Latest / The Rocker Skating Podcast / Caroline Green / Michael Parsons: Rocker Skating Interview

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Caroline Green / Michael Parsons: Rocker Skating Interview · The Rocker Skating Podcast

• 0:05
  Welcome to the Rockers Skating Podcast.
• 0:07
  We have another interview for you today because it is the week
• 0:11
  of pre world interviews and we have Caroline Green, Michael
• 0:15
  Parsons here with me, the 2022 Ford Contents Champions and the
• 0:23
  2026 Ford Contents Silver medalists.
• 0:27
  How are you all doing? We're doing pretty well, just
• 0:29
  finished long day of training. Yeah, a long day of training and
• 0:32
  a long season, right? Yeah.
• 0:35
  But I mean, this is, this is the week, this is the final week of
• 0:38
  preparation. So that's crazy.
• 0:39
  That was the last Monday of prep before we go.
• 0:42
  Tomorrow will be the last Tuesday.
• 0:43
  When do you when do you head out?
• 0:45
  On Sunday. Sunday night.
• 0:46
  OK, yeah. So you'll, you'll have a, you'll
• 0:49
  have a whole week in Prague, which will be, I'll be.
• 0:52
  I'm looking forward to yeah, yeah.
• 0:54
  Well, especially there are worse places to be.
• 0:56
  I know. Well, I mean, Michael, you and I
• 0:59
  were just talking about the weather over there where you are
• 1:02
  and driving through blizzards. The weather's been.
• 1:06
  Nowhere too. Interesting, hasn't it?
• 1:10
  It was like 70° yesterday. And snowing today.
• 1:13
  So that's March in Michigan. Well, it's been kind of like
• 1:17
  that in New York City as well, so.
• 1:19
  Yeah, you're getting crazier weather than us from from
• 1:22
  everything that I've seen that my cousin sent me.
• 1:24
  I've got a cousin in in Midtown. Oh, nice.
• 1:26
  Yeah, I know. It's it's been a little nuts.
• 1:28
  All right, well, let's talk about the season.
• 1:31
  It's been as we were, as we were just talking about.
• 1:33
  It's been a long season. It's you know, it's one of those
• 1:37
  where you feel like you have to be on from the very beginning.
• 1:42
  And you know, you all were very prepared early this season, but
• 1:48
  then had a very unfortunate fluke fall in the in the in cup
• 1:54
  of China and the rhythm dance for you, Michael.
• 1:56
  How was that in hindsight? And and and how, how is your hip
• 2:01
  now after after a few months of recovery?
• 2:05
  Luckily the the hip is fine now and I guess in hindsight, like
• 2:12
  the good thing is everything is fine, but still like obviously I
• 2:16
  wish it didn't happen right, but there's nothing to do about it
• 2:19
  now. So luckily we had great care
• 2:21
  there. So I got to experience not only
• 2:23
  the the US Figure skating medical team, but the the
• 2:27
  Chinese Federation's medical team, who are also awesome.
• 2:29
  And the the week that we had in between that event and NHKI did
• 2:33
  enough work that we were able to skate there and and do the best
• 2:36
  we could. So I honestly don't feel like we
• 2:39
  missed that much. Yeah, yeah.
• 2:41
  I mean, you had a very short recovery period in between Grand
• 2:46
  Prixs and a lot of people were like, are they going to be, you
• 2:50
  know, ready for the second one? And, and you were so and, and
• 2:54
  you skated very well there. So kind of.
• 2:58
  There are some stiff days on the ice that week in between.
• 3:02
  I think that was just like evidence of our preparation
• 3:04
  going into the Grand Prix in general.
• 3:06
  I think we just felt like really solid in our material and our
• 3:11
  training and I mean stuff happens I slippery.
• 3:15
  So I think we're really lucky to have like our support staff with
• 3:20
  us in China and kind of giving us guidance for that week in
• 3:23
  between. We had the ability to stay in
• 3:26
  Japan the week in between. So just like that load off from
• 3:30
  the back and forth travel and the time adjustment, I think
• 3:32
  really helped us just stay like super laser focused and take a
• 3:37
  deep breath and reset. So I was really glad that we
• 3:43
  just trusted each other and our team to help us get through the
• 3:47
  week at NHK and have the skates that we did because we're really
• 3:49
  proud of those. And I do think those experiences
• 3:51
  to make certain competitions feel so much better and more
• 3:55
  impactful, like because of how well we skated and how hard we
• 3:59
  we tried to like get back into competition shape in that week.
