Skate America 2015- Pairs

I left my discussion of the pairs event to last because it was far and away the best event. The pairs event was a nail biter in the best possible way. I didn't know exactly what the outcome would be, and there were multiple outcomes that I would've been happy with.

Almost all of the pairs skated very well. There were not any huge mistakes, especially not from the top teams, and so the event was more exciting and more interesting.

Wenjing Sui and Cong Han won the event here. They have two quads, one twist and one throw, but they only did the twist. I would've loved to see the throw in competition, but clearly they didn't need it to win. They are amazing skaters, and I like their programs, but I don't like their short quite as much as last year's Stray Cat Strut. That said, the showdown between them and Duhamel and Radford will be intense, and I genuinely don't know who will come out on top.

Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim won the short program, but finished in second. They had pretty strong skates, but the quality of the elements didn't match up to Sui and Han's. They had some more mistakes than Sui and Han, but their programs are quite good, and they have some very good elements.

Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau made a great start on the Senior Grand Prix circuit. They finished in third at Skate America, behind two of the top teams in the world. For new seniors, this is a pretty great feat for them. I'm not in love with their short, but I have a feeling it'll grow on me. It's not even that I hate it, I just don't love it.

Stolbova and Klimov had a very dissapointing short they couldn't recover from. Though they had the second best freeskate, they finished in fourth. I don't love their programs, they don't have the energy and aren't as dynamic as past programs, like the Aadams Family from 2 years ago, or last year's programs. Also, her costumes are awful.

Skate America 2015- Men

The men's event was less dismal than the ladies event here, but it was still not great. Like with the dance event, I don't know that I agree with the judging.

It kind of still amazes me that Max Aaron won. He has clearly been working on improving his PCSs, but he still has a very long way to go. For a long time, I've had a lot of problems with Max Aaron and his choreography (or lack thereof). His programs have always looked like jump drills, and in the IJS that shouldn't cut it. And yet, it does. Max Aaron has always been rewarded for good jumps in the TES, which is fine, but that also bleeds over to the PCS, where the difficulty of the jumps should have zero impact. He finally has a little bit of choreography, but not a ton, and his skating skills are still nowhere near as good as they should be. The biggest problem for me is the setup of the judging system, because judges have so much to watch, they often neglect the PCS and focus entirely on the TES. This leaves the system rewarding skaters despite their poor skating skills, if only because they aren't paying close attention to it.

Shoma Uno won the freeskate, but finished in second overall here. He's still new to the senior ranks, but for me, he deserved to win here. He's got great skating skills and choreography, and he commits fully to his programs. His jumps could use a little more control but overall they were good here. He's one of my favourite skaters, and the showdown between him and Yuzuru will be interesting this year and in the next few years.

Jason Brown did not skate as well as he could have here, but lost out in the short mostly because he doesn't have the quality of quads some of the others have.

Han Yan and Konstantin Menshov have good jumps when they can manage to land them, however they are incredibly inconsistent and don't have a ton of other stuff to back them up when their jumps fail them.

Skate America 2015- Ice Dance

I am still a little in shock about the ice dance event.

This is so far from what I expected from this event, and I'm still not quite sure how it happened.

The biggest shock was obviously Sinitsina and Katsalapov coming in second. Last season they didn't even get the technical requirement to qualify for worlds and now they're beating out some of the best teams in the world.

Sinitsina and Katsalapov were fine, but they were not exceptional. I really can't believe they beat Gilles and Porier, and Hawayek and Baker. I don't know what happened, but I really didn't see what the judges apparently saw.

Sinitsina and Katsalapov didn't have a great Ravensburger, the choreography is less than exciting, and they don't have the best lines. Their lifts are also strange. They never settle into a position, which leaves them looking like she's rolling around in his arms, and then all of a sudden she's back on the ice.

Also, I really don't understand the motivation to skate to Swan Lake. Nikita already did that with Elena, and it is nowhere near as good. The music they use also doesn't work exceptionally well for the Ravenburger, which makes me question what the hell Marina Zoueva is thinking with these two.

The winners of the event are the ones we all expected to win here. No one is surprised that Madison Chock and Evan Bates took the gold here. Even for them though, the freedance was very sloppy. We're used to Madison having less than great technique, but this week, they were exceptionally sloppy. Madison really needs a strict technical coach to fix her edges and turns. However, a quick fix is for her to just bring her feet together between turns. I went back and re-watched their programs, specifically watching Madison's feet, and not once did I see her feet come together once between their programs.

Piper Gilles and Paul Porier are still the silver medalists here in my mind. They have interesting programs, they're fun and exciting, and they have interesting music choices. I really like their programs, even though I don't really get the theme of the freedance, I like it so much that it doesn't matter to me. It is nice to see dances that are not just typical pretty people skating to pretty music.

Speaking of pretty people skating to pretty music, Hawayek and Baker finished just barely off the podium here. Their programs are not my favourite, and I would like to see them do something a little different from the past.
They have really nice lines and good technique, but their programs are so similar every year that they are seriously becoming a snozefest. I really want to love Hawayek and Baker, but I would love for them to step out of their comfort zone, even a little bit.

I was really disappointed in the Chinese team here. They have become one of the teams I love to watch, and they had some more interesting programs than some of the other teams, but they really did not skate well here. They had a lot of mistakes, and I'm just hoping they can pull it together sooner rather than later.

Skate America 2015- Ladies

The 2015 ladies event was dismal. I spent the bulk of the freeskate hoping it would be over.

There were only 2 clean free programs, from Nicole Rajicova and Gracie Gold. That is not to say though, that they were exceptional.

Gracie skated clean, but skated over her music. She was very clearly off her music at more than one point in the free. She was so focused on landing the jumps that she neglected the rest of the program. Her programs this year are better than last year, but they're still not my favourite, I'm still not sure this style is the best choice for her. Gracie won the free, but finished second overall, with a total score of 202.80.

The overall winner of the event was Evgenia Medvedeva. She finished behind Gracie in the free, which seems a little crazy to me. Even though Medvedeva had a fall in the free, her PCS should have been significantly higher than Gracie's. Gracie seemed to have inflated PCSs with the home ice advantage, I really don't think she earned the PCSs she got this weekend. It's not that she's incapable of getting those scores, but she was so obviously focused on everything but the PCS that it seemed a little crazy for her PCSs to be as high as they were.

Medvedeva is a new senior, and she was especially exceptional in the short program. She had all the jumps in the second half, they were all clean, every element in her short received a positive GOE. I'm not always crazy about the arm over the head on the jumps, I think Medvedeva can tend to overuse that bonus on her jumps. That said, there is no denying the quality of her jumps. I would like to see the arm  little neater if she is going to use it so often. It ends up looking a little too bent over her head, it would be nice to have a better line on that arm.

Elizabet Tursynbaeva had a less than stellar short program. She was in 7th after the short. She made a good comeback in the free. She had some small mistakes, but nothing like the rest of the ladies in this event. The only mistake of note in the free was the fall on the triple flip. Because so many of the skaters had such terrible freeskates, she was able to move up from 7th to 4th after the free.

Satoko Miyahara also had a pretty good set of programs, she finished in third in each program and third overall. I like her programs, but I don't love them. She has a lot of potential, but I would love to see some more height on her jumps. If I were her coach, I would be focusing on improving the height above almost anything else. That would help to improve her GOEs and if any lady is going to be doing quads, it would be Miyahara if she could only get a little more height.

We also need to talk about Alaine Chartrand of Canada. As per usual, she had a very strong short, and then fell apart completely in the free. She attempted a triple axel, but it was not good. Her jumps are not nearly consistent enough for her to be trying to introduce a triple axel. She got a downgrade on her double axel, a downgrade on her triple lutz triple toe, an edge call on the triple flip, and an underrotation call on the first triple lutz. She really fell apart in the free, but she did very well in the short. If she and Brian can just maintain the jumps in the free, she'll be a lady to watch out for, but she's trying to jump ahead of herself.

The ladies freeskate was beyond pathetic, and we can only hope it's going to get a whole lot better as time goes on.