Niamh: When someone lands their jump, you expect to see some snow, but you're not supposed to see liquid water.
Kite: Like this is advanced snow.
Niamh: I was [talking] to the ones sitting beside me, I was like “We might as well be watching synchronized swimming.”
Evie: Polar ice cap synchronized swimming - coming to an Olympics near you!
Gabrielle: My costumes are actually hot pink and deep purple for the long.
So we'll be seeing that next week?
In two weeks in Kelowna, yes. The Short's actually a two-piece that Kaitlyn and I kind of put our thoughts into together. For the long, it's not exactly like "Carmen," it's the shape that it was today, but it goes ombré from deep to light purple.
Love a good ombré. I'm looking forward to the pairing with the eyeshadow. [Gabby laughs]
Kite: Alysa actually has quite a bit of an edge on base value, so combined base value for both programs is a 109 for Alyssa currently, and 103.12 for Kamila, but Kamila can definitely make up that difference because she gets the superior GOE and PCS rightfully so if both are clean - this is all if both are clean.
Evie: Is Alysa's technical content, that 109, includes if she does the triple axel in the short or no?
Kite: Yeah. This is with the triple Axel-triple toe in the short. [Evie: Okay] That's what she did in Poland.
Evie: Yeah, so that is the heart attack number. The 109 is the heart attack number.
Kite: Yes, absolutely the heart attack number.
Kite: …When I heard he was skating to Andrew Lloyd Webber, I was like oh, here we go again, and then it wasn't Phantom of the Opera. [Evie laughs.] I was so pleasantly surprised. I was like wow I almost forgot he had other music, that wasn't Phantom of the Opera [Hosts laugh.] because that's all that skaters ever skate to.
Evie: Skaters are finally delving into the extended catalog of Andrew Lloyd Webber [Sam laughs.]
Sam: We get Phantom. We get “Memories” from Cats.
Evie: Honestly, where is the Andrew Lloyd Webber School of Rock program already.
Sam: Give us some Jesus Christ Superstar, bring that back.
Kite: Only if there's the bright yellow pants. It has to be skated to in like banana pants.
Sam: Yes. Yellow pants are required.
Evie: So guys, guess what? The season started properly! Woohoo, children! I'm just so glad we finally have some competitions to watch.
Niamh: Worlds feels like yesterday!
Evie: It really does. This off season, I don't know if it was just that our perception of time has shifted or something weird is going on in the universe, but it just feels like it's breezed by so freaking quickly. It's so weird that we're now two whole competitions into the season.
Niamh: Yeah, there wasn't the same space of time with no content.
Evie: But yes, we've had the start of the Junior Grand Prix and lots of kids have returned to us, and we've got lots of new kids.
Yogeeta: All the kids.
Yogeeta: Even in post-Olympic seasons, they are basically only showing people who are about to retire or like someone who's still young and fresh and plans to keep competing. People can get to know them here in this space and then follow them into figure skating.
Karly: You know who I want to see on Dancing With the Stars? Jimmy Ma.
Maryam: Oh my god, he would be amazing.
Yogeeta: Jimmy Ma would be my favorite person to see on Dancing With the Stars.
Evie: Well, you're not that far off, honestly. You're a couple steps to the left of what was actually used. Henry Kirk tried to emulate the feeling of ice using a mixture of materials and included in this mixture were salt, copper, aluminium and... hog's lard. Literal hog's lard - the fat from a hog - to make it slippery enough to skate on!
Niamh: Who's sitting in their kitchen one night thinking, "Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll make some fake ice using hog's lard!"
Evie: Obviously Henry Kirk thought that. So here's your ingredients: "30-50 feral hogs --" (hosts laugh)
Niamh: Another example of this was the “Despacito” we had during the Olympics.
Gina: Oh, God.
Karly: I was watching the Ice Dance Short Dance with my sister and my sister loves Despacito so every time “Despacito” came on she got super hyped, and I was like “Oh my God, not Despacito again.”
Niamh: Oh no, my mum thought they had to do “Despacito,” like it was the compulsory song. (hosts laugh)
Karly: You’re all doing “Despacito.” Carmen who? I only know “Despacito,” the true warhorse. (laughter)
Evie: It's quite disheartening that we have to go through this, especially when the IJS is, if you read it, a quite solid system if you base it just solely off what's written in the handbooks. If it's applied effectively, it would be a really solid judging system but it's not being used to its full advantage because judges aren't applying it fairly.
Yogeeta: The answer is clearly that we need robot tech callers and robot judges.
Niamh: That's at the next Congress.
Evie: Listen, they have to argue about whether music can be brought on a USB to a competition - I think we're a couple of centuries away from robots at this point. Let's be honest.