Euros was a whole wild ride. I can't remember that last season was this chaotic, surely it wasn't.
Niamh: We had Javi manage to yeet himself to gold. Gina: Javi retired and everything went to hell.
Evie: Javi was the glue holding the European federations together basically is what we're seeing.
Niamh: Javi come back.
Gina: Now we're all just crying, every year from now on is just going to be us crying as we beg Javier Fernandez to come back.
Evie: The last few were kind of a walk in the park in comparison to this year's mess. I think a couple of us were worried on the outset because like Grand Prix Final, all of Euros was going to have commentary on the official ISU stream on YouTube and that stream was also duplicated and given to other outlets. I believe NBC Gold used the same stream with commentary, I know here on SBS Australia they were using that same stream, I think we were all kind of worried considering what went down at Grand Prix Final and also the Youth Olympic Games, just about a week ago.
Niamh: There was a whole debacle on Twitter about it.
Evie: Yeah they said they were going to explore other options for commentators to try and find the one that fits the widest audience, which is a pretty decent move. Maybe we'll get another different commentator for Four Continents, and then another one for Worlds. The commentary here, I found it was pretty decent.
Niamh: It was fine.
Evie: It was by Paul Alster. He actually commentates for SBS Australia usually, but he covered all of Euros. I feel like the general vibe was that he was generally inoffensive. He wasn't that talkative or very loud.
Niamh: He was neither there nor here.
Gina: He amused me with how very British and ruffled he was every time someone wore an outfit with any color or sparkle. The only annoying thing I found he did was calling the PCS the presentation score.
Evie: That and whenever he said, in regards to under rotations, "Oh they're going to get a deduction on that". And then I got immediately confused because obviously deduction and under rotation are two different terms and I was like, "What?"
Niamh: Didn't he introduce Anna as Alena?
Evie: Yes, in the Short Program. He introduced Anna Shcherbakova as Alena Kostornaia. Which is a little bit of a slip-up, I mean they're both similar-sounding names, they both start with the A. They were skating back to back in the Short so I don't blame him that much but at least he did apologize for it. For the most part, his pronunciation of the names was pretty decent. I didn't hear him mess up too many of them egregiously to the point where Chris Howard was doing with the Chinese names at Grand Prix Final.
Niamh: To be fair to him, some of the Russian names are tricky [Gina: Oh yeah]
Evie: So we should probably get started on talking about the actual segments of the competition, and we're going to start off by talking about the Pairs event, which I think was probably the least cursed out of all of them.
Niamh: It was just your generic Pairs competition.
Evie: I feel like Pairs is usually the least cursed out of all the disciplines. Our podium here, in gold, we have Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii of Russia, in silver we have Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov also of Russia, and then in bronze we have Daira Pavliuchenko and Denis Khodykin also of Russia.
Gina: Surprise!
Evie: Surprise, it's a Russian sweep!
Niamh: Russians, winning Euros?
Evie: Well every gold was taken by a Russian skater or team here at Euros. It was very Russian dominated.
Gina: I mentioned this to my mom, I was like "The Russians have won everything" and she was lounging on the sofa and took a little sip of her drink, and went "I thought they were banned from everything."
Evie: Yeah we'll probably go into talking about that as we talk through the disciplines because that’s definitely a thing that may happen in the very near future.
Niamh: I have just realized that, out of all of the medals, only two of them were not won by a Russian. And only one of those ones does not train in Russia.
Evie: That's true, I didn't think about that, oh my god.
Niamh: Morisi Kvitelashvili.
Evie: Wow, Russian domination really at the forefront of this Euros.
Niamh: And Morisi used to compete for Russia. [Gina: Wow]
Evie: I don't think it was anyone's surprise that these three teams ended up on the Pairs podium because while there was quite a lot of talent in the Pairs field, a lot of the European teams are kind of all stuck in the middle, whereas the Russian teams are quite far ahead in terms of their potentials for scoring if they're close to clean. I was so happy to see Boikova and Kozlovskii win here after the Grand Prix Final and them just missing out on the podium, I feel like they've really earned their redemption both at Russian Nationals and here. They put together two of the most complete performances we've seen from them this entire season. I'm so proud, they are my kids!
Gina: Their throws, Jesus Christ, the distance and the height is insane.
Evie: Every time I see them my jaw is on the floor, they're up there with the top team throws like [Wenjing] Sui and [Cong] Han's throws or [Cheng] Peng and [Yang] Jin's throws, the kind of height and distance and running edge that you only see from the extremely high-quality teams.
Niamh: It just looks so easy and I'm obviously not a Pairs man but I can imagine yeeting a girl or woman across the ice is not as easy as it looks. They've just continued to solidify their place as the top Russian pair. They were 30 points ahead of the silver medalists.
Evie: Especially considering how last season they got bronze at Euros and had a pretty decent Worlds, and now they've come into this season ready to work, ready to get down to business, and they've obviously had a cracker of a GP season, had a bit of an issue with the Final but they didn't really let that get to them. I really admire their mental strength in that regard because obviously they've had such a good pre-season and had a disappointment like that and managed to bounce back, not let it get to them, and continue to skate like this. It's making me really excited for how Worlds is going to shape up if they're in this similar form and how they're going to match up against the other top teams in the field.
Niamh: I do wonder how they'll score against a clean Sui and Han at Worlds, because their scores have been on a steady up climb since Shanghai Trophy, obviously apart from Grand Prix Final. But I would say their components scores are getting slightly too high, especially when you compare to skaters like Peng and Jin who are getting mid-60s max, Sui/Han are getting low 70s.
Evie: I wouldn't say that their components are getting too high it's just that Sui and Han and Peng and Jin, they constantly get lowballed in PCS. It's not a new thing, it's been happening for years now. I agree that I am also worried in that department. If both Sui and Han, and Boikova and Kozlovskii were clean, I could easily see at this point the judges having a good enough reason to put B/K in first, where I would definitely not agree with that. But Boikova and Kozlovskii are definitely in that position to challenge not just for world medals at this point, but they have the chance to get a gold. It's going to all come down to what happens in the next month or so leading up to Worlds.
Niamh: We'll see what happens at Four Continents.
Evie: In silver, we had Tarasova and Morozov who were a little bit all over the place here, which has kind of been the theme of their season so far. They've obviously got a brand new coach, they're training in a different location. They didn't qualify for the Final, they didn't have the greatest Nats outing. I think the Short especially, they were going so well, I don't know about you guys but I actually really like their “Bolero,” it's probably the best Short they've ever had. But the mistake on the lift that they had, it made me jump out of my own skin.
Niamh: I had to look away during the replay.
Evie: As soon as you could see that he didn't get that proper grip on Evgenia's hand, and you could tell he wasn't supporting her weight sufficiently and she just went down. Luckily she managed to save herself and didn't actually fall, but aborted lifts are never fun to watch. I would much rather go the rest of my life without ever seeing one again, please and thank you. The Free was also a bit of a mess, Evgenia has been having constant issues with side by sides, and she didn't land either of them in the Free here. Honestly, I'm starting to get quite worried for them because we're past the halfway point of the season, and they haven't really improved that much since September in the overall consistency of their programs and jumps.
Niamh: I wonder how much of their shakiness has to do with the field getting deeper, with how many younger Russian teams are coming up. We have Pavliuchenko and Khodykin, we have Boikova and Kozlovskii, Mishina and Galiamov, we also have a lot of junior Russian teams.
Evie: We have a lot of them that are going to be senior age eligible in the next couple of years. Obviously moving training environments, especially if you're moving country to country which they have because they're working with Marina now in the states, that's a big shift to go through, especially when you're trying to compete at such a high level. I don't blame them for being a little bit shaky and a little less grounded than they have in the past, but at this point, I'm hoping they spend the next month really focusing on their goals and what they want to get out of this Worlds because I'm really worried they're going to show up in a similar state they have for most of the season and come out with results they might not be happy with.
Niamh: I'm just kind of laughing because they still got silver.
Evie: Yeah, we're talking about them like it's the end of the world, but they got silver.
Niamh: But then I guess that just shows you what a good team they are.
Evie: The quality – even if you exclude their side by sides or the things they have errors on – the quality of the rest of their elements balances everything out because their lifts are really really nice, their twist is awesome, their spins are quite good too, and obviously their components get them to that extra mile. I'm really hoping they spend the next month re-evaluating their strategy, working with their coaches, just getting everything sorted because overall, the changes that we've seen in them have been for the better. The performance interpretation has obviously improved a lot since the start of the season. I would like to see them looking a little bit more put together and ready to go at Worlds. And then we have our third-place team, Pavliuchenko and Khodykin, who are firmly cementing themselves as the top third Russian team because obviously Zabiiako and Enbert have not been competing so far this season, they're out with injury. Pavliuchenko and Khodykin beat Mishina and Galiamov at Russian Nationals and earned themselves a bronze medal here so I think it's pretty much safe to say they are currently in the top of the Russian teams. Overall, they looked a little bit more tentative here than we've seen them perform. Obviously they were quite tentative at Grand Prix Final and they had a couple errors there, especially in the Free with Daria's extremely scary fall where she went completely legs up in the air on that step. That did not happen here, which was nice to see. I think they were looking a little bit nervous, especially in the Free. I think that the lifts, which are usually really big highlights for them, they have some of the most creative and interesting entries and exits out of any team in the field right now. They were looking a little bit jumbled, a little bit clumsy, in some points, which detracted from the overall performance, but nevertheless I'm still really happy for them. I hope that they're very happy with their result because they were at Euros last year as well and they missed the podium there. Obviously a major Euro medal is really a big thing to be happy about so yay! And then in fourth place here we had the Italians pairs team of Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise who did pretty well considering the season they've had.
Niamh: I'm not entirely sure how I went the entire season without realizing their skating to “Fifty Shades” but I know now, I’m into it. I like it. It's a good program.
Evie: Honestly, I completely forgot about that, just because it's been a while since I watched them compete. Obviously we saw them last in the Grand Prix, and I didn't watch Italian Nationals, so then when I watched the Short Program, I was like I do not remember anything about this program at all from the early season.
Niamh: I mean, I'm sure I saw them during the Grand Prix...
Evie: Because they had quite a messy Grand Prix because Nicole has had issues with an injury during the off-season and at the start of the season. So, during the Grand Prix, they weren't in their top form - they didn't qualify to the Final - but I'm really happy to see they're doing a little bit better now, obviously the time off in between their last Grand Prix and Euros has done them really well. I especially really like their Free Skate... their performance of the Free Skate even if it wasn't clean. I just really like 'Pilgrims on a Long Journey' - I just think it's a really beautiful piece of music and the fact that they continue to repeat with their matching bodysuits theme. [Niamh: Yes!] I love commitment to fashion, it's the best. I know they didn't have them last season with their Tristan and Isolde costumes where Nicole was wearing a dress and Matteo was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants, but the season before and the Olympic season, I vividly remember them having matching blue/green/pink stoned bodysuits.
Gina: Yep, you cannot forget those bodysuits.
Evie: They're so good! How often do you see Pairs teams with those kind of bodysuits, where they look exactly the same - it's fantastic!
Gina: I will confess, I do like it when a Pairs man bothers.
Evie: Pairs men get it, they're not afraid to wear sparkles, unlike Ice Dance men whose entire wardrobes are just black mesh shirts. No, Pairs men know how to have fun. I'm just really glad Nicole and Matteo had a good Euros here even though they weren't at their peak form, they've still got some room to grow. They're probably hoping to peak at Worlds, which if you're going to peak, that's probably the time you'll want to do it at.
Niamh: I'm glad to see them continue to solidify their place as one of the top non-Russian teams. This is their second year in a row just placing off the podium at Euros, and this was with mistakes in the Free.
Evie: And we have some quick shout outs - some notable entries and performances - and the first one is Minerva Fabian-Hase and Nolan Seegert from Germany who had a career-best finish of fifth here and they really used their momentum from the bronze medal they got on the Grand Prix at Cup of Russia to have some really solid skates here and I'm really, really happy for them. I think they're a definite up and coming team in the overall Pairs field, this has definitely been their break out season, and I'm excited to see what they'll produce next. And, also just a quick shout out to Miriam Ziegler and Severin Keifer, they were skating in front of their home crowd here and they brought back their '500 Miles' Short Program which is one of my favorite Pairs Short Programs of all time, they did it during the Olympic season and I'm just like yes, I'm ready to bop. This is all I need out of all my Pairs programs, an excuse to bop.
Niamh: Nothing else, just a bop.
Evie: Just bops, baby.
Niamh: [Laughs] No pops, just bops.
Evie: No pops, just bops. [Hosts laugh]
-end segment-
START: Men
Evie: Shall we go onto the men?
Gina: We had Dmitri Aliev in gold for, drumroll, Russia. Silver medal was Artur Danielian of Russia and [in bronze,] Morisi Kvietlashvilli of Georgia.
Evie: Honestly, the ordinals of this event were so whack. I remember looking at the entire results page after the fact and seeing that literally everyone but the guy in last place shifted from the Short to the Free. That's chaotic. That's the epitome of chaos in general. Oh boy. It was certainly an event. One that parts of it I would like to forget immediately.
Gina: I was watching it at work, so I'm there on my computer, doing my work and casually watching and then the depression just hit and I did like 5 mistakes on my work and was like this day's terrible.
Evie: When the skating depression hits.
