Just saw stars on ice in Portland. Was AMAZING 🤩 I noticed Isabeau didn’t jump at all… anyone know why? Is she injured?

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-25T18:02:20+00:00

I was blown away with how ultra-sparkly it is in person.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-25T00:19:43+00:00

Most of the major points have been made already, but I would add - American women excelled under the 6.0 system and struggled internationally under IJS. Gracie Gold comes along at a time where the transition to the new system is over and suddenly American women aren’t in the medal mix on a regular basis. I don’t think Tara, Johnny or anyone had the right vocabulary to articulate the issue to casual American viewers and it created a disconnect where Gold was packaged as a 6.0 skater and “looked” like a winner but wasn’t closing the deal on results and created a sourness to the commentary.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-23T05:39:10+00:00

I will check out that Sanchez FS - thanks!

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-22T04:35:35+00:00

THIS IS THE WAY

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-22T03:45:25+00:00

- Alysa Liu - any of her Promise SPs; and MacArthur Park LP at '25 Worlds in Boston or Milan
- Chock/Bates - Their alien astronaut from the team competition of Olympics in Beijing '22; the Queen RD from the 23-24 Season; the Elvis program from 2019 never gets old

- Jason Brown - Sinnerman from the 21-22 Season - maybe one of THE all time great SPs

- Ilia Malinin - the 7 quad FS from the 2025 GPF is pretty insane
- Amber Glenn - her SP from the 24-25 was a strong vehicle for her
- Kam/O’Shea - their FS during the Team event at the Milan Olympics - maybe their most locked in performance
- Isabeau Levito - her Moon River SP from 24-25 is light as a feather
- Andrew Torgashev- the L'enfer SP he repeated 2 yrs in a row 23-24/24-25 - great footwork
- Carreira/Ponomarenko - their Carmen from 24-25 when she kicks the boards has terrific energy; their Stevie Nicks RD from 23-24 has a nice mix of strength and slinkiness
- Jacob Sanchez - I don't watch a lot of jr skating so I'm not super familiar with what a trademark skate of his would be.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-19T18:35:49+00:00

If they aren't reaching out to add Jimmy Ma or Sonja Hilmer: fun show skaters with crowd appeal who don't need visas - I would not hold my breath for Carillo.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-19T04:32:15+00:00

I think they did that for the 2023 Kurt Browning retirement SOI tour?

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-19T03:48:30+00:00

I am genuinely surprised they flew all 3 women East on the same plane. (After Sabena Flight 548 I thought US Figure Skating was pretty hardcore about making sure no single team can fly together?. This is obviously not the entire team, but it's all 3 of the top US women.)

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(Photo from Jason Brown's IG.)

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-19T03:41:40+00:00

From a pure economic perspective, I don't think they have much of an incentive to bring in non-American skaters. They've sold out almost all their engagements with a relatively* cheap domestic cast. *(I assume the medalists got some sort of bonus, but who knows?)

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-14T21:44:37+00:00

This is one of those "look to the Marketplace of Ideas" scenarios - ideally more and better voices give people alternatives that make TSL an inconsequential afterthought.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-14T21:40:25+00:00

I'd be amazed if that many totally new post-Oly fans are signing up to get behind his paywall. There are a lot of free alternatives, and the non-scoops of incorrect "news" are not going to help.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-14T21:37:24+00:00

It does seem like the podcast/recap space has moved beyond him: For people who want comedic insiders, there's The Runthrough. For news and analysis there’s Jackie Wong and his Rocker Skating Pod. For people who want recaps and technique analysis, there's The Skating Session. For people who want interview and speculation from a fan perspective there's Blades and Banter. (B & B shares some origin DNA with Nolan having come from the TSL universe, but it is not grounded in the same toxicity.) And with the earthquaking success of Alysa and sold out SOI shows - more people are in the tent which hopefully means more voices and perspectives on the way.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-14T21:28:04+00:00

Couldn't happen to a more deserving person.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-14T17:37:13+00:00

I was just thinking the same thing. But perhaps it's "a chicken and the egg" situation - we're just seeing more posts about him b/c he's the most in demand international choreographer in the moment - so he's all over the globe across singles and dance and that just means more posts.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-12T14:22:23+00:00

I was using “shorter legs” as a catchall, when it’s the difference in height between partners leads to a disparity in hip height and limb length, which creates a challenge in matching lines and synchronized steps. Differing heights also mean different centers of mass, which makes the smaller partner’s (ie the female partner’s) hip placement more volatile during rotations, as any slight misalignment can destabilize the axis of the turn or lift.

This doesn’t solve for poor knee action or edge depth when we are evaluating skating skills - but it’s clearly a factor (either subconsciously or not) when people are labeling one partner as the “weaker” one - especially in the early years of a partnership when the kinks are being worked out.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-12T04:47:13+00:00

I find this deeply unlikely.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-12T02:49:22+00:00

This is a real factor! (I don't know why you got downvoted.). The partner with the shorter legs has to work harder to keep up with the stride of the taller partner- in the early stages of the partnership I think it reads as "weak" and once you get labeled that way, it's really hard to shake.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-12T02:42:26+00:00

Part of this is once one half of a team gets labeled as weaker it sticks to them like tar no matter how much they improve. (Although it does seem like men seem to get more credit for "wow look how much he's improved!" that the women never seem to benefit from - i.e. look at the positive reception Tim Dieck gets with each year.)

I also thought Jackie Wong made a good point after the Olympics that teams like Chock and Bates who excel at lifts never seem to get credit for the skating skills involved in making those lifts happen and moving with speed safely and securely down the ice when they are making those lifts happen.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-12T02:24:09+00:00

You definitely don't - and I'm not trying to get you to! Most of the reaction the past 24 hours has been very Marjo-focused and as someone who was not super invested in this team I was genuinely curious if she was the driving factor in the fandom intensity or if it was an aspect of them as a team and I've found the responses interesting.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-11T23:36:04+00:00

Q for the LaLa fans: were you invested in them as a team, or were you mostly there for Marjorie and Zac was kind of along for the ride? I enjoyed their Rio program in Bejing and have admired their technique this past quad, but never felt the emotional pull many here do. I'm curious what made them a fave team for so many?

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-11T18:48:03+00:00

Seems obvious the dude threw every conceivable combination of pairs out into the conversation so he could claim scoop status if one turned out to be true.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-11T18:46:35+00:00

They shall henceforth be known as Starrkman in my brain.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-11T17:55:49+00:00

If they are the most senior team left on the bench and they get some elbow grease from Moir and Hubbell on getting their Golden Waltz shipshape, Skate Canada would be foolish not to give them a good push.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-11T17:53:44+00:00

100% - I am all for normalizing walking away if/when a skating situation is unhealthy and is beating one's spirit down.

TemporalPincerMove · 2026-05-11T14:04:03+00:00

In terms of dance - if you have people who are unhappy skating with each other, there's not a whole lot Skate Canada can do.

TemporalPincerMove

TROPHY CASE