2017-2018 Off Season Fun: Top Fashion Looks + Top 5 Favorite SPs & FSs

Hi all!  It's time for Off Season Fun, YAAAY!  Given it's a bit late this year, I'm only doing two posts.  Still, it should be fun.  First up, Fashion Review and Top 5 Favorite programs for both the SP and FS...all in one!

2017-2018 Fashion Review - Top Looks

Short Program

Winner - Ashley Wagner

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

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 Skate Canada: Review

The second event of the Grand Prix season was a bit of a toss up.  With so many potential medalists in the field there were so many different outcomes that could have happened.  It all depended on who showed up.

Kaetlyn is back on top in Canada

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 U.S. International Classic + 2017 Lombardia Trophy: Reviews

With the JGP series on hiatus for this week the Challenger Series (also known as "Senior B" events) took center stage.  We have two competitions to get through so let's go...

2017 U.S. International Classic

The newbie takes the gold!

Off Season Fun 2016-2017: Favorite Free Skates

Off Season Fun moves onward!  Next up, my favorite free skates from last season.

5. Ashley Wagner: "Exogenesis"

Off Season Fun 2016-2017: Favorite Short Programs

Off Season Fun continues.  Now it's time to revisit my favorite programs from the 2016-2017 season.  Up first, my favorite short programs!

5. Mariah Bell: "Chicago"

2017 Junior World Championships: Review

Okay, so...yeah.  This was not what I expected at all but I can't say I'm disappointed.

Not the podium I was expecting but yay!

2017 Junior World Championships: Preview

The junior season is SO long!  It started way back in August of 2016 and will finally wrap up at the Junior World Championships which will take place in Taipei City on March 15-19.  As usual the major battle for the podium will be between Russia and Japan but there are a few others who could shake things up.

Team Russia

Alina Zagitova, Polina Tsurskaya, Stanislava Konstantinova

L to R: Tsurskaya, Zagitova, Konstantinova

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 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

2016 JGP Yokohama + 2016 Lombardia Trophy: Ladies Review

Lots of skating has taken place in the last few days.  I'm going to take a quick look at the third JGP event, JGP Yokohama, and the first event of the ISU Challenger Series: Lombardia Trophy.  Here we go!

2016 JGP Yokohama

2016 Junior World Championships: Ladies Review

I was geared up for this to be a pretty decent Russia vs. Japan competition.  Thanks to not one but two freak accidents in two days, this ended up not being the match I was expecting.

The Russian streak has been broken!

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 Finlandia Trophy & JGP Zagreb + Final JGP Standings

Another week, another round of competitions.  This week we had another Senior B event, Finlandia Trophy, as well as the final JGP event of the season, JGP Zagreb.  I'll take a look at both of those events and also give you the final standings of this season's Junior Grand Prix.

2015 Finlandia Trophy

The final results:

2015 JGP Colorado Springs: Ladies Review

It took me a while to get to this one.  Work has a lot to do with it (busy, busy, busy) but also because this turned out to be a bit of a splatfest so I'm not really all that excited to yap about it.  For some perspective, only two skaters scored over 100 points in the FS and the top score here wouldn't have even medaled at the first two events. *sigh*  Let's get to it...

The final results: