2018 Four Continents Championships: Review

Most of the focus has shifted to Pyeongchang and the Olympics which are less than two weeks away.  However, there was still one major competition to get out of the way: Four Continents.  In Olympic years the competition is rather light; however, thanks to Japan we ended up with a pretty competitive event. 

It's a Japanese sweep!

2018 National Championships Round-Up

I usually wait to post this round-up until the New Year but with U.S. nationals starting in a few days, I wanted to make sure to get this post up so I don't fall too far behind.  Several countries have already crowned their national champions for 2018, including Japan and Russia.  I'll take a quick look at the results from those events and give the results for a few other countries.

2018 Japanese National Championships

Four in a row for Tiny Queen

End of Grand Prix Power Rankings: 2017-2018

We've made it through the Grand Prix and the first half of the season.  Based off of what we've seen so far we have a decent idea of where everyone is as we head into nationals.  As usual, I will take a look at the top 10 ladies of the season so far and give an idea of what we can expect as we move into the second half of the season and the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

10. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN)

2017 Internationaux de France: Review

This competition started off roughly for just about everyone.  By the end most people were able to redeem themselves...

Remember when this used to be called Trophee Eric Bompard?

2017 Cup of China: Review

Every year there is one competition where the judging is so deplorable it makes me want to quit watching the sport.  Cup of China is that event for this season (so far anyway).  If you're not in the mood for a rant on how f**ked up the judging was at this event, you might want to skip the review this week...

I can't even...

2017-2018 Season Preview

Is it just me or did those last three and half years fly by?  The Olympic season is here!  This is going to be an exciting season full of drama and tension.  There are so many skaters all aiming for the same target: a trip to the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.  For some, the way should be easy; for others it's going to be a season long battle.  Here's where the top competitors stand as we head into the 2017-2018 season...

Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS)

Can she go undefeated 3 seasons in a row?

2017 Japan Open + 2017 Finlandia Trophy + 2017 JGP Baltic Cup: Review

Plenty of skating last week.  We've got three events to cover so here we go!

2017 Japan Open

Team Europe takes back the gold!

2017 Ondrej Nepela Trophy + 2017 Autumn Classic International + 2017 JGP Minsk-Arena Cup: Review

Tons of skating this week! Three events to take a look at.  Let's dive on in...

2017 Ondrej Nepela Trophy

Another season, another win

End of Season Power Rankings: 2016-2017

Another season in the books!  With all of the competitions over and done with it's time to look back at how the skaters from my End of Grand Prix Power Rankings did in the second half of the season and give some notes on what we can hope to see from them next season.

10.  Karen Chen (USA)

2017 World Team Trophy: Review

I always love this competition.  It's more of a fluff competition in terms of it not really counting for anything important other than bragging rights, but it's still an opportunity for skaters to make one final statement before we head into the off season.

Japan reclaims the title!

2017 World Championships: Preview

It's almost time for the main event!  This is a crucial one as the Olympics are next year.  The placement of the competitors at this event will determine how many skaters each country gets to send to Pyeongchang.

As always I'll take a look at where each skater stands coming into these championships and give them a bottom line for this event.

Who (other than Medvedeva) will stand on the podium?

2017 Four Continents Championship: Review

Four Continents is usually a warm-up for the non-European competitors before the scene shifts to the World Championships in March.  For others this is a final hoorah before the end of the season.  All eyes were on a number of women at this event, particularly the Canadians and the Americans...but no one was watching the Japanese women...

Didn't even see her coming...

2017 National Championships Round Up

Late Happy New Year everyone!  I'm still playing catch up after the holidays and being sick with the flu but I definitely wanted to get my review in before U.S. Nationals kick off.  I'll take a quick look at the two major national championship competitions from December (Russia and Japan) and give some updates on a few of the other countries.

2017 Russian National Championships

Team Tutberidze for the win!

2016 Cup of China: Review

The second to last event of the season looked as though it would be a pretty good one.  I figured there would be some competition but I have to admit, this was not the outcome I expected.

Not what I was expecting but I'll take it!

2016 Skate America: Review

The first competition of the season was touted as being another Ashley v. Gracie showdown. The media loves to drum up the drama between these two stars but in the end, there wasn't much to be had.  Instead we saw a few new stars emerge and that's always something to talk about.

The Americans go 1-2!

2016 JGP Ljubljana Cup + 2016 Nebelhorn Trophy: Review

Another week, another two competitions! I'll take a look at Rika Kihira's history making performance at JGP Ljubljana Cup and then take a look at Nebelhorn Trophy.

JGP Ljubljana Cup

2015-2016 Grand Prix Final & Junior Grand Prix Final: Ladies Review

The Grand Prix season comes down to this: the Final.  For the junior ladies, it was the Russians versus the Japanese; for the senior ladies, it was Teens versus the 20-Somethings.  I'll take a look at the senior ladies first and then the juniors.

2015-2016 Grand Prix Final

The Teens win it!

2015 JGP Cup of Austria: Ladies Review + Russian Test Skates (Yay!)

I always pick a bad time to go out of town.  Lots of skating and skating news happened last week, so I'm playing catch-up.  I'll take a very quick look back at JGP Cup of Austria as well as give my thoughts on the Russian test skates from last week.  Here we go!

2015 JGP Cup of Austria: Ladies Review

The final results:

2015 JGP Bratislava: Ladies Review

YAY!! It's the first JGP event of the season!  I always love to see the fresh new faces that emerge each year on the junior level.  Needless to say there are a number of new names that caught my eye here...

The final results: