#ISU Grand Prix Final

[moon-soo-ah]

OMG yeees!! over 300! GOLD WINNER

[purple-jupiter-ascending]

To quote Scott Moir: " oh my god I hate this event"

[gofigureelectra]

NHK Trophy 22 - Mens Free Skate Results

1. 🥇 Shoma Uno - JPN - 279.76

2. 🥈 Sota Yamamoto - JPN - 257.85

3. 🥉 Junhwan Cha - KOR - 254.76

Here are the current Grand Prix Final standings heading into Espoo next week:

30 - Shoma Uno - Q

26 - Kao Miura - Q

26 - Sota Yamamoto - Q

24 - Daniel Grassl - Q

22 - Adam Siao Him Fa

22 - Junhwan Cha

20 - Kazuki Tomono

-

15 - Illia Mallinin and 11 - Shun Sato are going to be looking to punch their tickets to the Grand Prix Final with a medal, but Kevin Aymoz, Keegan Messing and Morisi Kvitelashvili will be looking to spice the standings up.

Here’s a bonus picture of Junior Shoma and Sota from Inside Skating — this weekend definitely brought back memories of the Sota/Shoma rivalry over the years, and it’s so wonderful to not only see them doing well again, pushing and supporting each other, and to see them returning to old patterns of competing.

[72crowe89]

Grand Prix Final Math

So, out of boredom and love for math, I decided to calculate how several skaters could make the Grand Prix Final. If I made a mistake, please comment under the post. Also, for convenience sake, I’m only considering those with 22 points and those who placed 4th or higher and are going to Espoo (except for Pairs).

Men

Currently in:

Shoma Uno (30 points: 15 + 15)

Kao Miura (26 points: 13 + 13)

Sota Yamamoto (26 points: 13 + 13)

Daniel Grassl (24 points: 9 + 15)

On the cusp:

Adam Siao Him Fa (22 points: 15 + 7)

Cha Jun-hwan (22 points: 11 + 11)

Heading to Espoo:

Ilia Malinin (15 points)

Shun Sato (11 points)

Keegan Messing (9 points)

Path to the GPF:

Keegan: Gets in if he wins (24 points: 9 + 15) 

Shun: Gets in if he’s 2nd place or higher (24 or 26 points: 9 + 13 or 9 + 15), unless Keegan wins (24 points but higher placement) and Ilia gets 3rd or 4th place (26 points or 24 points but higher placement)

Ilia: Gets in if he’s in 4th or higher (24-30 points: 15 + (9 to 15)), and a good chance of getting in at 5th place (22 points, but more likely to have a higher total score than Adam), unless Keegan wins and Shun get 2nd place (both 24 points) and he’s 5th place or lower (< or = 22 points)

Adam: Shun gets 3rd place (22 points, but Adam has the higher placement) or lower (< 22 points), or Ilia gets 6th place or lower (< or = 20 points) or he places 5th and Adam beats his combined scores (probable but unlikely), and Keegan gets 2nd place (22 points, but Adam has the higher placement) or lower (<22 points)

Jun-hwan: Two of the above happen to Ilia, Shun, and/or Keegan

Women

Currently in:

Kaori Sakamoto (28 points: 15 + 13)

Kim Ye-lim (28 points: 13 + 15)

Isabeau Levito (26 points: 13 + 13)

On the cusp:

Rinka Watanabe (22 points: 15 + 7)

Rion Sumiyoshi (22 points: 11 + 11)

Heading to Espoo:

Mai Mahara (15 points)

Loena Hendrickx (15 points)

Anastasiia Gubanova (11 points)

Path to the GPF:

Anastasiia: Gets in if she’s 2nd or higher (24 or 26 points: 11 + 13 or 11 + 15)

Loena: Gets in if she’s 4th or higher (24-30 points: 15 + (9 to 15)), and a good chance of getting in at 5th place (22 points, but a higher placement than Rion and a more than likely higher combined score than Rinka)

Mai:  Gets in if she’s 4th or higher (24-30 points: 15 + (9 to 15)), and a good chance of getting in at 5th place (22 points, but a higher placement than Rion and a more than likely higher combined score than Rinka)

