We wrap up Junior Worlds with our favourite discipline and a really fun event - the junior dance! We discuss the many pattern dance interruptions that were assessed by this tech panel, how to balance skating with full speed and energy with not making major mistakes, and the nice balance we have of countries with lots of talent competing with each other, plus newer countries having teams that are competitive with the best junior teams. Plus, we take some time to discuss the newly released rules and requirements for dance next season, and announce an upcoming hiatus for the podcast.
We continue our discussion of Junior Worlds with the men's event and discuss how important international competitions are to skater development (and how many skaters seem to be currently feeling the lack of opportunities), the reasonable number of quads attempted in the free skate, and the countries with exciting competition brewing among their young men's skaters.
Next up we discuss the small pairs event, including the state of the pairs field for the upcoming season in general, what reforms could be made to encourage more pairs teams worldwide to develop and be able to compete somewhat regularly, and our hopes for a successful future career for all of the teams here, but particularly those already finding success in brand new partnerships.
This strange season wraps up with the Junior World Championships, and we begin our recaps with the women! We discuss how JGP spots for next season will be allocated (and whether there could be a better way to do it), whether tech minimums for the women need to be raised a bit next year, and when having one stand out quality can help you more in your scores than being consistently strong in all PCS categories.
We wrap up our discussion of Worlds with our favourite men's event of the season, and discuss the fantastic skating we saw here, some young teens with tons of untapped potential, the last-minute alternates who really capitalized on their sudden opportunity, and just how amazing our winner might be if he could get in three free skate combinations consistently.
This year's Worlds also had an exciting dance event, helped out by a very enthusiastic crowd. We discuss score ceilings in dance, wonder what next year's rhythm dance requirements will be (and whether there will actually be a pattern requirement), and hope for more weird and eccentric programs in a post-Olympic season.
After a tough women's event at the Olympics, we had a much more enjoyable time with the women's event at Worlds, and we discuss how thrilled we are to have a podium full of happy tears, the agony and the ecstasy of placements decided by just hundredths of points, and our hope that just about all the women who competed here will continue skating and competing for many years so we can continue to enjoy watching them develop.
This year's world championships were a strange one in many ways, but particularly in the pairs event. We discuss the opportunities and pressures faced by teams with a sudden chance to make it to the top of the podium, why referees should be empowered to do more in the case of a mid-program injury, and how much we hope that pairs skating worldwide will grow and thrive in the next quad after the inevitable splits and retirements that happen after an Olympics.
Figure skating at this Olympics concluded with the pairs, and it was just about everything we had hoped it would be! We discuss the many amazing skates from the top half of the field and the extremely close race for gold, the many promising young teams we hope to see competing in four years time, and how much we hope the legacy of amazing Chinese pair teams continues well into the future.
Olympic figure skating events wrap up with the pairs this time around, and we started off with a pretty fantastic short program. We discuss how much of a numbers game the free skate might be for the top teams, how much we've missed seeing the Chinese pairs this season, and how much we hope that this Olympics can end on a high note with a good free skate for the pairs.