2021 Worlds - Pairs Recap

If the pairs event at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships stands for anything, surely it would be for the golden touch of the great Tamara Moskvina in the pairs discipline.  Last season, our newest World Champions Anastasia Mishina/Aleksandr Galliamov failed to make either the Russian world or Europeans teams.  After joining Ms. Moskvina's group last spring, however, Mishina/Galliamov have looked like a wholly new team with their newfound confidence, performance ability, and improved programs.  Likewise, although Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Kozlovskii faltered in the long program here, their development under Ms. Moskvina has been excellent.  It's extraordinary how Ms. Moskvina has coached world medalists in every single decade to date since Vorobieva/Vlassov in 1977.  Are we having a 'best coach' award this season?  If so, fork it over to Tamara Moskvina!  At the very least, she should receive a nomination for not only coaching two pairs to the world podium, but also breaking the eight-year Russians pairs world title drought . . . 

Best Moments of the 2017 Grand Prix Season (So Far)

Another year, another Grand Prix of Figure Skating season. Gone are the days in which the top skaters skipped the Grand Prix season with impunity and skaters like Michelle Kwan had to be enticed to just show up with cold, hard cash.  No--these days, even skaters of the topmost echelon are gritting their teeth through injuries, illnesses, and other assorted maladies so that they can tough it out through to qualifying for the Grand Prix Final (or worse, injure themselves trying to do). Correspondingly, national figure skating federations look to the results of the Grand Prix series to help select their Olympic and/or World teams, fans of the sport engage in vociferous debates over the scoring and/or tech panel calling after every single Grand Prix event, and the Japanese Skating Federation glitzes out their perennially sold-out NHK Trophy as if it were a contemporary Super Bowl halftime show with an unlimited budget. Observers of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating live in exciting times indeed.

With the Grand Prix Final coming up soon, let's dispel the dark cloud of injuries and absences hanging over the Grand Prix Final this year and focus on the highlights of the Grand Prix season so far:

Stuff I Like: Top Ten of 2016-2017

Without further ado, my favorite performances from the 2016-2017 season . . .

Rants and Raves: Skate Canada 2014

Various rants and raves on Skate Canada 2014, in a quasi-garbled, stream-of-consciousness context. No time to edit my ramblings this week.

Worlds 2012: Pairs SP recap

The performance of the night, courtesy of Japan

If someone yesterday predicted to me that, after the pairs short program at the 2012 World Championships:

-Volosozhar/Trankov are in eighth place, out of the final group, and in a virtual tie with Berton/Hotarek
-Takahashi/Tran are in the top three
-Kavaguti/Smirov are out of the final 2 groups
-Bazarova/Larionov are the leading Russians

.....I would've laughed in their face.

Yet such has become reality. Insert platitude about ice being slippery here, etc.

Four Continents 2012

The 2012 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships happened.

It did indeed.

Morozombie's Crystal Ball: Grand Prix Final 2010

Count Daisuke von Tango

To be honest, I usually avoid making predictions like the plague, mostly because my predictions often backfire on me, albeit sometimes to hilarious results.

Fortunately, the limited number of participants in the Grand Prix Final leaves less room for error, so without further ado...