• 4:02
  And that that NHK that we did this year is probably my
• 4:06
  favorite competitions we've done over our career just because of
• 4:09
  how we pulled together and how we came back and and skated our
• 4:12
  best in an amazing arena. And I mean it.
• 4:15
  I think it's hard not to have a great experience at an NHK
• 4:18
  anyway. Yeah, you're all rock stars over
• 4:20
  there. Everybody loves you.
• 4:26
  So the, the, the element that you fell on was, was the, was
• 4:29
  the twizzles in the, in the rhythm dance.
• 4:32
  I, I continue to say you are first of all, like one of the
• 4:37
  few, few, few teams who tried to do that rhythm dance twizzle all
• 4:43
  on one foot. And, and there was a whole thing
• 4:47
  earlier in the season with the levels being called and stuff.
• 4:51
  Take me back to that. And, and sort of like, it's been
• 4:54
  a weird season of, of calls in general, especially during the
• 4:58
  fall. What, what, how did you kind of
• 5:01
  think about the, the, the feedback that you're getting
• 5:04
  from the panels? I guess that's like a perfect
• 5:07
  example of of how you build through the season with feedback
• 5:10
  from not only judges and coaches, but also from
• 5:13
  competitions like we, we entered our first competition with a
• 5:17
  completely different transition, transition between the twizzles
• 5:20
  thinking that it would work and very.
• 5:22
  Quickly ambitious thinking, how much twizzles can we do on one?
• 5:26
  Yeah, we're like. Oh, and.
• 5:27
  This would be fun. Yeah, so quickly found out that
• 5:32
  that does not. That's illegal, yeah.
• 5:34
  That does not work. So.
• 5:37
  Which is really crazy that it doesn't.
• 5:40
  Well, I guess it makes sense from a calling standpoint.
• 5:42
  It's like, all right, you did one twizzle, now you're doing
• 5:44
  another. So I need to call it something.
• 5:47
  But we thought because it was still going the same direction
• 5:49
  that it. Would be, yeah, where it kind of
• 5:52
  got a little bit iffy was just there was, I believe the call
• 5:57
  was that there was too much of A pause in between.
• 6:00
  So it was in an eruption. So it wasn't a continuation of
• 6:02
  the Twizzle. It was a different set traveling
• 6:06
  the same direction, which is not OK.
• 6:09
  So I think for Peace of Mind for us and to make the judge's job
• 6:15
  really easy, we made the change and I think still got to keep
• 6:19
  that one foot feature, which I think is still impressive in its
• 6:22
  own right. So I think, yeah.
• 6:25
  We'll see you next week. Kind of love that it's, it's,
• 6:29
  it's been a thing. As you've gone through the
• 6:34
  season, what kinds of adjustments and changes have you
• 6:38
  made to either or both of your programs that you felt much more
• 6:43
  comfortable with? I, I mean for these programs
• 6:45
  compared to previous seasons, we haven't changed a lot.
• 6:49
  And I think that's just a testament to how hard we worked
• 6:54
  in sort of the construction and choreography phase and coming up
• 6:57
  with really interesting elements where it felt like we've, you
• 7:02
  know, add some of our best material right out of the gate.
• 7:05
  It was honestly with the freelance, we had to adopt some
• 7:10
  chorea elements to make them a little bit easier just for the
• 7:12
  sake of a full program, which is kind of the opposite of what
• 7:16
  we've done in years past where we start with a little bit of a
• 7:19
  easier construction and then develop things and work on them
• 7:24
  more to increase the difficulty. So it, I, I think at the start
• 7:31
  of the season, we really just wanted to challenge ourselves as
• 7:33
  much as possible because last season being so focused on
• 7:38
  Michael's recovery and just taking things easy or not easy,
• 7:42
  just just being mindful of like where our physical capacity was
• 7:47
  at. I think we got super excited at
• 7:50
  the chance to have more time to play around and experiment.
• 7:54
  And we like to push ourselves very hard, which I think.
• 7:59
  The Freeze definitely the hardest program like content
• 8:01
  wise I think I've ever had this year's free, which is it's a
• 8:04
  good thing, but it's also like you have to train for it so.
• 8:08
  Yeah, those, some of those choral elements are, are a
• 8:11
  little bit nuts. So and, and and you see you see
• 8:14
  the effort that you've put into those programs and it's it, it
• 8:18
  very much shows second year. I think you all are working with
• 8:22
  Sean Luke Baker. How has that influenced your
• 8:26
  style? And also the two of you are
• 8:29
  known to have a lot of say and a lot of input into your programs
• 8:34
  and and kind of the the creation of them.
• 8:37
  I'd love to hear about a little bit more about that process.
• 8:40
  That's, I think working with Jean Luc is so helpful for us
• 8:42
  too, because we gel so well in this state where she kind of
• 8:46
  like opens us up to create more things.
• 8:49
  And so it really is this collaborative process where
• 8:52
  we're all creating and working together.
• 8:54
  And I think every team will find a choreographer that when they
• 8:57
  work with them, they really feel like they can like show true
• 9:01
  pieces of themselves. And I think for us, that's
• 9:03
  definitely Jean Luc. He can really like pull our
• 9:05
  feelings into whatever steps, whatever transition, whatever
• 9:08
  element we're creating. And we found that out pretty
• 9:11
  immediately the first year we worked with him.
• 9:12
  So obviously at the end of last season we're like, yes, run it
• 9:15
  back, let's do it again. Yeah, I, I think it's, it's his
• 9:19
  openness like Michael talked about, and just his ability to
• 9:23
  read people in general I think is very evident in the way that
• 9:27
  he works with skaters. And I think it's really
• 9:29
  interesting to see his work with other skaters in our camp too,
• 9:32
  and how he's able to create such different pieces with every
• 9:37
  single one of us. It's not like he has his
• 9:40
  choreographic stamp and he's molding us into the skaters that
• 9:44
  he wants to see. Like he really needs us where
• 9:46
  we're at. And I think is a team who really
• 9:49
  likes to be heavily involved in that creative process and have a
• 9:53
  say. And just being a team who gets
• 9:56
  so excited about being involved in that.
• 10:00
  I think it's just been a really good math.
• 10:02
  Now he no, the the two of you and Michael especially it were
• 10:05
  like contemporaries of Jean Luc and Caitlin, you know, when they
• 10:10
  were competing. How did did it feel A little bit
• 10:14
  kind of weird is the word, but a a a little bit different right,
• 10:17
  to work with him as a choreographer.
• 10:20
  And how did that actually come about?
• 10:22
  I, I know exactly where you're coming from with that, but
• 10:25
  honestly, it just felt good. Like from the very first day
• 10:28
  that we started working together.
• 10:30
  And yeah, I've known Jean Luc since we competed in juvenile
• 10:33
  and junior nationals. So it's been, it's been a very
• 10:36
  long time that we've competed against each other and known
• 10:38
  each other with, with different partners, with new partners.
• 10:43
  And now just seeing like where he is in life is, is so cool
• 10:46
  too. I'm super proud of him, yeah.
• 10:49
  But yeah, from that very first now.
• 10:51
  You got him on the rink side talking about you and practice
• 10:56
  commentary, Yeah. I think I'm looking like every
• 10:59
  possible he hasn't judged us yet, he has to become a judge
• 11:03
  and like that would be the following.
• 11:06
  Yeah, he'd be a tough judge, I think.
• 11:09
  Hear that. Or he'll just like vibe with you
• 11:11
  while he's judging. Yeah, yeah, you, you notice that
• 11:14
  sometimes when you're skating by a judge will like, you can tell
• 11:16
  when they're a little bit more into the program versus like
• 11:18
  maybe they're trying to hide it versus they really aren't into
• 11:20
  the program. And I feel like she might be one
• 11:22
  of the judges that you see the yeah, they're into it.
• 11:24
  Like I'm I'm going to make more contact.