Gina: Yeah, and European’s men was a real kick in the face as well. That Short Program - you were just like yes, this is the tone set for the entire competition. I was on the bus home just staring into the abyss.
Evie: Staring out the window going "What is the meaning of life? What does it all mean?" Gina: As the rain gently hits.
Niamh: The black and white music video aesthetic.
Evie: Celine Dion plays in the background, as I look into the middle distance longingly for the return of my sanity thanks to the Men's Short Program at Europeans. Honestly, the fact that this was the first event of the entire competition - it made me so depressed. I was honestly really excited for Euros, and I was like this is going to be great, it's Championships time, baby. I'm always excited for those competitions, and then the Men's Short happened and like I don't want to watch the rest of this, can I just go to sleep and forget everything happened. The Short was very upsetting, we haven't actually mentioned it yet.
Gina: Yeah, why was it upsetting? Let's say it together? 3, 2 1.
All Hosts: Kevin.
Evie: Unfortunately, Kevin Aymoz of France did not qualify for the Free Skate which we'll go into more detail about his performance in a bit, but I think we should start off with something a little bit happier, more positive. Let's talk about our new European champion, Dmitri Aliev, who has taken over the crown from [Javier Fernandez] after a huge chunk of time with just Javi as the champion, and now we have a whole new champion and it's Dima.
Gina: Look, at GPF I was rink-side during both of his programs actually and that bit where he just noped out of his spin, and I saw just his look on his face, and how you could just see... it was written in his eyes "why am I even skating? I just want to go back to bed."
Evie: Honestly, I haven't been a fan of his 'Sound of Silence' Free for the whole season. I think I don't think he brought the intensity in the performance that the music kind of needed, but here I think he really delivered. I think he really went above and beyond to - especially, once the first couple of passes are out of the way, the quads are out of the way, he can kind of relax a little bit. You can see during the steps and stuff, he was allowing himself to outwardly express, and watching him come out of his shell was really nice to see. And especially when he was crying in the Kiss and Cry.
Niamh: Especially because last season was such an awful season for him, from being fifth at Nationals and not making any of the international teams to winning Euros with a margin of over 20 points.
Evie: It probably helped that all of the other men were kind of a mess as well [Niamh: Yeah] but that kind of lead is so impressive.
Niamh: And his names always came up in discussion, especially after his Short at the Olympics but he's kind of failed to capitalize on some of the opportunities he's been given, if that makes any sense, but it's nice to see that he looks to be in a good place going into the second half of the season. It'll be interesting to see the battle between him and [Alexander] Samarin for that top Russian spot because Sasha had the better Grand Prix but since then has kind of struggled with both Nationals and here.
Evie: Yeah, Sasha came tenth here and overall he's looked a lot more nerve-y here and at Russian Nationals, and the Grand Prix Final as well in comparison to what we saw on the Grand Prix. It's a little worrying.
Gina: It's such a shame because I was just starting to like him, and as soon as I was like “Oh I actually kind of like Samarin,” he just starts having a really hard time.
Evie: Yeah, it was definitely not Samarin's competition here. I hope this medal for Dima will bolster the confidence he's already built up from having such a good early season, and that will hopefully carry him into having a really good Worlds. Let's talk about our new collective son, Artur.
Niamh: I love him.
Evie: He's really capitalizing on his really great performance at Russian Nationals and using that as fuel to propel himself all the way to silver at his major senior competition. I'm really just so impressed with him - he had a really good Junior Grand Prix and was really close to qualifying to the Final. Unfortunately, he and Daniel Grassl were tied in points but Daniel won the tie-breaker because he got first place at the Italian Junior Grand Prix, and so Artur just missed out - he was the first alternate. And then, he bounced back - he got silver at Russian Nationals and he got silver here. Oh my god.
Niamh: I'm here for it. I adopted him during the Junior Grand Prix and I nicknamed him my drama son. His Short Program's just full of drama hands.
Evie: His Free used to be as well. He did a “Gladiator” Free Skate for the Junior Grand Prix, and then for Russian Nationals he switched back to his “La Traviata” which we used last season which got him on the Junior Worlds podium, which honestly, I'm not enthused about this change because I actually quite liked his “Gladiator” Free and I think his 'La Traviata' is a little bit less complex, and a little bit more junior-y in terms of expression. It's not very varied in terms of the way the music plays out, but I'm just really impressed by his consistency so far this season. Artur has already been selected for the Russian Senior Worlds team along with Dima but I'm interested to see if they also put him on the Junior Worlds Team since the assignments are not due out until the end of Junior Nationals next week. I honestly don't think I'd want to see him do Junior Worlds and Senior Worlds back to back, because that's a lot of pressure, it's a lot to do.
Niamh: Didn't Daniel Grassl do that last year?
Evie: He didn't go to Senior Worlds, he went to Euros last year as well, and Junior Worlds.
Niamh: I know Matteo Rizzo did that though, he went to everything.
Evie: Yeah, Matteo went to everything in that second half of the Olympic year. Matteo did everything.
Niamh: But it is nice to see him prove that he can hold his own with the Senior men. [Evie: Yeah] Especially because he's so young - he's still only 16.
Evie: I hope that - obviously, medaling at such a big international Senior competition is going to give you momentum out of the ones going to Junior Worlds, so I really hope he manages to capitalize on that because he medalled last year at Junior Worlds, it could very much happen again, especially with the inconsistency that is the Junior Men's field in general.
Niamh: I am all here for him being Junior World Champion.
Evie: Alright. Let's talk about Morisi, our surprise bronze medalist here.
Gina: Yay! Good for him.
Evie: Morisi, he's just kind of a sentimental fave of mine. I can't even pinpoint the reason why I find him so endearing, I just do. I think it's mainly because he's really, really tall? You don't see a lot of super tall skates outside of Pairs or Dance, so he's got quite a very imposing figure. Especially when you're looking at him versus Artur who is quite small. I don't know why, but I really have come to enjoy his Short Program even though it's kind of like off-brand Bublé elevator music, I don't know why. I bop to it every time, and it gets stuck in my head afterward. It's really enjoyable. His Free kind of has a similar quality, I don't quite like it as much.
Niamh: We are very different people.
Evie: [Laughs.] You bop to it?
Niamh: I bop to “Confessa.” Every time.
Evie: Morisi was kind of one of the surprise placements here and then also you have other skaters like Daniel Grassl who done really, really well - he came in fourth here, which is really good to see, especially when he didn't have the greatest Junior Grand Prix Final, which was really sad since it was a home Junior Grand Prix Final, considering it was in Italy and he is Italian. And he had a lot of boot related issues back then as well, but it looks like they've kind of resolved themselves a little bit. That doesn't mean his jumps don't still scare the hell out of me but...
Gina: Daniel's problem is that he has really long limbs, he looks like a stick insect, he's just so long. Watching him is kind of awkward because his spin positions tend to look kind of odd because he has so much limb.
Evie: Especially because in his spins, he does a lot of hyper-extension and kind of unconventional positions which - some of them can look really cool, and other ones make my limbs hurt just thinking about attempting them. He did have a couple of under-rotation issues, which have been plaguing him over the past couple of years. His technique does scare the hell out of me, especially in regards to his quads. They continue to scare me, they will always probably continue to scare me because I honestly don't see them improving that much considering how hard it is to change your jump technique once you've learned it and committed it to muscle memory. I'm really glad to see the performance side of things is improving. I think that the experience of being at the senior level and being around all of these other competitors who are really proficient at providing a variety of expressions really has helped him improve his skating overall. I'm really excited to see what he's going to bring for the rest of the season because he's definitely a wildcard. Let's talk about the saddest thing that came out of this competition, even though I know none of us want to.
Niamh: Get the violins ready. The saddest moment to come out of the entire season, let's be real.
Evie: Let's talk about Kevin Aymoz of France, who unfortunately did not qualify for the Free Skate here after having a truly horrible Short Program. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to watch.
Niamh: I was watching it and I was like, "Okay, one fall, that's fine. We can work with that." And then there was the pop.
Evie: After the Axel, I was like, "Oh, Jesus." The amount of pain I felt watching that was akin to Boyang [Jin] 2018 Worlds Free Skate level of pain.
Niamh: It felt a bit like a car crash.
Evie: Well, for one thing, his score in general - obviously, he placed below the cutoff line for the Free, which is the 24. But he still got the third-highest PCS in the entire event, despite having one of the lowest technical scores, which is valid, because even though he had the issue with the jumps themselves, you could see that he was still trying to throw in as much of his performance ability, his steps, his spins.
Niamh: You could tell that he was trying to fight for every point at that point, and that was like, "Oh."
Gina: And I'm gonna throw it out there, you should be able to do that. I would prefer that there is a clear and definite delineation between the technical score and the PCS than one affecting the other. If his technical score caused his program components to bomb as well, I wouldn't really be happy with that because they're two different things. He really skated his ass off to get those program components, and that really speaks a lot for his attitude, and I respect that, and I respect the judges for being like, yeah. But I just feel really sad for Kevin. It's really easy to forget that he's still pretty young and he only had his breakout season last year. And even last year, I don't think he immediately got that attention, so that the attention, the pressure that comes along with having that breakout, came really fast, and it's still really new to him. And I can only imagine how stressful it must be to go into a major competition like Euros and it's the first time going into a competition like that with people looking at you as gold medal potential.
Evie: He was definitely in the conversation, not just here but also at Grand Prix Final, in the conversation for the podium, and in this case conversation for the title itself, and at the Final he managed to use all of that pent-up energy for himself. He skated that Short Program that was just crazy and out of the box, and obviously the situation with what's happening with the French federation at the moment and the scandals that have gone on in the last month in relation to some of the athletes, and especially at the rink that Kevin trains in, I definitely do not blame him for potentially feeling not 100% after everything that's gone through. It's probably been an extremely stressful situation for him. I really hope that this doesn't affect his mental game going forward.
Gina: He might benefit from it, because going into Worlds, that pressure might be off. It must have been really hard to go into Euros having just won a medal at Grand Prix Final, which is not something he really expected to do.
Niamh: He didn't expect to make Grand Prix Final, never mind a medal.
Gina: I know. I imagine the pressure was really on, whether or not he knew people were having the conversation of him winning, whereas having a really rough Euros and going to Worlds, it's a different feeling. He'll be able to go thinking, "Okay, I just need to have a good skate to redeem myself from Euros."
Niamh: Since he's had this bad competition, he can use it for the future. It's just a learning curve on how to deal with the pressure and expectations.
Evie: Taking that kind of bad experience, learning from it, learning how to adapt your mental game, the technique that you use going into a competition, trying to make yourself better out of a bad situation, is really the mark of a strong athlete at the end of the day, and I hope that he takes that as a really good learning experience and comes back stronger than ever for Worlds. And we've just got a couple of quick little shoutouts for the men, some people we really enjoyed. Yay, Deniss!
Niamh: I love him. I love his Short Program, I love art.
Evie: I saw him here about a week ago. He announced that he was having injury issues with his ankle, but he was still planning on competing at Euros, to which I was like, "Boy...please do not further injure yourself by competing here. I don't want to see you get seriously hurt." Luckily, he had some pretty decent skates for him in both the short and the free, so luckily, we didn't have to worry about it that much. But please, Deniss, go home, go rest, put your feet up -- literally.
Gina: Make yourself some muffins.
Evie: Bake some goods. I got another shoutout for Mark Gorodnitsky of Israel. He had a really amazing Short Program here. This is his senior debut at Euros. He was competing on the Junior Grand Prix this season and he is really, really charming. His landing positions on jumps are some of my favorites out of the entire men's field. He's got really, really nice extension, so if you wanna bop and have a good time, I recommend checking out his Short Program, because it's really fun. And also, just a shout out to my French son, Adam Siao Him Fa of France, who went from 24th to short to 11th overall after all his really great free. So, yay! Yay for Adam. [Niamh: Yay!]
Gina: I do want to say that maybe, possibly, the ISU might wanna consider a reevaluation of base values for quads, because I think all the toe jumps should be at a lower base value than the edge jumps when it comes to the quads. The Sal is debatable. But definitely, the value from lowest to highest should be more along the lines of the toe and then maybe the Sal staying more or less the same, then the flip and the Lutz, and then the next highest base values being the quad loop at the highest value for a non-Axel quad. Along the lines of 11 to 11.5 for the toe and Sal, 12 to 12.5 for the flip and the Lutz, 13.5 for the loop, and then 15 for the Axel. I think that would be more reflective of the different levels of difficulty.
Evie: Basically going back to the same orders that was in the Scale of Values around 17-18, and the season before that, because the loop was originally valued higher and then they decided to switch it up.
Gina: I just think the Lutz is being really over-valued. It's now one of the most common quads. I think it's possibly more common than the Sal. You've got people who don't have a triple Axel doing quad Lutzes.
Evie: For those who don't know, who might have missed out on the earlier groups of the men's short, Larry Loupolover had his program layout, he had a quad Lutz, a double Axel, and then a triple Lutz-double toe, which was the most confusing layout of this entire event.
Gina: Awesome, I loved it, very entertaining, but ... [laughs] clearly someone is good at their Lutzes. And you do see it quite a lot now, like the junior men, the junior girls, [Evie: And the Senior girls!], they'll have the quad Lutz, but they don't have the toe or the Sal or any other quad, just the Lutz. I get why you would maybe go for the Lutz because it is so highly valued, just base value, so it really pays off to go for it.
Evie: If you're gonna go for a quad, you might as well go for the one that's worth the most points. I get that, but you're risking so much by training a quad Lutz, especially if you might not have been prepared to train a quad in the first place, or you don't have much experience of it. We don't have a lot of long-term medical studies on the effects of training and performing quads in the long-term, and just the amount of injuries you see from men and also ladies nowadays, from the effects of doing quads can be quite terrifying. We've certainly sat through a lot of injuries, and at this point I'm worried especially when you're looking at smaller federation skaters who might not have the same access to the same level of training or care that others from bigger federations have the access to. I'm worried about the fact that they could get injured just due to the fact that they might not have the kind of resources available for them to be able to learn things in a safe environment, you get what I mean?
Gina: Yeah. Because a lot of rinks, they have to call in the harness operator. They just don't have them on staff. And you only have a certain amount of time with them. And if you're from a smaller federation and you're from a smaller rink and you don't have the funds available to get a harness operator in for a long period of time, you could be training that quad off-harness before you're ready to train it off-harness. It's really dangerous and with the Lutz, we have seen some really nasty injuries from it. It is worrying. I do think it is overvalued with how common it is in the field now.
Evie: Especially considering this year is a Congress year. I'm interested to see what the conversation is going to be around quads, especially considering how much the field and the use of quads has changed just in the last two years in the last Congress. I'm interested to see if there's gonna be any sort of approach or discussion taken about the use of quads.
-end segment-
START: Ice Dance
Evie: Let's go on to talking about the Ice Dance.
Niamh: In gold we had Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov from Russia, in silver we had Gabrielle Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron from France, and in bronze we had Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, also from Russia.
Evie: Oh my God, guys. Niamh: What happened?
Evie: I cannot wrap my head around what happened here. I'm looking at this whole dance event just slack-jawed going "What the hell? What the hell?"
Gina: I took a nap and I woke up and everything was on fire.
Evie: Pizza fire gif, basically. This is Papadakis and Cizeron's first non-gold medal since Pyeongchang. It's actually the first time since the Grand Prix Final in 2016 since they have not won a Free Dance, which is crazy.
Niamh: That's impressive.
Evie: It's an impressive streak that they're upheld. This whole event was definitely something that I don't think any of us were expecting, because especially through the last season, it's always been a given -- Papadakis and Cizeron have entered, they're going to win. It's a no-brainer. Overall, the scores comparing Papadakis and Cizeron and Sinitsina and Katsalapov, the scores are really, really confusing. The Rhythm Dance, they basically got the exact same score. They had the exact same base value, it just came down to Grade of Execution and PCS. I honestly was not expecting Sinitsina and Katsalapov to win in the free, considering the season they've had so far with the free. I'm holding my head in shock, just like, "What the hell happened, guys?"
Gina: Also, Papadakis and Cizeron's response to coming in silver is a little bit, eh. [Niamh: Concerning] Trying to step upon the middle podium. I kind of hope it was just a joke that didn't land.
Evie: I honestly think it was an honest mistake of hers.
Gina: Was she just being ditzy? Was it a joke that just didn't really come across very well? It's hard to know.
Evie: At this point, there is so much hate for them out there at the moment on the Internet that I just at this point don't want to contribute to any of that. I don't want to automatically expect the worst from them.
Gina: The other thing is Cizeron reposting some article claiming the judging wasn't fair because judges were advised not to give out too many 10s in PCS. I don't think that's a great look either. I do think that 10s should be rare, and you should only get them if you earn them. There have been very few instances where I think it could be argued that the skater did earn 10s and didn't get them. I don't think this is one of those instances.
Niamh: In saying that about the 10s in PCS, if that is true that the judges were directly told not to give 10s, that's kind of a clear sign of corruption in the sport. Whilst 10s shouldn't be given when not deserved, judges should be able to give them if they feel the program deserves them.
Evie: Going into talking a bit more in detail about the scoring, even without comparing both teams to each other, Sinitsina and Katsalapov, their 131 in the Free is really, really surprising, because like I said, this Free Skate has not been doing as well as I think they would've hoped throughout this whole season. This program, the judges have consistently not been liking it as much as previous season's programs. They've lost with this Free a numerous amount of times. They've won overall in some cases, but there were some minor cosmetic changes over the last month. Obviously, they had the issue with the slide in the Final, which caused them to get knocked off the podium. They've fixed that. Now their weight is not so far forward on that particular part of the slide, so they're not in danger of losing balance, which is good. It's good to make those sorts of changes and negate any possible falls, but overall, the program is pretty much the same in layout, in construction, in choreography apart from the slide, it's pretty much the same. It hasn't really changed throughout this entire season. But now, all of a sudden, it's being looked over really favorably and the only real change that's happened over the past month is that they're now two-time Russian champions, which I don't think that's enough of a bonus to warrant this kind of shift in the scoring or the placements, especially when it comes down to PCS. Because they won PCS in the free over Papadakis and Cizeron, and while P/C weren't clean in the free -- they had a major issue in the one-foot step sequence where Gabi stumbled out of the double twizzle in it and she briefly went on two feet. That's actually grounds to have the whole sequence invalidated. The judges actually weirdly called it -- the technical panel, for some reason, called it as a pattern-type step sequence, which is an element for the Rhythm Dance, and I don't know how they got that confused. They must have pressed the wrong button on their iPads, but it took a while for the tech panel to argue what best to give them. And their scores took ages to come in the Free Dance. It was about eight minutes or something from the time they finished their program to the time they got their scores, and it was just the worst kind of wait. It felt like it was never-ending when I was watching it live. It was just so nerve-wracking. But the judges, the panel just settled on giving Gabi a level 2, not counting those steps as valid, so not contributing to the overall level for that section. They got away with that in that case, with not losing out on about 10 points from that invalidation, so they were lucky in that respect. They weren't clean, it was the definitely messiest performance of this free we've seen so far, but even with that being said, I would argue any day that they should be winning in PCS. Even though Sinitsina and Katsalapov are really strong skaters, their skating skills and basics are really good, P/C are the top of the field right now. No question, they are the class of the field. And even on a crappy day, I would still probably put them ahead, and the fact that there was only one point difference in base value in the free between the two, and yet, the judges put Sinitsina and Katsalapov on top is kind of mind-boggling to me considering how Papadakis and Cizeron have been scored for years.
Evie: Let's go on and talk about some happier things, let's talk about [Alexandra] Stepanova and [Ivan] Bukin and their bronze medal here! Which is really great to see! I was honestly worried they would be knocked off the podium because the fight for bronze had the potential to get pretty close. But I'm glad they managed to get on the podium with their Free [dance] because they continue to be Free Dance skaters - that is where their strengths really lie.
Gina: Please learn the Finnstep.
Evie: Finnstep has been a problem for a lot of teams this season, and they are no exception. It's getting better.
Niamh: It's getting there.
Evie: I think that changing Sasha's hairstyle in the Rhythm Dance has helped with that; she's now got her hair in a ponytail instead of a full on updo with less pins. So less possible problems like they had during the Grand Prix, which is what I like to see. But their Free Dance really propelled them onto the podium here. I honestly didn't think I would love a Justin Timberlake program this much, but here we are.
Niamh: You know what? They make everything work. They made Beth Hart work as well.
Evie: They do. Looking towards Worlds for them, obviously the competition at Worlds is going to be a lot different than it was last year with the changes that we've seen in the field composition and the scoring trajectories for certain teams and how much the field has shifted and fallen into place this season, I'm worried how they're going to fit into that because they've been a little bit more... they've still been as clean and consistent as they have been last season, it's just that their scoring hasn't really changed that much. Especially I think their components have been in comparison to the other teams a bit weaker, where I don't agree with that. I think that they should be scored a little bit higher. I want them to drill their Finnstep guys! Drill it, please, because if they skate a good Rhythm Dance, they could be in the conversation for a World medal so... please, guys!
Niamh: Please...
Evie: And I think that another really good part of this event was the fact that [Charlene] Guignard and [Marco] Fabbri had a little bit of a comeback because they didn't make Grand Prix Final this season, and I'm glad that the extra time off meant that they had time to polish their new “Grease” Rhythm Dance - which I still don't like as much as their old Rhythm Dance- I thought that was far better in terms of composition and choreography. “Grease” is okay, I think it's definitely improved since we last saw it but before them in the Rhythm Dance, [Olivia] Smart/[Adrian] Diaz had just skated and they did their “Grease” Rhythm Dance, which is infinitely better than Guignard/Fabbri's. But nevertheless, they skated that program really really well, they were only one of two teams to get a clean Finnstep, which is completely predictable - Guignard and Fabbri have some of the best skating skills in the entire field. They are probably the most technical skaters out there at the moment and so hopefully they can capitalize on the momentum towards Worlds. Honestly, I want to go up to them and yell, "WHY DID YOU CHANGE YOUR RHYTHM DANCE?! Please tell me why! We never got a good answer!"
Niamh: Why did they change it?
Evie: They never said anything to the press about why they chose to change it. They just showed up to NHK with “Grease.”
Niamh: In fairness, “Grease” is a bop.
Evie: If they were younger, maybe it would've worked. But they're both in their 30s now.
Gina: So was the entire cast of “Grease!” [Hosts laugh] The Rhythm Dance is really hard to make engaging because everyone does the same thing basically.
Evie: They have the same theme, and they have the same chunk of choreography in their program.
Gina: At least this year's Rhythm Dance theme is a little more open than when it was Latin, everyone had the same friggin' music and I wanted to die.
Niamh: “Despacito!”
Evie: I also wanted to give a shout out to Mariya Kazakova and Georgy Reviya of Georgia, who are our reigning Junior Grand Prix Final champions, who made their first appearance here at Euros, which is very surprising because you don't see a lot of Junior teams go into seniors at the same time because unlike other disciplines where it's not that hard to do both in the same season, in Dance when you have different patterns for the Rhythm Dance, it's kind of hard to do both. You either need to have two separate Rhythm Dances, completely different ones, or completely re choreograph it to fit a different pattern, and that is what they did. They re-choreographed their Rhythm Dance to fit Finnstep. I did not expect them to place super highly here, and they didn't - they only placed 14th. But I am really really proud of them for even taking the chance on competing here because they have to get their name out. They skate for a smaller fed, especially when politicking comes into play so much in dance. I really just love watching them perform and I really can't wait to see them perform at Junior Worlds. Overall this ice dance competition was really hecking weird. Definitely the strangest of the season-
Niamh: The quad!
Evie: We all have to keep in mind though that Worlds is going to be in Montreal this year, that's the home of Gadbois- I'm sorry, the Ice Academy of Montreal! And I think it'll be interesting to see how that and the politics of it being there will play out in regards to the placements. It's gonna be a very interesting Worlds to say the least.
-end segment-
START: Ladies
Evie: Let's go on and talk about the last discipline, the ladies. In gold, we have Alena Kostornaia of Russia, in silver, we have Anna Shcherbakova also of Russia, and then in bronze, surprise surprise - another Russian, Alexandra Trusova. The exact same podium that we had just last month at Grand Prix Final, making a repeat here at Euros.
Gina: Let's be real, this is gonna be the podium for Worlds as well.
Evie: Honestly, it's probably gonna be the same three of them, but there's always the opportunity for a bit of a shakeup in regards to who places where. But this ladies event was interesting...? To say the least. Especially with the tech panel here, because I kind of had a little bit of high hopes when I saw that Shin Amano was on the panel for ladies. I was like, "Ooh, this could be interesting." As most people know, he is quite a well-known member of the technical panel. He's got a reputation for being quite strict in his calls, and that was kind of playing out in the fact that the first six groups or so of the short, which honestly-- going into Euros and looking at the entry list and start order, and seeing there were seven groups of ladies in the Short...I was like, “Ah yes...this is Euros...”
Gina: Yeah, I started watching ladies on my lunch break at work and then by the time I finished work, had the hour and a half bus journey home, and got home, it was still going.
Niamh: I went to two lectures while ladies was still on.
Evie: It's so long. But yeah, during the first six groups or so, the panel was being pretty harsh, unfairly so. The calls were being pretty consistent, and then...the last group started, and that all kind of went out the window.
Niamh: Did someone just kidnap the tech panel?
Evie: It was just a bit of a shock going from pretty strict and even/fair calling to...where are the calls? Who are calls? We don't know calls?
Niamh: What's a call?
Evie: There are no calls here! I don't know them.
Niamh: What's an underrotation?
Gina: The highly ranked Russian ladies could benefit from that kind of feedback too.
Evie: And especially considering, if you look at the total scores for the top three, the fact that they're all 210+ and then the next person, which is Alexia Paganini, who was just over 190. I'm just like, they could've afforded to get a few more calls.
Niamh: It’s the ones that are scoring - that are going to naturally score lower that are called to make their scores even lower and the ones that are already going to score higher even if the ones that were scored lower weren’t called - aren’t getting called - and it's like, they're still gonna win if you call them all.
Gina: This is often my problem with a lot of questionable judging choices, is that it tends to be giving people who would have won anyway extra points for no reason.
Evie: At least it seemed to be a little more evenly strict in the free. At least we got some under-rotations, there weren't that many edge calls amongst the top ladies but there were quite a few under calls, so that was a bit of a plus.
Niamh: We'll take what we're given.
Evie: It's interesting to look in comparison to the last Euros, how Alena's winning score here was 27 points higher than Sofia [Samodurova]'s winning total last year. Let's actually talk about Alena, who is continuing her streak of gold from all of her international competitions this season, because the only competition she's lost so far has been Russian Nationals. I continue to be extremely proud of her and how consistent she is. This exemplifies how if you have a really strong, technical Short Program, you can set yourself up to be a little less stressed about the free and having the possibility to have a mistake but still be okay because that is what happened. She did have an issue on the last jumping pass in the free, the [triple] Lutz, she fell on that. But even with that issue, the technical score overall in the free and how well she did in the short overcame that and she still managed to place ahead of Anna.
Niamh: Alena being so dominant this season has restored a little faith in the judges. Not a lot, just a little.
Evie: I think that overall, this competition, both the short and the free were a little bit more tentative than I've seen her skate in a while. Especially in the free, she looked a little bit more nervous than we've seen from her lately. I think the fall she had right at the end knocked the wind out of her a bit, going towards the climax of the program with the choreographic sequence, and she looked a little bit less engaged with the performance than we've seen. That doesn't mean that the program wasn't great overall. I still think that triple flip-triple toe right on the music is the best thing ladies skating this season. It's my favorite jumping pass, especially here where she hit it right on the beat of the music and it was just perfect. I love it, it gives me chills. I really hope that she continues this trajectory up until Worlds. It's gonna be a real test of her mental game and how she will adapt to how everyone has been skating lately because we have Anna, who has been a surprise this season with how consistent she is.
Niamh: It'll be a test of Alena's mental strength going to Worlds as the one to beat. Her first senior Worlds-
Evie: Which is kind of a very daunting mental place to be. Talking about Anna, her Short Program has really grown on me over the last month, I don't know why. I kind of used to think it was a little too dark for her, the same issue I had with her free last season. But I think her expression over the last month or so has really improved. She's a lot more engaged with her facial expressions and that's really good to see. That being said, we talked about the tech panel being massively inconsistent in the last group of the short. I don't agree with the scores she got there. Her [triple] Lutz-[triple] loop, like most Lutz-loops are quite on the borderline of rotations most of the time, and hers is no exception at this rate. I probably would've called the Lutz under, if not the loop as well - they were both pretty borderline. I probably would've called it under, so I don't agree with that. I still would've put her second overall.
Niamh: She also probably has the most natural flexibility of the three of them. I just wish Daniil [Gleichengauz] would let her hold positions.
Gina: Don't we all wish that for all of Daniil's choreography?
Evie: But talking about the mental games, and preparing yourself for skating programs, I'm really quite impressed with Anna, in the way that she didn't skate a clean skate here; she fell on the second quad Lutz, but it didn't really seem to faze her much. She skated pretty much near clean after that. She had a couple of under-rotation issues with some of her jumps in the second half of the program but apart from that, it really seemed like she didn't let that fall throw her off her game, whereas last season she kind of had the similar issues that skaters like Rika [Kihira] used to have where they would have a mistake and the whole program would start to fall apart from there so I'm glad to see that she's managing that a little bit better. Gina, would you like to talk about Sasha?
Gina: Yes. Trusova's Short Program is my favorite of the season - at least of the European girls, it's definitely my favorite Short Program. I love the contrast between the two music cuts even if the cut is kind of terrible, I actually think how jarring it is works because it's like the expectations versus the reality of Trusova. You see her and she's this tiny little girl and you think "Aw this should be really pretty," and then actually [Singing] duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. [Laughs] It just really works for me. When the climax of “Hall of the Mountain King” starts to hit and she's got her weird arms and she's skipping towards the judges, it just cracks me up every single time. I love it. She's really grown on me this season despite having issues, and I just really respect her as an athlete. You see when she's practicing and skating, you see just how athletic she is, and all of that power she has when she skates just comes from her developing and using muscle, and it's like she's seen problems other people in Eteri's camp have had and has decided that she's not about that life and is going to put the work in now to really develop a stronger physique so that she has a better chance of a longer career, which is really vital considering her coaches are putting a lot on her and throwing her into quads.
Evie: That all being said, her planned program content continues to scare me. There was the return of the listed triple Axel in the short and the potential of her trying a five-quad free, which is terrifying to think about.
Gina: It's too much.
Niamh: There's no need for it.
Evie: Neither of them ended up becoming a reality. She had the issue in the short with the Axel in the short where she kind of stepped out of the exit on the double Axel and she attempted three quads in the free, and fell on two of them. I'm glad she took out the [Salchow] in the free, because that has been in a constant state of anxiety for the past couple of months because she has just not been hitting it but refused to take it out for the past couple competitions, so I'm glad that she's not risking it because the last couple of times I've seen her do it, the falls have been quite scary considering the entry curve she uses goes right in the direction of the judges and the board and so every time she falls and gets close to the boards, I'm like "no!" I don't know, out of the three - Anna, Alyona and Sasha - I'm probably the most worried about Sasha because I really don't think this season has been the kind of season she was expecting, coming into - you know, it's her first year as a senior and she came off of being the unquestioned front-runner of the junior ladies to being someone who has had these inconsistency issues all throughout the season and I'm really hoping that doesn't affect her mental game going into Worlds because obviously if she's on top of everything, she has the chance to not only medal but to win but we've seen her had these issues over the past couple of months, I'm just really kind of worried for the state of her skating at this point.
Gina: I think this is the downside of the quads that we've not really discussed as much as the possible physical implications, but it's the mental implications as well. She's a really young girl, and while she was still in juniors she was made out to be the quad girl, and they give her these planned contents of 5 quads in her free and that's a lot of pressure, and she's expected to be consistent as all the Eteri girls are and have the jump elements that are difficult. She can't be consistent and have 5 quads.
Evie: Yeah, and like you said with the Eteri girls are always kind of expected to be consistent, the environment in which she's training, the environment of that camp, the way that the girls kind of react to placements that they weren't necessarily expecting, like especially when you look at Russian Nationals and how Alyona and Sasha talked about how much they regret, how many mistakes they made in their frees, and their programs overall and how downtrodden they felt considering the fact they both skated really well there, and skated programs that would've gotten them on the podium at pretty much any event of the entire season, and did get them on the podium there, but they talked about as if it was the end of the world almost and they had the same kind of downtrodden expressions here in the kiss and cry like Sasha especially after the Free Skate, she had the same kind of expression and I was just... I constantly worry about that kind of mentality where you're doing as much as you possibly can but is that enough?
Gina: Yeah, it's not good when they can't take any achievement if they're not perfectly clean. Evie: Exactly.
Niamh: She'd score higher if she was doing less quads but landing them. Even senior men aren’t doing a triple Axel and five quads - unless you're Nathan Chen.
Gina: You also have to kind of also remember that it's not just that they're doing quads, but Eteri's camps really likes also overpacking the transitions. No shade to Nathan, we all know it's true, but the reason he can do consistent quads the way that he does is that he doesn't have a lot else going on in the programs, which is a fair strategy.
Evie: Honestly, if I was Sasha's team - taking out the quad Sal is already good start. Honestly, I would probably take out the quad Lutz even though the rate of success has been higher this season than it was last year. I think the quad toe is the best of her quads that she currently has, not just the height but the distance she gets. The landings the cleanest out of all the quads she has, and the combos also look really good when she does them with that.
Gina: Even if she doesn't take out the quads, they could do the flipside and simplify the programs a little bit more. Give her time in between the jumps to refine the skating. She is lagging behind in skating skills, and I think Daniil's sort of style of choreographing where everything is rushed and nothing is held and nothing is refined between the elements isn't helping her, and it isn't helping the elements either.
Niamh: There's no need for her to be doing 6 different high kicks.
Gina: All she needs to do is carry on stomping up to the judges and threatening to punch them [Hosts laugh.] and I will be happy. She doesn't need 25 rushed steps before every jump.
Evie: Yeah. I just really hope that this doesn't affect her going into Worlds, and she can hopefully put out a season's best there, or performances that she can be happy with, that we haven’t seen throughout the past month or so. But, let's go onto talk about something a little bit happier. Can we talk about Alexia Paganini [Niamh: Yes!] from Switzerland because oh my god, I'm really, really proud of her.
Niamh: She done so well.
Evie: She had a career-best finish of 4th here. She returned to her old Free Skate finish from last year, her “La La Land” which I think really works for her. There's something about her skating that's really pleasant and eye-catching. She has the same kind of energy, I think it probably helps that her Free Skate is also “La La Land” but her energy reminds me a little bit of Marin Honda, where it's that kind of playfulness, cheeriness, that smile that really draws you in. It just really highlights that sense of playfulness in her skating, both of these programs. This was such a good competition for her. I'm really especially happy that managed to have a mostly clean free after having a really, really strong short because we've seen from the last season or so when she's had a really good Short Program, she's then had issues in the free. During one of the Grand Prixs last season, I can't remember which one, she placed in the podium in the short, and then, unfortunately, had issues in the free which got her out of medal contention, and that happened again at Euros last year, and I saw her skate in the short here and I was like "oh, I hope she manages to pull off a good free because she has a really good chance of placing well and..." [Niamh: Lo and behold] She did it. I'm really happy for her.
Niamh: Also shout out to Emmi Peltonen, who was fifth - which is a career finish, yay. It's just really nice to see the Finnish ladies rise. We had Viveca [Lindfors] medal last year, she's out with injury at the moment, but it's nice to see small feds do well.
Evie: Especially because Emmi did not have a good early season - she came last at Cup of Russia, and to rebound and learn from those mistakes she had and come back ready to fight here at Euros is just nice to see. When she is on, she is on. Her triple toe-triple toe combo was just like chefs kiss, amazing. The height she gets on it is insane. She could jump the boards practically with the height of that triple toe. It's amazing, I'm really happy for her. I think rounding off this whole discussion of Euros in general, I think it's really interesting to just think about the Russian sporting field not just in figure skating, but in general. The fact that we had obviously every one of the gold medalists here was Russian - a total of 10/12 medals were taken by Russian skaters here at Euros, but you think about what's happened in the last couple of months in regards to the Russian Federation and its relationship with sport and doping, and how it's very likely in the near future that Russian athletes could face sanctions or bans against their inclusion in events, or they're going to have to compete under a neutral flag like under the Olympics. I don’t know, it's interesting to see how not only how the Russian skates are excelling in these events, but the way that the federation is kind of branding them? Like PR based stuff. The way that Russian Nationals was all free to stream, with English commentary by Ted Barton, it was accessible internationally so people could really watch and get invested - form that emotional attachment to those skaters and now you watch them here at Euros winning so many medals, really making the case for themselves that some of these skaters are the top in their fields, or some of the best in the world. It's not out of the realm of possibility when you're arguing about sporting, it's not hard to see that you've got all these people who are so dedicated to watching Russian athletes, this is an army behind all of these athletes who could argue against the potential banning, so having that kind of public image of their athletes being so strong is definitely something that will work in their favor in the months going forward in relation to the ban.
Gina: I also just don't think the athlete's should be punished for something that is a systematic problem.
Niamh: Out of their control.
Gina: Yeah, it's a problem with the Federation, it's not a problem with the athletes.
Evie: I think it's going to be interesting I guess. This whole Euros was kind of a mess. I'm interested to see how much of this messiness affects Worlds and the rest of the season as a whole, especially in comparison to how Four Continents will go in just a bit over a week now.
Gina: Aaaaah.
Evie: I guess we're going to have to wait and see what happens.
-end segment-
START: Shout Out of the Week
Evie: Okay, so our shout out of the week for this week goes to the arena host at the Euros who decided that he really wanted to go into the audience and talk to people during resurfacings, get everyone hyped up for the competition ahead. He was asking people how did you get invested in Figure Skating, who are you here to see. He even went up and asked Vladimir Litvintsev who competes for Azerbaijan in the audience about why he was here as a fan, and who he was there to support and he said something to the tune of "I'm going to be competing in like 30 minutes so..." [Hosts laugh.]
Gina: Awkward. Also, I'd like do a little shout out to the volunteers because I have friends who were volunteering there, I didn't go because I didn't sign up for it, but a lot of volunteers just did not show up to Euros, so people who were there did have to do double shifts, and work multiple jobs in order for things to run smoothly because they were very understaffed, so shout out to the volunteers for all of those who acted professionally whilst also having to be there from 7am to midnight.
Evie: Good on you guys, pat yourselves on the back. You deserve it. Good on you! Thank you guys for listening, we hope to see you guys again for our next episode.
Niamh: Thank you to our transcribing and quality control team, also Evie for editing and Gabb for our graphic design.
Gina: If you want to get in touch with us then please feel free to contact us via our website inthelopodcast.com, or on Twitter or Instagram. You can find our episodes on Youtube, Itunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify.
Evie: If you've enjoyed the show and you want to help support the team then please consider making a donation to us on our ko-fi page or you can buy our merch on RedBubble. We'd like to give a huge thank you to all the listeners who have either donated to us or bought our merch. It really helps us out. It pays for stuff like our podcast subscriptions, and our website and you guys really make a difference in the overall upkeep of this podcast. So, thank you.
Niamh: You can also find all the links to our social media pages and to our ko-fi on the website.
Gina: If you're listening on iTunes, please consider leaving a rating and a review if you've enjoyed the show. Thanks for listening, this has been Gina,
Niamh: Niamh,
Evie: And Evie. See you guys for Four Continents!