Skate Canada – The Pairs

This was an interesting competition. I thought there were really four teams in the running for the podium and it turns out I was right. (At least, they all had podium ordinals at one point in the competition.) It was intrigued to see who made it there in the end. It was also interesting because I ended up watching a competition in Canada on a Russian live stream while I was in Canada and all because of CTV. Whenever CBC airs figure skating you can watch it no problem but whenever CTV gets involved all of a sudden, it is a problem. At least in the end I didn’t have to deal with Rod. He can really get over-the-top with his puns and plays on words and building the drama. Sometimes I can be in the mood to enjoy the silliness of it but I think he really means it. I don’t think there is any irony involved. (He is the reason I avoided using Canadian coverage in the videos here, if I could, and I also I hate CTV. And really, British Eurosport is the best. I don’t think we even need to debate it.) Tracy is great and keeps it together but Rod gets carried away all the time. No wonder people think Canadians are silly people.

But getting back to the Russian coverage. Thank you Russian person who posted in on youtube! And I don’t know who those commentators were but wow, can those guys ever talk. I don’t think they ever stop and I swear, some of the time they aren’t even talking about the skating. How could they be? SO MUCH TALKING. If anyone knows who the two men are commentating on figure skating for Russian TV, let me know. Who are they? What do they say? Why do they talk so much? (Do they enjoy puns and plays on words?)

Okay, enough of that. Let’s focus on the skating. Here are the results:

Is This Red Dress the Best Dress Evgenia Tarasova Has Ever Had?

In my last post, I claimed that Evgenia Tarasova’s new red dress is objectively the best dress she is ever had. I made the comment off the top of my head. But is that the truth? Let’s take a closer look.

For the purpose of this post, we will confine ourselves to Tarasova and Morozov’s Senior career, which takes us back to fall of 2014.

Remember, this is the question:

Is this red dress –

Tarasova’s best skating costume ever?

Skate America – The Pairs

This was an interesting pairs competition, with a lot of teams making their Grand Prix debut (5 or the 8). It was also interesting because the results weren’t in lock step. There was movement in the placings from second to seventh between the short and free programs. There weren’t a lot of clean performances but that’s maybe a bit much to ask, especially of pairs and especially with new rules, this early in the season. (The theme of the short was “Not the performance they were looking for” and the free wasn’t that much better.) Still, there were some interesting developments for many of the teams as their season unfolds.

Thoughts on the Challenger Series Thus Far

Now that the flurry of competition opening of the Challenger Series is over and before the opening of the Grand Prix, I think it’s time to do a survey of what we’ve seen and how the season is shaping up. There is so much to say but I just get to it each week, so I’m going to do a bit of a round up now of my initial impressions.

Who means business –

Skaters who have come out prepared and with focus, determination and energy from the start. 

Couple or Not? Ice Dance Edition

We’re back for another round of Couple or Not? You can’t do pairs and not ice dance too. Although I’m a little sad. We probably won’t play this again for awhile now. Maybe we will notice new and up-and-coming teams that on whom we can speculate later. Once again, in order to help gauge couple compatibility we turned to the team ISU bios. Shared hobbies increase the likeliness of couple-dom and shared physical activities outside of skating put it through the roof! Am I right? I’m pretty sure I’m right.

Just as a reminder –

*We have not actual real knowledge on this subject. Our answers are purely based on our gut, intuition, spidey-senses, things we may have heard in the past, if we are remembering correctly, match making skills and wishful thinking. We should also make it clear that we are hopeless romantics.*

And first up it’s…