• 11:27
  With that, that was one of my favorite parts about him doing
• 11:30
  ringside at nationals is like there's so many moments,
• 11:33
  especially when we were practicing the freelance in
• 11:34
  particular, where I kind of, we would like lock eyes at this
• 11:40
  moment, which was really funny. So I was like, OK, I kind of
• 11:44
  want to go back and look up Jerry.
• 11:47
  I feel like, I, I feel like I need to do ringside with him for
• 11:49
  ice dance because that's gonna be a different, a whole
• 11:52
  different thing because I, I do it with, with the single
• 11:55
  skaters. And there tends to be like we,
• 11:58
  we, we often see the skaters look to us like we're judges.
• 12:03
  Yeah. Well, because here's the thing
• 12:05
  on practice, you guys are really the only ones who are down at
• 12:09
  that judges level. So I think it's like.
• 12:14
  We're just we're searching for eye contact.
• 12:17
  Right. Exactly.
• 12:17
  They're so far away. You.
• 12:19
  Guys are right there. See.
• 12:21
  It's right there. The number of times I've we've
• 12:24
  been like winked at, It's kind of hilarious.
• 12:26
  You. Have to have like a like a wink
• 12:29
  meter in the corner. Yeah, you could have like a
• 12:33
  little wink counter. Oh my God, hilarious.
• 12:36
  OK, get back to choreography. Your free dance is one of the
• 12:41
  more interesting ones of the season.
• 12:43
  Choreographically, intellectually, just kind of the
• 12:46
  the overall package you of many of the different ice dance teams
• 12:51
  love to go with a different mood, with a different kind of
• 12:55
  Music Choice. But that was something that is
• 12:58
  not often seen even if you're like with your rhythm dances
• 13:02
  where you know, it's not like you're doing Ricky Martin or
• 13:05
  Backstreet Boys, right? Like there's there's there's a
• 13:07
  lot of that sort of like you want to be outside the box in
• 13:11
  some ways. Take me through the choreography
• 13:14
  of this free dance, which Caroline, as you were telling
• 13:18
  me, has been the subject of different theories as to who
• 13:22
  what you're actually portraying. So let's set the record
• 13:25
  straight. Which I think kind of might be
• 13:27
  our fault because at the beginning of the season we we
• 13:29
  hinted it's very inspired by Greek mythology as because I
• 13:33
  think a lot of our programs, we do like to thematically leave
• 13:38
  them open-ended to allow people to come to their own
• 13:41
  interpretations and feel what they want to feel while they
• 13:44
  watch. This game, it's very art history
• 13:45
  major of a you. Know like.
• 13:48
  Like a oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I'm gonna.
• 13:51
  Put some dissertation around the turtle.
• 13:53
  She says this to. Me, yeah, but our coach Tanith
• 14:02
  brought this piece of music the escalates RB.
• 14:05
  She played the I believe it's a recording taken from a live
• 14:10
  performance where it's supported by these really haunting
• 14:15
  strings. And like from the first, like
• 14:18
  low cello note that she played on the ice beer immediately,
• 14:20
  like, whoa, what's going on here?
• 14:25
  I'm intrigued because at that point in the process, we were
• 14:27
  really just really felt like we were throwing different things
• 14:30
  at the wall and nothing was quite sticking and we felt a
• 14:32
  little bit stuck. So to kind of like there are
• 14:35
  very few moments you get where you hear a piece of music in a
• 14:38
  rink and feel like, wow, what am I listening to?
• 14:42
  I'm moved by this for some reason.
• 14:44
  And I think, yeah, just hearing how it really filled up the rink
• 14:50
  was, like made us really intrigued by it.
• 14:53
  And we started moving to it. And I think from there, like the
• 15:00
  choreography started to evolve pretty organically.
• 15:05
  But I think since in years past we've kind of gone with this
• 15:08
  more contemporary lens, a little bit more ambiguous, we kind of
• 15:13
  wanted to try pushing ourselves to see if like a narrative
• 15:16
  element would help inform the program as a whole.
• 15:21
  And I think that's where getting inspired by Greek mythology
• 15:25
  really came into play. And she brought us the story of
• 15:28
  Arrows and Psyche, where Psyche is this beautiful mortal who
• 15:38
  basically is so beautiful and gorgeous.
• 15:43
  Wait, that's Michael. That's Michael.
• 15:46
  No, that's me. She she earns the jealousy of
• 15:55
  deity I believe in. She sends her son, heiress to
• 16:02
  basically. Oh.
• 16:06
  Because she's like, I can't have anyone be more beautiful than
• 16:08
  me. This doesn't work.
• 16:12
  Aris pricks himself with the arrow and then falls in love
• 16:16
  with her. That's what arrows do, Cupid.
• 16:20
  Otherwise known as Cupid in Roman mythology.
• 16:24
  And from there, because that doesn't work, Aphrodite
• 16:29
  basically gives Psyche all of these trials that surely no
• 16:34
  mortal could complete. Impossible tasks, impossible
• 16:37
  tasks. And Psyche is basically able to
• 16:45
  conquer these sets of impossible tasks and earns the distinction
• 16:49
  of Goddess. So wow.
• 16:51
  So now, so at the end of the program, you're a goddess, of
• 16:55
  course. Of course, of course.
• 16:59
  Not that she doesn't start, but yes.
• 17:02
  It's a goddess in training to start and then and then you and
• 17:05
  then you end up being a goddess. It's like those K pop training
• 17:08
  programs but but goddess. I'm going to have to go and
• 17:12
  watch this program again because that's that it's, it's a, it's a
• 17:15
  different kind of mindset, right, That you bring into it.
• 17:18
  If you know the story, what about the costumes?
• 17:22
  Because you, you started off the season with a different set of
• 17:24
  costumes, right? And, and, and then you, you, you
• 17:27
  as the season progressed, you actually had the the final
• 17:31
  costumes if you're well made, so.
• 17:33
  The, the costumes that we, we ended up with Grand Prix's
• 17:38
  Nationals, we made a couple of adjustments more just like for
• 17:42
  fit and like functionality rather than like design were the
• 17:48
  original, like that was the intention.
• 17:51
  Obviously early in the season. I think you see it with a lot of
• 17:54
  teams just because our costumes can be so ornate and complex.
• 18:02
  Just the development time and really figuring out and getting
• 18:06
  those design components really settled and functional for the
• 18:11
  ICE as well just takes a lot of time, so.
• 18:14
  These were also they're the first costumes, at least to my
• 18:17
  knowledge, that I've seen, that have 3D printed elements in
• 18:21
  them, which definitely took some time to do.
• 18:25
  They're very complex, so that involves in person fitting,
• 18:29
  sending the costumes back and forth, discussing colors,
• 18:33
  discussing. Both of your costumes have the
• 18:36
  3D printed elements. Yeah, the yours is on the golden
• 18:41
  right things on the front of her dress and the the one on my
• 18:44
  back. Right, right, right.
• 18:45
  It's actually 3D printed through the mesh, which I think is wow.
• 18:49
  Yeah. OK.
• 18:49
  That's interesting. I'm not even, we're not even
• 18:53
  sure how the sausage gets made. Like, yeah, we get the end
• 18:58
  result and get to go, wow, this is so amazing.
• 19:00
  Thank you, Philippe. Thank you.
• 19:03
  Yeah, Philippe Messe is your your costume designer.
• 19:06
  Yeah, he's awesome. I mean, there's a reason why
• 19:09
  Your costumes is absolutely one of the favourites from the
• 19:12
  figure skating fandom, so. That's so nice to hear.
• 19:16
  Works out very well. I like, I don't know how long I
• 19:20
  spent on, like, Photoshop, just like changing the colours of the
• 19:25
  dress to get it just right. At a certain point, the two had
• 19:31
  to sit me down and be like, Caroline, there are only so many
• 19:33
  colors of the rainbow. And you don't want a yellow
• 19:35
  dress. You don't want an orange dress.
• 19:37
  You don't want, like a brown dress.
• 19:38
  Like there are only so many colors that can be.
• 19:42
  You need to chill. So I'm glad that the end result
• 19:45
  works really well on the ice and looks super effective.
• 19:48
  And yeah. And this was this was actually a
• 19:51
  subject of conversation, I think at nationals.
• 19:53
  Is Caroline your love of barrettes in your hair?
• 19:58
  OK, so these are actually not beret.
• 20:03
  They're like, I think they're technically like bezels for like
• 20:10
  jewelry making. They're all little individual
• 20:12
  rings. I weave them one by one into my
• 20:16
  hair with a crochet hook. It's ridiculous, but it looks
• 20:21
  really cool it. Does.
• 20:23
  Yeah, it does. I wish it was a breath.
• 20:25
  They'll make my life so much. Easier now.
• 20:28
  I remember the first time she showed up with them and everyone
• 20:31
  was like, wow, that is amazing. So that's like the epic high of
• 20:35
  how cool it is. And then the epic low is like
• 20:37
  every time we're getting ready for for a day of training or
• 20:40
  competition where she does that, I feel so bad like.
• 20:44
  Five hours. This was a a nationalist when we
• 20:47
  were in the Airbnb together. I think it was like one of the
• 20:49
  first times Michael really like saw first hand the like getting
• 20:54
  ready process for women in figure skating.
• 20:57
  And it was a it was a very. Skated with my sister.
• 21:00
  Yeah, I was like, I was like, you should have known it was
• 21:02
  Rachel, right? But yeah, he he was really there
• 21:08
  with me in the trenches of. The IT was a what would you like
• 21:11
  for breakfast? I'll make breakfast.
• 21:13
  You'd get ready and I'd like leave a little plate like on the
• 21:16
  on the bedroom floor as she's in the bathroom.
• 21:19
  Oh boy. Hey, as long as they don't fall
• 21:22
  out, right, That's that's, that's an important.
• 21:24
  Part and they don't because they're open into my head.
• 21:30
  Oh boy. Well, this this conversation
• 21:32
  went places that I didn't think it was going to go to.
• 21:34
  So this is great. OK, so on to worlds.
• 21:38
  You've had now a few weeks since Nationals and four continents
• 21:42
  and it's been, you know, it's one of those seasons where you
• 21:48
  really have to like measure yourself throughout this very
• 21:52
  long season to make sure that you're peeking at the right
• 21:55
  times and all that sort of stuff.
• 21:57
  What's your preparation been like?
• 21:59
  And you know what's the last month or so been like for you?
• 22:03
  To we finished four continents and we were able to take a
• 22:06
  couple days to just fully decompress, relax, and then from
• 22:11
  then it was right back at the rink.
• 22:12
  Of course, we didn't get any official notification until last
• 22:16
  week, but we've been training since the week after 4
• 22:20
  continents like we were going just assuming we're going better
• 22:24
  to play it safe and like say Chuck and Bates decide to do
• 22:27
  worlds like, Oh no, we're in really good shape like that.
• 22:29
  That's the downside, which isn't even a downside.
• 22:31
  So we've been training hard. We feel ready, feeling really
• 22:35
  good and like we started this, this interview.
• 22:38
  It's the the last week of preparation which is always
• 22:40
  exciting. It's just been so great that our
• 22:43
  season has extended in the way that.
• 22:45
  It. Has just because I think we
• 22:48
  we've poured so much into these programs and I think I've had
• 22:52
  really rewarding experiences performing them for audiences.
• 22:57
  I think they really do work differently in arena, especially
• 23:02
  in nationals. Like just having the crowd
• 23:04
  reaction that we did to the rhythm dance was like one of my
• 23:07
  favorite moments ever. Very rarely do you get to have
• 23:11
  skates where like Michael turns around and he gives him the blue
• 23:14
  steel and then like the entire arena laughs like.
• 23:18
  That felt good. It's just really, it's just
• 23:20
  really fun to like have those interactive moments.
• 23:23
  So I think we're looking forward to getting another opportunity
• 23:27
  to do that at Worlds. Yeah, we're, we're just excited.
• 23:32
  I get a lot of people asking like it's such a long season,
• 23:35
  but it really doesn't feel that way.
• 23:38
  Like even even before we knew we were going for Worlds it, it
• 23:42
  hasn't felt like that long a season.
• 23:44
  I think because we've been so focused on the training and as
• 23:47
  long as you're approaching it the right way, like you just
• 23:49
  keep training, as long as you're taking care of your body and
• 23:52
  your mind, like it's all good. And we've got the privilege to
• 23:55
  to skate more, so I'm happy. Your your third world's coming
• 24:00
  up. You're in your 7th I believe
• 24:03
  season skating together. Some of the highlights for you
• 24:06
  over the last seven years. I, I still think one of my
• 24:11
  favorite competitions of my entire career, not even just the
• 24:14
  the seven years that we've been training together, is World's
• 24:17
  last year in Boston. Just the amount of pressure you
• 24:21
  felt going into the rink. Like, it literally felt like
• 24:24
  there was this invisible curtain that all the skaters felt as
• 24:27
  soon as you get off that big cargo elevator to the the level
• 24:30
  where you're getting ready to warm up.
• 24:32
  I love it. And then to to get out there and
• 24:35
  to see a completely full arena and to skate and hear people
• 24:38
  going. Oh yeah.
• 24:39
  Like every time you go by the wall and to finish your program
• 24:42
  it. Was literally every quarter.
• 24:44
  Yeah, it was, it was so great. But to yeah, to finish a program
• 24:49
  in that scenario is the reason why we do this, that the whole
• 24:55
  competition was like the perfect embodiment of that with the
• 24:57
  amount of teams that were cut from the the rhythm dance or cut
• 25:02
  between rhythm and free. I'd never been to a competition
• 25:04
  where so many didn't make the free 2.
• 25:06
  So just like all of that played into this like crazy like build
• 25:10
  up of pressure that just explodes into an amazing time
• 25:14
  when you finish. Yeah, I, I literally remember
• 25:17
  sitting, I think was it? It wasn't like a green.
• 25:20
  It was like some, because we were US athletes, I think we
• 25:25
  like snuck into like one of the medical rooms or something.
• 25:28
  And like just to kind of like there was a lot of space in the
• 25:30
  backstage at Worlds last year. So I remember like sitting there
• 25:34
  with my sweet green salad. And like usually I don't really
• 25:38
  key into kind of where they're at in the competition or like
• 25:41
  watch people. But it was on.
• 25:44
  And I think I saw in passing like the cut off mark for where
• 25:48
  it was. And I'm like sitting there with
• 25:50
  my sweet green, like, Oh, OK, that's that's pretty high.
• 25:56
  But like, I think then you get into the space where there's
• 26:00
  just so much energy and it's infectious.
• 26:02
  You're like, OK, this is such a great opportunity.
• 26:06
  I get to perform and share my skating with all these people.
• 26:10
  Like this is what I asked for. So you're able to kind of like
• 26:17
  all the scores or where you need to be to qualify for free kind
• 26:20
  of goes in the background and you just get to be really
• 26:23
  present and share skating with people who want to see skating.
• 26:27
  Well, you ended up in the top 10, so no, no problems with
• 26:29
  that. But I mean almost 69 points to
• 26:32
  get into the freelance. It's like, that's crazy.
• 26:35
  It's pretty nuts. I think it was lower than that
• 26:39
  at the Olympics this year. So there's your difference.
• 26:44
  Well, Caroline, Michael, thank you for joining me today.
• 26:47
  I've been I've been wanting to talk to you for a very long
• 26:50
  time. I'm glad we got a chance to do
• 26:52
  it And and I will see you next week in Prague.
• 26:56
  So best of luck with the best training.
• 26:58
  Yeah, I'll be there. That's.
• 27:01
  Cool, that's exciting. Thank you.
• 27:02
  You got to got to stay ringside and start the wink counter for.
• 27:05
  I wish. Yeah.
• 27:07
  No, no wingside. Ah, wingside, I need to text.
• 27:13
  They they get the comically large cane and they pull me out.
• 27:16
  Literally literally need to text John Luke right now and tell him
• 27:21
  which. Half door opens up.
• 27:23
  Wink side. Wink side, Yeah, No, no, no
• 27:26
  practice commentary for Worlds. But, you know, we'll make it
• 27:30
  happen at some point, hopefully so.
• 27:33
  All right, well, best of luck with training this week and best
• 27:37
  of luck with Worlds. Bye.
• 27:38
  Thank you. Thank you and see you soon.
• 27:40
  Thank you everybody.