Latest / The Rocker Skating Podcast / Milan Olympics Recap: The Experience (Part 2)

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Milan Olympics Recap: The Experience (Part 2) · The Rocker Skating Podcast

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  This episode of the Rocker Skating Podcast is brought to
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  you by John Wilson Blades. For more than 329 years, John
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  innovation, you get the revolution.
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  Welcome to the Rocker Skating podcast.
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  We are talking about Part 2 of our two-part Olympics recap.
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  Michelle and I had a lot to say. And Part 1, so go take a listen
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  if you haven't already, but here is our Part 2 of all the stuff
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  that we had thought about in Milan.
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  All right, let's go to the pairs now.
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  Now, contrary to what we have been thinking about in our
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  previews, yeah, this pairs event was very good.
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  It was great, it was great. And shout out to Gallardi and
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  Ambrosini how for having the best short program ever.
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  I mean, that was so. I've never like, the crowd was
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  so engaged for the first, like note of the music and they just
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  delivered it just up and up and up and up.
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  And they were awesome. And I'm so happy that they had
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  that moment. It was great.
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  I think that was a Jean Luc Baker special, that short
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  program. Yeah, JL doing it.
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  Yeah, like the the those short programs were so good almost
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  across the board. Yeah.
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  Until they. And until the until the end, the
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  last group, the last group was not so good.
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  But for for a very long time, it was really good.
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  And, yeah, and, you know, like, the thing that warmed my heart,
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  besides all the really good short programs, was the fact
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  that Deanna Stellato and Maxine Deschamps made it to the
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  Olympics after that scare of the accident in practice that we
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  still have not heard all about yet, which I we, I'm sure we
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  will hear at some point. They aren't going to world.
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  So this will be the end of their season and is at the end of
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  their career. We're still not.
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  Sure, but I'm sure not. I don't know.
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  I'll be. In in the French Alps, but
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  Deanna will. We will both be retired and
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  Deanna will still be skating. Oh yeah.
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  Yeah, I, you know, they, they, they had an accident.
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  She had an accident in practice at home in in Montreal literal
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  days before they were supposed to come out to the the to the
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  lot for the team event. Had to pull out of the team
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  event. Everybody was in pins and
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  needles for days and and we all, we all thought like no news was
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  bad news. And and then it turned out they
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  were cleared to come. And even then we were like, OK,
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  what condition is she in? And yeah, don't.
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  Come. Like what what is going on?
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  And, and, you know, we, we know Skate Canada has strict
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  protocols for that kind of stuff.
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  Yeah. And she got here, she got to
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  Milan and looked like nothing had happened.
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  Yeah, which is unbelievable. She looked fine.
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  Yeah, exactly. And she was very sassy about the
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  question she was getting about her injury.
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  My medical records are not your business.
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  It's great. I loved it.
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  They're not. Privacy laws protecting medical
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  records. There certainly are.
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  And then they went out and did a very good short program and then
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  that lifts came down incorrectly and it was literally the
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  difference between them being in 14th place after the short
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  program and like second or third.
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  Yeah. Like, it cost them that many
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  points, but they were also that close that they they really,
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  they really were right there. But you know what?
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  I don't really care because Deanna Stellato is an Olympian.
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  Yeah. And you know it.
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  It may not have been the the ending of the dream that she was
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  hoping for, but at least the ending wasn't that they had to
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  withdraw from the Olympics. Yeah, which would have been
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  devastating. Yeah.
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  But you know who was in the top three?
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  Leah, Pereira and Trent. Oh my God.
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  That was crazy and they the only team of the whole night that got
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  all level fours on their elements which was like wild.
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  Good for them, it's a lot of work to get level fours and
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  everything. It pairs and they did it.
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  Especially that death spiral. Yeah.
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  Especially the death spiral. Mm hmm.
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  Yeah, Trent. Trent got into that position and
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  got that love. Trent.
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  Trent. Trent.
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  Trent, Yeah. It was too bad they, they just,
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  they didn't have, they didn't have it in them in the free
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  skate to skate the way that they could have.
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  But it was still the best free skate that they skated kind of
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  all season long. So, you know, I, they, they, I
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  know they, they were disappointed that they, they
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  couldn't stay on the podium or even stay in the top five.
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  But they have to be happy with how, at least for the short
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  program, how they're being scored and how they're being
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  perceived by the judges. And they told me they're like,
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  this just motivates us more for the next 4 years.
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  So it's, it's, it's very nice to see their their progress.
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  I think they've really put together some great programs
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  this season. And then there it's, you know,
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  it's becoming their time, which is great.
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  But Oh my God, Riku and Ryuchi's free skate.
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  What it like one of the absolute epic skates of this whole
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  Olympics? Their free skate was their short
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  program. Like was freaky that that lift
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  coming down. I was like what is going on?
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  I can't like oh hang on sorry I just did the math.
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  If Leah and Trent had done their free skate from the team event
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  in the individual event, they would have been 5th anyway.
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  Rico and Ryuchi were foot perfect in practice here.
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  They practice better than I've ever seen them skate.
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  She was like a foot off the ground on those side by side
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  jumps. Everything was clean.
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  They were like on fire and for that lift to come down and
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  they're short, it was like where did this come from?
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  What's? Going on all the things of all
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  the things, the lifts. Like their lifts are.
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  So it's like what happened? I don't think they even knew
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  what happened right away. It was like, what's going on?
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  They're free skate. I think that's my number one of
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  the Olympics. It sucked that they had to skate
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  the second and last group, but they shut that door and they
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  locked it. I think if Minerva and Nikita
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  had been absolutely perfect, they had a chance, but they
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  needed a personal best. But like a point and 1/2.
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  So yeah, that free skate blew the roof off the building.
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  It was incredible. New world record under the
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  current scoring system. I mean, unbelievable.
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  The only person that has scored higher, I think, in the history
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  of CODA points is Aliona Savchenko and Bruto also.
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  So yeah, that was awesome. And yeah, they're winning by 10
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  points was well, 9 1/2 was more than justified, was brilliant.
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  And and you know, it also shows the power of well selected
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  music. Yes, because all of our Olympic
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  programs, that's the only one that was really delivered in an
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  Olympic way. That was such an Olympic free
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  skate. I will say once again on this
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  podcast that the sound system in that arena was phenomenal.
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  It it, it made it made the music sound so good, and it also made
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  the music that was poorly mixed and poorly cut sound really bad.
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  Yeah, that's that too. Yeah.
