Eighteen Hours of Skating
When I say Saturday was a full day, it was a FULL day. And I got to witness history!
How much figure skating is too much for one person to watch in one day? As the legendary Cady Heron would say, “The limit does not exist.”
This past Saturday, I decided to spend the entire day watching figure skating. And when I say the entire day, I mean as close to it as humanly possible. One event on TV and two in person, stretching from 2:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET.
It started with watching the Cup of China, the second event of the ISU Grand Prix season, which, because of the time difference, started either early in the morning or late at night, depending on your perspective. That was followed by watching some (but not close to all) of the Violet Ice Classic, an intercollegiate skating meet hosted by NYU, but held in Boston. That was followed by a visit to Worcester for another installment of Disney On Ice: Jump In!
I’ve had days like this before, usually around basketball. It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Las Vegas Summer League, but those days often involved spending 12-14 hours in one location, bouncing back and forth between two gyms to catch parts of ten different NBA games. And truth be told, the skating was FAR more enjoyable. In fact, my biggest takeaway from the day was that I can and do enjoy watching skating at just about every level in just about every form the sport takes.
But let’s start at the very beginning, at the very top of the sport, with the very best the sport has to offer.
Cup of China
I was spoiled by the first Grand Prix event of the season, GP de France, taking place in the morning and afternoon in the United States. That was not the case with this weekend’s event, which started in the wee hours of the morning. At least I was able to go to sleep early on Friday night, which wasn’t the case the day before, when I got about three hours of sleep before the short programs.
Saturday’s action started with the free dance, and the reigning world champions — Madison Chock and Evan Bates — took home the gold once again. Impressively, Emelia Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik were right on their tails, meaning U.S. nationals might not be the coronation everyone expected.
Team USA was also 1-2 in the women’s event, with Amber Glenn defending her title by edging out reigning world champion Alysa Liu with a wonderful skate. Amazingly, this was Liu’s first GP medal of any kind, which reinforces just how improbable her world title in Boston was.
Sadly, that’s where the success for the U.S. skaters ended. Jacob Sanchez actually recovered from a rough short program to finish fifth in the free skate, moving up from ninth to seventh overall. In a stunning reversal of trends, the top three men after the short program — Shun Sato, Daniel Grassl, and Mikhail Shaidorov — went in that exact same order in the free skate.
Italy’s Lucrezia Beccari and Matteo Guarise withdrew after the short program, leaving just seven pairs teams skating on Saturday. And unfortunately the U.S. team of Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman finished in seventh. They struggled badly on Saturday, and it was heartbreaking to watch, especially Katie’s reaction when they finished.
The big story out of pairs was the return of Wenjing Sui and Cong Han, the 2022 Olympic gold medalists. They finished in third place, behind the pairs of Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (Georgia) and Sara Conti/Niccolò Macii (Italy). I’ve really enjoyed Anastasiia and Luka since seeing them skate at worlds, and both of Anastasiia’s costumes this weekend were incredible.
And that wrapped up the televised portion of the day.
Violet Ice Classic
This is where I point out that Saturday wasn’t technically 18 hours of watching skating, because there were multiple hours of driving involved. It wasn’t until I got to the Skating Club of Boston around Noon that I realized I could have gotten a hotel Friday night in Norwood, watched Cup of China from there, then driven over, which would have allowed me to watch a couple more hours of this intercollegiate event.
I’d never been to a college skating meet before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there were so many levels of competition. Literally everything from Aspire all the way up to Senior (in fact, there were a couple of names on the senior starting lists I’d recognized from NQS events I attended earlier this season). And events were happening on both the main rink and the West Rink simultaneously, so I was bouncing back and forth.
This was a competitive event — there were medals handed out for each discipline and the results all contributed to team scores for the schools involved — but it wasn’t about the competition for me. I’m sure if I had been attending the whole event over the course of multiple days, I would’ve been more caught up in the scoring, but for me, this was largely just about enjoying the performances. So let’s take a look at some of my favorites.
Caroline Sheets - New York University
I mentioned there was an Aspire category and seeing skaters competing at that level was so incredibly cool. And I adored Caroline’s dress, which she told me she made herself!
Priscilla Liao - Rutgers University
I mentioned I was going back and forth between the rinks, and I made it back to the main rink just in time to see Priscilla’s Britney Spears program as part of the Senior Solo Free Dance competition (and solo dance really should be a bigger deal in skating. It’s so fun to watch).
Isabella DeGroot - University of Vermont
Spoiler alert: You’re going to see this as a reel on my Instagram account soon, because I’m obsessed with it. An entire “Reputation” themed program? Yes please.
Sophia Iannelli - Sacred Heart University
More solo dance, this time at the junior level. Sophia brought some amazing energy to the ice, in addition to a gorgeous dress.
Lindsey Buchanan - Rutgers University
I was back on the West Rink for pre-preliminary singles, and loved the joy with which Lindsey skated. Also, shoutout to the entire Rutgers team, which brought the energy at the start of every one of their skaters’ programs (actually, every team was so supportive of all their skaters; it felt quite similar to college gymnastics in that regard).
Lena Valenti - New York University
There was actually a false start at the beginning of Lena’s program, because they played the wrong music. But it didn’t throw her off at all, as she did a wonderful job skating at the preliminary level.
Alexis Montante - Northeastern University
Sticking with preliminary singles, Alexis not only had a stunning dress, but she skated to Lana Del Rey, which is always a winner in my book.
Nadia Dupuis - University of Connecticut
This one I already did share as a reel, because I’ve been waiting all season for someone to skate to “Ray of Light” as a tribute to the late Michelle Trachtenberg (whose character Casey Carlyle used it as her music at regionals in the movie “Ice Princess”) and Nadia finally made those hopes a reality for me.
Julia Xu - Boston University
In the short time I’ve been attending non-Disney On Ice skating events, I’ve seen my fair share of programs skated to Disney music, but this was the first time I’d ever seen anyone skate to music from “The Incredibles.” Julia, skating at the novice level, really impressed me.
Grace Perkins - New York University
Grace was the skater immediately following Julia, and I adored this program. She just owned the ice for the two and a half minutes she was out there with an energy that can really only be described as “fierce.”
Rowan Martey - Dartmouth College
I was starting to face a time crunch, because I had to get from Norwood to Worcester, but I decided to stick around for the first group of junior women, and I’m glad I did, because I got to see a little figure skating history. The backflip was only recently un-banned, and on Saturday Rowan became the first woman to land a legal one in an intercollegiate competition.
Disney On Ice: Jump In!
This was my first time seeing this show (or any Disney On Ice show) since August, and it was just as thrilling as the first time. It also starts a lengthy Disney On Ice run for me, as I have shows for each of the next five weeks (one of them is on a Wednesday instead of a Saturday, since I’ll be at Skate America that particular weekend).
I was particularly excited for this show, as it was my first DOI show since getting my new iPhone last month, and I must say the camera did not disappoint.
I could watch that all day. Though, if this post is any indication, I could watch just about any figure skating all day. I am appreciative, however, that next week’s Grand Prix event is in Canada, which means no more 2 a.m. wake-up calls for a while.
And I thought I am the one who does crazy stuff to watch skating but you top it all