Supporter of dedicated figure skaters with a special interest in up-and-coming "unseens" in the USA & worldwide. {Pic ⬆️: Mirror Lake, 2019 JGP Lake Placid, NY}
Jenni Meno has shared a photo that was sent to the Sand family of the
#WTTFigure
group with the banner on the teamtoddandjenni Instagram account, along with an update on Todd’s condition:
#SandmanStrong
#StandYourGround
Not sure if it was shown on the broadcast, but a lot of skaters from multiple countries gathered in the kiss & cry to take a photo with the big banner for Todd Sand after the pairs event finished.
#wttfigure
Keegan Messing's younger brother Paxon, 26, was killed in a motorcycle accident on Sunday night in Anchorage, Alaska.😢
This is the link to a GoFundMe for Paxon's wife and 3 children if you would like to help:
I feel fortunate to have seen 🇯🇵Daisuke Takahashi (高橋大輔) & Kana Muramoto (村元哉中) compete one time as ice dancers and to have been in the
#SkateAmerica
audience in Norwood, MA where they were so warmly received😊 on 10/23/22 - my clip before they skated their POTO FD [1/2]:
And here’s my clip of the final seconds of Kana Muramoto & Daisuke Takahashi’s Phantom of the Opera free dance at 2022
#SkateAmerica
[2/2].
Best wishes to both of them as they begin their respective new careers, both on & off the ice! 💐
#JGPFigure
Final 6 MEN Qualifiers are:
P Gumennik 🇷🇺 15+15=30(439.29)
C Pulkinen 🇺🇸 15+13=28(436.40)
A Siao Him Fa 🇫🇷 11+15=26(404.97)
T Hiwatashi 🇺🇸 13+13=26(428.40)
A Torgashev 🇺🇸 9+15=24(396.38)
K Shimada 🇯🇵 13+11=24(433.40)
1st alternate: S Gogolev 🇨🇦 15+7=22(414.30)
Ayaka Hosoda (Gershwin's Concerto in F for piano&orchestra): 3A, 3A+2T, 3Lz, 3Lo, 2A+2T, 3F, 2A.
Boitano said she just flew in today (no jet lag here!). She was 8th at Nationals & this is her 1st competitive skate outside of 🇯🇵. She received all 10s for Team World!
#AuroraGames
RIP, Denis Ten. You shared your talent & heart with the world and we skating fans will cherish many wonderful memories of you as a skater & person. Denis was profiled in
@olympicchannel
's "Gamebreakers" series this past spring:
India’s Harshita Rawtani, 13, and her mother graciously posed for this photo at the end of
#JGPLakePlacid
. Her interview with
@TedBarton7
(“I skate to express, not to impress”):
#JGPFigure
Alysa Liu, 13, landed all her planned jumps -- 8 triples, including both triple Axels -- to win the 2019 Pacific Coast Sectional Senior Ladies event! Jumps: 3A+2T, 3A, 2A, 3Lo, 3Lz+3T, 3Lz-euler-3S, 3F - 138.03 FS, 212.97 total. Will tweet link to official results/protocols next.
2019
#WTTFigure
Team Captains (listed in order of country qualification):
Team 🇷🇺: Nikita KATSALAPOV
Team 🇺🇸: Madison HUBBELL
Team 🇯🇵: Misato KOMATSUBARA
Team 🇫🇷: Morgan CIPRES
Team 🇮🇹 Marco FABBRI
Team 🇨🇦: Andrew POJE
Entries per Team:
#USChamps20
Men’s autograph session on Thursday 1/23 in
@Gbocoliseum
- as I was walking by, not in the long line, Nathan Chen was sitting on the far end of the table, just waiting patiently with no one in front of him... so I said hello 👋 & snapped this photo. 😃 (1/4)
#JGPFigure
Final Ladies 6 Qualifiers are:
A Trusova 🇷🇺 15+15=30(442.44)
A Kostornaia 🇷🇺 15+15=30(401.88)
A Shcherbakova 🇷🇺 15+15=30(400.95)
A Tarakanova 🇷🇺 13+15=28(380.74)
Yelim Kim 🇰🇷 13+13=26(388.23)
A Kanysheva 🇷🇺 13+13=26(379.39)
1st alt,: A Tarusina 🇷🇺 13+13=26(374.92)
The "Friends of Denis" show will be held at the Almaty Arena in KAZ on July 20; 2019; Mao Asada is the first skater to be announced as performing:
Photos of the new memorial to Denis Ten:
As
@MariahSk8rBell
landed the final 3Lz in her FS,
@Adaripp
leapt in excitement by the boards and her “Hallelujah” music was drowned out by the audience responding to the sheer joy & exuberance radiating from her as she finished her performance to a standing ovation!
I made a clip from yesterday’s Cup of Colorado livestream of 🇺🇸Phoebe Stubblefield’s 3A 👏 at the beginning of her Junior FS - her protocol:
She fell on this jump at the U.S. Junior Team Cup in Milwaukee last month but was credited w/ full rotation there.
2020 Cup of Colorado club competition info page has links to what looks like free, live streams (via Vimeo) & event schedule (Aug. 14-16):
SR Men:
Tomoki Hiwatashi
Andrew Torgashev
Vincent Zhou
SP only: Camden Pulkinen
FS only: Thomas Schwappach
(cont.)
It’s time to share my “Most Nathan Chen Moments” in competition by the now 4-time 🇺🇸🥇 that I was able to capture at
#USChamps20
! Here’s the first of 3 clips - of course, the rousing finale of his free skate to Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” as reimagined by Pink and Logic.
And here is the 2023
#ToyotaUSChamps
Junior Men’s champion Lucas Broussard skating out to proudly stand on the podium and bask in his moment of glory (wait for it!😆)…..
Tilda Alteryd, 25 (from Sweden who skated with Gabriel Farand for Canada last season) and Finland's Dr. Valtter Virtanen, 36, jointly announced their pairs partnership today!
ONE year ago today (October 22, 2022; it was Saturday 10:20 pm Eastern time in Norwood, MA), Ilia Malinin landed the 4A in his
#SkateAmerica
free skate - I didn’t share this clip at the time but here it is now! 😉
Hey, I just realized I managed to get this closeup of
@CamdenPulk
’s excellent quad toe loop (+2.85 GOE = 12.35 points) in his
#USChamps20
short program! (apologies for the shaky camerawork afterwards - I must have been excited when he landed it! 😊)
I have SO much admiration for Keegan Messing and the strength he, mom Sally & family have shown - thanks, Keegan, for stopping to chat after the
#SkateAmerica
gala exhibition & honoring your brother Paxon so beautifully with your skating tribute (fan cam):
2019 Philadelphia Summer International Competition
#PSIC19
Senior Ladies medalists:
🥇Young You🇰🇷 193.48 (128.61 FS)
🥈Karen Chen🇺🇸182.99 (117.36 FS)
🥉Hanna Harrell🇺🇸165.22 (112.85 FS)
Photo of final standings/FS scores posted at rink (thanks to the person who sent it to me!):
Jacob Sanchez, 15, the final skater in the Junior Men’s FS event has just electrified the audience at 2023
#ToyotaUSChamps
and his proud dad rushes down the aisle to give his excited son a hug!
Jacob & his parents, Jose & Johana, kindly allow me take a photo of them afterwards.🥰
"... If something were to go wrong, hopefully I could sneak in and help get the United States three spots ... I’m like the support dog. "--
@MaxTAaron
after his
#Milano2018
short program. THANK YOU MAX for being MUCH more than a support dog! 😍🇺🇸
Monday 1/23/2023 Junior Men practice group A in main arena: Not yet national champion Lucas Broussard lands his first quad toe loop at Nationals (right on the note of another skater’s Clair de lune!).
I waited until after he finished competing to share my clip!😊
#ToyotaUSChamps
I went through the current
#Montreal2020
entries at & made a list of all the skaters, by discipline, scheduled to make their
#WorldFigure
DEBUTS next week - extra HUGS to all!
MEN (4):
Artur Danielian🇷🇺
Daniel Grassl🇮🇹
Nikolaj Majorov🇸🇪
Maurizio Zandron🇦🇹
CONGRATS Ting Cui (
@Ting_a_ding
) on qualifying for 2023 U.S. Nationals 🤩 — first trip back since finishing 5th in senior debut in 2019 — and now a full-time student at Middlebury College!
#NQSFinals
USFS’ Jump camp, underway in Colorado Springs now, is dividing the groups this year by using the first names of all the 2022 Olympic/World/Junior World Team🇺🇸 singles competitors👍 — all the illustrations are by
@Max_Settlage
!😊
(📸 : the_ strategic_method’s Insta story)
Ice show in memory of Denis Ten being planned:
"... will be held on the anniversary of his tragic death & in honor of his memory, w/ the participation of famous figure skaters, coaches & friends... & project is aimed at promoting figure skating in KAZ..."
Congrats to Karen Chen (
@Karebearsk8
) on her admission to Cornell University 👍 - she has updated her IG profile page with the addition of "Cornell ‘23":
Jack, Todd Sand & Jenni Meno’s elder son (a high school senior baseball player) of 2 boys, has tweeted throwback photos of his dad and thanked the skating community “for their thoughts and prayers” - continuing to send my support to the Sand family & everyone close to them!🥰🙏
Emmanuel Savary, age 22, coached by his older brother,
@diversify_ice
founder Joel Savary, landed this quad Salchow in the 20-minute warmup session before the
#USChamps20
Men’s SP on Saturday 1/25 but withdrew before the start of the event. Here’s hoping we see him next season!
Sending ❤️ & support to the Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam families, friends & figure skating community in 🇨🇦 & beyond.
If you would like to help:
Alexandra, 31, died in a car accident in Ontario on Tuesday, August 22, 2023:
Nathan Chen's 2021-22 "Mozart medley" FS: 1st part is the Adagio movement of his Piano Concerto No. 23 (memorably performed by Kostner in her 2011-12 FS & Papadakis/Cizeron in 2014-15 FD); then Lacrimosa from the Requiem Mass in D Minor; w/ a techno version of Lacrimosa to end.
2023
#WTTFigure
team captains now are listed at “Entries per Team” ⬇️ link:
Team 🇨🇦 Captain: Piper GILLES
Team 🇫🇷 Captain: Kevin AYMOZ
Team 🇮🇹 Captain: Marco FABBRI
Team 🇯🇵 Captain: Kaori SAKAMOTO
Team 🇰🇷 Captain: Junhwan CHA
Team 🇺🇸 Captain: Jason BROWN
I have so much respect & admiration for ALL skaters who were able to qualify & compete at
#WorldFigure
. 🙌 I appreciate your hard work day in & day out, personal sacrifices made that we fans can only imagine, and the individual achievements by every athlete on the ice. Thank you!
Touching message by Stephanee Grosscup, Nathan Chen's first skating instructor in Salt Lake City, congratulating him 😊:
BONUS (video of young Nathan skating in a Basic Skills competition; swipe for a photo in his teacher’s arms):
I took this photo on January 28 after the
#USChamps23
Senior Pairs medal ceremony in San Jose, CA -🥇Alexa Knierim & Brandon Frazier with 4th place pewter medalists Sonia Baram & Daniel Tioumentsev & their coaches, Todd Sand & Jenni Meno.
May Todd Sand recover quickly & well.🙏
The final skater of
#USChamps20
,
@jasonbskates
, was emotionally spent at the end of his mesmerizing Schindler’s List FS & crowd gave him ❤️(inaugural National High Performance Development Team Camp skaters were the 1st to stand up, waving their big 🇺🇸flag above the kiss&cry).
I’m in Lake Placid, NY for
#JGPFigure
#2
and after a day of rain, this beautiful sight OVER Mirror Lake greeted us lucky folks in the evening yesterday!
"It's really been a great ride ... Having the ability to say that I have no regrets in my entire career of figure skating, for me that is is my gold medal."--
@MaxTAaron
, who officially announced his retirement from competition at the 19-minute-45 second mark of the FB video.
My
#TBT
photo of 🇨🇦Stephen Gogolev & 🇯🇵Shun Sato, silver & gold medalists, respectively, at the 2019
#JGPFigure
in Lake Placid, NY - Shun is 19 now & Stephen will turn 19 in December - just watched them (on Peacock) skate practice run throughs at 2023
#SkateAmerica
in Allen, TX!
I have a fond, vivid memory of seeing a shy, 16-year-old
@Tenis_Den
standing by himself in the hotel lobby at 2010 JR Worlds in The Hague NED & being asked by a group of mostly USA/CAN skaters if he wanted to go with them & get ice cream at McDonald's. He joined the group. 😍
3Lo by Shun Sato JPN in his SP run through to “Arrivée des Camionneurs” from Les Demoiselles de Rochefort by Michel Legrand - such fun music (2/2)
#JGPFigure
Slovenia's Daša Grm has written a personal account of her 2nd half season challenge to get the
#WorldFigure
minimum FS score that was raised by the ISU on Jan. 8, 2020 to 51 (she had 50.88 at the time, competed 4 times but just fell short, unfortunately):
Japan’s Azusa Tanaka, who will turn 14 next month, skates the last section of her SP run through on Friday morning. Her programs are choreographed by Cathy Reed.
