Mai Mihara Wins Four Continents Championships, Yuzuru Hanyu Places 2nd, Shoma Uno 3rd
From February 16 – 19, this year’s Four Continents Championships took place in Gangneung, South Korea. Japan sent three male skaters, three female skates, two teams of pairs skaters, and two ice dance teams to this event. In the end, the Japanese team won three medals, one of each co…
Wakaba Higuchi (JPN) performs to The Lion King in the women’s individual free skate at the 2022 Winter Olympics, earning 140.93 in the free skate and 214.44 overall for 5th place.
Wakaba Higuchi (JPN) lands a clean triple axel with +1.71 GOE in the women’s short program at the 2022 Winter Olympics. She is the fifth woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics.
I’m just going to say now a significant portion of this will be me talking about Wakaba…
Entering the LP I thought “wow, the most nail-biting part of this will be seeing if South Korea can keep their two next spots for next year.”
I thought.
But I’m just going to say it now: South Korean ladies figure skating is on fire and only having one spot for next year… I mean? Will it go to Dabin? To Eun-soo? To someone else?! Ugh, stupid boots…
This is odd, but I was kind of rooting for Mariah Bell to pull through. I wasn’t expecting her to be one of the top two US ladies skaters, but… idk it’s super obvious that her coach has a lot of other skaters NathanAdamAshley and she’s just… there, meekly reminding USFS that she still exists.
Elizabet won my heart and it’s about 40% her skating to Celine Dion.
I raised an eyebrow at Viveca’s “Cinderella” LP partly because it showed me that it is possible to have a really good Cinderella music edit. (Side eyes Bradie Tennell’s choreographer/sound editor.)
So… I think Bradie’s uncharacteristic jump flubs at OG were a blessing because it felt like she got a bit more space to make her mark on her own terms. She’s beaten the other US ladies at OG and here and I’m excited about the opportunities she’s going to get firmly as US Senior Ladies’ Number One fingers crossed a better choreographer.
I hear Mirai isn’t retiring? Which, good, I want to see her pull out a 3A again in international competition.
WAKABOND.
I LOVE THIS PROGRAM SO MUCH. So this is the quick gush: it’s so well composed and the use of “Skyfall” was perfect. I love how the choreography constantly makes Wakaba go through several vertical planes and how it matches up with the music and the theme. That section in the step sequence where she’s spinning with her hands raised in finger guns and she then immediately drops down to her knees as Adele sings “when the sky falls”. “We will stand tall” as she collapses to one knee right in front of the judges. fucking genius.
And yes some of it is rather unimaginative. “Put your hand in my hand” while Wakaba throws out her hands and then clasps them together, but she fucking emotes, you can see the story there, this is not filler, she is truly a spy trying to get someone (JSU) out of a bad situation (only having two spots).
And that spiral position during “As the sky falls”? I swear it felt like I was seeing imaginary debris.
True star here was her jawline though. Wakaba acting like there were villains she was fending off and those sharp facial turns. THIS IS HOW YOU SELL CHOREOGRAPHY.
Honestly, the high was high.
Alina falling three times on her signature jumps was heartbreaking. The title was hers to lose and I feel like this is just going to be unnecessary fire for the Alina Haters/Evgenia Stans… when… Alina has been sick? With a cold? She’s exhausted? Let her enjoy her dog in peace!
I truly did think that Carolina would get the gold with how ready the judges seemed to reward her for… being 31, skating against these preteen phenoms, and holding her own. And when Alina fell… I didmessage a friend saying that Carolina Kostner could be the 2018 World Champion and we did have a minute just gushing about the possibility.
Oh well, her SP was fucking gorgeous.
Kaetlyn’s peak “Black Swan” was at the Olympics but I’m happy she finally has a world title.
Ugh Satoko. Her peak was also at the Olympics. I just want her to go home and rest and remember that she is a World Bronze Medallist.
It honestly never escapes me how many more titles and medals Kaetlyn and Satoko would have had their bodies not betrayed them and had Eteri not brought in her girls and absolutely exploited the system.
Tbqh I’m happy ISU is going to figure out how to tweak scoring this summer.
