2012-2013 Grand Prix Final & Junior Grand Prix Final: Ladies Review + Yu-Na Kim is Really Back

It's very unfortunate that one of the busiest weekends in figure skating coincided with my trip out of the country.  Therefore, I'm left playing catch-up with the weekend's events.  I'll start with the ladies GPF and JGPF results and then proceed to gush about Yu-Na's stellar return to the ice...

2012-2013 Grand Prix Final 

Your 2012-2013 Grand Prix Final medalists

Around the World in Skating: November 30, 2012

It’s the first week without a competition in quite some time but there’s always news. Here’s a little bit of what’s going on…

Julia Lipnitskaya Out of Grand Prix Final 

Aww...woo woo

2012 NHK Trophy: Ladies Review & 2012-2013 Grand Prix Standings

No better way to end the GP series than with a highly contested outcome! I’ll take a look at the ladies’ event and then the standings for the 2012-2013 Grand Prix Final.

The final podium of the Gran Prix season

2012 Trophee Eric Bompard: Ladies Review

Wow, some GREAT skating at TEB this year!

Ashley's on top again!

2012 Rostelecom Cup: Ladies Review

This event wasn’t the most exciting but there were still a number of good performances.

Not the podium I was expecting but good nonetheless

2012 Cup of China : Ladies Review

This was another competition where it was youth versus experience only this time, the judges got it right…

Mao is back on top!

All Hail the Kween: Dream of Desdemona

Michelle Kwan gifted this sport with so many wonderful programs.  As a Michelle-uber I feel the need to revisit these programs every now and then, if only to bask in the glow of Michelle's sheer brilliance.  Let us bow before the absolute masterpiece, "Dream of Desdemona."

Now that's an ending position!

2012 Skate Canada: Ladies Review

Lots of good skating at Skate Canada plus some questionable judging.  Yep, the season is in full swing...

A Canadian woman on top of the podium?! Is that you Joannie?

2012 Skate America: Ladies Review

Excellent first event for the US ladies! It was so exciting to see the Americans looking strong at Skate America for a change…well, most of them anyway.

Two Americans on the podium?! What's this?!

2012 JGP Pokal: Ladies Review & 2012-2013 JGP Final Standings

And just like that, the JGP season is over!  I'm proud to say I stuck to my guns and covered each event!  Here's the last JGP ladies review for the season:

Here were the final standings:

2012 Japan Open & 2012 Finlandia Trophy

Lots and lots of skating this week!  I'll take a look at Japan Open and Finlandia Trophy too!

2012 Japan Open

Team Japan did it big this year!

2012 JGP Croatia: Ladies Review

I’ve got two more competitions to cover so I’m going to make this JGP Croatia Cup review quick and to the point…

The results:

2012 JGP Sencila Bled Cup & 2012 Nebelhorn Trophy: Ladies Review

Lots of skating went on last week and the results were a bit surprising all around.  The JGP series continued with JGP Sencila Bled Cup plus one of the major international "Senior B" events, Nebelhorn Trophy, took place as well.  I'll get the JGP stuff out of the way first and then talk about Nebelhorn...

2012 JGP Sencila Bled Cup

There was quite a bit of strong skating at this competition.  Here are the results:

2012 JGP Bosphorus: Ladies Review & JGP Standings

It's weird how many of these girls reminded me of other skaters...

The final results for JGP Bosphorus:

2012-2013 U.S. Ladies Preview

So far we’ve been given a small preview of what we can expect to see from the US ladies when the season officially begins in about a month. I’m hopeful for just about all of these ladies but it’s inevitable that the great attitudes and happy-go-lucky sentiments won’t last past November…

Ashley Wagner

2012 JGP Austria: Ladies Review + Kween News

JGP Austria took place last week and the results weren’t that shocking if you’ve been paying attention so far this season. There were a few surprises (both good and bad) but overall, it was a good competition. But before I get to that…

 The Kween is Engaged! 

You better treat her well, Pell...or there will be hell!

2012 JGP Lake Placid: Ladies Review

JGP Lake Placid was a much closer race than JGP Courchevel with some pretty good skating from a number of ladies...

Here are the final standings:

2012 JGP Courchevel: Ladies Review

This marks the third season in a row I've followed the JGP.  I never used to watch the junior skaters but I have to admit there's more action, excitement and competition on the junior level than there is at the senior level!  Plus it's wonderful to see these girls evolve from junior babies to senior ladies.

The first competition of the series, JGP Courchevel, is in the books.  Here are the final standings:

Off Season Fun 2011-2012: Favorite Short Programs

Nearly a month to go before the JGP starts, so I figured I'd keep the Off Season Fun stuff going.  There were a number of beautiful, interesting and even unique programs from the ladies in both the junior and senior levels.  Here are my top 10 favorite short programs of the 2011-2012 season:

10. Nina Jiang (USA): "Man with the Golden Arm"

Off Season Fun 2011-2012: Fashion Review - Free Skate

Continuing with my 2011-2012 Fashion Review, I'll take a look at my favorite Free Skate fashions as well as a few I wish people had reconsidered:

5. Rachael Flatt - "Firebird"

Off Season Fun 2011-2012: Fashion Review - Short Program

I’ve wanted to do this for a while…Fashion Review!!  Yes, I know.  It’s been done a zillion times but not by me, so let me have my fun.  I’m going to give my top six favorite dresses from the ladies 2011-2012 season  (it should be five but I ended up with six...ah, who cares?).  I'll start with the short program:

6.  Mao Asada: “Scheherazade”

Around the World in Skating: July 10, 2012

So most of this is old news at this point but I still want to yap about it anyway...

The Queen Returnth

Yu-Na's not done kicking ass yet...

I'm not dead! Just busy...

Hello all.  *sigh*  I really, really miss posting about skating but my time to do it is rather limited and when I do have time (which is usually during a lull at work), I can't access Blogger!  I've missed way too much to try to catch up now (Worlds, WTT), so I'll just pick up from where we are now:  GP assignments for next year.

2012 U.S. Nationals Recap + Kween Worship + 2012 Four Continents Championship Recap

I'm so, so, SO late again!  I just don't have the amount of free time I used to have when I first started this blog.  Still, I wanted to give my belated thoughts on US Nationals and Four Continents and a few other things.

2012 U.S. National Championships

2012 U.S. National medalist