#JGPFigure
#JGPLakePlacid
🇩🇪BR24Sport
@BR24
has free/un-geoblocked livestreaming 👍 on Friday, September 20, 2024 for the 2024 CS NEBELHORN TROPHY Men's FS:
Followed by the Pairs FS:
Source:
EXCERPT: Arutunian said Tuesday by phone he was willing to give the long-distance idea a chance, even though he would prefer to have Chen stay in California.
"I think it will be hard for him...I will help as much as I can. He is my baby. I will be at his side, whatever happens."
The Ivy League has come calling for Nathan Chen. The questions now are, can the world champion successfully balance school and skating and will he stay with coach Rafael Arutunian?
Read
@olyphil
's article:
Thanks to Patinart Photo for sharing Nathan Chen's full performance to "La Bohème" by Charles Aznavour (2019-20 short program, choreo. by Shae-Lynn Bourne) at Great Park Ice's show earlier today - he landed 4F in the beginning & 4Lz+3T in the second half:
Happy 25th Birthday to Nathan Chen who graduates from Yale later this month & has enrolled in Goucher College's post-Baccalaureate Premedical program, according to page 11 of this article in the March 2024 issue of SKATING magazine that's currently online:
#USChamps20
Men’s autograph session on Thursday 1/23 in
@Gbocoliseum
- as I was walking by, not in the long line, Nathan Chen was sitting on the far end of the table, just waiting patiently with no one in front of him... so I said hello 👋 & snapped this photo. 😃 (1/4)
Then again, sometimes you can sense a very special performance in progress, such as
@AmberGlenn_
’s SP & you just gotta pick up the phone & start filming! (can’t miss
@team_pdd
across the rink standing at the end to applaud & unfurling his 🌈 flag to wave with pride!)
#USChamps20
#ACI18
Ladies SP 1-12 (of 22) unofficial:
E Medvedeva RUS 70.98
B Tennell USA 69.26
M Meite FRA 58.23
W Higuchi JPN 57.54
S Andrews USA 56.70
K Craine AUS 56.20
A Paganini SUI 56.07
B Han AUS 54.05
A Pineault CAN 52.47
E Brezinova CZE 51.26
N Wories NED 48.86
Y Matsuda JPN 47.75
Just look at that smile on
@JessicaCalalang
’s face in the final lift as she & Brian Johnson won the
#USChamps20
Pairs FS &🥈! What an amazing moment for us in audience (plus I had the privilege of sitting next to Brian’s proud, excited mom which made it extra special for me).
MAJOR respect to 🇺🇸national/international figure skating men’s competitor Ryan Dunk for sharing his own personal experiences & offering encouragement to fellow athletes who may be struggling via this IG post (excerpted below):
#EatingDisordersAwarenessWeek
Nathan Chen, Madison Chock & Evan Bates and Alexa Knierim (along with husband Chris Knierim) were in attendance at the Annual Gala fundraiser of Figure Skating in Harlem (
@FSinHarlem
) in New York City on Wed., April 17, 2024 - screenshot ⬇️ via
@alexa_knierim
’s Instagram stories!
Entries and substitutes for the 2023 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, March 20-26 in Saitama 🇯🇵, are published as of Feb. 28 (35 men, 35 women, 23 pairs, 33 ice dance teams):
#WorldFigure
After seeing fellow
#YuzuruHanyu
fans make the comparison between this photograph by
@ninagawamika
for
@AERAnetjp
and Hokusai’s famous “Great Wave,” curator Sarah Thompson knew that she wanted to include it in her exhibition “Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence.” #羽生結弦
The 🇺🇸 ice dance team of Molly Cesanek & Yehor Yehorov announced today that they have relocated to the Michigan Ice Dance Academy in Canton, Michigan (Charlie White, Greg Zuerlein, Tanith White):
#MIDACanton
2023 FISU World University Games / Winter Universiade Figure Skating event info (w/ Colored Schedule):
Entries ⬇️ compiled from the Music Rotation document (Jan. 10):
Livestream via
@ESPNPlus
in 🇺🇸($10.65/1 month).
#LakePlacid2023