As the final Grand Prix event (aside from the Grand Prix Final itself, of course) of the 2017 Grand Prix of Figure Skating season, Skate America 2017 in charming Lake Placid, NY proved to be a fitting ending to an unpredictable and generally weird Grand Prix season: withdrawals galore, on-ice injuries, insects lurking about, surprising podium results, system malfunctions . . . never let it be said that figure skating is staid and predictable! For in this brave new world where even Evgenia Medvedeva falters during a competition--there is no certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain . . .
Anyway, here are twenty questions that came to mind during Skate America 2017:
Is the music of Moulin Rouge this season's Carmen? With big names such as Virtue/Moir, Karen Chen, Vincent Zhou, and supposedly Ashley Wagner all slated to skate to the music of Baz Luhrmann's maximalist melodrama, it certainly looks like it.
One of the upsides of skating to Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge is that one has a lot of music selections to potentially choose from--in addition to the background music, the film features a good deal of musical numbers, most--if not all--of them opulent covers of well-known songs done at a manic pitch. Despite the dizzying variety of songs to choose from, however, the majority of skaters skating to the music of Moulin Rouge somehow all end up skating to El Tango de Roxanne, Moulin Rouge's cover of The Police's Roxanne with generous dollops of melodrama, sex, and operatic excess added in. Coincidence? Or creative bankruptcy? Take your pick.
Anyway, in honor of Moulin Rouge seemingly being the musical flavor of the season, let's take a stroll down memory lane and re-watch some Moulin Rouge programs of years past . . .
One of the common criticisms of CoP is that the 'free' program isn't quite free enough. Admittedly, even under the 6.0 system, the free program wasn't entirely 'free' in the sense that skaters could do whatever they felt like doing, but under 6.0, it was much more easier to distinguish between the short program (where the focus was on the completion of the mandated required elements) and the free program (in which skaters, while still subject to the "well-balanced program" rules, had more freedom to perform whatever combination of elements best suited their individual skills). Indeed, under the various incarnations of CoP so far, the free program has more often than not looked rather like a longer version of the short program and (even worse) acquired a certain homogeneity in terms of program construction.* Of course, some of this was rather inevitable given the way CoP has been structured (when everything is evaluated in terms points, eventually everybody does those same things that earn the most points), but perhaps the dinosaurs at the uppermost echelons of the ISU have not been entirely deaf to the protestations of the trilobites down below as there has been a slow but steady shift towards how a free program is structured under CoP. The most important development in this regard has been the implementation of the level-free element in the free program, one of the most positive CoP developments as of late.
The spiral is an iconic move in ladies figure skating, instantly recognizable to connoisseur and layperson alike. What other element in figure skating has quite the same breadth of appeal as the spiral, which captivates the attention of those who watch figure skating for the art (exquisite spiral perfectly timed to highlight a certain musical phrase), those preoccupied with technique (deep, stable, controlled edges...ideally), lavishness old roués (pretty girls in short skirts lifting their legs) and everyone in between? Indeed, some of the more memorable moments in figure skating have involved spirals in various incarnations:
Ah, ladies skating. Just last Olympic cycle, many fans of figure skating were fanning themselves over the Yu-Na Kim and Mao Asada rivalry, oohing and ahhing at the 3As and 3-3s being whipped out by the two skaters jostling at the top, thereby raising the technical level of the entire discipline. The men were scoffed at for winning without quadruple jumps and there was quite a bit of sound and fury directed at the pernicious influence of quadless World and Olympic champions. Yet now...nine out of the top ten men at Worlds this year landed quadruple jumps in their programs (plus much more), and many fans have instead turned to bemoaning the fact that the top ladies this year lack difficult 3-3s, 3Lutzes, etc. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose....
Despite the byzantine politiks of dance, the sheer nail-biting danger presented by pairs and the fact that most of my favorite skaters are actually men, the clusterfuck that is the ladies discipline somehow usually ends up as the event that most compels me to hurl various objects at my computer screen and raid the liquor cabinet. Sadly, the ladies short program at 2012 Worlds was no exception.
In some respects, American figure skating looks to have flourished in the past few years. American ice dance has never looked stronger with two US teams on the world podium last year and very impressive depth even further down the ranks. An American man is the reigning Olympic champion, and as for pairs.....er, well, they're typical US pairs. But for some fans of American figure skating, all that does not matter. Instead, it is All About the Ladies, and as such, the ladies discipline has inspired near-unprecedented levels of hand-wringing among many fans of US figure skating in recent years. Gone indeed are the days in which a bad day for the top US ladies skaters translated to a mere silver or bronze on the international podiums. With the ladies world podium completely devoid of US ladies for almost six years and perhaps lacking faith in the current crop of ladies, many fans have been hurriedly anointing whatever up-and-coming US skater without a Y chromosome capable of landing a proper triple lutz and/or a triple-triple as the Savior of US ladies skating (e.g. current Chosen One: Gracie Gold)....often to hilarious results.
Such behavior is not entirely unreasonable, however. Winning in figure skating is all about youth (particularly when it comes to ladies, famously the disciple of prepubescent champions) and reputation, so having someone who has been competing at Nationals for ten years as the highest-ranking US ladies skater as well as several talented but wildly inconsistent headcases who don't turn in enough decent performances to properly build up their reputations is understandably going to inspire quite a few anxiety attacks. With the recent results of the 2012 US National Championships, it is clear that fans of US ladies figure skating may have to hang onto their Zoloft tablets for quite a bit longer.
After enduring the truly dreadful skating of the first group (as well as Nicky Slater's unintentionally hilarious commentary), it was such a relief to see some decent performances at the end. At the very least, it was certainly a lot easier to stay awake.
The effulgent Akiko Suzuki placed first overall with 185.98 points, a very commendable feat given her geriatric status as a 26-year-old skater. It appears that the judges have finally acknowledged Miss Suzuki's existence by giving her some respectable PCS at long last. Better late than never, I suppose. But, to be honest, it's a bit sad because Miss Suzuki's past programs were arguably even better in terms of choreography (her West Side Story is just divine), but that's figure skating judging for you. That being said, Miss Suzuki's performance level still remains along with some added refinement. Her Hungarian Rhapsody short program was skated with passion and attack, while Die Fledermaus was radiant with joy and effervescence. Love, love, love the superb opening triple lutz in Die Fledermaus, done in silence in order to allow us to better appreciate the long, held-out running edge coming out of the jump.
Unlike the short program, the ladies free skate at Skate Canada was a relatively decently-skated event at this point of the season....well, at least for the top three. In a charming twist of fate, the youngest competitor on the senior Grand Prix (Elizaveta Tuktamisheva) won gold, placing just ahead of the oldest competitor on the Grand Prix (Akiko Suzuki). Very revealing about the nature of this noble sport, n'est-ce pas?
Elizaveta Tuktamisheva. Miss Tuktamisheva, the bane of non-Russian commentators and announcers everywhere, won the gold overall but placed second in the free skate. Well, say what you will about Alexei Mishin, but the man knows how to teach jump technique, if Miss Tutktamisheva is any indication. Simply gorgeous jump technique with such speed and flow coming out of her jumps, and presentation-wise, she's not bad for an acolyte of the Mishin school! Although her sheer jumping power should take her quite far, Miss Tuktamisheva nonetheless needs to work on her level 1 spins, and make sure her speed is constant throughout her program--I'd like to see her carry over the speed she has into her step sequence, which sort of drags. Overall, great potential, but not only as a jumper--there's clearly a performer and skater in there somewhere.
Akiko Suzuki. Miss Suzuki appears to be finally receiving credit for her superlative qualities in the program components department. Miss Suzuki won the free skate as well as on PCS, a well-deserved accomplishment. Great to see her get a level 4 on her wonderfully jaunty step sequence as well. If there's one thing that Mirai Nagasu needs to learn, it is the way Miss Suzuki powers through her program despite the bobbles, selling the damn thing until the very last second. As they say, it ain't over till it's over.