Rinka: Gets in if either Loena or Mai get 6th place or lower (< or = 20 points) or place fifth and have a smaller combined score than Rinka (unlikely for both) or Anastasiia gets 3rd place (22 points, but Rinka has the higher placement) or lower (< or = 20 points)

Rion: Two of the above happen to Anastasiia, Loena, or Mai

Ice Dance

Currently in: 

Charlene Guignard/ Marco Fabbri (30 points: 15 + 15)

Laurence Fournier-Beaudry/ Nikolaj Sorensen (28 points: 13 + 15)

Madison Chock/ Evan Bates (28 points: 15 + 13)

Lilah Fear/ Lewis Gibson (26 points: 13 + 13)

On the cusp:

Marjorie Lajoie/ Zachary Lagha (22 points: 11 + 11)

Going to Espoo:

Piper Gilles/ Paul Poirier (15 points)

Kaitlin Hawayak/ Jean-Luc Baker (13 points)

Christina Carreira/ Anthony Ponomarenko (9 points)

Path to GPF:

C/P: Get in if they win (24 points: 9 + 15) and H/B are not 2nd place (26 points) or G/P are 5th or lower (< or = 22 points) or in 4th place and C/P beat their combined score (unlikely)

H/B: Get in if they are 2nd or higher (26 or 28 points: 13 + 13 or 13 + 15) or 3rd place if C/P doesn’t win (24 points, but C/P would have the higher place), or 4th place if G/P get lower than 5th place (< or = 20 points) and C/P are 2nd, and H/B beat their combined total score (likely), or lower (< 22 points)

G/P: Get in if they are 4th place or higher (24 to 30 points: 15 + (9 to 15)) or 5th place if C/P don’t win or H/B place 4th (22 points, but G/P would have the higher placement) or lower (< or = 20 points)

La/La: Get in if G/P are 6th or lower (15 points total) or H/B are 5th or lower (13 or 20 points total, or both if C/P win (24 points) or gets 2nd (22 points, but C/P would have the higher placement)

Pairs

Currently in:

Riku Miura/ Ryuichi Kihara (30 points: 15 + 15)

Alexa Knierim/ Brandon Frazier (30 points: 15 + 15)

Deanna Stellato-Dudek/ Maxime Deschamps (28 points: 13 +15)

Emily Chan/ Spencer Akira Howe (26 points: 13 + 13)

Sara Conti/ Niccolo Macii (24 points: 11 + 13)

Going to Espoo:

Rebecca Ghilardi/ Filippo Ambrosini (9 points)

Anastasiia Metelkina/ Daniil Parkman (9 points)

Anna Valesi/ Manuel Piazza (7 points)

Daria Danilova/ Michel Tsiba (5 points)

Path to GPF:

G/A: Get in if they win or place second (22 points) if D/T wins (20 points)

M/P:  Get in if they win or place second (22 points) if D/T wins (20 points)

V/P: Get in if they win (22 points)

D/T: Get in if they win (20 points) unless G/A or M/P place second (22 points)

[janetsnekhol]

Anyways I can’t believe they won the GPF

[p-crowds]

Gp without the russians becomes even more interesting.

[buildabruh]

Uncharacteristic skate from Ilia today, but perhaps his 4A can bring him back into medal contention in the free skate

Shoma and Sota skated two of the most beautiful programs I’ve ever seen!!

[millyandprudyandfriends]

Is Kaori...okay???

[amourphousblob]

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to describe to a non-fs fan the feeling of realizing in real time that bock actually listened to the criticism of their rhythm dance and re-did the music

[figureskatingpenguin]

say hello to the ladies who have qualified for the 2023 ISU Grand Prix Final!

1. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) - 30 pts

2. Isabeau Levito (USA) - 28 pts

3. Loena Hendrickx (BEL) - 26 pts

4. Hana Yoshida (JPN) - 24 pts

5. Nina Pinzarrone (BEL) - 24 pts

6. Rion Sumiyoshi (JPN) - 24 pts

Alternates: Kim Chaeyeon (KOR), Lindsay Thorngren (USA), Niina Petrokina (EST)

[moon-soo-ah]

YASS!!! SHOMA!! You did amazing!

