The Germans have a word for guys like this: Backpfeifengesicht aka "a face in need of a smack".
As a gay, I don't claim him (happy belated pride!)
In my current state of boredom and with the Grand Prix Assignments likely out any day now, I used my endless digital artistic skills to visualize the clusterfuck that has been the post-Olympic off-season in US Pairs. It looked like an apocalypse but a lot of it has already been resolved with most of the split skaters having already found new partners amongst each other. I used the data from Jackie Wong's website for the dates because he's been chronicling when the splits and team-ups were officially announced.
As of right now Emily Chan, Olivia Flores, and Luke Wang are free agents. And as far as I know, all 3 are seeking new partners. I'm curious to find out who they all end up with, as most other free American pairs skaters likely haven't competed in more than a year. Any predictions/hopes for who some of the recent free agents might end up with?
Between them standing together in camp Jenni and Todd's group photo and now this insta story from Katie/Jenni I feel like McBeath/Nagy is definitely happening. Thoughts?
I feel like since Katie has more pairs experience than Audrey they might have more success and hopefully have a smoother partnership than he had with Audrey. I think their skating matches better too.
Idk who her stylist for this is but thank you for letting her be edgy and hot!
My first SOI and it was a total blast of a show! And completely sold out Climate Pledge Arena to the rafters. I know given the US Team's success in Milan I probably shouldn't have been surprised but it was still pretty astounding to see the 18k-ish capacity arena completely full for a figure skating show.
Crowd favorites were definitely Ilia, Alysa, Amber, and Jason.
Highlights:
* Alysa Promise, gorgeous as ever. And Stateside almost made the building explode when it started lol they also played a montage of news and media figures talking about Alysa to build up to Stateside which I thought was really cool.
* Both of Madi and Evan's solo numbers were great, they did their Olympic FD and another number that I can't remember the song for but it was lovely and romantic (it wasn't the bedsheet one lol)
* Isabeau's solo numbers, Material Girl and Zooby Zoo. She didn't do any jumps, I think I saw on here somewhere that she's nursing a bit of an injury, but she's such a charming performer I didn't care.
* Ilia's solo numbers but especially "I Was Made For Loving You" really showed off his skill as a performer.
* "Too Darn Hot", the extended act 1 finale group number, lots of fun moments and
* The Bruno Mars act 2 opener with the boys, complete with backflip fake out.
* Jacob Sanchez doing "Your Idol" (it was a surprise to me that he was even in the show but it was fun to see him and the crowd loved him)
* Jason's spellbinding "Spiegel im Spiegel". Just stunning.
* Amber's "Like a Prayer". Basically a religious experience lol
If I had to pick a number one favorite it's a tossup between those last two bullets, probably an edge to Amber because I'm just obsessed with that program. But make no mistake, everyone was fantastic.
I hope USFS is able to use this newfound attention to continue to develop their talent, and that these skaters are making bank from these awesome sold out crowds!
Pictures in reverse order:
Isabeau performing "Material Girl"
Christina Carreira dragging Anthony Ponomarenko off following their fun Nelly Furtado number
Madi and Evan's Olympic FD
Ellie and Danny's Pitbull number (sidenote, they've ditched the slide-between-her-legs bit lol)
Ilia's "I Was Made For Loving You"
Ellie and Danny's "Shallow"
A funny Ilia pose just before the Bruno Mars act 2 opener
Jacob on the big screen just after his "Your Idol"
Madi & Evan's James Bay number
Ilia's Eminem number
The full cast at curtain call
Christina and Isabeau carrying Alysa after bows
Spent way too much time on something I didn't need to do but I like my new big dumb ship lol
It took way more blocks than I thought it would and I needed to adjust my plans because of both that and not having enough garage space, but I think he turned out pretty cool.
I was listening to Runthrough's Ice Dance Lore again and started thinking about the Virtue/Moir vs Davis/White rivalry, and that got me thinking about the broader US vs Canada rivalry in ice dance. I looked it up, and the US has been on every single World and Olympic ice dance podium since the dawn of IJS with two exceptions (2008 and 2014 Worlds). Canada has missed the podium just 5 times in that stretch (2005, 2016, 2019, 2022 Worlds and 2022 Olympics).
🇺🇸 USA 🇺🇸
Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto:
* 🥈 2005 Worlds, 2006 Olympics, 2009 Worlds
* 🥉 2006 Worlds, 2007 Worlds
Meryl Davis & Charlie White:
* 🥇 2011 Worlds, 2013 Worlds, 2014 Olympics
* 🥈 2010 Olympics, 2010 Worlds, 2012 Worlds
Maia & Alex Shibutani:
* 🥈 2016 Worlds
* 🥉 2011 Worlds, 2017 Worlds, 2018 Olympics
Madison Chock & Evan Bates:
* 🥇 2023 Worlds, 2024 Worlds, 2025 Worlds
* 🥈 2015 Worlds, 2026 Olympics
* 🥉 2016 Worlds, 2022 Worlds
Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue:
* 🥈 2018 Worlds, 2021 Worlds, 2022 Worlds
* 🥉 2019 Worlds, 2022 Olympics
Emilea Zingas & Vadym Kolesnik:
* 🥉 2026 Worlds
Totals: 🥇x6, 🥈x12, 🥉x10
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
🇨🇦 Canada 🇨🇦
Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon:
* 🥈 2006 Worlds, 2007 Worlds
Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir:
* 🥇 2010 Olympics, 2010 Worlds, 2012 Worlds, 2017 Worlds, 2018 Olympics
* 🥈 2008 Worlds, 2011 Worlds, 2013 Worlds, 2014 Olympics
* 🥉 2009 Worlds
Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje:
* 🥈 2014 Worlds
* 🥉 2015 Worlds, 2018 Worlds
Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier:
* 🥈 2024 Worlds, 2025 Worlds, 2026 Worlds
* 🥉 2021 Worlds, 2023 Worlds, 2026 Olympics
Totals: 🥇x5, 🥈x10, 🥉x6
You are literally looking directly at Eeyore's goddamn tail. Maybe you should say... ANYTHING so I don't have to drag Pooh up the hill for this fuckass minigame?
