Worlds 2015 Recap

This year's competition was super-satisfying to me. No one was screwed, there were some exciting skates and history was made.

Here are a few thoughts:

I am beyond ecstatic that Javier Fernandez finally won! Not just because it's a first for his home country, where skating is unfortunately not that popular, but because he's an amazing skater. I think he has been shafted in the results of the last few years, and it is good to see him finally get what he deserves.

I am super excited about Elizaveta Tuktamysheva winning as well. She's the womanly skater I've been hoping for to bring the sport back from the twiggy little girl thing that has been going on in the last few years. Yeah, she's only 18, but her body is a woman's, and she can do a 3axel. Considering the proportionately (pun intended) high amount of female skaters who have been felled by puberty, this is an encouraging development (again, pun intended!).

None of the ladies were without flaws though, Tuktamysheva included. Their freeskates looked a little tired and floppy, though it was nice to see the American women rally somewhat. Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner could legitimately have gotten on that podium, had their short programs been better. Perhaps it's a sign that there are promising placements to come for the Americans.

The pairs event was pretty exciting this time around too. I'm noticing that pairs teams are starting to really up their difficulty, with throw quad salchows becoming the norm among top teams. A few teams are also going for quad twists. The Canadian pair of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, though not flawless, were so impressive. They have an unparalleled on-ice rapport, and deserved the win. Although I couldn't help but wonder how the heck Meagan skates with her hair in her face like that. Looked like she couldn't see!

The Chinese pair who took the silver, Wenjing Sui and Cong Han, are going to be the team to beat next year though. They're fantastic, technically, though they lack the fluidity that Duhamel and Radford have from being a little more mature. Something to work on for the future, for them!

Didn't have time to watch any of the dance, unfortunately, but it's nice to see that Americans are still on the podium in that event.

Why American Skaters Don't Got It

nabechiko29

This Rolling Stone article, "Why Is American Figure Skating Losing the Cold War," kinda nails on the head the way I've been feeling about things.

We're all sitting here on our couches wondering why American skaters, particularly the women, aren't winning gold medals in international competition. Wondering why we haven't had a World medalist since 2006. Do you want the long explanation or the short one?

Let's aim for the short one:

All of the skaters on Team USA going into this World Championship are talented athletes and superb skaters. With the exception of Ice Dancing, the Russians, Chinese and Japanese skaters are just that much better.

I think the key here to understanding it is that American skaters (with the exception of ice dancers) never really left the 6.0 system-mindset behind. They're all still skating like the judging happens like it did in 1998.

We're still farting around in the States, stuck in the glory days of Michelle Kwan and Kristi Yamaguchi, and meanwhile the rest of the world's skaters have been studying and nailing skating to do well in IJS.

Time to rethink our approach...

Triple Axel FTW

OMG Elizaveta Tuktamysheva's 3axel in the Ladies Short at Worlds. Wow. Her technical scores were so far ahead of Elena Radionova's that she literally left all her competitors in the dust. I'm thrilled to see the Russian skater finally throw that stellar element in her program. It's head-and-shoulders a better 3axel than anything we've seen since the days of Tonya Harding and Midori Ito. It's not a spinny little underrotated thing, it's a kick-butt-and-take names kind of jump. Bravo!

Here's a video of her performance in Shanghai:



The American ladies bombed the short, with Polina Edmunds placing highest at a very unimpressive 7th place. Ashley Wagner had one of her signature meltdowns, Gracie Gold wasn't herself, and Polina Edmunds continues to get downgrades and lower grades of execution.

We'll get more from the ladies on Friday night at 10:30 pm!

Worlds Has Begun!

The 2015 World Figure Skating Championships kicked off in Shanghai today (well, yesterday, sort of, given the time difference). The American dance team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates is leading after the short dance.

US Figure Skating's Facebook page has a steady stream of photos from the event that are fun to keep up with.

There was also some fun skating in the opening ceremonies, which featured Meryl Davis and Charlie White, as well as Evgeny Plushenko (he's still going at it!), Chen Lu and Olympic pairs champs Shen and Zhao.

You can watch a condensed broadcast on NBC on Saturday, March 28 from 8-10 pm, or keep up with it live on icenetwork.com.

Easterns 2015, Part III: The Grand Finale

It's always fun-slash-terrifying to see the photos and videos of one's performance. But I made myself do it, and I think it came out well.

Here are a few action shots, thanks to the talented photographers with ProPhotoFX.

I love these next two. They're classic Ice Face.

And finally, here is some video. I'll be honest, I'm trying to forget the first half of the program ever happened. I watched it, I saw myself hit the ice twice, and I learned what I did wrong. And I never want to see it again. So I hope you'll understand when I present the last, better half for your viewing pleasure. 

Easterns 2015, Part II: Pics or It Didn't Happen

Ok so now that I got all the introspective crap out of the way, here is the fun part. The photographic evidence of my Easterns 2015 experience!

Here's the Instagram version:

My husband and I drove 7.5 hours to Pittsburgh. Road trip!

Ready to take Pittsburgh by storm! #roadtrip

A photo posted by Jessica Marshall (@jess_on_ice) on Mar 12, 2015 at 6:44am PDT

Along the way, we passed many places I'd wish we'd stopped to see, like Women's Rights National Historic Park, all the Finger Lakes and PA wineries, and that random Wendy's near Erie that I used to go to when driving back and forth to school in Chicago. (Ohhhh how I wanted a Frosty!)

Once we arrived, we marveled at Pittsburgh's strange traffic patterns and bridges, and had to try the thing everyone who goes to Pittsburgh has to do--have a giant sandwich at Primanti Bros.

Pittsburgh, we are in you.

A photo posted by Jessica Marshall (@jess_on_ice) on Mar 12, 2015 at 4:21pm PDT

The next morning, we went to the rink for my unofficial practice. I checked in with the registration desk at RMU Island Sports Center and got my swag bag, which included this rad portable charger!

Sweet swag! #easterns2015 #figureskating

A photo posted by Jessica Marshall (@jess_on_ice) on Mar 13, 2015 at 7:29am PDT

After a decent 40 minutes of practice, we headed to Pittsburgh's Strip District, where we met up with an old friend from school for lunch and ate the most amazeball pierogis I will probably ever eat (unless someday I have to go to Poland) at S&D Polish Deli on Penn Ave. Then we headed back to the rink to watch my friend Mary compete in a Light Entertainment event. She dazzled as Tinkerbell, skating to music from 'Hook'! To celebrate her great performance, we went to Mario's Italian Family Restaurant and had some delicious butter-soaked garlic bread.

Woke up the next day to find this cheery banana at the continental breakfast.

A happy, positive banana to start off competiton day! #easterns2015 #figureskating

A photo posted by Jessica Marshall (@jess_on_ice) on Mar 14, 2015 at 8:21am PDT

I spent the rest of the day trying to relax and focus.

Suiting up! In the mood to kick a little a$$. #easterns2015 #figureskating

A photo posted by Jessica Marshall (@jess_on_ice) on Mar 14, 2015 at 2:40pm PDT

I already went over how the skate went, so I'll skip that part for now. I was delighted to discover that adult skaters like to throw "tossies" on the ice for each other. I've never had anything thrown on the ice for me before, so it was a real treat. Especially when someone tosses a nipper of vodka!

Things ppl tossed on the ice for me! Yes, that is a nipper of vodka. #adultskating #easterns2015 #figureskating

A photo posted by Jessica Marshall (@jess_on_ice) on Mar 14, 2015 at 7:44pm PDT

Standby for Easterns 2015: Part III -- the video.

Adult Easterns 2015: Glass Half Empty/Glass Half Full

First, the result—I placed 5th out of 10 skaters. I fell twice and popped the second 2toe on my 2toe-2-toe combo. But the rest of my spins and jumps were spot on, literally could not have been better. I scored four points higher than I did last week at Colonials, three points ahead of the 6th place finisher and 5 points below the 4th place finisher. You can see the full results over at Icenetwork.com.