99.99!

[purple-jupiter-ascending]

He came and blessed the cursed ice!

[gofigureelectra]

GPF Torino 22 - Kaori Sakamoto

Elements:

2A | 3Lz | FCS2 | CCoS3 | 3F3T (!!!!) | StSq 4 (heck yeah) | LS4

Program: Janet Jackson Medley

Kaori and Rohene must have WORKED and WORKED this program, because her musicality and attention to detail with the choreography is soooo much better than I have ever seen from her. I honestly really didn't like this program for her at the beginning of this season, and U thought it was way too much of a stretch or just another fake-cool program for her, but she has really risen to the challenge. She even had some facials TToTT !!!! I'm so proud of her, she is growing so much as a skater and performer. I can't wait to see what this ends up becoming by Worlds.

(thank you to @irrieia for correcting my error, I cannot believe that my strong association between Kaori and Benoit made me forget that this was a Rohene program, because of course it is)

Really REALLY solid performance from her today, her jumps were seriously on FIRE and she lit up the ice in the beginning AND in the step sequence. However both of those spins will really open up the door for both Mai and Loena, but should not be enough even with two clean programs from them to make a big enough difference that she couldn't make up in the free.

Score: 75.86 into 1st

Update: they gave her back a level in the review, but also what the heck judge 7, did we watch the same program? Like even if you dislike kaori’s style of skating like I used to, or really hate Janet Jackson and this style of choreography, you can’t deny that this was a great performance and is a great program, so 7s????

[janetsnekhol]

Honestly Sota is one of my new faves after the GPF

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

ISU released an article about Shoma

Two-time ISU World Champion and three-time Olympic medalist Shoma Uno of Japan has announced his retirement from competitive skating after a long and distinguished career and is ready to open a new chapter in his life.

“I have decided to retire from active competition,” Uno wrote on Instagram. “I am very grateful to have been able to continue skating for 21 years since I was 5 years old, and to have had a wonderful athletic life.”

The Japanese star will talk in more detail about his retirement and future plans in a press conference scheduled for May 14.

The 26-year-old looks back at a career with many highlights and also difficult times, but he always came back, proving his talent and showing resilience. When five-year-old Shoma went to the ice rink in his hometown of Nagoya with his father to have fun, he had no idea that he would become a World Champion, Olympic medalist and super star of the sport. He only knew that the enjoyed skating and kept coming back to the rink, taking lessons. He trained with Machiko Yamada, the coach of Japanese skating icon Midori Ito and also with Mihoko Higuchi for many years and worked his way up in the skating world.

Uno debuted in the ISU Junior Grand Prix in 2011 and was so tiny that he was unable to look over the boards. He won a few medals on the Junior circuit but his breakthrough came in what was his last Junior season in 2014/15 when he qualified for the first time for the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final where he claimed gold. Shoma went on to take the ISU World Junior title in 2015, in what was his fourth and final appearance at the event (climbing from 10th in 2012, 7th in 2013 and 5th in 2014).

Once at the senior level, Uno quickly became one of the top Skaters in the World. In his World debut in 2016 he placed 7th but then the next year won silver, his first of a total of four World medals. In his first Olympic Winter Games in 2018, Shoma skated off with the silver medal and returned on to the Olympic podium four years later, earning the bronze. In 2022 and 2023 Uno crowned himself ISU World Champion.

However, in between there was a time of struggle. In the 2019/20 season, for the first (and only) time in his career, Uno finished off the podium in the ISU Grand Prix Series. He had left his coaches since childhood and struggled with confidence.

“At first, to be honest, I was thinking about finishing my career,“ he said in an interview at Skate America 2021 about this time.

