Remember When: Skate America 2019 Ladies Free Program

The final installment of today's blog posts (annoyed yet? probably). It's a good thing, too, because I'm running out of things to write.

The ladies were fireworks and sparkles and fun. I would have preferred the men or the dance to close out the competition, but it was still a decent competition to end with. Quads and costume "changes" were what won the day, but it was nice to see the US hold their own and the "elder" Russian make a stand. 

Overall the outcome wasn't all that surprising, though it was weird to see USA and not Japan on the podium. I want to be as flexible as these ladies, that's for sure. Some of the positions they are able to contort themselves into still make me hurt just thinking about it.

As with the other blog posts (Pairs Free, Mens Free, Free Dance) I'll keep to the two photos per skater and you can view all of my photos from Skate America 2019 in my gallery. There's just one more day of photos and I'll probably just do like I did with the practice post and do a huge photo dump. You've been warned. Then we'll get back to mushing.

Yi Christy LEUNG - Hong Kong

Remember When: Skate America 2019 Ladies Short Program

Cheat sheet for the camera man to identify the skater.

In the US it's all about the Ladies even though lately our ladies haven't really been the most competitive of our team. Doesn't mean the powers that be don't continue to make them the headlining event of a competition (though US Nationals now closes out with Ice Dance). Skate America was buzzing with talk of the Russian Jumping Queens that were sure to show off on the ice. We watched the girls in both practice and warm up attack quad jump after quad jump. A lot of falls. A lot of grumpy looks from Coach Eteri. A lot of hype. 

Okay, not too much hype, they delivered. But so did Team USA as best they could without the quads and the triple axel. Japan also delivered and the Russian ladies quickly learned that it's not just about the jumps, because if you don't hit your tech you need to at least have some presentation marks to help hold you up. Not that they wiped the ice - far from it - but there was a glaring difference between the Japanese and US ladies vs Team Russia (though they did have one "mature" lady who does her best to have some semblance of artistry in her programs). 

I was excited to see some of the ladies I only ever see on TV, and they all made for some great photos. Just as I have with the other blog posts in today's series (Pairs Short, Mens Short, Short Dance) I'll keep to two photos per lady and you can view the rest in my Skate America photo gallery. 

Yi Christy LEUNG - Hong Kong