My inner 15-year-old self thinks: Wow, you idiot, you BLEW it. You fell twice on things you had no business falling on. Things that were EASY in practice. If you hadn't screwed up, you would have easily placed 4th and been on your way to Nationals! Disappointed!

My adult self: Holy crap, you fell twice and you still came in 5th, that's amazing! You must have done something very very right! And you met your goals of doing better than the previous competition! And you're a first alternate to Nationals, which is higher than you've ever placed at a qualifying competition in your life! So excited!

Honestly, I am of two minds about how I performed. I was expecting to come in about 8th or 9th going into this, so to come in 5th, to be the first alternate for Nationals and to be at least three points ahead of anyone below me is amazing. I'm honored and proud to have achieved this.

On the other hand, I should have performed better, and scored higher, I didn't train that hard and make the sacrifices I made to fall twice—a new falling record, by the way, I've never falling that much in a program. I should have stayed on my feet, placed 4th, and booked my ticket to Salt Lake City for Nationals. Instead, I missed it by one, heartbreaking placement.

But skating is heartbreaking sometimes. If you want to succeed overall, you have to keep things in perspective (something my 15-yo self had to learn over time). I spent a year bringing myself back to competitive shape after having a baby, while working full-time and balancing all that comes with that. It wasn't easy, and frankly on Saturday night when I competed, I was exhausted. Exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally. I hadn't seen my daughter for three days but for brief Facetime sessions--the last of which we had about an hour before I competed, and she started freaking out because she missed us. That was not what I needed to get myself psyched up for my skate. By the time I put blade to ice that night, I was at a breaking point from trying to fit everything in, and it was too much.

So in a way, part of me is relieved this is the end of my journey this year. And part of me is very satisfied with how it went.

I'm too tired to definitively commit to another season, but I haven't ruled it out. My immediate goal has become reviving that long, lost 2axel, and possibly attempting some triples again.

But stay tuned, I'm going to post photos and videos of my Easterns adventure in the next post!

Where Are They Now: Kristi Yamaguchi

I missed this two days ago, when I was road-tripping to Pittsburgh (still here, competing tonight!), but here's a little bit about what 1992 Olympic Gold Medalist Kristi Yamaguchi is up to these days.

It reads more like an advert than an actual news article, promoting her Always Dream Foundation, but she was my idol growing up, and it's cool to see her using her fame to do something good for kids.  

What Is This I Can't Even

This young Russian skater (Pyotr Gummenik, according to a commenter on FB) does seven (SEVEN!) 3loops in a row. I can't even wrap my head around this.

Post by The Skating Lesson.

Junior Worlds Recap

Junior Worlds doesn't get a lot of press. It should though, because the future of figure skating is right there for all to see. The world's best junior-level skaters compete for glory and Junior Grand Prix assignments.

I didn't watch much of this year's competition, held this past weekend in Tallinn, Estonia, as I was busy competing in Boston at the same time, but I have a few observations on what I did see.

The top Junior man (China's Boyang Jin) did three quads in his long program. Not one. Not two. THREE. And he did 'em all, for the most part. Senior-level men usually only can get off two, if they're having a good day. It's entirely possible that as this young'n matures over the next year or so, he'll lose the third quad as a matter of natural aging/nerves/whatever, but it's still impressive to imagine the possibilities. Ten years ago, doing one quad was rare. Nathan Chen of the US finished a respectable fourth, having attempted two quads himself.

The young Evgenia Medvedeva took the ladies title. She's impressive technically, but so so gawky. That subtle Russian gawkiness, that lacks finesse and maturity, is there. She may be a future champion though, the way she wracks up points in her programs. Karen Chen (the U.S. Senior bronze medalist, who was given the chance to compete because of her age—she is too young for Senior Worlds) was the top US prospect, but she finished disappointingly out of medal contention. Looks like she had some rough skates. It's too bad, as I thought she was amazing at Nationals.

See full results from Tallinn here.

Skating in a Winter Wonderland

I've been participating in a photo project that my friend David Charles is doing, and our most recent shoot had a very wintery theme: skating! 

David Charles Photography

We shot at the Ashokan Reservoir on a very snowy day, and he really got some great shots. Yes, those are my old skates, no I didn't go skating outdoors on un-manicured ice on my competition blades. But I'll let him tell the rest of the story behind the photos.

It's Fun, I Swear!

I competed at the Colonial Adult Winter Challenge this weekend. It was my first time competing in freestyle in over a decade. Let's just say... it wasn't my best. Far, far far from it. In fact I'm pretty sure the judges hated it. My score was so low, a juvenile skater wouldn't wipe their butt with my score sheet.

But! Despite popping two jumps and falling on a third, coming in second out of two, and having a good cry on the way home, after a day of processing the experience I realized...the overall experience was kinda...well... fun.

It was a genuine thrill to be back in the game. Getting dressed up and performing is always a gas, even when you end up zamboning the ice with your backside.

Here's the rundown:

My husband and I left the toddler with my parents and drove out to Boston on Friday night. Stayed at my grandmother's house (she made me a very energizing breakfast the next morning! Thanks, Nana!), and drove to Nashoba Valley Olympia for a quick morning practice, during which I nailed everything. Literally, could not have skated better. Having a good three hours to kill, we drove around the Acton area looking for something to do and naturally ended up at a very crowded Starbucks. Threw back a cool lime refresher and headed over to the HomeGoods across the way (yes, we had that much time to kill) to look at a rug I'd been eyeing for my living room. We drove back to the rink and I did a little off ice, visualizing my program and plotting it out in the locker room. Got my hair did (it's a lot harder when you don't have teammates helping you!) and suited up.

Holy cow I was nervous. Like a muscle-freezing, oh-my-God-why-am-I-doing-this anxiety. I tried to calm myself with limited success using yogic breathing. The nice people by the entrance to the rink must have thought I was a head case. One woman even patted me on the back reassuringly as I waited my turn to get on the ice. Got on the ice for warm up and had an epic wipe-out on a 2flip that left me with a sizeable bruise on my arm that is actually hurting as I type this. I skated second, so I got off the ice and proceeded to wait the agonizing 3 minutes and 40 seconds of my competitor's program. I didn't watch. I've learned from my years of competing that it's not a good idea for me to do so.

She finished, and I got on the ice. Never having done an IJS event before, I didn't realize there would be like a million minutes between when a competitor gets off the ice and when the next competitor is announced. So I'm nervously pacing, doing a few single jumps, alright let's get on with this, people. Finally, they announce my name, and it's go time. Long story short, I popped both 2loops and fell on the second 2toe of my 2toe-2toe combo. I don't even know why I fell. I guess I was trying to be dramatic? Anyway, I got through it and wasn't dying at the end. And I nailed the 2flip, so that was a good thing...

Fast forward to the score sheets. My competitor (who was very nice by the way, I am looking forward to seeing her again next week at Easterns) and I were separated by about 2 points. Sigh.

I humbly accepted my medal and paid the 25 cents to get my annotated score sheet. Had a small breakdown in the parking lot, so I didn't really get a chance to look at the score sheet. But I got around to perusing it while we're driving up the Mass Pike. I thought the accounting was wrong - they left out an entire element (an axel) by mistake, so I received a lower score than I should have. The axel was in the second half of the program, and I did a little footwork into an out of it (raises the base value), it is entirely possible that if it had been counted, I would have actually won. 

It would have been a cheap win of course, as I still didn't skate that well...but that's not the point. Turns out I the axel was an extra illegal jump that they lumped into my footwork score. Oops. See a shot below of the score sheet...for the uninitiated, all you really need to see is that they skipped from element #6 to element #8.