“I did not know how much longer I would keep going. But imaging the end (I thought) maybe I'll enjoy the rest of this career as an athlete.“

Uno started to work with two-time World Champion Stéphane Lambiel as his coach and choreographer in fall 2019 and soon came back strong. He grew as an athlete and a performer with beautiful programs that highlighted his versatility: “Turandot” (Free Skating 2017/18), “Great Spirit” (Short Program 2020/21), “Bolero” (Free Skating 2021/22) and “Spiegel im Spiegel” (Free Skating 2023/24) to name a few.

At the same time, the Japanese star always pushed the limits technically and made history by becoming the first Skater to perform a quadruple flip in competition in 2016.

“When I train and want to become better, it's not good for me to work on what I can already do. If I'm satisfied with just giving 80 per cent, I'm not good. The right training for me is to push my limits,” Uno said in an interview.

The Japanese Skater has an independent mind and a fun personality. He has a Youtube Channel where you can meet his three toy poodles Emma, Baron and Toro.

“When I am on the ice, I am totally focused on my sport, but when I'm off the ice, I am sure most people know I am just a lazy slacker, but I thought that would be a good way to show to the people how I am off the ice, but still this is Shoma Uno,” he explained.

When asked who inspires him the most, Shoma’s surprising answer was:

"Myself. Of course, I think I am inspired by many people and heard some good words from everyone, too, but in the end when you break it down, I do feel that it is myself that inspires me and sadly, I don't listen to anyone. Sometimes I listen, but mostly I go with my own mind,” he added.

For sure Uno will follow his own ideas in the years to come but you can certainly expect to see him gracing the ice in shows for a while.

[cottonraincoat]

okay the time has come I cannot procrastinate this any longer:

Obikin Big Bang beta: help needed!!

tl;dr: I'm writing a big bang fic about Obi-Wan and Anakin figure skating, they're also respectively aromantic and asexual, it'll probably end up ~60k, I would be suuuper grateful if someone could help me look through the final-ish draft, for grammar and spelling, over the next two-ish months.

ALTERNATIVELY if anyone is happy to just chat about either figure skating, or the disaster aro/aceness of these boys, I would also love that very much please hmu!!!

--- more stuff under the cut ---

working title: figure skating?? (as it's called in the docs)

rating: T

wc: 60k (12 * 5k chapters- a rough estimate)

some tags: Alternate Universe- Modern AU, Asexual Anakin Skywalker, Aromantic Obi-Wan Kenobi, Internalized Aphobia, Getting Together, Queerplatonic Relationships, Slow Burn, Angst and Fluff, Inspired by Yuri On Ice (sort of)

This is my first big bang, I've not written with a beta before, and I've certainly not tried to finish anything this long before. so, whew: leaning curve! I'm at the point where I'm producing chapter drafts which are close to their final versions, but also debating the details of some scenes and descriptions. And so, I'd like some help with the following things:

good old grammar and spelling! (I changed the whole thing from past to present tense at some point so there may be slip ups) this will be hopefully just a final pass of a version of the draft that won't change very much, a draft I'll hopefully produce at some point, incrementally, between now and the end of september :'D

skating stuff: I am a casual fan of the sport, so between a pandemic-years-old youtube rabbit hole and tearing my hair out trying to read ISU documentation, I'm still trying to figure out "how skate". (I thought I was in pretty deep but iceberg always goes deeper.) I'd sleep a lot easier if anyone who knows more than me about skating would be willing to give the skating descriptions (up to 10k max) a read through to check for realism.

aroace stuff: this is a big one. It's arguably even more important to me to get this right than the skating. In addition to being a disaster aspec myself, I've been trying to read up a bit, but that still leaves some gaps between my knowledge/experience and the experiences of these characters in the fic. Which is why I would really really like a second pair of eyes on some of the scenes and characterisations.

60k is like, a lot of words and I am still slowly being forced out of denial about it so I know that even a spag check is a big ask. But honestly, anything is appreciated, whether you could help me with Obi-Wan's aro-allo-ness, or figure out how to people three whole Grand Prix events. As for contact, here, or discord, or anywhere you know me will be fine!

Now let's call it at that, before this post gets any longer. If you've read till here- thank you already!