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  Like it it was. There were a couple of times
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  when I was, I was sort of like holding my ears because it sound
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  like some of the music sounded so bad in the arena, Not because
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  of the sound system, but because the sound system was revealing
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  the flaws of the cuts and the and the and the mixes.
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  Like it was just like, not good. Yeah.
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  But but Mira Kihara's music was it like it it by itself.
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  It blew the roof off and then the way they skated to it blew
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  the roof off twice. You know who else had a roof
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  blowing? Music cut and free skate
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  performance was Anika Haka and Robert Kukel.
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  So underscored. That meatloaf program was
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  incredible. I think the only person that
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  enjoyed it more than me was Tara, who's like obsessed with
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  meatloaf. And she was like loving it.
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  She was like singing along. It was like, Oh my God, that was
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  so good. And I will say I have not been
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  convinced of that program all season long.
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  I I always on board with meatloaf but.
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  I like, I like them a lot and, and I, I always find them to be
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  underscored because they're elements like you're going back
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  to that discussion about element, their elements, some of
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  them like those throws are some of the best in the world.
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  And they don't. Get the they get like twos on
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  them and I'm like, why are you kidding me?
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  Why are you giving them twos? Like their their choreographed
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  sequence should be getting fours and fives because it's so it's
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  difficult. It's musically done well.
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  It's like all of that and they get like twos and like what?
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  Like what are you doing? They're they're side by side
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  triple sounds. They they were, they were well
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  done. They were musically like done
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  correctly. They were In Sync and then they
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  were getting like plus ones and plus twos.
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  I'm like, what are you like? What are these scores?
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  But I, but I, I, I've all all season long, I have found that
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  the Meat Loaf program to be a little snoozy for about half of
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  it. Like it starts off really well
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  and then it's like the middle is like, and at the end is like,
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  you know, full blast. And the way they skated it in
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  Milan was so good across the board.
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  And, and I I felt the energy from them throughout the whole
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  thing 'cause literally it's just song like there isn't much that
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  was I think edited from it like it was the whole song.
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  So they. Talked to me about in how this
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  season they've sort of changed their training so they have more
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  time that is down time and they're not on all the time at
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  home in practice and that's allowed them to peek better at
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  events. And I feel like that really
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  translated into strong performances here.
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  Absolutely. Yeah.
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  And they also said at the beginning of the season, I think
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  it's Skate America, they told me that they really chose music to
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  be crowd pleasing and they wanted to like entertain the
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  audience. And that was just the both of
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  their programs just really hit in this arena in an incredible
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  way. It really there.
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  There are parallels to their coach Andre Hutarec, yes,
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  because they were always the crowd pleasing ones that got
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  underscored. I thought as well like and and
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  I'm talking about Marquet and Hottarek back in the day for
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  Italy, Valentina Marquet, one of the in arena hosts.
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  It was it was nice to see both of them there.
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  But but yeah, like totally, totally underscored.
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  But also Emily Chan, Spencer Howe.
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  Who would have thought that you would have an Olympics like
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  this? They were seventh in a very deep
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  field of pairs and they skated very well.
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  Yeah, they, they, they that free skate.
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  I was like, where did this come from?
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  Where did it come from? I think that they just had a
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  late start to the season because of how much time Spencer missed.
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  And I feel like they finally started gelling at the Olympics.
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  I know it should have. Happened.
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  Until three months. Earlier, yeah, yeah.
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  Like, Oh my God, Emily, you're landing your side by sides.
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  Yeah, landing your solo triple Sow it's like they should put
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  triple Sow in their short program I.
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  Know. I don't know, yeah.
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  I I was very happy for Sway and Han.
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  Yeah. You know, knowing, knowing that
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  they came in, know it like they came in very much knowing that a
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  repeat of gold was not possible like for them skating the way
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  that they did, especially in the free skate, especially after
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  that nasty fall that Wenching took in the team event that was.
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  Rough. And and like her barely being
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  able to walk at 4 continents because of that bone bruise,
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  like it's been rough for them. And you know, they were it, they
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  were still not where they were at their very, very best, not
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  not even close. But they did themselves proud, I
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  think. And and Tong Han can finally put
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  up, put his skates back in the closet and like, retire for good
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  while Wen Jing goes and sells coffee in her mobile home.
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  Yeah, with her meerkat. With her meerkat.
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  I feel like poor Song Han is probably going to like go and
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  have like an elective like foot amputation or something after
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  this. Like I am not skating anymore,
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  you cannot make me go back. Congratulations to him on
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  getting through it and being done, Yeah.
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  I saw him after the free skate and he said hi to me and
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  literally gave out this like the biggest sigh I've ever seen from
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  anybody. He's like, Oh my gosh.
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  It's like when you finish your exams and you're just like,
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  you're done, but like times a million.
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  The the Olympic exams. Yeah.
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  Yeah, this, this pair, this pairs was just so good.
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  Yeah, yeah. Sway and Han weren't practicing
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  lifts in their practices like they were practicing every day
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  and they were doing jumps and throws and no lifts.
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  And I was so worried they weren't going to get through
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  them in their programs. But they did.
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  They did. I'm excited to see the work that
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  Wenjing Sway does as a choreographer going forward.
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  I think that she's done some done some really interesting
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  stuff so far, and I want to see more from her.
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  And, you know, you don't have to be competing at the Olympics
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  forever to put out good material.
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  And, you know, I hope she finds satisfaction in working with
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  skaters. And, you know, yeah, Conte
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  Machi, I think, underperformed in the individual event.
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  And I wondered how much doing the team event affected them,
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  especially Sarah with her knee injury.
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  Which is so interesting. Yeah.
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  Which is so interesting because Sarah was the one in the press
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  conference who said she liked it that she had the team event
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  early. Yeah, well, I think that she got
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  her best skates out of it. That was their best medal
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  chance. I know it was interesting
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  because I thought as the weeks went on for Kanti Machi, they
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  were starting to look stronger and stronger in the sense that I
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  thought Sarah was really feeling like she her, her injury was
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  getting more comfortable, her knee was getting more
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  comfortable and that he was, she was settling in.
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  And then the actual competition was happening and it wasn't
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  working. And I don't know what it was.
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  Maybe they were over practicing, given how little time they had
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  to practice over the month of January and they were getting
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  tired and back to the point of not being able to regulate your
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  energy correctly. Maybe they just overdid it.
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  I'm not sure. But the the week between the
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  team event and the pairs event, I thought they looked really
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  good and, and it just, it just didn't look that way when they
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  were actually competing. Yeah, it looked like almost like
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  she was wincing on her landings. Yeah, I do wonder if they're if
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  they're going to be ready for worlds four more weeks.
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  And Rebecca Gillardi told me that she was not going to
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  worlds. So, so, so Ghilardi Abrazini are
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  not going to worlds. And and it would like very, very
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  appropriate that they were able to put out two of the best gates
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  in their recent memory to finish their home Olympics.
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  And then that's what they retire on.
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  But still, I mean if these are they or nor Katimachi go to
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  worlds like what happens with Italian pears.
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  Can we have Charlene and Marco do the PEARS event?
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  I'm sure they could figure something out.
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  Bakari Curry say all of a sudden come back, Yeah.
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  But I guess we'll see. Hopefully her she she gets a
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  little bit more rest Sarah on her on her knee and then she's
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  able to come back. But you know, Pears, Pears will
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  be a very interesting one at Worlds.
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  Let's I, I, I do. We have so much to talk about
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  with the pairs. But like Pavlovos, Fiachenko was
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  a pair that impressed me so much.
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  They were so clean. So clean, so generally like they
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  were just really good and and I loved their how how much they
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  have grown as a pair. I love the improvements, I love
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  the, the difference in packaging.
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  I love like everything about how they've improved over the past
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  year. I, it's been I, I am looking
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  forward to the next four years with them because I think
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  they're going to be a, a real force.
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  Yeah, world medalists. Very soon.
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  It's going to happen. I think so, Hassa Volodin, like
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  you were saying, they needed to be perfect.
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  She popped a sow. They were a little tentative on
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  some other stuff. Under rotated the double axle
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  too. Oh, is that right?
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  I didn't even remember. Yeah, she did that.
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  And then the sows were right after and it was, it was funny
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  because she did that double axle and I'm just like Oh my God.
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  I I think that's it. I think that's it.
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  And then she pops the sow I'm like, wow, that is it.
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  That's. Really it.
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  That's really it. Yeah.
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  I I do wonder if they should have been silver.
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  I wonder if they should have changed their free skate.
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  Oh, totally. That memory box, whatever
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  program is just, I was watching it in practice and it's like
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  this doesn't go anywhere. And especially watching them
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  skate so well in the short program with more dynamic music,
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  I felt like their their program they did in the gala was great.
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  And it was like their step sequence had a lot of like
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  emotion and power in it. I'm like, this should be their
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  free skate. The free skate music is just
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  yeah. Yeah.
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  I think they were lucky to get bronze, honestly.
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  Interesting. And they were fourth in the free
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  skate. Yeah.
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  Yeah, I mean that that that short program helped them out a
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  lot period. You know, given that they were
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  the only one of the top top pairs who actually skated
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  cleanly like those top top 4, right?
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  Like between Miyor Kihara, Mattel Kina Baruva, Haasenvold
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  and and Conti Machi. And if you also count then
• 21:48
  Stellato Deschamps right as your top five, like they were the
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  only ones who skated clean and then Pavlovos Fiachenko skated
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  clean and then Pereira Pischer skated clean, right.
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  So so it really that really helps them with with their medal
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  chances. But, you know, I like the the
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  the top three could not have been happier with their
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  placements. Yeah, like they the three of
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  them were were over the moon. Obviously, New Yorkie are
• 22:21
  winning it, right? But like Matalkina Barullova
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  getting second possible and getting third, it was like it
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  was one of the happiest podiums I've ever seen.
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  Yeah, it was the one happy silver medalist.
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  I know, isn't that crazy? Yeah.
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  Every every other discipline was a happy gold medalist, a happy
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  bronze medalist and then like a devastated silver medalist,
• 22:44
  silver medalist. Yeah.
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  Speaking of which, Calvary Sakamoto, Let's go to the Let's
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  go to the women's Calorie, Calorie, calorie.
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  This killed me. This was so hard.
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  It's like crazy. And you know, it's crazy that
• 23:09
  Alyssa was able to go out and skate with such freedom.
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  And it's, I mean, it's really remarkable.
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  And the fact that she did that I think was like the slam dunk she
• 23:20
  needed to win. But watching the other women try
• 23:24
  and be clean and not succeed was really tough.
• 23:31
  Everyone was really just really focused and locked in and
• 23:34
  prepared and just, they just couldn't tap into what Alyssa
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  could tap into. It's just interesting.
• 23:42
  And yeah, Calorie was like, she was so nervous.
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  Both programs, you could see it. But in that free skate, and as
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  she was going through it, like you said, you told me not on the
• 23:54
  podcast, but like the steps in the steps, you could see her
• 23:57
  getting tight and thinking. And if she was setting up that
• 24:01
  combo, it's just like, get through this.
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  You just got three jumping passes and then to like leave
• 24:05
  out the toe and never add it back in.
• 24:07
  And I mean there was nowhere to add it back in there.
• 24:09
  Was nowhere to add back in. And then you calculated that if
• 24:13
  she just done the single toe, she would have been fine.
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  Oh God. I mean.
• 24:21
  I know. You and I, You and I talked
• 24:23
  about this when we were watching practices.
• 24:26
  I literally asked you. I was like why?
• 24:30
  Why are they putting the double toe on the luts?
• 24:32
  Why are they not putting the double toe on the flip?
• 24:37
  It just it, it makes me so mad that program construction them
• 24:42
  knowing that they Max out their 2 double axle or their their 2
• 24:45
  double toes and they back load two of the combos and there's no
• 24:50
  chance for them to add on a double toe if they don't do it.
• 24:54
  And it's it's one of those things where I don't think in
• 24:58
  practice she's ever done something like this.
• 25:03
  Like in practice, it's usually she pops the flip or she does
• 25:09
  the flip and does the triple toe or she falls on the flip, which
• 25:14
  actually or no, or she falls on the triple flip triple toe.
• 25:18
  Right. Like I don't think I ever saw
• 25:20
  her exactly. It's either that she pops the
• 25:24
  flip and doesn't do anything at all or she goes and falls on
• 25:29
  the, the, the, the triple flip, triple toe, but she gets to the
• 25:31
  triple toe. And they just had never, I don't
• 25:37
  think they ever foresaw this scenario where she doesn't
• 25:41
  actually do a combo. And, and it, it just, it kills
• 25:48
  me because I'm like, it is a mathematical mistake for you to
• 25:53
  be putting your layout in there like that.
• 25:55
  And and I I just. Yeah, I know.
• 26:01
  It's the issue in the first half of the program with the combo on
• 26:05
  the Lutz is so confusing because she's only doing one Lutz.
