In addition to our Snapshot Stats on Tumblr, this Olympic season we’ll also be taking a numbers-oriented look right here at the topic of international assignments: who gets them, who doesn’t, and how often does reality reflect promise? Kicking things off, a first look at Canada’s NextGen program. Heading into the 2017-18 skating season, Skate…
by Jacquelyn Thayer 24 hours. That’s approximately how much time passed, after a troubled free dance performance at the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, before Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker seriously mulled the possibility of bringing back — or, rather, keeping with — their well-received Liebestraum free dance for the Olympic season. “We had a…
With today’s surprise reveal of 2017-18’s Grand Prix assignments, Two for the Ice has compiled the hows, whys — and possible huhs — of who and how many assignments the dance and pair teams in question received. We’ll look first at dance, the larger and, thus, more unwieldy field. Couples who placed in the top…
ON STEP SEQUENCES: If ice dance tangos can be ballroom and Argentine, compulsory, short-form or freestyle, they can also take their cues from a wholly other source: history. More than seems to be the case with other styles, like waltz or the Latin dances, tango seems to inspire choreographers and skaters to a vintage tribute.…
Part 2 of a two-part feature; read part 1 here by Jacquelyn Thayer Athletes have spoken of the difficulty in moving from the concretely goal-focused regimen of the sporting life to the more mundane concerns of life after. But in the first months since retirement, the mundane is what’s grounded ice dancers Alexandra Paul and…
Part 1 of a two-part feature by Jacquelyn Thayer Perseverance: few virtues are more celebrated in sport. For athletes grappling with injury and long odds, it becomes a mantra. But just as fundamental is the confidence to know when it’s time to close a door. Canadian ice dancers Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam initially entered…
by Jacquelyn Thayer In the wake of the 2017 World Championships, an expanded look at the numbers beneath the outcomes. THE SCORESIf the 2017 World Championships — like any major skating event — told us anything, it’s how little confidence one should place in past scores and relationships between those personal bests so-called, particularly in…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Any move up from the junior ranks in skating to senior can mean upheaval. For U.S. ice dancers Julia Biechler and Damian Dodge, bigger transitions were in the works. Though the team has long been based at Aston, Pennsylvania’s IceWorks, changes at that elite rink, where coach Natalia Linichuk once trained students…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Ottawa is no stranger to a Canadian championships; chosen this year in part to recognize 2017’s Canada 150 celebration, it’s also hosted the national skating championships 14 previous times—including, most recently, 2014’s Olympic qualifying event, where several of this year’s top skaters then contended for a spot to Sochi. Chief among those…
Subscribers to TFTI’s Weekly Protocol, and those who follow Twitter closely, will have heard by now many an opinion on certain of this season’s programs. But with this and with the diminution of the middle ranks particularly in dance since last season, it’s also difficult to present any “favorite programs of 2016” list that offers…
