Skate America is revving up as I write this, which means the Grand Prix season is officially starting.
I'm pretty sure this season will prove interesting for a number of reasons. This piece on Yahoo does a good job summarizing the competitive landscape, but I do have a few additional thoughts.
1. Reigning Olympic champion Adelina Sotnikova is going for another season, claiming she's trying to prove that she deserved her gold medal in Sochi. I was never fully convinced that she earned it, but I'm willing to give her another chance or two to prove herself. I think her jumps and spins are fine - her 3toe-3toe is ginormous - but she skates like a junior, not a championship-level competitor. Her skating lacks a refinement that a true high-level skater should have.
I don't know what's going on over in Russia in terms of coaching technique, but they are churning out skaters whose presentation skills leave a lot to be desired. Observe, for example, this video of Yulia Lipnitskaya, whom I believe to be the strongest of the Russian ladies. Notice how her leg is always bent during footwork and jump sequences. Her free leg is just sloppy.
Now that Sochi and all the purported weirdness over scoring is behind us, we'll see how they stack up against the other top ladies. My guess is, we'll see a slight difference in rankings.
2. The Ice Dance competition is anyone's game. There was such a huge gap between the top US and Canadian dancers who dominated the podium, and their respective teammates. Maybe the rest of the world finally learned something about the novel, modern style of dancing that Meryl Davis, Charlie White, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir did so well?
3. Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu pretty much has the season wrapped up in a bag, and will run away with all the gold, but the fight for silver and bronze at competitions is less clear cut. There are a few promising dudes in the mix, like Canada's Nam Nguyen and Kazakhstan's Dennis Ten, but they have been inconsistent in their past performances, so it's hard to predict.
Going to tune in to Skate America tonight on icenetwork.com, to see the Short Dance and Men's Short.
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