The Real Dancing on Ice on NOW

[soupforbrains]

Hi all,

not sure if there was a better place to post this but the World Figure Skating Championships started properly today and continues over the next few days.

It is available to watch in the UK on eurosport, OR if you have amazon prime, you can get a 7 day free trial to eurosport which will cover you.

the Pairs Short Programme competition started just after 17:30 today and carries on for a couple of hours,

Come join me watching and take a look at what dancing on ice SHOULD look like :)

So is there anyone in particular to look out for this afternoon? (Since I haven't been able to watch the short programmes)

Well, the top 6 are all pretty tightly packed in the ladies after the short. Russians Shcherbakova in first and Tuktamysehva in 3rd will be worth a watch. Personally Kihira Rika is much more enjoyable to watch as she’s very exciting (her trademark is a 1 handed cartwheel seemlessly thrown into a step sequence) and her programmes are always great and she’s current in 2nd.

The 3rd Russian Alexandra Trusova was expected to be at the top top but had a bit of a disaster in her short programme so is only in 12th but she’s definitely worth watching in the long and she has 5 QUADS planned in her programme.

Madeline Schizas from Canada is also an enjoyable watch, she’s in 9th at the moment and in great form.

We also, unusually actually have a Brit who has made it to the free programme, Natasha McKay. She’s not in the best form tbh and she’s not going to make history but it’s good to see her making it through the cut. She will skate 2nd so you’ll need to be watching from the very start of you want to catch her.

All round though I find that the long programmes can bring out the best in the mid table ladies.

Oh that is nice that there is a British skater in the ladies competition - it has been a while. It is such a shame we don't have more rinks. Like you said with adults not skating even if they did as kids, I have been very lucky to live in two places with ice rinks (not intentionally!) but most people are miles away from one.

So I'm watching in catch up as i was working earlier but comments so far,
Natasha did ok, but it wasn't her best skate and she seemed stiff and lacking in flow.
Really enjoyed Taljegard from Sweden great choreography and a strong engaging skate.
Trusova is always fascinating to watch because she has those mega jumps. Sadly she couldn't pull them all out of the bag today but her score was still a whopper despite the 2 falls and 1 downgrade. It's just a shame her coaches haven't worked on her musicality and choreo a bit more. It's surprising really because Plushenko himself was such a performer.
Mikutina from Austria was an unexpected delight, she didn't have a clean skate or a very technically difficult programme in terms of the level of her jumps, but she's a beautiful skater and her spins are great. She's only 17 though so I hope she manages to get her jumps up.
Gorgeous skate from Loena Hendricks too, so nice to see skaters enjoying themselves out there.
An imperfect but lovely skate from Schizas, only 16 so plenty of time to watch this star rise for canada. (She jumps the 'wrong' way though so it hurts my brain a little when i watch her)

Nice Skate from Sakamoto always so graceful.

Chen really pulled it out of the bag. great performance strong and elegant. not perfect but nobody has done a perfect routine yet. Don't think she could have ranked any higher than this really she's done a great job in both programmes.

Tuktamysheva had a really enjoyable programme it was a shame about the fall and a few wobbles. I love watching her skate although i really didn't like the choreo in her short. So glad she's made the podium.

Really surprised and such heartbreak for Rika Kihira, she's such a lovely skater but it just wasn't there today. She's young though so she'll take this experience away and it will drive her.

Gorgeous skate from Shcherbakova, just mesmerising. I couldn't believe it when her score for the programme still wasn't as high as Trusova's but i guess it just goes to show how huge Trusova's technical score was.

I'm REALLY pleased that Shcherbakova's stronger short programme means that she takes the Gold medal though, as she's so lovely to watch. I just hope she's able to maintain it, she's one in a long chain of young talented and elegant skaters from russia who come into the senior competition and are gorgeous but just then seem to drift. (Lipnitskaya, Medvedeva etc.)

What's really amazing is that none of the 3 Russian's on the podium are actually the Russian number 1, because she's too young to compete at this worlds. We'll see her grand unveiling next season for the olympics.

My daughters and I skate (hence the username) and have been so excited about this!

Anyone watching the Mens Free?

Donovan Carillo is so enjoyable to watch.

Does anyone else find gold blades to be very distracting?

So lovely to read this thread! Thanks for the reminder that the men’s free skate is on Soupforbrains; not just me with the gold blades then

Something has happened in the last couple of years over in the Georgian training camp, not sure if they have centralised more of their coaching or choreo but across all disciplines they've improved greatly and they're all so very enjoyable to watch.

Really love both of the young Italians, so much promise for the future and they're already so enjoyable, so entertaining and engaging. Especially love Rizzo, such fun choreo and a great performance was gutted he had that fall, not sure what the second deduction was for tbh.

Kevin Aymoz is my favourite skater in the mens, he's just so soooooooo wonderful to watch. his performance and interpretation are just incredible and i love his original choreo.

And as someone who is pretty good at saving falls I can only appreciate this man's god-like ability to do the same in the most extreme cases. Sad he didn't get a totally clean skate though.

Great skate from Keegan Messing. REally enjoyable programme, brilliantly performed and very clean, with some great unique choreo and a really strong 'masculine' performance.

I do however take issue with the fact that he didn't use black tape on his boots. I found the shine of all the sellotape he'd used really distracting throughout, and it made his trousers look too short.

Wow.... just.... Chen... Wow...

Great Skate from Kagiyama, really promising young skater he's earned that podium slot.

Big shame to see Hanyu off the boil on his long programme. Lots of things a bit wobbly and just not quite there. He's definitely not got the gold, he might not even make the podium tbh.

Chen's skate was amazing though so it's a 3rd World Title in a row for him. incredible. Can NOT wait for the Olympics next year.

The Ice Dance Free programme coverage is at 4pm this afternoon.

There are 20 pairs in the competition at this stage. Like all the other disciplines the order they skate in is reverse order of the standings at this stage.

Lilah and Lewis, the british pairing, have done really well and are in 8th currently so fingers crossed they can secure a top 10 finish (which will qualify britain for 2 slots in ice dance at the olympics next year)

The top six places are pretty close so far so it's all going to rest on the free dance. We could see people leap up, or tumble down the standings so it should be very exciting.

I’m still on the Ladies’ Free programme - I have recorded the coverage and am binge watching it today.

I had to watch the rugby last night - Yay Scotland and Yay Wales!

I had to nip out but managed to catch up - posted by ISU

Anyone watching the Free Dance? Fear and Gibson up soon....

Just switched over (wish I’d remembered earlier).

Saw the American couple. It was a lovely, graceful routine (with a couple of minor mistakes?). The starting position was a bit weird though.

Wasn’t so keen on the ‘Russian’ pair. Just didn’t seem to flow and the two didn’t seem to be so connected.

Have done a lot of catching up today. Nathan Chen was incredible. Felt sorry for Hanyu.

I really liked the Canadian pair for the free dance.

The ISU world team trophy begins on the 15 April. ISU have a list of channels it will be shown on but will also stream through their YouTube channel

www.isu.org/media-centre/press-releases/2021-2/25720-press-release-where-to-watch-wtt-07-04-21/file