• 26:08
  Don't put it in combination. And well, in addition to that,
• 26:14
  right, because the Lutz has the the potential to get an unclear
• 26:20
  edge call, putting the double toe on the Lutz actually makes
• 26:23
  it worse for that double toe because the.
• 26:26
  GOES is affected. Exactly.
• 26:29
  Yeah. So I'm just like, why?
• 26:31
  Why is it there? Why?
• 26:35
  Yeah, I was quite confused by this situation with Isabel as
• 26:39
  well, when she fell on her opening flip and then just never
• 26:43
  added the intended triple toe anywhere else, so she just
• 26:47
  didn't put it in. And, you know, I don't
• 26:52
  understand that. Like, does she just not have a
• 26:55
  contingency plan if that happens because she's fallen on that
• 26:58
  element before? Yeah, that was.
• 27:02
  But she usually falls on the triple toe.
• 27:04
  That's also the thing, right? She also I, I, I, I Again, I
• 27:08
  don't think that they had a contingency plan because in
• 27:11
  practice, she never misses the triple flip.
• 27:15
  She misses the triple toe. Yeah.
• 27:18
  But then she has three solo jumps after that.
• 27:20
  Double axle, triple loop, triple sow.
• 27:23
  You can't add a triple toe onto any of those.
• 27:26
  She doesn't do them. Yeah.
• 27:29
  She literally only ever I've I've ever only seen her do a
• 27:33
  triple flip, triple toe or triple let's triple toe in all
• 27:36
  of the years that she skated. Practice other stuff.
• 27:39
  Well, I know. I mean, Evan Lysacek used to go
• 27:40
  out and warm up all of his triples with a triple toe in
• 27:43
  the. Back Oh, I know, I know.
• 27:45
  You know, I know. Yeah.
• 27:48
  Confusing. And let let this be, let these
• 27:52
  two case studies be a lesson to people figuring out what they're
• 27:58
  going to do. Like, there has to be a Plan B.
• 28:01
  You have got to figure out what it is that you have like, when
• 28:05
  everything is down to a jump, a combo.
• 28:10
  Like, good Lord, it it just, it, it made me, it made me so sad
• 28:17
  that that gold medal was literally the matter of a single
• 28:22
  toe loop. Yeah.
• 28:27
  Favorite performance of the whole women's event was the AMI
• 28:30
  Nakai short program. That was, I mean, incredible.
• 28:38
  And for her to be so young and to just go out and just be like,
• 28:40
  I'm just going to do this. I'm just having fun.
• 28:42
  And then she said afterwards, she's like, I'm not worried
• 28:43
  because I can't be cowrie. I'm just going to have fun.
• 28:46
  It's like, good for you. She did 2 clean axles in her two
• 28:51
  programs. They were like two of her best
• 28:53
  ever. Yeah.
• 28:54
  I'm so happy she got on the podium.
• 28:56
  All those mistakes she made in the second-half of her free
• 28:58
  skate were just like, girl, come on, come on.
• 29:02
  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, she was.
• 29:06
  She was getting tight in the second-half.
• 29:08
  I. Like.
• 29:09
  What once she missed the triple let's triple toe you you saw you
• 29:13
  saw it in her face a little bit. She it it like it finally sort
• 29:17
  of hit her that like, Oh my God, podium and like, is it gone kind
• 29:21
  of thing? And and you know, the the loop
• 29:25
  was tight. The flip.
• 29:27
  You knew with all of those unclear edge calls that were
• 29:30
  being called that that flip was going to get a call and then and
• 29:35
  then the 3V on the combo spin. Like what?
• 29:38
  Yeah, like you can do that in your sleep.
• 29:41
  Exactly. But you know, like we were
• 29:44
  saying before on our previews, like she has that same sort of
• 29:50
  carefree, like, hey, I'm the third Japanese woman, It's my
• 29:55
  first Olympics, I'm going to I'm just going to do it.
• 29:58
  And, and that, like I agree with you, that short program, it was,
• 30:02
  it was the best that anybody was skating there.
• 30:05
  And, and she came out and she was the, she and Alyssa, I was
• 30:10
  saying she was she and Alyssa and Adelia were the only ones
• 30:14
  who came out there like being like, I'm just going to skate
• 30:17
  how I usually skate. And everybody else was nervy.
• 30:20
  Like that short program was just.
• 30:21
  I. Put Sam Adelkina on the list
• 30:23
  too. Yes, Sam Adel, Sam Adelkina was
• 30:25
  fantastic and completely underscored.
• 30:27
  Completely underscored. And it's not because she gave me
• 30:30
  a really big pin. I.
• 30:33
  I, I, I don't care that she got lower levels on her spins and
• 30:38
  stuff that like she was scored correctly on the spins, she was
• 30:42
  leveled correctly on the spins, but she was not scored correctly
• 30:45
  on the GOES for the rest of her elements.
• 30:48
  Yeah. But they, you know, they, they
• 30:51
  came out and skated really well. And then everybody else was sort
• 30:53
  of skating like something was happening.
• 30:57
  The Olympics was happening, you know, and everybody was a little
• 31:00
  tight bone. Chiba as well as she skated in
• 31:04
  those two programs that she could have been a lot better.
• 31:07
  Yeah, Bone, I know I love her so much and she just she just get
• 31:14
  got a little tight and the short program I thought was better
• 31:18
  than the free skate. The free skate was like breathe.
• 31:24
  It was hard to, and she was so unhappy with herself afterward.
• 31:29
  And that was hard to watch, too. You know, the, the competition
• 31:33
  wasn't even over yet. And she was, you know, melting
• 31:36
  down. I think she knew what was that
• 31:39
  it was over. I I don't think she expected
• 31:41
  that we'd have a result like we had in the men's event, and we
• 31:45
  didn't, thank God. Right.
• 31:49
  Yeah, Petrosian was an interesting one to watch at this
• 31:56
  event. She came very late, No triple,
• 32:00
  excellent practice, quad toe. She worked on a lot and it was
• 32:04
  really not there. And it was surprising that she
• 32:09
  was, you know, planning the 2, I think.
• 32:12
  But it was there in warm up though.
• 32:14
  Yeah, well, not even warm up but like the time she took the ice
• 32:18
  before she skated. Although I did see a video of it
• 32:21
  on TikTok and I still think it would have gotten a queue, but
• 32:23
  even that would have been yeah. Fine, It would have been.
• 32:27
  It would have been different. It would have been.
• 32:28
  Very different yeah, yeah, there's a there's a lot of
• 32:32
  aspects to her skating that I think we've we don't really have
• 32:39
  them as much in the international field now because
• 32:41
  we have we don't have you know, because the Russian skaters have
• 32:45
  been banned. But I also feel like because
• 32:47
  people are older and seeing some of those jump setups and the
• 32:50
  patterns and the just the take off issues and things, it was
• 32:57
  sort of jarring to kind of have that, you know, in front of me
• 33:02
  again. I think she should be happy with
• 33:06
  the way she competed. She did just about everything
• 33:09
  she could do in a weird situation.
• 33:13
  But. I thought it was interesting.
• 33:16
  I What was interesting about her is if you looked at past Russian
• 33:21
  skaters from the Atari camp, as much as you can talk about their
• 33:30
  stroking and their like lack of attention paid to choreography,
• 33:37
  especially during big elements. They often filled out the ice as
• 33:42
  much as they could. And it wasn't, it was an
• 33:45
  interesting thing with with her because you saw her fill out the
• 33:49
  ice in practice when she was doing the jumps by themselves.
• 33:54
  But when it came to the program itself in that free skate, once
• 33:59
  she fell on that quad toe at the very beginning, about 2 1/2
• 34:05
  minutes of that program, got incredibly cautious because she
• 34:09
  wanted to land the jumps. And therefore everything just
• 34:13
  got smaller. And, and I thought that was
• 34:17
  interesting because I, I don't think like if Anna Shirbakova
• 34:21
  were out there doing that quad toe and she fell on it, I don't
• 34:24
  think it would have phased her like that.
• 34:28
  So it was, it was, it was very, it was very interesting to see
• 34:32
  how I think part of this was her lack of experience on the big
• 34:37
  stage and part of it was her lack of experience competing in
• 34:43
  international events over the past four years.
• 34:46
  Because if she was doing that in a domestic event, they would
• 34:50
  just give her those scores. Like they, they would just give
• 34:53
  her the scores that they would regularly give her.
• 34:55
  And like wouldn't, wouldn't have taken into account the rest of
• 34:58
  it. And they really took took into
• 35:00
  account the resident and frankly like they could have been much
• 35:03
  harsher with her program components and they actually
• 35:05
  were. I really saw that in both
• 35:10
  Petrosian and Gumenek, they just, they did not have the the
• 35:14
  power, the ice coverage, the speed that I think they would
• 35:18
  have. Like you could really tell they
• 35:20
  haven't been competing internationally.
• 35:22
  And I know Russia's domestic competition circuit is, is
• 35:25
  pretty developed and they have really a lot of depth in their
• 35:28
  fields. But it just, it just was smaller
• 35:32
  skating than I'm used to seeing. We were used to seeing from
• 35:36
  skaters, from those from that federation.
• 35:38
  Yeah, and also when you look at women skating like post Russia
• 35:43
  ban or during Russia ban, this the, the, the field of women and
• 35:52
  their basics have improved quite a bit too.
• 35:55
  And, and you, you saw that like even beyond the, the Japanese
• 36:00
  skaters, the American skaters, like you look at like Nina
• 36:04
  Petrokina and you look at Anastasia Gubanova and you look
• 36:08
  at all of these skaters who've been around for the past four
• 36:11
  years, their standard has been Cali Sakamoto, right?
• 36:16
  And, and, and they've the, the, when you are, when she's the one
• 36:21
  who's been winning three World Championships, you are you as a
• 36:25
  skater, you're like, how do I get there?
• 36:27
  How do I then compete with that? And, and all of these skaters
• 36:32
  have been, that's what that's what they're used to seeing.
• 36:35
  And that's what we're seeing a lot more of the last four years
• 36:38
  is bigger, bigger, fuller skating, even though you don't
• 36:43
  have necessarily the quads, but you know, we're still getting
• 36:47
  triple axles now we're we're getting more triple axles than
• 36:50
  we have in the past. And and the next four years will
• 36:54
  also be different. So PetroChina was amazing.
• 36:59
  God she was so clean. Both programs should so much
• 37:01
  attack and her her gala program was quite fun as well.
• 37:09
  Cellblock Tango, what she's now become known for.
• 37:13
  You know, I thought that Jinwan Cha's acting was pretty great
• 37:17
  when he was poisoned to death and the way he dropped dead, I
• 37:20
  was like, you can tell he has, he has experience on TV.
• 37:24
  He's. He's, he's going to be an actor
• 37:26
  after this now. Jinwan Cha I I thought Jinwan
• 37:30
  Cha was great in that exhibition.
• 37:33
  I thought Ilya overacted a little bit but was hilarious
• 37:38
  hilarious. You're shooting me now.
• 37:40
  Oh, Ahmed. Yes.
• 37:45
  Tim Deke was great. And the where I was sitting up
• 37:48
  at where our booth was, Tim Deke was like directly across from
• 37:51
  us. And I like loved how he dropped
• 37:52
  dead and then did not move and laid there sprawled out dead on
• 37:55
  the boards throughout the rest of the performance.
• 37:58
  It's great. Whereas everybody else just like
• 38:01
  like, like ran away, Yeah, no, but like going back to the event
• 38:06
  like Amber Glenn was a triple loop and a step sequence away
• 38:13
  from from the podium. Crazy I, I mean, I, I wasn't
• 38:20
  surprised that she made that mistake in the short program,
• 38:23
  but it is frustrating because it's like she's so good and
• 38:28
  it's, it's, it's crazy that her skating is so strong and yet,
• 38:33
  you know, the mental stuff is what takes it away and yeah, I,
• 38:41
  I don't even know what to say it's like.
• 38:44
  It's the the double loop still confuses me in the short program
• 38:47
  because I actually don't even think that was mental.
• 38:50
  I think that was literally like a fluke.
• 38:52
  I I slipped off my my edge kind of thing.
• 38:55
  I don't know, maybe it just the rest of the program was so good
• 38:59
  otherwise, like she got through all the good stuff.
• 39:04
  Yeah, I don't know, maybe that's just that that loop was was her
• 39:08
  nemesis in both programs. So.
• 39:11
  That. That that tells you something.
• 39:14
  But the that triple Axel, though, two of the best that
• 39:18
  we've seen, seen her do. Yeah, they were great.
• 39:21
  Yeah, they were really good. But such, such deja vu from last
• 39:28
  year at Worlds where it was like, Oh well, Amber's climbing
• 39:32
  up. Yeah.
• 39:35
  Yeah, and she's just waiting and waiting and waiting, and then
• 39:37
  she ends up 5th, so yeah. But Alyssa Lou, what can you say
• 39:44
  about Alyssa Lou and. I've been doing the Alyssa Lou
• 39:48
  phenomenon. I know four and a half million
• 39:53
  Instagram followers like. Crazy, crazy.
• 39:59
  I do wonder if so. Many tik toks of girls getting
• 40:01
  their hair done like that. I know, yeah, I know.
• 40:05
  Watch out, watch out parents, for all these Halos that you're
• 40:09
  about to see and like 5 hour procedures that your daughters
• 40:13
  want to do at the salon. But but you know, is this, is
• 40:20
  this a resurgence of interest in the US for figure skating
• 40:24
  finally, because we have a, a women's figure skater who
• 40:29
  actually won the Olympics. Like that's, that's something.
• 40:34
  But gosh, I, I, I just the, the improbability of this whole
• 40:40
  thing. And not that she won it, but the
• 40:44
  story of this whole journey from Alyssa Lou that she hated
• 40:50
  skating four years ago and left and then came back and was like,
• 40:54
  I'm going to just do this on my own germs.
• 40:56
  I'm going to eat what I want. I'm going to enjoy what I do.
• 40:59
  I'm going to train the way that I train.
• 41:02
  And I think a lot of people mistake her carefreeness and her
• 41:08
  nonchalantness for like a lack of care.
• 41:13
  Like I just said, carefree and a lack of care, but like a lack of
• 41:17
  like seriousness about her training.
• 41:21
  And she is anything but not serious about her training.
• 41:25
  Like just because she doesn't put the pressure on herself
• 41:28
  doesn't mean she doesn't expect it from herself, you know?
• 41:32
  Like you watch her in practice. She is very regimented.
• 41:36
  Anytime you see her do a practice in in in like non run
• 41:42
  through days, she goes double Axel, double Axel, AAA sow,
• 41:46
  triple sow, triple toe, triple toe, triple loop, triple loop,
• 41:49
  triple flip, triple flip. She does 2 of everything and
• 41:52
  then she goes and does her, her her, her steps and her basic
• 41:59
  skating and all that stuff. It's very regimented and she
• 42:03
  knows exactly what she's doing. She knows exactly how to train
• 42:08
  and how to optimize her training so that she peaks at the right
• 42:11
  moment. And that's what you see.
• 42:13
  It is not the fact that she doesn't care.
• 42:15
  It is the fact that she figured out somehow how to make her care
• 42:23
  just enough, but not too much to the point where it overtakes her
• 42:28
  brain. Yeah.
• 42:31
  Yeah. And I don't know what it is.
• 42:32
  Alyssa Lou, you did it. I think it's kind of like people
• 42:36
  who are into running and like they love to run and they do
• 42:40
  marathons and all this stuff, but they're like not trying to
• 42:42
  win anything. They're just trying to improve
• 42:44
  their time to be like the best version of themselves.
• 42:47
  And I think it's like it, it just matters to her that she's
• 42:50
  doing it and she's feeling it and she's she's maximizing it
• 42:53
  for herself. And it's like the, you know, you
• 42:56
  have to be in competitive skating to have the simulation
• 42:59
  of the competition and everything.
• 43:01
  But I don't think the result is even that's just, you know,
• 43:05
  gravy. That's just extra.
• 43:09
  And it's, it's, it's, it's crazy because I feel like other
• 43:12
  skaters are just sort of in awe of her ability to relax to that
• 43:16
  degree. But I think that's also probably
• 43:19
  down to the fact that she spent so much time away from skating
• 43:21
  and kind of couldn't see it from the outside.
• 43:24
  Yeah, some people just have that perspective.
• 43:26
  That's just like so amazing. Alyssa Lou, your Olympic
• 43:33
  champion. Who would have thought we would
• 43:37
  say such things? Yeah, it's crazy.
• 43:41
  It's crazy, Jackie. It's like unbelievable.
• 43:45
  And she never even had to, like, change anything.
• 43:47
  She still had that very, like, light back half of her program
• 43:51
  who has a solo double Axel in the second-half of their
• 43:54
  program. Like nobody.
• 43:55
  She just does it because it, like, works with the music and
• 43:57
  it's like, oh, double Axel. OK, I'm done.
• 43:59
  I'm going to dance now. Yeah.
• 44:04
  You know how I said earlier in the season, I'm like, I don't
• 44:07
  know how you make this program peak multiple times and she's
• 44:12
  made it peak multiple times and every single time it's peaked
• 44:17
  higher. Like she did it at Worlds and it
• 44:20
  was fantastic. She did it at Grand Prix Final
• 44:23
  and it was better. And then somehow in between
• 44:28
  Grand Prix Final and now she has switched programs to Gaga and
• 44:32
  then come back to this program and they were continuously
• 44:38
  making improvements to it. Even at the Olympics we were, we
• 44:42
  were seeing her and Massi Scali work on specific parts of that
• 44:46
  program to make it better. And it got better again.
• 44:51
  Like I just could not deal with how she was able to do it.
• 44:57
  And Donna Summer in this arena was the best choice you could
• 45:02
  have made. Yeah, they loved it.
• 45:05
  It was just it just hit the right way.
• 45:07
  And yeah, you know, I was telling Massimo when we were
• 45:14
  talking to him after the free skate that something about like
• 45:17
  the way that that music hit him, Like he just felt the vibe in
• 45:21
  it. And just really, I don't know
• 45:24
  how he was able to just kind of identify it as this like magic,
• 45:27
  kind of like little entity that he could grow and grow and grow.
• 45:31
  But also by not doing it at nationals, she didn't give away
• 45:35
  that. Another peak.
• 45:37
  Another peak. Right.
• 45:39
  Yeah. You know, we were saying we were
• 45:41
  talking about this earlier in the season.
• 45:43
  Her two programs, her her original, sorry, her original
• 45:47
  short program of this season was supposed to have been a, a, a
• 45:54
  retelling of her falling back in love with the sport, right?
• 45:59
  Last year it was, it was the the whole thing was last year was
• 46:02
  supposed to been promise. Promise was her saying I wanted
• 46:09
  to distance myself from you and you being skating, but I
• 46:15
  couldn't. And so I'm back, right?
• 46:18
  Like that was the whole point of the message of that program and
• 46:22
  the original program for the short the season was supposed to
• 46:25
  have been the I am now in love with skating.
• 46:28
  And that's what that's what you're seeing here.
• 46:30
  And then she had to scrap it because the.
• 46:34
  Artists. Teenager.
• 46:36
  Or I still don't know what what the what the results of that
• 46:42
  whole investigation was. So I am.
• 46:44
  They just, they, they haven't quite indicted him yet, but
• 46:47
  they're doing grand jury hearings, yeah.
• 46:50
  Yeah. But MacArthur Park, Yeah.
• 46:55
  Thank you. Thank you, Michelle, for being
• 46:57
  all over this, this, this thing. But MacArthur Park also has a
• 47:01
  message. Like there is a very specific
• 47:06
  part of the music from Donna Summer that she has always been
• 47:11
  a huge fan of, which is this part where it was like, I'm
• 47:16
  taking my life in control into my own hands and I'm going to do
• 47:22
  what I will with it. Both programs have a very
• 47:28
  specific message from Alyssa Lou.
• 47:31
  And that's one of the reasons why it is such is such a thing
• 47:36
  for her. And that's why for me, Gaga
• 47:40
  never worked because she didn't connect with it the way that she
• 47:44
  connects with this music. And I, I do wonder, right, like
• 47:49
  now that she's an Olympic champion, what is the music that
• 47:52
  she's going to then connect to that's going to make, that's
• 47:56
  going to recreate some of this magic because this was magical?
• 48:01
  Yeah. Very much.
• 48:03
  Yeah. So Alyssa Liu says she's going
• 48:08
  to worlds and also says she's not done competing.
• 48:12
  So we will see what happens. I'm really interested to see who
• 48:16
  ends up going to Worlds. I'm, I, I don't know, some of
• 48:20
  these dance teams. I'm like, really?
• 48:22
  But it looks like Piper and Paul are going.
• 48:24
  They're on the team. And Guillermo Laurent said that
• 48:27
  they're going. I don't know if Maddie and Evan
• 48:31
  will go. I I hope they go on Dancing with
• 48:33
  the Stars and do that. I don't know, Yeah.
• 48:40
  I have a feeling Piper and Paul aren't going to go.
• 48:42
  Who knows? I like I, I, I think that that's
• 48:45
  the, that's, that's the Skate Canada assignment and we'll see
• 48:50
  what happens. I don't know.
• 48:51
  I, I don't see, I don't see two 3-4 or five going or no, sorry,
• 48:57
  the 2-3 or four going, which means, you know, Emmy and Vadeem
• 49:04
  and Lila and Lewis right are then the the, the next two to
• 49:10
  potentially be up there. So.
• 49:12
  Do you think Charlene and Marco will go?
• 49:15
  I can't imagine. I don't know.
• 49:18
  Who knows? They can do the Paris event.
• 49:22
  There could be, there could be, there could be a big changing of
• 49:25
  the guard at at. Worlds.
• 49:28
  Yeah, we forgot to talk about one incredible woman's short
• 49:33
  program, and that would be Luna Hendrix.
• 49:36
  Luna brand new program at the Olympics to yet another Céline
• 49:41
  Dion song. That was awesome after having
• 49:45
  two really awful injuries in the weeks leading up to the
• 49:49
  Olympics. And she made it like that was a
• 49:53
  great short from her free skate was not as great.
• 49:56
  But you know, I was so happy to see her and for her to make it.
• 49:59
  And she's a three time Olympian and she's the only woman from
• 50:03
  2018 Milan world who made it to Milan Olympics, which is also
• 50:08
  crazy. Yeah, I mean also first time she
• 50:11
  skated a clean short all season. Yeah, she needed to surrender to
• 50:17
  Celine. I mean, she she, she also told
• 50:20
  us that she loves that song more than she loved ashes.
• 50:24
  So power of actually liking the program that you're skating to
• 50:30
  so. The power of love.
• 50:31
  The Power of love Céline Dion Luna Hendrix a Céline Dion Stan
• 50:40
  all right, we've talked for a couple hours now so.
• 50:43
  Yeah, we. Have should we talk about,
• 50:46
  should we talk about our faves? Like, let's not even talk about
• 50:50
  talk 5 because we've talked about a lot of them.
• 50:52
  Yeah. Give me your if, if not your
• 50:56
  favorite, your couple of favorites from memories from
• 51:00
  from the Olympics. Memories or performances?
• 51:05
  Performances. Let's go performances.
• 51:06
  OK, I mean, I think I've mentioned them all.
• 51:11
  Mira Kihara individual free skate.
• 51:15
  Gilles and Poirier individual free dance.
• 51:19
  Guinard in February, team free dance, Shin Sato team free
• 51:25
  skate. He was under so much pressure,
• 51:28
  he was so stressed and he went out there and went as clean as
• 51:31
  he can go. I really hope that he spends
• 51:33
  time in this offseason afterworlds working on his spins
• 51:37
  and steps. Call someone, please.
• 51:40
  You can do it. You can do it If you can do a
• 51:43
  quad Lutz that is that clean. You can do a level 4 camel spin.
• 51:46
  I promise. And Yuma, I mean, Yuma short
• 51:52
  program. Yeah, I I really like some of
• 51:57
  the, like, Olympic moments we had and the, like, lower level
• 52:00
  skaters, not lower level, but bottom half of the bottom half
• 52:04
  of the standing sheet. Like Ida Karhunen skating so
• 52:09
  well in her Tutu and Yulia Souter in that free skate was
• 52:14
  awesome. Olga Mikutina, who was so
• 52:18
  excited that we interviewed her in the mix zone.
• 52:20
  She was like me. It's like, yes, you.
• 52:23
  And she skated so well in both of her programs.
• 52:26
  The joy of Montclair University in New Jersey.
• 52:31
  Really laid it down. Yeah, I talked about hockey
• 52:35
  Kunkle. They were awesome in both.
• 52:42
  In both programs, yeah, God, I don't know.
• 52:49
  I think, I think I've covered most of it.
• 52:51
  Becker and Hernandez, in their both of their programs, they
• 52:57
  skated up so up. They were so good.
• 53:00
  And it's really interesting because it feels like they took
• 53:03
  a while from their junior to senior career to kind of really
• 53:06
  get into the mode of being a senior team.
• 53:09
  And the teams that were with them at junior worlds didn't
• 53:12
  have that much of an issue. The Marazz X Yay Kwan and Hannah
• 53:17
  Lim, the Canadian team split up, but those other two teams, like
• 53:21
  they really, they really moved into senior more with more
• 53:25
  efficiency. And I think that once Becker
• 53:27
  Hernandez sort of kind of like found their groove, they
• 53:30
  qualified for the Olympics and they skated so well.
• 53:33
  Both programs were great. They're so classic too.
• 53:38
  I love, I love their skating. Yeah, they were one of the teams
• 53:41
  that Tracy Wilson saw for the first time, and it's like, wow,
• 53:43
  I love them. So yeah, they were great.
• 53:52
  Who else have we not mentioned? Yulia Soucher.
• 53:59
  Yeah, we talked about her. Or I did.
• 54:02
  I did briefly. I just said I listen, I said
• 54:05
  great. Free skate.
• 54:05
  Yeah, but you go for it, yes. No long kiss.
• 54:10
  So I mean her triple let's is chef's kiss.
• 54:15
  Just love that jump for her. No, I mean for me absolutely
• 54:19
  Piper and Paul. I I mean I was if anybody like
• 54:23
  luckily I know there was a TikTok video of me typing.
• 54:27
  Luckily, there is no TikTok video of me crying during Gilles
• 54:32
  Poirier's free dance because I was ugly crying that entire
• 54:36
  time. That was that still, I mean,
• 54:42
  yeah, that was still one of my favorites of the of the whole
• 54:47
  thing. Chin Wan Shah's short program is
• 54:50
  up there. Matteo Rizzo and and his
• 54:56
  Interstellar in the team event. I mean, he he was certainly one
• 55:00
  of those who couldn't replicate what happened to the team event,
• 55:03
  but probably probably wouldn't have without the like huge
• 55:08
  support from his team either. I think he was one of those
• 55:12
  people who really benefited from that.
• 55:17
  I thought those were phenomenal, phenomenal skates.
• 55:21
  You know, the the, the mirror, Kiara and Alyssa Lou free free
• 55:28
  skates like those will live in my brain rent free for the rest
• 55:32
  of my life. There were just so many amazing
• 55:36
  moments. As much as there was some chaos
• 55:40
  at these Olympics, there were so many things that like, I will
• 55:45
  never forget and I will, I'll just it, it, it's, it's the
• 55:52
  Olympics really does bring out something that you'll never see
• 55:58
  anywhere else. And, and some of these skates
• 56:00
  were just so, so amazing. So well, I think that's it for
• 56:11
  our marathon episode. We're at 2 hours 15 minutes now.
• 56:16
  God. Well, we have two more big
• 56:22
  events coming up. We've got junior worlds next
• 56:25
  week and then we've got. Next week.
• 56:28
  It is next weekend. Yeah.
• 56:30
  Yeah, we have, we have a, we have a, we have a week to
• 56:33
  recover and then we have the World Championships in Prague
• 56:37
  coming up. So get ready for all of that.
• 56:41
  But before that, yeah, I'll be at Worlds in person.
• 56:46
  Are you not going? You're not going.
• 56:47
  No, I'm not going. I'm actually going to LA that
• 56:50
  weekend because I am treating myself to seeing Melissa
• 56:58
  Aftermar and her a book party thing she's doing the bass
• 57:02
  player from whole and I bought a ticket and I was like, I'm going
• 57:05
  to go. So this is like my my identity
• 57:08
  as a teenager was not figure skater or figure skater fan.
• 57:12
  It was a whole fan, so I'm treating myself to that.
• 57:17
  Oh, that was like your, that was like your Oasis concert.
• 57:20
  Oh, yeah. Oh.
• 57:21
  Oasis doesn't even come close. I would Courtney Love is like
• 57:24
  the love of my life. I yeah, yeah.
• 57:28
  So. Oh. 11 Quick tangent before we
• 57:31
  finish this episode Yes Michelle, you need to watch a
• 57:37
  series on Netflix called The Boyfriend.
• 57:40
  OK. It is a It is AII watched season
• 57:45
  2 on the plane. It is a Japanese reality dating
• 57:50
  show where they put they put a bunch of men together in a house
• 57:55
  and they make them fall in love. That sounds amazing.
• 58:00
  And it's the most wholesome thing you could possibly watch.
• 58:06
  Season 2 is better than season 1, so go watch it.
• 58:09
  Well, you need to. Watch a movie with the vampire.
• 58:11
  By the way, I. Know we got to.
• 58:13
  So you can get my audio references.
• 58:17
  While we wait. Not the show, the movie.
• 58:20
  The movie while while we wait for the second season of Heat of
• 58:24
  Rivalry, which will not drop until 2027.
• 58:29
  You know, I feel like the US hockey team has squandered a lot
• 58:32
  of the goodwill that heated rivalry created, and I need more
• 58:37
  heated rivalry to come out because I'm not enjoying these
• 58:39
  stories. Well, before we go to junior
• 58:46
  worlds and Worlds, there will be a very special interview coming
• 58:49
  out with Yuna Ayoki that I did in Milan that should be coming
• 58:55
  out this week and we'll have more content.
• 59:00
  I'm I'm I'm scheming something about my pin collection that I
• 59:05
  will do with some other folks that will be potentially
• 59:10
  interesting. So stay tuned for that.
• 59:13
  Hopefully I get it together, but we'll we'll be back Sunday with
• 59:18
  our preview of junior worlds and we will have lots more to come
• 59:27
  before the end of the season. There's still plenty, plenty of
• 59:31
  skating to come. So Michelle, any final thoughts?
• 59:36
  I have 5 days to remember who all the junior skaters are so
• 59:40
  exactly. Exactly.
• 59:42
  At least this time around we're not doing 5 different previews
• 59:45
  for the five different disciplines of the Olympics.
• 59:49
  Oh my God. We should go through our
• 59:52
  previews and see how right we were.
• 59:53
  I know I was pretty wrong, but we both had no, I had the top
• 59:59
  five women correct, but in the wrong order.
• 1:00:05
  You had Isabel up there instead of Monet, so.
• 1:00:08
  I did, yeah. I got Amber in the right spot
• 1:00:11
  and that's it. Everyone else was in the wrong
• 1:00:13
  order. Yeah.
• 1:00:17
  No, I think we did a really bad job.
• 1:00:19
  Yeah. Anyway, So for Michelle Ellis,
• 1:00:24
  this is Jackie Wong, chief skate nerd of rockerskating.com.
• 1:00:29
  Thanks, as always to our sponsors from John Wilson
• 1:00:34
  Blades, and thanks to Tara Nichols for listening to all of
• 1:00:39
  this and putting it all together.
• 1:00:44
  And we'll talk to you again very soon.
• 1:00:45
  Bye. Bye.