Anyway, the judges hated my sit-spins, and apparently didn't like my jumps all that much either. I'm not holding out much hope for better results at Easterns. Honestly though, I'm ok with that. The competitive season was a lot to take on with a baby and my work, and I am satisfied with how much I've accomplished just in training. So next Saturday's competition will be like a capstone to a good year of skating. It will be FUN!

Oh, and I didn't initially want to share the video due to acute embarassment, but f--- it. Here it is:

Basic Skills

One part of skating no one talks about enough (in the media at least) is basic skills. I know it seems like some of the lil' jumping beans we see on TV axeled and salchowed their way out of the womb, just born with the skills perfected. But that couldn't be farther from reality.

They all had to start somewhere, and that "somewhere" was basic skills lessons. Learning to march, swizzle, snowplow stop and yes, even fall. (Learning how to fall is very important!)

Both United States Figure Skating and Ice Skating Institute have robust programs (and have had for decades), and there are sanctioned basic skills programs all over the country—and very probably at a rink near you. You don't have to be a kid, either. Basic skills programs are designed for folks of all ages.

The reason I bring this up is that the country's largest USFS basic skills competition, the 16th Annual Wollman Open, was held this past weekend. Well, it was half-held...Wollman is a gorgeous outdoor rink in the middle of Central Park in New York, and Sunday's snowy weather made the conditions for skating less than ideal as the afternoon progressed. As a result, some of the events were rescheduled for this coming Sunday. But last week, dozens of skaters took turns on the ice. They may not go on to be champions, but they had the chance to feel that way at a competition designed just for them.

Friends of mine from the Skating Club of New York (the competition's home club) were there and took some fantastic pictures of the winter wonderland that took over Wollman Rink last Sunday.

Audrey Leung / SCNY

Audrey Leung / SCNY

Synchro Nationals Recap

To no one's surprise, the Haydenettes took the championship. Again.

They're amazing, don't get me wrong, and they had some killer Level 4 moves. But the pessimist in me knows that the glory is short-lived, as they're not going to come close to the podium on the world stage. None of the US team lines are remotely close to being as crisp as some of the European teams, particularly the Scandinavian ones.

But back to Nationals. Just as predictably, Miami University came in second (just like last year, and the year before, and the year before that...though the did win in 2009!) The Skyliners came in third after a rally following a 4th place short program, and the Crystallettes took fourth.

A few notes:

First Place Haydenettes
I haaaated their music. They skated to a medley of music from the musical Sunset Boulevard, which I've skated to before myself. Maybe it's just because I actually hate the music itself (it's so dark) but it didn't seem to quite compliment the moves. It kind of dampened them for me. But clearly, not for the judges. I guess I just tend to like my synchro music less depressing.

Second Place Miami University
They looked sloppy. I don't understand the intricacies of synchro judging enough to know exactly why they placed higher than the Skyliners, but I'm guessing it was the technical base merit- i.e. they just attempted higher difficulty maneuvers.

Third Place Skyliners
I've been following this team for a while, as they're from my home club, and I'm really impressed with the way they've improved the last several years. The Senior team tends to pale in comparison to their Junior team, which has historically gotten all the wins and attention at their level. But the Senior team's footwork was stunning this time around, and with the exception of one fall, it didn't skip a beat for me. The program, set to a SYTYCD medley, which is the perfect kind of upbeat for me. They lack the difficulty levels that put the Haydenettes on top, but I think if they continue to improve as they have, there's a chance they could score higher in the coming years.

Again, despite the predictability of the results and some of the issues I had with the performances, the top teams really are all amazing, and very fun to watch.

In fact, watching high-level synchro is a head rush. So high energy, such display of athleticism, and everyone looks like they're having fun. And if synchro becomes an Olympic sport, I think we're going to see the quality of teams skyrocket.

And a big congrats to my peeps on Gotham City Synchro, who finished an impressive 5th place in the Masters event! See their great skate below!