#sinitsinakatsalapov
S/K have the best Midnight Blues pattern of the season, one of the best Midnight Blues patterns ever, & my favorite part of it is their execution of step 9, the RBO leg tuck. Most teams do the leg tuck by lifting their free legs very lightly, but S/K choose to do it with a lot of power instead. They showcase deep knee bend, deep edges, close holds, & matching lines accompanied by a lot of personal flair.
Vika does not have to rely on Nikita at all & has complete control of her arm & free leg. She already initiates very neat free leg movement in the RFI-Three Turn before the leg tuck, while most ladies free legs are looser until the leg tuck.
Perfect Kilian hold with no space between them made more difficult by Nikita’s head resting on Vika’s arm, deep right back outside edge, & free legs matching in perfect unison on the leg tuck.
“I always feel so bad for Stepanova/Bukin, in 6 years of seniors (including nationals), they have only won 5 times, 3 of which were just the challenger series wins. They are way more interesting than Sinitsina/Katsalapov imo. Anyways, mad props to them for continuing to skate. They have been wronged for so long.”
“I Don’t understand why Russia is pushing Sinitsina/Katsalapov instead of Stepanova/Bukin. S/B’s programs are more memorable compared to just blurs of ‘Barbie & Ken’ from S/K. As we know, TAT is behind S/B, and since S/K are always ahead of them, that just reveals how little of power TAT actually has in Russia, and how much Zhulin has way more power than we think (going a bit too far probably, but Zhulin’s ex-wife IS the current wife to the press secretary of Putin. Does that influence things? Maybe.).”
“How Sinitsina/Katsalapov won Euros is still beyond me, while Papadakis/Cizeron weren’t perfect at all there, they still should have won, but not by that large margin that they usually do, obviously. If this happens in Beijing, and they make S/K somehow win, that is the end of watching ice dance for me, forever.”
